Immaculate Conception Eve

Raced home from work, finished up the "carpe diem" pillow that I started yesterday for a customer, then shot off to mass for tomorrow's Holy Day of Obligation and for the soul of my poor momma.  We have three masses this week for her, but I am able to make just the one here.  

The pillow came out very nice.  While stitching it up, I had the idea to make one with a single letter for my Secret Santa gift.  When we fill out the little form, we're supposed to give the person who pulls the name some ideas for Christmas gifts.  I didn't get so lucky: the slip I got had two hints: chocolate and diet coke.  Not a lot of info there!  I sure hope she likes pillows.  I've decided to make a fancy letter in a pretty, curvy calligraphic way.  I sneaked into her office and looked around.  The office is filled with classical, formal decor, so I'll assume that's her style.  I teach her son, so I can probe for colors.  Since this pillow didn't take very long, I can get one made this weekend......just in time for our Christmas party this week.  This photo is of the pillow I whipped up last night and today.  I'll ship it in the morning.

Not that it's so easy to see, but the blue fabric is covered in small yellow, gold, and brown clocks, globes, and  timepieces.  I love it.....seize the day while resting on time.  Yeah, it's either nerdy or corny, I just can't decide which one!

December beginnings

Now that Thanksgiving festivies and fooding are over, I'm starting to recover from my sewing spree of making jumpers for the two little ones.  Marley got her jumpers yesterday and Caki will get hers this weekend.  The mommas and I went shopping on Black Friday and picked up enough fabric to make each of the girls four jumpers.  They'll match since I purchased a yard of each fabric but that wasn't the reason for the large pieces, it was just easier to choose the same fabrics for both girls and cheaper to purchase enough for two dresses since it takes less yardage that way.  The three dresses above are Caki's.  There's one more but it's not quite finished.  The photo below is of my practice jumper on its little darling.  I had no idea where to start, so I started in the middle--size 4 was way too big for these little sweeties.  I ended up using sizes 1/2 and 1. I hope to make a few more to add to my Etsy shop. 

Today I raced home to work on another Carpe Diem pillow since I sold a second one on the Etsy site.  Obviously the lady I traded with during the holidays did not "purchase" her pillow although I shipped it based on her promise to make the purchase and give me a good review.  Anyway, since she didn't make the purchase, the pillow remained on the site, for sale.  And I made a sale!  So, instead of disappointing a customer, I decided to make another one.  I've cut out the pillow form and the letters and adhered them to the fabric.  Tomorrow I'll finish up the pillow and box it up.  It will get shipped on Wednesday, if all goes well.

This weekend I'd love to work on the newest quilt project.....a disappearing four patch that I'm making with batiks.  It looks so difficult but it's absolutely simple.  Stitch up a four patch and then cut it twice in a straight line in both directions and move the new pieces around.  I'll post a few pics so that you can see how simple and fast this block is.  I'm loving the look and texture that the batiks give.  I've had these five inch squares for a while.  I bought them at Aunt Nell's in Tioga but didn't have enough for a large quilt, so I just left them alone.  The last trip to Borne Quilter in Lafayette gained me a few yards of neutral cream-colored batik--perfect to calm down the squares and tie everything together.  If I have to purchase more fabric (let's hope not!) I'm going to buy more of a beautiful purpley-blue that is just stunning and use it for borders or to make a couple of blocks that I'll scatter around the quilt.  I think I have enough but if not, I've got a plan.  It's a good thing the LQS keeps batiks in stock.  Most of my four patches are already sewn.  It won't take terribly long to cut and sew them up.  I can't wait to see the whole top, but I've got to finish some of these smaller projects first.

Photos of Autumn Splendor

Thanksgiving Eve

What a good day for sewing!  I finished the "Autumn Splendor" quilt that I'd started quilting just before mom passed away.  It turned out much prettier than I expected.  The colors are gorgeous and the leaf fabric in the center of the blocks really pulls everything together.  I sewed the top a couple of years ago and put it aside for when I'd finally get a long-arm.  I had sort of forgotten what it looks like, just remembered that it wasn't one of my favorites.  I guess that's because I got tired of it long before it was finished.  In the end, it's not a bad quilt at all!

This afternoon I stitched up another jumper for Marley.  She's definitely a size 1 and very cute in her little jumper.  Jenny picked up some flannel this afternoon, so tomorrow I will make a jumper for Catherine and, if there's time before we start dinner for everyone, I will stitch up the two dresses with the fabric Jenn bought.  Then this weekend I'll make a couple more dresses for Cakibug.

Finally, I spent a little time on the computer and found a couple of interesting quilting blogs that I now follow.  These are hosted by quilters from the Quilting Board, which I've been reading for some time now.  In fact, today I earned the title "a regular here" on the board.  That means my LAQ information will appear on the QB for others to contact me for long arm quilting services.  Hopefully I pick up a little extra work through the QB.

Nope, not a bad day at all!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Measure twice.....

Yeah, so I decided to make a cute dress for my granddaughter.  Only I had no idea what size she wears, how much she weighs, or how tall she has gotten.  I just know what she looks like.  Apparently that is not enough.  Maybe I'm just a bad judge of how big a pattern will be after it's sewn.  Any-hoo, the dress is too big.  Way too big.  Huge too big.  It will fit a kid three years older than she is.  Oh well, maybe it will fit someone else's granddaughter.

She liked it though.  The corduroy fabric has little teddy bears all over.  It's got a bit of a Christmas feel to it since the bears are wearing green or red striped shirts.  The jumper has a pocket on the front, and I added a little stuffed bear from fabric scraps to a length of ribbon and attached it so it can sleep in the pocket when she's not playing with it, and it won't get lost or dropped when she does play with it.  Lot of good that did.  She didn't even discover the teddy.

It's fine in the end.  I'll make another dress tomorrow three sizes smaller and we'll see how that goes.  If I can figure out what size to use, I may be able to figure out what size to use for the next granddaughter.  My hope is to make each one a matching jumper so they can take pictures together and be even cuter than usual.

Also today I worked on the "Autumn Splendor" quilt that I'd quilted last week.  I've finished the quilting and begun the binding.  Tomorrow I should be able to finish the binding since I've decided to machine it completely.  I read a post on the Quilt Board about machine stitching the binding.  Since I've used this method before, I decided to use it again to save time.  I enjoy hand stitching but there's not likely to be much time for that with the Thanksgiving holidays happening.  And on that happy note: Happy Thanksgiving to my dear readers.

Penny for the Sweeper

Okay, so I started out the day very late.  Then decided that before I started another project, I had to clean house.  There were pieces of threads, bits of fabric, chunks of dirt, interfacing, and torn paper all over the place.  I swept, picked up, put away, and cleaned for about two hours.  The studio looks much better, but it wouldn't hurt to put away a few more items.  How does the place get this way?  Then my ADD/OCD kicked in, and I tweezered thread from the wheels of my chair.  I do that about once or twice a year, or the thread gets so thick that the chair won't roll.  I like being able to scoot from the machine to the ironing board to the work table and back.  It wasn't enough to just get the big stuff out....I had to pick every piece of thread and the strands of hair that wind themselves around the inside of the wheels.  I can swish past the ironing board in one little push now!  Of course, it means I didn't get much sewing done.  So tomorrow I'm going in and something's gonna give.  I'm not coming out till something is complete!  Done!

I'll let you know how that resolve goes :-)

Some of the Quilts I've Made