Thursday, January 26, 2012

Final "After Christmas Sew Along"

This week marks the end of the After Christmas Sew Along. I loved having one day set aside every week to sew - and even though I might have other days to get behind the machine, this one was sort of carved in stone.
I was hoping to have the whole day to work on my latest Work In Process (WIP) - the Scrappy Dresden Plate quilt-along. I had bought the ruler and cut and sewn a few strips to try out the Dresden Plate pattern before Christmas, and even though I wasn't sure I was going to take part, I couldn't pass it up. Sew, the plan was to work at making the 12 plates that I needed for the January installment - and then the phone rang. My mom is pretty seriously ill, and my sis needed me to help out, so that meant the end of my day-long sewing adventure. I did manage to finally get some stitching and even the pressing done, and parts of 3 different plates sewn together.
There's not a lot to show for it, but I figure I can sew most any day - but my mom's not going to be here forever, and she's definitely MUCH more important!
I do have a picture or two of my progress - check out the pile of sewn parts, and some of them pressed and ready to sew:

Friday, January 20, 2012

First FNSI of 2012!

Today was the first Friday Night Sew-In for 2012! I signed up for it about a week ago, not knowing then that today would be of the busiest, craziest days I've had in a long, LONG time.
However, I persevered, and I managed to get about 90 minutes of uninterupted sewing time tonight.
One blogger that I follow (Eagles' Wings Quilts) had mentioned that she'd seen a Scrappy Dresden Plates quilt along, and she signed up for it. I tried not to look, but you know the saying, "Resistance is futile!" - and I fell for it... I had half-heartedly decided a few weeks ago that I wasn't going to make any New Year's resolutions, but I did hope to finish a few UFOs (UnFinished Objects ) before I started a new project, and breaking that promise to myself on Jan. 16th didn't sit too well... until I realized that I had already cut a number of "blades" for a Dresden Plates quilt on Dec. 28th or 29th, so technically, it wasn't a NEW project! Guess what I worked on tonight? The Scrappy Dresden Plate quilt! I didn't get a lot accomplished, but I made a good start. See for yourself!

After Christmas Sew Along Part 3

This has been a really crazy week here, so I'm glad that I got some sewing done on Monday, because I haven't really had a chance to do any since.
Way back in November (the 19th, to be precise), I worked on a strippy donation quilt. I had made a lot of blocks with 4 strips per block, that were then sewn together, alternating up-and-down with side-to-side. Well, I hadn't really counted how many blocks I had made - and wow! did I ever have a lot of blocks! The top that I made then barely made a dent in the pile! So, this is strippy quilt, version #2. This time, I decided to put the blocks on point, and I really like the look. Obviously, I haven't got a lot of the top completed, but seeing as tonight is Friday Night Sew-In night, I just might get a lot more done then (I've learned not to count on anything this week though, so don't hold your breath!)
Oh, right, pictures! There's just the one - the section I've completed, and a few block sets, waiting to be added on:

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Birthday cards!

I love making cards!
I love having time to make cards!
Unfortunately, there hasn't been enough time to make any cards in a while...
I needed a few birthday cards to give to people at church on Sunday, so late Sat. night I realized that I'd better find my craft room. It's neater than it was last week - just have a LONG way to go yet!
When you have only enough time to make a few cards before bed, you want to make it short and sweet - so I check out some of my favourite card-making blogs for inspiration. Saturday's blogger was Marisa at Rosemary Reflections. My cards didn't stray far from the originals - did I mention that it was late?
So, without further ado:

I usually don't keep track of all of the proper product names, so all you're going to get is: some embossing folders, Spellbinder Nestablities, another punch, a stamp from Michael's $1.50 bin and SU ribbons, cardstock and designer paper.
Thanks for dropping by!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Placemats!

I love when I can combine 2 things into one - and that's what I'm doing for this post.
Our quilt guild offered to make placemats for all of the clients that get Meals on Wheels - they will be receiving them sometime in February. We were to turn them in at the meeting earlier this evening.
I had 4 different ones cut out, and had planned to assemble them all today. By doing that, I'd also qualify for the After Christmas Sew Along - Monday is the day set aside for crafting our project for this week.
Well, "they" say that "...the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray...", and that's been the case here today! It's a good thing that I can still drop off placemats up to the end of the month, because only 2 got finished... but they look really good! The one on the left is brown and 2 shades of aqua; the one on the right is 2 shades of green and a cream fabric; they're both displayed by my long-suffering husband... and he does it SO well!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

After Christmas Sew Along

Here we are, 5 days into January, and already I can't believe how quickly life is flying by! (The years are too! 28 years ago today, I gave birth to my first-born - and life has never been the same!)
Monday Jan. 2nd was the first day of the After Christmas Sew Along - and I did manage to get some sewing done - just haven't had time to blog about it....
Before Christmas, I participated in an ornament swap with some ladies from a quilt forum that I'm part of - I knit 7 pairs of teeny mittens, and I decided to add a mug-rug to each set as well. I had just bought a Dresden Plate ruler, and I was very excited about the design possibilities - including using the wedges side-by-side in a straight line - that became the base for my mug-rugs. Well, I got so excited with each bit of Christmas-sy fabric that I found; I ended up cutting "just a few" wedges from each fabric. I think I could do a DP quilt with all the wedges that I cut! Making 6 mug-rugs didn't even put a dent in my pile, so making a few more was first on the list to do; I also had cut parts for some Christmas pot-holders, so I thought I'd stick to the theme and make them up as well.
I finally got the little bit of needed handwork on them done this morning, so I finally have the pics to show for my ACSA post:
I decided to share a pic of the mitten ornaments too.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!



Thank you for checking my blog regularly - I hope that this will be a wonderfully blessed year for you!
I hoped to get these last 2 items on the blog last night yet, but things didn't go quite that way....
So, the next best thing is to post them today!
The card is one that I made for a friend at church, and the quilt is the one that showed up in my last post - it's ALMOST done! It needs to be pressed yet, and there's at least one border to go around it, so you'll have to check back here one more time to see the final quilt!