It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It' beginning to look a lot like Christmas - over at SewCalGal. 

Nothing I love more, than a great blog hop, to get all our holiday juices flowing! We all know that Sew Cal Gal does it better than anyone , now don't we? Thanks for having us again this year. We love you!!
                                 :-)


 I would like to share this quilt with you.

Kind of bright isn't it? 

Nothing beats a "fun" quilt for the holiday season.

This beautiful pattern is Timeless Treasures "Springfield Stars".

It seems that they have taken it down from their website. I can't even find it in the archives!  :-(     Boo Hoo.

The original pattern was this beautiful pastel floral,

But I had this bright silly Christmas print! What is a girl supposed to do???

 You would never recognize this pattern now. 

:-)

This year was my year to use what is in my sewing room instead of rushing out and buying more fabric. You know the prices of cotton have sky rocketed...

OK, so I am not at 100% yet, but I am working on it.  (Baby steps - baby steps)

:-)

And I have to tell you, with those high prices, you don't want to waste any of your precious fabric. There was some waste with the flying geese units on this one, but did it go into the trash????   NOOOOOOOO  Remember those scraps cost the same as all the rest of the fabric, so hang on to em.

I've got some fun things you can do with them, coming up in February.

hint hint

But that is another post all in itself. I wish I could tell you more, but you know what they say... If I told you I would have to kill you!!  :-)  :-)

Just remember don't throw a thread away.

Really, I mean it.

Your gonna be very surprised... February isn't that far away!

So on that note, I want to leave you with this thought...

If I, a visual person, who finds thinking outside the box a challenge can do it, you can too.

So grab a pattern, something from your stash, and see what treasure you can create.

Oh yeah, be sure to show us. You know we all want to see,

it's that visual thing again! 

What are you waiting for...

GO...

SEW...

:-)

And have a blessed Holiday Season!

Now is probably not the time to ask ...

But I am going to anyway.

Last week I had a customer quilt to do, and she insisted that I use a white fleece instead of batting. She provided it all, and I did what I was told.  My question is, have any of you ever done this??? Is there a down side I should have known about??  My machine didn't mind it at all, and while it's a bit stiffer than it would be with an 80/20 batting, it seemed just fine! It would be a great way to make use of fleece when they have those fantastic clearance sales.

Don't let that "Murphy Monster Cat" deceive you, while she thought it was all about her, she was no help with this project at all!  Darn cat!  :-)

So, I would love to hear your input for the next time I come across this. If I ever do!

:-)
Thanks

Thanksgiving

I have entered my Harvest Pumpkin quilt in the "Weekly Themed Quilt Contest" over at the Quilting Gallery. You can click HERE to check out the entries and please do vote while your there. There are some beautiful choices!  Voting ends on at 11:59 tonight!

Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving!

Holiday projects underway!

                                              Whoop Whoop!! 
                         Can you believe it's not Dec 20th yet, and I actually
                              have my Christmas projects underway???
                                              Who'd a thunk!

                           With having some time off work for a change,
                                       I chose to make the best of it.
                              This week I finished 4, yes 4 projects.
                                         Happy Dance Happy Dance!!

                                                                               

This one was one of the most fun things I have ever done. A race track quilt. All machine embroidered and done in the hoop.

What makes it even cooler is the bridges/overpasses

 and the car wash that your cars can drive thru!

These are stitched into the quilt on one side and attached with velcro on the other.

That way when you want to store the quilt, you just release them and they lay flat!

How ingenious is that?

But it gets even better... Pockets in the bottom that you can store your cars in, and they button close.

Now, I must admit that this is for my son, who is almost 30. Yes you read it right, 30.  He is my racing son, who collects Hot Wheels and love the "Cars" movies. So I just couldn't help myself. Mr Moosestash thought it was really cute, if we had grand kids, but he was a bit confused over it being juniors! What can I say, if I have no grands, then I have to treat my kids like children. It's a rule written somewhere I am pretty sure!

I even found the perfect backing...

So if your interested, this is a My Fair Lady design. I saw her booth at the HMQS show in Salt Lake City this year, and WOW does she have some great things. Best yet, they are easy to stitch, no million stitch designs, and they go together fairly quickly. The 56 blocks in this, only took a couple of days to stitch out.

You have to see the fabulous photo albums for babies and the calendars she has.

 They will knock your socks off!

Now I am off to shop for cars... to fill the pockets with of course!

  Note my yellow-orange car in the photos. It's Grem from the new Cars movie.

You see my first car was a Grem... It was really cool! Purple, (wild plum actually) had a sun roof and  orange, green and blue plaid seats.
I bought it right off the show room floor for $2795.00 and my payments were $69.72 a month.     Now does that date me or what!!

Even scarier, is how I remember the details on the price and payments all these years later!

Ahhhh remember the days!

Gas was .25 a gallon too.

Now I am depressed!  :-)

Alexander Henry Love Affair

                                    You know I promised,
                                           and here it is
The secret to my relationship with that witty and wonderful Alexander Henry!  You all might think the "Can't Believe it's Not Butter Man", is the hottest guy around, but I beg to disagree. For me it's Alex, oh dear Alex!!  :-) 

I brag all the time about Alexander and his delightfully fun designs. After all, who else can come up with half naked construction guys, we all love, or those Northwoods Bombshells scantily clad, and in the same breath come up with those crazy Ghastlies?? 

While I wanted to be disappointed, that there wasn't some hunky "better than butter" like man doing the designing, I  learned that it's actually a collective team, Marc, Phillip and Nicole de Leon. We know they are truly gifted artists, but how DO they come up with those delightful ideas??













I of course can't seem to stop myself from doing something completely outrageous with them.
There are just so many fun things  you can do!

Heavy Equipment...

makes a great wonky log cabin quilt. What better than the hunk on it?









Or this shirtless guys can easily be added to a bathtub, and make a very special towel set for that someone special!!  :-)

Then there are those Great Outdoors Girls.  One of my boys favorites.  They have pillow cases made from them. Nothing like sleeping with those bombshells. But wait, boxers shorts came along, and I was making them for not only my boys but their friends! Do most moms have photos of the kids friends in under ware???  

Now if you make boxers for a guy, it's a rule that you make them for his wife too!  Which lead to this...

And yes wife is pregnant with twins, but with those hunky "Twin Peaks" boys on,  (not the goofballs standing with her) she was sure smiling! Or does she just think we are a bunch of idiots?????

It was all fun and games until youngest decided to make ME a commemorative memory quilt of the under ware rebellion for Christmas. He has never sewn and had never used my machine, which is not nearly as bad as living down this image...

Oh yeah, the great outdoors guy making a quilt. Something his friends will ha-rang him about, for years to come!  :-)








But you gotta admit, it is pretty good for a newbie quilter!
And it proudly hangs in my sewing cave.

                                                                          

The boxer rebellion was just getting started."All I Want for Christmas" Boys! Now that was a great gag gift at Christmas, for a friend of mine. If you stitch down the fly, it's perfect for us gals!

                                                                                                           Can you say hubba hubba??? These "Look of Love" boys have some potential. My coveted yard of it is still in my stash, awaiting for that stroke of genius project to do justice to it!

"Ready for Action" boys. My friend made a tote bag for a fire fighters wife from this. It was quite the rage in his department, I am sure!

"Wheels on Fire" was perfect for a memory quilt of my son restoring his race car. With "Phil's Drive In" as the backing.

Muscle Cars, made for a perfect  focus fabric for a BQ quilt for that racing son of mine. Yes, he is the one who did not want any quilts from me. He was kind of sick of seeing quilts everywhere, until of course he saw his new one with matching dust ruffle and pillows.

These girls have made for a Halloween that has never been the same for some guys. Boxers of course! What else  :-)

Astro Girls Pinups!

Safely tucked away in my fabulous fabric finds. I just may never use them but I do love to take them out and look at them.  Plot against my next victim, of some outrageous project!!  :-)

You all remember the tribute to the UPS Man. I never got any of that.  So sad :-(

So Alex, as you see, you have brought great joy to our household.

Now I do ask, what delicious things do you see in our future?

I am waiting!!

:-)

Love you!