Christmas 2019: A TREE

I have not been doing much crafting. Or sewing. Or quilting. However, before leaving for Disney I made a couple of decorations for the tree. They are simply strings of large beads on a very thin wire. I added skinny ribbon to hang them on the branches. 

I really like them. They aren't showy like most ornaments, but they are pretty. I hung each one on a branch so that it dangles freely any time the tree moves, which is when the tykes are here. That's been a few days in the last two weeks.

At nap time in Deedee's house everyone sleeps in one chair.

Speaking of the tree, it looks pretty good this year. I've decided that the trick is to fluff the branches and hang lots of ornaments. Lots. Just keep adding. My angel topper did not survive summer in the attic, so I made a topper with some red ribbon I bought in the after-Christmas sale last year. 

Since putting up the tree, I've cleaned the attic. Right? Cleaned. The. Attic. It was a crazy afternoon of getting the Christmas stuff down, realizing how much other stuff was up there and just jumping on another project. Right now, there are no boxes up there. And it's swept! Clean. Like. Never. Before. (Sorry no pictures to prove it but it's real.) I think it's my gift to myself. Ha!

Among our other ornaments, I found these two ornaments that I made a couple of years ago. The mini Santa suit has five pieces, socks, hat, pants and coat. The tassel is made of crewel thread, sheer ribbon, beads all in red and a bit of gold trim. It's an easy ornament and you can find my tutorial to make it here. The tutorial for embellishing it is here. I'm guessing you have everything you need on hand. Am I right?

Pin It Weekly #134

It's almost January--when we try to up our game on cleaning and organizing.  Already I've been thinking about some of the stuff that needs attention.  Namely scraps of fabric, bits of ribbon, bobs of thread, you name it!  If there's a bit, no matter how bitty, I tend to want to hang on to it.  So, I've been pinning ways to store those itsy bitsy, teeny tiny, bits and bobs.  Here are just a few.  

Scrap storage ~~ 

This one is the storage system I use.
Read about it here.

Scrap usage ~~

Sunday Quilt Inspiration

I spent a little time pinning this afternoon.  Not much.  Only an hour or so.  It was for tonight's post, after all.  

I found a couple of interesting boards that you may want to visit.  One is the Philadelphia Modern Quilt Guild, which has a great quilt inspiration board and one on quilting humor (see above).  The following photos are from the inspiration board and can also be found on my "modern, quilts" board. 

I've been pinning ribbon embroidery for some time now and have accumulated 130 or so photos on my "embroidered, ribbonry" board.  If you enjoy gardening and flowers, you'll be amazed at the detail in some of these photos.

Ribbonwork on a few antique pieces.  I pinned these photos when I first began pinning and still love to go back and enjoy them.

Before closing, let's take a look at a few beautiful, vintage buttons from my board "magic, button."  

I loved this idea for the vintage buttons but couldn't figure out  what the pink base is, so I visited Betsy's blog, My Salvaged Treasures, and discovered that it's a vintage belt buckle.  What a creative idea!  Visit her blog to see some of the other creative ideas she's had for re-purposing buttons and other small vintage treasures.

Another smart idea for using old buttons.  One reason I like it so much is that the buttons can be removed and reused when the pillow gets old or stained.  

Here's hoping that you are inspired and also that you have a wonderful, happy Christmas season.  

Happy Quilting,

Mary

Back to Houston

that's a virtual return to Houston, of course.  I have enough photos to last a while and my feet are still too tired to go through that again.  I sat for a little while to work on some more photos for you and made a big discovery: I can compress, edit and load photos in bulk!  

That means that all the photos are now compressed, something that I have to do to be able to upload them to blogger.  I haven't gotten brave enough to attempt editing in bulk, with the exception of adding brightness.  My camera settings are off somewhat, so I have to brighten everything until I figure out how to correct the settings.

I made another discovery while organizing the photos: I took photos of the winning quilts, but the camera automatically sets up file folders and puts the pics in the appropriate folder.  I had taken enough photos that it just built another folder and started using it. 

I looked in one folder but it turns out there are pics in two folders.  I've now put all of the photos from the show in one folder on the computer, which makes them much easier to find, edit and upload.


 While I enjoy the newly found features of my camera, you enjoy the quilts.  These are from the AAQI booth, where they were making lots of noise and getting lots of attention.  

The name in white on this quilt runner on the outside of the AAQI booth is my mom's name.  I wrote her name on the piece of fabric last year while at the booth and this year it appeared, like magic, with rows and rows of other names of Alzheimer's patients.


And from here we go to photos of landscape quilts, followed by a few avian photos.  I wish I could remember something about the quilts, but there are too many--quilts and photos! 

On to birds......

Happy Quilting,
Mary