Merry Christmas - 2016

For the past few years -

I have shared a beautiful Christmas Card -

That I received one year from a dear friend - ;))

It is one of the most beautiful Christmas Cards -

That I have ever seen -

So I wanted to share it with you -

Again this year - ;))

Please click - HERE -

And -

Have a Very Merry Christmas!! - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Merry Christmas Eve - 2016

Jingle Bell -

Jingle Bell -

Jingle Bell -

Rock - ;))

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Yeah, I know that I posted this last year -

But I couldn't resist posting it again -

Hope you don't mind - ;))

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Merry Christmas!! - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - Santa’s coming -

Folk Art Christmas is quilted -

It's not bound yet - but I followed some suggested "orders" and got to sewing - after my chores - and I finished up the quilting part on Folk Art Christmas -
(see Gene's funny comment and my reply yesterday) -

I love the texture - and tried some stars in the top corners - key word "tried" - ;))

The back is pieced - and shows some of the texture, too - and hides most of my boo-boos pretty well. The long shots hide boo-boos, too - which is why you're not getting a bunch of close-ups. I tried to get the quilting to look symmetrical on each side - but that is easier said than done - ;))

It didn't turn out as well as I hoped - and I haven't quite decided on what I'm going to use to bind it - so I'm going to switch to quilting the Do You See What I See? before I play with my various thread choices for the letters and then try to do all of that white background stitching on O Happy Christmas -

This is a cheater panel and has some great areas to practice and I really DO need more practice before I play with O Happy Christmas - it's just too pretty to do a crappy job on it. And I want to be able to do something other than back-and-forth wavy lines and echo quilting. I may even bump it to the end of the line and play with spirals and feathers and other stuff here and on the Christmas Table Runner and little Table Mat - before I get to it - ;))

There's a week between Christmas and New Year's Day that may come in real handy if I want to get these Squirrels off my list this year - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Design Wall Monday - 12/19/16

DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
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On my wall today - same as last week -

My O Happy Christmas from years ago -

It's not actually ON the wall -

It has been fused/basted and is partially quilted - I'll show you a better photo when it's bound and done - in the meantime I'll show you my progress this past week - ;))

Christmas Sudoku - is bound and DONE - ;))

The front - and a close-up -

The back - and a close-up -

January Sudoku is bound and DONE - ;))

The front - and a close-up -

The back - and a close-up -

Now that I have changed to white thread in the machine - I'm playing with Free-Motion quilting both the Folk Art Christmas and O Happy Christmas -

Hopefully they will be done in the next couple of days because I REALLY want to finish Do You See What I See? in time for Christmas -

And if the Christmas Table Topper and its little matching Table Mat don't get done this year - it won't be because I didn't try - ;))

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Design Wall Monday - 12/12/16

DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
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On my wall today -

My O Happy Christmas from years ago -

It's from Keepsake Quilting
O Happy Christmas Kit -
#5723 -
30” x 48” -
(Sorry - it’s no longer available - )

It included the “pattern plus all the fabrics needed for the top and binding” - and I have several posts detailing its progress. There are too many to list here - but you can see them all if you do a search of my blog - in the top left corner - ;))

And - in other news -

I did a "de-construct" of the Blue Churn Dash - which I DID decide to "unsew" - because the blue is really crappy fabric -

I thought I could salvage the other fabric - but some of it has stretched - so the chunks will go in my scrap bins and probably be used in string quilts or crumb blocks - something won't care if the fabric is stretched a bit - ;))

Then I made the backings for the next three and did some "stitch-in-ditch" quilting with my walking foot -

The Christmas Sudoku Quilt is "stitched-in-the-ditch" and Free-Motion Quilted - I'm working on the borders doing straight lines with the walking foot - should be done today or tomorrow -

The January Sudoku Quilt is also "stitched-in-the-ditch" and Free-Motion Quilted - I'll work on the borders doing straight lines with the walking foot - after the Christmas Sudoku - and that should be done today or tomorrow, too -

And the Folk Art Christmas Quilt is ready for Free-Motion quilting after the Sudoku quilts are bound. I used the walking foot and some white thread to stitch around the outer edges of the applique on the "perimeter" of the tree - not around each and every piece. I want to do some FMQ in the background - and if I use white thread - my boo-boos shouldn't show up too much - and the texture will be all that you see - I hope - ;))

After that one is bound - then I can play with O Happy Christmas - the backing is already made - I just need to fuse/baste it - and do some "stitch-in-the-ditch" quilting to stabilize it a bit - probably something between the lines of the letters as opposed to around the perimeter of the applique - haven't decided yet -

And that will be number four of the six that are on my list -

Looking good!! - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

And another two -

Another "Scrap card" and "Heart" for 9-Patch Pizzazz -

And another set for the Quarter-Log Cabin -

Both of which are tops/flimsys that need backings/bindings/sleeves made - ;))

I left the set for O Happy Christmas for last in this batch - because - while I have the baggie out with all of the left-over fabrics in it - to make the "Scrap card" and the "Heart" - I can pull out some scraps to test my thread color choices and play with Connie's "Appliquilt" technique - HERE - ;))

The plan is to make the backings (if not done already) - fuse/baste - do the "stitch-in-the-ditch" quilting if needed - and basically get all of these guys ready for some Free-Motion Quilting PLAY time - and to see how much I can get done in the next couple of weeks -

• Christmas Sudoku Quilt
• Folk Art Christmas
• Do You See What I See?
• O Happy Christmas
• Christmas Table Topper
• January Sudoku Quilt

While I sit back and enjoy the Holidays - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

And three more -

From back to front - the "Hearts" for -

Amish Table Runner -
Halloween Cheater Panel -
Thanksgiving Churn Dash -

The cheater panels and charm packs don't leave a whole lot of scraps for making the "Scrap card" and "Heart" - but I did what I could and used some of the "backing" fabrics - that should be enough to jog my "Memory" as to which quilt is represented by which "Heart" - ;))

And I think that catches me up on the ones that are "DONE" -

As in quilted and bound - "DONE" -

So I could work on the "Scrap cards" and "Hearts" for the next batch of tops/flimsys that need backings/bindings/sleeves made - ;))

I keep them both together in a baggie with the scraps and the rest of the fabrics until I have the quilt actually bound -

And once I know I won't need the scraps/fabrics any more -

I update my Scrapbook - put the "Hearts" in the bin for the "Memory Quilt" -

Put the larger pieces of fabric back in my stash -

And then add the scraps to my scrap bins -

To be played with later - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Scrapbook update -

Every once in a while I try to update my Scrapbook -

So before I got too involved in my Christmas "Squirrels" - I decided to take Wednesday - the last day of November - to do some updating - ;))

I made several pages with colored paper inserts and the "Title" strips - and didn't think to take any photos until I put the Halloween Sudoku "Scrap card" in it's slot along with the "Solution" that I used for the fabric placement -

Then I pulled the "Heart" out of the Thanksgiving Sudoku baggie -

And put the "Scrap card" in it's slot along with the "Solution" that I used for the fabric placement -

Added the "Heart" to the basket of other "Hearts" -

And did the same for Turkey Day -

It got me a little more organized - and freed up some fabric for my scrap bins - to be sorted later - whenever I'm in the mood - ;))

If you're new to my blog - or don't know about - or haven't heard/read about my "Scrapbook" and "Scrap Cards" and "Hearts" - please check out the page/tab at the top of my blog - "LHQ - Finishing The Quilt" - HERE -

I have links to the various posts - all in one place -

And you can see for yourself what I do and How I Do It - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

O Happy Christmas - again -

While sorting through my Christmas "Squirrels" -

I found O Happy Christmas from years ago - HERE -

And decided to change out - re-do - the top swirl -

And the ones at the bottom -
With a darker "Gold" fabric -

Then I forgot to trace/fuse/cut the center little circle/dot while I was at it - so I had to get out the pattern and ALL of the supplies AGAIN to do that little bit -

At least they were easy to find - I had JUST put them all away - ;))

I cut out the pieces and fused them right on top of the other ones - and I got pretty close - so it probably won't show much when I get it all done - at least I hope so - ;))

Anyway - as I was looking at it - I realized that I really did NOT want to "blanket-stitch" around each and every one of those letters/swirls/dots - and got to thinking about alternatives and remembered seeing a technique a few years ago on Connie's blog - HERE -

She calls it "Appliquilt" and I think that it might be just what I need - it looks like you just layer the quilt as usual and then free-motion quilt little squiggles around the edges of the letters - so it gets tacked down and quilted all at that same time - can't beat that! - ;))

I emailed her and asked her thoughts on thread color - and she made some suggestions - so I'll play with those - and let you know how it goes - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Thanksgiving Churn Dash - DONE -

As in quilted and bound - DONE!! - ;))

The backing is left-over "turkey" fabric with a strip of "orange pumpkins" -
I love turkey "left-overs" - of every shape and form - LOL - ;))

The strip of "orange pumpkins" wasn't quite long enough - so I added some "Halloween cats" in the middle - and didn't bother with the corner triangles because it's a table topper - not a wallhanging - ;))

I used a pre-packaged quilt binding and carefully marked the back for placement so that I wouldn't cut off the points on the HST - and most of them look pretty good -

And some don't -

But you can see the pretty decorative stitch that I used to stitch down the front -

So there's that - ;))

Now I'm debating whether or not to fuse/baste the Halloween Churn Dash - since the backing is already made - to get it going - before I tackle my pile of Christmas "Squirrels" - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -