Christmas giftmaking done!

I started the last three bowl cozies at noon and had them completed by about 2:30.

Then i proceeded working on a couple of coffee cup sleeves.  Thank you to https://createinthesticks.blogspot.com/2019/12/make-coffee-shop-cup-sleeve.html.  I couldn't find my fusible fleece, so ended up using scraps of the wrap n zap that I used for the bowl cozies on one fabric back and a light poly batting on the other.  I was afraid that using the wrap n zap on both sides would make the sleeve too thick.

Actually, I made three... for whatever reason, when I looked at the second one I made, Santa was upside down.  Well, that wouldn't do for a gift, so I made the third one.... only to realize that I didn't make the second one upside down.  That's ok, now I have one for myself :).

Now, to gather the gifts for the neighbors together so that Harvey and Buddy can start delivering them while on their walks and I can take the coffee cup sleeves down to the beauty shop to gift my pedicurist.

Right after the new year, I'll take my domestic ( Marie) down to the LQS so she can be picked up and taken for a 'spa' day.  She'll be gone longer than a day, but only because the man only comes to the LQS twice a week, I think.  She deserves a good D&C ( dusting and cleaning) and a rest for all she's had to put  up with from me.

In the meantime, I can do some cleaning of my sewing room and, hopefully, get another quilt onto Mo'e.

So, if you don't hear anything out of me by New Year's Eve, be prepared to call out the search dogs because there might have been an avalanche in my sewing room with me at the bottom.

Merry Christmas :)

Even quicker post

Finished this last night...even hand stitched the binding to the back.

This weekend I  have three bowl cozies and two coffee cup sleeves to make.

Oh what the heck...I'm going to make this post a little longer by telling you a true story.

A couple of months ago, my bff in New Hampshire's son sent me a UofM(ichigan) baseball cap knowing that I bleed green and white for Michigan State University. 

He knew i would get even...his mom told 

me that he was waiting to see what I'd do.

They got their mail today and she saw a package addressed to his 4 yr old daughter and 15 yr old nephew....and, of course, she opened it.

I sent the little girl the cutest little teddy bear thats wearing a MSU sweater.  The nephew is getting a MSU stocking cap.  My friend showed her son the teddy bear...all he did was say NO and walk out of the room.  The teen may decide not to wear the stocking cap and thats fine....but im sure that the little girl will LOVE the teddy bear and he wont be able to convince her that its a bad bad bear.  ROFL

He may think twice before trying to put something over on me again.

Take care....

Ttyl...

Quick Post

I haven't been doing a lot of sewing these past few days, what with continuing battle with injured leg and then trying to get gifts wrapped and shipped out to our kids in three different states. 

Yesterday, I did manage to get two more bowl cozies made... which leaves me with three more that I didn't feel like working on today.

Today, I wanted to quilt with Mo'e... I had grabbed this top along with it's backing, label and binding from the rack the other day, but there it sat hanging on a hanger suspended from one of Mo'es rails until today.

First, I wanted to decide on something for the white square in the center... my bff suggested a snowflake... I went through some of my stencils hanging close to Mo'e - no snowflake but I did find this...  the stencil was just a little too big for the block, so when I traced it with disappearing pen, I realigned it to fit.

Here it is stitched out... certainly not perfect, but I can live with it.

Next came the rest of the runner..  this is the right side completed.

I've stitched in the ditch on the left side but haven't done the rest of the stitching yet.  MAYBE I can do some of it tomorrow morning before I have to take Buddy to the vet for a shot and then 

bring him back home and pick up hubby so we can go get some groceries.

Friday morning, I'm going to go to the guild's sew in and visit with the gals before I have to go over to the hospital for a MRI on my leg - hopefully, it will show SOMETHING to explain why my leg is still swollen almost two months after I somehow injured it.

And that's about all I have to blog about tonight.. thankful that I finally have something to write about :).

take care...
ttyl..
keep warm :)

Two posts on the same day

I was just going to load this onto Mo'e and maybe baste it down.

But, once I did that, I said "well, let's see how much I can get done before my legs/back start to hurt...

Close up of the one gnome's beard - actually, I ended up doing the same thing on both - and I'm ok with that.

There actually wasn't a whole lot of quilting to do... took very little time... then it was off to my sewing room to trim and then add binding, a hanging sleeve and a label.  .... AND I'll have those of you who know how I don't like to hand stitch things... the label AND the hanging sleeve were 100% hand sewn on BY ME!  lol

Here it is - completely done... must have been hard work to cause it to lay down for a sideways pic ( I swear I didn't take a sideways photo of it).

Ok, time for me to fix dinner .... this is it for tonight :)

ttyl...
take care....

Not perfect, but done

Wednesday, I decided that I had better get to work on the fleece blanket for the son in law.  It went better/easier than I expected.  The only problem I had was that I wasn't paying as close attention to what I was as I should have been and the second set of corners that should have been cut 5" on each of the two sides - ended up being cut 5" x 6"... oh well, in the grand scheme of things, I don't think anyone will notice.  I also cut two strips ( the fleece was folded in half so it was easier to cut/slice) a bit wider than the rest and ended up cutting up the middle to make two narrower strips instead of the wider one - also not all that noticeable.

Here's Mr. Prissy checking out the strips I'd cut... I had a feeling that if I had left him alone  he would have started chewing on one of the strips, so I grabbed a piece of fleece out of the trash and lured him away from the temptation.

I guess  I should have taken a pic of the finished blanket, but there's not a lot to see.  Once I cut all the strips ( 5" deep on the ends and 6" on the sides), I folded each strip over and cut a very small slit at the top and brought the end of the strip through the hole and gave a little tug to make sure it was secure.  That's all there was to it.  I was able to get two sides completed while talking on the phone with my friend in New Hampshire.

No sewing/quilting yesterday as it was pedicure day ... AND we had tickets to attend the Gaither Vocal Band Christmas Homecoming in Grand Rapids (Mi) last night, which, by the way, was WONDERFUL!... We left home about 5 pm, planning on getting to the venue about 6 pm... well, our GPS took us on the back roads between here and there and it was about 6:15 when we finally got there.  The parking lot was pretty full but we managed to find a spot right behind most of the buses that brought the show ( every group has to have their own bus, you know ).  Once inside, we had to take an elevator to the second floor to find seating.  We did see some on the first floor that we could have gone to, but it would have required climbing down a LOT of steps that I just wasn't able to do.
We got lucky and found a pew in the first row of the balcony... had to kind of peek through the rails but there were three big screens over the stage that we could watch, too. 

After the program, my husband asked an usher just what the seating capacity is for this church... the usher guesstimated 3500-4000... can you imagine?!!?  Neither my husband nor myself have ever been in a church this big. 

What we thought was going to be an hour and a half to two hour show ended up actually lasting about 3 1/2 hours with a 20 minute intermission before the final hour.  We didn't get home until just after midnight - the latest the two of us have been up in quite awhile.  So So worth it!  And what really surprised me is when I went back and looked to see what we paid for our tickets ( less than $60 for the two of us) - we've paid more for shows that didn't last as long.

I had a video I wanted to share from last night where some of the audience members held up mini flash lights ( handed out before the show) in the darkened room while we sang Silent Night.  Blogger says that the video is too long... sorry :(.

Ok, today I hope to get back to working on the bowl cozies for the neighbors - still have at least 7 to make. 

Oh! and the package with the quilted hug made it to the p.o. in Tn.... ( and wouldn't you know the group is here in Michigan today, in the Detroit area)  They have a show in Ohio tomorrow night and then the group is off for the holidays.  I'm just hoping that Paul ( the husband of the woman I made the quilted hug for) goes to Tn. before returning home to Ohio.  Otherwise, she may not get the package until after the holidays - unless someone from Tn. forwards it to her.  So many 'ifs'.  sigh....

Ok, I've got to get busy doing SOMETHING....

take care....
ttyl....

When experiencing a 'block'

I mentioned in my last post that I couldn't figure out the pattern directions for the Christmas gift I wanted to work on.  There's still one other gift that I need to get done, but it's a fleece blanket ( no, not a quilt) for my son in law and it shouldn't take long to do once I get started.

The night before last, I started working on bowl cozies for some of our neighbors... 

As of tonight, I have eleven out of eighteen completed.  I started out using some of the fat quarter sets that I received monthly for about a year from Quilt in a Day, but then I ran across the left overs of tootsie roll print fabrics... PERFECT! ... now, I'm going to go back in the closet to see what other 'cute' print scraps I can use.

take care....

ttyl.....

quilter's block

Ok, maybe not a quilter's block, but definitely a sewer's block.  I wanted to start on my oldest daughter's 'festival vest' as it's to be a Christmas gift.  When I started reading the instructions, that's when the block hit.  I realize that's it's been a few years since I've sewn clothing, but it hasn't been THAT many and I know how to read a pattern... but not this one.  It talks about zipper plackets but doesn't give pattern piece or size measurements - I'm supposed to 'wing it'?.  Then there's this long piece that says it's a gusset for the pockets and I'm to sew it around the four short sides of the pocket... ok, then what?  From what I'm reading, I'm to do the same with the lining pocket... but there is no inner pocket - just two outer ones.

I tried all this reading and reasoning last night and again this morning... still haven't been able to visualize it in my head, which means I'll have no idea what I'm doing - if it's right or wrong.  I don't want to waste good fabric trying to make something that's not going to turn out.  Oh why does something that looks so simple to make end up being one of the most difficult challenges I've ever faced!?!?

I now have a headache and am going to go find something else to do to de-stress... maybe make some bowl cozies.

If you don't hear anything from me in the next week, please call the quilt police and ask them to send out their search dogs.  lol

take care...
ttyl (hopefully)