Fun Little Quilts

The Frankfort Girls had our Christmas brunch and gift exchange on Friday morning. I always look forward to this event for the extra special fellowship that the Christmas Spirit brings. We have a wonderful meal at a local woman's house - the most darling little cabin decorated perfectly with primitives and family treasures. 

Afterwards, we headed over to Terry's house for gifting and relaxing. While our usual every-other-Friday gathering is set at 9-noon, we always gladly allow this special event go long. It is almost as if none of us want the love and fellowship to end. 

You saw the gifts I took when I shared my red and white Scandinavian Stars. Inside, everyone got a holiday kitchen towel, an ornament, a small candle and a tasty homemade treat. I drew Sheryll's name in the gift exchange (and interestingly, she had my name, too!). Sheryll is a master of wool applique who loves red, so I gifted her a bundle of red wool from Sue Spargo's store that I visited in July. I don't have a picture of Sheryll's bundle, but below are a few shots of the shop; there are wool bundles scattered throughout these pictures.

Now to the fun little quilts referenced in my title today. I wrote a few weeks ago about the little quilts at Becky's house. Who knew that she was making one for each of us?! Oh my goodness, the time and detail she put into these! They are just as darling as can be.

Becky tried to create a little quilt specifically suited each of us, and she was so very spot on with her fabric choices and designs. What a labor of love, and we all are so very lucky to have a Becky creation!

Now, I will close by sharing more fun little quilts - the beautiful handwork of Sheryll, who as I mentioned had my name in the gift exchange. And recall that I gifted her wool for her wool applique. Just feast your eyes on these lovelies!

Two sweet table runners or wall hangings. At least, that's how I will probably use the one that says 'welcome.' Below are a couple close ups of the detail. What masterful workmanship!

Yes, I get to sew with some very talented gals, and they truly do inspire me to stretch my sewing and quilting horizons. I've learned so much from them.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Gifting Another Pillow

I mentioned in earlier posts that some secret sewing was ongoing around here, and now I can share one more of those secrets with you. Yes, another pillow, and yes, I do like this method of using a flap to cover the zipper on the back. It is a really smooth process and results in a very attractive finish.

This is the second pillow of the same pattern. I made the blocks over a month ago just on a whim. Then I finished one for myself. The other block remained pinned up on the design wall waiting for me to come up with an idea for a finish. 

This one got a simpler treatment than the first with that small green border. Why make it hard? The block is the pretty part; borders need simply to enhance the block. So here it is.

The back was made using the checked fabric; the red dot was the flap. I used my last green zipper.

This pillow was gifted yesterday to my quilting friend Sharon O. of the Frankfort Girls. We had our Christmas breakfast and gift exchange yesterday. What a wonderful morning. Those girls are so very special.

Christmas Eve! Are you ready for the magical day?!? I have been prepping here today, and will be up early in the morning to get the turkey on by 6am! At 1pm, this house will be overflowing with around 20-25 family members for Christmas Dinner, potluck style. As hostess, I am providing turkey, noodles (see this post), mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, cranberry sauce and blackberry cobbler. This house will smell heavenly, won't it?

 

Happy Christmas Eve!

Lovely Gifts

I am quite remiss in recognizing a sweet gift I received in the mail about a month ago.

I will attempt to explain this acquisition as simply as possible.

Long-time readers will remember my friend and former CHS student, Amie. She made the awesome postage stamp quilt and had a great story of collecting fabrics for it. Well, her friend Deb, has been de-stashing. I do not know Deb, but if she's a friend of Amie's, then she is sure to be top-notch.

Amie contacted me to see if I would be interested in taking ownership of a few of Deb's embroidery kits. Amie had seen my recent posts about my renewed interest in embroidery, so she could foresee a match made in heaven. I definitely was interested, and that is how I was on my way to being a lucky recipient of Deb's de-stash patterns.

Soon, a squishy package arrived in my mail from Deb. What an unexpected treat! It hadn't occurred to me that she would send it herself; I supposed Amie would take care of the transferring business. (Just goes to show I don't know what's going on, half the time.)

My apologies that pictures are limited for all this, as I was a total failure at recording the story from here. Suffice it to say, the top kit, a redwork Christmas design, is one I definitely want to do. Maybe not this year, or even next, but I can see this on my radar screen sometime down the road.

The other kit is a set of 9 different designs that combine coloring and embroidery to make some darling gingerbread houses - again, a Christmas design. I opted to pass these along to the girls in the quilting group (The Frankfort Girls), and at our last meet-up, Becky took them home with her. At least one or two others expressed interest, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them passed around a bit from time to time.

Below is a group picture of the girls from a few months ago. Becky has the kit, but Jan is also interested, and possibly others.

Bless you, Deb! And Amie, too! I know of several Ross County gals who are going to get hours of pleasurable stitching thanks to your generosity!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Quilt to Bind

A quilt will soon be on its way to Florida, if I can make myself get really busy this week. DH and I had decided to gift a quilt to his brother and sister-in-law. We let them pick from several options and they selected Bradford's Star - a quilt top I made a number of years ago for a mystery project.

I found some remaining fabrics from the top and a great sale piece of coordinating fabric to use for backing. It was delivered to my quilter about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I saw her Friday morning and took delivery of the finish. Looks great!!

Various shots from it's early-morning photo shoot. I wanted to get it before the bright sun created streaks of light across it.

Maybe it will be in Florida by this time next week? Hope so!

I will be linking up with Monday Making over at Love Laugh Quilt. Click on over and have a peek.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

The Gifts Have All Been Given

Much of what I've worked on lately has been intended for gift-giving, so I was limited in what I could share here on the blog. With all of my gift-giving behind me, I will at last be able to show you some things I'd previously been hiding. Sprinkled in, there will be a couple of things you may have already seen; some gifts were made prior to deciding that they would become gifts.

Back when I was sewing for the bazaar through the month of October, I came across 4 log cabin blocks. It occurred to me that if I were to sew them together, I could have a right nice looking little wall hanging or table topper. So that is what I did. I also knew that Mom liked her little wall hanging from last Christmas, so I sewed these together and did a simple hand quilting on it.

The squares were left over from a quilt top I made several years ago - the Dressmaker's Quilt. Do you remember it? It's from February of 2011, according to my records.

I can see this new wall hanging going up on the wall beside her first wall hanging. Here is a rerun of this, and I think you will agree that they will complement each other nicely.

Emma, DD2, got a Mondo Bag. I did share this a month or so ago when I made it when Claudia was here making her own Mondo.

Emma also got a little clutch bag.

Mom did, too.

I have a couple of other things which became Christmas gifts. If I can locate pictures, I will share those soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Quilt Gift Given

Doesn't it just warm the heart when a quilt you've made plays a part in making someone's Christmas really special? It happened for me yesterday when the Baal t-shirt quilt was at last gifted to the intended recipient.

You may recall back in October-November when I worked on this quilt. I wrote about it here and here. The circumstances that brought about the giving of this quilt are still so very sad for many; even so, from the big grin on this grandson's face, I think he must know his quilt represents many very special memories of his grandfather.

Thanks, Debbie, for sending your Christmas-morning picture! And also for letting me share this expression of love here on the blog.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Back in Business!

Playing around with a new computer is fun, but I am definitely a slow learner when it comes to technology, so getting my pictures out of my camera and into my laptop was a process. I learned that is called uploading (I can never remember the difference between upload and download). Anyhoo, the pics are in the laptop, and I assume that when I get ready to add one here in a bit, I will be able to perform the task. I think I am back in business. Whew!

For Christmas I received a few quilting-related items. One friend gave a little grab-bag of assorted goodies, while another added a ruler and a deck of Ricky Tims cards to her gift of wool socks. Here are the items, combined:

The pretty little thing with flowers and button centers is a needle book that a third quilt friend made. It is sweet in its simplicity, and I actually needed a needle book.

One of the really wonderful things to happen to me in 2009 was meeting up with a distant acquaintance quite by accident, and being invited to join her small group of quilters. She and 4 other gals meet every other Friday morning to sit and stitch. Upon learning I had just retired, she invited me to come join them. That was in July, and I have been with them ever since. The location rotates from kitchen table to kitchen table. The other three ladies have become brand new friends, and I am truly enjoying this group.

At our last meeting, the hostess asked us if we'd be interested in quilting for charity. She offered us the choice of any fabrics in her closet stash and had several simple quilt patterns copied for us. I selected 2 patterns and 2 fabric groupings. We are going to try to have these done in 2 or 3 months. I'm really sketchy on the details, and I really should get this straight...the exact charity; the exact finish deadline; does finish mean to a top or a totally quilted quilt? I will definitely need to confirm these details. At any rate, here are the 2 sets of fabrics I selected for the 2 I volunteered to make.