A Little Slow Stitching

This is my slow stitching project for today.  I get it out when all the "must does" are done.  It's a simple whole cloth piece with the design stamped on.  I enjoy putting a few stitches in it now and then!

Today it is a bit of sunshine for a cold and snowy Christmas Eve here in Colorado!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Thank you, Kathy, for always reminding us to breathe and enjoy the day!

Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas trees!

The outdoor kind...

The indoor kind...

And the fabric kind, too!

The last few years I've made a Christmas tree mini each year - the one above is from December of 2015.  I wanted to try some modern hexies, and they worked really well for a tree shape!

Christmas 2016 - 

This is Kevin the Quilter's tree block.  I really love this one!  I should make more of these.

Here is my tree mini for 2017.  The trees are made from Sandra's Leaning Tree tutorial that I made a bunch of mug rugs out of earlier this month.

The darker fabric is really a dark green - a color I find hard to photograph accurately!  The text fabric says things like"joy to the world" and "merry and bright."  It was interesting when cutting into that one to make sure I had the text all oriented the correct way!  Let's just say I made a lot of scraps out of that fat quarter!  :)

I did have fun adding some buttons to the top of each tree, and some handquilting in white perle cotton around the outside of each block.

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend and wishing all my quilty friends the Happiest of Holidays!

Sharing at Quilting  is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Christmas Bowties

While doing a little tidying up in my sewing room earlier this week, I decided to use up some of my Christmas fabric scraps to make some bowtie blocks.

I enjoy making a few now and then!

I do love these penguins in their hats and scarves!

I don't remember when I started making these 6 inch bowtie blocks - sometime earlier this year - but I have 42 of them now.  And that's pretty good since I only make four or so a month!  Not nearly enough for a good-sized quilt, but headed in the right direction.  I'll definitely continue making these into 2018! 

Back next Saturday with my Rainbow Scrap Challenge achievements for this year and plans for the next year!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #61 - Lots to Like!

We had a very enjoyable pre-Christmas weekend with our kids this last weekend.  The weather held for us so that driving was easy, and we shared lots of good food, conversation, and played a bunch of games - always one of our favorite things to do when we are together!

I liked seeing their cars parked in our driveway!

We got out the Wii while they were here, and bowled many games.

Another favorite game of ours is Blokus.  Have you played it?

My younger son is a master at this game!  We figure he must have gotten all the genes for spatial awareness.  :)

Meanwhile, this fun fat quarter bundle arrived in the mail!

Thanks go to my quilty friend, Vicki, of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting, who alerted me to the cute penguin fabric and the coordinating fat quarters at Connecting Threads!  The bundle is called "Penguins Love Colors."  I think this will be fun to play with in the new year!

I gave in to the urge to bake this week, and I like this recipe that I found for a small batch of cut-out sugar cookies.  For me, it made 1 1/2 dozen, which is a good size for us because then we won't eat too many!

I love this little pouch that a quilty friend gave me!

It's made out of two 10 inch squares of fabric, sewn right sides together, and then turned and top-stitched.  Then the corners are folded over and tacked down to make an opening to thread the drawstring through.

Happy Thursday!  I hope you're having a great week!  I'll be joining in with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday!

Improv Stripes Revisited

Ever since I made this little quilt back in the summer...

during Debbie's Improv Stripes QAL, I've known that I wanted to play more with this kind of sewing.

When a sweet friend gave me a bunch of Kona scraps leftover from a quilt she recently finished, I decided I would use them to create some more Improv Stripes!

Although this isn't all of what she gave me, this is what I started with.  I wish I knew the names of each fabric, but I don't!  Kona is so creative with their names.  There are two shades of blue - a royal and a periwinkle, two turquoise-y fabrics, and two greens - a darker and a lighter sort of lime.  They are really pretty together!

First, I cut a bunch of wonky, wedge-shaped stripes out of the 4 inch wide pieces.

Then, I began sewing stripes together, randomly matching colors until I had groups of seven stripes sewn together.  Two of these blocks were sewn together to form a roughly 5 x 6 inch rectangle.

I also added some longer, skinnier stripes to the sides of a couple blocks, just to see what might happen.  

This is definitely just meant for playing with, and is a "Who knows where it will end up?" kind of project!  The blues and greens are refreshing to sew with, after finishing up my Christmas projects!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

A Potato Chip Project

You know - where you can't eat, I mean *make* just one!

Back in November, I saw Sandra's tutorial for these adorable wonky tree mug rugs, and I knew they would be perfect for the gift I needed to take to my quilt group's December get together.

I had some fun fat quarters of holiday fabric with names like Cookie Exchange, Holly's Tree Farm, and Silent Christmas, which I thought would work really nicely for these mug rugs.

So I got busy!

Do you see the mug I found to go with the mug rugs?  It's so perfect for this fabric!  More inspiration!

But I couldn't stop at two; I had to keep going!

I had fun varying the backings and bindings for each front - each one had to be contrasting!

Four mug rugs, two for my quilt group gift and two gifts for family members.  Definitely fun to make!

And there are scraps leftover, too - I wonder what they will become!  :)

Sharing at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.

String Star Update!

I did it!

I sewed up my String Star with no mistakes or unsewing needed.

I'm so pleased with how it is turning out!  It's been fun to draw up my own design and see it work out according to my vision.

I don't think it will take long to get this one quilted up and finished.  It's meant to be a wall-hanging for our dining room/family room wall.  But Christmas has to happen first!  :)

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!