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~

On The Road Again

Me and my DH are on the road to NYC today so I thought in keeping with the NaBloPoMo of posting every day in the month of NovemberI would write a post tonight and have it post tomorrow while we are traveling.  He has to go to NJ for Flight Safety and if you remember, I get to go into the city and play for the week!!  We will be driving all the way there tomorrow.

So for your reading pleasure I will be talking about that little quilt I talked about recently.  A friend of my DD1had her grandmother pass away and she donated all her fabric to my church quilting group.  I felt like she needed to have a little quilt made out of this fabric before it all went to the church group.  So I came up with a dresden plate layout.  It was a very eclectic  collection to say the least!  I made the quilt top and decided it needed to be hand quilted.  Do I hand quilt?  Not very well, but I determined to try.  I did alright around the plates but the feathers were so difficult.  I was complaining about it at the gym and one of the ladies offered to do it for me.  I gave her the top and she did the feathers, or most of them.  I got it back and thought that it needed a little more quilting so I quilted inside each fan blade and then I quilted inside the rectangles.  I finished it recently and I was so excited!! I put a label on it the other night just before the party because the woman I was going to give it to was coming to our Halloween party.  I gave it to her and she was thrilled.  Would you like to see?

Here is the back too

And the label

I talked about this quilt and showed close ups of the hand quilting here, if you want to see.  I want to know if any of you are planning on participating in the NaBloPoMo and blogging every day in November too?  I would love to hear from you!!  Next time you hear from me I will be in NYC!!!

My Fingers Are Sore!

They are not sore from disciplining our new darling, but from my feeble attempts at hand quilting.  I started this little project and then literally gave it to a friend that loves to hand quilt.  She did an excellent job on the feather border and the feathers in the inner circle.  I got it back and thought that the fans needed to be quilted in too.  I didn't want to ask her to do it so I sat down and did one whole circle of fans (there are 4 of them) as I watched TV last night.  Those fans in one circle took me 2 and a half hours!!!  I love how it looks though, so thought I would share (no laughing now).

Here is one of the circles I did from the back too (again, no laughing!)

Boy oh boy are my fingers sore now though. One from pushing the needle through and the underneath one from being stuck! I did get the binding sewn down on this one too, so just 3 fans to go and I will be completely finished with this one. I am thinking that I will work on it during the MSU football game this weekend. That ought to get me through at least one more fan. I did my stitching without a hoop and I like quilting that way much better.

When DH and I went to the MSU game a few weeks ago, the folks putting on the tailgate from the College of Natural Science at MSU went around and took pictures of people attending the tailgate. They snapped one of me and my DH and I thought I would share it with you since it is not too hideous of me! We were all decked out in our green and white. You can see his braces are even in green!

So the question for today is do you use a hoop or no hoop to hand quilt? ~XOP~