Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Christmas is coming!

Yikes! I'm really behind.  I did a lot of gift certificate gifting this year, so I should feel on top of things. Trouble is, gift certs seem rather impersonal to me, so I wanted to add something to each one.
We're having a family dinner on Christmas Eve with DD#1. In addition to food, I thought I'd make a little gift for each family there. It adds up to 5.

I saw a cute pattern for a hot pad here.

Here's my first attempt:



It's really stiff, 5 layers. Not bad, but a little bit wiggly round the edge.

Second attempt:

Better, but I haven't sewn down the binding yet. Lets not get ahead of ourselves!

Third one. Now I'm getting confident. And while trimming the top four layers, ready to bring the binding over from the backing, I actually thought: "Wouldn't it suck if I cut into the backing?"
And, hey presto!

So now I've got to trim it all, and put on binding separately. And do you want to know something funny?

These hot pads are a 60 Minute Gift !!! To wrap, maybe. For me to sew, not so much!

To all my blogging friends, have a very Happy Christmas! We'll get together again after the holiday.

Linked to:
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
Till next time,

Sue

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The more I hurry...

I've got far more ideas than time!

I'm not ungrateful, I know that I have much more time for quilting and crafting than many of the talented people I admire. It's just that every time I finish a project, two more seem to take its place!

Don't get me wrong: it's the way I work, the way I keep enthusiastic and interested, but it is rather like a kid in a candy shop. That's why I used the blog title above. Isn't there a quotation along the lines of "The more I hurry, the behinder I get" ? That's me. So what have I been doing?

The latest batch of sewing has been delivered.

Two Advent calendars now in use:



Two cushions claimed by the little girls whose artwork is on the fronts:





I sewed together some of the squares on my Hunter Star quilt. Up to the dark blue is sewn together now. It will be bigger than this, there just wasn't room to put out all the squares! It's a barnraising layout, for those who know. You'll be sick of this quilt if you read my blog. Feel free to skip ahead!


A while ago I came across a Block of the Week posting of paper pieced Harry Potter themed blocks. The project finished a couple of years ago, but all the patterns are still available. The quilt is like Harry Potter's bookshelf. You can read about it here. I fell in love with it! Never mind that I'm a paper piecing newbie! So when I have a few minutes I make a block, it's so much fun. I've raked through all my scraps loads of times.


I've done more than these, pictures next time!

While I was visiting my son, we talked about turning his cherished concert T shirts into a quilt.  I must admit, I'm a bit nervous. I even put most of them in my carry on on the flight home!
Feel free to offer any advice!


Isn't this a long post!
More next time,

Sue

Linking to:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced