11 in '11

My goal was 11 quilts in 2011.

Tomorrow is Dec 29, 2011.

And #11 is under my sewing machine!

That gives me 3 days to finish this last one.

I think I can, I think I can!

The binding is on and done, yes out of order, I know.

The borders have been quilted.

And I have the inside quilting done about a third of the way.

It'll get done,

I just never imagined it would take me to the last days of 2011 to get it done!

I need to add all my christmas sewing to my tally list,

but early next year I hope to have an approximation for how many projects I completed in 2011.

I hope Santa was good to all of you, my blog friends!

He was definitely good to my house.

The kids got the usual number of electronics and toys.

But the mama? WOW, I impressed someone this year I guess.

• My new Kindle Fire? I LOVE IT!
• 2 jelly rolls....Blueberry Crumb Cake and Always & Forever are begging for an idea
• Matching charm packs will make excellent small things to go with
• Another charm pack...this one of Ruby, will make throw pillows to match my king size Swoon quilt that is at the top of my list for 2012
• 3 new quilt books

In case I don't make it back,

which I definitely will, to share my #11,

but just in case,

Have a happy, safe New Years Eve!



Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."


Merry Christmas, my friends, may God bless you this night.

FNSI Results

I think the FNSI is a bad sign in my house.

It seems like something always comes up,

or something happens to make me not in the mood to sew.

Tonight was about that.

So, I did sew tonight, just not as much as I had hoped.

I got a quilty gift cut out.

I got 3 parts of it sewn together.

I got the center cut and the double borders sewn on.

Then, I got it layered and pinned.

I got 2 lines of quilting done around the whole square.

Tomorrow, I will start adding the 3 parts and quilting those.

Back to what I said last week:
Progress is progress.

Its more then I had done when I started.

FNSI

Tonight is the Friday Night Sew In.
I believe its the last one of the year!?!?!
Are you signed up?

I am! For me, the LAST possible mailing date to get things delivered by Christmas is Tuesday.
I have several projects that need done before then, so tonight and this weekend I will be spending a large amount of time in the cave.
Luckily, my mom isn't arriving here until the 28th. Why is that lucky? Hehe, cause it gives me extra time to get her things done!

Apparently there was some confusion when Jen made me what I called a lap quilt. She thought it was a table square, but its huge. I thought it was a lap quilt, but its small. Funny how that works, huh? Anyway, I found the perfect place for it. I folded it so it looks more like a diamond with flat sides and put it over the back of my rocking chair.

Its the perfect size, don't you think?
Although, it would also be perfect to cover my legs while I am sewing. Hmmmmmm, I may have to think about that.
Hope to "see" you tonight at the Sew In :)

Santa Sack Gifts

OMGosh!!!! I am so excited! If my day is even half as good as my morning, it will be FAN-Tastic!!!

Jen, I can NOT thank you enough for a fabulous Santa Sack!
WOW!!!!

To say I love it all is an understatement!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

For those of you wondering what is so amazing, I present to you:
My Santa Sack gifts:

Overview of everything!

My son opened the first gift, 2 fat quarters and 4 baby charm packs.

I'm not even sure what these are called, so baby charm packs they are!
Lovely by Sandy Gervais and Buttercup by Fig Tree and Co.

Teen #2 opened the next one! This wonderful catch all bag that I just love the colors of!

And inside were these 2 little tins: 1 filled with pins and the other is a mini sewing kit!

Teen #1 opened this! OMGosh!!!!!! LOVE IT!

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, and this is such a fantastic addition to my decorations!

I LOVE IT!!!!!

And my quilting princess opened this lovely lap quilt!

Jen, its beautiful, thank you! Now, to find the exact right place to put it!

After that, Allie and I opened the rest together! This is a coupon organizer, with list and pen to go with it! Sorry, I should have taken a pic of the inside. Take my word for it, its great!

(Psst, Jen! When you blogged that you were making these, I thought "Oh, I need one of those, I'll have to make one." Guess I don't have to now!)

Next, came this little chicken pin cushion! Soooo cute! Allie is in love!

Next was this Strawberry Fields notebook holder.

Again, LOVE IT!!!

I am a list maker, so this is just perfect!

Hehe, watermelon and ants oven mits!

I have used this fabric in a runner, so obviously, I love it! These are great!

Halloween kitchen towels!!! Perfect!!

Mug Rug/Snack Mat and Best Press Starch Alternative.

The only question here is do I leave this next to the computer where I spend so much time, or do I put it next to the sewing machine, where I spend an equal amount of time? Decisions, decisions!

And last, but not least, this AMAZING bag!

I love it! The colors and fabric are great and its an awesome size!

I carry bags all the time and this one is going to the top of the stack!

And, if you didn't notice, it totally matches the smaller catch all that got opened earlier!

Jen, again, thank you! Everything is wonderful!

I know you are out of town, but hopefully you will see this soon.

I hope you like your things even half as much as I like mine.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Me and My Sister Designs

I won a prize!!! I am so excited!

Me and My Sister Designs were giving away boxes of Twirl scraps and I won! Yeah!

Thanks Barb!!!

So, the box arrived on my front porch and when I bent down to grab it, it was too heavy for one hand!
Holy cow, how much fabric is packed in here, I thought?!?!

The answer was ALOT!

Check out these pic's! You'd think Allie won instead of me!

We are both really excited and can't wait to find something to do with Twirl!

Pardon the messy living room, we were still in the getting ready for christmas mode! Its clean now!



Picture Perfect

Easter Roses

Quilt #10 of 11 in '11

Close up of quilting

......the story here is that I took a class on free motion quilting. The quilt top was supposed to be a plain piece of fabric. I decided that if I was going to the trouble of doing this amazing quilting, I wanted it to be on a pieced top. Problem was, I didn't have much time, so I settled on this simple design. I thought I would give the quilt away to a cousin who is having a girl in March, but decided to keep it as the first quilt I've free motioned. Since the colors are so Easter-y, that is when I'll display it.......

Christmas card holder

Peppermint Candy Pillow

FNSI Results

My FNSI Results are in:
Off and on all day I worked on my 12 days of christmas quilt.

Its coming along, that's all I can say.

I may enjoy the fleece on the back of it when its done,

but for now: I hate it.

Luckily, I tackled a few other projects as well:

Soft baby blocks for my nephew for christmas.

I had one done and finished up the other tonight.

I also finished up some pillowcases my daughter was making for her and her brother.

Not featured are the christmas gifts her and I worked on that she is giving each member of our family.

I feel like its not a large list, but any progress is still progress, right?



Santa Sack Swap

This post is long overdue, I am so sorry Jen!

My Santa Sack gifts arrived in the mail last week! Yeah!

Everything is extremely cushy cute and I can't wait to open it!
Dec 15th is the day! Not sure I can wait that long!!!

At least the chocolate was unwrapped, so I am

enjoying that already!



11 in '11 Update

Do you remember that Kim started a challenge/goal back in January of completing 11 quilts in 2011?

That seemed fairly do-able, although I knew I was going to miss 2 months due to our big Hawaii vacation.

I haven't posted picture's yet, mostly because, you guessed it, I haven't taken any, but I did complete quilt #10 back in October. I took a machine quilting class and picked out some baby girl colors for my quilt top. I had planned on giving it away as a baby gift, but teen daughter #2 convinced me to keep it as an easter quilt.  As it is my first free motion quilting project, it didn't take much to convince me.

I figured that after that, it was smooth sailing. I had plans for a christmas quilt, plus a quilt each for my niece and nephew for christmas. Fast forward to today....28 days 'til christmas.

My christmas quilt top is done, it just needs borders added. Maybe this week?
But, the other 2 quilts have been taken off the list, I simply don't have time.

Part of my goal for next year is going to be to complete as much of the holiday sewing AHEAD OF TIME that I can. Obviously, I may have to wait 'til the fabric comes into season, but I need to get ahead of the game!

So, for now, I will complete my 11 in '11. I will make my goal.

But I can't help wishing I had planned better and gotten those other 2 quilts done.

By the way...the christmas decorating has been started. No tree yet, but hopefully this week. I don't know.....with the drama play next Thurs, Fri and Sat, my week is going to be swamped. But it should be up by next Sunday, anyway. I need some more wall hangings/wreath-y type stuff.  I think I'll head back to Michael's tomorrow and see what I can find.



Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is almost over, for those of us in the US.

The turkey was amazing, the family and company was wonderful

and quite a bit of crafting got done!

My in laws are in town, so I am trying not to hide in the Cave too much, instead doing things that I can do in the living room, or at least on the same floor as everyone else!

I finished my Candlemat swap gift, I just need to wrap and mail it.

I worked on 3 different sets of christmas decorations.

None are done, but all are pretty close to it.

And, I think I am going to brave the Black Friday crowds and head out in the morning to get some shopping done. Not christmas shopping, unless you count "stuff" as christmas shopping.

I am going to hit Michaels, Joanns, and maybe Hancock Fabrics.

And since Allie is going with me, we'll absolutely be stopping for refreshments at Starbucks :)

I have an order partially planned for the FatQuarterShop on Monday.

I may add a few things to my cart, we'll see how I do tomorrow.

If you haven't heard, they are having 25% off your purchase on Cyber Monday.

I'll also be ordering a few quilt books from Martingale Press tomorrow, when their things go 50% off.

If you celebrated thanksgiving, I hope it was a good one!

Thanks for stopping by!

FNSI Results

My 12 days of christmas quilt top is (almost) done! Yeah for FNSI!
I changed the layout of this pattern, instead of 5x5 rows, I went with 4x6.

I'm going to add some borders to make it a bit wider, but my family loves long blankets that we can tuck in around our legs. The border fabric is on its way, so I hope to finish this next week.
This is half of it, the current dimensions are about 48x72.

I also got most of my peppermint candy pillow cut out.

After that, hubby demanded attention as he learned to use his new iphone.

But, a good night and alot accomplished!

FNSI this week!

The FNSI is this week!
Are you signed up?
Did you remember?

The link should be at the bottom of my blog.

I used to have the image on my pc and I could repost is inside the blog....

except I got a new pc and its gone.

I could go on the old hard drive and find it.

But its late and I'm tired.

18 years ago today I married my hubby, and he spent the whole of today

showing me how much that means to him.

He's a good guy and way more romantic then I am! LOL

But, the Friday Night Sew In is just a few days away.

I've missed the last few due to conflicts, so combine that with a very long todo list and I am there this week!
Nothing will stop me!
Well, unless I forget.

Which I'll try not to! LOL

Hope to see you there.

Well, not see you really.

But I hope you can participate!



Friday Five

1. The drama play is only 3 weeks away and I am so excited.

Did I tell you they are performing Miracle on 34th Street and my (almost 11) 10 year old daughter has the child lead? I can't wait to see it, they have been working so hard.

2. Allie will be 11 next week. I can't believe how fast the time goes.

3. I am really excited to start Mama and Me journals with my kids.

I got the idea from Pinterest, and I'll show them off later when I get 'em started.

4. My secret santa stuff is coming along nicely. I am just about ready to wrap it all and get it shipped off to Jen. I hope she likes it.

5. Pinterest. My new addiction. If you are a craft junky like I am, well, beware. Its like crack. I am way too lazy and busy to spend hours randomly surfing the web for cool ideas. But I have time to browse Pinterest several times a day looking at new stuff.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Here are just a few things I've been working on lately...

These are wood letters that I painted and then cut fabric to fit.

I used modpodge to make the fabric stick and then had hubby screw them into a piece of wood for a base. My fall decorations are not near as awesome as some of my other holiday's, so I am working on adding more.

This wall hanging idea came out of Quilts and More (I think).

I added the borders to make it big enough for my wall.

What you can't see is that all those leaves are individual and appliqued on!

Rag Wreath

Hurricane Glass with dried beans (split peas, black beans, and corn) in it, tied with fall ribbon,

Its sitting on the runner I made last year.

My not so little trick or treaters.

Ninja, Tardis, Pirate and Ginny Weasley.

I made the Tardis and pirate

I Dream of Jeannie and Major Nelson.

I made my costume and put hubby's together from an old uniform he already had.

Christmas Countdown

The Christmas countdown has officially begun.

Its 53 days, 16 hours from now, actually.

Mine began the other day when I put a widget on my desktop.

But, its November, so if you haven't started thinking and planning yet,

now is the time!

I won't start my kids gift shopping until the beginning of NEXT month,

but the homemade things need thought about and started  now.

And since I do homemade for most of our extended family,

I need to get busy.

But, first,

the halloween decorations need to come down.

The fall stuff, that made a brief appearance in September,

needs to come back out.

But for today, I have laundry,

dinner and a day of jammies planned!

 



Counting the Days...

There are 58 days 'til Christmas.

That is all.

Please go about your day.

Halloween Ribbon Wreath

Have you checked out Pinterest?
Beware, its terribly addicing!

Amy recommended it several months ago, so I got an account.

And the acceptance email sat in my email box for (literally) months.

Until another blogger mentioned it again. Sorry, I can't remember who.

Sooooo, I went and checked it out.

Did I mention its addicting?
You can check out my boards by clicking on the "follow me on Pinterest" button on my side bar.

Now, its on my list of places to go at least once a day. Sometimes twice.

Sometimes I sit down and several hours later realize that I am still there.

I need to take some pictures of things I've been working on. Some are for Jen and I can't share those. But other's, well, if I took the pictures, I'd have something to show you.

For now, I'll leave you with this:

I got the idea off Pinterest and I am very famous for "OH, I can do that!"

Although, usually, I'll buy the supplies, realize I don't have time to make it right now, and a year later, when the holiday rolls around again, I'll think of it and finish it.

But this one, I was determined to get done. And I love it.



Not blogging, but sewing!

I guess with only 3 followers, no one probably misses me too much, but I have been BUSY!

Nothing I can really blog about tho, sorry!

I've been working on the girl's halloween costumes.

They need to be done by next Friday, so I'm getting down to crunch time and really don't have much progress. Some, but not near enough!

I've also been working on my Santa Sack Swap gifts.

THOSE I am so excited about!

I wish I could share!

Suffice it to say, I'm thrilled with what I am working on and may be making duplicates for myself.

And my family.

And the homeless guy on the corner.

And the crossing guards.

And.......I'm joking, I'm not really going to make it for all those people!
But they are darn cute!

Ok, my dear son is begging for the computer and its time to take the teens to their Homecoming dance.

Have a great night!



More Presents!

I'm a bit late posting, but I got my newest set of Santa sack gifts in the mail last week.

Friday? Saturday? I don't remember cuz Allie brought it to me while I was in the cave sewing.

But, it came! Thanks Jen!!!

Everything looks fabulous and I can't wait to open it all!

I know you believe me that it looks great, but here's the proof:

My sack is filling up!

A peek inside!

Jen did send me an extra treat that she let me open right away.

It was a 2 part suprise:
A Bath and Body Works purse size hand sanitizer.

That Teen #2 promptly sniffed and stole and I don't have a picture of.

But here's the other gift:

OMGosh, it smells amazing!!!! One of my very favorite scents!
I'm not sure what Bath and Body calls it, but it smells exactly like Yankee Candle Christmas Cookie!

Sooooooo good!

Jen, thank you so much for everything!

And just to tease you some more:
Here's a small piece of something I just completed for you:

I love his smiling little face!



Already Monday

Last week was a sewing free week.

Which is a bit depressing.

But I needed a break, I guess.

I mean, I bought fabric.

I even have some washed and in the dryer.

And I've been working on my Santa Swap for Jen.
(Here's a sneak peak!)

So there has been some progress on the to do list, but not much.

And I really need to start making my to do list for the holidays.

With this being the last week of September, I feel like I need to concentrate on my house right now.

Lots of straightening to be done before I can haul out the halloween decorations!

Although some are already out. Just don't tell anyone!

Hubby and I went to a wedding on Saturday.

Ahhhh, the memories.

Of course, the bride was beautiful and the groom was handsome.

But it was the looks on their faces as they went through the ceremony that made you go awwwwww.

I'm sure everyone who has been married remembers that feeling of love and desire that you feel the moment you say I do.

I hope their love sustains them and they have a wonderful life together.

I try to be grateful every day for my life, my family and my husband, but some days make it easier to remember then others.

So, congrats and good luck to the bride and groom.

May your life and love carry you through every day!

iSpy

Another check mark in the done column!

This quilt is for the baby shower I am going to tomorrow.

The baby's name will be Kennedy (I love that name) and she is due around halloween.

It was tempting to do a seasonal quilt for her, but I decided to go the traditional route and went with pink.

There are several i spy blocks in the quilt, as well as strings to hold toys in each of the corners.

I hope she likes it!

Trick or Treat!!

Trick or Treat is done!

I actually finished it a few days ago, but just got around to taking the pics.

The kids are in love

and think its the best quilt I've ever done.

See for yourself:

Backing by M'liss



Finished size is about 66x77