Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope that you are safe and warm and with your Loved Ones today.

I pulled out the Christmas Round Robin that my Kansas City "Just a Little Crazy Stitcher's Club" did a few years ago. This was my quilt. I pieced it and then the club members helped to embellish it.

My quilt guild, "the Nite Owls", had a Christmas party on December 3rd and part of the fun was that people made things for raffle drawings. I won two quilts. One was this great table runner that I put on my dining room table. I will have to make something like this next year. I made 2 CQ stockings for the raffle. You can see them here.

December in California. Hummingbirds! They must stay year round. We are still getting 20 to 30 of them at times. A lot have moved on but a lot more must have moved in because a couple of the species are not coming right now. It will be interesting to see how many we have next Spring.

By the way, Kansas City had a major snow storm today with 7 to 10 inches of blowing snow and 10 degrees. Burrrrr! I so don't miss that!

Xmas Stockings and November in California

It has been a while since I posted to my blog. I have gotten a new job at a Dental Lab so I have less time to sew but my Husband likes football so on Sunday I escape to my sewing room and get stuff done.

I finished these Xmas Stockings for the raffle at my quilt guild for the December Christmas meeting. My Friend Jeanne is in charge of setting it up. She has gotten a ton of quilts for it. I am really interested in how they set it up. I will post back when I know. Maybe I will buy something! There are a lot of really talented people in my new guild!

I made 11 mini art quilts before I went back to work. I will probably use them for gifts. They are all raw edge pieced. Even the bindings.

This is the amazing thing about California. It is November and we still have Hummingbirds coming to our feeders! It was 75 degrees today and it will be 80 degrees on Thanksgiving. That is just not right! I still have tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini in my garden.

I have been working on Christmases Stockings for my guild, the Nite Owls, for their December party. I have found fabrics for the cuff and the backings. I will be glad to have these done.

I have been making mini quilts for sale. I need the money and I thought this would be a good way to make some. These are not done yet. I need to quilt them to a background fabric. I have been doing color studies with the selections of fabrics.

On another note, they are building houses so fast in our neighborhood. I have been watching them outside my sewing room. These houses have gone up in less than a week! Amazing! There are 6 up there.

Xmas Stockings

My quilt guild, The Nite Owls in Upland, CA, does a Christmas item auction at their annual Christmas party in December. They ask that members make a Xmas Quilty item for it. I am making a couple of Xmas Stockings for it.

I started with my Husbands over sized wool socks as a pattern and increased the size.

I have crazy quilt pieced them and will do some stitching on the seams. I will post pictures later after I finish them.

I have purchased some new gadgets in the last couple of months. This first one is my Friend Jeanne's fault because she talked about how cool this item was and she sucked me in. I bought it too. Why didn't I just borrow hers? It is a cord maker. As you can see, I have done nothing with it so far and totally have buyers remorse but I will try it out and it will probably be very cool but what the heck am I going to use it for????

This second one is my own fault and it is because Sandy Turner came to our guild and I thought her quilt using these templates was pretty cool so I bought them. Again, I have buyers remorse but I will try them out. Checkout her web site. http://www.sandyturner.com/ I will use this with Batiks which I love.

Xmas quilt blocks and Nite Owls Retreat

I went to the retreat for the Nite Owls quilt guild and I finished piecing the blocks for my Noel Village Christmas quilt. It is fused with Steam a Seam 2. I think I am going to stitch around the pieces with mono filament, invisible thread. Isn't it the cutest thing? Now the challenge will be to get it done before Christmas so I can hang it in my new home for the Holiday!

This is the sewing area at our retreat. It was a packed room with a lot of Great New Friends.

Xmas Quilt and Visit From Marci

My Friend Marci, from Kansas City, came to visit me for 10 days. We shopped and shopped. We attended the San Diego quilt show, too. It was a nice show but not that big. It had some really nice vendors.

This is a picture of Marci as she is packing up her stuff to leave. She gave me that fat quarter that is in her hand. I am going to do a pink and green quilt some day.

Before she came here, she called and said we needed to make a quilt while she was here. We decided on an applique Christmas quilt by Piece of Cake Designs called the North Pole Village.

Hand applique was out of the question because of time, and we don't do the "A" word. We decided to use Steam a Seam 2 and fuse them. This is my quilt at this point. I have 3 blocks left to do. There will be a block that goes the width of the top that has Santa flying by in his sled and reindeer.

Marci's quilt is more like a Dr Seuss village. I should have taken a picture but didn't before she left. I am getting ready to go on a retreat with some friends so I am going to try and finish mine up then.