Headbands--Weekend Finishes

not a stack, but enough for assembly line production

I spent Saturday making headbands for students at school. They've become a bit popular since the cold weather has finally gotten to us. Anything made of fleece is popular right now!

rather odd colors--our school colors are red and white

 Because I ended up making nine headbands, I spent most of the day sewing. I used an assembly line process which helped to speed things along but is quite boring. That is until I realized that I'd left the interfacing out and had to sew the same seam twice! Oh well, it got the job done, never the less, and that left me a little time to play. 

lots of velcro to sew in

Google photo

This time play meant to make pralines! Richard and I were planning to go to my sister's house for supper Sunday night, and I decided that it's time to share the goodness. Sure, I wanted to taste a few pralines, (recipe here) but I love sharing them, too. 

I got the syrup going so Rich could stir while I chopped the pecans. We like the pecans chopped into about 1/4 size halves--small enough that they mix well, but still large enough to know that they are pecans. Since my chopper minces rather than chop, I decided to cut the pecans by hand. Yep, by hand. Well, who knew that Rich would stir until the syrup was a solid? I managed to save the day, but barely. So the pralines are hard. Not like peanut brittle hard, but surely harder than pralines. 

On Sunday Richard decided that we didn't have enough pralines for everyone. He always assumes that everyone will show up. Not necessarily the way things go, but when something is in his head...

Of course, we made more pralines. This time I was gun shy, and cleared the fire about 30 seconds to soon. And the pralines were soft. Gooey soft. Yummy, gooey, sweet!

But I digress. We showed up at my sister's house. Not many others did, so there were enough pralines for people to take baggies of the gooey stuff home. They're a hit regardless of whether they are hard, soft, or just right. 


This afternoon I returned home from school to make three more headbands. Black is a favorite color! It's difficult to work with because it's so difficult to see black thread on black fabric.

But the kids are beginning to ask for different colors, which adds to the fun factor. I'm sure that it's come to an end, though, because we begin our Christmas vacation tomorrow. I'm okay, though. I'm not one to make the same item over and over again. Once I've proven to my own satisfaction that I can do something, I like to more on to doing something new and different that I need to learn or practice. 

How much do you like creating an item more than once?  What are some smaller items that you've made several times?

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Advent colors

In the Catholic church we celebrate the season of Advent as a time of penance and an opportunity to prepare for the Lord. The church is not decorated except for the purple altar cloths and the Advent wreath, which has three purple candles and one rose candle. Today's mass saw all four candles lit. When we return to mass to celebrate Christmas, the Advent wreath will have been put away until next year. 

There are many variations on the theme, and churches are free to do their own thing (so to speak), but the four candles must have these specific colors because each one represents a significant part of Advent. 

Many families have their own wreaths to help teach children about Advent. As a result there are many pictures of Advent wreaths on Pinterest that can give ideas for creating your own. 

Finding purple and rose quilts...not so easy. In fact, I'm really pushing the limits with these quilts. That's quite all right: I didn't expect to find many Advent quilts, but purple and rose are quite pretty together. Surely there's a grandma out there who had the idea.

If so, grandma is not posting much on Pinterest.  Here's hoping you have a great week before Christmas and are not too stressed.

Pin It Weekly #183

Pinning lately? Yes? Me, too!

Wouldn't it be lovely to have any one of these in your craft room? I've been pinning lots onto my "sewing, studio" board and "organized, organization" board. 

Cassie Lewis has a lovely board on soapmaking.  

Rhonda Hedrick has a whole 50 plus pins on her "Pelican" board. 

Jeanine Cox has a "quilting" board with well over 600 pins. Look at some of the pretties on her board. 

Go ahead, pin them! You know you want to. 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Red and Black

I spent most of this afternoon making more headbands for students at school. Our school colors are red and white, but we often add a little black or gray to uniforms just to add some contrast. The five headbands I made this afternoon were all red/black. 

Uniforms are khaki pants with either red or white polo shirts, so the girls are looking forward to having something that matches their uniforms but still can add a little contrasting color.  These headbands are reversible, which makes them especially useful for that purpose. 

I'm linking up these finishes to Amanda Jean's Crazy Mom Quilts with the hope that I'll have another finish by Friday or Saturday. 

So, that's how Sunday Quilt Inspiration came to be red and black. Why get those colors out of my head now?

Red and black quilts? Well, of course!

Here's wishing you a wonderful week and lots of quilting!