Reflections 2011

Looking back over 2011, it was a productive year of quilting. 

Here are some of my favorite quilts and projects. 

edit: Lover's Knot, The Lakefront, Dresden Pillow, Eat, Play Sleep, Repeat, but first coffee,

Let it Snow, Simple Things, Capri Sun bag, Name pillow, Summer Bow Tie, Asymmetric Argyle,

Happy Camper Too, The Fence, Fusion, Block-A-Palooza, Grammie Squares, Vintage

I also made my first 2 tutorial posts this year, was a guest on 2 blogs, Sew We Quilt and Live a Colorful Life, participated in the Ghastlie Blog Hop and joined a swap. I am sew thankful for the opportunities to share my love of quilting. 

Tomorrow I will have the draw for my mittens giveaway. If you want a chance to win a pair of warm mittens, see my post here. 

I wish for all to have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

I'm linking to Lily's Fresh Sewing Day.  So hop on over to see what others have accomplished in 2011!

I'm a guest blogger and a giveaway!

Today I am a guest over at Sew We Quilt as part of Madame Samm's 

Comfort & Joy tutorials! 

My tutorial is for mittens made from repurposed felted sweaters.  For those of you coming over from Sew We Quilt, welcome! I hope you take a little time to enjoy my blog. 

If you want to read my tutorial for making a pair of these mittens, hop over here. 

The mittens 2nd from the right were made during the tutorial.

The mittens are fleece lined so they are very warm. I design these several years ago after my daughter came home from college with her friend's mittens and asked if I could make her some. I sketched out the shape and headed to the thrift store for some wool sweaters to felt. After a few minor adjustments, the rest is history. 

Sew today I am having a giveaway here for the mittens I made while making the tutorial (see 1st picture above.) They fit an adult female. This giveaway is open to all my followers! Please leave a comment on this post to be entered into the draw.  I would like it if you would share how you will be celebrating the New Year! I will pick a winner on New Year's Day by random.

You won't want to miss it...

Sew come back tomorrow as I am the guest blogger over at Sew We Quilt! I will be sharing a tutorial [you will need to check back to see what my tutorial is all about...sneaky aren't I?] as part of Madame Samm's Comfort & Joy December feature. I am thrilled to be among the very talented quilters that have already shared some fabulous tutorials.  And to sweeten the pot, I will be having a giveaway here for all my followers to show my appreciation.  Sew be sure to head over to Sew We Quilt for my tutorial and check back here tomorrow!

So now that all the gifts have been received...

...and opened, I can show you what I've been sewing and crafting. 


First, for Kade whose birthday is December 23rd. 

This play mat was inspired by several pictures that I found on Pinterest. I then took the best ideas from each and designed this play mat to be about the size of a standard placemat with pockets to hold 6 matchbox cars. 

For Ruth ~ 

This quilt pattern was originally drawn up by my husband. He wanted a quilt that reminded him of a Norwegian sweater pattern. It was a bit more complicated as it included many snowflakes. I simplified it to make a table topper quilt. It finished at about 32" square. I love the pretty snowflake fabric for the backing.

For my SIL, Mike ~

For Rio ~

Sorry for the dark picture but the dark green yarn was difficult to photograph.  The knitting pattern makes a nice 2-sided scarf.

For my DD1's puppy, Ole:

Isn't he adorable?

A tug-o-war toy made from t-shirt yarn. 

For the home and ornaments:

My DD3 had this decorating idea using vintage glass ornaments from my grandmother. She framed them in 2 of her vintage white framed. They hung above our fireplace. See them here.

I made this mimi book ornament for my DD2 and SIL for their first Christmas as a married couple. This book is about 1 1/2" x 2". 

Part of the table decorations at their wedding was book art. 

One of my family traditions is to make and exchange Christmas ornaments. These little drums are made from the tops of aerosol containers...like hairspray, etc.

Yarn wrapped glass ornaments...knitting needles made from wooden skewers and wooden beads.

3-D paper star - made from left over scrapbook paper cut into 1/4" strips - 4" long. Here is the tutorial for making this star.

Well that's about all for now...I also did lots of Christmas baking of cookies and my cranberry coffee cake...and I received some very nice packages in the mail...I'll share another time. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Although it seems that I have taken a break all December, I really was quite busy sewing, crafting, and baking. Most of which can't be shared until after the holidays. I promise I will share after all the gifts have been received. 

For now it is time to settle in and enjoy the quiet spirit of Christmas and the birth of baby Jesus.

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I promise I'm still here....

But much of my sewing and crafting are gifts and I can't quite show them yet. I did finish my Birdie BOM for December which means I've completed all 12 block (actually 13 as I replaced the one for June). Now it is time to sew them together. That will wait until after Christmas.

I also participated in a Christmas Little Quilt Swap and here is what I made using  this tutorial. Can you see the little covered buttons? So cute!

I also want to mention that a few days after Christmas, December 28th,  I will be featured over at Sew We Quilt as a guest on Comfort and Joy! See the button on my side bar. I hope you all will hopped over there and see my tutorial.  I may be having a little giveaway here too so come back!  I hope to see you then.

Since I can't show too much of what I've been up to...I'll leave you with a few pictures from the cutest antique store...all decked out for Christmas!

A wall of woolen blankets!

baskets of shiny ornaments

more antique quilts

picnic baskets 

beautiful displays all around

There's not much time before Christmas now! I hope you all have time to relax and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas...the gift of baby Jesus!

Something new!

With the help of my brother-in-law, I now have my very own button that you can put on your blog page. I have had the picture since I started my blog but now it is a button! See it there on the left?

Go ahead and grab the code! 

Last Friday I started working on a new project but didn't get very far. 

Remember these tiny HST? 

Several people ask what I would be making using them.

I worked on a bunch more 1" HST and several 2" HST and made them into these.

Christmas coasters using the tutorial from here:

Instead of using 4 of the little 2" stars in one coaster, I used each one separately with a border. The stars are made with Fairy Frost by Kaufman and the border, backing, and binding fabric is from my stash. I mix matched the sets making great handmade Christmas gifts. It sure feels good to get some gifts off the list. 

Update: The final count of shoe boxes we collected and packed for Operation Christmas Child was 2616! What a great ministry!

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

FNSI Results!

Sew I didn't get very much done for the Sew In! It has been an incredibly busy week for me. It is collection week at my church for this...

and I am proudly on the committee. So far we have collected and packed into shipper boxes over 1200 shoe boxes. The energy is great and the enthusiasm is catching. Operation Christmas Child is such a great project for everyone...young to old, teens, families, friends, etc and it reaches needy children all over the world with the love of Jesus. We have 2 more days of collection and the boxes will be shipped to headquarters and sorted for the country they will be going to. If you haven't heard of this project, find the Operation Christmas Child collection site near you or go online to pack a box!

Sew back to FNSI...I managed to finish up my November Birdie BOM. 

and I sewed these little HST. 

As you can see they are pretty small...1"

...I did cut out a bunch more but don't have a picture of them. 

This weekend will be very busy but I'm thankful that school is closed for Thanksgiving Break and I will have all week to relax and catch up (even with the holiday.)

Hope you all had fun on FNSI! Check out what everyone was doing here.

I just couldn't wait...

I am so excited to show you my newest finish! I designed this quilt myself and I am thrilled with the way it turned out! It is so fresh and modern.  Sew without further ado, introducing... Asymmetric Argyle.

It is pieced using Kona Snow for the background and a solid gray, yellow and black for the argyle pattern. 

The yellow and black are Kona but not sure of the gray.

The machine quilting was done following the lines of the argyle. I love how the pattern turned out on the big open space.

The back is pieced using Ironwork in Granite by Joel Dewberry.

I'm very proud of this piece! The design was mulling around in my head for a while and is now a reality. I am smitten.

I also promised in my last post to share the knitted throw that I finished. A new technique for me...knitting a round throw.

This little throw will be heading to my DD2 and DSIL soon.

A reveal, some finishes, and the winners!

I have a bit to share today as it has been busy around here. 

First up is my reveal. I joined my first Flickr swap for a Little Quilt 

about 2 months ago. I found this great quote on Pinterest 

that I wanted to design my quilt around. 

I can now reveal my quilt since my swap partner has received it! 

It went all the way to Sweden!

And this is the cute Little Twister Quilt I received from Karen (also know as sewgentle.)

I don't have a twister ruler but I may just need to get one. Love the tessellation!

Next is a wedding gift quilt that has been WIP for quite a while. My nephew and wife got married in Sweden just 3 weeks after our daughter's wedding.  Since many family and friends (including us) couldn't go to Sweden, they were going to plan a reception/party here at a later date. Although the top and backs were pieced, without a date, it was easy for me to make this quilt a MUF. 

Two weeks ago we got the invite for the wedding party. Yikes! only 3 weeks to finish, all while the Wantobe Campaign was finishing up, the Ghastlie Blog Hop was just starting and I was participating in the Little Quilt Swap! 

This quilt is rather large and to sandwich it required some furniture removal from my living room. Thanks to my DH for doing the rearranging, I was able to sandwich the quilt and pin baste it in an evening. I decided to FMQ ribbon circles around the rings and then choose a design to go in the white middle. I also FMQ a ribbon along the border.

Now it is ready to go to the newlyweds. 

I also have been doing some knitting and finished a little throw but since this post is getting quite lengthy and you are probably wanting to know who won my giveaway, I'll leave that finish for another post. 

So without further delay the winner of the pincushion is:

Linda from Buzzing and Bumbling...

And the little zippered bag goes to:

Nancy from Coeur d'Alene! 

Congratulations Sistahs! I will be emailing you shortly.