Christmas cookies...

Thought you might like to see what my kitchen and dining room looked like at 8pm tonight. I was supposed to do this baking today while MY HONEY was at work but I didn't have any brown sugar and MY HONEY was going to the store after work. So after supper we started. The first pic is the sugar cookies. MY HONEY is learning how to roll to help me out. He did a great job (maybe I can convince him to do the whole thing next year, HA!)

Next we have the tin of gingerbread men. I did make those this afternoon because the dough was already made and in the fridge. I will bring all the cookies to my daughter's house for Christmas eve and my children along with the nieces and nephews will decorate them. They love to do this every year and will not let me forget it.

The last pic is the dining room table with some Chocolate Pecan Clusters (OH, so Good!) and some of the sugar cookies cooling. I already have the chocolate chip cookies boxed up in the tins you see there on the table.

Not really what I expected to do this evening. I thought I would be all done by now but that is the way it is. You gotta roll with the punches. At least now all the baking is just about done. Tomorrow I will mix up a double batch of icing and color it to bring with the cookies and make some fudge, easy. I'm ready for Christmas! How about you?

BTW, the little quilt you see kinda folded up on the table was made for me last year by my very best friend and I love it just as much now as I did then. Doesn't it look great? Thank you, friend.
Til we meet again,
Terry

My Beautiful Beast

I must confess....I slept with The Beast last night. We sure were warm under it's bounty of color and pattern. After chores today it's on to the Batik quilt, cutting and cutting and more cutting.

'Til We Meet Again,
Vanessa

Batiks & The UL Quilt

I found the sashing for Wil's grad quilt. It is a black batik, but looks more blackish-blue. I pointed it out to the lady @ the quilt shop and she said that it was black. I don't know if you can see if from the picture posted. I was more than happy with it as I thought plain black would be boring. This one will be perfect because the quilt is blue & gold. I tried out some browns like I had talked to you about, but they seemed a little too muddy (no pun intended).

You can see that I found some fabric for the inset triangles on the UL quilt. I loved it on the bolt and really love it with the finished squares. I can't wait to work on it, but will probably save it away so I will have something to sew when I got to SBI meetings.

Pinned the Beast!

Yes, I pinned 'The Beast'! Single-handed, too. Laying on my stomach, curled up and squatting on the floor. The backing is the size of a king size flat sheet, with no trimming required. This bugger is BIG! My back is reminding me of the battle! I won and hopefully can get this sucka quilted over the weekend.

Details, Baby!

Here is a picture of the meandering detail you asked about. As you can see close-up that I was a little confused sometimes as to what direction to turn. It is very easy and I think that with more practice it is something I can use often.

I also posted a picture of some fat quarters. Remember the stack that I bought from the fabric sale @ SBI? I bought a small bundle (the ones stacked last) yesterday. I couldn't resist! All I need is a pattern to use them. I think I will use a pattern from one of Alex Anderson's books. I am watching one of her books on Ebay right now. I want something quick and easy--the story of my life!

'Til We Meet Again!
Vanessa

Guess what....again?

Another stack of quilts are done. There were only 3 to do this time and that completes this batch. I did a different kind of meander on one of the Halloween quilts. It isn't original and I'm sure I've seen it somewhere before. I was nervous to start but hopefully this is something I can use again.

'Til We Meet Again,
Vanessa

Guess What?

I'm finished with another stack of customer quilts. I have 4 or so more to work on but that will have to wait until next week, or maybe even after Christmas. Most of them were meander stitched except for two. I posted a picture of one that I quilted holly leaves and berries on. It was so much more exciting than just meandering around the quilt. One of the quilts I used straight line stitching (the blue and white checkered). I did it for so long that my wrists are sore and it feels like I bruised the insides of my upper arms that are along my side. I think it happened because I was holding my arms so tightly against the quilt and moving them back and forth. Who knew that quilting was such a dangerous hobby to our health?

'Til we meet again,
Vanessa

Finally!

I finished a stack of customer quilts. You would swear they were huge quilts, but the biggest one was 40-ish" x 50-ish". Mrs. I called me tonight to ask if she could bring a stack (7 to be exact) by tomorrow. I am glad I am all caught up with the last batch. These new quilts will keep me from quilting my bed quilt but I am not sad about that. The sucker is huge and I'm not in the mood for such a big project.

I've been thinking about the Symphony Challenge and my uncle's quilt when I can't sleep. I don't have many new ideas so I think I will wash the Batiks I bought for Wil's quilt and get that cut when I get a chance. I feel like I have a few too many irons in the fire but I like the push it gives me.

I wish I had more to show and I hope it's not long before I have something more exciting to tell.

"Til we meet again,
Vanessa

I finished the big Christmas quilt!

This is a quilt for my sister in law for Christmas. Every year I make a quilt for one of my In-Laws. I hand pick the one I will make one for because I don't want repeats. At least not yet. I have been doing this since 2001 and some of the first ones I have made are almost worn out. It may be time to start over when I'm finished with everyone. HA! I'm glad they use them a lot.

Here is a close up of the quilting. I did my first pantograph on this quilt. I like how it came out. The name of the panto is "Popcorn" and I bought it through Willowleaf designs. I have to admit that I really disliked this quilt after I had the top made. It is a Turning Twenty design and it looked to me like I had thrown up on my design wall. I liked all the fabrics individually but together they just didn't seem to blend. But now that it is quilted I love it.

Now that I washed and dried it, it feels so soft and crinkly. I want to curl up under it. I always wash my quilts before I give them away. I rather be surprised and fix it than give it to someone and they be surprised. I think she will like it. It is her colors and she rides horses in competitions English style. That is why I put horses in it. I can't wait to see her open it for Christmas. I enjoy it as much as they do.

Now I am finished with all my handmade Christmas gifts except for the baked goods. I will do those when it gets closer to the big day!
Hope you enjoyed looking at my quilt!
Terry

Gloves are finished!

Here are pics of the gloves I finished last week. I took a class at the local yarn shop to learn how to do this. I had knitted socks but could not understand how to do the fingers on a glove. I'm happy with them overall, for being my first pair. But there is room for improvement. I think the fingertips could be a little smoother and they are custom fit to my hands which are small and short fingers so they look a little deformed in size when you look at them not on my hands. They are made using sock yarn which makes them stretchy. Worked on size 1 Double point needles. The yarn is Super wash wool, so I can wash them and dry them and they won't felt up. I would like to make a pair for my husband but I'm not sure he would wear them. Anyway, I'm glad I learned how to do this it has been on my to do list for a while.
Have a great day!
Terry

Another gift!

This is what I made this afternoon. A quick gift. I am going to a cousin's house tomorrow for Thanksgiving and she does so much work to get all the food ready for everyone so I thought about giving her a little gift. I made this dishrag and potholder. It took me about 3 hrs to make both. It makes a very nice gift. V this is something you can do if you are interested in quick gifts. OH, I almost forgot. These are made with 100% cotton, Sugar N Cream brand. I like to use a light color so they can be washed in the washing with other white clothes or dishtowels.

Have a great day!
Terry

Knitting...

This is the sweater shawl that I'm working on right now. The pictures don't do the yarn color justice. It is much prettier in person. You can see the buttonhole I made last night. It only has one and then you put three large buttons on the other side when it is finished and you button it in the one you want for the look you want. I had to change the pattern up a little bit. The bottom was rolling and the sides were rolling so I did two knit rows before I started on the pattern to keep the bottom from rolling (it still rolls some but it is much better than before, I guess I should have done four rows of knitting and it would have been more stable). Then I did a k1,p1 on the ends to keep the edges from rolling. It is working so far. I am anxious to finish it and see the end product. I also have to go shopping for large buttons (2-1/4").



This is a scarf that I started last week and it is using all the leftover sockyarn I have with some Fishermans Wool. You knit with the two strands together. You see how the bottom and sides roll? That is what the one above was doing. I don't like it. So, I ripped this out this morning. I will be changing the pattern too. Just like I did on the one above. I love the colors in this. I think that I will also use a bigger needle. It was a little stiff because the Fisherman's wool is a little bulky. Overall I think I will like this one. I love the pattern of all the colors of yarn. It is almost like a scrap patchwork quilt!

Knitting is all I have felt like doing lately. I have binding to make for a Christmas gift quilt I made but I'm putting it off for a little while. I'm just enjoying the process of knitting.
Have a great day!
Terry

I'm finished with this gift!

I made the binding today and had so much trouble with it. I wanted a wider binding so I cut out my double binding at 2-1/2 inches which made it 1-1/4 inches wide after folding. Then I sewed it at 3/8 inch seam instead of a 1/4 inch seam. I thought the bigger seam would allow more binding to show up on the front of the quilt and it would have worked but for some reason I didn't have enough to turn around to the back. It was not wide enough. I don't know why because all the measurements work out, but it just didn't fit. So I trimmed my seam allowance down all except the corners which could not be trimmed because it would leave a hole in the corner. Even then I only barely had enough to turn over to the back.

On top of all that trouble when I cut the bias strips and sewed them together the 45 degree seam was turned under on the wrong side on every other join. I had to rip it out and redo.
Then when I was making my join at the very end after the binding was sewed on I cut it too short and had to stretch and fiddle with it to get it to work. Boy! I have never had this much trouble with binding before. But I don't usually make bias binding. I needed it on this because I wanted the plaid to be on the bias. I choose this plaid because I thought the colors in it reflected the colors in the middle squares. Over all I like how it came out but I ended up with narrower binding than if I would have made it like normal with a 1/4 inch seam to begin with.

Oh well, it is done and I like the look of it. The person that gets it as a gift will never know the troubles I had. They will hopefully just love it the way it is.
Have a great day!
Terry

Ewe's Guessed It!

I finished it! It's done and ready to be Christmas wrapped. I am happy with the outcome. I will try to trust my instincts and be happy with what I think looks good. If its good enough for me, it's good enough for others.

Next I will work on customer quilts. I'd like to finish them up in the next week so I can start working on my aunt's quilt. I am really looking forward to the creative process of this quilt and hope it turns out as nice as my mind sees it.

'Til We Meet Again,

Vanessa

Guess what I'm working on...

Pantographs!
On Elizabeth's quilt, no less. And I'm having fun even though I have a tension headache and sore shoulders from the strain of trying to stay on the line. April was here and I decided to just try and load the pattern on the table. I really wasn't going to try it out. I was probably going to chicken out but you know April. She said do it and I did. Now I'm glad.




The design is called Popcorn. I can't remember at the moment who designed it but I like it. It is coming out pretty good.

This is the laser on the point where I need to start a new row. Hopefully tomorrow I can work on it again. It is not fast. Especially since this is my first time. I'm hoping to pick up speed as I get better at it.

Here is a close up taken with my camera set on Macro. April showed me how to use that setting on my camera. I can get a really good closeup without it being blurry. You can see that my stitches are not even. Some are big and some are small and tight. I am not moving with consistency. I had to speed my machine up to get a smaller stitch because I was having to move so slow and because of that I get small and big stitches. What do you think?

Now I need to start looking for other pantograph patterns or April says for me to draw my own. We will see. I'm so glad to have another tool under my belt to use on the frame.

Have a great day!
Terry

What to do??

T. Please look at this wallhanging closely and help me make some decisions. For the border I made the flying geese and the two cornerstones (made from castoffs from the flying geese) with reds, golds, blacks, and light blues. Before I started cutting more pieces to fit between the flying birds (I didn't want to type g**se, again!) I remember that I had some units left over from the quilt I made when I went through your scraps...remember "My Fall Foliage Tour Through Terry's Scrap Bin"? As I was thinking about using just the reds in the border like the original showed I had an "add some purple & blue" moment. Remember when I was working on the Fall quilt and your beautiful and talented daughter A. said to add more color. I was reluctant but took her advice. I loved it and learned from it. It's what made me remember the leftover units I still had from this quilt. ( Why I can't remember that we need milk in the fridge and I can remember this...is beyond me?)

I am not sure that the colors work or that it's "GOOD" enough..know what I mean? Let me know if you think I should use different fabric or different colors. Also, do I need some sort of very tiny light blue flange betwixt the blue middle and scrappy border. What color binding and does it matter with the scrappy border. Tell me, no really, tell me the truth so I can make changes if necessary. Thank you dear!!!

Much love!

Vanessa

Post-Comment: Do you think I need two more tufts of wool on the sheep near his ear?

Working on gifts...

I finished the embroidery on the woolie gift and thread basted it for hand quilting. It won't be heavily quilted because I don't think it needs it and it is a Christmas gift so I need to finish it quickly. I can work on it in the evenings while hubby is watching TV.

The picture below is the third quilt I made out of twenty St. Jude fat quarters. This fabric has been in my stash a long time and I'm glad to be using it. This quilt will also be donated to a charity for children in need. This one was done using every last bit of the fabric I had left from the other two quilts (all except the small inner red border. I added that extra. I made the center first then did the red border. I had cut all the leftovers into 2x3-1/2" bricks and I was able to make a piano key type of border around it. It all went together really quick and easy. It again was so fun to work with basic shapes. Now I need to piece together a back and get it quilted along with the second one. This quilt measures 42x46. I debated whether I should add another border but decided it was good enough. What do you think? Should I make it bigger?

Have a great day!
Terry

This is what I'm working on now. The blocks are sewed together into rows. Now I just need to sew the rows together. I am not putting a border on this just binding. I like the look of that sometimes. It reminds me of the older quilts. They often didn't use borders. My theory is that it was a lot of trouble to hand sew on the long borders. Maybe this was the reason, maybe not. Anyway, I like the look and that is what I'm doing on this one.

It was so much fun just sewing squares together! I had forgotten how mindless this kind of sewing is. This is the 2nd quilt I get out of two packages of fatquarters. WOW! it is amazing how far a small amount of fabric can go. This will be donated to a charity our guild donates to called "Children in Need". The last batch of quilts were donated to the burn center at one of our hospitals.

Have a great day!
Terry

Finished Crochet!

I finished the crocheted (cat blanket) ripple stitch afghan. It was a pain to work in all the loose ends on the sides of this thing but I'm glad it is done. It is in the washing as we speak. I really like the colors on this. Hope someone else likes it. It may end up in one the sale table after all.

Have a great day!
Terry

Here is my wool quilt. It looks very much like yours V. The border is pretty much the same but the applique's are different. We had so much fun working on this. It is totally wool except for the backing, that is flannel. There is no batting and it is tied instead of quilted. Also the edges are done with a buttonhole stitch. It will be hanging on my wall in the living room soon. I will hang it until Christmas.

I started work on the plaid table topper. When I get further along I will take a picture.

Have a great day!
Terry

What a Mess!

Hopefully this disorder will be in order soon. Today I began to cut out a project that will be a gift for an exchange. I love working with wool. I will alter the pattern a bit by using fabric in the middle of the wallhanging instead of a large piece of wool. Mostly because I don't have a piece of wool that size but I rather the look of wool appliqued onto fabric. I only buy wool in smaller pieces and order large pieces if I need them. Most of what I do with wool are small projects so small pieces are all I need. I hope whoever picks my gift will like it. I don't have to finish it until December, but I am sure that I will finish it long before the due date.

I am also sharing a wool quilt that I made. T. made one very similar to this one. Actually when she told me she was making one I had to follow her like a little sister and make one, too. I love hers and maybe she will share a picture of it. Her colors are a little brighter and that makes for a better looking, clearer quilt. The crazy patches have appliques that we found from many different sources, some even original. We also gathered inspiration from a similar quilt that a friend was making. Hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I do.

'Til we meet again...

Vanessa

Autumn Table Topper Done!

I really enjoyed this project. It went together quickly but more importantly I enjoyed the colors. Yes, the hues are down and dirty but they are my favorite. I love this time of year and I think that reflects my love of these colors.

Of course I did not quilt it like the pattern. It was quilted on the diagonal across all 100 little squares. I thought it was too much quilting both for the size of the project and the feel of homespuns. The border has no quilting at all so I didn't want to cram a lot of quilting in the middle of such a small area. I stitched a large "X" across the whole middle. After I finished I realized it looked a little like a barn door and I thought it was appropriate for the piece.

The close-ups (hopefully you can see them close up) are of the embroidery and the label I attached to the back. T. can tell you that I am a little obsessed over labels. I love them, both the fabric and the sticky kind.

Christmas Stockings

I made these two Christmas stockings from some not-so-cute gold angel fabric that I've had for a few years. I used a pattern from a Christmas issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. Of course I altered the pattern, or should I say I didn't follow the pattern. I never really do. I used some Minkee for the top of the stocking instead of piecing one (like the pattern called for) or using a thick quilted fabric. The Minkee is soft and looks a little like fur. It gives it a more updated look to that furry stuff that gets gross after sitting in storage for a few years. I believe that I will put these in the Show & Sell as I don't think my guys would like stockings with girlie buttons and gold angels on them.

Good Morning, November!

Last night I began working on an adorable little table topper. I found a cute pattern in the book Primitive Gatherings by Terry Burkhart and Rozan Meacham. I love these colors even though they are a bit drab. The middle of the topper has (100) 2" squares with two small borders around the edges. The inner border is embroidered with words like "apple cider, crackling fire, hayrides & rustling leaves". It put me in the mood for Thanksgiving and T's cornbread dressing, family & fried turkey. Unfortunately, they will all have to wait while I work on this project.

Until we meet again...

Vanessa

Christmas on Halloween Night

I quilted a Christmas table runner for a friend today. I outline quilted the teacups and free-motioned steam coming from the cups. You can see from the back of the quilt that I quilted berries and holly leaves in the border. Choosing a thread color was a little tricky. People who do not quilt their own quilts sometimes do not take into account what the thread used on the top will look like on the back. The backing she chose was white so I didn't want the thread to be too garish on the back. I used gold thread and it blended with the fabric and matched well with the gold in the fabric on the front. I hope she is happy with it. I also hope she never sees the crooked, cruddy picture I took of her "sewpiece"!

Much love!
Vanessa

Barnyard BBQ quilt finished!

I finished a small crib size quilt during the week. I used a pre-printed panel and added a 1" and a 3" border to add a little interest. I quilted it using a meander stitch with a variegated blue thread. I don't use pre-printed panels very often, but I should keep a few on hand so that I can put together a baby quilt if I need one in a jiffy. This quilt went together so quickly that I don't know why I even piece a quilt when I can buy fabric that looks like a quilt. Go figure! I will use this quilt in a Sew & Sell in November hosted by a bee that I belong to.

In one of the pictures you may be able to see that I added a small (1/2") flange before I put the binding on. I felt like the solid yellow binding was boring and needed a little flare. The little splash of green was just what it needed. You will also notice that this picture is upside down. How did I do that? I don't know. All I know is that my brain is flipped inside out trying to figure out how to post.

Much love!
Vanessa

Post comment: This morning when I woke up I started looking on ebay for some cute panels. I thought I would put my idea of keeping panels on hand into action. The only problem is that the Barnyard BBQ panel was supposed to be for a quilt I needed to make in a jiffy. My purpose for using the panel in the first place was because it was just "sitting on a shelf". Never fear. I am back on track and my new mission today is to continue to use up the things I already have in my stash instead of obtaining more.

Top Finished!

I'm all done with the top! Yay! What do you think? It went so fast! I am going to make another one because I had to cut my fat quarters in half and I can make the other one with the leftovers.
Terry

Babies in Need quilt

This is all the fabrics in my mini turning 20 quilt before I cut them.


After cutting...all stacked and ready to sew. I will show you the finished top later.
Terry