NYE Mystery and a Christmas Project!

Good Morning!

I am participating in the NYE Mystery over at the Quilt Talk Yahoo group -- I have done this mystery since 2004 - with only 1 year skipped because we were out of town. These are the fabrics I have selected this year. I love them!! I just got the groovy flower and yellow fabric yesterday and I had the pink and green in my stash! I am excited to see how it will turn out.

And here are all my pieces cut - did not take too long - about an hour and a half and I ready! It starts at 7 AM tomorow, so I will be setting the alarm so I am ready to go. Dear Hubby makes snacks through out the day so it is a nice day and then we go out to dinner around 7 when the mystery is complete and then come back home. I even bring my machine down to the dining room so I am not sewing alone.

Yesterday - since my room is sew sew clean -- and I have put projects in a basket that need just a few things done and they will be complete -- well this is what I worked on yesterday morning I made 14 candle mats -- some were partially sewn -- I have the backs cut - today I will quilt them and sew the binding on and then I can just hand sew the binding as I watch tv at night with Dear Hubby -- This will go in my craft show tubs, I made a few of them this year and they sold real quick so I hope they go in 2012 as well. At least I am seeing some progress!
Well I think I am headed back up to my sewing room and start quilting these little guys up -- did I mention I made 14 yesterday!!!

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Ready, Set, Sew in a Clean Room!!!

Hello!

WOW! I think I cleaned this room in record time this year - I started on Monday, worked part of yesterday and then most of today and I am happy to report it is CLEAN!! And I am doing a happy dance!!

I love it when it is clean and tidy, now I can sew, I have a pile of projects in a basket in front of my bookcases and that is what I am going to work on starting tonight. I really want to get that pile complete, and it is all simple things, odd blocks I am making into candle mats, a few stitchery pieces need to made into pillows and some candle mats for Christmas- all the parts are cut they just need to be assembled and quilted -- most of the items will go into my craft show tote for next years shows. Can't wait to get a little bit ahead.

Here is my room as you look into it from the door. Gosh clean counters :)

Here is my ironing area - I also recovered the ironing board, it has needed to be recovered for probably a year I had an old towel on it over the last covering, and you know what - it only took about a 1/2 hour to recover it. So happy to have a clean place to iron. The flannel blocks are for a rag quilt for our king size bed, they are all sewn into 2's and some into 4's -- need to get this done this year!



Here is my cutting area -- Gosh this had so much stuff on it - It was Crazy!!! Glad to be able to cut and measure on the ENTIRE table not just 14 inches of the table!!!



And this is where I do all the sewing -- look nice clean counter and all dusted and ready to go!


I did vacuum - but our real vacuum is on the fritz, part is ordered but we are still waiting for it, so I used Dear Hubby's Shop Vac and it did ok, but I really can't wait for the vacuum to get better so I can give it a deep vacuuming, but for now I am thrilled it is DONE!!

Well Happy Stitches....
Dorothy

WHAT A MESS!!!

Hello!

I hope you had a great Christmas - we had a fantastic day at Dear Hubby's familys celebration!

Lots of laughs and lots of eating...what fun!

So today I said I need to tidy up my sewing room and then I went in there and started going thru a box and and said WHAT A MESS!!!

So here is the before picture.....



I sure hope in day or so it looks better, and if you don't hear from me in a day or so.....you might want to search the piles of fabric for me!!

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Merry Christmas!

I hope you have a great day! We are going to Dear Hubby's sisters house for the family get together about 2 hours away.

Enjoy your day

Merry Christmas!

Dorothy

Package mailed!

Good morning!

Yesterday I went to the PO with 6 packages to mail to all parts of the country and was nicely surprised when the lady told me all would arrive on 12/22! AWESOME! I can check that off the list, now today I need to mail the Christmas cards and then back some more cookies for Christmas and just finish up a few quick gifts and I will be done!

Why is it -- when you think your done, one or two more things pop in your head and you say well I can get that done by Christmas?!!?

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Cookies and a UFO Complete

Hello!

Did you have a productive Sunday? I sure did, I got 7 dozen cut out cookies done and 6 dozen decorated, I have a dozen of Snowman to do but I ran out of white frosting and I have been to the grocery store in town twice today, so I will wait til tomorrow to get them complete. But I have all my boxes packed for shipping so I can get all my cookies mailed tomorrow! It will be a good feeling when I leave the PO tomorrow.



Check out my Red, White and Blue candy canes....you guessed it those will be going to my Godson who is a new Marine I sure hope he likes them!



Then you saw on Friday night I got my snwoman top down, well between Saturday afternoon and today, I got it quilted up!!!! And during the Survivor finale I got it bound! YEAH! Another UFO done! Still have way too many but at least I have 1 more done for this year.

Well off to bed so I can get an early start tomorrow.
Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Friday Night Sew Results!!

Good Morning!

How did your Friday night sew in go? Mine was fantastic -- I stayed up and sewed til 1 this morning! I finished my candle mat I started last weekend!

I also finished my Santa Wallhanging, this is a gift and I have 1 more to make this weekend so I can mail them on Monday.



Then I went thru my UFO's and I thought I would like to get these snowman blocks sewed up -- so I layed them out and sewed them and got the border on also. This weekend I will quilt and bind it and another UFO will bite the dust! And I will have a happy throw for the sofa! Buttons is very excited about the quilt top -- she really enjoyed being on it this morning while I was trying to snap a photo.

Also during the day I worked on a king size flannel rag quilt for our bed. I have 157 blocks all sewed up and sewed into pairs, I now need to lay t his out on the bed and then complete sewing it up. Then rag it, that will take some time! This is another UFO that I want to get done before the end of the year.

We are pretty much ready for Christmas - I have a few gifts to complete and cookies to bake next week, but I would say we are within a day from being done, so happy about that, it gives me extra time to sew. That is an advantage to being off during the holidays you can accomplish alot.

Well I am off to get inspired at my BOM this morning and have a Christmas breakfast with the quilting buddies!

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

2nd Friday Night Sew In this month!!

Hello

Well it is Friday night sew in again! Thank goodness I have my BOM tomorrow and I need to get it done!!
So I am off to the sewing room and I will return to my Blog early tomorrow morning with photos!!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

New House Block of the Day!!

Hello

I was just surfing around and found a new house block that is going to measure only 3 inches and the blog is going to a have new house on it each day!! Check it out

http://buildinghousesfromscraps.blogspot.com/

I will get the button on my blog in the next day or so.

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Friday Night Sew In -- My resluts

Happy Saturday!

Did you get a chance to work on your crafting at the Friday night sew in? I did, well I spent most of Friday working on projects and cleaning up my Creation Station.

Here are 6 wool felt pincushions I finished up -- they had been in pieces for over a year so I am so happy to have them finished! And I think they would make nice gifts for some of my quilting buddies. I did them all by hand and I sewed my machine little muslin sacks for the inside - that I filled with sand.

Then I had gotten my order from Primitive Gatherings in the mail yesterday and this little candle mat pattern was in my order so I got everything fused and all my threads ready I just need to sit and stitch, probably will work on this a bit tonight when I watch TV with Dear Hubby.

And of course it would not be right not to have a treat for Friday Night Sew In -- so I made a Carrot Cake and frosted it and then of course with Christmas right around the corner, a few sprinkles justed added Festive to the title!! Here is my Festive Carrot Cake!!


Back to cleaning and sewing

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Friday Night Sew In

Good morning!

What a week! I have been sick all week and finally feel a little better today, thank goodness because it is Friday Night Sew In!

I have a million things to do, just cleaned off my cutting table this morning, so I need to see what I am going to work on?

What are you working on?

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Craft Walk this weekend!

Good Morning!

Lots been going on around here! First off Dear Hubby had hernia surgery the day after Thanksgiving, we were up at 4 AM and got back home around 5 PM -- he did very well and yesterday we went to the Dr for his check up and he can go back to doing pretty much everything so he is feeling much better.

We did not get to shop at all on Black Friday, but with the sales starting Thanksgiving night that has kinda changed our attitude about it, we used to like getting up early and get some bargains, but we are not as thrilled with staying up all night to get bargains.
Dear hubby was feeling alright Saturday morning, so I was able to sneak over to JoAnns for a bit of shopping that day, and I wanted to get some fleece to work on these scarfs I had seen on a blog, I will get the link up a bit later for these, they are quick and easy. I have made these blue, some black and white and red with Christmas fabrics. A great way to use up your scraps. I have these at the Craft Walk this weekend.

I have been sewing up a storm this past week or so getting ready for the Craft Walk - this is the 10th year I have participated in this and it is always a good time and I make a little money too.
The whole town has craft shows at various houses and churches and folks come from all over to check out what is going on. And tonight is our BIG night in town, we have our tree lighting and of course our Festival of Lights parade, and it lasts about 7 minutes! Small town charm, gotta love it.

Here is another new item I am making -- a few friends are expecting boys next year and I saw this is a high price baby shop a few towns over, very simple to make one a onesie.


I have also been trying to use up what I have in my sewing room, I had 2 of these cutter quilts and I had seen this idea so I decided to make some and they have been selling very well on my Etsy shop - I had the old rusty bed springs from my moms attic, we dismantled an old bed that was up there, and of course when I told Dear Hubby I NEEDED those springs he was not that thrilled but he did take the bed frame apart and I have a box of these old springs, so he is THRILLED that I am actually using them of course he mumbled something like, Oh FINALLY you are using those!! Men they just don't get it.




You can use these on top of a tree of just put them on a shelf -- kinda cute and fun to make.

This morning when I opened the door for the dogs to go out -- we have a little dusting of SNOW! Perfect for our towns Christmas celebration today and tonight!

Well that is most of what I have been up too, I hope you are doing some fun stuff this time of year too!

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good Morning!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. We are on our own today, but the house is cleaned, laundry done, took my 3 mile walk this morning and Dear Hubby and I will start making our turkey a little later today.

Lots to be thankful for.

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Friday Night Sew in & some swap photos

Hello!

Happy Saturday afternoon....boy it is a nice day to be home, winds are gusty and it is in the low 40's -- glad to be in the sewing room!

Thought I would show you a few of the swaps I have gotten in the last week or 2 also. This is a FANTASTIC postcard from Cindy -- we are in the postcard swap group on Flickr -- I just love this!! Going to put it on an easel on the entry way table Friday....you know you can't put it out now and skip Turkey day!!



And this is what else was in the package...does she know me or what? I love the pattern, going to make some for my last show of the year, the town house walk, I have 12 days til set up day, so I need to get busy again!! And then some other goodies I will use in my crafting. Thanks Cindy!!




Another Flickr group I am in is the pincushion swap group and I got these 3 adorable Chickens from Mary!! I just love these, and I am going to paint my room a 30's color this winter and go all out 30's in my sewing room, these will fit right in!! She knows me too --mylove for 30's and chickens!!! Thank you Mary!!





I have been cleaning up a storm this past week, I really don't know how things get so out of control with only me and Dear Hubby home, but it was CRAZY out of control! So I spent 1 day cleaning the master bedroom, washing the windows and curtains and cleaning out the closet. Then the next on the guest room all clean and tidy ready for a guest. The only room upstairs that still needs attention is the Sewing Room, I have tried but it just needs to be gutted and revamped so that will happen in December. I am now just moving around the mess!

While I was cleaning I had piles of this and that everywhere and look where Buttons thought it was the perfect pile to take a nap! I think the flash must have woke her up! Sure does look warm and cozy.


Well finally you are asking....what did this girl do on Friday Night sew in.....well without further delay here is what I got done.... A Santa wallhanging. I am making several of these for gifts - But this one was the first one and still needs to be quilted. This was one of our free patterns that we got at the BOM we went to yesterday.




Well I better get back to sewing for a little bit, we are heading to the library this afternoon, Dear Hubby is having hernia surgery next Friday - so it would be good if he had some books to browse as he recuperates.

Have a great day!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

FNSI is TOMORROW!

Hello!

Did you sign up for Friday Night Sew In? I did. I hope to sew alot of the day, going to the BOM with my friend Friday afternoon and you know how a BOM can get you charged up.

See you tomorrow night!

Happy Stitches...I gotta clean up my sewing room a bit before tomorrow night!

Dorothy

Happy Veterans Day

Good Morning!

Well today is Veterans Day and I would like to salute my God Son Jacob today, he just became a Marine last month, and this has been his dream for a few years, probably most of his young life.

He just graduated high school in June, turned 18 in July and was away at bootcamp on his 18th birthday and he is now at a special training. WOW so much has happened for this awesome young man in just a few short months.

Jacob is a kind, caring, intelligent and just a great all around guy. I sue do wish him the best in his military career.

Happy Veterans Day and Happy Marines Birthday (I know that is sometime around this date too)

Yo Yo Book Mark and Coaster Swap

Hello!

So what have you been working on? It has been so rainy and cold here I have been sewing up a storm. I got 7 tablerunner tops done - 1 completely done and 1 that needs the binding sew on. Need to run to JoAnns tomorrow to get some more batting.

I have been making a ton of Yo-Yo's and I saw this idea on someone's blog -- it is a book mark. So simple you just make the Yo-Yo and I sewed it on to the large plastic coated paper clip. I think alot of my quilter friends will get these in their Christmas cards this year.

I am in a couple of swaps on Flickr it is a fun area for quilters. Lots of photos to look at and hopefully get inspired. This was the coaster swap I was in and I rec'd these fantastic 30's coasters from Karen (applekrisp) I just love them! She sent a nice goodie package, everything was so pretty. I am going to use the extra squares she sent along to make some hexie's.

I got another neat package this week with my pincushion swap -- guess what they are chickens in 30's fabric. I love them!! I thought I took a photo but Dear Hubby cleaned up the desktop tonight and I have no idea it is -- so I will take another photo and get it up in the next day or so.
Off to bed!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Hexagons

Hello!

How was your Sunday? It was so cold and windy here, we just stayed inside all day and Dear Hubby watched football and I stitched away.

I made some more candle mats from quilt blocks that are never going to be turned into a quilt - they were from a BOM for Christmas. And they really turned out nice. But of course I did not get a photo of that.

I also made some potholders from a snowman panel and some coasters for the craft show coming up next weekend. This week I will be working on table runners for the shows.

I did take a little time and make some Hexies, I bought the center fabric with the cat about 2 weeks ago and I just love it. When I bought the fabric I knew it was going to be the center of some Hexies and that is what I started today. Not sure how big I am going with these - but I got 1 complete and more in the works. So stayed tuned and we shall see what becomes of these Hexies.

Happy stitches!
Dorothy

Etsy

Hello!

I participated in a local craft show today, and it turned out to be more home party type vendors than crafters, actually only 4 crafters and the rest were home party vendors. I was really bummed out by that. So I decided to put items on Etsy. Tonight I list 11 items, all postcards and kits for postcards, wich I don't even sell at the shows, but I had a basket in my sewing room, I thought I may as well list them. And to be honest all my tablerunners and quilts are still in my truck, so tomorrow I think I will spend some time loading things on the Etsy site.

Have you tried it? and did it work for you?

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Le Petite Recap for the Year

Good Morning!

This past year I was involved with the LePetite Project - This month we are to put up a recap of our quilts we made in this group. For some reason I was only able to load a few, not sure why Blogger is not working this morning. But here is what I was able to load

This was Paginini - I still need to quilt it.



This is Butter Churn and it is quilted! I used this on the dining room table last Christmas.


This one is George and again it needs to be quilted.


And this one is the Viewer Choice from last month and it needs to be quilted.



There was at least 1 more I made, but as you can see I did not get my project done every month. The group is taking Nov and Dec off and will get a new challenge Jan 1st! I am really looking forward to participating next year. But in the mean time I think I need to get these quilted, or I will end up with more UFO's - so with that said I am off to the creation station and get quiltin!

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Pumpkin Fest!

Hello!

This weekend in a nearby town, it is Pumpkin Fest Weekend, they have hundreds of pumpkins lined up on the courthouse lawn and lots of food booths and activities and today is a 3 hour parade, I would love to go to the parade, but as Dear Hubby reminded me, and miss football? Really I don't know what I was thinking! One year when my mom was still with us, they decided it would be ok to go to the parade, I made Halloween Fleece blankets for all of us and I was so EXCITED! Well we got there got our spots and about an hour into it the whining started, so I gave up and we returned home, where football was on the TV and they both fell asleep, so every year I say, it sure would be nice to go to the parade and every year I hear the same thing, call your girl friends and have fun! And of course every year it is cold and this year was no exception, we went to look at the pumpkins early this morning and the wind was whipping around and then right after we left the rain started. So not a great day for a parade, but one day it will be and I will enjoy the entire parade :)

I wanted to share with you some of the pumpkins that we saw today....really some folks have great imagination.


These are 2 little pumpkins Mr and Mrs in the bath tub, complete with gold faucet (gourds)

This one just made me smile, I love Penguins and he is just adorable!

This guy was life size and he represents the Lions Club (who hosts this event every year) and the pumpkin head Lion is on a Scooter, really creative.



This one of course is adorable, a dalmatian pumpkin with 50 (it is the 50th year of the fest) little dalmatians

And this is really fantastic, a pumpkin riding an old fashion bike!
Such creativity!


You can click on each picture to see a larger view if you would like to.

I have been cleaning my sewing room alot this week and getting ready for Halloween, wich is tomorrow I can not believe it. I will be back tomorrow with some quilty/crafty photos, finally got the camera memory extended, so I have about 1650 more photos to take before it will be full again!

Happy Haunting and Stitching!
Dorothy

Friday Night Sew In - Results

Good Morning!

Well how did your FNSI go? Mine not so great - I only managed to get this dish cloth completed, and picked out some fabric for a BOM.

I did have a garage sale on Friday and again today, so while I was working the garage sale, I manged to clean the gardens on both sides of the house, the front of the house and around the fountain. I also planted a few new perennials for next year.

By the time I got in, Dear Hubby got home from work, watched TV with Dear Hubby and all I got this done, I was done for the day!

Hope you got more done than me!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Friday Night Sew In

Hello! I have been off most of the week, I have camera issues so I have not been able to get any photos loaded, hoping to get that resolved soon!

I have been cleaning and organizing this week, I am having a garage sale Fri and Sat this week. I thought I wonder how much I can gather together, well at about Noon today, I realized I have every table in the garage filled! Still am gathering stuff but some of the stuff will be moved out to the driveway in the morning so not to worry, keep gathering I tell myself.

I am going to participate in the Friday Night Sew In tomorrow night, I need to sew!! I think I am going to just work on some BOM I need to catch up on, but I am really looking forward to getting up there and sewing.

If you want to join the Friday Night Sew In - just click the link on my sidebar and join in the fun!

See you at the Sew In!!
Dorothy

Cutting today

Good Morning

The weather here is FANTASTIC! Are you going to be sewing along with Kelly over at Charming Chatter? I am - we just got our cutting instructions, so I will be cutting out my quilt today.

Just click on the side bar Studly and the Mrs Quilt along and it will take you right to the cutting instructions.

And maybe planting a few plants - I got some great $1 perennials and want to get them in the ground today or tomorrow.

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

New Sew Along

Hello

I just was over at Charming Chatter and she is starting a new Sew Along-- perfect - soon I will be off for the winter and I will have lots of time to sew. Click on the link to the right and play along!

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

September Le Petite Project

Good Morning!

Le Petite Project this month was your choice. I made this Schnibbles pattern called Scratch from the book Schnibbles Times Two. I made this top from the Amelia charm packs I won a couple months back.

Hope you have been well, I have been super busy getting ready for a craft show that was last Thursday, I did fairly well till the rain and wind came. Even though I had an indoor booth, the customers took off after the storm, there were many outdoor booths in tents that we in just plain mud after the storm.
Off to work, a few more weeks and then I will be home sewing most of the winter.
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

A quilt Show, A New BOM and a little Finish!

Good Afternoon!

What a great quilty weekend. It started Friday night with going to a local guilds Quilt Show, here are some photos of some of the fabulous quilts we saw! This was one of my favorites, I LOVE 30's so much and the scallop edge was so beautiful. I hope to make one of these....someday.




This one is a Blackbird design, I love the colors, I love the blocks, I love it all. This might be a good winter project.





This one is about the size of a piece of paper (8.5 x 11 inches) I love the little hexies! And the green background I think is a good choice.



Then our group when out to a fish fry after and talked and laughed til about 10:30 ....I got home after 11! Gosh and the sidewalks weren't rolled up!!

Then I got up early - took a few hours off of work and went to the LQS for the kick off of the new BOM, I am so EXCITED!! It is Jan Patek! I have always wanted to do one of her quilts. So this is block one.



And of course today is football day,(and it is a rainy cold day..perfect football weather) so when I was watching the Bears with Dear Hubby I finished up this little candle mat - the navy is not as bright in person. It is not all that big the center is about 5 1/2 inches. But I love working with wool and started it last year, so a finish is a good thing.



Thanks for stopping by I hope you had a great weekend!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Quilting Book Club project

How are you doing today? So far the world seems to be doing OK - I sure hope the rest of the day is the same.

Dear hubby is watching the Bears game and I am going to bind a patriotic table runner, but I thought I would catch you up on a new group I belong to on Flickr - It is called Quilting Book Club and you select projects to complete from a book you have or you can purchase a new book, a couple of ladies do reviews on some books and gets you thinking about creating again and then you select a project to complete - see the key word here is COMPLETE!! So I selected a Schnibbles pattern from Carries Book Schnibbles times two! I love this book!



The project I selected was Scratch - I love it and I am using the 2 Amelia charm packs I won a month or so ago from the Le Petite Group.



Here it is in the process - I have my 4 patches made and am still working on getting them in the rows I need.


And here are my stripe rows. This is a really fun little quilt! I hope to get it sewed up today after the game and then quilt it tomorrow and bind during the final episode of Bachelor pad.


I hope you are having a good day, and that you take a minute to reflect on what this country has been thru in the past 10 years.
Happy Stitches!
Dorothy