a present

A little boy at my house is under the mistaken notion that

I like to cook!

Proof: My Christmas present.
Maybe he saw me looking at

rachel ray cookware when I was

"virtual window shopping".

Doesn't he know I QUILT???

Cooking is only a necessary activity!! :)

Today I'll try out my new mixer.

Isn't she pretty??

remember my old one??

I found out that the old one was really slow!!

This new one is like a race car in comparison!

It whipped up the cookie dough in

NO time!!

The old one struggled with cookie dough,

so I always stirred it by hand.

Gone are those days!!!

Maybe I DO like cooking....???

I know everyone at my house likes this part...




Licking the beaters!
BUT LOOK!
The old ones are so much thicker!
They probably hold more of that yummy batter!

Oh NO!
Don't tell the kids!




Just show 'em the cookies!!!

black and white

I thought I would be quilting a baby quilt yesterday.

I thought I would...but I didn't.

There was too much going on here:

The after Christmas cleanup began,

The kids were underfoot,

Trying to make soup out of a ham bone...?,

Making Banana Bread out of all those ripe bananas.

When I quilt on the machine, I want a nice window of

TIME....

so I don't have to keep starting and stopping.

So.....since I couldn't quilt.....I pieced.

I've been wanting to begin this black and white quilt.

So I did.

This quilt will be going to one of the SIX

high school seniors that attend my little church.

Normally, we have 2 or 3 kids graduating.

With six.... we really need to get going!

And January is a GREAT month to begin.

We are having a Saturday morning quilt-in

next week, so I also needed to have a little sample. :)

After making those black and white squares I wondered.....

"How would this pattern work with scraps?"

I think it works just fine!!

baby coins

A baby was born right before Christmas!

Of course, I knew the baby was coming....

but I had not given any thought to the quilt I

knew I'd be making until

yesterday!

This quilt came together so easily!

First I cut some 3" strips.

sewed some together.

Then I started cutting those into 10" pieces.

There are 10 of the those 10" "coins" in each row.

When all three rows were done, I thought it needed something else.

I rummaged around in my bag of 3" squares.

Yeah! I found some to match in a scrappy kind of way.:)

White sashing.

Pinned and ready!

quilting bee

I received a little package in the mail the day before Christmas!

Some pretty strips and....
Cute little pieces of focus fabric.

Melissa sent these out to the participants in the
Modern Quilting Bee.

This is my very first online bee and let me tell you...
it's sure not easy making blocks for someone else!
I second-guessed myself the whole time I was sewing.


Melissa requested wonky log cabins.
Are these "wonky" enough?

The title of her quilt: "what a girl needs"

I look forward to seeing what the other

quilters come up with!

And then one of these months it will be

my turn to request something.

What will it be???

Merry Christmas!

From my busy house to yours!

six sided Christmas

I think I can safely say that by December 25th

almost everyone in my sphere of friends and family
will have one of these.

You know it goes....
You make one and then.....

You're hooked.

Anyone else get stuck on one project like this??

I kept thinking of someone who
needed one! :)

About half way through these little things, I realized

I could add tags.

And see?

This one is sitting under a pretty gift

given to me!!!

Don't they look great together??

I did keep this ONE (with a mistake) for myself.

Now, if you were to give me four 2 1/2" strips of fabric,

I could make one of these in my sleep!!

Also notice that I have a tutorial and flickr group....

All about hexagons!!!

so......what are you inflicting on

your friends and family??

an old friend.

I ran into this "old friend" when I was visiting my cousin yesterday.

I made this very quickly when she was diagnosed with cancer

2 years ago.

I really wanted her to know right away that she was loved

and that I would be praying for her.

I used a bunch of 5" squares that had been collected at a swap.

I love all those flowers.

It's pretty small in size so that it could travel with her

to chemotherapy and hospital visits.

I don't like the way it has creased at the fold over time.

I used warm and natural batting.

Is that the culprit??

What batting do you use?

I hope you leave me a comment and let me know

YOUR choice of batting

and WHY you like it.

pineapples & Chocolate

Wish I could say I made this.

But I can't.

My friend Linda made all these little pineapple blocks

by paper pieceing them using LOTS of scraps.

Have I said before...I like scraps??

She put them together and is now working on the

appliqued border.

I'll try to show it to you when she's done.

Isn't it wonderful??

Yes. I think so too.

Instead of pineapples, I was making these.

Candy Cane Chocolate loaves.

Problem #1

DRIZZLING

How do you drizzle white chocolate?

I see I'm pretty good at

GLOBBING.

Problem #2

HIDING.

cooking>sewing

The sewing machine is going to have to slow down this week as
cooking takes over!

The cute little cover here was designed by a local quilter

and I bought the pattern from her a few years ago.

Don't think the pattern was ever printed and sold elsewhere...

but I could be wrong.

This is the first reverse applique' project I completed!

What fun!

So as the sewing machine languishes....

I'll be doing a little cooking with the help (YEAH!)

from daughters and daughter-in-law.
My new daugher-in-law LOVES to make whipped cream.
THIS POOR mixer just isn't up to the challenge.

So....my sweet Daughter-in-law always brings

her own mixer over when we have family meals.

I can't blame her.

This little piece of equipment is over 25 years old.

AN ANTIQUE! :)
Maybe it doesn't go fast enough..??

I've always been a cool-whip kind o' gal.

Now that I know how good the REAL stuff is...

well....

It's hard to go back!

Next week, I hope to let you know how a NEW mixer works!

In the meantime I'll be cooking.....

cleaning ....

wrapping gifts....
and dreaming...

I see a lot of good dreams over here....

rachel ray cookware stuff!

What are you dreaming about?

tiny, tiny tags.

I wanted to add a little tag to my little quilted christmas gifts this year.

I wondered how much room I needed, so I wrote my little message on a scrap.

It turned out I only needed 1 inch to say what I wanted to say.

Amazing, huh?

So I wrote the message and folded the scrap over.

Now I have a 2" strip for those of you who love numbers!

I ironed my strip of tags with the RIGHT sides together.

Then I marked lines where I'm going to sew.

I sewed those little, itty bitty seams.

Then I CUT between the seams.

Trimmed.

Turned right side out.

I have a TAG!

I have whole fleet of tags!





Lay that little thing on the BACK of my little gift.






sew the binding down over it all.









Roll that binding over to the front and top stitch it.







Viola!

I love my little itty bitty tags.
I'm going to do that again!!!

Then TODAY after all that tag business,
I got a gift.
A FREE gift.
SCRAPS!!!

OOOH! I love scraps!
And these scraps aren't quilting scraps.



They are wool/upholstery/"cute bag" scraps!

I just couldn't wait to begin this.



I love it!

The handles have been waiting for an
opportunity to be used.
I found them a while back at a thrift store.
They were attached to a purse that had seen better days.

By making this little bag today, I'd say I was
avoiding ALL that really needs to be done.

But can you blame me?

AND, since I don't have enough fabric.....;)

I'm trying to win some from Amy!

She has a give away going on....

Free fabric is the BEST!

I'm also adding this post to AmyLouWho's sew and tell.

IF

IF you really want a quilt You have to do a LOT of this.

PINNING.

Not my favorite part.

Then you have to do a lot of this.

QUILTING.

Not my favorite part either.

This is MY favorite part.

FINISHING.

And then...I'm so glad I did all that work...

because I have a VERY satisfied feeling that says...

"I did it!"

I blogged about this quilt here.

You can see I have that Disappearing 9 patch

around the outside for a border.

I love how all these flowery fabrics go together!

Jean will enjoy the happy feeling they inspire!



I even had my "handy dandy" box of 2 1/2" strips for binding.
All those floral strips are lookin' good around this one.
Don't you think?

last minute

As I was working on some Christmas projects yesterday,

I saw this cute fabric in my pile and.....I had an idea:

"Wouldn't it be nice to make a little something for the director of

the Christmas play that we're having tonight?"

The director even writes the play and spends many hours with

the children practicing for the BIG night.

I help out at the piano, so I know how much work she puts in!

Well....I had this GREAT idea at the VERY LAST MOMENT!

I "fussy cut" that cute fabric.

Added a simple red border.

Layered...

1. top.

2. batting.

3. white backing (so I can write a message).

I quickly quilted that and put a binding on!

We're almost done...and it's almost time to go perform!

I stuck some wire through the top of the binding and curled it a little!

oh no! Do I have time to wrap it???

Yes. 5 minutes!

Next time I have a good idea...I sure hope I have it

SOONER!

proof.

Here's the proof!

I can't crochet (or knit for that matter).
I could never make those pretty things I showed you yesterday!

But I was able to use this lopsided, misshapen creation...

Here.
When I decided a few years ago to cover the cushions with WHITE!
What was I thinking???

Amazingly enough, that little crocheted THING has
SAVED that chair cushion!!
It's still as white as when I had it covered!
Yeah!!

It's not the prettiest solution, but it works.
And THAT's what matters, right?
AND, it looks so much better when I can put a little
something right in the middle!

I made this mini pillow with felt and
a little bit of embroidery floss!
SUPER SIMPLE!

I'm adding this to amylou's sew and tell today.