A Finish and Cross Stitch Progress

TaDa!  This quilt top was made at a Vice President's day quilting day at Oxford Quilter's Guild at least 3 years ago.  The idea behind VP day is to work on a simple pattern chosen by the VP that can be finished in one day. I found the top in my UFO drawer and took it to one of my retreats in November where I pieced the back, pin basted it and did 3/4 of the quilting.  This week, I finished the quilting and added an orange solid for the binding.  This will go in the baby quilt pile.  I like to have some gifts made ahead of time. 

You can see the quilting better in this picture.  I used 28wt  orange thread for the quilting.  The backing looks gray in this picture but it is actually a black on white print called cross stitch. 

I finally finished the mushrooms and trees on my winter cross stitch and have a good start on the Christmas tree  in this quadrant.  Progress is faster when you sit down to do some stitching each day...

Finn laid in the supervisors chair while my daughter worked this week.  I like how the heart on the blanket is right above his head!

Since taking this picture, my daughter has started the third side of the Christmas light border.  You can't tell from this picture, but the Christmas lights puff out a bit from the white background. She will be bringing this home at Christmas to work on it. 

I often attend the weekly sewing day at the guild and in December, they like to make a small project together.  They had admired one of the Wide Open Zipper Pouches that I made one day and asked me to show them how to make them for this year's December project. The free pattern is from Noodlehead. 

My quilting lines lined up almost perfectly...by accident, not by design.  It does look neat though!

Our Christmas tree is up and most of the gifts are wrapped.  I have one more gift to sew this week.  The big day is fast approaching!  I will link up with Kathy and Frederique. 

Another Secret Project Reveal and Retreat Report

There was no blog post last weekend as Christine and I were at a crafter's retreat at Camp Kintail.  There were other people sewing, knitting, crocheting, paper crafting, card making, painting, rug hooking, etc.  Lots of interesting projects to walk around to look at when I had been sitting for too long! I worked on several projects, one of which was a gift and will not be revealed until after Christmas.  I quilted two baby quilts--one of which you can see in the picture below.  It is not quite done yet and I hope to finish it off this week. 

Christine also worked on a baby quilt among other projects.  We both had a very productive weekend!

Christine made us friendship bracelets which we both wore all weekend. 

Here is part of the back of the baby quilt--I used some flannel chunks in my stash to create this backing. 

I added solid green binding this week and the hand stitching has been completed.  

The camp has a silent/live auction and fundraising dinner every December and I made this zippered pouch for the silent auction. 

We got together with my cousin and her husband today for lunch.  I gave her the quilt that I made for her over the last little while. She told me her favourite colours are brown and teal. Again, I used the potato chip block as the basis for this quilt.  All of the brown fabrics and most of the teals were from my stash.  I had to buy a few FQ's to add some variety to the teals.  The backing was also purchased. I quilted this with the walking foot on my DSM. I'm happy to report she loved her quilt!

My cousin with her quilt:

My friend, Pat, has been making quilts for her grandchildren using leftovers from pyjamas that she made them over the years.  This one is for a grandson who just started college in the fall.  He is very athletic and likes to participate in lots of different sports.  The red and white four patch/binding fabrics and the blue border and backing fabric were purchased. I helped her pick out the pattern (Bonnie Hunter's Bricks and Stepping Stones) and showed her a quick way to make the four patches.  The quilt was quilted by a local long armer. The backing is all flannel and is pieced to use up all the flannel chunks. 

My daughter has been working on her Christmas crochet along blanket parts and is just about done all four peppermint corner blocks.  The peppermint stick part of the border is done too.  She's hoping to move on to the next part this week. 

With all my sewing, I have not had much time for cross stitching in the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping to so some more this coming week. 

Finn likes to relax while touching our daughter.  We call him the velcro dog...

Such a cute little face!

I took this picture on the hike on a foggy day from two weeks ago. This is a gingko tree.  

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique. 

Slow Sunday Stitching 2023

 I have been missing in action the last couple of Sundays for my weekly blogpost.  Our Christmas took some unexpected turns this year ---as the saying goes, life happens when you are making other plans.  Our daughter's dog, Finn, had surgery on Dec 19th to remove a broken tooth. After the surgery, he went into kidney failure and was in the animal hospital for 10 days in intensive care to receive treatments to improve his kidney function.  Thankfully, his kidneys are now working normally again and he is home and feeling much better.  The vets at the hospital called his recovery a miracle as his prognosis was initially very poor.  We are all very happy that he is now home with our daughter and is mostly his usually perky self. We spent the holidays at our daughter's place and are thankful that we could be together to support each other through the stress of Finn's illness.  Finn is our daughter's faithful sidekick and COVID lockdown buddy and we all love him.  This picture was taken a couple of days after he got out of the animal hospital. 

Now, it is time to show off my secret sewing projects!  I made several counted cross stitch ornaments on wooden spools.  This one was for a friend who is a minister.  The pattern was in a book published in 1991 that I have in my collection.  

The next one was given to a friend who likes snowmen.  I didn't realize when I started this one that this Aida cloth is not 14 count--it turned out to be very small and a challenge to stitch.  It is on a very small spool. 

These next few were made using spools from my husband's grandmothers' sewing boxes.  The price on the spools was 29 cents!  We certainly pay more for thread now!  I gave these ornaments to my daughter, my nieces and my sister-in-law. There was also a snowflake ornament which I do not have a picture of. 

I finished my Mother-in-Law's wool appliqué sheep.  She has always been very fond of sheep!

I cut out the pieces for a blue and white block for the Elgin Piecemakers January comfort quilt the other day and will get them sewn together this week. My sewing room needs a major clean up before I can back to doing some sewing. 

I made my husband and my daughter small pouches for their headphones or their charging cables.  I made a lot of these as gifts this year for other family members and friends. Here is a link to the pattern. 

I brought some knitting with me to my daughter's and worked on a dishcloth.  It is not quite done yet. I hope I have enough yarn to finish it!

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.  

Slow Stitching

 I have been furiously sewing this week to finish off some Christmas gifts in time for the big day.  Just a little bit more to do! My cousin and her husband came for lunch on Friday.  We do not get to see each other very often but often talk on the phone about our mutual genealogy project--shaking the family tree on our mothers' side of the family to see what we can find out.  The majority of our family members are Scottish with some Irish as well.  I made my cousin a wide open zippered pouch with some fabric I bought in Scotland at a small quilt store in Inverness in 2019.  I picked up a few Scottish themed fat quarters in that shop. 

I am making my MIL a wool sheep ornament.  I bought this kit at a quilt show in October and finally got around to cutting it out this week.  I fused the pieces to a black base and got to work on the stitching. 

You can't tell, but I have most of the head and ears stitched down. I have to add eyes (French knots) and a mouth as well as blanket stitching the snow at the top of the wreath.  There are a few small buttons to add as well.  This will be my slow stitching project for tomorrow.  If you know my MIL, please keep her gift a secret!  I worked on some other gifts too, but this is all I can share for now.  I have a bit more stitching to do on the other gifts as well. 

Finn and my daughter got a lot of snow over the last few days.  Of course, he loves to stick his face into the snow!

My grandmother died in 1985.  I remember her always having a knitting or other project on the go.  She made us mittens when I was growing up.  I still have a few pairs that she made!  One year, she made herself and her four daughters (including my mother) each a NOEL decoration.  When my mother died, I received her NOEL which I hang up every year in memory of my grandmother. Each letter is stitched on plastic canvas. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.  Next week, I should be able to share the other gifts I have been making.  Have a great week.