Two Gifted Pillows and some Cross Stitch

Some gifts have been given and opened already so I can show them to you.  This first pillow is for a friend who just retired.  I made her a wall hanging a few years ago out of these Christmas FQ's that I have in my stash and decided to maker her a co-ordinating pillow this year. The backing fabric was not quite wide enough so a strip of brown was added.   Also, you will notice that the trees are green on one side and brown on the other.  It all co-ordinates!  There is a zipper under the flap on the back. 

The wreath pillow was finished this week too.  The fabric that I ordered was not an exact match for the fabric on the front of the pillow but it looks fine.  The store said this was Essex linen but it doesn't look like what I have purchased before.  Does anyone know if they have changed the way they make Essex linen???  Anyway, I now have 2. 7 yards of this new fabric.  I will use it for something. The young couple I gave this pillow to were very happy with it. 

This cross stitch is going to be a Satsuma Street Funky Chicken.  I will do all the stitching first and then make it into a 3D chicken.  I'm running out of the darker orange colour and will need to buy another skein of it.  

A few years ago, I made some cross stitch ornaments with old wooden spools.  I made three more this week to be given as gifts. 

Finn says he had to wear his booties again this week.   Sigh. 

Here are the little sleighs before they got put onto the spool. 

 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Everyone!  I hope you get some quiet moments during the holidays to stitch, or knit or crochet or read or just relax. 

I will link up with Kathy in the morning and Frederique now. 

Christmas Activities and a bit of sewing.

This has not been a particularly productive week with my sewing projects.  I started making a pillow for a friend as a housewarming gift but ran out of the Essex linen fabric I am using for the background--I want to use it on the back of the pillow as well.  I called 7 quilt stores before finally finding it in the right colour at a store two hours from here.  I ordered what I need and they will ship it out early this week.  It won't take long to install the zipper and finish off the pillow.  The recipients like earth tones rather than bright colours, hence the colour of the wreath. 

It has been a snowy week in Finn's neck of the woods, and here as well.  He loves to stick his face in the snow.  He is not so fond of his coat and booties that he has to wear if going for a walk.  Finn had a haircut this week so he really does need his coat on when he's out for a walk. 

I added more stitches to my cross stitch project this week.  Can anyone guess what this is going to be?

The local railway museum's second annual Christmas tree display is open on the weekends and we went to see the trees on Friday night.  The local Rug Hooking Guild decorated a tree with hooked ornaments made by their members.  I would like to try making some hooked ornaments...maybe for next year. 

There was also a Lego Christmas village, complete with a Christmas train going around the village.  

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  I hope to get more stitching done next week.  We will see.  It's a busy time of year with lots of commitments. 
 

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. 

A Busy Week

 It was a busy week with lots of activities happening, but not a lot of time for sewing.  I managed to make some progress on my cross stitch project, adding more trees, border stitches and starting the snow at the bottom of this section. I'm hoping to finish the mushrooms in the forest this coming week and move on to the next part. 

The church bazaar was yesterday.  Here are the three pillows that I made for the sewing table.  We had a family wedding to attend out of town yesterday so I only had time to stop briefly at the church.  

My daughter also had a busy week so not a lot of time for crocheting.  She started the next part of the border--it looks like a candy cane. 

Finn finds the balls of wool make wonderful pillows. 

Christine and I are going on another quilting retreat next weekend so I need to get my projects lined up this week.  I have some gifts to make!  I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  

Machine and Hand Stitching

Essex Linen seemed to be the fabric of the week in my sewing room over the last few days.  First, I finished the last two blocks of my Summerhill quilt and then added linen sashings and borders...the colour is called Pepper. I like the texture of the linen surrounding my blocks.  I am in the process of making a pieced border from more tiny pieces of Kona solids. I'm hoping to get the final two borders on this coming week. 

Next, I made a pillow for an online Christmas bazaar.  I had the three trees made already--they had been pinned to my design wall for the last couple of years so this was a good way to use them. I was pleased that I had enough scraps of the right colour of linen to complete the top of the pillow.  The back is a Christmas print that was in my stash--I added a zipper closure. 

My third Essex Linen project was this quilt top:

I participated in a broken dishes block swap with Barb at www.funwithbarb.com a few years ago and finally assembled the four blocks a couple of months ago.  I did not have the right fabric for the sashing and borders in my stash until the Essex Linen (pepper again!) arrived in my sewing room.  I already have a plan for the quilting on this quilt but need to purchase some red thread in 28 wt. and make a backing.  My sewing machine that I use for quilting is in at spa right now for a repair and a deep clean, so the quilting will have to wait for a bit. 

My blackwork project has almost all of the gray and black frames done now. I also added some more blue to that section. 

Our daughter was so busy following the news this week that she did not get any hand stitching done at all. Hopefully, she will have some progress to report next week. Finn would like to report that they had some snow this week where he lives, and it tasted good.

I glanced out the kitchen door today to discover that a squirrel was hiding a walnut in my wreath.  Mostly, they hide the walnuts in all sorts of strange places and then promptly forget where they are later. 

We had a beautiful day here today--sunny and 17 degrees C.  We spent part of the day raking leaving and cleaning up some gardens. Then, we went for a bike ride on a local trail and came home and cleaned the windows.  A very productive day!   I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

The Handmade Gifts of Christmas

Several friends and family members received homemade gifts this year.  This is my favourite part of Christmas--figuring out what to make and then getting to work in the sewing room to get it all done.  I would rather sew than spend time at the mall shopping for gifts. 

I made this pillow for my brother. As long time readers know, our Dad passed away last year and I decided to make this pillow using his shirts.  The background fabric is Essex Linen in dark grey-my Dad often wore gray flannel pants so this seemed like the perfect background fabric.  My brother lives far from here so I actually just mailed the pillow cover to him and suggested where he could buy the right size of pillow form.   I would like to make myself a pillow too. 

My husband and I were in need of some new pillowcases for our bed.  We have lots of squirrels in our backyard and my husband grew up in a home surrounded by oak trees, so this fabric is very appropriate and fun for our new pillowcases.

My daughter picked out the fabric for her pillowcases in the summertime.  I had hoped she would  forget about it, but she hadn't so was not really surprised when the pillowcases were under the tree.

Almost everyone received a bowl cozy.  I was in full bowl cozy production for a while, with special fabrics picked for each one.  I forgot to take pictures as I was making them but here are the two I made for my husband and I.

I've been hoarding this blue fabric for a while--obviously a favourite in my stash.   The outside of the bowl cozy is little birds.

This past summer, my husband and I were in Scotland for three weeks and I purchased some Scottish fabric in Inverness.  My husband's bowl cozy features Highland cattle.

Everyone in my husband's family and several of my friends received bowl cozies this year.  There will be no more burned hands when getting a bowl of soup out of the microwave!

My slow stitching projects continue to be a welcome break in the midst of the busy-ness of the season. There was some early morning stitching with Finn early in the week...

as well as some car stitching.  No change in colour yet, but soon. 

My daughter and I had some crafting time yesterday afternoon.  She received this kit from her Aunt, Uncle and cousins for Christmas and got started on some of the stitching. The kit is from Diana Watters Handmade.  I made a couple of Christmas ornaments with her kits last year. 

I worked on my snowflake ornament. I found some beads to add to it when the stitching is done.

In the meantime, all of the excitement has worn Finn out!  He took a lot of naps yesterday to recover.

He is up and playing now.  There will be a long walk later today.  Sunday morning, I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow Sunday stitchers--take a look to see how everyone is relaxing during the holidays.