Needles and Pens

Sneaking in one last finish for November, another catching-up effort for the UFO Challenge. My daughter, Emily, picked out this bag pattern and not one but two combinations of fabrics for the same bag over a year ago. I dove into the first one with gusto, but by the time I finished it, the second one was put waaay on the back burner. (Rant Alert)This pattern (upper right on the envelope) is an absolute beast to sew. The gathers upon gathers upon gathers are bad enough, but really McCall's, is it too much to ask that you have someone actually test the directions, find and fix all the stupid mistakes, remissions, and generally garbled instructions? There is even one piece included in the cutting layout that isn't used in the bag, anywhere. Grrr... Pity the poor beginner who tried to follow this pattern and then probably gave up sewing for life! (End Rant) But today is Emily's birthday, so I had major incentive to get the beast finished in time to surprise her with i...

Sometime in 2006, I came across Heart to Heart Folk Art, the website of artist, Jackie Neitzke, offering quilting patterns that included her original art printed on fabric panels. I fell in love with one titled, "Watch the Lamb," which depicted a little girl looking adoringly at the nativity scene beneath the Christmas tree. It brought back childhood memories of setting up our nativity, and the many photos my mom took of similar scenes through the years. I just had to buy that art panel for my mom, and this little 12" mini was her Christmas gift that year: At the same time, I bought this panel for myself, titled "Santa's Teddy Bear." Mine, of course, languished in a box in my sewing room until I was finally challenged to finish it for the "Get 'er Done" Challenge this year. It should have been my August project, and I nearly let it slip by me again, but this weekend I pulled it out to work on "just for fun." Like so many oth...

I had to go back and look at last Monday's post just to get a handle on where I stand this week, and I'm pleased to see that I am actually on track with my sewing goals. Midweek, it wasn't looking so good, but I had the weekend to get caught up, finished my to-do list and even squeezed in one more finish of a challenge project. I'll save that one to share tomorrow. ;o) For this week, my first goal is another catch-up project for the UFO challenge, a bag for my daughter, Emily. It just so happens that her birthday is on Wednesday, and I am bound and determined to have it finished to give to her that day. So far, I have all the pieces cut out and the interfacing basted on. I hope to get going on the sewing today. I've made this pattern once before, and it's a cute bag, but I absolutely HATED sewing it, so I'm not looking forward to the process at all. Good thing I have a great incentive (and a deadline) this time around. I WILL finish it! I've finishe...

I'm running a little late today for Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday , having slept in this morning and recuperated from all the Thanksgiving festivities yesterday. I'm SO not a Black Friday shopper, but as one friend said on Facebook this morning, I'm glad they're out there helping to boost the economy today! :o) Here's a photo of the crowd we had at our house yesterday. There's my mom and dad, my two sisters and their families, plus our own. Thirty-one of us in all. Missing are my two brothers and their families (which would have given us 19 more!) and one sister's daughter-in-law, who wasn't able to come. I don't think we could fit in one house anymore if we all got together at once. And this is only one side of the family! We are very thankful indeed, to be so generously blessed with loving families. :o) Sewing-wise, it was not a super-productive week. I did have one finish, only because it was nearly done last week and all I had lef...

I had my doubts about finishing my UFO Challenge project for November. What with it being an applique project, with Thanksgiving and my daughter's birthday imminent, and all the while experiencing that panicky feeling of "Only XX shopping (and sewing) days until Christmas!" BUT... I did it. Whew! The project was Pat Sloan's 2006 BOM, "Where are Your Shoes and Socks?" I had seven of my 12 blocks finished, and an assortment of shoe prints collected for borders, etc. My first new blocks finished were the July "Sneakers" and August "Summer Wedding" blocks: Which got me motivated enough to quickly finish September's "Saddle Shoes," November's "Slippers," and December's "Mrs. Santa's Fancy Shoes." (I was auditioning embellishments here, but ended up going with just the lace bows.) Once the blocks were done, I couldn't wait to get the top together. It took some digging to co...

It was so helpful last week to have my to-dos in writing for Design Wall Monday , I actually finished everything on my list -- and then some! My "Where are Your Shoes and Socks?" quilt from last week is almost finished. I have a little bit of binding and the hanging sleeve to stitch down, and it's done. Here's a sneak peek of the blocks with sashings, before I added the borders... I will finish it today, and I'll post the finished quilt tomorrow, if you'd like to see the end result. :o) Over the weekend, I tackled my baby quilt project, and made good progress. I decided on a snowball/nine-patch layout of 6" blocks, and cut the pieces for two matching quilts. Started sewing the blocks on Saturday: And had the first top finished by Saturday evening: It's a bright one! I was a little concerned that it might be a bit too busy, but it's growing on me. I just normally tend to go with softer colors for baby quilts, so it's prob...

Made lots of progress on my sewing "to-do's" for this week: Finish shoe blocks for UFO challenge (and the top is ready to quilt!) Add borders, layer and pin my mom's birthday quilt Plan two baby quilts that I need to start on soon! (hopefully cutting/sewing this weekend!) Get started on my November "Get 'er Done" pillow project (Started yesterday and finished today, just in time for Sew & Tell Friday at Amylouwho's!) My November "Get 'er Done Challenge" project was four throw pillows made from this Psalm 23 panel: I was given this panel by a friend who was clearing out some of her stash, and she also gave me some coordinating fabric for the pillow backs. I was particularly happy to see this panel among the rest, because it had special significance to me... but more on that in a bit. On past pillow projects, I sort of muddled my way through on the zippers. This time around, I found a really nice tutorial by Erin at t...

Well, it's Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times, and here's what I have on my design wall* for this week, my November UFO challenge, "Where are Your Shoes and Socks?" (Pat Sloan 2006 BOM) These are the blocks I had finished before the challenge: Over the past two weeks, I've picked out fabrics, cut, basted and pinned the remaining five blocks, and yesterday I got started stitching and finished the July "Sneakers" block, and August's "Summer Wedding." Three more to go. And I'd really like to finish them this week. (They look nearly done, but they're only pinned. Lots of stitching yet to do...) These were designed for fusible applique, but for some reason I chose to make mine with needle-turned hand applique. What was I thinking??? Other quilty "to-do's" for this week: Add borders, layer and pin my mom's birthday quilt Get started on my November "Get 'er Done" pillow project ...

Yesterday I blogged about the mini I made this week for my grandson, Aaron, for Amy's Mini Quilt Challenge . Well it seems that "mini-quilt fever" has taken over a lot of us quilters lately, and in that spirit, I thought I'd revisit some of my earlier minis as well. Some of these I had nearly forgotten about, so it was a fun little trip down memory lane... I'm so glad I took pictures! October 2003, a birthday gift: November 2003, my daughter Emily's first quilt (age nine) I just had to include this picture -- so cute! I can't believe she's almost seventeen now! December 2003, Butterfly Mini made for my mom's birthday (I remember the finished size on this one, 8-1/2" x 11", because it was the same size as a sheet of copy paper): December 2003, made for my friend, Sheila, for a Christmas gift: February 2005, my entry in a "Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge." (The border print was the "weird and ugly" one...