Merry Christmas!

My sewing is done for the rest of the year.   I'm really excited for Christmas and all the family will be around for the next few days.

Merry Christmas to you all, and we'll chat in the New Year!

Cute Christmas Tree ornament from Craftsy...

Mr. Fleming's Beads

While Aurora was here last week making gingerbread cookies, she asked if I could make her teacher a gift, like I did last year...    Her teacher's name is Mr. Fleming.   Now, right away, I thought to myself.... Mr. Fleming.....I've not made a male teacher gift  before.   I asked Aurora what I should make, and in her mind, there was no question....  she wanted a Pencil Case with his name on it...  Now to me, it's such a great gift for a girl teacher, but I wonder if it will be too girly for Mr. Fleming. 

Well, I wrapped my head around it, and the reason I do this, is to reinforce the good feelings of gift giving to Aurora.   So with Aurora in mind, I made Mr. Fleming's pencil case.  

Oh my, which beads to put on the pencil case for Mr. Fleming

Next,  I question if I should put my signature beads on the zipper pull.   Why not?   I decided to put darker colored beads.   If he doesn't want beads he can cut them off...😏😏😏  

Merry Christmas Mr. Fleming.   

Can you ever have enough Thread!!

Today I received a box full of Wonderfil Threads from the Wonderfil Canada folks.  

See, Wonderfil Canada are sponsoring my 4 classes at Quilt Canada next June, by providing all the students thread that is required for the classes.   I thought that was very nice of them.  They even sent me threads to test out as I make my new class samples.   I received piecing thread, machine quilting thread, very light weight quilting thread, and pre-would bobbins.    I have to tell you that pre-wound bobbins are my addiction.   I only ever use black or white because I buy them by the 144 case.   I'm so pleased to see the grey, cream and blue bobbins in my  package.💓

So, all this a good job for when I'm away in Florida..  This has got me in the mood to start packing up projects.  I certainly don't want to forget anything...  

My Knitted Cowl - Finished

I just love my finished cowl.  I knit over half of it while on vacation last month, and it didn't take long to finish it once I got home.  I've worn it a couple of times.

It was so easy to do and I might do another...  It's a free pattern on Ravelry, called That Nice Stitch.  

Gingerbread Cookies 2016

These are little works of art.   Notice Caitlin's Gingerbread Girl with a bikini on.
She's expert level at decorating.  She and Grace have been doing this for 12 years.
Using a toothpick to move around the icing.

Aurora is getting really good too.  It's her 5th or 6th year doing this.
She loves being with her cousins... Such a treat.

When you need a break from decorating, you need to do
the mouse dance from the Nutcracker!
See those whiskers twitching.

And of course, a little ballet practice.  Grace
looks 6 feet tall when wearing her point shoes.

Back in the Sewing Room

Well, I'm back in my sewing room.   We had a great vacation and we were pooped when we got home.   We found ourselves right in the middle of the beginning of the Christmas season.  We've attended the Nutcracker Ballet, and was thrilled that our dancer grand daughter Grace had a special part in the play.  We had Black Friday shopping event, and got a new Bigger Big TV.    We're all caught up in getting groceries, and we've got through two snow storms...

After all that, I'm back in the sewing room.   I have a few wallets on the go, and they will make their way to Nova Scotia soon.  

Photo by my friend Linda H.

I'm preparing my scraps for an uber mega scrap quilt project that I will take to Florida with me next month.  
I first saw this Trail Mix quilt when my friend Margie had put it in our last guild's quilt show.  I thought it was a fabulous way to use up scraps.. I love the design.  The diagonal lines give it that special look.

I have a bunch of scraps all ironed and if we get another power interruption during the day, I have everything ready to cut blocks.....    Just in case you want use up your scraps, it's a free pattern from BHG.      

Cowl Update

We had a fabulous vacation.   The whole trip was like a dream.    Seems so far away and so long ago now.  We've been home for exactly a week now and the effects of the jet lag have disappeared.  I feel like I'm back in routine and I'm itching to sew something,  

But first, I thought I'd show you how much I got done on my cowl.  We had some sea days, and to my surprise, there was a stitching and knitting get together in the afternoon on sea days.     What a nice chance to meet other like minded people.   There was about 20 people who met for tea and of course brought their projects along.  I enjoyed the social aspect, and while I brought my bag of knitting, I did more talking than knitting.    I did get one ball knit, and the other ball, I've knit since coming home.   The pattern says to make it 48" inches, and I didn't quite have enough, so I'm now into the third ball.

I really like the pattern It's easy to do from memory you have the first 20 or so rows done. I just love the texture and the diagonal design.   I love working with the Kroy sock yarn.  so smooth and easy to knit.   The timing couldn't be better because the near zero degree days are here and I need to keep my neck warm.    I'll model it for you in a few days...It's almost done.


.    

So, What's on my needles?

I'm heading out on a vacation.    I won't be anywhere near a sewing machine and our cruise has a few sea days.   It took me days to find and choose just the right project to work on, just in case I have a little downtime.   It's pretty simple, yet has a lovely detail stitch.  It's lightweight yarn, so easy to bundle up..

It's a cowl called That Nice Stitch, and is available here on Ravelry.  It will be a narrow scarf with two loops around your neck.  It has the nicest look to it.   I'm knitting it out of sock yarn because I don't like anything to heavy around my neck.

I thought I'd better start the pattern in case I have a problem.   I'm glad, because I didn't remember how to do a provisional cast on, so a 2 minute video on youtube refreshed my memory.    Easy peasy.    I have  my cast on done, and two inches of the pattern knit now.   So it's easy to pick up and continue if I get the urge to knit..  It will be 48" when I'm done.

It's now all tucked in my little drawstring pouch.  I made a few of these little pouches last December and shared the free pattern here.

I'll report back in a few weeks when I'm back at the computer, as to how much down time I  had to knit.

I'll not be blogging in the meantime, unless I run into a quilt show or something while away!!

Zip it up Pattern by Annie's.

In the box of kits that Pat sent, many of the patterns are by Annie's.   So this is the third or 4th project that I've made from Annie patterns in the past few weeks.   I am getting to understand how she writes her patterns. The patterns have similar layouts etc.   

I had worked on this Zip it up bag by Annie's earlier in the week.  This pattern makes a nice size brief for your patterns and notes etc.   It's a complicated pattern, but if you know me, you know I love a challenge.   This project has four different zipper techniques in it.   I loved discovering how to use the new Annie's Zipper by the yard.  In this kit, there was a meter and a half of zipper and four zipper pulls.  One zip pocket on the outside cover, two in the inside, and one zip that closes the brief.  

  I like the finished project but it took immense concentration to get each of the zippers installed correctly.     I was stumped by the zip that closes the brief.   After looking at it for a few days, I figured it out... It turns out I had installed the zipper tab backwards.    

It was an easy fix once I caught on to the problem...(wink)

 

See the cute little bag in the back.
 It's  made it out of the leftovers from the kit...
I couldn't resist.

Atkinson Stowaway baggies

Here was another kit from Pat's box of goodies...These little bags are so versatile and very quick to make.  You can store lots of fun things in them. From a fat quarter,  I made two of the 6 sizes this pattern gives.   The little oriental floral design on the fabric is darling.  So cute...

A Frame Bag

I dug into Pat's box of kits, and I just loved this little frame bag pattern by May Chappell.  The frame is 8 inches wide.  I finished this sweet bag in a frame project a just a couple of hours.  It's easy to put some cross hatch quilting on the outer cover for interest.   I put some of my quilty supplies in it to show how big it is.  Cute, eh!

Big enough for a rotary cutter, thread
quilting gloves and a sleeve of prewound
bobbins...  

An Unusual quilting tool

I was working on this sweet Pack it In bag when I came to the instruction that said, round off the corners with a 3.5" circle template.    Hmm, I don't have one, that I can remember.   I could not locate my geometry set, or I would have drawn one.   I searched through my cupboards to find just the right size can to round off the corners.   

A can of Pineapple.   A good quilters tool!