Christmas Recipe Towel

This Christmas I decided to give of my talent. I love my Bernina 830E sewing machine, and I love embroidery.  Angela Sevens is an embroidery digitizer/designer and we found her designs at Bernina University this summer. Purchased tea towels are embroidered on with the picture of a finished food/drink item and the recipe is written below it.  What a clever way to share not just your talent but your culinary skills as well.  Well, okay, culinary skills from me is pushing it, but the recipes are easy enough so I made this one for a friend today.
I decided I would give a tea towel and the one or two of the main ingredients for the recipe as a gift. Hopefully I can get them finished and presented before the season is over.

Tonight we are going to Tom and Dorothy Rice's home for a dinner, I plan to take this finished one and offer it as a gift.
There are candy, cookie, beverage, and other holiday recipes to chose from- in all about 12 different designs.
The design also gives instruction for a cool way to add trim to the towel.
If you are the recipient of one of these recipe towels, I hope you and your family will make the delicious treat and then comment on this blog.

Happy Christmas Treats to All and to All a Good Holiday Season. I send my Love to you,  my Family and Friends- and wish for each of us to remember the reason for Christmas, Relish in the Joy that Gathering with Family and Friends brings into our life.
 

Mensch Family

Carl and Margie Mensch are very dear friends of Bill and I.  I took a 'Thangle' Class last spring  by my friend Joann Hinchliffe. She designed a block of the Hunter Star and then arranged it into a quilt design.  I chose 2 Batiks fabric for this quilt. The picture shown here isn't really as good as I wanted, but I was unable to take it, and so Bill went to Tucson for the day, visited with Carl and Margie and took this photo. Their new baby wouldn't move out of the picture, and why should she?  Her name is Cora and she goes where Margie goes.  This is a queen size quilt, it is a soft green marbleized batik and a more tone on tone green batik for the second fabric. I will get a close up view of the block when I am able to get to their home later this month. For now, I just wanted to honor this great couple and the wonderful friends they are to us.

Christmas Village- Embroidered

Per Gramma Sheri's request, here are the pieces that I have completed so far.  They take a lot of time to stitch out and then assemble, so I am always behind with doing the other parts of the village. Still to come, Gazebo, Post Office, Victorian House. 

From left to right: church, bakery, tree and icepond, town hall.

 My Christmas Village ( OESD designs) is slowly growing.  This is the latest addition, the Bakery. 

Done using the Bernina 830E sewing and embroidery machine.
This is applique and lace. Each piece is embroidered separately then attached using the small tabs that are sewn in the design. Needs a little pressing to help keep the shape straight and sharp. Putting small candleless lights inside the bakery help it have a glow through the lace.
Pictures make it look a little rough, but since this photo was taken, it has taken a firmer shape.

I found this alphabet panel at Hearts and Hands Quilt Shop, and thought of the two youngest little girls in our family.  Sophia is Bill's Great Granddaughter, lives in Massachusetts, she is 1 year and 8 months. She will receive this at Christmas from me and her Papa.
I made it into a growth chart, thus the hanger that reads "I'm This Big".  Her name was  made using the letters from AccuQuilt Go die fabric cutting system. I appliqued it to the top.  The large yellow rectangle at the bottom says "Now I've said my ABC's tell  me what you think of me'.  I wanted to add a fabric tape measure, but couldn't find one to buy so I had to make one out of Twill tape, used the 9mm sewing stitch width of my Bernina 830 machine to make the numbers.
I am going to make one for Leona as well. She will be two this December 2nd, and is growing like a weed.  I am really thankful for the age of technology we live in so that I can use Skype to have video conference calls with family and friends.

According to Amelia- who is almost 6yrs old, she is now a BIG girl and her Little girl quilt doesn't work for her now....so Gramma Jackie was asked, to make a BIG GIRL quilt. 
Here it is, taken from a Modern Quilt design and the use of bright colors this is a 58"x79" quilt, pieced and quilted by me.  Since her birthday is coming up along with Christmas I guess it is going to be mailed later this month.  I am not able to make everyone a quilt every year, but am attempting to complete the families (I have 6 children and 15 grandchildren) as I get around to it.  Wish me luck and a long life so that I have time to complete one for each of them. 

The Holidays approach earlier each year

Amazing how quickly the years pass.  Bill, my husband says that "we have already done everything so time moves faster"....not so sure we have done EVERYTHING....  I still have lots of fabric to use.

This piece is an OESD design titled "Magic In The Air".  This is an applique and embroidery design.
It measures 24x28" (when this photo was taken the final border hadn't been applied, there is now a Red border. I forgot to take a photo of it before I took it to Hearts and Hands Quilt Shop.  I will be teaching this in a class there In December.

A day at home and alone with my sewing area/machine

It is so great to have a day all to one's self....they are far and few between, but today was one of them.

I decided to accomplish at least one thing with several projects underway and just waiting for some work to be done on them. 

A round table cloth to be used in the home of Nancy and Larry, this is the fabrics used in their wall hanging 'Sushi 2'.  I don't have it quilted yet but today I got the final seam and added the center circle with some decorative stitching and quilting this will be an awesome addition to their dining area....pattern from 'Quilts without Borders'. 
It looks like the pieces aren't together in the correct order, but it is hanging on my design wall and the bottom is hanging together so the two yellows look like there should be more, and there is,,,,is actually is put together perfectly.  I named it 'Sunrise in AZ'.  This is a 38" round table cloth.

BeDazzled Star is an embroidered and pieced wall hanging.  It was designed and digitized for machine embroidery by Sarah Vedeler of Scottsdale, AZ.  I saw her completed quilt last summer and just had to make one of my own. 
I used a deep purple background for all 16 of the blocks.  This quilt was started last August, 2011.  I had it quilted by professional longarm quilter-Nina Keck of Hearts and Hands quilts. I will finish some decorative stitches in the center of the salmon/yellow sashing. I will then bind the wallhanging and affix a sleeve in some manner so that it can be hung on the wall, but I may use it on my round dinner table.
The piece is 58" in diameter, there are 16 individual embroidered and appliqued blocks. Each block took me an average of 4hr 50min to complete.  I used 12 different colors of threads, and most of those threads required 2 spools to be used. Needless to say there are more than 1 million stitches in the project in just embroidery.  But I love it and am very proud of it.
Today I trimmed it up and am prepared to do the decorative stitches and binding soon.

Another project that I wanted to try today was a new design I just purchased entitled "Magic in the Air".  I did the cutest little snowman angel.  I used metallic gold thread for his wings and halo.  When all the blocks are completed it is a very cute and lovely Christmas quilt/wall hanging....depending on someone's choice of use.It is stitched onto a deep royal purple fabric.  I am feeling purple these days it seems.....

Isn't he cute?

And finally, but actually my first action of the day was to put a border on my 'Mystery
Quilt' that was designed by Jean Biddick and Jo Cady-Bull, they were the quilt artists on our Alaska Quilt Retreat at Sea quilting cruise this last June.  Wonderful time.  So here is the delicious fabric I found and I think it adds just the right spark.                   
                                                                               
   

with a portion of the final quilt top... now to quilt and bind it in the next few days (I hope)



What did you do today?

Mystery Quilt Weekend

Friday afternoon 7/20/12

Friday evening 7/20/12

And so we began

Since the kit was cut we knew we would be able to get  a lot of sewing done.  Michelle's children were gone for the weekend, and when we stopped for dinner we had put together the first 4 clues



Saturday- worked on the mystery quilt until about 11:30am. Then we drove to Gilbert to attend the Phoenix chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild.  We left there around 3:30 to get home before the afternoon monsoon storm (actually today was  a big dust storm). Worked until late Saturday evening and VOILA!!!!

Michelle's is Black/White with Red accents
My quilt colors are Purple, lavendar and Hot Pink accents


Enough sewing for the night.





 Sunday we woke early and went to the airport to pick up Rachel, she was coming home from a visit to Florida. We had breakfast, went to the fabric shop and then returned to Michelle's to start our quest to finish the top of our quilts.

When the other two kids came home about noon- Rachel, Marshel and Kellee were taught to use the sewing machine and do straight stitching- we made each of them some super sized pillowcases.  They did a good job and I was able to spend some time with each of them individually.  Here are photos of their final projects.

Marshel

 and Kellee

           A fun and successful weekend in July

I finished the top of my quilt....  Michelle was busy finishing her borders when I left her home, will post her photo when she sends it to me.... until then, why not plan your own weekend family quilt weekend and see how excited the kids get when they too can show their creative side (by the way, each of the kids chose their own fabric for their pillow covers).
Here is a photo of Michelle's finished top....now to the quilting and binding ....

                     


                                

One would think I have been 'unbusy' due to my lack of blogging, however this is not the case.  I have been extremely busy and productive, just nothing physical to show for it... I have two items to share today.

The Bed Runner - design found in 'Make your Bed' is the Irish Rose Chain I did it in chocolate and cream colored batik, it is two fabric choices.

I purchased some Pashmina shawls on my cruise earlier this year, and decided they needed a bit of embellishment- this is one of them, more techniques on them to do as I learn more.

The One That Got Away

I fell in love with this applique embroidered design last summer while visiting Alaska, on our Quilt Retreat at Sea trip. It is a Lunch Box design. Bill and Mark went fly fishing while Barbara and I went to the quilt shop, imagine that!

Anyway, I decided to make this wall hanging for Bill so he could always remember the fun he had with 'The one that got away'.

Gigi- 1998 to 2012

My sweet little Gigi, went to sleep for the last time today. She had finally shown signs of a tumor that had been growing for some time, and today the Vet told us that she is 14 yrs old, she has a tumor that would require treatment and there is no real hope that would help. We had already talked about it and decided that she would suffer no more and not have a quality of life that she deserved. I hurt so badly, I can't stop crying, and even though I know it was the right thing to do.... I can't help but think ' was it the right thing to do? In my heart I know it was best. She had been having so many problems and I just miss her so much. Gigi came to us over 7 yrs ago... I adopted her from one of my hospice patients...he said that if she didn't have a home she would be cremated with him.... she had 7 more glorious and fun years...she brought Bill and I such joy and such unconditional love that I couldn't have asked for more from a pet or a human. I love you Gigi, I will see you again soon, and until then chase the birds, wag your stump of a tail and know that you are so loved and so missed by me. Sleep well my Best Friend. 

Gigi- Born November 1998 

Died - March 26, 2012

Pedigree- Rat Terrier

Moved into our home and our hearts November 2005. Adopted from ‘Ernie’.

Our first Christmas 2005

Gigi 2006   * 8 years old

 Always in our Hearts

AnDe's Hawk

My sister, Ande Herbert  http://www.facebook.com/pages/AnDes-Studio and J. Michelle Watts www.jmichellewatts.com, have collaborated and transformed AnDe's art work of "Hawk" into a pattern for Applique.  I was privileged to be able to test the pattern that J. Michelle wrote and published. 

Be sure to check out AnDe's art work, and J. Michelle's designs.  We are all hoping for more combined efforts from these two wonderfully talented women.

I made the trial version and Saturday I taught it at a class at my local quilt shop- Heartsandhandsquilts.com .  Here is a photo of mine and I included photos of  3 of the class participants works in progress.  

Lady Liberty Quilted Wall Hanging

A tribute to the "Lady".  Design by Eileen Roche- embroidery digitized quilt in the hoop quilt as you go.  What a beauty she turned out to be.  Made from all of my stash fabrics, it is a jewel.  I love it. Hope you enjoy the view. 

 She measures 29x30".  Please ignore the little red/purple strip on the left side, I took the photo on my design wall and part of another project can be seen.  Didn't say I was a photographer...

Pearl Cotton storage

I have been following Pat Sloan's blog regarding 'Storage and Organizing Tips' presented through Quilting Gallery- Michele Foster has worked very hard in keeping all of us Quilting enthusiasts involved around the globe, check out the webpage here http://quiltinggallery.com/2012/02/28/thread-storage-studio-organizatio/


So in response to all this 'organizing' I made some
adjustments to my own way of storage and
keeping my work area usable.
One way was to put my Pearle Cotton Floss
into a thread storage container-


I found that the empty spools were
very useful, they also allow for the
tail end of the floss to be tucked into
the slit at the bottom of the spool.



Feel free to share and tell me about your ideas and your storage/organization hints.

Until then, Sew away.

not enough energy to sew...

I am recovering from a surgical procedure.  I want to thank my husband, my sister, and the many friends who have come to my rescue...i.e. providing delicious meals, sending me cards, following up with phone calls, stop in and visit time, offers to take me for a ride, and many other kind thoughts and prayers on my healing behalf.
  I just wanted to express my gratitude to all my children the thankfulness for their love and concern, and to let them know (since they are not living near me) that I am truly doing well.
I am grateful to all...and will get this posting back in order soon, with hopefully some new and exciting projects that are on my 'to finish list'.

Rachel's Quilt

This quilt's fabrics were chosen by Rachel last March 2011, when she came to visit for spring break. She went with me to Hearts and Hands Quilts shop and chose these fabrics.

I started working on it in April but for some reason lost interest, and it was put to the side for a bit. However, I knew I wanted to be done by Christmas so sometime last October, I finally finished the pieced top, and prepped it for quilting.

I gave it to Rachel on Christmas day, we took a picture, but I didn't get home with a photo, so this weekend I took a pic of it while it is on her bed. It is named 'Wild Child' due to the safari theme.

Quilt Retreat with Michelle

We had an awesome weekend.  I went to Maricopa, AZ to my daughter Michelle's home on Friday evening.  We started by going to Rachel's high school basketball game, she is a cheerleader for the school. It was a quick game, a nice half-time dance routine done by the cheerleaders, and on to victory for Maricopa HS.
Once home, Michelle and I found our way into her entry area, where there is a nice size room for her crafts. However, she has used it as a collection for most anything, and a try at an office.  It was time for some organizing. First we moved everything out of the room and into the front foyer (door was now empassable). Together, we moved her desk into the great room, which will now become her office area.  I didn't get a photo of the room before or after, dumbie that I am...
I placed a pile of stuff infront of her and we put them where she thinks she would like them for now. There are several plastic drawer storage stackers that were able to fit under the large craft table she has, and a second one, making a nice 'L' shape work area for her scrapbooking.

Once we completed that we were pretty much ready for some downtime. We watched a bit of television, and I headed to bed about 11:30. I don't know what time she finally gave in and went to bed.

The next day started early around 6:30, we got the teenagers up and out to jobs, etc.

Michelle's X came to help move some of the heavy stuff, another desk that Michelle uses now as her sewing table, he also dropped off the youngest child- Kellee- who was running a fever and had a bit of a croupy cough. Medication, tepid bath and lots of sleep for her was the order of the day. Then Michelle and I went to run our errands, pick up some supplies and then finally home and ready to start work on our projects.

Mine was a 'Professional Tote' that is going to be used as a diaper bag.

 

I don't know why this bag shows in browns, it is really the light gray and green as seen with Rachel as my model.

Michelle wanted to make a t-shirt quilt for her son, Nate. We cut out and stabilized the pieces in early Dec. 2011.  Now I would teach her how to sash and piece the shirts blocks into a nice quilt top.  By the time I left her home today at noon, she had the top completed. We layered the top, batting and backing, pinned them in place and rolled it onto a 'noodle' until she and I could get back together to teach some free motion quilting. 

Nice job don't you think? 

Fabric Stash 2

Second phase, that pile is now folded.  I havent decided where to store these things, and before that I will have to have all my fabric stash ready to be categorized.  Now that should be fun?

It's called 'Organizing'

Here it is, half of my yardage.  I decided it should all be washed, and refolded and then organized in colors/themes/sizes. As you can tell it isn't folded yet.
Last week I did a huge load like this (it is folded and put away) and this is this weeks load. I don't have a lot of storage areas in my house/sewing area but I try to keep it somewhat tidy.  I hate going through my fat quarter stash as well.  That will be another project someday soon.
My friend Sheryl is in the organinzing and cleaning up mode and she has inspired me too.  Last week we spent a few hours with scraps and used the Accu Quilt - made lots of squares and Stars out of some of my smaller scaraps, she did strips.  So off I go to fold some fabrics.  I'll take a picture when it is all neatly put away. Oh and by the way, I did have need to find some blue fabrics on Monday and what a great surprise when it was folded and in view.
What is your organinzing nightmare- or should I say 'disorganized' nightmare?

Fabricadabra Pillow

This pillow is a pattern from Jenny Haskins Designs. The pillow shows two of the embroidery designs that are used in the Fabricadabra Quilt (this design can be purchased at Hearts and Hands in Green Valley, AZ.  Making the ruffle was a very new and interesting technique. It allowed me to have some very soft ruffles and they were evenly spaced.
I chose these colors because I had the fabric in my stash.  The pillow form is 16".
I am teaching this class at the local quilt shop- www.heartsandhandsquilts.com you can take a peek there for more information on all the classes that the shop has to offer. 
Enjoy the view- if you click on the photos they will enlarge




close up of embroidery





Final project of 2011 is

Sushi #2 of 10

This is a great way to use up the large scrap stash after doing a 9degree round quilt. My neighbor saw my Sushi 1 hanging on my wall, and said " I will commission you to make me one just like it, only in my colors. I will pay you.  It is a work of art."  this is the photo hanging in his home.  He and his wife are Butterfly and Bird watchers, he had these two copper figurines and hung them on the piece.  You can click on the photo for a close up (I think).

And so I set forth, first I had to cut the quilt fabric for a full sized round table with the 9degree ruler following the instructions from the book- Quilts without Corners.  Then the masterpiece begins and 40+ hrs later it ends.  I love doing Sushi and will make 8 more of them.