FINISH ONE, START TWO?

I've been enjoying these unstructured days and doing some knitting.  I made this hat for our next little arrival in April. It's called the flour sack hat ( for obvious reasons. )  I love how when the corners get tied, they look like little ears.

 For Christmas, my daughter gave me this lovely skein of wool and the pretty needles with wooden ends.
Not sure yet what this will become, but I think I will look through my books, and start something today.

Also, Donna gave me this amazing skein of 100% Merino superwash that her daughter Janine hand painted.  Be still my heart :)  I know exactly what this is going to be.  My daughter wants a skein of this, and my Mother thought it was lovely too. Hmmmmm, I may be giving Donna a call.

While floating around Ravelry, I saw this awesome scarf and knew I needed to make it. It uses several different stitches to give it lots of texture.  It's long enough to double up on those really cold days so I can stay warm.

Won't it be lovely done up in the hand painted wool? It would look great in the brown too so I think I will start both today.  Idle hands ya know.......

Lastly, I did another farmers wife block yesterday. Slow and steady is my motto for this quilt. I saw one person who turned the blocks she had done so far into a baby quilt and it looked wonderful. I guess I could do that if I get tired of this, but I am hoping to persevere.

Anyway, I have about 400 stitches to cast on, so if you'll excuse me I am going to melt into the couch for a while. Have a fantastic New Years!

LEFTOVERS

Today was left over day, and because of that, I had some time to myself to sew.This little panel is left over from last year.  Here's what I've done so far.  These stars are a bit tricky to do because of the weird angles.

Lots of fabric is needed to cover the area, but these stars are all about using it up : )

Also, I can't resist showing you a couple of pictures.  Little Scarlet was as good as gold all day. Here she is peeking in her stocking.

Next year there will be two little ones.  I am so looking forward to this spring when we will welcome a new little life.

Hope you had a lovely Christmas.

WHY NOT? WEDNESDAY AND A BREAK

This week I thought, "Why not a head start" ? I haven't done much sewing for myself that is specifically Christmas.  This  panel has been kicking around for a while so I decided to do a little something with it.  I am going to get a head start on next years Christmas preparations while I am still in the mood.

I added a couple of co-ordinating prints and am excited to get started today. My stocking isn't done yet so I hope to finish that too.

This is a little hat I finished up yesterday.  It was meant to have knitted bobbles on it, but I decided on some jingle bells instead.  I hope Scarlet will keep it on her head.  It sort of "tinkles".

Also, I am going to take a bit of a break from the computer.  We all need a time of rest . I'm going to focus on my family over the holidays. ( and maybe squeeze in some sewing)

Resting in Hope means, laying down the smaller story of human struggle, and fully embracing the larger story of God's love.   (tkfm)

Merry Christmas to you and yours .

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY...

If at first you don't succeed.............cover it up with a forklift!
I have been itching for weeks to get back at my farmers wife blocks.  I had a tiny bit of time today to sew, so I chose to work on this.  Block #15-Buzzard's Roost

My buddy is placed there for a reason.  I'm not sure what happened in that corner, but I am not redoing it.  A little sashing will fix that : )   Also, I am working on a stocking made out of scraps from Etchings. Not sure if it will happen or not, but there's still time.

Have a wonderful week.

DECEMBER MODA CLUB

This picture doesn't show the quilting real well.  It was taken outside hanging over the balcony. It still needs the binding, but I couldn't wait to show you : )  I love this block!  So big and easy to piece. 

So, following is the show and tell from the Moda club today.  So many beautiful quilts as usual . Thanks Ladies for inspiring us all : )

My projects for this month:

Now the show and tell:

Oh my GOODNESS !  We have some seriously talented ladies.  Thanks so much everyone who took time out of this busy season to come and share your talents with us. See you in January.

WE HAVE A WINNER

 There were 125 comments in all. Thanks to everyone who came by and entered the give-away. Mr. Random Generator chose #42  Sherry.  I will be e-mailing you right away Sherry.

I will be back with the show and tell from the Moda meeting today. Thanks everyone : )

QUIRKY TREES

I've been sewing a few trees.  This is a fun little wall hanging. I saw a pillow at "From the Blue Chair" and thought I might like to try making some of the trees.  This is like a string quilt which I love doing (as you can tell from my header)

Hubby was quick to point out that the trees don't really line up.  He's good at pointing out things like that : )

I was originally going to call it stringy trees or something, but then changed it to quirky. Now it doesn't matter if they are perfect-------they're quirky!

I did some loopy free motion that looks okay I guess.  I think I held my breath the whole time. I added a little "bling" that I found.  These are mini decorations and just the finishing touch.

Happy Friday.

WHY NOT? WEDNESDAY

A CUP OF CHRISTMAS TEA

Sometimes when I'm sewing my mind wanders----really wanders.  For some reason I started thinking about these really old blocks I had stashed away somewhere.  Foundation paper piecing is something I tried YEARS ago, and I never completed the quilt.  I got to thinking that maybe I could turn one of the blocks into a little mug rug.  First, I had to find them.........

I knew I wanted it to be Christmassy, so I dumped out my scrap bin (one of them) and started playing around.  One of the lines from this year, Countdown to Christmas, happens to have lots of red and black. Great!  This is what I came up with.

I'm quite happy with it.  An old block, destined for the garbage has new life in something I can actually use. AND, there are 3 more teacup blocks, and 3 or 4 teaPOT blocks.  Mugrugs here I come!

 Why not go through your bins and see what orphan blocks you can use?  You might be surprised!  

JUST A PEEK

It's hard to believe that this Saturday is the last Moda club meeting for the year.  I've had fun making all the projects and playing with all that lovely fabric.  I am showing you just a little peek at what I am bringing this time.  Just look at this lovely quilting!  I can't take the credit.  That goes to Linda.

I've also been making some trees.

This is now a little wall hanging that I am quite pleased with.  I'll show everything in it's finished state on Saturday.  In the meantime, I am working on Wednesday's post.  See you then.

RELAXING.....

Finally a new post.  I had a busy week.  I got my Swoon quilt top pieced and delivered to the quilter.  I had all the staff over for dinner on Friday night.  Everyone pitched in and we had a great time. Here we all are feeling rather stuffed! Aren't we a happy bunch.

I'm on the left in black, next to my lovely daughter.

Then last night, we had a Christmas dinner at our church.  Two dinners in a row! Good thing this year is a calorie free one.

Because Christmas is inching ever closer, I pulled out this quilt I made a few years back.  It's made of log cabin and sampler blocks.  This was fun to do.  The quilting is sort of swirly, like snow. Linda quilted this for me.

I have been enjoying the blog hop.  So fun to read all the comments.  Don't forget to enter for the give-away.  Have a wonderful relaxing Sunday.

WHY NOT A GIVE- AWAY?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am participating in a blog hop, just for fun.  Want to join me?  Sure, why not?  Each blog you visit will have something they are giving away.  There will be chances to win some wonderful things.  The "blog party" button on the right, will be updated Dec. 10 with all the links to the participating blogs.  All you will have to do is click on one to go and check them out. While you are there, you can enter to win that give-away. Simple. 

Starting Dec. 9th you can leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of "studios", a pattern, and  a pillow cover (minus the pillow form) with a bazillion french knots. Depending on how full the envelope is, I may just sweeten the pot a bit. This is just a little "thank-you" for your interest in what I do and for all your encouraging comments.  

For those of you who want to comment but don't have a blogger account, you still can by selecting the "anonymous" button and following the instructions.  Just be sure to leave me a name and an e-mail address so I can get back to you : )

Have fun hopping around all the sites.  See you back here on the 9th. The comments will be open until the 17th, then I will randomly choose a winner ; )

Thanks to Michele for putting this on.

GIVE-AWAY NOW CLOSED.