2026 Ornaments Finished!

 Each year I try to make my grandchildren

an ornament for Christmas.

Some years I'm successful and others, not so much.

 

I absolutely love mmmcrafts felt ornaments and

have made a bunch of her patterns.

Her directions and attention to detail are the best

and I love her designs.

 

So far I have made Santa and Mrs. Clause,

the Little Elves, and Not Even a Mouse

for my daughter, son-in-law and the grands.

This year my goal is to make By the Chimney

for the grands and All Through the House

for my daughter and son-in-law.

 

My sister-in-law and I decided to do our own

challenge for this year

and listed 12 projects we would like to make or finish.

The first one on my list is the By the Chimney ornaments. 

 

They are finished!!

 

 

 

 

These little stockings and stuffers are SO cute!

I had to make a set for myself, too. :) 

 

 

 

 

Larissa's patterns are so well written and easy to follow.

They are challenging and she suggests starting with her

12 Days of Christmas ornaments to learn some skills.

(I made those a number of years ago.)

 

 

 

 

Each grandchild will get their own stocking and stuffers.

I could make a little doll or a teddy bear.

Both won't fit into the stocking, unfortunately.

 

 

 

 

 

It feels so good to have these finished already.

Now they will be put away for Christmas.

 

Shelly and I will decide which number will be next

to work on from our lists.

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

Sea Glass

 For a long time now I have wanted to make a Sea Glass quilt.

I saw one on Pinterest a few years ago and knew I had to make one.

Last year I asked my Bee Mates in the Gridster Bee to send

some scraps to use in this quilt and they sent some good ones! 

 

Last month I pressed the small pieces of fabric to

Steam a Seam and drew the shapes on the backing.

After cutting them out,

I began to have fun.

 

 

 

 

I probably made my glass pieces a bit smaller than others have,

but I'm really happy with the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One things I learned is to cut a lot more than you

think you'll need.

A big variety of fabrics is nice, too.

 

 

 

  

 

These are all pressed to the backing,

so it's ready to quilt.

This is going to take a while!

 

Happy Quilting! 

Zinnia's

 I love zinnias.

They are one of my favorite flowers.

I love that the more one picks them,

the more they produce.

AND the deer and rabbits leave them alone.

 

When I was looking for backing fabric recently,

I came across this gorgeous zinnia fabric.

It would have worked well with the big

print quilt I made recently,

but once it arrived, I couldn't use it on the back

of a quilt. 

Instead, I made 8 napkins and a table runner

for my summertime table.

 

 

 Isn't this fabric gorgeous?!?

I'm excited to be growing zinnias again in my garden this spring.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy them on my table. 

 

 

Happy Quilting! 

Protest to Winter

 Planning ahead with my quilting projects

is not something I usually do,

but last month I had made a list of quilts

I want to make this year.

One of the quilts was made using 9 patches

in solid fabrics, along with some other blocks.

 

After pulling out my solid fabrics,

I cut a bunch of 2 1/2" squares with my

Accuquilt cutter and was ready to do some

mindless sewing.

 

The 9 patches were made and placed on my design wall.

After making a bunch of them,

I decided to change my plans and make something simpler.

Now I needed a fabric to alternate with the 9 patch blocks.

To the quilt shop I went.

 

My thought was to find a neutral fabric, maybe white

with some colorful polka dots or design.

I carried my 9 patches around the quilt shop

and found this fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

It was perfect!

It has all of the colors I used in the 9 patches

and has so much movement to it.

It isn't for the faint of heart, though!

Another quilter saw me put the 9 patches

with this fabric in the quilt shop

and said she loved it together.

SOLD!
I'm not the only crazy one. :)

(My daughter asked me what drugs I was taking

when I was shopping for the fabric.:D) 

 

 

 

 

I'm calling it "Protest to Winter" because

it's nothing like what I am seeing out my windows right now.

It's drab, blah and white outside and I need color!

 

This will be simply quilted... it doesn't need anything else!

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

By the Sea Finish

 A dear friend of mine has a beach house

in the Outer Banks and has invited me to join her

a number of times over the years.

 

I had pulled the beach/sea fabric to play with

and decided to make this friend a quilt for her beach house.

I was amazed that I had all of the fabrics in my

stash except for the striped backing fabric I used. 

 

 

 

 

 

For this quilt, I kept the quilting very simple.

 

 

 

 

 

I did want to do a little something in the peach squares

and stitched a starfish in the middle of each one.

 

 

 

 

 

I have used the frixion pens for years

and have had no problems with them, 

except on solid fabrics.

(They leave a bleach line on solid fabrics.) 

Before using it on this quilt,

I tested it on a piece of the peach fabric

and it ironed out perfectly,

so I traced the starfish on the first block and stitched it.

When I ironed it out,

these lines were left on the fabric.

They are lighter in person than they are

in the photo, but they are still noticeable. 

I debated on what to do about the lines

and decided to just leave them.

Anything I would do to correct it

would be more noticeable than the lines.
I don't know why this happened,

but I'm going to have to be very selective

when using these pens. 

 

We live and learn!

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

 

Knitted Blooms Finish

 January was a great month for getting quilts finished

in my house.

I had taken three quilts to Jennifer, my awesome quilter,

so had these to bind.

I had also made and quilted two other quilts that needed binding.

What a perfect activity to be doing with snow and ice falling outside

and it being a little chillier inside.

Thankfully, we never lost power during this storm.

 

Here is the third quilt I had sent to Jennifer to be quilted.

It's Knitted Blooms by Lo and Behold Stitchery.

This pattern was a bit challenging to make

because there is so much information in the pattern.

It took me reading it a number of times

before I knew what I was supposed to cut for this quilt.

It was a kit from them... I love the color combination.

 

 

 

 

 

Even though it was a kit,

I didn't follow the color placement on the pattern.

My seam ripper was very busy in the construction

of this big quilt,

but it all worked out in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

I love the quilting design and pink thread. :)

 

 

 

 

Since this quilt says Christmas to me,

I chose this poinsettia fabric for the backing and love it.

 

It's good to have this one finished and ready for this coming Christmas.

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

The Ori Quilt Finish

The Ori Quilt is designed for layer cakes

and, since I was on a roll with using Kaffe fabrics,

I pulled out a layer cake I had of his fabrics.

 This pattern is great for showing off these big prints

that are often challenging to use in quilt blocks.

 

In addition, these blocks went together very quickly

and were easy to make.

 

 

 

 

Kaffe is one of my favorite designers,

so it was fun to make these blocks with his beautiful prints.

 

 

 

 

For the backing fabric,

I found this beautiful floral with hummingbirds.

It isn't Kaffe,

but I loved it.

 

 

 

You can see how large these flowers are in this fabric...

perfect for backing fabric.

 

  

 

Jennifer did a beautiful job on quilting this one. 

 

Onto the next quilt!

 

Happy Quilting!