Winter Wonderland and the Tree Skirt is DONE

It snowed most of the morning Saturday--the type of snow that makes great snow-people and clings to whatever it falls upon.  I went outside with my phone to take a few pictures once it stopped snowing.  This is a Worplesdon Sweetgum tree seed with a snowy hat!

The tree below was a bare root twig when my daughter brought it home from a tree farm in Grade One.  It's quite a bit bigger now!

Last Sunday evening, I basted my new Christmas tree skirt and then did the quilting this week---it took three full evenings and some time yesterday to finish the machine quilting and adding the binding by machine.  I sewed a line of quilting along each side of every seam --this resulted in very cool six pointed stars at every intersection.

I used a light grey Aurifil thread for quilting.  At one point, the thread kept breaking.  I investigated why this might be happening...  LINT!  Even though I had cleaned the machine before starting, it was a mess again about 3/4 of the way through the quilting.  After a thorough cleaning, the machine was humming again and no more broken threads.

I still had some yardage of this red and white striped fabric so I decided to use it for the binding.  This is the same fabric I used to bind my recently finished Christmas quilt.  I have been spending every spare moment over the last couple of days hand sewing the binding so that the tree skirt would be ready in time for Christmas.

I used white thread and tried to keep my stitches in the white stripes so they would not be seen very easily.  The backing fabric reminded me of swirling snow.

Part way through the hand stitching this afternoon, the sun came out and our living room was quite bright--perfect for a picture of a completed section of the tree skirt under the tree.  I think that reindeer fabric is my favourite!

After I took this picture, I realized that all three ornaments in this picture were made by my friend, Pat.  The wooden spool with the cross stitch cover was one of three that she made for me this year.  The bird was knitted a few years ago and the "new home" ornament was made when we moved into our house in 1999.

I finished the hand stitching on the binding while watching a Christmas movie with my daughter and MIL tonight.   It is now under the tree and ready for Santa!

 I will be linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.   Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Christmas Quilt Finish

This week has involved a lot of waiting.  While I was waiting, I kept my hands busy by hand sewing the binding on my Christmas quilt.  This was a sew along with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

I love this stage of making a quilt.

The red and white striped binding is just what I wanted!

The quilting is a pantograph called "Frost".

The background is Essex linen.

The sun shone long enough this morning for a photoshoot outside!

I will be linking up to Finish it up Friday and Slow Sunday stitching with Kathy.

Snow in October

Yesterday, it happened.  After a warm and sometimes even hot Fall, it got cold outside.  I had to put on my warm jacket when my husband and I went to our local farmers' market in the morning.  When I was coming home from doing an errand before lunch, it was raining and then, for a few minutes, there was some snow mixed in!  Yikes!  I was not expecting that!

Speaking of snow, I added some more snow to my counted cross stitch picture this week.

This photo was taken in the car on our way to my MIL's house last weekend.  Last night, I managed to get some more snow done.

This is a slow process!  This week, I will be spending lots of time waiting, so I anticipate getting lots of stitches added to this picture.

Speaking of snow...I went and picked up my Christmas quilt at the quilter's house yesterday.  Here is a sneak peak at the quilting--you will never guess how it is quilted...

Yup...snowflakes!  Would you believe me if I told you the snow theme was not intentional for this post?

I trimmed my Christmas quilt last night and cut the binding.  I hope to get it sewn on to the quilt by machine today so it is ready for hand sewing.

I am linking up to Kathy's blog with all of the other slow stitchers.

A Blue Partridge

I made this Partridge in a Pear Tree block for my Holly Jolly Christmas quilt back in March. It has been on my design wall since then. I decided early on that I did not like it--the colours did not go with the rest of the colours in the other blocks. I was not keen on the idea of taking it apart and changing the colours of the partridge and played with the idea of making an alternate block instead. In the end, I decided to make a blue partridge. I took the block apart and remade the bird.  I am much happier with the blue partridge...

The "blue bird of happiness" co-ordinates much better with the other blocks!

I have an idea on how to change my tree block so it fits in better as well.  This will happen next and then I will put the blocks together into a top.  My quilter, Cathy, is ready to quilt this one up as soon as I get it to her.  It will be done in plenty of time for the Christmas season.

Christmas Lights and a Tree

Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts released the pattern for the last block of the Holly Jolly Christmas quilt a couple of weeks ago but I did not have time to make it until last night.  This one did not have as many pieces as some of the blocks so I was able to cut it out, sew it together and press it all in one night!  Some of my fabrics that I put aside for this quilt are down to very small scraps so that limited what I could use for my "lights".

I also made a Christmas tree block from some of my green scraps to add to this quilt.  It is the same type of block as I used for my pillows last fall-my own design!

I want to have 16 blocks for this quilt--I am using 14 of the 15 blocks made through Lorna's quilt along (I decided not to use the partridge in a pear tree block) and the tree block is #15.  I am going to make a snowman block for #16, again, my own design.  I hope to get it done soon so that I can work on getting this top together and off to the long arm quilter's house for quilting.  I have already bought the backing fabric and I found some red and white stripes for the binding.  I will be finalizing the layout as soon as at the snowman block is done.  It has been fun making the blocks but I am ready to get this project done!

Merry Kissmoose!

Would you like to kiss my moose?  He is under the mistletoe, ready to pucker up!  This block took most of two evenings to make...there were lots of pieces to cut out.

And lots of pieces to keep straight and sew together properly.

I have made 14 blocks of 15 for this quilt along with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.  The last block will be out this Saturday.  I plan on making two more blocks of my own design to make this a 16 block quilt.  I will be putting the partridge in a pear tree block on the back of the quilt. I will have to figure out a layout next and add the sashing.  I am hoping to have this quilt ready for use in my living room this December. 

Making Blocks in the Sewing Room

I made a couple of blocks for my liberated sampler quilt this week.  This little liberated basket is made using Gwen Marston's method.  It is meant to be a bit tipsy!  I am just going to add a touch of orange here and there on this quilt and the basket handle seemed like a perfect spot for some orange.

This one is called a cross block.   Each block is 6.5" square and there will be 64 blocks in this quilt.  I still have lots of blocks to make--I have 6 done now.  I will try to make a few more this week.  The pattern is from 42quilts.com.  The basket block was my own addition to the quilt...she has a couple of blocks that I am not keen on so I will just substitute my own blocks for those ones.

On Saturday, I had a friend, Cathy, over to sew for the afternoon.  I made the most recent block for my Holly Jolly Christmas quilt.  There are only three blocks to go...

Here is my completed wreath block.  Below, you can see all of my blocks so far.

My garden is looking great right now.  We have had a lot of rain so everything is very lush. I planted this red echinacea last year.  There are lots of flowers just opening up on this plant.

The pink ones are putting on a show as well. 

Christmas Ornaments

Over the past few months, I have been making one block every two weeks for Lorna's Holly Jolly Christmas quilt-along.  Christine came over on Thursday night to sew.  I worked on my Christmas Ornaments block.

I was happy to be able to include the Santa fabric on one of the ornaments.  I used that fabric for the mitten block too.  This block looked easy at first glance but it involved quite a bit of ripping and resewing...  It took me all evening to get it right!

Here are all of my blocks so far.  I am thinking of changing the colour of the partridge in the partridge in a pear tree block...I don't like the brown. I think my partridge might be blue instead.

There are only three blocks left!  I have an idea for an extra block so I will have 16 instead of 15 blocks.  I will be making a square quilt...

Holly and Berries and Snowmen

With this post's title, you might think we are in the depths of winter!  It was actually a beautiful sunny day today and most people were wearing shorts today when I was out.  Two of my current projects have a winter theme...

These are all the pieces for the Holly and Berries block for the Sew Fresh Holly Jolly Christmas quilt.  This is block number 10 of 15.

Here is the finished block. The berries on the edge of the block look a bit odd, but will be "rounder" when the block is sewn into the quilt.

My 10 blocks on the design wall...

For Slow Sunday Stitching this week, I have been working on a counted cross stitch snowmen picture which I started many years ago.  I have had a few car trips this week so made quite a bit of progress. On one car trip, I was happily stitching away, chatting with my husband, and then I noticed that I had forgotten my scissors that I use to cut the threads.  Ugh!  We stopped at the next service centre and I went into the little variety store in search of scissors...no scissors, but I did find these....They work quite well to cut the threads and now they live in the car for my use when I sew as we travel.

Last week...

And this week...

There is a lot of white to fill in on the snowman's body and arms.  Maybe, I will get some of that done this week.

I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts with the other Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.

Christmas Quilt Block and some Slow Stitching

Today, another block pattern was released by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for the Holly Jolly Christmas sew along.  This one is called "All Wrapped Up."  There were not as many pieces in this ones as some of the previous blocks.

Here are the eyes and noses...

Pretty soon, I had the block finished.  I had only used the blue dot fabric once so far in my blocks so I was happy to use it again.

Here are my 9 finished blocks on my design wall.

It was a beautiful sunny day today so my Dad and I ate lunch outside.  There are quite a few blooms in my garden this week.  This is the inside of one of my Canada 150 tulips.

This one is called a Mickey Mouse tulip.

This one is on our fothergilla bush.

The seed heads of the Pasqueflower are interesting and I love the green glow from the middle.

For my Slow Stitching this week, I am making more plus signs.

I finished two and have fabric cut out for two more.

I'm still making bean bags for the weighted blanket too.  I have over 2/3's of the 140 bean bags I need done.  I hope to finish those off this week. Each one is filled with plastic pellets and hand sewn shut.  The blanket itself has 140 pockets which hold the bean bags. There is velcro at the top of each pocket to hold the bean bags in.  Weighted blankets are used by people with anxiety, autism and sleeping issues to help them to relax and get a good night's sleep. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms!  My daughter was home last weekend so I celebrated early.