How Not To Make Christmas Presents

Continuing with how I'm NOT making Christmas presents this year.  Here are some more things I've been furiously finishing for Christmas.

I bought a book of counted cross stitch bookmarks.  Dang it, if I don't like like every darn one of them!  However, just like always, counted cross stitch has reminded me that I can't count...

I'm always off by 1 or 2, okay maybe 3 or 4 stitches.  No, you're right, it got worse.  But, if you don't know what it's SUPPOSED to look like...

Cute, though.  Right?

This one is way prettier in real life.  I shouldn't have taken the picture with the dirty, white background.  There's another one started that may or may not see the light of day.

I decided to make my nieces and nephews Advent Calendars, too.  Now, the plan was to be done in November so that they could be shipped in time to have them for the month of December.

Then I laughed, and I laughed.

Without getting too personal, one of my kids spent about a week in the hospital.  All creativity stopped.  We're back, we're getting healthier by the day but we are behind on creativity.  As a whole, the stress level has been at maximum.  Heather is barely functioning as a human any longer.  I did get a lot of baking done until my kitchen floor got flooded, twice.  But whose counting, right?  Not me, because I can't...

This is a terrible picture but I like this one so much that it may replace the one we use at our house.  I've been noticing this year that my skill level has improved a lot since the beginning.  I kind of want to toss out my early work and replace it with better stuff.

This one is great, too.  Don't get too excited but I was able to free motion quilt these without too much trouble from my machine!

There's one more that needs to be quilted.  I can't upload the picture for some reason.  It's a teddy bear riding a rocking horse.  I bought the backer fabric a month ago and have NO IDEA where I put it.  It's probably in the same spot as Ethan's expensive computer part that I can't find.  At least, I'm ahead of the game for next year.  It's just going to have to be Bah Hum Bug from Aunt Heather this year.  Sorry, guys.  Too much is, too much.  Know what I'm saying?

This most excellent project was done my my son Hunter.  Isn't he awesome?!  Hunter drew that horse himself.  I swear, if I could draw that good, I'd be a quilt designer for sure!  This was his Ugly Christmas Sweater entry.


And, that concludes our lesson on How Not to Make Christmas Presents.  You're welcome.

Busy As A Bee!

It seams like forever since I've had time to work on Bertie's Year!  This is March and the whole reason why I wanted to do this project!  The bee stripes!  The shamrocks!  Her little hat!  Ugh, so cute!  I came up with a different name for it which I've forgotten now.  It was something like Roberta's Year, only cooler.  My mom's name was Roberta Anne and I miss her.    The next month is April and she's wearing a bunny hat!  Can't wait!  I almost postponed Christmas presents so I could start on it...My mom was not a cutesy, girly woman.  I used to force it on her all the time.   Our pink carpet in the 80's?  My fault.  I think this is just another attempt of mine to bully my mom into cutesy stuff and she'd completely cave to my will, with a smile.  

 

The Churn Dash baby quilt is finally quilted and bound.  These colors made me happy the whole time I worked on it!  I used my Best Mom mug to trace the scallop quilting pattern on.  It was actually more difficult to do the scallops than it was to do the orange peel pattern.  I did not see that coming...  Making the pivot, readjusting the quilt each time, took some time.  I'm really happy with it.  Now, if the lady who asked me to make it, would just get back to me.  It's good either way, if she doesn't want it, I've always got people to gift it to.










I wasn't going to make Christmas presents this year.  I was going to give myself a break and buy everything.  Then, naturally at the last minute, I made Christmas presents.  This is a Nook cover that I made for my mother-in-law.  I was trying to be sly about finding out the size of her Nook.  Apparently, there are a billion versions all with different dimentions.  We called my sister-n-law, she couldn't remember which one Ann had.  Rich kept forgetting to call his dad about it.  Then I texted Ann, she forgot to get back to me... You know, just casually curious about what version she had.  Finally, Rich had his dad measure it.  Then, Rich promptly texted Ann with the measurements instead of me.  Yeah, we're a sly bunch, all right.  We went to Iowa last weekend to visit the farm and had Christmas with them.  It's always good to see them.

I got it together within hours to spare of our departure.  I thought it was cute.  Grandpa got a giant bag of work gloves.  Boring.  But, useful.

Those Crazy Mantz'
(the beautiful blonde in the middle is my step-daughter Alyssa)

Not Christmas Presents

I thought I'd do a quick blog post while my list of things to talk about is still reasonable.  Luckily, Rich woke me up at 4:30 this morning as he was running out the door, late for work.  (Insert major eye roll here.  I think I can see my brain.)  So, I have plenty of extra time before I head to work this morning.

Our block of the month this time was a petunia.  Now, petunias are one of my least favorite flowers.  They smell really funky.  It's not that they aren't pretty because, they are.  They just smell bad.  So, I'm not going to judge this one too harshly.  It's fabric and doesn't smell but it's still a petunia and I admit that I'm prejudiced against it on principle.  At least I'm honest.





I know I have PLENTY of things that need to be finished before I start something new.  And, yes, Christmas is right around the corner.  I know, I know, those gifts aren't going to make themselves.  But, LLOOOOOKKKKK,  how cute my new project is!!!!  It's Bertie's Year, block of the month.  Vicki R. lent me her pattern and Dana D. very generously let me steal a TON of wool scraps.  So, far the plan is to make  one calendar quilt.  Each month will be a different colored outer border.  We'll have to see them to together, all finished, before I decide for sure.  This is January.

And, this is February.  You can see why I might be concerned by putting red and violet next to each other in a quilt.  But, who knows?  I could be awesome.  Each month's color theme will be directly related to the wool I have available...

So, last month I mentioned my afghan that took a month to make and I forgot to take a picture.  Well, here it is.  Even uglier than I remembered.  It also didn't do well at the auction.  I can see why.  My pincushion last year, brought in more and that took an evening to make.  I'll have to think a little before next years's auction.  On the up note, I had donated some dinosaur applique blocks and fabric that some of the ladies made into a kid's quilt that did bring in a decent amount.  That took a little sting out of my night.  Oh, and the class I gave was WAY more fun than I expected.  I didn't make a COMPLETE fool of myself... I don't think.  I've even heard from a few attendees that they've given it a try and enjoyed themselves.  Color me happy!

I almost forgot to show you how the churn dash baby quilt is coming along.  I love it so much!  There was supposed to be a strip of applique between the 2nd and 3rd columns and another row of blocks but I decided I liked it like this.  It was going to be enormous if I'd done it all and this is intended for a toddler to love and carry around.  Besides, it's so sweet the way it is.  I've decided in this case, less is more!  A very sweet traditional quilt for a sweet little girl that's been named after her grandmothers. 

Next up, Christmas presents.  I swear!

October, Continued

One of the freakiest thing I did is "teach" a class this month!  I didn't take any pictures but it was a lot more fun than I was expecting.  I explained how I quilted this on my domestic machine along with some other ideas on what to do with a Walking Foot.  It was well received and I didn't make a complete fool of myself.  Win, win.

I also had a great opportunity to take a quilting class.  I only take 1 or 2 a year and this one was so much fun!  We melted crayons down and basically painted with the melted wax.  Loved it!  I was thinking of tons of things to use it with but since I got home, my crayons have sat unused in the cupboard.  I do think my hummingbird from the class might make it's way on to my "Neighborhood" quilt for the next quilt show.

I've added a couple more layers to my peacock.  I'm liking it the more I work on it.  Embroidering through all those layers really sucks but I'm managing.  No marathon sessions or I can't use my wrist for a day or 2.  I'm trying to decide on how to highlight the petals on the magnolia blossoms.  I lightly traced them with pencil but it didn't do what I was hoping. Maybe if I just quilt around each petal, that will give the definition I'm looking for.  We'll see.

Last but not least, Rich finished my 12 Days of Christmas plate collection for my Oct gift!  Aren't they pretty?!  It's the first complete collection I've ever had of anything.  Well, except for DMC floss, I think I've got all of that...

He just reminded me that the 12 months of Christmas is almost over.  Dang.  It's going to be hard to go back to normal but it sure has been awesome while it lasted!

Okay, thanks for stopping by!  I'll try not to be such a stranger!

Holy Moly, I Almost Missed October!

Can you believe October is almost over?  Me neither!  I've been so busy doing that I haven't had much time to blog about it. 

I worked on a crocheted afghan for about month...and forgot to take a picture of it.  I know, I know, a crock of crap.  I was in one of those moods to crochet.  Bethany decided on the colors and it was supposed to be for her.  Then I needed a donation for our Guild's Auction next month.  So, I decided that if I finished before they needed the donation, it would go to the Guild and if it took me too long, then it could be Bethany's.  I finished it right before the Guild meeting in Oct and Bethany lost her afghan but I forgot to take a picture.  So, come to the next Guild meeting and bid on my beautiful afghan.  Then I can take a picture of you AND my afghan.

Another thing I got done in the nick of time is this Guild block of the month carnation.  All those points on the petals sucked.  The fabric I chose was really loosely woven and when I trimmed it down, it basically exploded into shreds.  Did not make me happy.  I've already got another one to do and luckily, not a lot of points!

 I also had an opportunity to go to another retreat in Mascoutah.  Such a good time to get away and hang with the ladies.  I  wasn't able to get the weekend off and I didn't really accomplish much but it was great to be there when I could.  I made these cute little Churn Dash blocks for a baby quilt that I was commissioned to make.  It's going to be really cute, I promise!

That's all for now.  Time to go clean the bathrooms.  Ugh.

Basketballs & Peacocks

Hello, there friends.  Long time no type at.  Man, I tell you, back to school really got the best of me.  They didn't want to go back and I didn't want the drama/ trauma to start up again.  It sunk me into a little bit of an artistic dry spell.  Okay, fine, I was depressed and stressed.  Not to mention people were quitting at work left and right.  Which, for me, means losing friends and gaining work.  Not a stressfree combo, just as the fall wedding season is underway.  Ok, boo hoo, I've had my moment.  Time to get on with the good stuff.

My co-worker Michelle asked me to make a quilt out of her daughters old basketball jerseys.  Now, this is my least favorite thing to do.  Mostly, because it's hard and I'm lazy.  I turn people down fairly regularly when they ask me to do t-shirt quilts but I like Michelle and we see a lot of each other at work.  She asked me back in the spring, if I remember right.  Maybe early summer.  I just got to it this last month.  Like I said, lazy.

Not to mention, it's sports.  I can't really get into it.  And, it's hard.  The stabilizer didn't want to stick to the jersey fabric very well.  I was worried about melting the rubberized numbers and logos.  That was also a problem when it came to quilting.  Then, the fact that Jessica is tiny.  I mean, tiny.  How this girl was good at basketball is beyond me.  Now she's doing volleyball.  She must be fierce.  Tiny and fierce.  The quilt started out to be super basic because that's all they asked for.  I couldn't leave it at basic.



I appliqued her name on the top.  Still pretty basic but at least it was something.  At first, I was going to use black metallic thread around the letters but I couldn't find black.  They had bronze which was the same color as the basketball fabric.  I thought it was going to be brilliant.  No.  It was NOT brilliant.  It was, in fact, super tacky.  So, I ended up with 10 billion tiny metallic threads all over my life.  Plain old black ended up being a better option.  I also cut out a little star in the A to match the Hoopstar logo.

Yes, this is laying on top of my car.  I happened to be waiting for Ethan at swimming class when I finished the binding.  Sometimes you just have to work with what you got.

I gave it to them yesterday and she seemed really happy.  I hope so.

Another thing that I've been putting off is my Taking Flight challenge quilt.  Our Guild President challenged us to make something with that theme.  I've been obsessed with peacocks lately.  I found a gorgeous stained glass peacock that I decided to make into a quilt.  Honestly, I'm going to be so pissed when this ends up being a mess.

I've just got a few basic layers started.  I'm very sceptical at this point.  I keep telling myself it'll get there but I'm not totally convinced.  There's going to be more feather detail, magnolia blossoms and at the very end, I'm going to bead and embellish the crap out of it.

There you have it.  Hopefully the beginning of a creative fall and winter.

Diamonds & Tiaras

I have been completely obsessed with pink and red as a color combo.  I realize this is unusual.  It's a bit much for the average person on daily basis.  But, it's so cute.  How can you not love it?  I seriously want to do a huge scrap quilt in pink and red.  Pink and red, everywhere.   It'll be fabulous.  But, for now, I settled for a table runner.

When, I was done, I felt like it needed a little something more.  What better than a crown?  Am I right?  Then, I topped it off with sparkly metallic thread.  Seriously channeling my inner princess that day.

 The diamonds were made using Edita Sitar's diamond templates and her strip piecing method.  Awhile back, I took a few days and sewed blocks of strips together to make her house quilt and with the left overs, I cut out some diamonds and triangles for "someday" projects.  I love the look of the strips but I don't think I'd do it the same way again.  There was a lot of seam on seam action going on.  Then, the solid fabric didn't like the seams being pressed to them.  Very uncooperative.

I finished another Vintage Christmas block.  I really ended up stitching and unstitching a whole bunch on this one.  The background got all crunchy when I put the buildings on.  My doors and windows are all crooked and it irritates me.  The roof on the bell tower is crooked, too.  I think I'm going to have to fix that.  Ugh.  Maybe, all together, the whole thing will be so cute that no one will notice how cock-eyed everything is.

Naturally, I was late getting my guild applique block of the month done.  Last month was the Morning Glory.  Next, is the Carnation.  It's going to be pink.  And, cute.

And now, to watch The Family Stone.  One of the best movies ever.