Christmas Ornaments 2019

Each year I make an ornament for everyone in my family.  This started 38 years ago when my second nephew was born.  I started with just nieces and nephews but after many years my sisters and brothers wanted one as well.  Over time those nephews are married with children and the tradition continues.  I now need 30 ornaments!  (Next year 31!)  And that's with no spares!

Here's what I came up with for this year.  The pattern is from Nancy Halvorsen, Ho Ho Ho - Let It Snow.  I reduced the size so the finished ornament is about 5 x 6 inches.

I'm excited that it is only December 20 and I have them ready to wrap!!  One year I got sick and was working on them Christmas Day.

Oops.  Not sure why the rotate did not stick??
These are not the original antlers.  I used my Silhouette machine
to cut the pieces, but the antler piece was very small and I couldn't
get a good cut.  Instead I found a feather dye for my Sissix cutter
and used a piece of that for the antlers.  I think they turned out great!

Another tradition I started 3 years ago was presenting the women of the family a small gift.  The first year it was a sachet (made at the last minute when I saw the idea on line), then very nice grocery bags, and last year machine embroidered quilted pot holders.  This year I added a table cloth corner to flour sack dish cloths.  I like how they turned out.  Maybe not practical, as the lace curls when washed, but they were fun.

I need to wash the ones on top to remove the stabilizer.

Something I learned while making the lace for the towels.  I was having trouble and thought it was caused by the weight of the thread.  Embroidery thread is usually 40 weight, but it kept knotting up and I'd end up losing that item.  I tried Aurifil thread (50 weight) and it seemed to work well.  Down side:  I was shocked when the red thread bled when I used warm water to dissolve the stabilizer.  Auriful is my favorite thread for piecing so I have lots of it in lots of colors.

I talked with the owner at my "local" machine store (50 minutes away) and immediately he told me it was my needle.  He suggested Organ Needles, Embroidery Anti-Glue.  That made all the difference.  I went back to 40 weight embroidery thread and everything was great.

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Sizzle: Top Completed!!

Yea!  I finished my Sizzle top.

This is the 2019 Block of the Month from The Quilt Show.
https://thequiltshow.com/

What looks like blue is actually turquoise.
There is one fabric that I used in all the blocks.  Here it looks
yellow, but it's actually a gold color.

71 x 71 inches

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Sizzle Update

A friend came to visit and sew for a few days.  I love it when she comes because I get so much done while we talk and sew.

I concentrated on the borders for Sizzle, The Quilt Show 2019 BOM.  I have (almost) finished the side borders for October and have made good progress on the top and bottom borders for November. I am machine appliqueing.  The pieces are all glued back and ready to sew.  I wanted to see how it looked.

It's on the wall right now and I am enjoying the view!!

Finished size will be approximately 70 x 70 inches.

The border on the right is only pinned.  The circles

are there for placement purposes only.  I have yet to

decide the fabric for the circles.  (Circles will be added

to the border on top as well.)

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Donation quilt finished!

I finished the quilt for our church fundraiser.  With time to spare!!

60 x 60 inches
wool batting

I was worried about bleeding, so I washed the quilt and blocked it on my design wall.  If it was going to bleed, I wanted to know before I made the donation.

Good news!  No bleeding!!  

There is a little shadowing of the red fabric behind the white.  I tried very hard, but I missed a few red threads that show behind the white as well. (Darn "ravelly" fabric!)  I noticed them when I was quilting.  

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October 2019

I have been busy the past two months.  I can hardly believe it's November already.

In September I decided I wanted to make apple butter.  It was a first for me of any type of preserves.  I had to  purchase all the equipment, but when I went to get my apples they were on sale!!  I started with 20 pounds, then had so much fun I went back for 30 additional pounds.  By the time I finished, I was done!!  50 jars of apple butter.  I'm not waiting till Christmas to give them away.  They are going out as I see people.  I used my crock pot to cook the apples.  It saved having to stand at the stove and stir.  I was surprised at how easy it was!

The apples have a long way to go before they're ready  to be
 called Apple Butter.  I still have to make my pies for this year,
but I'm almost appled out!

Quilts:
In a previous post I showed that I was all caught up on the blocks for the BOM Sizzle from The Quilt Show.  I actually started the prep work for the applique borders, but did not get far.  At least I have the fabric I'm going to use.

I've made several other quilts during September and October.  Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of several of them before I gave them away.

I forgot to take a photo of the entire quilt when I finished.

Here's the entire quilt.  Not the best photo, but you see the design.
I stitched the rick rack 3 times:  center and both sides.

I made this for my brother-in-law in honor of his retirement.
These were his ties.  Quilt title:  No More Ties
Of course, it took me 7 years to get it done!!

Back of No More Ties.

The charity for one of my guilds is Quilts of Valor.
I purchased this as a kit and made it up for the team to quilt.

Another guild does a boutique as a fund raiser.  The committee puts
kits together and you can take several and sew them up. This is three 
of the kits I took home.  I'd never made the iron caddy before. 
My second one was much easier!!  The one table runner is
"wine bottles".  I live in a area with lots of wineries.

More quilts in progress.  My church will be doing a work/witness trip to Belize early in 2020.  They are organizing a fund-raiser dinner with Holly Starr as the guest performer.  I'm making a donation quilt for their use.  Actually I'm giving them a choice of two.

This was my original quilt to donate.

This is a kit.  I think I purchased it at Keepsake Quilting
when we were back there for our Boston trip.

Not sure I like the red thread on white, but
once you start you have to finish.

Back of quilt.

 This is the second quilt.  I'll let Pastor select the one she'd like.  Two completely different styles.

This was a kit I purchased when in St. George Utah
during a Philippa Naylor class at Superior Threads.

The quilting on this is a first for me.  I did an overall
wave design.  It was actually harder to do than I expected.

And finally . . . . may I introduce you to Mr. October.
I saw this online and loved it!  The pattern is by Carol Steely of Fun Threads Design.  There is a second Mr. October.  Watch next year!

He was originally going to be a wall hanging but
I decided he needs to be on the bed.  He'll be a pillow.
His bones are glow in the dark fabric.

In addition to all of this I attended a one-day DIME presentation and a 4-day Destination Education for my Babylock Destiny machine.  Both were fun . . . I learned a lot!!  Workshops held at Kiki's Quilt Shack in Fresno, CA.

Whew!

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Sizzle 2019 BOM The Quilt Show

I've been busy the past few weeks . . .  but the good news is I have the center of my Sizzle quilt complete!!  I remade the lower left block because it was just too dark when put together with all the others.

60 x 60 inches at this point.  I've started the applique prep work for the border.
I need to decide if I'm going to use the black (background for the circles) or find a darker purple.

Thanks for checking in.

Mid-August Update

I picked up a pattern at guild this week that was on our "free table".  It was sunflowers and perfect to give as a gift to a friend who recently lost her mother to cancer.  It is finished and ready to go in the mail tomorrow.

11.5 x 31 inches

The quilting doesn't show, but I used gold metallic in the flowers.
Everything was fused and most pieces where secured with blanket stitch.

I am caught up on my blocks for The Quilt Show BOM 2019!  Only one more block, then we start the borders.

I will attach the purple outer sections after I make the final block.
I realized I might want to put them in a different position.
Each block finishes at 20 x 20 inches.

I also made two baby quilts for my sister to sell in the gift shop at her local hospital.  I didn't realize I hadn't taken a final photo until just now.  This is the 'boy' version - blue and green.  There is also a 'girl' version in pink.  I found the kits on sale at Shabby Fabrics and bought two of each.  I'll make the other two to sell at our quilt show next summer.

I've had a productive start for August!!
Thanks for checking in.