Happy Birthday!

Today is Sami's Birthday! She shares her birthday with her Grandma and got her ears pierced this year her gift. That and 3 pairs of shoes! Kind of hard on my pocketbook but she's worth it to us. We love you Sami!

Stash busting

Super easy runners from Quiltbus. These are just tops so far but all 7 came from stash and i think i'll do a few more because its a great pattern to use up small bits of leftovers. It only takes 3 FQ's for each one not counting backs and binding.
Placemats! I used some more little leftovers and did these up, no batting and just "pillowcase" finishing. I made 6 but none of them match. My kids love them because it makes them feel special at the dinner table and i love them because the help keep my table cleaner.
These were made with orphan blocks. Again, none of the 6 match but no one seems to mind. The plain part on the left helps the kids set the table too, all they have to do is put all the silverware on that part and its good enough for this house.

Stash pictures

This is my stash-at least most of it. There are a few fabrics here and there elsewhere in the unfinished basement that i use for a sewing room. And of course there is a whole other shelf for ufos! The black shelf on the right side of the pic is used for finished quilts and laundry.

cookies

My aunt died this week. She's not been truly well for more than 30 years, but it got worse about 10 years ago when my Grandparents died. She had spent the last 4 or 5 years in a nursing home after a suicide attempt. They were wonderful at that home and helped her deal with her mental issues as best they could. How is that related to the title of this post? Cause Christmas cookies are the thing i've always loved best about her.
She had a HUGE Santa face cookie cutter(6 or 7 inches tall) that she used to make sugar cookies every year. She had some training in cake decorating from my grandmother who used to do wedding cakes so the decorations on the faces were very detailed and the frosting was always close to 1/2 inch think on the beard/mustache/hat trim. She would bag them separatly and each child would get 1 and only 1. At the time it made us all mad, now i realize how much work was involved in making them.
Her only daughter got the old cookie cutter and recipie as is proper. But this week i found a similar sized candy cane cookie cutter. I've always wanted to be able to decorate cakes and cookies. I have signed up for a beginner cake decorating class from our Hobby Lobby so now i can try to give my nieces and nephews a memory of me like the one i have of my aunt.
I've got several different batches of cookies in the fridge to bake tonight and i'll start decorating the easy ones tomorrow.

Gift Chat

Paper Pieced Ornaments

First things first...if you have not paper pieced before there are good instructions here: http://www.quilterscache.com/StartQuiltingPages/startquiltingthree.html

The pattern i used was found here: http://www.geocities.com/pcpiecers/fp-ornament3.html

You can use any 3 or 4 inch paper or regular pieced pattern that you like. I know there are bunches on the web if you dig a little.

For one ornament you will need: one block, one 4 inch square of Christmas fabric, a 4x8 piece of heavy fusible interfacing, a ribbon for hanging, pinking shears if you have them and of course your basic sewing stuff.

Fuse the interfacing to the back of the block and the Christmas fabric. Sew the 2 pieces WRONG sides together. Pink the edges(optional step). Attach your ribbon hanger with hot glue, hand or machine stitching. Date it and hang it on the tree!

This is my new niece-Mia Taylor. Her mommy is my little sis and shes my first niece. You can see her big brother and her daddy in one of the pics too. Little Mia is not so little, she's a little over 8 1/2 pounds! I wont get to meet her till Christmas so i'll have to settle for pics till then.

stocking tutorial

Here's the stocking we are making!

I made my quilted fabric out of 2 Fqs...red print for the outside and blue for the lining. Basted and meander quilt-then cut out a stocking shape.
I sewed them together right sides in with a 1/4 seam then went over the seam with a zigzag to make it a little stonger, after all we want santa to fill them full up!
Measure the top edge of the stocking and cut a cuff piece-5in x your width plus 1/2 in. Sew short sides together using a 1/4 seam.
Fold in half so long edges are together..
Pin cuff to lining. Insert a 4in piece of ribbon to hang the stocking with, making sure the ends of the ribbon stick out the top of the seam like mine. ok, maybe not quite as far, but you get the idea!

Turn every thing right side out and top stitch the top edge to completly encase that seam and you are done!