Christmas 2021

 Christmas was pretty low key over here at chez Lincoln.  

We didn't have the grandbaby but our other 2 kids were here. 

 I forgot to share some photos of the Christmas stockings I made for my great nephew Charlie.

  Thought I would share those now.

This Santa one was made for Charlie's grandma and grandpa's house.  

I had a devil of a time finding that green for the name. 

 I usually put my fabrics for a project into fabric jail. 

 Somehow this one became an escapee.  

GRRRR. 

 Luckily, I happened to find the order form for the fabric I had used so could get the name.  Unfortunately, the fabric is an out of print fabric, Moda Bella Peppermint. 

 I managed to find some in Canada, so ordered it.  

Then the next day I found some in the US and ordered that too. 

 NOW it is in fabric jail, until this family is finished having babies!

This stocking went to Charlie's house.  

It matches the stockings of his folks and his brother.

You know that I was working on a "Canada" quilt for my husband for Christmas.

  I got it finished in time!  

I had my quilter quilt the word "Canada" into it. 

 You can see the loons below the word too.

I did this on the top and bottom of the quilt.

I put fishing lure flannel on the back.

I have other Christmas quilt gifts to share but in another post.  

I thought I would share a family photo.

Every year my 3 kids take the clip-on candles I have and see who can put theirs the highest on the tree.

My eldest put hers where she is pointing. 

 My son was so tired he decided that he wasn't going to play.

So she put both his and her sister's upside down on the lowest branch, LOL.

The same daughter made those cinnamon rolls in a tube in her waffle maker and they were AMAZING!

One quick photo of my sweet boy who had Christmas in NC.

Gigi and Papa sure did miss him!

More Christmas tomorrow!

~XOP~

A Few More Makes

 I have been sewing like crazy but most has been for gifts. 

 I will show a few things I have made that I can show.

  I don't think the people I made them for read my blog so I should be safe, LOL. 

I made another Nightingale quilt using the Dorothy's Journey fabric. 

 I just finished binding it!  

I have not taken a photo of the finished quilt yet though.  

Michigan weather has NOT been cooperating with my photo taking! 

 So just a sneak peek of this one.

Cole and I have been busy.  

I need to make 3 Christmas stockings.  

One for a friend and 2 for my sister-in-law.

I got started one of them the other day.  

I made stockings for this little one's parents when they got married. 

 Then I made them for their twins.  

Now it is time to make for the newest addition to their family. 

 You can see the front and the lining in this picture.

This is the back and still the lining.

Ta-Da!  The finished stocking all ready to mail out soon!

I had one block left over from the baby quilt so I decided rather than have an orphan block I would make it into a pillow cover for the baby.

This is the front of the cover, using the orphan block.

I had some fabric left over from making the quilt so I used it on the back.

If you look closely, you can see the zipper flap. 

 I was pretty excited to put a zipper in the back.

I will send it off with the quilt.  

They will just need to purchase a pillow form to make it into a pillow.

I have also been doing some test embroidery for Meags and Me.

This is one of the adorable parts of their Goodbye quilt pattern.  

I have finished all of the embroidery for the quilt, now I just need the actual quilt pattern to finish it.

They needed testers to use the format I use to check if the embroidery was alright, which it was.

Isn't it so adorable?

Hubby and I went out to pick up some things at Cabela's today for the basket raffle at our church.

We stopped in Dundee and shopped a bit.  Most of the shops have closed, sadly.

We walked by the river and I snapped this pic of us.

I have some more to share, but I need to take some photos.

So until then, happy stitching!

~XOP~

And Then There Were TEN

My SIL, Margie, and I had been talking about me making Christmas stockings for her house. 

 I re-visited this a few weeks before Christmas with her. 

 I am totally in love with Swell Christmas and

thought this line would make crazy adorable stockings.  

I texted her that I found the perfect fabric if she was still interested. 

 I kind of wanted to work quickly, before the fabric went up in price on the secondary market as there were 10 stockings that needed to be made.  

I also told her there was no way they would be done for this Christmas.  

Then the fabric arrived. 

Combine this with the fact that I had all my shopping, wrapping, decorating and cooking done and I could not help myself. 

 I thought, "Oh, I'll just do the kids stockings". 

 So that was the plan (secretly of course).  

I used one of the Maywood patterns I had, the one I used for the twins stockings.  

This meant fussy cutting 9 Santa faces for each of the 4 stockings and then making that stocking.  

It took me 11 hours from start to finish to make those 4 stockings.

This is how they turned out.  I LOVE them so much!

I used the green Santas with the red candy canes and the pink plaid for the girls.

I used the Moda Bella Betty's Red for the lettering

I used the red Santas with the green candy canes and the red plaid for the boys.

I used Moda Bella Peppermint for the lettering of their stockings.

I used Kona Snow for the cuff and the inside lining for all the stockings.

So...there was still 2 days until Christmas...you know I did. 

I just did 2.5" squares for the adult stockings. 

 I got those all finished with only the lettering to add on the 23rd. 

 I got up on the 23rd and put the names on the stockings and voila, they were done too.

 I was SO excited to gift those to my SIL. 

 She did not expect they would be finished so that made it all the better!  

She is one of the few who cherishes the things I make.  

I know that whatever I make her will be loved and valued.

 Here they are before adding the names.  Fronts

Backs,  I made them in pairs so the green Santa went with the green pointsetta etc.

First are the grandparents (my SIL and BIL), fronts and 

Backs

This is their first born and his wife, fronts

and backs

This is for their youngest son and his wife, fronts 

and backs

If you paid close attention you will see that I used the same pink plaid on all the adult women and the red plaid on all the adult men's stockings to match the kids. 

My SIL took a pic of all of them at her house.  

I bet they looked pretty sweet hanging up at their house on Christmas Eve too!  

I hope Santa filled them with a lot of great things.

PHEW!  That one was a labor of love.  

As a disclaimer, I have to say that she is paying me for them, but still a labor of love.  

Guess what?  I am getting pretty quick with these now too.  

I am happy that I am done with stockings for awhile now though!

Sadly the Maywood pattern is no longer available on their website.

I did download it and am so thankful that I did.

If you find a free pattern you love, download it to your computer.

I recently had someone ask me for a pattern I had downloaded YEARS ago.

I went back to find it and the link is gone.

Luckily I had written a tutorial about how I made my blocks so was able to print it for them.

Just a PSA for all my friends regarding free patterns.

~XOP~

Christmas Sewing

I have not really had loads of time to sew lately.  

I'm not sure what I have been doing but I am busy, LOL.  

I finished a cute piece for a friend and I will show that now. 

 It is a surprise for her but since she is not expecting anything she won't realize it is for her, LOL .

 I am calling it a wine mat.  

I hand quilted around the dragon using 6 strands of embroidery floss and 

did straight line quilting using the machine. 

 I am really pleased with the result and hope she likes him too. 

If you click on the photo you should be able to see him larger and 

notice the "eye" placement of fabric.

A friend from IG sent me this amazing Unicorn Thread Gloss.  

You guys, you really need to go to Robot Mom Sews shop and buy some.  

You pull your thread through it and the thread doesn't tangle when you sew with it for hand sewing.  

I used it for my binding thread.  

I happened to use Gutterman thread for this binding.  

It is NOT my favorite hand thread but the color matched.  

Using the thread gloss was a total game changer. 

 No more tangles!

I have three Christmas stockings to make and thought I would see if I could make one last weekend.  My hope was to get the pieced front made, which I did.

Then I decided to "go for it" and actually got the whole stocking made (sans the name).  

I had to print the name out on my computer from work as my home computer doesn't have that font.  I have finished this one and put it in the mail.  

I can't show the name just yet, but soon.

Hubby has been continuing the cleaning and has gotten our family room all cleaned up.  

We might even be able to get it painted before Christmas!!!  

Maybe. 

 This means all the junk that was in that room is now in my living room and must be dealt with. 

My plan for the weekend is to get the living room cleaned up so we can decorate for Christmas the next weekend (after Thanksgiving) and 

also get the upstairs guest room tidied up for my friend, Sue's visit in 2 weeks. 

 So I don't anticipate much sewing over the next few weeks.  

I am leaving on a quilt retreat to California on Dec 5th so there are supplies that I need for that also.

So much to do!

Are you all ready to decorate for Christmas?  Shopping done?  Tips you can share??

~XOP~

Wedding Shower Makes

I decided that I wanted to make Christmas stockings for the kids as my shower gift to them.  

I had chosen a pattern a few years ago that I thought they would like and I happened to be right.

I had to make a few modifications but I am really pleased with how they turned out.  

The pattern called for quilting the front and back but I just did the front.  

They are quite large and I felt it would make them even heavier.

You can see that I put white behind the nose and eyes on the bear to make them stand out.

Little mice with Christmas trees grace the inside of this one.

Funny story about Nick's. 

I forgot to add the string before I put the whole stocking and lining together.  

I had to add it after and try not to stitch through into the lining while I was doing it!  

I managed to do it but it was tricky.

Little Christmas trees are on the inside of this one.

This is when they opened them.  You can see how big they are!

 I also made a pillow for the ring bearer to carry.  

She was VERY specific about what she wanted and I think this came out just as she wanted.  

She had seen it before the shower as I wanted her opinion 

about the ribbon to put on it to attach the rings with.

This was before I added the white flower dots, the ribbon or had the words stitched.

They will attach the rings by tying them with the ribbon.

Opening the pillow.

Now I need to get my butt in gear and work on the wedding quilt.

At the retreat I made 670 blocks for the quilt, PHEW!

Now I have to get the motivation to sew it all together.

Where has my sewjo gone??

Wish me luck with this one.

It's going to be HUGE!

~XOP~