GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS!

I have been very slack in posting on my blog lately.  My excuse is that I've been very busy.  So, this one will be quick so I can get it done before it's time to meet my friends for our morning walk at 7:30.

We put up our Christmas tree a week before Thanksgiving - the earliest that we have ever done that!  I had gotten a new skinny tree because we don't have the space for a wide one.  Under the tree I put a doll that is over 100 years old in a little doll buggy.  The doll belonged to my Mother's sister who died from scarlet fever in 1912 at the age of 8.

I also put some other toys under the tree including a doll that I made and a wooden sled with a floppy moose on it.

Yesterday, I decided to make a set of "Christmas tree" napkins.  It's the first time I have made them and they are quite easy to make.

I made several of these Sweet Pea Pods designed by LazyGirlDesigns to give as gifts.  I filled some with candy for the grandkids.

This one is filled with fabric clips and will be given to my 28 year old granddaughter for Christmas - she doesn't read my blog.  She loves to sew.

One thing that kept me busy was making costumes for an angel, shepherds, Joseph and Mary for our church's manger scene drive through.  Actually I made 3 Mary Costumes and 2 Joseph costumes because there will be scenes of various episodes, such as:  The angel giving the news to Mary, Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem, the wisemen on their way to Bethlehem, shepherds in the field and then the final scene with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, etc.  That's why we needed 3 different Marys!  I'm looking forward to seeing this!

In case I don't post again before Christmas, I hope you will all have a wonderful and meaningful Holiday!  And my hope and prayer is that 2021 will be better and that the vaccine will work well to end this pandemic.  Thanks for visiting - I love all my blogging friends!

 

CHURN DASH FINISHED

I finished the churn dash quilt and quilted it with fans.  The blocks were exchange blocks and were all different - a great variety!  I wanted to use a lot of the 1 3/4" HSTs that I had in a baggie and decided to add a cheddar border first. The HSTs were left overs from other projects but I still had to make more to have enough to go around. Then I added the yellow border.  I really love it!

I might be able to get a better picture later, but this gives you an idea of what it looks like.

In the mornings I walk with 2 neighbors and I thought I would share some of the local scenery.  We live almost in the middle of town, but there is a ravine that goes through the town just about a block from our house.  On our walk, we pass a huge tree that once was a gathering place for native Americans.  The tree must be over 100 years old.  You can see my 2 walking buddies looking down into the ravine to see how high the water in the creek has gotten as we have had a lot of rain lately.  I just love the tall fir trees!  

Are we in a forest? No!  We're in the middle of McMinnville, OR.

On our walk yesterday we saw lots of mushrooms that we haven't seen before.

These mushrooms were very tiny.

I hope you all are able to enjoy some of nature during this time.  It is something that can give us joy and some perspective about life.  And I also hope you will be able to gather with your families for Thanksgiving.  We had a small gathering yesterday to celebrate our son's birthday, and since he will be out of town next week for Thanksgiving, we had our Thanksgiving dinner/celebration at the same time with our son, his daughter (and her husband) and son, who are all in their 20s.  We had a wonderful visit with them.

Churn Dash Exchange Blocks

 A couple (or a few) years ago I participated in a block exchange of Churn Dash blocks that was organized by Barb.  I had sewn sashing to 2 sides of all the blocks and finally decided to sew them together.

Here's a picture of them on my design wall before getting them all sewn together.

It didn't take very long to get them all sewn together and I love the way it looks!  Now, I need to figure out what to do for the border.  I might have found it, but didn't take a picture of it yet.

I might add a  border and then use some of my many random HSTs to make another border.  I think I'll sleep on it.

Leftovers and Tree Lot

 I'm sorry that it's been so long since I posted.  No excuses!

This is a small quilt from Jo Morton's "Jo's Little Favorites II" book.  I kept looking at it and finally decided to make it.  It is made of all half square triangles (HSTs) made of civil war reproduction fabrics.  I dug into my CW scrap bin to find lots of different fabrics.  I tried counting the different fabrics and stopped at 50!  It measures 17" x 20".  I thought it would be a snap to put together, but it was harder than it looks.  The HSTs are sewn together on the diagonal and my piecing isn't perfect.

Some of the fabrics I have had for years and others were very new.  I'm out of some of my most favorite fabrics.  Do you try to put favorite fabrics in a lot of different quilts and make them last as long as possible?  That's what I do, but sadly, eventually they are gone.

This picture shows the backing.  I quilted in the ditch but not all of them.

I went to an estate sale a couple weeks ago and got the kit for this "Tree Lot" lap quilt for $10!  I decided to make it right away.  I couldn't wait and I love it!  

The backing didn't come with the kit, but I got it at the same sale - it's a Christmas toille which makes a perfect backing.

The leaves are starting to fall and the nights are colder.  I love the fall weather!

GOOD NEWS FROM OREGON

 I am happy to report that we had a thunder storm Thursday night and it rained all night and most of Friday!  It was such a relief.  The air is now clean and clear!  Even though we weren't in danger from the fires, it was wonderful to get the much needed rain.  I think there is still some fire fighting in parts of the state, though.

I forgot to post this spider web quilt after I finished it, so here it is.  This was a quilt-a-long that Lori of Humble Quilts organized.  I do love this design and might want to make another one.  Guess what?  I still have a lot of scraps left!  LOL!!

I received these 2 mum plants from DS#3/DIL!  It was a surprise!  The first 2 pictures are of the same plant.

This one is on the patio so we can see it from our dining room (and so the deer can't get to it)

                                 This one is in the back yard so I can see it from my sewing room.

Here is the raffle quilt that my guild (Gone to Pieces Quilt Guild) made and will draw a winner for in December.  It measures 95" x 95".  I had no part in the making of it.  If anyone is interested in purchasing tickets, you can email me and I will give you my address for you to send the money.  The tickets are $1.00 per ticket or $5.00 for 6 tickets.  I'll keep track of any people who buy tickets and will  either send you your part of the ticket or keep it with me.  I will then buy your ticket and put the stub in with the rest of them.  If you are the lucky winner, I will let you know.  

                                                                            Purple Batik

Proceeds of the Quilt Raffle support the Quilt Guild and our Charity Projects.

Happy Fall, everyone!

UFO OF 5 YEARS FINISHED!

I recently finished the machine quilting as well as the binding on this quilt, Pineapple nine patch that I showed in my July 11 post (when I finished the top).  This is a quilt that I started about 5 years ago after seeing some quilts of this same pattern made by Nana Girl.  She teaches this quilt in Pensacola, Florida.  When I saw the quilts she made with this pattern, I was inspired to make one - too bad it took me so long to do it!

It really doesn't look like a nine-patch, does it?  Well, it is a very complicated nine-patch and maybe you can see the block in this picture.  The center of the 9-patch is the hour glass block.  Each of the side blocks have 4 rows of strips and the 4 corners contain one of the triangles that make up the pin wheel.  So each pinwheel is part of a different 9-patch block.  If that doesn't make any sense to you, don't worry about it.  Each of the 9-patch blocks contains 80 pieces of fabric!

Some other projects that I have finished is this apron made with Loralie's Happy Nurse fabric.  I found some of Loralie's fabric at a thrift shop and will be making a few items to sell from it.

This table runner is based on the Cabin Corner pattern from Jo Morton's book.  The pattern in the book is for a square quilt and I changed it a little to make it into a table runner.

Since my friend and I have at least Holiday 2 craft shows lined up, I am also making a few table runners to sell - and to use up the left-over Christmas fabric from last year.

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting much lately, but I have been very busy sewing.  I think I better keep sewing as long as I am in the mood!  Plus, I'm getting ready for the craft shows.  And I also sell things on Etsy and occasionally on Ebay.  I do want to use up the fabric that I have.  The problem is that in the process of making things, it is necessary to buy more fabric because the fabric that I have on hand 

doesn't always match what I'm working on.  Do you ever have that problem?

Last week I went with 2 of my friends to Sherwood, Oregon to shop at the new Hobby Lobby.  Our town doesn't have very many stores and this is a store that I do miss (in Texas I lived pretty close to one).  On the way home from there, we noticed that the sky was looking smokey and kind of reddish.  Ultimately, we learned about the wild fires burning out of control in Oregon.  We have had smoke where I live since then.  Fortunately, we have not been in any danger from the fires.  I hope and pray that they will be totally stopped soon.  There is a fire still burning near Newberg, OR, which isn't very far from us but some of the people who had to be evacuated have been able to go home.  

Last night DH saw on the weather channel that Portland has the worst air quality in the whole world!!  I hope it's not that bad in McMinnville, but we decided not to walk this morning.

Thanks for the sweet comments on my last post!  I do appreciate them.

 

WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING HERE?

 I finished the "Liberty" table topper from Kim Diehl's book "Simple Seasons."  I am happy I made it and it fits on my dining room table.

Here's a close up of one section.

This week I started quilting the Pineapple Nine Patch quilt.  I'm using the fan stencil from Barb.  I love this stencil and I also used in on a table runner that is lower in this post.

I mark my quilt lines with the hera marker instead of using a marking pen.  I was going to try that, but then I forgot and I already had it all basted, so I marked it this way, which I am used to.

The hera marker makes a dent in the fabric (you can see it in this next picture).  I only mark one or two fans at a time because the dent can disappear with time.

I also made and finished this table runner "Nordic Stars" designed by Bev Getschel.  It was kind of tedious to get all the pieces lined up properly, but I really like it.  The pattern was in the McCall's Quilting Magazine, the November/December 2017 issue.

Here's a close up of the center part.

I also made this table runner out of a charm pack.  This makes a pretty long one!

A close-up of the quilting with the fan.

The back of this table runner.

Since my last post, DH and I also celebrated our 58th wedding anniversary!  My DGD came over to sew one day last week.  She used my Janome machine and I got out my Featherweight for me to sew with.  We had a good time sewing and talking!  I'm so happy that her hubby is now out of the Navy and they are living nearby!

My co-crafting friend and I haven't had any craft shows yet this year, but it looks like we will have two of them coming up.  One is in October and the other one is the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. We are very happy because with all the sewing we have been doing, we have many things to sell!  We're hoping that the Handmade Holiday craft show at the local museum will take place too, but we haven't heard about that one yet.

I hope you and your families are well.  We haven't come in contact with any people with covid - and hope it stays that way.  

BIRTHDAY SHOPPING AT MY FAVORITE QUILT SHOP!

I love Kim Diehl's designs and have several of her books, but really haven't made many things from them yet.  However, I was recently browsing and came across this table topper in her "Simple Seasons" book and decided to finally make it (the name of it is "Liberty")!  This is a picture from the book.  I had originally been intimidated by the design, but having more experience with appliqué during the intervening years, it didn't look as daunting!  So, I decided to make it!  

When I went on my birthday shopping trip, finding some fabrics for this quilt was on my list.  The shop (Boersma's) is located about a mile from my house.  The local quilt shop (LQS) in McMinnville, OR gives their customers a 25% discount on regular priced items for their birthday, so last week I went there for my shopping trip.  I had 2 punch cards filled up which gave me a $25 credit for each card - in other words, $50 off my bill!  So here are the fabrics that I bought.

First, I bought 3 navy blue fabrics (which will be used for the eagles on the table topper).  I already have a good blue for one eagle and each eagle will be different.  The color didn't come out very good but they are all a nice navy.

I needed some reds and couldn't resist some Christmas fabric as well.

Actually, when I picked out the background fabric for "Liberty" I picked out the one below that is cream colored.  I didn't notice at first that the fabric is also by Kim Diehl!  And since the same fabric came in red also, I got some of that too.

I needed a couple light blues and a good Christmas background fabric.

And here's a couple more Christmas fabrics.  I got a great variety of fabrics!

For my birthday, we went out to eat with DS, DGS and DGD, then came to the house for cake.  I might as well tell you how old I am - 77!  How did that happen?

Then we played a game of Aggravation on the board that DH made!

Now everything  back to normal and I have started on my "Liberty" table topper.  

Hope you are all well.  Thanks for visiting!