Little Finishes

I have an embroidery function on my two of my Pfaff sewing machines.  I have been holding off doing quilt labels for some time now.   What got me moving on them was a request from the quilters at St. Anthony's for a label or two.  It's good timing since I have had 3 quilt finishes lately and they should have labels too.   For me, machine embroidery not my favorite thing, so when I set up, I do all that I can.  I decided I would trudge through and get them done no matter what.    

After having troubles with my newer Pfaff, I set up my older Pfaff.  It worked like a charm.   Mind you it took me most of the day to do the embroidery because I don't like to leave the machine stitching stitching by itself.   You never know what can go wrong..  

So here they are, three for me and three for the church.  One of them is for a quilt they will finish in 2018 (I hope).     Tick - that little chore is off of my to-do list...

While doing all this embroidery, and in an effort to keep the thread bits down throughout my house, I finished off a little thread catcher that was a UFO.   It didn't take very long to finish.  I didn't use a pattern.   It was a made-up-as-you go project.  I did use a 3 x 6 inexpensive tile from the hardware store as an anchor.    And I used strapping from a large box for the heavy stuff used to keep the bag open.  Works like a charm...

Now I have two the same.  Both started a year or so ago, but only one was finished back then.  

 

Presenting my Winter Wonderland Quilt

And it's done just in time for this cold day a month before our official winter starts.  It's now hanging in my foyer.   Guests who drop by for a visit will be wowed by this quilt.  The pattern is by Crabapple Hill Designs.     Many thanks to Andrea Renick of quilti.com for quilting it for me....     She took on my blue WW and freehand quilted swirls, snowy hills, snow people, snowballs and of course music notes.   I'm just delighted with all this totally custom freehand work she did. 

Cobbled Streets Shawl

This Cobbled Streets Shawl is a great exercise in making different knit/purl patterns in a single project.    I'm already on the 7th pattern of 14 stitch patterns, and row 100 of 200 rows.   I bought this single skein of local wool in Estonia this summer.   I've been itching to use it.   I know it's not enough for the whole shawl, and to finish my project, I intend to use a ball of fine alpaca from my stash.  But darn, I wished I had bought two skeins of this Estonia yarn.   My big dilemma now is  ...  do I use the alpaca in the center of the shawl like it was intentional, or on the end.   Hmm... I'll have to give it some thought.

 

My New Quilt Ladder

It's taken me a whole week to make.   After shopping for wood, my hubby cut the wood to the exact sizes that I needed.   It took days to paint a couple of coats, then varnish a couple of coats, then to let dry.    Hubby put it together for me yesterday.   I'm so pleased.   For now, I've just put all the projects that were hanging on hangers, banisters etc, on the ladder to test it out.  It's perfect.