Santa Sack Swap 2015

I participated in the 2015 Santa Sack Swap.  Cheryll runs it over at the  Santa Sack Swap Blog.  It was a lot of fun and I had a lot of fun making some things for my partner Wendy over at Stitch Duchesss Crazy Sane Quilting World.  After making it's way through drifting snow that looked something like this:

(for real!)

My wonderful package arrived!  I did take a picture before I opened it, but my camera didn't recognize it for some reason and it caused some problems so I only have the lovely gifts to show (don't mind the Christmas prepping in the background):

Do you want to take a closer look?

Here's a fun mini quilt book, templates that allow you to fussy cut (yeah!) and are red so you can see value in the fabric.  I'm going to have fun playing with that.  Some pretty fabric and a beautiful table runner.  Thanks Wendy!  It's so pretty!

Here's my tote and some coasters to match, The some basting pins and some cards.

You can see the colors a little truer in this picture.  

There's the edge of the table runner too.  Isn't it pretty?!

Thanks so much Wendy!  I'm going to have lots of fun!  Thanks for a fun swap! 

 Thanks to Cheryll fo running it!

Merry Christmas!

Whims and Fancies Trunk Show

 

I'm down to the wire, but wanted to join  Soma at Whims and Fancies' trunk show.  Have you checked it out--it's been so fun to visit blogs and see some amazing quilts.  It's been fun for me to look back on the year a bit and realize we've made quite a bit.

  

First I want to share my kids quilts.

This is Mowg's Quilt.  We participated in a Primary Bee with 10 other kids and each month they took turns picking a block and color scheme for everyone to make.  I love how different each block is and love the bows that my niece quilted it with.  Mowg's idea was a Christmas tree:  Brown for the trunk, Green for the tree and red for the decorations.  We ran out of the solid green we'd planned to use for sashing and found some neat tree fabric that he liked.  It's been hard to find fabric for this dark green lovin' kid.  It was a great if sometimes difficult experience to make these blocks together and put it all together.  It's on his bed now and he loves it.

Here's a closeup of the quilting

Tiny chose the Friendship Star with yellow for the sun and blue for the sky.  We added white for the clouds on some of the sashing.  The top and bottom are a Lizzy House light blue print of asterisks stars.  She used that on the back as well.  It's been so fun have them done.  So fun to see their sense of accomplishment.  It's such a bright quilt.  It always makes me smile.  

The quilting is really fun on this too

I made a few quilts too these are my favorites:

A new baby came to the family and in collaboration with my Mom, sisters and brother we made made this Hugs n Kisses Quilt to send her hugs and kisses from all of us that couldn't be there to do it in person.  Everyone picked out fabric that they liked or that represented something they likes--something about them.  It was so fun to have it come together.  I pieced the top together and helped a little with the quilting, but mostly it was my Mom and two of my sisters that quilted it. (I thought I'd mention that I used a tutorial at Canoe Ridge Creations here for this quilt)

This quilt is a favorite mostly because it was such a challenge for me.  I tried 3 different methods of making the orange peels before one of them worked for me.  I was delighted with how it turned out and so was my niece whose baby wasn't quilt a year old yet.  That's pretty good isn't it?!

These next two are the smallest quilts I made and are my favorites.  I'm not a big fan of paper piecing, but I sure loved the results.  The potted cactus is from a pattern that I can't find anywhere now that Amanda at Material Girl designed for Heather Givens' Succulents line blog hop.  (Whew!)  I made it for a local miniature quilt show--which is my yearly try-something-new-quilt.  In the process of making it I realized my fabric choice for one the sections got completely swallowed up in the background.  Since I had a deadline that was looming I decided to just use the one that didn't get swallowed up and call it "It's a Start".  I really love how it turned out.  It's hanging on my wall now.

Last, but certainly not least is this quilt for a dear teacher that moved away.  She was Tiny's teacher for two years and made her enjoy school so much.  She loves pigs and crowns and math!  Both my girls suggested that I make them one for their room too.  I haven't pulled that off yet, but I was able to get it to the teacher before she left.  I also had Tiny "sign" it and embroidered her signature on the bottom of it.  (I forgot to tell you the pattern is on Craftsy: here--it's not my pattern)

Thanks for checking out my quilts!  Thanks Soma for the chance to take minute and look back.

I've been so busy this fall and I have so much to share, but no time to share it in.   It's been taking a super long time to load photos, so at some point I'll share some of the fun we've been doing and making.

Just for fun I wanted to share some fun thing I've seen lately:

Redwork Sample Quilt is very intriguing to me.  I fall in love with all things Scandinavian this time of year.   Red and white seem so cheery to me.  I think some of my attraction to this comes from my very most favorite shape --heart.  I  don't know why, but I just love that shape.  I'm wondering if anyone has anyone seen this is person.    The little tiny hearts in the Connecting Threads Kinderfolk line have my heart pitter patting.  :)  As does all the red and whiteness of it.



Some Things I'd like to try:

Hand Lettering

  Tom bow Brush pens

and these:

I'm also curious about these pencils:

I've wanted some inks to play with for a long time

Dr. Ph Martins' Bombay Inks

And F.W. Inks

Rice Paper

Block and Screen Printing have been on my "I want to try list" for a long time

As has Whittling

I'm having a harder and harder time threading needles--this would be a fun way to fix that.

PVA for Bookbinding

We may have solved out pencil sharpening difficulties recently with a battery operated one, except for the battery thing.  I that sounds like one I'd like to try:

A saying that's heard a lot around my house is, "What the heck is Sugru"   It's a clay like substance that cures into rubber.   I'd love to give it a try:

Large Mouth Mason Jar Pouring Lid--would make pouring milk so much easier!

Chocolate Frogs!  Need I say more?

Then there's books:

Thanks for letting me make a list---it's like shopping without the guilt!

4th Quarter Christmas is Coming!

Here's my 4th Quarter List for the Finish Along

Quilt my Starburst Quilt

Star Trek Quiet Book (half way there!)

Applique Turtle Quilt (need to piece and quilt)

Cat Glasses Quilt

Little Turtle Quilt

Star Wars Quilt for Mowg

Midnight Sun Quilt for me

Quilt Mini Patch Wall Quilt

Seahawks Quilt (finish applique and quilt)

Dad's Line Quilt

Mom's X&O's Quilt

Honeycomb I-Spy Pink (top completed)

Hello Tokyo Dolls (2)

Christmas Tree Quilt

Bear Paw Moccasins

Forget-me-Not Moccasins

Pettiskirts (2)

Minecraft Pillows

100 Days Quilt 1 (top complete)

100 Days Quilt 2

Log Cabin Cabin Quilt

Dog Bed Runner

Peasant Dress (red)

New Hammock Cover

Farm Quilt

Spider Quilt

Cathedral Windows

Bird Mini Quilt

Tote

Heart Hot Pad

Tree of Gondor Wall Quilt

Skylander Fire Element Pillow

Sewing Clutch

Bow Clutch

Pi day Quilt

Pajama pants (4)

What do you See Quilt

A few non-quilty things:

Morse Code Bracelets

Time Turner Necklaces (13)

Wands  (13)

Broomsticks (13)

Journals

I should narrow this down, but it just keeps growing.  Here's to getting more finished!

Tiny's Primary Bee Quilt!

Guess who got her Primary Bee Quilt done?!

Tiny and I finished her Primary Bee Quilt!

If you look close at the top and bottom you'll see the material we used for backing as well.

It's from Lizzy House's Constellation line.

  It doesn't photograph well, but it has the prettiest light blue asterisk stars. 

Here's the top two rows up a little closer

Bottom two rows

Tiny's cousin quilted these fantastic stars in the borders

(the angle of this makes the sashing look  strange)

And one little outtake from our photo shoot--it was her favorite part--climbing on the outside.

That's my second finish for this quarter. (List here)

Thanks Primary Bee Mates for the great blocks!

A Finish!

The Hugs and Kisses Quilt

I think I'm safe in posting this even though it hasn't arrived yet.

There's a new baby coming soon in our family and this is a quilt of hugs and kissed from "the Aunts", Uncle and Grandma.  There's a hug and a kiss from each one.

You can't see the quilting very well, but there's the first letter of the name of the person it's from in the center of each of the hugs.  Then "X's" and "O's" in the border as well.  It's all hand quilted,. 

It was so fun to pull it together and work on it together--for some just talking about what kind of fabric they'd choose and for others the hands on quilting and piecing.

I put the top together as well as several of the squares (6--3 hugs and 3 kisses) and contributed a teeny tiny bit to the quilting.  It's backed with Heather'Ross' Cricket in the Clover.

Even though we can't be there to love on the little one when she arrives we're thinking of her and her parents and will be sending hugs and kisses her way very soon.

That's one more off my Third Quarter List (HERE).  

Hooray!

THIRD Quarter!

Chiska's 3rd Quarter Crazy Long List

Quilt my Starburst Quilt

Star Trek Quiet Book (half way there!)

Applique Turtle Quilt (need to piece and quilt)

Tiny's Primary Bee quilt

 Fairy Quilt for Babywan

Fairy Quilt for Tiny

Star Wars Quilt for Mowg

Midnight Sun Quilt for me

Quilt Mini Patch Wall Quilt

Seahawks Quilt (finish applique and quilt)

Dad's Line Quilt

Mom's X&O's Quilt

Honeycomb I-Spy Pink

Honeycomb I-Spy Cats

Hello Tokyo Dolls (2)

Christmas Tree Quilt

Bear Paw Moccasins

Forget-me-Not Moccasins

Pettiskirts (2)

Skylander Symbols Quilt

Minecraft Pillows

100 Days Quilt 1 (top complete)

100 Days Quilt 2

Log Cabin Cabin Quilt

Hugs and Kisses Baby Quilt

Bear Baby Quilt

Down on I's Farm Quilt

Cat Glasses Quilt

Pig Quilt

Polyester Picnic Blanket for M

LOR for Mowg

It's still a long list but it is getting shorter!  I have a few things to add to the list (Christmas is coming!) this quarter.  I think I need to do a post crossing things off so I can see that progress.  We've had several weeks of crazy busy going on at our house which has translated into no sewing for me.  Although not completely true, I helped my Mom get started on a project, but that was cutting not sewing and well it's not quite the same.  Here's hoping for a stack of finishes this quarter!

Finishes 3

A few more finishes!  I'm on a roll.

The purple squares baby quilt.  Not quite what I'd hoped, but it's home.

My elephants are bound!  I'm snuggling under them.

I love how my niece quilted them!

Mowg's Primary Bee quilt!

His cousin quilted it in bows (like a package). It's fantastic!

He and I worked on the binding together.

Thanks for the great blocks Primary Bee Mates!

Tiny's quilt is in the binding stage, but she wants to be much more involved so it's taking a little longer.  It looks amazing too.  I'm quite sure I don't want to do something like that again, but I'm sure glad we did.  Babywan was asking about her quilt last night, so I guess I'd better get going on something for her.  She did after all "make" a block or two and I think I can pull together some things for her so she can have a quilt she made as well.  So much to do!

My list original is here.