Just some things

Hey everybody!  It's just about time for a Happy New Year!

Are your Christmas decorations still up?  

Mine are.

Usually, I can't get them down fast enough after Christmas, but his year I'll be sad to see them go.

I don't know why.

Maybe it was the shorter length of time time we had between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Anyway, I'll continue to enjoy my holiday decorations for a few more days while I do some sewing.

I'm working on the quilting for my Paganni Schnibble and I'm planning on making a scalloped border.

It's got a little bit of a Valentine look to it, so I'm making it my goal to have it done by Valentine's Day.

I've never made scalloped borders before, so I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.........

 We took my big machine to the shop this morning.  It's definitely under the weather.

It sews about eight stitches, then it stops and gives me a broken thread message.

Also, when I try to use the thread cutter it makes a nasty noise and the bobbin swings out and does not want to go back in.

......Insert big sigh here......

After a day of messing with it and and hoping the problem will just magically go away, we decided it was time to bring it in.

They say it needs a new part and a good cleaning, then hopefully it'll be sewing smoothly again!

In news that is much more fun, my quilting friend Mary Pat has decided to start her own blog!

She's been talking about it for awhile and I'm so glad she's decided to started blogging.

Mary Pat is always doing some fun, new quilting project and she does lots of charity sewing too.

If you're looking for a new blog friend in the new year, I encourage you to visit Mary Pat.

Tell her Michele sent you!  

Borders on!

I hope you found some time to do some fun things this week.

It's been a great week here at our house.

I carved out some sewing time and I was able to get the borders on last month's Schnibbles project, Morning Joe.

If you remember, I was a little short on time at the end of last month, so I just entered it in the parade as is, no borders.

And it didn't look half bad that way, if I do say so myself.

The scrappy, pieced boreders took more time......and fabric....... than I would have thought, but a border using one fabric for each side just wasn't cutting it for me.

I wish the light had been better for the picture above, but that was as good as it was going to get that day. 

I took a few more pictures because........one, the picture of the whole quilt looked a bit washed out and two, I like this quilt.

Sorry about the picture overload.  It was hard to narrow it down!  

I'm off to plan out some quilting for a quilt top that needs my attention before Valentine's Day. 

Have a great weekend!

Be sure to spend some time sewing and I'll see you on the other side!

Merry Christmas!

I'm taking a few minutes out from the last minute preparations to wish you a Merry Christmas!

...........Copper says that there was a better picture of him, but his mom tried to make it even better than that and after a few more tries she realized that this was as good as it was going to get. Apparently with this new app "retake" means that the last picture disappears! Santa is coming tonight and everyone is so excited and not very willing to sit still for a picture....... 

Thanks so much for visiting my blog this past year. 

I always enjoy reading all of the sweet comments left on my blog from new friends, and from those I've gotten to know well over the years too.

Blogging has become one of my favorite activities! I love reading about your project and your lives.

I'm looking forward to another year wonderful year!

Enjoy this special time with friends and loved ones.

Giving it a try

I just got this blogger app for my new iPad so I'm giving it a try.

So far, so good. 

I guess there isn't much you can do with moving the text around.

Or editing the pictures either.

It seems to be more of a "you get what you get" approach. 

I'll just have to experiment with it.  Do you use any apps for blogging?

Happy weekend!

How did this happen?

I could use a little help.

Last weekend we made some of these Holiday Pretzel Treats.

You pop then in the oven for a few minutes to soften the Kisses or Hugs, then you place an M&M on top.

After they cool, I usually put them in the fridge to set the chocolate.

If you're interested you can find the details HERE.

Anyway, when I took them out of the fridge this time, they looked like this and I can't figure out what happened!

They taste great, but the M&M's are chalky looking.

Normally you wouldn't see a bad food picture on a blog, but I'm desperate for answers!

I was planning on making more this week and I'd like to figure out where I went wrong first.

I've made these many times and this has never happened.

I don't do much, well any, candy making so I don't know anything about working with chocolate.  

Were they in the fridge too long?

Maybe they didn't cool long enough before I put them in the fridge?

I don't have a clue.

Any ideas?

Help!

Luckily, the sewing is going better than the baking!

I've been working on getting the borders on my Morning Joe Schnibble that I didn't quite have time to finish last month and I've been labeling a few quilts too.

I've also been straightening up my quilting areas to get ready for a new year full of quilts!

Plans

Most of the Christmas preparations over here are done now and I'm looking forward to a quieter weekend, hopefully with some relaxation and a bit of much needed rest!   

We've done some Christmas shopping in the past few days and I'm happy to say we picked up the last few gifts.

And the Christmas cards are on their way out too!

I have my eye on the ribbon from this Anthropologie bag.

Wouldn't it look good on a pincushion? 

Not much sewing was done this week, so there's nothing new to show on that front, but I did do some fabric shopping after Thanksgiving and as a result some new fabric arrived at my door today! 

So many bloggers seem to love the High Street fabric line, but it isn't available at my LQS, so when the Fat Quarter Shop had a big sale recently I bought a few charm packs and I'm making plans with them!

I also picked up the large text fabric in the background.

I. love. text. fabric.

I think it'll make a great backing for a future project. 

This weekend is our neighborhood's annual luminary display!

It's one of my favorite evenings of the year.

My boys love it too!

Sand, fire, and fun!  What's not for them to love?

I have to admit, they do enjoy seeing the luminary bags that have gone up in flame for one reason or another.

Should I be concerned about that? LOL!

Later in the evening we'll make some quick treats. 

And watch a new movie.

Those Minions are so funny! Even the teenagers like them.

I'm looking forward to being able to slow down some and enjoy some holiday time this weekend.

Have you "finished" up your holiday preparations?

What do you have planned for the weekend? 

A Christmas finish

Things have been crazy around here!

Right now we're in the middle of Christmas preparations, final exams, and school soccer season too.

I'm happy I was able to squeeze in a little time to get the binding on my Christmas Lincoln quilt.

The binding fabric I chose was a stripe of course.

I'm really into striped bindings now and I especially like them on Christmas quilts I noticed.

When I was decorating the house for the holidays I noticed that most of my Christmas quilts have striped bindings.

You like what you like, I guess! 

The backing is this great Letter to Santa fabric that I found over the summer.

I just love the text and the envelopes!

When I did the quilting, I took extra care to be sure that the quilting didn't take away from the backing fabric.

I like it that much!

In fact, even though I usually sew a label on the back of each quilt, on this one I plan on taking a thin red felt tip pen and printing my name somewhere on the backing, trying to make my writing similar to the text. 

I'm pleased with how this turned out and I hope you are able to get some sewing time in too.

Everyone is so busy during this time of year!

Enjoy the holiday season!

Morning Joe in low volume

I should have had more of my morning joe before trying to finish this quilt!

You see, there's still a little left to do.

Today, at the last minute, I decided to change the border and make it scrappy.

Seeing how much longer this was going to take me, I decided to post my pictures now so I could be sure to get it into the Schnibbles parade.

I didn't want to rush and try to get it done, or be tempted to cut corners to get it finished on time.

Especially because I love this quilt!

I was going for low volume this time.

I'm not sure if this exactly qualifies.  Is it just a scrappy background?  I'm not sure.

I was continuing on my quest to try different kinds of backgrounds for my quilts, not just plain white or cream, my usual choices.

I've made a few attempts at using a low volume background like this in the past and they didn't go well.......at all.

 This time I was a little more determined.

Instead of just pulling from my stash, I went to the quilt shop with a low volume background in mind and I think it went much better.

These are not the kind of prints that I would normally buy, but boy do I love them now!

This won't be my last scrappy quilt using low volume fabrics.

The cutting certainly took some extra time and planning, since I was using so many fabrics for the background, but it was worth it and I love the result!

The variety of fabrics I used for the background really highlights the large number of pieces that are in this version of the quilt.

Originally, I was going to use a single fabric for each side of the border of the quilt, but this morning when I had it on the floor like that, it just wasn't working for me.

Scrappy was definitely the way to go.

  The single fabric for the border just stuck out with the rest of the background being so scrappy.

So, I'll keep on sewing and show you the final result later, but it looks nice with out the borders too! 

A mix of Kate Spain's Terrain and Good Fortune lines are used in the blocks.

I think I there are a few scraps from some of her other lines too. 

I can't choose a favorite fabric from the background!

 At first it was the fish, now I like the pins and the orange birds the best, or maybe the forks and spoons?

It was just starting to get dark when I took these pictures.

Maybe that's why some of the white fabrics look much more cream in the pictures than they do in real life. 

They are a little creamier, but not as much as it looks here.

When I get the borders on, I'm planing on taking more pictures and hopefully I'll have better light.

This is now one of my favorite quilts!

I'll be sure to give you and update once the borders are on.

The Parade of Schnibbles will be coming up in the next few days!

Visit Sherri and Sinta too, to see different beautiful versions of Carrie's pattern Morning Joe.

I love the seeing what everyone comes up with each month.

Working on some things Wednesday

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Along with working on whipping up a some good things to eat for Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow, I'm doing a little some sewing. 

It's almost time for the Schnibbles parade and I'm getting close to finished.

I love, love, love the fabrics I'm using, especially this super cute fish print.

Here's a sneak peak!

Maybe I'll get some more for the backing.

Right now it's on to the borders!  I made a few slight changes to the pattern, so it's taking me a bit longer than I expected.

Tomorrow we are going to bring a few dishes and celebrate Thanksgiving with friends.

There is so much to be thankful for!

Trimmings on Tuesday

This weekend

This weekend I'm........

checking plenty of homework,

catching up on laundry, 

working on lots of these,

taking bike rides,

eating nachos for dinner,

thinking about updating my wreath with these,

doing a bit of cleaning,

thinking about Thanksgiving dinner,

and getting ready for a big week of school soccer games.

I hope you're doing getting lots done too!

Quilting and a question

Last night I finished up some quilting.

My goal was to have this Christmas Schnibble ready in time to put out for the holidays and I'm happy to say it's much closer to being a finish!  

I quilted in the ditch down each row, then I echo quilted the stars. 

I also quilted the same star shape in each strip block, using a template and a vanishing marker.

I'm still waiting for the marker to completely vanish, but I feel sure that it will.

My original plan was to trace a star to make a template to use on the strip blocks.

I'm not sure how that would have worked out.  Thankfully, my junior high son wanted to try his hand at making the template himself using just a ruler and a compass.

Geometry is his favorite class this year. 

He measured the length of the star and off he went.

He returned with an amazing star template, no tracing necessary!

I see lots of possibilities here......

Now that you've seen my well used template, edges covered with plenty of vanishing marker, I've got more to do on that quilt.

I need to bury the rest of the threads and I'm hoping to have that all done this afternoon, before it gets dark, which leads me to the question.

Do you have an Ott Light or some other kind of light that you use for sewing?

If so, what kind do you have and how do you like it?

I try to finish any hand sewing before it gets dark, because it gets difficult for me to hand sew in regular lamp light.

Not a big deal for me until the time change.

I'd appreciate your help.

Now I'm off to quickly finish burying these threads and there are lots of them!

What's happening here on another WIP Wednesday

I'm back from a Target trip, the laundry is done, the house is what I would consider clean and I'm ready to get sewing!

Hand sewing the binding on my Gentle Art quilt is on my list this afternoon.

I enjoy hand sewing, so I'll work on it on and off throughout the week.

This is the quilt I was struggling with a few weeks ago.

After setting it aside for awhile, I think I'm over it not being exactly square and I was able to fix it a little bit too.

I'll be doing the quilting on my Holiday Lincoln later today.

I'm hoping to finish this one today or tomorrow and then I'll show you more.

And I'm in the process of picking out fabrics for the next Schnibble project, Morning Joe.

I can't wait to get started on this one!

I think I'm going with the version on the back like the one that Thelma made.

I love all those little stars!

There's lots to work on today, so I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced and I'm getting started!  

A Haunting Halloween Schnibble

Okay, there isn't much haunting going on in this post.

That Boo Crew fabric is just fun, but I couldn't resist throwing in "haunting" in a Halloween post about a Halloween quilt!

The big Schnibble parade on both Sherri's and Sinta's blogs is coming up soon and you know I just finished my entry.

It's Clover, one of Carrie's latest patterns.

I love this one!

A diagonal setting and lots and lots of squares, but that's what makes it fun and different for me.

I alternated the fabrics in the "block"to get a slightly different look.

As I've mentioned, I do like the Boo Crew fabric and so I decided to find a way to throw a few more of them in the main part of the quilt.

The variety made some of the blocks look much different than others and I like it!

Different colored backgrounds have been on my radar lately and I tired to go in that direction with this quilt to no avail. 

An orange background just wasn't doing anything for me, and purple or green wasn't it either.

  I thought black would be just right, but somehow I couldn't get over the black fabrics in the "block" fading into the background.

 Why am I okay with the cream ones blending in a little?  Hmmm.  I'll have to think about that one a little more.

A black screen looking fabric was close in the running, but in the end I went with the cream this time.

Oh, well!  I decided that since I was able to find the Boo Crew cream fabric nearby, that a cream background was just meant to be.

I'm looking forward to the parade and to finding out which project is next!

Happy Halloween!

Be sure to give lots of candy out tonight and don't forget to keep a few pieces for yourself ;-)

I'll leave you with this picture of our Jack-O'lantern that my son designed and carved himself over the weekend.

Boo!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Hey! It's time again for the Blogger's Quilt Festival from Amy's Creative Side!

It's always so much fun to get a chance to see so many beautiful, creative quilts all in one place.

My entry in the Mini Quilt category is this tiny Bennington Schnibble that I made awhile back and swapped with a blogging friend.

Even thought I don't have it anymore, it remains one of my favorites.

I don't even know why, and I guess it really doesn't matter.

I've made many quilts since that are bigger, or more complicated, and even some that have fabric that's more my style, but this one continues to be at the top of my list of my all time favorite quilts.  

These pictures were taken when the quilt was made, but I never noticed until now that my quilt holder managed to sneak in a rare appearance.

So of course, I had to include it.

The line of fabrics I used was Urban Cowgirl and I quilted it using my home machine.

I've still got some of this fabric and I'm planning to make another one of these sometime soon.

Okay, maybe not soon, but definitely sometime!

My list of quilts that I'd like to make keeps getting longer and longer!

And I'm sure that after I take some time to enjoy the Blogger's Quilt Festival I'll have to add lots more.

I hope you get a chance to go over and see the show!

On this rainy October day.......

I've been sewing lots of squares together........

And trying my best not to eat too many these........

They aren't what I would consider a fall flavor, but they are just too good!

A cross between a jellybean and a Starburst.

I hope you're having a sewing day too!