Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow

Some of you might remember last winter when I was super excited about the fact that we were getting a whole whopping 2 inches of snow. I was thrilled because we hardly ever see snow here on the east coast of Virginia being as close to the ocean as we are. But man that snow storm last year has nothing on what's going on around these parts today. At last check I had 10 inches of snow on my back deck. I thought at first it might have been in part due to a drift building up out there but after taking a quick peak at the cars and the roof of my garage I actually believe we have gotten that much snow. In even better news (well if you like snow) it is still falling. Nothing like the help of mother nature to make me want to stay inside with some Peppermint Tea and my sewing machine. I have been thinking a lot over the last few weeks about what I want my sewing goals to be for the upcoming year and I have a lot of ideas running around in my head. Because of that I want to make sure that all of my bee block commitments are current and that no one is waiting for me.

This picture is from about 10:30 this morning.

I had the privilege of being in two bees this year with Rachel and the poor thing had the last month in both of them. I received her fabrics last week and so I started there. First she is in my Spider Bee and she chose this great strip for the middle of her spider web blocks. One thing I really enjoyed about Rachel's fabrics is that the colors and textures of her fabrics were such a wide variety. She included everything from buttery soft voile to home deco weight fabrics. She did ask that we not sew the triangles together because she is considering setting her blocks on point. I thought that was a great idea for these fun little spider webs.


Next up we also shared the Modern Tradition Bee. For this bee Rachel included fabrics in much the same colorways and asked for Buzz Saw blocks. Here is what I came up with. I knew I didn't want the fabrics in the HST to repeat themselves in the same blocks so I ended up pulling quite a few fabrics from my scrap bin to mix along with those that Rachel sent. The great thing was she sent such a wide variety nothing really seemed out of place. And do you see that instruction sheet there in the middle. I called Rachel an overachiever but she really did out do herself with the personalized address labels she included on and in the package and the instruction sheets in full color on nice shiny paper. Don't get to jealous girls she is a graphic designer by day and used that as her explanation for the great sheets. I was just excited because it made the process of putting her blocks together super easy and enjoyable.

A Quilt for Christmas

Whew...the holiday rush is over. As much as I love this time of year the hustle and bustle seems to be taking more and more out of me each year. I thought I would spend the next couple of post sharing pictures of some of the projects I've been working on around here lately. I thought we would start with the chocolate and blueberries quilt that I had been working on for the hubs dad and girlfriend. I made this quilt following Karrie's recipe for Moda's Bake Shop. I made just a few changes to her pattern to make the quilt a little larger. I added an extra row and I cut my pieces larger so they utilized the full 10 inch square of the layer cake. I must admit I had a hard time giving this one away because it would have matched my bedroom so well. The hubs has already requested that I make another one for us so I imagine I will be duplicating at least the front of this one again in the new year. But there are a few projects that I need to complete first. Enjoy the pictures and I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

New Year, New Projects

I have been very busy this week trying to get the finishing touches put on Christmas gifts. I've done so much hand sewn binding that I feel like my fingers are ready to bleed and I still have another quilt to go. Oy! It will be well worth it though when I get to enjoy the recipients opening their gifts. What about you, feeling that last push to the Holiday's yet? As this year has been quickly winding down I've been thinking about the projects I want to take on next year. I am really hoping to have more finishes under my belt next year. I feel like this year I've spent a ton of time sewing but not much time actually finishing projects. I've got a few projects lined up already for next year just waiting to get started on but I came across a few this week that I am sure I won't be able to resist. If you haven't seen these yet be sure to check them out.



I already love pretty much everything I have seen by Sweetwater and I was already excited about their new line Sunkissed. I was imagining all of the great quilts I could make with this line. So when this quilt along came up and I saw it popping up on multiple blogs that I read on a daily basis so I knew it was bound to be good. I can't wait to see what this creative team comes up with.



And since I don't know how to do embroidery yet if anyone has helpful hints or a good place to start please let me know because I'm sure Cory will be full of creative genius and I don't want to miss out.

Distractions

Well I didn't do a whole lot of sewing this weekend but most of the projects I am working on right now I won't be able to show you until after Christmas anyway. But I did manage to get all but the hand sewing of bindings done on a couple different things which I promise to show you as soon as I can. In the mean time there are lots of distractions out there. Tomorrow Sew Mama Sew is hosting another giveaway day. I missed the announcement so while I'm not hosting a giveaway over here I will be hopping all over blog land during the next week and hoping I get lucky this time around. Last Christmas I managed to score some great swag from a few different places. But I also made some great friends by commenting on some profile photos. I mean really who can resist a bulldog (Hi Bea!). I also managed to crank out 1 set of bee blocks tonight and considering it is 3 minutes until tomorrow I think I am going to stop there. This whole not sleeping thing is getting old. Becky asked for simple half square triangle blocks. She sent along some Innocent Crush and a great espresso solid. It was nice to have such an easy block to wrap up the Bee Stitched Bee and since I have been working on Holiday sewing it was nice to have something that didn't take a lot of math skills and brain power. I love her inspiration quilt and in fact I have had a variation floating around in my head for some time now. I am going to have to get that from brain to fabric soon but first I have to make it through the holidays.

Be Not Forgot

I was talking to my mom the other day about what I was going to do for my sister in law for Christmas and she reminded me about the wall hanging I started for her last year. Those of you who have been with me since I started blogging just over a year ago may remember that this was the very first project that I posted about. You can read about it here. Well I am happy to report that I got it back out of the work in progress box and it is now 98% done. All that's left is to hand sew the binding. Last year I was going to attempt to hand stitch around the applique pieces and I had only made it around 1 of the trees and it wasn't looking so great. Thanks to a bee mate who asked for appliqued blocks last month I got a little practice and with the help of my machine's guide I think I'm making progress. It isn't perfect by any means but it looks a lot better than my hand sewing. Not to mention it is a lot faster, which is good if you are like me trying to crank out Christmas gifts still. T minus 3 weeks and counting. Lucky for me I don't have to ship any of our gifts so I can work on them right up until Christmas Eve, Eve which is good because I have a feeling it's going to take me that long.



Especially when the list is growing instead of shrinking. Right now I have this fun variegated thread in my machine doing some quilting. It's another one of those projects I'm not ready to show just yet but after the holidays I should have lots of good stuff to share. At least that's the plan.

Oh Christmas Tree

For the last 8 years my Christmas tree has looked the same. The first Christmas I was married I asked my husband to pick out the color ornaments he wanted, I assumed he would pick a shade of red or green. Instead he picked blue. So I decorated our tree in blue and silver for the last 8 years. This year I decided it was time for a change. Now that I have this great tree skirt with such a wonderful story behind it (you can read about it here if you missed it) I really wanted to do something different. I don't have many red and green ornaments because they don't match the tree but a few years ago after Christmas I got some red and gold stars from cracker barrel on clearance and I had some red and green balls I got for a table center piece once before. I decided to use these as the base ornaments for the tree and then just fill in with whatever other ornaments we had. You will probably all think I'm crazy but when I do the silver and blue tree the only thing that goes on that's not blue or silver are snowman. I know I can get away with it because I don't have kids yet bringing me homemade ornaments.

Here's a look at some of my favorite ornaments on the tree this time. This wire angel I'm pretty sure my mom made as decoration for our presents about 3 years ago. I have two of them on the tree but they just look so nice to me. They pick up the white lights and of course they are angels which makes them special by their own right.

Last year my mom started a tradition with my brother (well his wife) and I that we get to pick a ornament off their tree and then she writes the story behind it and passes the ornament on to us. This was my pick last year which turns out to be a good one because it hung on my mom and dad's very first tree. They made it using a kit from a local hobby shop in New Mexico where they lived at the time. I like it because even if I go back to my blue and silver tree it will still fit in and it has sentimental significance.

Last up is the angel that is on top of my tree this year. This angel has decorated the top of my parents tree for as long as I can remember until my mom gave her to me a few years ago. My mom made her the year I was born as she has a great family story behind her. So this is my sentimental tree from the skirt all the way up to the angel on top. And since I've been feeling a little like a scrooge this year having this tree around is a nice reminder not only of why I celebrate Christmas but because of the blessing it represents as well. I hope you all have a blessed holiday season.

A Tease

Just a little something to let you know I'm still here and sewing. As promised I wouldn't be able to keep this off my blog forever so here is a little sneak at just one of the projects I'm working on for Christmas. Never mind my messy stitches here they have since been corrected but it still gives you an idea. Also in this photo the lines I drew haven't been washed out yet so it looks a little gray around the stitches but that too has been corrected. Hope you are all having fun working on your various holiday projects. I'm sure it will be a little slow around here until after the holidays when I can show off in full force everything I've been working on quietly around here.