November XMAS Projects

November already, as usual I'm a bit late with my 1XMAS showing. I finished the multicolor scarf today in the car while DH was driving us around as we did a little "Black Friday" shopping. All told, I completed 4 scarves for Christmas presents, intended to go in the purses that I am giving as gifts to my Nieces, Aunt's and one sister-in-law! I also finished 2 envelope purses for 2 of the many Nieces. I am so close to completing other purses - but close does not count for today! I also completed two Christmas stockings. Our guild made them for a local ladies group that is going to fill them with homemade goodies and present them to "Wounded Warriors" who attend a luncheon that the ladies hold for them. We held a workshop on the 17th, provided the batting, lining, cut strips and pattern for the ladies to follow. 18 were finished that day (my two were examples that I had done earlier in Nov) I have 4 more started and will be completed before the luncheon on Dec 15th. We are coming to the home stretch, I hope to have all of my Christmas projects done by the 15th. We'll see . . . Happy Quilting!

Fall Finishes

Finished a lot of little projects this month, unfortunately no WISPS, they were all new starts, and some new ideas! Being QOV Co-Chair has become very time consuming in the past few months. My former Co-Chair, relinquished her post after two years and my new Co-Chair had surgery on her knee so has been unavailable or not 100% since June. I am glad the kids are back in school, that helps with time management for part of the day. In October we held a QOV workshop, we planned to make 1600 strip quilts or lasagna quilts. We supplied the 40 2 1/2" strips needed for each quilt and had material on hand for the border. We had 12 participants and I am sorry to say I forgot to bring a camera! It was a lot of fun and two ladies managed to complete their quilts, and most everyone else finished theirs except for attaching the borders. I confess I hardly got any of mine done, so now I have another WISP. I did make the door prizes for the workshop. (and then some!) Originally I thought I would buy fall fat quarters and fill them with chocolate and then tie with ribbon, but then I saw an idea on line for fabric pumpkins, and later that week I had night guild where I found that really cool orange soft and fluffy fabric (previous post) and so I decided to make the fabric pumpkins out of the fluffy fabric and stuff them with Dove chocolate and little Reece's Peanut Butter cups. I ran out of candy after 5 of them so I used high loft batting scraps to fill the rest. I used cinnamon sticks for the stem and leftover silk flower leaves for 6 of them and then I made leaves using cotton batting scraps in between 2 pieces of green fabric. I zigzag stitched all around twice and then sewed veins through the middle. I like the sewn leaves best!

I also made 9 pin cushions from a Halloween Charm pack that I couldn't decide what to do with. The ric rack can go from front to back and you can decide which side you want face up as the buttons are on both sides. I made the buttons from FIMO and used a button on hand to make the impression. While I was in the Fall fabric mood I made 9 little tissue holders and are saving those for November's QOV workshop.

I showed the ladies at my Bee what I had made and they asked me to teach them how to make them at our next Bee, which I happened to be hosting. I was running out of the fuzzy fabric, so I tried other fabrics, and although it was harder to join together, I think they turned out pretty well too! We used homespun, orange batiks and a stretchy, soft fabric. I then wondered how to make the pumpkin tall, instead of short and round, that did not work out, but I turned my mistakes into two candy bags - one full of m&m's and one filled with candy corn! Happy Quilting, and Happy Halloween to all that celebrate it :)

October's 1XMAS Project!

Wow, I'm glad I get a few extra hours to complete my 1 XMAS every month, and this month it was down to the wire! I actually finished two other projects, but I can't show them until November. I made this little "monster" from orange fabric that was placed on our "giveaway" table at the quilt guild. It was so soft and fluffy, I just couldn't put it down, so I decided to take it and if I couldn't come up with a use for it I would bring it back during November's Guild meeting. I came up with a few uses, and the monster was the last idea I had, I'm not quite finished with the first use, so I'll post that before the end of the month. I used scraps for his eyelids and mouth. The horns were a little tough, fortunately he isn't supposed to be perfect! I was surprised how much it took to stuff him. He was fun to make and I hope my Great Nephew will enjoy him this Christmas! Happy Quilting!

September Finishes

As the month of September is almost finished, I almost forgot to post my finishes for the month. I made Great nephew Gus a Diaper Tote bag to use at daycare, but didn't post about it right away since I wanted them to receive it before seeing it online. It was actually my first finish of the month. Then my son's band teacher from middle school who is married to one of his band teachers in high school, adopted a set of twins this month. Of course that happened so quickly, with little or no notice, so they were scrambling to get everything together. A boy and a girl, and the band parents and school held a shower for them. I already had a boy baby quilt waiting in the wings, but needed to complete a girl quilt quickly. Needless to say I had plenty of fabric available and used fabric from two charm packs and a couple of fat quarters to whip up a nice fluffy quilt for her. I have been doing a lot of longarming for my Gram as well as a few others, and I have helping out more with QOV, but more bindings, putting together backings, cutting batting etc., I am behind on completing my own contributions for the cause. I have a couple of things in the works that I am anxious to finish up, but I am glad I am going through a lot of old fabric. Everything shown this month is from my stash! : ) Happy Quilting !!

1XMAS September

I'm late! September has been a month of change for our family. My husband was transferred 3 hours away from here, and we decided that since it's so expensive where he was transferred and since my son is in a great high school and we don't want to uproot him, that we would stay here and my husband would rent a room and come home on weekends. This past weekend was the second one under this new arrangement and needless to say I do not spend any time sewing, blogging etc., while dear hubby is home. We miss him dearly, but at least we do get to see him on weekends and holidays : ) My 1XMAS project this month is very simple, one of the women from my quilting bee taught it to us. They are cute little ornaments, and I think I will put them on presents as little decorations! Happy Quilting ! !

Getting Back to Normal . . .

We were very blessed and Hurricane Irene weakened prior to hitting us, and since we have been experiencing a drought this summer, we did not get the damaging flooding that many other areas suffered. We lost power a couple of times, but it wasn't too long and we had frozen plenty of water and were very well prepared. Fortunately it has cooled down, but (UNBELIEVABLY) The Great Dismal Swamp is STILL on fire! It is now 90% contained so I am hoping it will be out soon. We have not smelled the smoke recently so that's good! So we had alot of raking to do and cutting up the tree limbs that fell, but no damage. : ) I have nothing new to show since I really have not been in my sewing room. Once we got power back, there was alot of cleaning to do and we had moved to the ground floor for safety and everything was out of place. Now we are catching up to prepare the children for school. I hope to have lot's of Wild WISPs tamed by the end of September!

Happy Quilting!

1 XMAS a Month (August)

Almost didn't realize that it was the 25th today! Have been so busy today trying to get ready the best we can for our very unwelcome pending visitor "Irene". Didn't pay much attention earlier since the media is so quick to sensationalize and exaggerate weather issues, but I guess it looks like Hurricane Irene is actually going to hit our area. It seems like she'll be hitting Virginia Beach, I'm in Yorktown which is about 50 miles up the coastline from Virginia Beach, I'm hoping she will only be a category 2 or less when she arrives. Since we are not native Virginians, we aren't sure what to expect, as it stands now we are going to try to stay and wait it out. Enough of all that, I am very happy with my FINISHED Christmas present this month. It is for my nephew who is in college, I love giving rag quilts as college quilts because they can spill whatever, do whatever, bundle up in it, go on a picnic, put it in the car etc., and there is no fuss since it isn't fancy! I wanted to do this for him when he graduated from High School, but my sister wanted me to do a T-shirt quilt for him instead. She hasn't given me the T-shirts yet (2 yrs now) so I'm done waiting. His favorite color is green, and I've washed it once already, and I'll probably wash it once more to get rid of the threads. I endured a 2 week, 2 rounds of antibiotic sinus infection this month, so it was nice to have a project that didn't require thinking, reading or any skill besides changing the bobbin frequently! Now that I am finally healthy, I will be glad when Irene is gone and I can get back to sewing and longarming! I finally caught Hermione on her cat bed and was able to get the camera before she awoke! Happy Quilting and please cross your fingers & say a little prayer for us all along the East Coast.