We Enjoyed a Happy Christmas Eve

I had the Monday before Christmas off and decided to spend a little time making Elf hats for our Christmas Eve celebration.  One of our grandsons had requested that we watch the movie Elf after our dinner and exchanging of gifts.  Just after this request was made I saw a tutorial for elf hats and pinned it.  Click here for the link. They were fun to make and were a hit with the family.

 

 

Here they are ready for in all different sizes.

 

 

Little Danny's hat must of fallen off so not everyone was looking at the camera.

 

We started the evening by attending the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at our church which is always a very special blessing to all of us.

We had a wonderful time together but missed our two families that live far away but they were in our thoughts we talked about how we wished they were with us.

Catching Up On Sugar Block Club Blocks

I have been working to get caught up on my Sugar Block Club blocks and was able to complete two of them this week.  I have the November block waiting to be stitched but will not get to it until we return from our trip to Knoxville.  In fact I should get away from the computer and get busy packing for the trip.  I am excited about traveling to see our son and his family.  It has been over a year since we last saw them.
 

I have made all of these blocks with the left over fabric from another block of the month.  I love the fabrics and it is always nice to get two quilt tops from the fabric for one.  I was looking around in my sewing room today and I am determined to complete some projects, I found quite a few more UFOs than I had originally thought were hiding up there.

Don't miss the little blessings!

Psalms 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight O LORD, my strength and my redeemer.

Neighbors and Friends Live Here Mug Rug Swap

I participated in the Neighbors and Friends Live Here mug rug swap this fall.  The swap was sponsored by Michele at Quilting Gallery and the pattern was designed by Lenna Green at Stitching Cow.   My swap partner Janice in Australia received her package so I thought I would share what we sent each other.

Below are the two beautifully created mug rugs that Janice sent me.

The next two mug rugs are what I sent to Janice.

My pictures are a little blurry and not exactly true to color but I didn't notice until after sending them off on their long journey. 

It is always fun to meet new friends through swaps.

Getting Started On Sew Sweet Simplicity

Jacquelynne Steves has a free block of the month that started a couple of weeks ago.  I am a little slow at starting  but after looking through my fabric stash this is what I am making my project out of.  Most of the fabrics are from a line called Wild World by Jenean Morrison for Free Spirit.  I wanted to spread the news about this fun block of the month so click here to sign up and join the fun.  I will share the completed block soon but did not want to wait so that you can get started too.

Center block complete and all of the pieces cut and ready to stitch together.

I am editing this post to add the picture of my completed block.

Don't let those little blessings be missed today!

Sewing Is Therapy and Fun!

I have been a little behind on my quilt blocks and other projects but I did have time to complete a very fun project in October.  I was able to make these costumes for two of my beautiful granddaughters.  It was great fun and a little bit of a challenge since they live far away from us. I can be pretty particular about the fit but had to let go of that and enjoy the process.  Their mom did a great job of giving me accurate measurements which was a great help.

Little Harper's costume is so cute on her.  This one I did not make but would have tried if I had the time.

I spent a little time completing the embroidery on the block below while at the bookmobile conference last week.

Fiona's Garden Path Stitch Along block 9.  Now it is time to put it all together.

The two blocks below were completed this week when I took a couple of hours on Friday and hid away upstairs in my sewing room.

October Aurifil Designer Block

November Aurifil Designer Block

I will have to share more of our California trip and our Wisconsin trip soon.  We had a great time traveling but are thankful to be home for a while.

Mission Bay

We traveled to San Diego California so that I could attend the ABOS conference (Association of Bookmobile & Outreach Services).  It has been a great conference so far with more tomorrow and Friday.

This park is just across the road from the resort we are staying at.

 

We took our shoes off and rolled up our pant legs shortly after arriving here so that we could feel the sand and water.

This is the  view we have from the deck off our room.

This roller coaster was built in 1925 and we plan to take a ride on it later in the week.  We have been assured that it has been updated.

While waiting for our room to be ready we spent a little time relaxing in the shade by the pool.

We saw many walkers, joggers, and bicyclers along the "boardwalk."

We are blessed to enjoy  the sunshine for a few more days.

I will share more later.

Quilt Blocks and Little Boys

I realized that I forgot to post these pictures of the quilt blocks I have completed and some adorable little boys we were blessed to spend some time with.

This is one of my Sugar Block Club 2014 blocks

These 2 blocks are from Up the Garden Path Stitch Along.

I have the remainder of the blocks for this project complete but have not taken pictures yet.

It is always fun to spend time with grandchildren and we enjoyed a great evening with these three, very active boys.

Of course I had to take two pictures to get them to smile and as you can see they did not all smile at the same time.

We just returned from our trip to Wisconsin to see our daughter and her family.  I have some fun times to share soon.   I did do a little stitching while on our trip so I will have to take a few pictures and share that too.  

Another Sunny Weekend

First I want to share this beautiful bouquet I received from a sweet friend.  Deng grows these beautiful flowers in her garden and has a gift for making lovely arrangements with them.

This is my Faithful Friends quilt and I wanted to share that it is completed, it took forever for me to get the binding on.  It is now part of my sister Becky's home.  It looks lovely in her living room.

Another quilt quilted and binding done.  It was a quilt top I started in 2012, a mystery quilt.  I really like the way it came together.  Leslie's quilting, flowers and leaves is perfect for this quilt design.

With such great weather we decided to tackle one of the outdoor projects on our list.  We stained our back porch.  It looks pretty good and now we can cross one thing off the list.  We have to give it a rest for about 24 hours before putting things back.

I did just a little bit of weeding and clean up of a very small part of the garden and went inside.

The sun is shining, the deck stain is drying and I am sewing.  This is my completed block for today.

Aurifil Designer BOM September 2014

I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

A Sweet Baby's Quilt Is Complete

When Parker's Mommy Michele began working on his quilt he was the youngest of our grandchildren.  We have since had a new addition, little Mason.  Parker was content to sit in this little chair and let his Mommy work on a quilt for him.

Here is Michele busy stitching the strips of fabric together she had cut.

A little time passed and then Michele  got back to Parker's quilt and layered and quilted it.

Now the quilt is complete pieced, quilted and bound.  I am sure that Parker will love this special quilt made with love, just for him.  He would not sit still now while his Mommy was sewing, he is too busy crawling around for that.

I have done a wee bit of sewing and did manage to get the binding on a quilt and am working on another, doing the hand stitching in the evening.  I was also able to work on a couple of Block of the Month blocks.

Aurifil Designer Block of the Month

August 2014

Sugar Block Club 2014

July Block

The August block is ready and waiting to be stitched and the September block pattern is printed out and waiting.  I have not done much sewing this summer but I can say that I have been walking our dog a lot more and have enjoyed the extra dose of sunshine we have had around here lately.