Christmas Sew Party

The Charming Girls' Quilt Club will be sewing tomorrow at the Christmas in August Sewing Party.  I have decided to make some snowflake blocks.  They are part of the Frosty Flakes BOM  from Dawn Hay over at As Sweet As Cinnamon.  I haven't been able to start these yet and there are already 4 blocks!  They are very little hexi  (1/2") snowflakes.  I have picked out fabrics from my stash (scraps from my Christmas A-Z sampler), cut out my hexi templates and downloaded the patterns.

I'll update with pictures tomorrow! See you then!

UPDATE:

I got started this morning on block one of Frosty Flakes. Here this the fabric I choose and my supplies ready to go!

Look at those tiny hexis!

After cutting out seven red hexagons, I started hand stitching them until they were all together like a flower.  I then appliqued the flower to the center of my 6 1/2" block.

And finally added stitchery and beads! The first block is finished 3 to go!

Very cute!

[Sorry for the not so good picture.]  

UPDATE 2: So after lunch, [my hubby was still at his bee job and daughters away], I continued with Frosty Flake Block 2.  Here are some pictures.

And the finished block!  This one is quite fancy!

And a better picture of Block 1.

I'm going to prepare the next 2 blocks for our trip to take our D3 back to school tomorrow.                   By the way, I've heard...these hexis are addicting!                        Yep, I can see why!!

PROJECT FINISHED!

Last night I finished putting together the needlecase from Kaaren over at The Painted Quilt!  It turned out much better than I anticipated.  Why? I needed a hand project to take to my knitting/handwork club and I didn't have anything started.  [Of coarse I was throwing this together at the last minute.]  I quickly decided to download Kaaren's project and then I realized I didn't have a large enough piece of muslin in my stash.  No time to run to the store, so I just used a piece of white cotton from my stash and traced the stitchery.  I decided to use navy floss instead of black because of the starkness of the white.  And off I went.

I showed peeks of the stitchery in a previous post.  It was coming along.

Yesterday with the stitchery finished,  I picked some navy fabric from my stash for the outside and a small red and white polka dot fabric for the binding.  Here it is:

I love it!  The deep pockets are roomy enough to keep your projects in and the ribbon tie for the scissors keeps them in place.  Thanks Kaaren!  If you would like to do this project, hop over to Kaaren's blog, The Painted Quilt!

Friday Night Sew-In results and more!

Thursday evening, I finished the binding on my Red & White quilt!  My Friday morning started with washing and photographing it.  I still have yet to label it and this is my dilemma. Can you help? I like to name my quilts but I am having a little difficulty with coming up with just the right name.  This pattern is a old traditional block called Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.  I could name it that and be done but it doesn't seem right.  I have been calling it my Red & White quilt but that just isn't creative at all.  Some ideas have been: Jumping Jacks (due to one of the patterns it makes with arms and legs stretched out), Twist and Shout, A Kusama Happening (after a famous Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama that has an obsession with red and white dots). What do you think?  I would love to here your opinions!

For FNSI, I worked on making 2 new pillows for our living room.  We recently hung new curtains and I wanted to add some more contemporary throw pillows.  I didn't want square pillows but I couldn't find pillow forms in the size I wanted so I bought a child size body pillow (15" x 36").  I then cut that down in half to make 2 - 15" x 18" pillows.  Using some left over fabric from curtains I made for my daughter's room, I cut 1 - 15.5" x 18.5" and 2 - 15.5" x 14" pieces for each pillow.  Using my computer,  I printed the words family and friends onto some coordinating fabric from my stash.  I then cut those letters out and fused them to the right side of the 15.5" x 18.5" piece of fabric and then machine appliqued around each letter.

I then stitched the backing pieces (overlapped) and the front piece together and stuffed the pillow forms in and they were done! I really how they like the look!

 

The charcoal gray gives a little update to my pink and blue (a little outdated) room.  This will have to do until we can afford something else.  I'm happy with it!

There was still some evening left so I continued working on my stitchery needle case from Kaaren over at  The Painted Quilt.  I'm loving it.  Only a peek as it is not yet done as you can see!

Now I will be spending some time visiting other FNSI blogs to see what you all have been creating!

 

Just A Few Things

Well, I have been quite busy but no pictures just yet! Soon, I promise!  

I needed to stop by to share that tomorrow night is Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Heidi and Bobbi.  A great way to devote some time to your sewing/projects!  It's not too late.  Just hop over here to sign up!  What will you be working on? I just love to see what everyone is doing!

Another little thing I signed up for is the free-motion quilt along over at A Few Scraps.  This quilt along hosted by Christina is a little different than others as it will teach free-motion quilting! It will be a good opportunity to practice free-motion quilting.  And who couldn't use a little practice?  I am anxious to learn some new ideas and tips!  If you are too, go over here to join in or see my side bar.

Birthdays and more

In my last post I shared about the Posy Needle Case Swap and how much fun swaps are! Do you know what is more fun?  Winning a giveaway, especially a surprise one!  This is what came in the mail all the way from The Netherlands!  

Heidi from All My Scattering Moments picked random winners from comments made on her surprise finishing giveaway.  I made a comment on a specific post about one of her quilts and that was her secret giveaway post.  What FUN!

I have also been busy with hand made gifts for some very special kids in our life! Here is a picture from the girl's birthdays celebration.  [We missed Tieg's birthday as we were on vacation.]

Klara [8], Tieg [6], and Greta [10] ~ sisters and cousins!

For Tieg, I made this cute Tic Tac Toe on the Go game board. You can make one too here!

For Greta and Klara, I made cute quilted portfolios for writing and drawing with plenty of supplies! These are from here. I added a magnetic clasp so all the supplies didn't fall out.  Note: add the clasp before you bind. A button clasp would be cute also!

These little projects were thrown in between my July/August goals but I have been working on my quilting goals.  I sandwiched my red and white quilt and started the quilting! I also worked on the design layout for my stitchery quilt.  I think I'm satisfied with it.  Now I need to start gathering fabrics! How are your goals coming along?

Yes! Swaps are fun!

I have a few updates today!  Remember that I stated that I finished my posy needle case and sent it off to my swap partner?  She notified me yesterday that she received her package!  My swap partner, Margaret is from Southern Australia.  She doesn't have a blog so I will post pictures here.  I added a little ribbon bow with a ladybug charm. Isn't it cute!

I also made this cute little wrist pincushion as a little surprise gift.  I found the tutorial here.  I'm glad you liked it, Margaret!  It was fun to be in the swap!

So I told myself that I need to wait patiently for my package from my swap partner.  I was anxious to see where the package would be from and what would be inside.  I didn't need to wait too long because in the mail today came a package addressed to me.  It came from North Carolina!  Here is my surprise!

My swap partner, Betty enjoys beading and her handiwork is exquisite! The posy has intricate beading around the edges, on the leaves and petals!  Betty also made a button pin that is all beaded.  I haven't done much work with beads.  Years ago I tried a cross stitch with beads [a UFO that I haven't run across in a while], I have strung beads for bracelets and I had to re bead a wedding dress that I did alterations on.  That's about all  ~ so I appreciate all the work!

That's all for now!  Will have some more goal updates soon!