Moving Along

I couldn’t think of a good title for this post, but things are really moving along right now. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are always so busy. We had our WELCA Christmas party Tuesday after we decorated the church. We got the big tree up in the sanctuary. 

And a small one in the hall by the Sunday school rooms. 

There is a nativity outside Luther Hall, and I just noticed baby Jesus is missing.

That’s not good.

We also set up a donation station for the Humility Project. 

I got seven fleece hats cut out, but they aren’t sewn together yet. It’s been pretty cool here, so I need to get them done soon so I can add them to our donations.

Most of my cake was eaten at the party. Thank goodness. 

It was a little crumbly, and I’m not sure why. I’m usually a pretty good cook. I might need to work on this recipe a little.

The quilt guild Christmas party was Thursday. The guild payed for the catered meal, but we asked each participant to provide a donation for Gabriel Project, 

or for the pet shelter. I delivered the gifts after our party. 

Roger’s school had their Christmas program Friday night. He sang and played the xylophone. 

It was all fun, and now I’m exhausted. I was able to get a little sewing done and a little house cleaning (not enough). I will hopefully get some sewing pictures posted tomorrow. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 12-3-24

Good morning everyone. Can you believe it’s December? I hope it doesn’t fly by like November did. I need time to get things done! Last week’s progress was mediocre. Probably because I didn’t look at my list all week and just sort of winged it. 

1) Women of the bible quilt progress. Yes. I got the Elizabeth blocks done. 

The contrast on these is not great, but they are done, and I won’t re-do them. It’s two colors of green and dark purple. The hardest part for me is picking the colors for the blocks. I am working on Mary now, and blue was an easy choice for those, but I am trying to make sure I have different colors in adjacent blocks. 

2) Put some borders on this 

     Yes. 

This one is finished and can be put on the to-be-quilted shelf.

3) Start wrapping gifts. No.

4) Finish sewing those hearts for Gloria. No. 

5) Start on some mug rugs. Yes. I got three done. 

I hope I can focus more this week, and get some things finished.

1) Bind three quilts.

2) Work on Women of the Bible blocks.

3) A Quilting Life BOM.

4) Gloria’s hearts.

5) Wrap some gifts.

6) Sew some fleece caps.

I was hoping for some unscheduled days to work on all this, but I have some commitments this week including doctors appointments. Today is our WELCA Christmas party and also decorating the church. I made a cake last night for the party, and it cracked when I removed it from the pan. I should have let it cool longer, but I was in a hurry. I covered the crack with a glaze and some pecans.

Well, it’s mostly covered. We’ll see what happens when I cut it! I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. 

Mug Rugs and More

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it’s time to put away the fall decorations and get out the Christmas ones. I need to do quite a bit of cleaning and dusting before I get anything out. Every time I get started, I think of something else I want to work on. 

I got out the kits I bought on the mug run shop hop and read all the instructions. I ended up staying up late a couple of nights and working on them. This is the one from Seams Like Home in Yorktown:

I like the backing fabric that was in the kit.

There was no binding fabric, so I sewed it together with right sides facing, then turned it right side out and top stitched it. I also stitched around the bulb to anchor it a little. 

I got three kits from Quilter’s Patch in Victoria. The first one didn’t have enough background fabric so I put it aside, and used the instructions to make one with my own fabrics.

I didn’t follow the instructions exactly, and mine was a little big; I think it’s around 6” by 12”. I also got two gingerbread house patterns. One with a tea towel and one to make a potholder. I got the tea towel finished last night, but I was too tired to do the potholder. Maybe tonight.

So that’s three done, and three more to go. My goal is to get all done before Christmas, and that shouldn’t be a problem if I can keep the momentum going. 

I also dug out a quilt kit I had ordered online and got that made. It’s a Villa Rosa pattern called Puppy Love that uses a panel and a charm pack.

I took the picture at night on the floor of my den, and the color really didn’t photograph well. The border colors are more intense in person. 

I ate a Thanksgiving lunch with the kids on Friday. My mom and stepdad were there too. I felt bad for the kids as it was their third thanksgiving meal of the week. My grandson informed us he really doesn’t like thanksgiving food. I can imagine he’s tired of it by now. I left most of the leftovers at my daughter’s house and just brought home enough for a few meals for me, so I’m sure they will all be tired of it soon. 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Wishing all of you a happy Thanksgiving. I am not celebrating today; tomorrow I am getting together with family. But, today and every day, I am reminded of how much I have to be thankful for. I hope your day is good and your blessings are many!

Shop Hop

I did the shop hop last Friday and Saturday with two quilting friends. This was the theme: 

The participating shops were Victoria, Yorktown, Shiner, and Ganado. The premise is each shop has a different mug rug pattern, with a kit available for $6.95. Some also had matching tea towel kits, or potholder kits. If you visited all the shops, you were entered for a gift card, and of course, each store had special deals running, like sales on Christmas fabric. 

I bought the mug rug kits at three of the stores; I didn't care for the one at the fourth one. You can't tell much from these pictures, but I will post pictures of each one as I make it. 

Quilter's Patch also had some available from last year with a cute gingerbread house.

I don't know which I will start on first; probably the easiest one so I can see some fast progress. 

I didn't get any pictures of us or the shops; I was a little tired, I think. I did take a picture in one of the restaurants where we had lunch.

So funny! 

Last Thursday was Friendsgiving, and I didn't do a good job of taking pictures of that either. I need to look at Sherry's facebook page, and see if she posted any. About 15 of us got together at Golden Corral and ate and did a dirty Santa gift exchange. This is gift I came home with. 

I like it! In fact, I stole it from someone else instead of unwrapping something.

Here's a picture I found on Sherry's facebook, 

and here's one of Kim opening her gift

That’s all for now. I have food to fix for Thanksgiving dinner. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 11-26-24

This is the last to-do list for November. It has been busy, and of course, that will continue through Christmas. I am grateful for the busyness as it keeps me from being too sad or lonely. The flip side of that is that I have to be mindful of not over-scheduling myself and getting completely overwhelmed. I had a lot of activities this past week, but I only had put three things on my to-do list, so it wasn't too bad.

1) Continue working on Women of the Bible quilt. Yes. I am continuing to enjoy doing these blocks, although the Hannah block was a little tedious. 

Hannah

Jephthah's Daughter

I had actually forgotten about the story of Jephthah's daughter, so it was good to go back and read the scriptures about her.

2) Make some hearts for Gloria. I'm not finished, but the got the remainder cut out of the clothing and fused to interfacing. I hope to have them done by Friday.

3) Quilt as many customer quilts as I can. My goal is 3-4. Yes. I got three done. I posted one on November 22nd. Here are the other two.

This one still needs to be trimmed. Probably later today.

I am looking at my planner, and the next three weeks are nuts. I have appointments, church stuff, and the kids have school performances. But, this continues to be a hard time of year for me, and busy is best. Here's a list of things I'd like to get done.

1) Women of the bible quilt progress.

2) Put some borders on this quilt. 

I bought some yellow and some gray that will work for borders. 

3) Start wrapping gifts.

4) Finish sewing those hearts for Gloria.

5) Start on some mug rugs.

Not a very long list, but it will do. I need to keep working on customer quilts too. I don't want anything carrying over from 2024 to 2025. I started 2024 with some lingering projects that needed to be finished, and I didn't like that. I think I have 9 or 10 on the intake rack right now, but I think a couple of more are getting delivered this week. 

I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. I hope you have a great week and a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it!

Cooking and Sewing

Hello everyone. I have been busy this week with cooking and sewing. The church council did the evening meal for Wednesday night. I didn’t get pictures, but we did frito pie with chili and all the fixings. I got a couple of quilts finished before I went to church. This one has matching pillow shams.

The pillow shams are something I wouldn’t think of doing, but it’s an interesting idea. 

Thursday was quilt guild, and we had a soup and salad luncheon.

The tablecloth is from my collection of vintage linens.

After lunch, we worked on charity quilts. Three of us got ours mostly finished. Here’s Lynn’s:

And Diana’s:

And, here’s mine:

I made the same quilt back in May, but I had cut two of them out at that time, and yesterday I sewed the second one, now to get them quilted. 

Today and tomorrow is a shop hop. Victoria, Ganado, Yorktown, and Shiner. It should be fun, but I don’t want to buy too much this close to Christmas. I’ll have to see how much restraint I have. LOL.

To-Do-List Tuesday 11-19-2024

We got some rain yesterday. Not a lot, but we are so grateful for anything that’s wet. I pray we get more this week. I’m doing okay on my to-do list. Not setting any records, but making some steady progress. Yesterday and Sunday were totally unproductive. I was lazy and unmotivated, but other than that, I did okay.

1) Continue to work on Women of the Bible quilt. Yes. I got Section “A” put together and worked a little on Section “B”. 

2) Work on Gloria's hearts. No on this one.

3) A Quilting Life BOM. Yes. 

I am ready for December so I can finish all the blocks and get everything put together.

4) Put together a Villa Rosa quilt top. Yes, I actually did two. 

5) Spend 30 min per day on the sewing room. No, not quite. I worked about 30 minutes one day, and about 10 minutes another day.

6) Finish some quilts for North Carolina. Yes, I did these two 

and found two more that were already quilted and bound that I will deliver on Wednesday.

I would like to be as productive this week, but things are getting busy with the holidays approaching. I have church today, plus cooking for a church activity tomorrow. Thursday is quilt guild plus a Friendsgiving party in the evening, and there is a shop hop Friday and Saturday that a friend and I are going to do. With all that in mind, here’s my list.

1) Continue working on Women of the Bible quilt.

2) Make some hearts for Gloria.

3) Quilt as many customer quilts as I can. My goal is 3-4.

That’s about all I can handle right now. I may edit the list later if I think of something that has to be done this week.

I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. Have a great week!

Happy Weekend

 

So far, so good. There’s nothing going on here with no commitments other than church, and I’m enjoying all the free time.

I got two quilts quilted, but one isn’t trimmed yet. This one is trimmed and ready to be picked up. 

I worked on a Women of the Bible block, but I think the measurements are off on this one. 

It’s the Hannah block, and the darker color is way too large. I made one, and I don’t like it. 

I cut the dark squares down some—all 64 of them—and started over. 

I definitely like this better. Now to get the rest done. It’s only a 10” block, but it’s the hardest one I’ve done so far. 

I also made a few more of the fill-in blocks. The black and white ones. I need a bunch of them. I got the extra black and white I ordered, so I’m good to go on that.

I cut out two Villa Rosa patterns earlier in the week, and I got those put together.

This one is Shilo. They were giving out this pattern free at the Houston Quilt Festival.

Happy Child is the pattern. I’ve done this one before in different colors. It’s 43” x 56”, and I’m thinking about a border, but I don’t have anything in my stash that will work, so it may not get one. I will look one more time before I decide. 

I was hoping for a nap yesterday, but it was already 4:00 before I slowed down. Too late for a nap, but I did lie down and close my eyes for about 20 minutes. I hope I can walk the dogs today, or at least get some more physical activity.