Three of my New Year Blessings.

Olive had a snowboarding accident. 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

 Plus - You still have 24 hours!

Recycled Halloween

 I had about 50 of these little Hersheys Cookies and Cream bars left over from Halloween so I made Christmas candy. 😅😅😅

I filled this tray and then melted them in the oven at 250, sprinkled crushed candy cane on top and let it cool.  

Turned out OK and I will use to garnish plates of Christmas cookies. Why can't we just throw anything away?  Like that banana in the background of picture 1 😄😀.  It will go in a smoothie later today.

Whoville?

This makes me think of Whoville, the city the Grinch haunted.  It's the annual lighting of the tree in Story City.

 

Collage Class Results

Here's a couple finished collage quilts from our October class that have been sent to me. Aren't these great?

by Janeen Pearson

By Rhonda Matus

 

This is where I am on mine. It's time to start embellishing it. These two have given me some great inspiration.

This is my first draft. I heated some of the pieces with an iron to remove and replace with more subtle prints in the background. I also replaced the front piece of the pin cushion and like my new version much better.

I think the fun thing about collaging is the play. Give yourself plenty of time to create.

Any one else from class have progress to share? 

Sunday Sewday

 On my Sunday Sewday, I made my favorite burp clothes to add to a baby shower gift.

I start with pre-folded cloth diapers and cut the top and bottom edges off to make them straight.

Then I covered one end with the same flannel used to back the baby quilt and used the same binding fabric for the other end.

These burp clothes along with a cute gauze bundling blanket and baby quilt will fit nicely in my suitcase as I travel to Texas for this baby shower soon. 😍😍

School Christmas program fun

 The reason for my move north is to be closer to family and it has already been so rewarding.  

The 3rd grade school Christmas program is this evening and I had fun helping with the costumes.

These pieces will be part of a squirrel, chipmunk, raccoon and 2 foxes.  Can't wait to see them on stage.

Holiday Decor

 I love decorating for the Christmas but I have not had a lot of time for decorating my home the last several years. I decorated a window up town, the shop, the front porch and that was about it.

Now I am having fun decorating my new "old" house.

When I was a teenager, my mom put candles like these in the windows of our farm home and I always loved seeing them from a mile away as I drove home at night from a ballgame or whatever. 

Her's had to plug in to electrical outlets but nowadays they come battery operated with led lights and a remote control.

Remember in the 80s when we were all doing counted cross-stitch? Well this framed verse has been making an appearance for the holidays every year since.  

I've been layering things on or over this antique frame I bought at a salvage store.

One of my favorite holiday decorations is this manger set, solid leaded crystal, a wedding gift.

Every Christmas we celebrated together, 23 in total, I gave Frank a snow globe. He loved them, especially if they had good snow.  

This year, with downsizing my extensive collection of "things", I decided to break up the set. I gave away most of the collection to family and friends and kept a few of my favorites.

I also kept his favorite, this Harley globe. Instead of playing Christmas music, it revs an engine in the distinctive sound of a Harley.

I also love these bejeweled ornament boxes but it's hard to find a place to display them. I bought these at Younkers on clearance when they were closing their Merle Hay Mall store. How long ago has that been?

They fit nicely in these backroom windows. My sister calls this the catch-all room and she is pretty accurate. Anything going out or coming in tends to get parked here.

Mirror project

 You may remember this mirror. It hung in the shop bathroom.  It is big and heavy.  It sits here on the backbar cabinet you may also recognize from the shop. Those drawers use to hold block of the month kits. Now these former shop pieces are part of my bedroom set.

This mirror was kind of a grey-white before and did not go with the bedroom furniture so I painted it. This was another of my trial and error adventures! I had a few re-dos but in the end it worked out.

After the first coat of cream was too shiny, I tried a crackle method. First I streaked on this color to peak through the cracks. Then added a layer of crackle medium followed by a coat of cream chalk paint (not the kind you can write on with chalk).

Chalk paint is very absorbent so I sealed it with two coats of clear wax. It still did not look antique enough so I added a coat of brown antique wax. You dab it on and then rub off with a wet cloth, leaving as much or as little as you want.

Adel Celebrates!

 Adel kicks off this weekend with the lighting of the Christmas tree and Sip 'N Sample at local businesses Friday evening.

New this year, enjoy some retail fun to Saturday.  Pick up a bingo card at any participating business and play for prizes.

Sunday brings one of my favorite holiday traditions - - Festival of trees, Endless Bowl of Soup (+ dessert) and Quilt Show - - - all at the Adel First Christian Church! AND don't miss the guided tour at the local museum, Sunday afternoon.

Boxwood Wreaths

I have boxwood bushes at my new home. They are badly in need of shaping and trimming so that will be a project for spring but, I did trim off enough branches to make this wreath.

With the guidance of friend Joanie, I cut branches about 9" long and made small nosegay-size bundles (about 3 branches each).  It took 21 nose-gay bundles for this 16" size.  

Using a wire frame, I attached each bundle to the frame, layering each new addition over the stems of the previous bundle.  

After I got done fluffing, I gave the stray pieces a little hair cut.

I bought a package of these flexible wire fasteners to use for attaching the nose-gay bundles to the wire frame.

 Of course, add a big bough!

Olivia is thankful for - - -

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

New baby quilt

I've been invited to a baby shower in Texas so I decided to make a quilt to represent the family with baby girl McLaughlin in the middle.  

The backing is a very soft flannel print.

The pattern is called Giraffes in a Row from Sew Fresh Quilts and comes with options to make 4, 5 or 6 giraffes. This version using 5 giraffes is approx. 45" by 55".

 

New Sewing Room

My new sewing room is in the 3rd floor attic. Here is a pile of boxes I unpacked and tossed down the steps yesterday. And that is just most of them.

 

These drawers are all full of fabric as are the baskets on top.

And my "Quilt Shop This Way" sign in a little cubby at the turn in the stair case.

It's still a little rough around he edges but I was settled enough to start a new baby quilt yesterday for my sons baby - - due in February.

Saturday was class Part 2 for Collage Quilting. The assignment from class Part 1 was to get the basic pin cushion collaged to the background fabric.  

The first series of pictures show quilts as they started the day.  The last series of pictures show some of the quilts by the end of day.  

Some slipped out the door without me getting a photo but all were coming together very nicely.  Such a fun class!

Deanna tea stained her background fabric to give it a vintage look.

Terry collaged on some of her favorite things - - - fireworks, camping, hiking, nature and quilting and then she titled her art, "All About Me".

Trish is collaging her background.

Janeen missed our class Part 2 but she sent me this picture to show she is also making progress and she is also collaging her background.