Santa's workshop has closed!

I finished up the last Christmas gift and everything has been shipped! Putting the sewing machine away till after the holiday.... AHHHH... now to put up my feet.. OH WAIT, I forgot... now I've got to get cooking and baking.

Lisa will be here for Christmas along with her boyfriend (I think), and Jenn is coming with her boyfriend so were going to have a nice get together. But we need food! Lisa and Josh are vegans so I usually make two different types of cookies and snacks. It's a bit of a challenge to cook for vegans but I've found some interesting foods that I enjoy ... foods I probably wouldn't have tried if it wasn't for Lisa. Growning up, if someone mentioned eating TOFU I would have crinkled my nose up but now I've found some types I really like. I just have to remember to follow the recipes. I forgot to put the sugar in the pumkin tofu pie that I made for Thanksgiving... that was NOT good!

I mailed off all the Christmas cookies that I baked. I traded cookies for crab with one brother that lives on the coast of CA. He's a fisherman and he gets the BEST crabs. I've been dreaming of these for a while and yesterday a box of them showed up on my front porch. Al and I munched on cookies and crab last night. I don't want to think about how much butter we consumed yesterday... between going out to breakfast at The Original Pancake House (they use REAL butter and cream), having all that crab dipped in butter and then eating loads of butter cookies... well.. I guess this Mrs Claus is going to fit the image this year! We packed the last of the cookies up last night and Al is mailing those today so now it's time to bake for us.

Don't know if I've mentioned that I'm having problems with my right hand. With all the sewing, and cutting and rolling out dough and working, my hand has taken a beating. It's swollen between the knuckles and is burning. Hopefully after Christmas it'll calm down. I can hardly write so I'm having Al write out some Christmas cards... my handwriting is with my left hand and it looks worse than chicken scratch. Last night I took a couple of Aleves to help reduce the swelling and I think it worked... somewhat. I'm typing... slowly... hopefully I won't have to cut much fabric at work today.

Blizzard weather here in the north

This is a picture I took at noon yesterday... COLD!!! The winds were gusting over 50 mph. Today the wind chill has temps WAY below zero. Al and I spent some time outside cleaning the driveway, the porch and walkways. We got out to go to town but there isn't much happening. I think most people are staying inside.
So with this cold, windy weather I just stayed in and kept warm... sewing in my room. Finished up a few Christmas presents... now just a couple more to complete and I'll be done. I did a little baking... got the gingerbread men done. I need to have LOTS of cookies baked in the next few days because I send them off to my brothers in CA. Usually I wait till last minute so that I don't have all those goodies around tempting Al and I. If I make the sugar cookies too early, they all get eaten and I have to bake them all over again. :)

Getting a scrappy quilt made up...

This month it was my turn to receive scrappy blocks from many of the ladies at block central. I just love going out to the mail box and finding nice little fabric surprises in it. Three more are on the way and those along with the ones I'll be stitching up will be enough to finish up this quilt.
This quilt is going to be a gift for my neice. Her dad, my brother, just won custody of her and they're both very excited to be heading to North Carolina.... BUT she does need a few things and I think everyone needs their own quilt. I'm planning on using a flannel backing for this and it's going to be TIED, not quilted. I want it to be done fast!
Thanks to all my BC friends for the blocks :)

Thanksgiving with the family

Happy Thanksgiving!! We are downstate at mom and dad's for the day. My sister and her family came along with my brother, my daughter and her boyfriend... other daughter went to Nashville (Al is taking the pic)
Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Stitching weather

It's been SO COLD the last few days. It's been a busy fall but when I haven't had to work I head down to the sewing room, turn the heat on high and stitch away. Just can't believe how fast we went from fall to winter!
One of the projects I'm working on is this Christmas purse for my mom's bowling friend. She loved mom's summer purse and wanted something for her mom's birthday which is coming up fast. She said she wanted a "Christmas" bag and these cute santas with the animal print trim on their hats is the fabric she chose. I'm going to make 2 or 3 ties to go though the "belt" loops... one out of a coordinating animal print, one green and maybe one more in a creamy Christmas print. I still have quite a bit to do on this... the bottom of the bag is stitched but the band and ties are just laying there... got to add those on today.

Jennifer spent Sunday at our house and so we did some baking, cooking and sewing. She made a couple of really cute blocks using Figgy Pudding Christmas fabric. She's joining a block draw... Everyone is making a block or two and then someone's name will be drawn from all the block received. The lucky winner will get all the blocks made and will choose the next fabric line to be used in December's draw. This is a block she designed using the fabrics. Isn't it adorable?

New spicy tablerunner and the start of a new quilt

This is a new sample I just finished up last night for the local quilt shop. I think it's called Spicy Spiral tablerunner... I don't remember the designer's name. The pattern makes a 42" runner but I adapted it to use a shorter wedge so it's 36"... perfect for my coffee table. It's going to be hanging in the quilt shop for quite a while so I might just have to make another one. I used mostly batiks in greens and brown. If anyone wants the pattern, contact Sue at www.heartstoholly.com.
I started a new quilt... just the center is done. This is another sample piece for the quilt shop. It's a baby quilt with a medallion center... lots of black and white with dusty aqua and gray. I know I wasn't going to start any more new quilts....BUT... this one will be pretty quick and easy. It'll be displayed at the shop for a year or so and then I'll probably give it to my mom for her church auction or donate it to the hospital up here.. I don't know anyone with a new baby boy..darn.

Finished up with this years round robins

This is Rebecca's quilt top. The last border is the one I added and now it's off to the last person from our group. This was a JOY to work on... such pretty colors and fabrics! I found lots of pinks, burgandy, teal and browns to use with it. Hope you like it, Rebecca!

Halloween Quilt

Here's a little SNEAK peek at my halloween quilt. I appliqued some spiders onto the top and this one block. Don't you just love him?!

Update 5-1-12: This spiderweb fabric is available at Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop in Charlevoix Mi. Contact Sue Miller- heartstoholly@yahoo.com 
She has the black fabric with the eyes on it ... the eyes glow in the dark!
Some of the other fabrics are a few years old and not available anymore.

Batik Pillow Pattern

Thought I would show you my newest project. I just finished making a pillow that will be a class and a pattern. I took a break from some of my current projects to get this done so that the shop could have the sample. Now it's back to working on round robins and a Halloween quilt (hope it's done for THIS Halloween!). BOY, you should see the MESS in my sewing room... a disaster!!

Working on blocks and pillows

Finished up a block for BC. This is our October block swap and I really should have been done with the two blocks by now... but... I had a bit of difficulty with this one. UNTIL I read something online about how to do curved blocks. Pie goes on the bottom, crust on top... Curved pieces fit together MUCH better if you follow this rule. The piece that looks like the pie goes down... and the other fits in nicely on top. Glald that's done!!

Quick and Easy Placemat Pattern

Here it is.. my first pattern! Hearts To Holly Quilt Shop (231-547-2729) has them for $6 . You can also get them directly from me.. my email is on this blog. We sold 3 the first day... I'm so excited :)
If you look back a bit on my blog you'll see them on my kitchen table. I made 4 of them for Thanksgiving but since then have made 8 for Christmas and 4 for spring. They're SUPER easy. I use one large "focus" fabric (I fussy cut part of it) and then lots of leftover strips and squares. The only quilting I did on them was around the edge... wanted them to have a more contemporary look (and make it easy on myself!).