Last Projects for 2014

I made a couple of things this morning. I found a charm pack I bought last year, I think the fabric line was called Chirp Chirp. I sorted all the green/rust/brown colorway out to make 2 placemats for my mom, and I made myself a nice rice pack for my neck, and another pin cushion with the blues. I had used 2 charms first when I got the pack and made a pin cushion and then put the rest away. When I unearthed them yesterday afternoon I knew that I would make a rice pack. The outer cover comes off and can be washed if it starts smelling like Tiger Balm!  The pin cushion was an after thought.

This and That

I got inspired last night after dinner and sorted through my red and black scraps to make a throw quilt for the futon. The futon is black, and I made a couple of red and cream throw pillows for it last year. Anyway, I wanted a simple pattern so I decided on this:

However, I'm not sure now. I think it might be too busy. I'm going to leave those 4 blocks out for a bit and think about it. In the meantime I have been making hexagons for another possible quilt. I have been making them now and then for a while now. There are 140  here in these 4 piles and I figure I'm going to need around 250 or so. 

Last, here's a picture of my little guinea pig, Mikey, peeking out of one of the cuddle sacks I made her for Christmas. She loves these things, I should have made her some before.

She's such a sweetie!

Fabric for Christmas and Some Sunday Sewing

I knew I was getting fabric for Christmas, and I am happy with it all! I love getting fabric! It all came from Jo Ann, but it's all nice.I really like these 5 pieces. All the larger prints are a third of a yard, the two other prints are quarters.

Then there are these four pieces. The two on the left are a third of a yard, and the other 2 are quarters. I really like the bottom left print. I might go back to Jo Ann and get some more. I'd like to make a new knitting project bag with a roll to hold the dpn's I use the most and a little zipper pouch for knitting notions.

And last there are these two. My daughter really liked the blue one so she got half a yard of that, and a quarter on the green.

Don't they all look nice all piled up!

My husband had to work today, which is unusual but they are really busy and the days off for Christmas and Christmas Eve put them behind. So I got to stay in my jammies this morning and sew. I didn't cut into the new stash, but I did make this cute little snack mat. I've seen a few of them for Christmas gifts on blogs so I had to jump in and make one too. I'm not used to working with pieces this small, but I think it turned out ok. I have a lot of scraps that are 30's reproductions, so that's what I used. It looks nice with one of my vintage tea cups.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas!

Christmas Gumdrops!

I took a little time out of the present sewing and made this pillow top. It's called Gumdrop and is from Sunday Morning Quilts. I thought if it was made up as a pillow top made in green and red on white it could be Christmas Gumdrops. I haven't got the backing on yet, I need to finish the last tote bag I'm working on first. I really like the red and green, and I see a matching quilt sometime before next Christmas. It's nice in that it can be a complete scrap project, even the strips that the gumdrops are fused to are scrap white on white fabrics.

I've also been making pet presents. There are two bunny blankets (who knew Sunny Bunny was a Cubs fan!), and then two guinea pig snuggle sacks. I let Mikey crawl into the aqua and white one just to see if she'd like it and she did not want to come out. Every time I reached in to get her she thought she was going to get scratches and started making the special purr noise that guinea pigs make when they are really contented. I finally made her come out and told her she had to wait for Christmas.

As soon as I finish the tote bag I am done with Christmas presents. Yippee!

Not Quite Sunday Stash

I'm getting fabric for Christmas. I know I am because I asked for it and I was told that it had been bought already. So I'm not buying any fabric til after Christmas because who knows, I might need to buy some fabric to go with the fabric I am getting for Christmas. My younger daughter was in charge of fabric shopping and she has very good taste when it comes to buying fabric for me, so I know I'm going to like whatever it is she buys. So in lieu of stashing any more fabric, there is this. A rather blurry picture of the container that sits beside the machine to collect scraps in:

And this picture of some pink fabrics that need to be put away.

I'm sewing pet presents today, I made a cuddle sack for Ms. Mikey the guinea pig, and a fleece blanket for my daughters rabbit, Sunny who is 13 years old and a bit arthritic. She's still active, but has slowed down a bit and prefers soft places to sit. I am going to make one more cuddle sack and maybe another blanket before I post pictures. 

Lots of Presents!

I got a lot done this week; maybe I actually will be able to enjoy all of Christmas Eve without crazily trying to finish something up! It helps that some of the stuff had to be finished by tomorrow evening, but I got all the New York sewing done with time to spare. I still have some shopping to do tomorrow morning though.

I got zipper pouches done for all the ladies.

Then I finally finished this Christmas runner for Melissa and Nikki. This was a wip from last year. The fabric on the back is some vintage fabric I picked up at the local thrift store.

I also made them dish towels with patchwork trim because you can never have too many!

Another tote for the sweet Siobhan.

And last I finished the fingerless gloves. I like this as yarn so much more than I did as roving, and the mitts turned out very nice. One of the girls will get these, probably Siobhan because she liked the yarn so much.

I still have one more tote, a zipper pouch and a damn it doll to make before Wednesday and I'd like to make a couple small fleece blankets for Sunny Bunny and Ms Mikey the guinea pig. I think I'm doing pretty well keeping it all under control. I'll be linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

WIP Wednesday

I have a few things today. First up are two quilted zipper pouches. I have them cut, quilted and ready to go. I was just waiting on my zipper foot which got here yesterday evening. The red one is for my mom, the blue strip pieced for my sister.

Then there is this fabric for another zipper pouch for my daughters partner. The dusty grey is  left from a quilt I hand dyed all the fabrics for many years ago. I am going to incorporate that gold somehow, I'm just not sure how yet.

 I am almost done with the fingerless gloves I dyed and spun the yarn for. I really like these, and I'm not sure if they will end up as a gift or not. I didn't have anyone in mind when I started knitting them, but I can think of a couple of people who might like them.

Last thing is not really a wip, but I came across this fabric when I was looking for linings for something else. I bought it at least 6 years ago when I worked at Hancock Fabrics. I meant to make a fishing shirt out of it but never did. I'm going to try and get it made before spring. Maybe for my son. Maybe for me.  

I still have 3 other gifts I haven't even picked fabric for yet, but since they are staying here I have a few days longer to work on them. And then there is scrap-a-palooza. I only need 4 more blocks for a completed quilt top!

Sunday Morning Knitting

I've been knitting here and there in odd moments for the last few days, mostly in the car or at other places that are not home. The really nice thing about knitting is it's portability. Anyway, I had some yarn I spun earlier this year on one of my drop spindles. It actually started out as this roving I dyed in the early part of the summer.

I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it, because the red turned out REALLY red. It's a Cushings dye in scarlet. Well I spun it up and then plied it as a 2 ply and it looked like this:

Still pretty bright, but I was able to pull out the brighter red sections and put them to the side so I could start a pair of fingerless gloves. I only have one knitted so far, I finished it this morning. I should get the other one finished by next weekend, at least I hope so! They are not a Christmas present, so there really is no rush.

On another note, I had all my zipper pouches quilted and cut out with their linings and realized my zipper foot is missing. It should be in the little pouch that all my sewing machine feet came in but it isn't there and the local Jo Ann doesn't carry them. I ordered one from Amazon and it should be here Tuesday.

Some Christmas Presents

I have been busy sewing for Christmas and I have a few things finished. My youngest daughter asked for some hot/cold rice packs, so I made her this set with removable patchwork covers.

Since my older daughter is getting a new microwave for Christmas I figured she could use a set too. This set has the extra added bonus of getting rid of some of the hexagons that have been hanging around since last year.

Youngest daughter also said she wanted some totes for shopping, so I went through my stash looking for some fabrics she might like. I had quite a big remnant of Michael Miller's Dysfunctional Family left from a shirt I made my son at least 10 years ago. She's always liked this fabric, so I used almost all of this for this tote.

I didn't realize it, but Micheal Miller has reissued this fabric. You can but it at Fabric.com

Then there's this lovely pillow. I used the Ticker Tape pattern from Amanda Jean Nyburgs book Sunday Morning Quilts. You can also find it on her blog  Crazy Mom Quilts

which is where I'll be linking up.

Christmas Sewing

I've been making Christmas presents this week, and this morning I pulled fabrics to make little zipper pouches.

These are for scrappy pouches. The blues will be cut into 2 1/2 inch squares, sewn together and quilted, the red will be a random patchwork pouch.

These 2 will just be quilted. The owls are for one daughter and the orange butterflies for the other. My younger daughter is getting the owls and I'm going to put some knitting supplies in there, like size 7 and 8 16" circulars, a tape measure and darning needles so she stops borrowing mine.

 I got another row done on scrap-a-palooza, hooray! I also got some other Christmas sewing done and will post pics of that tomorrow.

Sunday Stash

I was in Jo Ann Fabrics this morning for some cording to cover for a pillow and some quilt batting and I couldn't resist adding to my stash just a little. Each of these is a quarter yard. I haven't bought fabric in awhile, and after a successful craft show last night I felt I owed it to myself.

I also went through some of my WIPS and am going to try and get some of them finished up before Christmas. I'm also going to continue to work on Scrap-a-palooza. I can't wait til that's done!

Late post on Friday Finish

I finished this little bath mat yesterday evening. I was going to post a picture last night, but I went to bed early. Anyway, when I reorganized my fabric stash after we moved in here, I took some advice I had read about cutting off selvages before putting fabric away. I had them all stored in a fabric basket, and had thought about crocheting a rug with them, but I've seen so many little knitted mats around the internet, plus my daughter has knitted a few herself, so I decided to go with knitting. I cast on 25 stitches using size 17 needles. It's really hard on the hands, but I knitted a few rows, then stopped and did something else. It was really only a couple of hours total to knit.  Sorry about the bit of mud in the upper left hand corner. I had been outside looking for a place for a picture and didn't realize I had tracked in the mud til after the picture. It's also a bit skewed, but I'm not blocking it, it will get wet soon enough on the bathroom floor!                                                                                     

                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                   

I also got a couple more scrapapalooza blocks done. I have 5 rows sewn together and 2 blocks on the next row. 10 more blocks and the top will be finished!

Scrap-a-palooza

Well, here I am blogging again. I've decided to post needlework stuff here and then just link to Facebook. I figure I can be a bit more picture heavy, plus comment more if I need/want to. Although all I really have to say today is that I'm really liking this quilt. I'm calling it scrap-a-palooza for obvious reasons. When it's finished it will fit a queen size bed, I figure it will be about 82"x 82". I think I'll probably end up tying it instead of quilting it simply because my arthritic shoulders are not going to be able to deal with something that big on my little sewing machine. I suppose I could pay someone else to quilt it, but I don't know about that. It is eating into my scrap hoard, that's for sure.