Christmas is almost here, and the first of the gifts have been delivered. I have almost finished wrapping the rest.  I suppose it would all be done by now if I didn't do a personal shop hop this week. Seven shoppes since Monday. Did I find all I was looking for?
 Almost! 
I now have all twenty quarter yard cuts of pink for my quilt! I am only the border shy on the dinosaur quilt. The pinks need to age a bit before I start on them, but the dinosaur quilt will be up after I finish the pink and brown stack sitting next to the machine! 
So here was the trip: Monday, Quilters Junction and the last yard+ of dinosaur fabric. On Tuesday a friend and I went down to the Quilt Nest in Castlerock, I really thought they would have the Northcott that I am using on the upcoming dinosaur quilt. Bummer, they didn't. KH was looking for forest baby fabric, for her soon grand daughter. We both made purchases, but I told her, I knew Ruby St in Tumwater had some Forest Baby stuff. So up to Ruby St. we went.  She found some wonderful baby fabric, now if mommy-to-be approved, she is in great shape. While we were chatting she told me she had never been to Bayside, WHAT? Well we did remedy that.
 Christmas fabric was on sale, so she purchased some for her Crabapple Hill Fluries. I found this piece of Batik, that for the life of me I don't know what I am going to do with it, but it is wonderful and now I have some! Once I delivered KH to her hubby, who was hungry for dinner, I went home to drool over my new pettable fabrics.
 DS called to see if I had dinner, well, we met for pizza and decided that Gee-Gees in Yelm would be the place to go for what she was looking for. So Wednesday we had our field trip, she found lots of yummy stuff and I found the perfect dinosaur skeleton fabric! Wasn't even from the same line or even a Northcott, you just never know.  I had one more chance to find dinosaur fabric knowing we were going to Port Hadlock on Saturday I figured I would look in the Port Townsend shoppe. Looked it all up to make sure it was a possibility and guess what, shoppe is less than three miles from son's house. OK!! 

Saturday morning came and I was a bit slow, so we left just a little later than planned, DH decided he was hungry so we would stop in Shelton at Jack in the Box. Did you know Annie's Quilt shoppe is just a tiny bit down the road from the Jack in the Box, now I know!  Made a short stop there to let DH eat his breakfast, wasn't that nice of me? Nice shoppe, did find a great pink. Up the road we went to see son. We had decided to have an early dinner, so drive home would not be to late, so a stop at Creative Union Fabrics and the whole family came in to check out the shoppe. Grand Daughter even got to pick out a fat quarter for visiting, how sweet was that. Wonderful little shoppe, definitely visit again. Now to get projects done!

Aren't those pinks just gorgeous?
So the last block of my Christmas quilt!

The ornament,
Five colors,
 Ornament Top- one, 4 1/2 by 1 1/2
                          one, 2 1/2 by 1 1/2
 Ornament- two, 3 1/2 by 10 1/2
 Stripes- two, 2 by 10 1/2
Center stripe- one 1 1/2 by 10 1/2
Background- four, 3 1/2 inch squares
                      two, 1 1/2 inch squares
                      two ,2 1/2 by 4 1/2
                      two, 1 1/2 by 10 1/2
Starting with center stripe ,add a 2 by 10 1/2 accent piece on each side. Top and bottom of ornament use the 3 1/2 inch squares doing the sew and flip method on each end of 3 1/2 by 10 1/2 inch ornament piece. Sew these three sections together to form ball and add 1 1/2 by 10 1/2 of background to each side of these sewn sections. For top- To the 2 1/2 by 1 1/2 sew a 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 square to each end. This is the very top under this sew the 1 1/2 by 4 1/2 piece. To each end of this section ,sew a 2 1/2 by 4 1/2. Stitch this section to rest of ornament. Most of all have fun creating your own. Everyone has different ornaments unique to them. This is what my top looks like. Hope to have all ready to hang for next Christmas.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Wonder-filled New Year!
Rita

The Christmas tree is up and decorated, presents are all bought and one batch of peanut butter fudge has been made. It seems whenever I get all my home made candies made to early I gain a few pounds. This year I will be strong and resist temptation, well maybe, I will just delay it for awhile.  I am not making pink divinity until Valentines Day.
 So back to our tree, I have made three trees, one undecorated, next with the appearance of lights and last with cupcakes.
Again use of three colors, tree, trunk and background,
Cut,
Trunk- one 2 1/2 by 3 1/2
Tree- one 6 1/2 by 3 1/2
          one 8 1/2 by 3 1/2
          one 10 1/2 by 3 1/2
Background- eight 3 1/2 squares, mark six of these with a diagonal line from corner to corner
                     two 3 1/2 by 2 1/2
                     two 3 1/2 by 1 1/2
                     two 3 1/2 by 5 1/2
 Let's start at the bottom,sew one 5 1/2 by 3 1/2 piece of background on each side of trunk piece. Next row up or the bottom of the tree,you will use the 10 1/2 inch piece of tree, on each side use a 3 1/2 inch square that has been marked with diagonal line laying it right sides together on each end. Double check  the diagonal line by folding back excess before seaming. Perform your sew and flip. To each end of this piece, attach a 3 1/2 by 1 1/2 inch piece. Middle of the tree is done the same way with the sew and flip, using the 8 1/2 by 3 1/2 piece with marked 3 1/2 inch squares and adding 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 to each end. OK, ready for the top row, using the 6 1/2 by 3 1/2 tree piece attach the diagonally marked pieces to each end performing a sew and flip and then add your last two 3 1/2 inch squares to each end. Lay out your four rows so your tree is growing upwards and stitch together. Hopefully you now have a finished tree.
 I hope you enjoy this little tree.
 One more block to share with you very soon.
Have a wonderful Wednesday,
Rita 

Gift Shopping and more

Accomplished a few small stockings for the grandchildren!

Snowman is a pillow, in time for Christmas!!

Civil War top has now been quilted and cuddled!

Gift Shopping!!

Some things have gotten finished, sigh of relief! So I will take a bit of time and reset my priority list.So coming up I will finish tracing and coloring blocks for Farm Fresh Produce by Crabapple Hill,and finish my snowman pillow also from Crabapple Hill. Of course these will not be worked on until a baby quilt has been quilted. That is today's goal. So what have I been working on recently?

 Fox quilt is finished, for future young relative!

 Love my yellow stars so much, I am gathering for a pink one now!

This is not a very good picture but sometimes you just need a quick and easy project. This is my "not a ten minute table runner".

 Special gift for a young friend of mine, her baby boy will be born later this month.

The snowman who is wanting to become a pillow. I embroidered him on osnaburg. He will be happy as a pillow.

This is Among the Stars, making it was sort of like eating a bag of Lays potato chips, can't do just one! It will be a BOM starting in January.

Cold weather has started and baking mood has kicked in. How's Cranberry zucchini muffins sound? I was also gifted with walnuts from a recent trip to California, so maybe some Banana nut bread? Carrot cake with nuts and pineapple sounds good too. Wait I have a baby quilt to get done today, yes I can bake and sew at the same time. Laundry, don't want to think about it right now, maybe later.
 Have a great day and stay warm!
Rita

Almost, working on to many things at a time. Finishing binding on three projects and have another ready for the longarm, YEAH! 
So what am I working on? Starting January, I will be teaching a block of the month called "Among the Stars. I have decided to have the students choose their own fabrics instead of making them all identical. It will be really fun to see their choices. I have chosen pink and browns because I love them and have been hoarding them something special. This is it. So here are my first three blocks.

Since this is only a six month BOM, all the blocks are made twice only the pink and brown will be reversed. So far it is quite a fun set of blocks.
I have finished my little quilt and the directions for my Civil War Quarterly Social that will be in November. There are nine patch blocks and paw blocks. I don't know the official name. I learned an incredible way to make this little block, really easy and fun! So here is my little quilt, it measures 20 by 26 1/2.

Thanks for joining me and I hope to have more to show as soon as the bindings are all done!
Rita

 Some days, I just feel like looking at pictures. The brain doesn't want to kick in and understand technical writing. We look at the pictures to figure out how to make our blocks and/or project. Works some of the time, and then other times we have opened ourselves up to those creative opportunities. Many of which we really would like to have avoided. 

I started a block yesterday and didn't read the directions, it is fusible applique. I have been using this method for years. All the pieces were ironed onto the background and I wanted to see which stitches were used for specific pieces. On the front of the pattern, it appeared the maker used a darker shade of floss and blanket stitch. I finally read the directions. They were quite simple, in fact one word "applique". Not even "applique using your favorite method". There were no hints as to what stitches or colors to use. REALLY?? Don't all pattern writers know that if we buy their pattern, we might want to make it identical to theirs. Not that I do this to often, in fact very rarely do I ever make it like theirs, but I do want to know what they did. 
 Regardless, I think the pattern is one that I would even make gifts from. It has a lot of primitive appeal. As soon as the block is finished I will post it. I am only making one of the twelve right now. The design told me it needed to be a pillow. Pillow it will be!

Now on to the pictures above: Banana Cat, one of the many Garden Patch Cat applique patterns by StoryQuilts. I don't do much applique and this was my first time using "Soft Fuse". It is a product for stitching , turning , then ironing onto background, hence the fuse, and then hand  or machine stitching. Not to be confused with "Shades of Soft Fuse" which is used strictly for fusible applique.

The next is actually sideways. I have named it French Fish. While I was reading Julia Childs' book, "My Life in France", I was also working on this quilt. Because of the ripple batik for the background, the blocks reminded me of fish. Julia wrote, and this is not exact quote, how the people of France had so many different names for fish that all looked so much alike. Having decided on the name my backing also had to have a fish!
Thanks for listening to my ramble this morning, Have a blessed day!
Rita

     Seriously, I have been trying to sit still long enough to get hexagons onto my top. Started this many years ago and was going to applique circle flowers onto it, with circle centers and several leaves surrounding the flowers. Needless to say, it all was going to look very lovely, at least in my mind. For some odd reasons it just didn't happen, every time I traveled, I would carry the circles with me in hopes of basting a few. Something else always captured my attention. I finally came to the conclusion that I just didn't want to applique all those circle flowers on to this scrappy top that was made from a bunch of leftovers. So what to do then? Had to do something, I already had the bias tape vine sewn on.(note to self, would I ever use a store bought bias tape for something like this again? Probably, better to make my own). Well, a vine calls for some sort of leaves or flowers, right? Project was set in plain view for a couple of weeks. After walking by it an looking at the poor unfinished piece, it was just sort of naked, and seemed to cry out for more. I finally decided hexies was it. There, the hardest part accomplished. A decision made. Now just for the physical actions to get done.

 

I first got hooked on hexagons by making the Hexagon Flowers Doll Quilt from Kathleen Tracy's book, The Civil War Sewing Circle. Oh! My! They became an addiction! It never hurts to have some extra paper pieces around just in case the mood strikes.
Rita

     There are just some days where I look around and say," I think there are too many projects started". So I give some serious thought to finishing a few before starting something new, then there are just some days where I want to start three or four projects just because I have completed one!  Such a dilemma. I try to keep a list of ten things that I work on at one time, and try not to start something until an item is off the list. Wait, what about those quick little projects that won't take long, just a couple of uninterrupted hours and it will be done.HHHMMMM, uninterrupted is the key, doesn't always go according to plan. Such is life and tomorrow is another day. So if I don't answer the phone tomorrow, please forgive me, I am working on completing a project.

Baseball quilt, mini reproduction, Farm Fresh Produce by Crabapple Hill, Civil War Reproduction that now only needs binding!!, Nursery Rhyme embroidery, Farm Fresh or Nursery Rhymes? Last one needs an applique on the pieced top. So most of these won't really take long, well except the embroidery and the CH has eight smaller blocks that still need to be traced and colored. OK that will probably not be the first to get worked on.

I entered four quilts into our local fair, each received a blue ribbon and today I received a Peoples Choice Award, Big Grin :) Quilt number 47, the blocks are from Barbara Brackman's book "Unraveling the History of Quilts & Slavery". The embroidery is from "Freedom Gone" by Lolita Newman. When it comes back home I will take a picture so that the entire quilt is visible.

 This is from one of my favorite books, Kathleen Tracy's "Civil War Sewing Circle" It is the Cot Quilt, every Civil War soldier should have had one!

 Little Quilts, Little Quilts, I love Little Quilts!! This is their Honey Bees & Beeskep little quilt.

People's Choice!! King size quilt from Nancy Rink's BOM Mill Girls.

Civil War Quarterly Workshop