Some Christmas Cheer part 2.

As promised here is part two of the Christmas cheer tour!  This is the centerpiece on my dining room table.  I love metal Christmas trees with simple baubles hanging from them.  

This is the tree in my dining room.  It has many decorations from South Africa hanging on it.  The tree skirt was made by me many moons ago.  I think it was actually the first tree skirt I made.  One of my cats loves to sleep on it.  I think he thinks it belongs to him!

This tree is officially called "The Naughty Cat Tree".  It has only cat decorations in it.  I add a few ornaments to it each year.  This year I treated myself to a Jim Shore ornament.  I made the tree skirt a few weeks ago.   I know it is hard to see but the fabric is tree branches with cats perched on them.  So sweet and appropriate for the tree.  I have taken so many photo's of this tree and have yet to get a good one. The light in New Hampshire is not good.  Even during a sunny spell.  

I made another tree skirt for the tree in the family room.  Every once in a while one has a project which gives you fits right from the word go.  I had so many dates with my seam ripper etc.  I nearly gave up on it.  Then I thought it would probably be a good one if I just persevere.  I am happy I did.  I really do like it now.  

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments during the course of the year.  I have so appreciated each and every one.  I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  I hope you will get some time to stitch around the holidays and that not every moment will be spent in the kitchen.  I can't wait to see all the lovely things you make next year.

Some Christmas Cheer!

Oh how I love Christmas.  It is the time of year to be with family and spend some loving time together.  Not everyone can always make it to the same location, but how precious to have some family present.  To do things out of the ordinary for a few days.  To shower loved ones with lots of love, good food, wonderful music, that special gift and of course the spirit of the season.  I have worked hard to transform the home for Christmas and it has been worth it.   My sewing machine has been working hard and I have tried to tuck a bit of Christmas into every corner of the house.  Here is a small nativity on the sofa table in the family room.

The mantle is decked out with Woodland Santas and a deer!

Some yummy minty candies on the coffee table with a small quilt I made many years ago.

A little table in the eating area of the kitchen houses the Advent Calendar and a few baubles hanging from hooks on a shelf.

This is a small needle punch Santa that I hung on the side of an Ikea cupboard in the kitchen.

Here is the front of the cupboard with vintage looking deer on top along with some greenery and lights.

A Christmas quilt made from Dresden plates which I made about three years ago.  I so enjoy taking all these treasures out each year and placing them around the home.  This is not the end of the tour, but because it is so photo heavy I thought I would split it into two posts.  Thanks for stopping by to visit and enjoy your people this week.  Make it count and shower them with love.

Some of this and some of that!

This is always such a busy time of the year.  I think that people who craft and makes things perhaps put too much pressures on themselves to get things made for gifts, made for the house etc.  On top of this is the usual shopping and baking and decorating and.....
My sewing machine needs a vacation!  She has been working rather hard of late!  Lets see what I have been up to.  I made this darling little mini quilt for my stand.  It is a six inch quilt.  So cute.   Connecting Threads.com has a book of mini quilts which they publish.  This is one of the patterns from the book.  They are all extremely cute. 

I made my December Kimberbell Bench Pillow.  This was a really fun project and is so bright and cheerful.  It was rather a lot of work, but so worth it.  

I have been crocheting a bunch of snowflakes for the Christmas tree.  When I have finished making the snowflake I block pin it to my ironing board and saturate it with Niagra Spray Starch.  I leave it overnight to dry.  The next day I iron the snowflake on the wrong side with the iron on a steam setting.  I found all of these patterns on Pinterest - free!

Here is my little helper hiding under some fabric!  I had to lie down on the floor to get this picture.  He looks a bit like a medieval monk!  Funny kitty.  I have been making other things too but I will post about them next time.  I hope you are all staying sane with all the gift making going on.  

Christmas Ornaments!

Every year I make a few ornaments for the Christmas trees. I have fun picking the ornament to make each year. Sometimes it is hard to find the one that snaps my socks, but this year there are many that I want to make.  This one is called the Prairie Point Star christmas ornament.  It is so much fun to make.  You can use charm squares or any 5" squares that you cut yourself.  The tutorial is at Supermomnocape.com.

As I live in a colder climate (where it has not snowed yet this winter), I decided some crocheted snowflakes would look lovely in the tree.

I have been trawling Pinterest and there are many free patterns to be found.  I love the crocheted chart.  There are many patterns with a chart of how to make them.

Wouldn't an entire tree full of these look wonderful?  I wish I could wave the magic wand and have them appear!  Do you make Christmas decorations for your tree too?

A Bit of this and a Bit of That!

I am working on so many things at the moment!  I have added a few more flowers to the batik Pop of Color quilt.  I so enjoy adding a flower when I have a few spare moments.  I have hung the quilt and just take it down to take up to the sewing room for adding a flower or two.  

I am making an scrappy hexagon afghan with left over bits of yarn.  They are all the same weight so the scraps work well.  I am also getting to use up those tiny balls of leftovers at the end of a skein of yarn.

I am currently doing an "Attic 24"  Cal.  It is a courthouse steps style block and is crocheted.  Instead of light and dark colors, the pattern is being worked in warm and cool colors.  The right side of the block still needs one strip added to it.  I am patiently (not so much) waiting for the ball of yarn to arrive.  

A couple of months ago I started making placemats for Thanksgiving.  I got them pieced and then they took a backseat in the sewing room.  Well guess what???  Next week is Thanksgiving.  EEEEKKKK, I have gotten a move on and quilted six of them and bound five.  One more left to bind.  I also made matching mug rugs with smaller tumblers and they are quilted and are awaiting binding too.  I have been a busy girl.  Did I mention I am painting my sons bedroom because he comes home on Friday for Thanksgiving.  I may post a picture or two.  It was a yucky beige color and now is a gorgeous blue with grey undertones.  Very fresh!

A Pop off Color.

Last weekend I went to A Quilters Gathering Quilt show in Manchester, New Hampshire. There were many lovely quilts to see and lots of vendors too.  I bought a few patterns and just had to start on one the minute I got home. It is so colorful and lovely.  The first order of business was to pull a variety of green fabrics from my batik stash.  90 four and a half inch blocks were cut.  Then I stitched them together in rows of 9.  I made ten rows.

Next up was quilting and binding after attaching a one and a half inch border.  I quilted it by stitching in the ditch.  The quilt is "complete" in this photo.  Now for the fun.....

Lots of petals had to be made and I am still busy with petal construction.  They are made with two fabric each.  Each flower has four petals.  So, that means 360 petals.  Whew....

Here are a few sets with the final stages of prep done.

Next you position four petals onto a block of the completed quilt and stitch them down.  At the intersection you add a button once the stitching is done.  Isn't it wonderful.  I am using lots of bright colors and making a flower garden.  I apologize for the orientation of a few of the photos.  Sometimes technology hates me.  I could not get them to cooperate.  I am off to sew some more flowers onto my quilt.  I will show updated photos.  Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for visiting.

A Finished Shawl.

Occasionally one has to nip outside when it's cold and it is easier to grab a shawl quickly instead of going to the coat closet.  I found some pretty yarn with alpaca in it.  I made a granny square shawl and it was a real quick make.  Took a week from start to end. 

It is fairly big and hangs down to my knees at the back.  You just have to have enough to wrap cozily around yourself.

Here is a photo of the stitch down the increase to make the "V".

I finished off the shawl with one row of double crochet and then a row of shells.  I really like edging in a shell.  It is such a pretty stitch - somewhat feminine without being overly frilly.

First snow and some Beautiful Leaves!

For the last three years that I know of, Quilters Newsletter Magazine has had a beautiful Christmas quilt to Foundation Paper Piece.   Last year's one is called First Snow!   I started it lady year and did not get very far at all.  I unearthed it and have made some real progress.   I would love to get this one finished for Christmas this year!  Here are some of the pieced trees.

I have also been busy building houses.  Such lovely variety in the style of homes.

I have enjoyed finding some fabrics from the stash to add interesting elements to the windows.  I love this house full of people.

Yesterday I went into town and just had to take a couple of pictures.  This tree is so lovely.  The camera does not do justice to the beautiful colors.

A rain cell was approaching and I so loved the colors of the leaves against the grey backdrop of clouds.  The light was awesome.  Again, not done justice by the camera.

Crumb Quilt Progress!

A while back I did a post on making a crumb quilt.  If you have never made one I highly recommend it!   The blocks are so much fun to put together!  I have put all my blocks together and stitched them into rows. The rows are attached to each other and now I am working on the borders.

I want to continue the "crumb" feel into the border.  So I cut out a border strip from muslin and am attaching the scrappy strips of fabric to it.  It is a sew, flip, iron process.  Lots of hopping up and down to the iron.  I trim after adding a few strips so that it is not a huge job at the end.  It is looking good and I am happy with the progress of the borders so far.

This picture was taken this morning of the wonderful fall colors in my little corner of New Hampshire.  I plan on driving around a lot this weekend to look at the spectacular fall foliage.  Have a great weekend and thank you for stopping by for a visit!

Live Simply!

I signed up about two years ago to do the Live Simply BOM from Buttermilk Basin! I love her simple sweet designs.   Of course I am behind with finishing the blocks. I think I have five done and they are not the ones needed to display for the next few months. I had been working on the embroidery for two and only had to quilt and bind them!   Since they are 6.5" by 8.5", that was not too much of a chore.  So I got them both done today!   I am smiling!  This sweet owl  belongs to August!  

This sweet squirrel is September's block.  I have hung it up because I think the squirrel will work from August through November!  I am furiously working on October's block so that I can hang it up for at least a few days.  I think these are so cute!  The background is flannel.  The binding is cotton and the animals are wool.  It's so much fun appliqueing wool and flannel.  

A Tunic!

Things are a changing!  There is a chill in the air and the leaves are turning bright oranges, yellows and reds!  I am thinking of the cold weather ahead!  Last year, I saw a super easy tunic to crochet on Cozy Things blog.  What you do is measure your widest part, divide by four and make 16 granny squares to that measurement.  Stitch them together and edge the ends and voila, you have a very cozy tunic.  I am amazed at how well this fits.  Of course it is made to size.  Forgive the very awkward selfie!

Well that is better.  I had some help on this one.  I like it so well I am making another one in greens.  It is like wearing your robe, just not as tacky!  

This is the view out my front door today.  It is rainy and cool.  I am so very grateful for the rain as it has been a very dry summer here in NH.  See the leaves?  They are so vibrant.  The color is lost a bit in the picture.  I am a resident peeper and go out just to see the leaves!  FABULOUS!

It is funny how your diet changes when the weather starts cooling.  You start thinking of soups and pies and stews.  This pie is so easy to make.  You make your favorite stew and then place a piece of flaky pastry on top and cook it in the oven for 25 minutes.  Heaven on a cool evening.

A Basket out of Strings.

I have two SCARY big bags of fabric scraps.   I am working on the crumb quilt with fabrics from the bags.  I feel like all I have done is manage to fluff them up and make them look fuller!   I came across strings which really are to narrow to make anything with,  unless. ...... yeah, why not make a basket with wrapped cotton washing line!

I just love this basket!  It is so amazingly colorful.  I tried to pic a good assortment of colors and patterns.  I used 100 ft of washing line, so definitely more than 100 ft of strings since they are wrapped.   This just may become my knitting basket!  Beats a packet from the store!

Fall Decorating!

We have finally had a bit of cooler weather here in New Hampshire!   So I decided it was time to get some of those fall decorations out of the basement!  I usually make a seasonal quilt or wall hanging as the seasons roll around.  This one is not new, but I really like it.  

This crow quilt is also an oldie!  He makes me smile!  It looks like his cart of sunflowers is a burden to drag along.  

Crows are so representative of fall to me.  They are such funny characters.  I dotted a few around and about the house.  These two adorn my coffee table on a small "crow" quilt.

I made the pumpkin head dolly a few years ago.  She is guarding the basket of pumpkins on the window ledge.

I have "Beautiful Fall" hanging in my entrance hall.  I love the colors in this quilt and of course I could not resist making it because of the crow!

The two pilgrims and glass pumpkins are on the mantle this year.  I love finding new spots for the decorations each year.  It helps having a new house!  Every spot is different! Do you enjoy decorating for fall?