Snow Pillar

I quilt in a basically unfinished basement. There are some thorw rugs down and quilts up on the walls to cover the cement blocks so its pretty basic downstairs. In the corner where my ironing board is we have a window that is supposed to be able to be used as an emergency escape if needed but its got a cover on the top of the window well so i'm not sure how that would work. Anyway, after the blizzard this is what I saw out that window. When the wind blows as hard as it did we always get some snow blown in under the cover but this was new. It was kinda pretty in an impressionistic sort of way.

sami's stuff

These are the mini notebooks Sami and I made. The first pic shows one open and then the second shows a stack of them. We made 12 of these during the blizzard. The ones with crayons on them will go to the teachers at her school at either valentines or the end of they year. It will depend on how long she can wait to give them. She loves to give presents so gettign her to wait might be harder than it sounds.

This is what 50 pillowcases looks like. 32 made from Christmas fabric and 18 made from assorted novelty prints.

This is what the other covered notebooks look like. I only took a pic of one open and closed and an uncovered one to show what we started with. We did 15 of these, and will probably do more if and when i can find the composition books on sale. We gave one of these to the dance teacher and it was a big hit. Of course the one we gave away had dance fabric on it not weddings.

Mystery quilts

Two of the yahoo groups I belong to do New Years mystery quilts. One on new years eve and one on new years day. New Years eve mystery quilt calls for a focus fabric, a dark, 2 mediums and a light. Thats this set: It will be a lap/twin size and its going to be for me! I give away a lot of quilts but if its got M&Ms on it then its mine!
The one for New Years Day calls for a background and 2 pairs of fabrics. This one is smaller, its going to be a runner/wall hanging size. The M&M fabric in this set is for borders and probably backing.

Stashbusting with Sami

things finished this week:
50 pillowcases
9 hemmed flannel baby blankets
2 rag quilts
12 covered mini notebooks
12 covered notebooks
9 covered binders
2 snowman runner tops for grandma
1 tree skirt Top for uncle B
36 swap blocks
1 tote bag for sami

approx total fabric used: 117 yards!
total fabric purchased: 6 yards
Net fabric for this week: 111 yards!!!!

Net total for the year? no idea


I was doing really well keeping track of what i used last winter and spring and even early summer. But then i got sick with an autoimmune thing that i'm still having issues with so quilting and record keeping and even a lot of the regular house keeping kinda went by the wayside. I'm feeling almost back to normal most days and I decided to try to go out with a bang as far as stash busting goes.
This weeks totals are huge but thats partly because we were snowed in for several days so lots got done, and I had Sami sewing while i cut and pinned. She's learning fast and did all the sewing on almost all of what got done this week. Except the swap blocks, she's not quite ready for those yet. Its been discovered that she likes smaller projects, like totes and pillows and so on because she has a hard time controlling the bigger parts, like sewing rows of squares together for the rag quilts. I need to think of some more projects for her to work on so she keeps sewing. I'm out of ideas right now so she's going to have to let me sew for the next day or 2 until we can get to the repair place that still has my good sewing machine. Then we can really double team my stash. I can't wait to see what happens when we both are sewing full speed ahead!

look what I found

See that empty space? That was full of Christmas fabrics until a couple days ago! Sami and I have been making Pillowcases, 50 of them, and 9 flannel baby blankets and we managed to empty 3 of those cubbys of fabric. The Christmas cubby, a flannel cubby and a novelty cubby, but then I rearranged and "relaxed" the overstuffed cubbys and now they are full again but its still nice to see this space for a little while.

i'm stuck

Not just from the weather either! We have blizzard conditions with 45 mph winds and lots of snow. The drift in the driveway is about 4 feet deep already. I don't mind being snowed in at all. We have lots to eat, movies to watch, and games to play so we will be just fine. The only bad part is my good sewing machine is off at the repair shop and the back up is really DD's. I've been using hers for the last couple weeks but right now its set up to do the rag quilt she's working on and I don't want to mess with that to work on my projects. So, I've cut out a new quilt top to start as soon as she's done with the rag quilt. And now I'm not sure what to do for the next few hours that its going to take for her to finish assembling. I need to find fabrics for a couple of mystery tops i want to do over new years, and i've got a couple tops i can baste so i guess that will keep me moving in the right direction.

Frozen Fog

This is what happens when you have 2 days of fog and below freezing temps. The fog freezes on everything. Those spiky bits are almost 2 inches long in places, but there are super fine and feathery and fall apart at the slightest touch. I've only seen this phenomenon once before that i can recall. One Halloween weekend back when i was in high school-almost 20 years ago. The 3rd picture is of my little bird feeder. I'm not sure the birds can even find it with as much icy stuff as is on it.

stocking swap

I participated in a stocking swap again this year with the #quiltchat channel. The first pic is the fun part of what I recieved-beautiful fat quarters and a whole bunch of thread colors to play with. I also got some very useful and practical things like a first aid kit, antibacterial wipes, tylenol, and hand lotion. All of which are great to have extras around this time of year.
I sent out this table mat and stocking to my partner and have heard back that she likes them a lot. I also sent along some local syrups and some of the fancy appy'd hand towels I did a while back.

multiples

I seem to have a thing for multiples of my projects lately. There are swap blocks that come in multiples of 12, candle mats that i made 9 of in this color way and have 10 more 1/2 finished in another colorway, then 3 bags all made from the same pattern in different colors. The candle mats are door prizes for our Christmas party this Friday. The 2 bags that have coffee mugs on them are mom's Christmas gifts. Since i'm pretty sure she does not read this I feel pretty safe posting these pictures. And if she does read it then i've just spoiled the surprise. Oh well! The bag with stripes is for me i think. The tote i'm using now is too white/light for winter so i'll switch over to this one till it warms up again.

Little projects

These count as finished projects but they sure did not use much stash. There are 24 tea towels in the first picture covering almost every holiday. I think they will be good gifts and i'm very glad they are done. My Applique skills sure improved from the first to the last one! The little angel ornaments go on the tree at hubby's work. I made 52 of those! I did have help cutting out the angels thank goodness or i'd still be working on them. I just fused them-no sewing so they went pretty fast. They were my first use of Peltex/Timtex double sided fusible and I dont really like it. It did not want to fuse very well even with a really hot iron and the steam that it called for.

more finishes

Some more of my recently finished things. The red white and blue angel was made with a 6 inch cookie cutter and is the proper size. The Christmas one is made with a 3 1/2 cookie cutter and is the same pattern. Apparently I crochet very tightly. I made the little one first not realizing how far off my gauge is so i had to remake her. So now i have 3 angels, one little one and 2 big ones even if i did not get a picture of the Christmas big one.

The first one of these 2 quilts is made from swap blocks from about a year ago i think. I need to post pics of the quilting i did-my first ever feathers! The other one is a combination of rows from 2 different row robins also from last year. I've got another top made from the rest of the rows but have not found a back for it yet.

opening night

We did it! We made it to opening night! I watched the preformance friday night and was really impressed with all the kids. And the grownups too of course! It was a lot of fun to watch but i'm glad that today is the last show, cause i'm wiped out! Sami is in the first 2 pictures as a porcealian doll. She's the one in the brown dress. And Jason is the only mouse with long pants cause he's the only boy.

Catching up

I'm so far behind I think i'm ahead! This is going to be mostly a picture post so I can catch myself up on what i've gotten done lately and what's next. So from the top: black and white churn dash quilt from a swap last year, 2 tote bags that will be donated to the dance team as door prizes, 2 pairs of flannel sleep pants for ds, one stack of swap blocks, 4 fancy towels for Christmas gifts, 3 runners/table toppers from the "Holly Jolly" charm packs that I started last year, and one not so impressed model for the 14 soldier costumes I altered and added new trim to for the Nutcracker Ballet that will finally be over next weekend!

Finished by friday

I promised myself that I'd finish at least one small crafty project every day for the rest of the year. Now I am sure that I am probably not going to be able to keep it up but so far I'm doing good. Some of the projects I've got lined up are 10 or 20 minute projects, but that's OK. Its still something i want to do and hopefully this list will keep me on track. So far I've finished 5 off the list of 17. I'll keep adding to the list as i think of things. The list has projects from across the spectrum on it, everything from swap blocks, sleep pants, baby quilts, towels to applique all the way to the candle decorations I've already finished and crochet doll clothes. So here's pictures of the first 5. Two afghans, the red white and blue one will probably get donated to the women's shelter or something similar. The multi colored one that i obviously used differing dye lots on is for the dog's kennel. The candles were just gussied up by adding vellum and some peel and stick rhinestones. I made up several more for christmas but since i only have 3 candles i'll have to wait to use them. And since the christmas ones are still flat they will stay nice and not get crumpled. The hand towels just got some ribbon added to store bought towels. I've made up 4 that match and have 2 more pairs in different colors to do still. All 8 of those will end up as christmas gifts for neighbors or coworkers i think. I made 2 of the runner and they have been sitting for quite a while in the finished pile even though they really weren't. I had never done the blanket stitching around those stars. And now i can't even remember why?

not quilting

This is what i've been working on lately. She's not done yet-she needs a hat and a cape, and maybe if i have enough black thread left a cauldron. I promised dd that she'd be done by Halloween but its going to be cutting it close. The hat wont take long but the cape might. I've been working on the cape today.

This was my other project today. Banana bread! Yes, i know the one little loaf is upside down. It broke when i took it out of the pan and i left it upside down to remind me to let the kids eat it. I love to bake, but banana bread is probably my least favorite thing to make. I cannot stand the smell of it baking so for me to make this much and have enough bananas to make about the same amount more tomorrow is pretty much torture to me. My husband's work is having a bake sale this week so this will all go to them along with at least a couple batches of cookies, some brownies, some other quick breads, and the rest of the banana bread.