The Gifts of Christmas, 2024 Version

We have had a very laid back, relaxing Boxing Day.  The last few days were very busy and we all needed some time to chill.  My husband is giving Finn a belly rub and my daughter is making dinner so I thought I would do a blogpost!  

A few years ago, my husband found an old quilt that originally came from his family farm.  It was very dirty and unfinished--the edges were not straight and it smelled funky. There were very rusty pins holding the edges together--I think the maker intended to finish it but never got around to it.  No one knew who made it. It lived in a plastic bag in our garage for a few years while I thought about what I would do with it.  This fall, I decided I would finish it and took a closer look at how it was made.  It is machine pieced and hand quilted. A couple of friends who know more about antique quilts than I do took a look at it and thought it was likely made in the late 30's or early 40's. My husband took at look at his family tree and found out that his great grandmother died of paralysis three weeks after having a stroke in 1941.  We think she is the one who made the quilt and had it pinned, ready to finish the outer edge but died before she could do this.  Her only daughter, my husband's grandmother was given the unfinished quilt.  As far as we know, she was not a quilter so it was never finished. I decided I needed to add binding before washing it so I trimmed the edges straight, cutting off parts of some blocks in the process.  

I added a gray and white striped binding--I thought it looked like ticking that would have been available at the time the quilt was made.   This picture shows how dirty the quilt was before washing. 

I used Retro Clean and soaked the quilt in cold water to try to remove the stains. Even though I used colour catchers, some of the orange and pink fabrics bled.   The water was not a pretty colour after soaking the quilt.   

It was rinsed in cold water several times and then machine washed on the gentle cycle in my front load washing machine.  I partially dried it in the dryer on gentle again and then laid it flat to finish drying overnight.

It looks much better now but not all of the stains came out. I typed out the story of the quilt, and included a copy of the death certificate that my husband found online.  We gave the quilt to his sister for Christmas. 

The dogs wanted to be in the picture but were not interested in posing.  

This picture was taken before it was washed but shows the quilting. 

I'm glad that I was able to finish my husband's great grandmother's quilt.  It has been waiting to be completed for over 80 years.  Now that is an old UFO!

My SIL asked me to make some covers for two pillows for the bed in her guest room.  They are made from blue Essex linen and have a covered zipper closure on the back. The tutorial for the covered zipper closure is at Sotak Homemade. 

I made a couple of gifts for my daughter.  First, a sew together bag for her crochet and stitching supplies:

The squirrel fabric was a gift from a friend and is from Japan. I fussy cut it so the squirrels danced across the side of the bag.  Unlike the three other Sew Together bags I have made, I quilted the outside panel before making the bag. I used one of my "YO MAMA made it" tags inside the bag on the wool needle landing. 

The fabrics were all in my stash.  I had to get a bit creative as I did not have enough of the pink print for inside the bag. The dotted fabric went with the other fabrics.  The zippered pocket lining are a pale pink Kona solid. 

I added a measuring tape inside the bag as she did not have one of those already.  It gets a bit easier to make the bag each time I have used this pattern.  

My daughter's second handmade gift was a pillow case.  She is a curler and I thought of her when I saw this fabric this past summer. 

There has been some crafting time today--I did some cross stitching and my daughter has been crocheting.  Since there can't be a blogpost without a picture of Finn...here he is helping my daughter with her crochet. 

I hope you are all finding some time to relax and enjoy your time with family and friends this holiday season. 

Progress on Several Fronts

I managed to do some knitting or sewing or cross stitching every day this week!  My Gross Morne scarf is now 1 foot (31 cm) long.  I have decided to include the measurement each time I show it as it is hard to tell from the photo alone if I have made any progress.  I still have a ways to go on this project!  

I made my husband and my daughter pillowcases for Christmas but ran out of time to make one for myself so I did that this week.  The two main fabrics were purchased in the East Coast Quilting Company store in St. John's, Newfoundland.  The berries in the border are called Bake Apples or Cloud Berries.  They grow wild in Newfoundland and are used in jam, sauces and ice cream.  There is only one berry per plant so picking them is labour intensive. They are delicious! The colourful houses represent the jelly bean houses in St. John's.  

I started a new rainbow scrap challenge project...These are cut without a template so each one is a bit different.  I will make four each month using my I spy fabrics and the appropriate background colour from my solid stash. They are 6" squares.  I will make an I Spy baby quilt with the finished blocks. I would like to do another RSC project this year but have not decided on anything yet.  

I made and finished off the facing on my David Owen Hastings class project.  I will be hanging this up in my sewing room.  I would like to try making more of these little quilts inspired by architecture sometime.  This one was inspired by a picture I took at the chapel ruin at Dunnottar Castle in Scotland in 2019. 

I put in a lot of stitches on my Christmas cross stitch this week.  The reindeer in the upper right corner is just about done--the antlers and legs are yet to be done (plus a bit of the lower body). 

While digging around in a bin of UFO's this week, I found this 4.5" basket block that was just begging to be made into a pin cushion.  I used some cute pin fabric on the back.  I made the basket block at least 12 years ago.  There is an extra layer of white fabric under the basket block to keep the crushed walnut shells from making the white fabric look dingy. 

I finally finished piecing the back for my modern sampler quilt--I used only stash fabrics for this one.  I will cut the batting to the right size and take it to the long armer this week. 

Finn keeps my daughter in sight at all times and often has to be touching her.    Here they are, toe to toe!

A wintery blast arrived this week so it is time for boots and a coat.  Finn is not thrilled. 

I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Frederique and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.  

Last Post of 2023

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and some time to relax this past week once the festivities were over.  I have managed to do a bit of knitting this week as well as some un-sewing (more on that later in this post!).  During the month of December, I worked on knitting a new hat for my husband whenever he was out or otherwise occupied.  Despite my best efforts, I did not get it done in time and he ended up unwrapping an unfinished gift.  He was surprised and pleased with my gift to him, which makes it all worthwhile.   The hat features three colours of wool and 6 moose figures--I had to learn how to do colour work with the help of YouTube and my friend, Pat.  The pictures below show the hat in progress...

The hat pattern is from a book I purchased in Newfoundland when we were there in June.  "Saltwater Classics" by Christine Legrow and Shirley A. Scott.   We saw several moose while we were in Newfoundland.  I started doing the decreases for the crown of the hat earlier today but have to change to DPN's for the last few rows...I need to borrow these from Pat in order to finish the hat.  I should have it done in no time once I have the needles. 

I like to make gifts for family and friends.  This year, many of them received rope bowls.  These bowls are about 7" across and fairly shallow...perfect for some jewelry, a watch, etc.  I tried to make them in each person's favourite colours. The bowls shown below are a sampling of the ones I made. 

A few years ago, I started some cross stitch ornaments in a month by month stitch along with the intention of making all 12--well, I ended up cross stitching three of the designs and only one was ever finished and gifted to my friend Pat. This year, I finished off the last two and gave them to a couple of friends.  

I made pillowcases for my husband and my daughter.  The whale and blueberry fabrics were purchased in St. John's, Newfoundland.  I have fabric to make myself a Newfoundland pillowcase as well, but ran out of time.  This will be a January project. 

I unstitched the worn out binding from my daughter's quilt and will make and machine stitch the new binding to the quilt tomorrow.  I will get the hand sewing done before she goes home.  This will be my Slow Sunday Stitching!  You can see that the old binding has done its time!

Finn gave me a cute Sewing Store puzzle for Christmas!  He's a great shopper!

He also likes to be comfortable on a soft pillow for his naps...

We had butter tarts and fruit skewers for Christmas dinner dessert.  I purchased the butter tarts from our local farmer's market...they disappeared quickly!  Santa was keeping his eye on them!

I made my SIL a Christmas wall hanging at one of the retreats I attended in November.  I could not show it until now as she often reads my blog!

My daughter received a couple of counted cross stitch kits for Christmas and has started one of them.  

That's all the news from here for this week.  Happy New Year!  I will link up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching crew in the morning. 

Retreat Sewing and a Comfort Quilt

I love going on quilting retreats!  Lots of uninterrupted time to sew, no meals to make and no dishes to do!    Christine and I had a wonderful time and both of us got lots of sewing done.  I made this cute little wall hanging--I called it "Gnome for the Holidays!".  The gnome block was designed by cottonandjoy.com.   I quilted it with my walking foot--inspired by a class I took with Jacqui Gering a few years ago.  I even added a hanging sleeve and have cut the dowel!  I will find a spot to hang my Gnome tomorrow. 

I assembled these bird blocks, made by members of the Elgin Piecemakers, into a quilt top.  This will be quilted and bound and given to our local women's shelter. The bird blocks are a lot of fun!

I spent quite a bit of time assembling my lupin quilt.  I had access to a large table where I could layout four columns of blocks at a time.  

Pretty soon, I had half of the quilt put together.  You can see my blocks all numbered off to the left.  I had a system to keep all of the pieces and blocks organized!

3/4 done--the last four columns are each together but not sewn to each other yet.  I will work on getting the top finished as soon as my Christmas gifts are made and wrapped.  I had hoped to work on my modern sampler quilt at the retreat too, but ran out of time.  

I made a disappearing 9 patch quilt this week using some of my batik stash as a comfort quilt for someone with cancer this week.  I had a wide variety of fabrics in browns, beiges, and greens which all seem to go together. 

Here is the top, waiting to be pin basted.  

I used some leftover squares and larger hunks and chunks of batiks in the same colours for the pieced backing. 

I do my pin basting on the kitchen floor.  It is hard on the knees but it's easy to spread everything out then and tape the backing to the floor. 

The wavy line quilting was done with my walking foot--it is one of stitches on my machine. 

Tonight, I made the binding and got it sewn on by machine.  I will continue to hand stitch it tomorrow for my Slow Sunday Stitching project. I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

Finn enjoyed a walk in the snow this week.  He does not like to wear the booties though and it is quite a production for my daughter to get them onto his feet before they go out. 

I made a Christmas pillowcase for someone special this week.  She does not read my blog. 

This black squirrel was enjoying a peanut when I walked by him at the park earlier this week.  

Secret sewing and knitting continue around here as well.  Take care and have a good week.  Stay safe.