A few more gifts done. I'm in the home stretch!

I made a few little pincushions as gifts for some friends. 

We have a thing about ladybugs...

The other one was my trial one. They looked harder to do than they were. I think I put too much filling in them though because they're not as squishy as the one I received as a gift.

They're filled with crushed walnut shells which keep the pins and needles nice and sharp.

One project to go. I just may make it!

The bag lady returns

The bag lady returns, this time with a couple of rag tote bags.

I'm happy with the way this one turned out. I absolutely love the button I found. It looks to me like it was made to go with this fabric line.

I had a brain freeze in the middle of the project though and remembered that I'd forgotten to put pockets in the bag. So I made a little zippered pouch to go with the bag.



I'm not at all happy with this one. Although I remembered to put pockets in, nothing else seemed to work out right. The fabrics didn't fray like they should have and the overall look isn't what I had in mind.

The back of the blue fabric is actually almost white and it doesn't look very nice where it peeks through on the raggy seams. I'm hoping, in time and with use, that the edges will fray better.

It's frustrating when that vision in your head doesn't translate itself into the finished product. Oh well. As my dear mother would have said (or sung loudly!) Que sera, sera!



My new motto

I was cleaning out my sewing room, going through bins and trying to find some patterns that I know are in there somewhere when I found this almost finished pillow.  I remember making it 3-4 years ago,  getting frustrated with it and tossing it in a pile to deal with later.  The poor thing has too many issues to be gifted, with its wonky ruffle and all, but I couldn't bear to just throw it away either. So, a handful of stuffing, a quick stitch of the opening, and it's finished. I'll put it under the tree as a decoration this year and then probably rip it apart and try again another day.

I love the chocolate chip cookie buttons.

Now I think I need a cookie.

Oh Christmas Tree

I put up three Christmas trees most years. It's just something I do.

 I have the traditional red, white and gold white one in the front room and the family room tree has only handmade ornaments on it.

Perhaps my favorite tree is the vacation tree. For the past 15 years or so I've been collecting ornaments from places we've visited. It's so much fun to decorate this tree each December and reminisce about those fun trips.

Santa surfing ornament from a trip to Hawaii.

The Mission San Xavier del Bac in Tucson, Arizona

The beautiful Athenaeum Hotel in charming Chautauqua, New York

A fun trip to Alaska

A bookmark from our trip to Korea. Christmas ornaments were not to be found anywhere so I had to get creative. 

A maple leaf from Vermont

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia

A reminder of the beautiful fish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

I have dozens more on the tree from Epcot Center, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Moon Lake, Kennedy Space Center, Sisters Oregon, Nauvoo, Boston, Tahoe, Oklahoma City, Phoenix.....

I wish that I had started my collection years before. I guess all I can do is head back to places we've visited before and collect an ornament from there.

Hopefully the next ornament on the tree will be from Poland! That's the dream anyway.

My Christmas quilt finished....in time!

I actually started and finished a quilt within a calendar year. I think that's a record for me. I have many starts, but few finishes!  This was a BOM I got from Keepsake Quilting. When the first packet arrived I cringed because I really didn't like some of the fabrics and would never have chosen them on my own. I debated for a while but finally decided to persist and I'm glad I did. Although some fabrics still aren't my favorite, I like the overall finished product.

The center medallion alone had 145 pieces in it. This quilt was a much larger undertaking than I had initially bargained for. It didn't look that complicated in the catalog picture!

I really like the backing fabric. It has an almost Victorian feel to me with beautiful Christmas colors.

I told the LAQ to custom quilt it, using her imagination. She did an amazing job. I love the little squiggly lines in this piece.



I like how she made each block unique.

My favorite quilting is the feathery leafy thing she did in the large border. I couldn't get a picture to do it justice. She's a very talented quilter. Thanks Tara!



Too late for this year...

But I'm early for next year!

I pieced this last fall and then stitched in the ditch with invisible thread. I was halfway through binding it and decided that I just wasn't happy with it.

So I took the binding off and unpicked all the quilting and threw it in a corner. This year I took it to a local LAQ and told her to use her imagination on it. I'm much happier with it now.

I think she did a great job and I absolutely love the squiggles she did on the acorn.

Now to fold it away until next fall.