"Twis" the Day Before Christmas...

And all thru the house, all us creatures are stirring... cooking, cleaning, wrapping...   you know all those things we do to get ready for the big day!  
                                                         :-)

                         Our stocking are hung, by the chimney with cheer.
                            In hopes that St Nicholas soon will be here!

 

I do love my new Christmas tree. No mess'in with lights that won't light, no needles shedding all over the carpet... A  life is good.

 

Accept, there was no time to make the ornies for this little guy.  :-(

 

And there are so many buttons to hang them on too!

 

 

...But there is always next year!

:-)

 

This fun little pattern, which is  4"x6"

 

Packs a big  Door size tree.

Actually it holds 2 complete paper piecing sheets for door size trees!

Wow, do those large pieces go together fast!

You can find it here at

 

www.averyspecialcollection.com

 

Oh I am hearing clatter... not from the chimney, but the kitchen, I think that's my que to get off the computer and lend a hand!   They have such a subtle way of telling you don't they!

 

LOL!!!!

 

Merry Christmas to all... and to all a good day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not for the true to heart!

When I stumbled on this wonderful pattern "Vintage Tin" from Crabapple Hill, I knew I had to make it for someone special for Christmas. Now my big issue, was there was no where near enough time to get it done, by the time I found the pattern!   What to do, What to do??

Hummm... free motion quilting, I have always loved that. Wonder if I could just free motion stitch the design.

 

I picked up a great tip awhile back.  By cutting  a dissoluble stabilizer in sheets that would fit thru my printer, I could actually scan and print the design directly onto it, saving myself from having to trace the design out. Adhering it to the front of my fabric allows me to stitch just like normal. The added plus is that it gives you extra stability, so hooping really isn't necessary. Once it's all done, a quick soak in water makes all the stabilizer disappear. That is just about the greatest tip, I have ever used. Not only a time saver, but I don't have to worry about mis-tracing anything. :-)

 

 

I did use a heavy quilting thread for my top thread, so it would show up better, since I was not going to be hand embroidering it.  I do a lot of jumping around. It's much easier for me to trim out of the jump threads, than stop and start all the time.

 

 

Here are some of the blocks...

                   You can see that it isn't quite the same as hand embroidery...

                                But it certainly is an option that works!

                                 Especially if you are in a real time crunch!

I do love the detail of this pattern. So many little things that any car guy would pick up on, for sure!

:-)

 

 

                                        Lots of fun things for the guys
                                   and a great stash buster for the quilter!
                                          Can there be a better combo?

 

And to top it all off, this fun little label is included with the pattern.

 

Too fun!

 

I put this on my longarm once it was done and ran a simple little pantograph over it all.

 

It's not for the purest for sure, but in a pinch, it worked out well.

 

Thank goodness, my guys are not connoisseurs, they wouldn't notice or appreciate all the hand work that went into it anyway!   LOL!!

 

Let the holidays begin.

Wishing you all the very Merriest of Christmas's and a Happy New Year!

 

 

 

Loved to Death

You know it's all worth it, when you find that one of your quilts were just "loved to death".

I asked my brother to take pictures of the quilt his little one has dragged around for years.  Pretty sad, it is!

It was made from scraps,  6 or 7 years ago. I scrounged to find enough fabric to make the darn thing. It really was just a bonus quilt in my mind.  But in the mind of a 2 year old, it was his new best friend.

It's been everywhere he has, and he never goes to sleep without it.  Even getting it away from him to wash, was a challenge. Trying to sneak it out at night after he went to sleep, didn't work out well for them. Ended up when it was time, he would pull up a chair and sit in front of the washer and dryer and not leave until he had it in his hands again!  LOL! Now that is real love, I'd say.

Somebody has a birthday this week, and guess what????

There is a new twin size, big boy quilt that he is getting.   I was thrilled to find this flannel.. You couldn't get much closer to the original one I used.

All the cool trucks and tractors are from Anita Goodesign

You can find them here...

http://www.anitagoodesignonline.com/baby-construction/

 

 

While it's says it's a "Baby" design

 

 

We are not going to share what with Mr. Mason.

 

Little boys don't take kindly

 

To being referred to as a "baby".

LOL!

 

While I don't expect this to replace his thread bare treasure,

I hope it will be a good substitute!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

 

 

 

Eye Spy

I became very enchanted with the eye spy theme quilts this past year with the Nancy Drew blog hop. There are so many different types of "spy" quilts you can do.

I stumbled on this pattern awhile back on the Hoffman Fabric web site...

It's Snow Globes by Denise M Russart

 

Here is the link for the free PDF file

http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/EDocs/Site10/Snowglobes%20quilt%20pattern.pdf

 

With all the Christmas fabrics that I have collected, I knew these snow globes would be perfect!

 

 

I took it a couple of steps further and made mine into a lap size quilt

                                             And personalized each globe.

 

My quilt is longer than most.

 

I like a little extra so my toes don't stick out

 

on these cold winter nights

 

So my quilt is 73" long

 

It's such a fun way

 

to make a commemorative Holiday quilt!

 

Bet you have someone on your list who could use one too!

It is a fast and easy pattern to do.

I have to share. I used a gold Glide thread by Fil-Tec, for the first time, to quilt this.

 My HQ16  has always been an easy machine to stitch with, but this thread ran thru it like a dream. Not one thread break in the entire quilt. Oh it was a great quilting day! 

 

:-)

Happy quilting.

 

A big thanks to Hoffman Fabrics and Denise for sharing such a fun and easy pattern with us!

 

 

When Pinterest Inspires...

I love looking thru Pinterest. Recently I stumbled on this adorable tutorial over at U-createcrafts.com

                      http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2009/11/snuggle-snowmen-tutorial.html

Snuggle Snowmen 

by: Natalia Bonner & Kathleen Whiting

Finished quilt size: 44"x64"

With those little faces peaking over the snowball pile, I knew I was going to have to jump in and play with this one myself.

My version is a bit different. I made my snowball pile bigger, to keep those toes nice and warm!  LOL!!

 

I even dug thru the pattern pile, and found this pattern that I bought years ago.

It had never opened, but was perfect for my quilt!

 

 

So there you have it. My version of the Kilroy's Snuggle Snowmen!

A big thanks to U-create and to
Natalia and Kathleen for sharing their inspiration with us!
You can visit them at their blog
http://www.pieceandquilt.com/