Hello Everyone! I decided to keep my travel update separate from my crafting update this time so neither one would get too long. While I was on the road, I didn’t get any quilting done, but I was able to do a lot of stitching. We spent a lot of time in the car which helped.
I get up early, so I was able to get some stitching time in the mornings, too. I finished the Snowy small and plan on finishing it the same way I did the Merry small, also by Kathy and Priscilla.
I worked on Button Up by The Prairie Schooler in the car because it just seemed easier. I finished the skater and started the sled block. I’m working this on 32 ct Lugana Snow Day dyed by Misty at Luminous Fiber Arts. I’m enjoying stitching this and have 5 more blocks to complete.
Anniversaries of the Heart, Blackbird Designs
I also made good progress on the first chart, Snow Garden, for the Anniversaries of the Heart SAL, #bbanniversaries2020, hosted by Olivia, @pumpkinhollowquilts, and Deborah, @canopiedstitches. I have really changed the colors on this one. I’m using some of the called for colors, but not where they are called for. I’m stitching this on 35 ct. hand dyed linen. Each chart has a place for initials and dates. I’m stitching Snow Garden in honor of my mom, Judy, because her birthday is in January. There are 12 charts in the series, but I plan on only stitching 7, plus a bonus chart. I hope to finish Snow Garden this week.
I’ve also started two new quilts that I’ve had the fabric and patterns for a long time. I am giving a flying geese demonstration at my guild and instead of cutting random fabric for the demo, I cut fabric that will go with these two quilts. The fabric for Shangri-La is Bright Sun by Sherri and Chelsi for Moda. This is their first fabric line and I have been saving a fat eighth bundle for this quilt since it was released 3 or 4 years ago.
The second quilt is “Over the River and Through the Woods”. I bought a kit for this quilt in 2008 and started the embroidery in 2009. I finished the last of the embroidery in 2018. These were big pieces.
Sorry the pictures aren’t that good, but they were taken over three years ago and in bad light.
I don’t have any current pictures of the embroidery, but I will get the sections out and press them and show them as a continue with the quilt.
I will be demoing the four at a time method and will be using the fabric for this quilt in my demo. There are lots of flying geese! I’ve made this quilt before without the embroidery and gave it to my brother-in-law. I will have to search for pictures because they are not on this computer.
I think that’s it for now. After my guild meeting, I plan to get back to a regular schedule and finish up my basement sewing area. Between the basement redo, Christmas and our trip, I haven’t been on my schedule and I like a schedule.
I hope you all have a great week and thanks for stopping by.
Hello Everyone! It’s been over two weeks since my last post, but we have been on the road. We were gone for 9 days, traveled almost 1700 miles and stayed in four cities. It was busy, but we had fun visiting family and maybe finding a retirement city.
Our first stop was Williamsburg, VA to visit with my father-in-law.
Duke of Gloucester Colonial Williamsburg
Of course a visit wouldn’t be complete without a walk down the DOG (Duke of Gloucester street) in Colonial Williamsburg. As you can see, it was a beautiful day. It was also the coolest day we had. After this day, it warmed up considerably.
After two nights in Williamsburg, we went to Fredericksburg to visit with my parents. I don’t have any pictures, but we had a nice visit. It was 70 degrees on Saturday, so we had a walk downtown, then had a nice family dinner with my parents and my sister and her family.
After another two nights in Fredericksburg, we went to Winchester. My brother-in-law lives there and it’s been over 5 years since I’ve been. It was another beautiful day.
From Paris looking towards Winchester and the ValleyCrossing the Shenandoah River
Winchester is a pretty area, too. My husband was born here and lived here until he was 9. He always thinks of it as coming home when he crosses the Shenandoah. We went to lunch with my brother-in-law and his wife at a really nice restaurant at Lake Frederick which was in an active 55+ community. It sure put a new perspective on retirement plans. We toured the model homes and drove through the community. It had all the amenities and the newer homes were not as close together as some that we’ve seen.
I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley
We just spent one night in Winchester, then headed out early the next morning to Boone, NC. It was a pretty drive through the Valley with some early morning fog. We are still in agreement that we could retire anywhere between Winchester and Blacksburg. It is just a beautiful area. However…
Just outside Boone, NC
We had an appointment to look at a community just outside Boone. My pictures just don’t do it justice. The views were breathtaking! The community was on 6200 acres with miles of trout streams and hiking trails within the community.
The community also had outstanding amenities except a pool, but they are building a brand new recreation and aquatic center in Boone. After our tour of the community, we went back to hour little rental house and had a cocktail on the deck. It was warm and overcast our entire stay in Boone. Not typical weather.
View from the rental house
What we learned during our stay is that there is not much flat land around Boone and that to get to most homes, you need to go up! Boone is in the mountains, not in a valley or on a plateau (Blacksburg). We visited several different communities, both resort style and regular neighborhoods to get an idea of what’s available. Boone is a lovely place, and I could live there. My husband was happy with all the trout water just minutes from wherever you might live. I visited the quilt shop and learned a few things about the quilting community, too. Another interesting thing was that a place might be only a few miles away, but the drive time was 10 – 15 minutes. Lots of mountain roads to travel. It was quiet, too. No highway noise and no airplanes flying overhead. Lots to be said for living there. Lots of decisions to make over the next couple of years.
I’ll be back soon with a quilting and stitching update. Thanks for stopping by.
Hello Everyone and Happy New Year. It’s been 2 weeks since my last post, but I’ve been enjoying family time and working on the basement. I would like to thank all of you for your sweet comments on my Home Tour post. Almost everything is put away until next year except the quilts. I just haven’t had time to exchange those out for winter ones yet.
I am back to real sewing and quilting although my room isn’t completely finished yet.
This picture was taken about a week ago, and most of the piles are still there. I’ve been cleaning out drawers and bins before putting them back. I actually have some shelves and bins that aren’t in use right now. The pile of fabric in the back left has to be put in my fabric bins, which are still in the other side of the basement. I haven’t decided if I want to store the bins back under the ping pong table or add new shelves.
So now we have the ping pong table, which does fill up the space. It’s great to quilt on, but I want a real sewing cabinet. I’m going to look at the Koala’s and Horn’s this year. I’ve been saving the money I make from pattern and bag sales, plus my work for Jacquelynne to buy one. I still will keep the ping pong table until we move because it’s great to baste a quilt on.
Once I had my small machine set back up, I made my daughter a sleeve for her new drawing tablet.
Most of the fabric pieces came from scraps leftover from a charm pack of Valley by Sherri and Chelsi for Moda. I let her look through my fabric and she liked these. I had made her a couple of coasters with this fabric a few years ago, too. She wanted something that was padded, so the sleeve is loosely quilted and there are two Velcro pieces on each side. She also wanted a button closure. She picked this old Delta button from her dad’s uniform. I think it turned out nicely and may make one for my tablet.
I was finally able to get back to quilting this week! I’m quilting the Sew Your Stash Along quilt that I made along with my quilt guild last year. The pattern is by Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting. We will be showing the finished quilts at the next meeting, so I need to get this quilted. The top was finished months ago except for the borders. I finally finished it and got it basted, then it was time to move everything. It’s coming along nicely and I should have it finished in time.
Most of December was spent stitching. I’ve shown you the cross stitch finishes, but want to share those that didn’t get finished or fully finished.
First up is Joueux Noel by JBW Designs. I’m stitching this 1 over 1 on 28 count linen. Between the small count and red fabric, it’s a pretty slow stitch. I do want to finish it this year and it’s companion piece.
I finished two of the ornaments from Prairie Schooler Snowy Nights. I want to do one more, the one with the three cardinals in the tree. I’m stitching this with the called for colors except I’m substituting black for the DMC 3371. The fabric is 32 ct Lugana.
I finished stitching my version of Cranberry Christmas by Hands On Design but did not get a chance to fully finish it. The white didn’t show up well on the fabric, which is 32 ct Pearl Gray Belfast Linen, so instead of stitching the top part of the design, I repeated the berries. I want to stitch the top of the pillow design on another fabric color. I really like the house on the cake stand. I would also like to stitch the small round ornament. I haven’t decided how I want to finish this yet.
These two pieces are from the Gingerbread Village series by Country Cottage Needleworks. I had finished the one on the right last Christmas and had started the house. When I took it out to work on it, I didn’t realize I was almost finished with it. I finished it in a day. I plan to use the fabric they are on to make two small pillows.
I started Prairie Schooler Button Up on Christmas Day. I really love this one. I’ve had the chart since early last year. I’m using the called for colors and stitching it on 32 ct Lugana “Snow Day”, a hand dyed fabric from Luminous Fiber Arts.
A couple of days later, I started Snowy Chalk Full, the small pillow by Hands on Design and Priscilla Blain. I hope to have this one finished shortly. It’s stitched on Black 16 ct. Aida using the called for colors.
Pumpkin Hollow Quilts started a Stitch Along on New Years day and I decided I would join in. The series is Anniversaries of the Heart by Blackbird Designs. There are 12 charts, but I am only going to stitch 7 of them plus a bonus chart. Olivia has a Flosstube channel, which where I learned about the SAL. I’m stitching this 2 over 2 on 35 ct “Old New England”, a hand dyed fabric from the Primitive Hare that I bought at Sassy Jacks last winter. I’m using some of the called for colors and some of the DMC alternatives.
This is how much I finished on the first day. I added another small motif in one of the whites, but I will probably substitute another thread because it’s not showing up on my fabric very well. I’m also waiting for a few of the called for threads to get here that I ordered.
I guess this post is long enough. My plans are to finish the quilt and get back to the Sunday Best Quilt Along. All the blocks and finishing instructions have been released now and I need to catch up. I don’t want to let it linger.
Hello Everyone and welcome to the photo tour of my Christmas quilts and home. Each item and vignette has a story and it would take me all day to write about them and you would be bored with that, so I’m only showing the pictures and giving a few highlights. If you have questions about a quilt or cross stitch piece, please leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you after Christmas with the answer. I hope you enjoy it.
I also want to thank you for being a reader and follower of my blog. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and happy Holiday Season to all.
We’ll start in my daughter’s room. She’s the only one who decorates her room for Christmas and she did it when she was home for Thanksgiving.
Upstairs landing
Now we’ll move to the foyer.
The kitchen area
And the family room
This is the newest Cross Stitch finish, designs from Christmas in the Colonies. You can find more information on my Instagram Post here.
If you are wondering about my dining room and living room, they didn’t get much attention this year because we have pictures, airplane models and sewing and crafting things tucked in everywhere from the basement.
Basement Update
Before
Just a note for my quilty friends: the old ceiling color was almost the color of the Bonnie and Camille darker blue, not quite Navy. It’s a little darker in this picture.
After
I love it! We went with the grayer tones and it looks great. I sort of hate to put our old basement furniture back in there.
The wall color in this picture is closer to the true color. I plan on taking my time rearranging the room and will continue to weed through my stuff. It will be fun to organize for the new year.
Hello Everyone! I just wanted to pop in this morning and show you a few cross stitch finishes.
Merry Chalk Full by Hands on Design and Priscilla Blain
First up is the small from Merry Chalk Full by Hands On Design and Priscilla Blain. This is the series with the mason jars. I picked the snowman photo holder up at Kohl’s sometime in October. I had several options to put on it, but thought the “Merry’s” colors went so well with the snowman. The next Chalk Full should be out anytime and it is Snowman heads in the jar. The small for that one will also be perfect for the stand.
As you can see from the date, I finished the cross stitch in 2006. I just fully finished it a few days ago. I love how it turned out. The cross stitch design was in a Leisure Arts Christmas Cross Stitch Book from 2004, 5, or 6. I had three of them and just gave them away to Good Will recently. I wish I had written the design information down.
I used Vonna Pfeiffers tart pan finishing tutorial and she made it really easy to do. I bought the small tart pans from Jo-Anns and then chalk painted it with an ivory colored paint. The tutorial shows how to glue it in the pan. Instead I was going to put a magnet on the back of the stitched piece, but it seems to be staying in the pan just fine on its own.
This is another very old finish, probably about the same time as the church, within a year or so. I thought it was in one of the cross stitch magazines that I saved, but I couldn’t find it in them so it probably was in one of those Leisure Arts books, too. You can see the sparkly floss in the snow. I really like it and because it had the gold Kreinik border around it, I didn’t add any additional trim. I tried to sew the back right along the edge and did a pretty good job of it.
Because I didn’t want to sew up the bottom and have it look wonky, I sewed all around the piece, then cut an opening in the back so I could stuff the pillow. I covered the opening with a piece of wool and I will write the date on after I take it off the tree.
I used Vonna’s bow tutorial for making the bow and hanger. I also added the red jingle bell. I have several bells on the tree and I like to here them jingle when we walk close to the tree.
That’s it for the day. I will probably have several more fully finished items in the next couple of days. I’ve also been stitching a lot, but don’t have any progress pictures yet. I’ve enjoyed seeing other quilter’s and stitcher’s home tours so I thought I would do one, too. I’ll be back soon with a photo home tour of my Christmas quilts and decorations.
I hope you enjoying the holiday season and thanks for stopping by!
Hello Everyone! I’m finally getting to my post on our trip to Bryson City, NC that we took on the Monday before Thanksgiving. We had a great time! The weather was good, we ran into a little snow, saw some incredible views and enjoyed each others company. I hope you enjoy the travelogue, it’s very picture heavy.
Downtown Bryson City
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know my daughter likes to go to the mountains when she comes home for a visit from the flat lands of Florida. We were all getting a little tired of doing the same North Georgia mountains, so I thought a couple of days in North Carolina would be good. I picked Bryson City because it’s close to Smokey Mountain NP and Clingmans Dome which we have not been too.
Cherohala Skyway in TN looking towards the SW
The first day was beautiful, with clear blue skies. We decided to take the long way and drove across the 43 mile, 5400 ft elevation Cherohala Skyway from Tellico Plains, TN to Robbinsville, NC. It was a beautiful drive, especially with the fog in the valley’s.
We drove through some snow and icy patches at the highest elevations, but nothing too bad.
We stopped at the Hooper’s Bald Trailhead, which was our highest elevation at 5290 ft. I took pictures of my Merry Mini Quilt, and we walked along the trail for a bit.
I had to take a picture of this weird ice that was at the beginning of the trail. It looked like it came from an ice machine.
Just a couple of more pictures from the car of the fog and North Carolina mountains.
We left home about 7:30 and reached Bryson City about 12:30. We did a lot of stopping on the Skyway to take pictures. We took a detour to the Indian Boundary Campground off the Skyway to see if it was someplace for us to go camping. My husband has fished in this area, so he wanted to check it out. The main campground with hookups was closed, but the drive up the mountain wouldn’t be too bad.
Train rides converted to the Polar Express for this time of year
Once we reached Bryson City, we had lunch at the Nantahala Brewing Company and walked around town and did a little shopping. There were a lot of people in town and we realized part of it was because of the train ride. There are train rides year round, but for the holidays, they convert it to the Polar Express. We saw lots of families in matching pajamas waiting for the next trip. Not all families had children with then either. It looked like a lot of fun. Because it was such a nice day, we wanted to have a beer on the roof top at Mountain Layers Brewing Company. It seemed everyone else had the same idea because we couldn’t sit outside. That’s okay, we sat inside and enjoyed our beer before heading to Ingles to pick up dinner.
This was our view from the cabin, rented from Bryson City Cabin Rentals. It was a nice place to stay for our two nights. You can see there was still a little color on the trees.
Morning view of the cabin
There wasn’t a great sunset view because there were no clouds, however, early the next morning, I watched the sunrise.
Looking Southeast
We had the fog in the valleys again the next morning and it was so pretty to watch the sunrise on the fog and mountains.
Tuesday, we went to Smokey Mountain National Park and Clingmans Dome in the park. We were lucky, because they had just opened the road to Clingmans Dome that day. The other time that we were on this side of the park, the road was closed so we couldn’t get up there.
First though, we stopped at the visitor’s center to get information and pick up our pins and stickers. There are several herds of Elk now in the park and this one hangs out near the visitor center.
View from Clingmans Dome parking lot
Even though it was cloudy, the air was clear and you could see forever. The views at Clingmans Dome were spectacular and my pictures really aren’t doing them justice.
About half way up the trail to the top of Clingmans Dome
The walk to the top was on a half mile paved trail, but it went almost straight up. There were no switch backs! There were benches to rest on about every 10th of a mile. We didn’t stop to sit, but we stopped and rested a few times. We were also over 6000 ft in elevation.
Clingmans Dome ramp
Once you were at the top, you still needed to walk up the ramp to get to the tower. I didn’t take a picture of the base because it was a solid sheet of ice and I was trying to figure out how to get over it. I managed and had to hold on to the rails and slide up about the first 10 feet of the ramp.
The top
Clingmans Dome is in Tennessee and at 6643 feet in elevation, is the third highest mountain east of the Mississippi.
It was cold and windy at the top, but the views were stunning!
We are looking North, Northwest here with Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in the distance.
I just couldn’t get enough of the views from the parking lot. By the way, those are native Frasier Firs growing in the area. It was a good thing we were there by 10:00 because when we came down from the top, the parking lot was full and cars were circling trying to find a spot.
We had gotten information about hiking in the area and were planning on a picnic lunch in the park, but everywhere was getting so crowded, we decided to have lunch in the park on the river in Cherokee. After that, we drove back to Bryson City to another area of the park on Deep Creek.
Deep Creek. Look how clear the water is!
We were going to camp at a campground on Deep Creek last year, but Hurricane Michael got in the way and we cancelled our trip. We were going to check out the camp ground for future reference, but it was closed. It did look a whole lot better than most of the camp grounds in the area. A lot of them looked like they had permanent trailers and were not in the best of shape.
Tom Branch Falls
Of course we had to find some waterfalls and we did. We hiked along the Deep Creek Trail which was pretty easy and viewed three waterfalls.
Indian Creek FallsJuney Whank Falls
You did have to take an offshoot trail to get to the Juney Whank Falls and it pretty much went straight up to the falls. There was a platform and a bench to rest on once you got to the falls. So pretty to sit and view!
Mountain Layers Brewing Company roof top deck
Deep Creek is only a few miles to the rest of Bryson City so we went back downtown to pick up a few things were weren’t sure about buying the day before. We got there right as train traffic was departing. I had my husband drop us off so we could shop while he waited in traffic and parked. And guess where we found him? It was cooler and cloudier, so the deck at Mountain Layers was not crowded like the day before. It was still nice to sit out and the bartender remembered us from the day before, so it was all good.
We again picked up dinner at Ingles and took it back to the cabin. There was a fire pit and we did have a fire both nights. It was too cloudy for a good sunset picture that night.
My daughter wanted to stop in Blue Ridge, GA on the way home. It was raining when we got up so we left a little later in the morning and reached Blue Ridge just in time for lunch. We ate and walked around town a little bit, then got home about 3:00 in the afternoon.
We had a great time and packed a lot in in three days. If you’re still with me, thanks! I like to share pictures of where we’ve been. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
Hello Everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. My Saturday was busy with the final push to get everything out of the basement before new floors and paint. I spent Sunday editing pictures and stitching. One day last week, I walked almost 2.5 miles in my house, moving things from my sewing room to the unfinished side of the basement. Another day I walked 1.5 miles and a third day, a mile. I didn’t feel bad that I didn’t get out and walk, except I would have been in fresh air.
The back half of the room with the windows is my sewing areaAll of our stuff! Mostly mine.My sewing and crafting corner in the dining room
I moved my small sewing machine and things to finish some cross stitch projects to this corner of my dining room. That’s probably all the sewing I will do until after Christmas.
Speaking of finishing cross stitch projects. I have two fully finished and two finished pieces to show you.
Chicken Joy and Halloween Hen
I made Chicken Joy, a free chart from Priscilla and Chelsea, for my daughter and Halloween Hen, from the Halloween Ornaments 2019 Just Cross Stitch Magazine, for her boyfriend for Christmas and gave them to her at Thanksgiving. Her boyfriend has four chickens and they treat them like pets. Chicken Joy is stitched on 14 ct black Aida and I used most of the called for colors. Halloween Hen is stitched on 36 ct Vintage Country Mocha with most of the called for DMC. I thought they were cute and hope they can enjoy them year round.
Merry Chalk Full small
I also finished stitching the small from Merry Chalk Full, also designed by Priscilla and Cathy of Hands On Design. This is stitched on 16 ct black Aida and uses the called for colors. I have several finishes in mind for this one.
Little House Needleworks Farmhouse Christmas
I also finished another part on Farmhouse Christmas. I think I have 4 more to do on this one. My plan was to work on this and Jack Frost’s Tree Farm as my daily 30 in the mornings, but I know I’m not going to finish either of them this year, so I’m going to continue to work on some ornaments and smalls instead and fully finish as many as I can.
I’ve picked three of the ornaments from Prairie Schooler Snowy Nights to work on. I’m starting with the Santa because it’s Christmassy and the other two can be used through the winter.
From Prairie Schooler Snowy Nights
I’m also working on Joyeux Noel from JBW Designs.
I’m stitching this on 28 ct Christmas Red linen from Wichelt. I’m using DMC 5200 and working 1 over 1. It is tiny and I seem to spend almost as much time unstitching as stitching. I was working on this yesterday and finally got a rhythm going and you can see the right sleigh and trees are better stitched than the other sleigh and reindeer. I was hoping to get both of these done this year, but as slow as it’s going, I’m hoping just to get this one finished.
As I’ve been prepping and cleaning things out to be moved, I pulled out some finished stitched pieces and found a piece I had completely forgotten about.
The top right piece is the newest and I finished that last year. It’s from Country Cottage Needleworks Gingerbread Village. I think the top left is from an issue of Just Cross Stitch, but I’m not sure. I also don’t know when I finished it, but a while ago. The bottom piece is from a Leisure Arts Christmas Cross Stitch book. I had several and just gave them away knowing I wouldn’t stitch anything else out of them. I added the date to this one, 2006. I plan to fully finish these soon.
These two are from a booklet called “Christmas in the Colonies.” The book is in a drawer I can’t get to, but I bought it in Williamsburg years ago. There is one more I would like to stitch, so I don’t know if I will finish these or not. They were probably stitched in 2008 or 2009. I did keep the fabric I was using with these, it’s a 28 ct evenweave, so I can stitch the other one on it, too.
This is the one I had completely forgotten about. It was in the bottom of a basket I had knitting things in. The chart is in the December 2012 issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine. There are several things wrong with it. The apples in the motif at the top are worked 1 over 2 in a Smyrna Cross, which doesn’t look like that on the chart. I’ll have to go back and read the directions to see why I did it that way. I also have something on it, top right, which I’m sure has been there for 6 or 7 years, and don’t know if it will come out or not. I do really like this and may start it over. I was working with DMC, but it calls for a lot of overdyed threads. I won’t start over again this year, but maybe next year. At least it’s out in the open now, so it can call to me.
As I said earlier, I spent some time yesterday editing pictures, but they were mostly from our trip to Bryson City, NC just before Thanksgiving. I plan to do a post on that soon because the mountains in Smokey Mountain NP were spectacular, even on a cloudy day.
Hello Everyone! Today is the last Minis and More Parade hosted by Sherri and Michele for the year. The theme for November was Christmas and Holiday. Gifts or quilts, your choice. Since I’ve been busy with the basement refresh, I decided that it was a good time to finish my Merry Mini that I made in the summer.
Picture taken on the Cherohala Skyway in Tennessee and North Carolina
In July, I sewed along with the Merry Mini Mystery SAL from Fat Quarter Shop. We made one block a week and then the last week was the finishing instructions, which I diverted from.
I used fabrics from several different Holly Taylor collections for Moda. What’s nice about these fabrics is that they are not Christmassy. I will hang this up for the winter season.
I had fun quilting this one. It seems like it’s been a while since I did some free motion quilting combined with a little ruler work.
I used 50 wt Aurifil Thread with Quilter’s Dream Select batting. My background filler is a cross between echoed paisley and clamshells, which means sometimes they look like paisley and sometimes a clamshell, LOL.
I repeated some of the same quilting designs in the blocks so there would be some continuity over the quilt.
I quilted an alternating swirl in the sashing and an orange peel using my ruler foot with a three inch curved template in the border.
The backing and binding are also a fabrics from Holly Taylor.
I took Merry Mini on our 3 day trip last week to Bryson City, NC. We took the round about way across the Cherohala Skyway between Tellico Plains, TN and Robbinsville, NC. As you can see, there was a little snow at the highest elevations and a little ice still on the road. I plan to have a post later this week about the trip. (I think my camera lens was fogging up!) My lovely daughter was my quilt holder. She was home for Thanksgiving and we had a great time there and at home.
The week before Thanksgiving, I also finished Blocks 7 and 8 of Sherri and Corey’s Sunday Best Quilts QAL from their book Sunday Best Quilts.
I hope to at least get fabric for the next group of blocks cut before everything has to be moved out of my sewing room. We are having new floors installed next week, then having the basement painted the week after that. If I can, I’ll move my machine upstairs somewhere so I can get a little sewing in. If not, I’ll get a lot of cross stitching done and maybe some planning for next year.
Hello Everyone! Welcome to the last month of the Happy Little Things BOM. If you are making the quilt, you will have received the border and finishing instructions. Make sure to check out Jacquelynne’s information and tips this month. There is also another great giveaway from this month’s sponsor, Thermoweb. Read to the end of this post to see how you can have 8 chances to win.
Before we get started, I want to let you know that all my quilt and bag patterns and finished project bags are on sale for 20% off through December 3 in my shop.
For those following along with me, I have a wrap up of the projects that I did with the Happy Little Things and Bitty Blooms embroidery patterns. First up is the finished block from Month 3.
I finished the block just as it was because it’s the perfect size to use with my Ackfeld Stand. I free motion quilted using a pale yellow Aurifil 50 weight thread, one of my favorites for quilting. Now I have 7 of these little quilts to display during the year. This one will be perfect for mid spring.
Here is my completed set of the Happy Little Things collection. I love Corey Yoder’s Sunnyside Up fabric from Moda. It made Jacquelynne’s designs so fun to work with. I also used Corey’s curated DMC floss pack for all the embroidery.
This set of Project Bag, Needlebook and Pincushion would make a nice gift for your quilty friends and none of them take long to make. You can find the information below to make each one of them:
The Needlebook and Pin Cushion will fit nicely in the bag with a small embroidery hoop, project and threads. If you have made or decide to make one of these projects, I would love to see it posted on the Facebook group or Instagram (see links below).
From top left and clockwise: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall Bitty Blooms
Here are all my Bitty Blooms together. You can find the patterns for these embroidery designs, plus 8 more in Jacquelynne’s shop. I had a lot of fun stitching and finishing these little designs. The designs will also fit into the Happy Little Things blocks. If you would like to see how I finished them, you can find my tutorial here.
Now for the Giveaway!
This month’s sponsor is Thermoweb, maker of Heat n Bond plus other things. I used Heat n Bond Lite for all the small applique pieces in each of the Happy Little Things projects. I recently discovered the EZ-Print Lite printer sheets, too. I used them to make the petal border in this quilt:
For your chance to win a prize package from Thermoweb, answer this question in the comments below: When or if you applique, do you use a fusible for machine applique or do you hand applique? If you don’t applique, that’s ok, just tell me that.
Giveaway rules:
Giveaway is open to all US and international readers.
One prize per person per giveaway.
The Giveaway will end by the end of day on Sunday, December 8.
Please be sure that I can contact you immediately with your email, or be sure to include your email in your comment. If I choose your name but cannot contact you immediately, I will choose another winner.
If I do not receive a response from you by Wednesday, December 11 by8:00 AM Eastern Time, I will need to choose another winner.
Use #HappyLittleThingsBOM and #HappyLittleThingsQuilt for social media. We would love to see your progress.
