Blog Anniversary and Gingerbread Houses

    Today is the 13^th anniversary for my blog. At the time I started my main interest was to share projects that I was doing with my local quilting students and for myself. I no longer teach as I did; however, I continue to share my skills with my church quilt group of friends. Now my blog is mostly a record of my projects and the crafts I do with and for my granddaughters.

    This past Wednesday my GDs made gingerbread houses which is a holiday tradition for us. They have progressed from just adding candy and icing to decorate to this year both used royal icing to construct their houses as well. I still prebaked the gingerbread pieces. I'm sure they are ready to do that; however, it saves time for me to do the baking ahead. Here are this year's creations.

Mattie's is a Christmas boat house.

        

Lily decorated all 4 sides differently.

       

       

Have a great week whether or not you have time for quilting.

Enjoy this special season! Merry Christmas!

Sewing Holiday Items

       My only goal for the past week was to make progress on a UFO.  I did that but have no photo to share. Last week I shared a crochet hook holder design I found that I wanted to make for my granddaughters. You can find the link for the pattern on last Monday's post. Here are the 2 finished by me. They each contain a few of their Great-grandmother's crochet hooks.

I also made a few other Christmas items. I used the pattern from SewCanShe blog found here except I did not add the zipper. The mini-stockings are large enough to hold a gift card or other things, yet not too large and cute enough to hang on a tree.

Stash Report for 2023

       this past week- Used: 1.75 yds Added: 0 yds

     So far this year- Used: 106.35 yds Added: 50 yds

      Net decrease 56.35 yds

I have a UFO to work on if there is time between holiday happenings. This week I plan to do some crafts and baking with GDs as is our holiday tradition.  Hope you enjoy some holiday happenings.

Have a great week whether or not you have time for quilting.

Holiday Activities Take Place

     The busy holiday time is here so I have not spent much time quilting but I didn't expect to this past week. My only goal was to make progress on a UFO and I did that.

    I spent a few days with family and enjoyed GD Lily's school orchestra concert and her school musical.

While visiting I did a little shopping for Christmas gifts and decided to make a couple.  GD Mattie crocheted a pillow for her bedroom 

and would like to do more crochet so I plan to make her a crochet needle holder and fill it with hooks from her great-grandmother. I found a free tutorial online for this one.

      Stash Report for 2023

this past week- Used: 0.5 yds Added: 0 yds

So far this year- Used: 104.67 yds Added: 50 yds

Net decrease 54.67 yds

         With more holiday events between now and Christmas plus more family time, I do not expect to get much quilting done so any progress will be good. I will review my UFO list from January. I didn't finish very many on that list; however, I moved several to be finished tops.

Goal for this week

1. Make progress on a UFO.

Have a great week whether or not you have time for quilting.

Enjoy this special season!

Progress and Weekly Goals

    I hope you are enjoying this busy, hectic time of year. Sunday I accomplished minimal decorating as I changed out my fall wall-hangings for holiday ones including a couple of newer ones – the small snowman and the “Dancing Garland” tree plus the older Santa Block Exchange.

This is how I did on last week's goals:

1. Quilt more on “Celtic Fantasy”. Not Done.

Instead I focused on a charity quilt.

2.  Start quilting a charity quilt. Done.

I quilted this star burst quilt which is a variation of the “Bursting Forth” pattern - a kaleidoscope variation. I used Accuquilt GO dies 13 and 15 to cut the pieces and used scraps from my church stash. I quilted with a light gray thread for low contrast so the FM quilting doesn't show very much in the photo.

     I finally added the borders on to my crumb top. A backing is pieced and all is waiting to be sandwiched.  I love the scrappiness of  all the blocks and the border.  

     I sewed 20 coffee gift bags. My church sells Cafe Justo coffee which is a grower owned Coffee Cooperative based in southern Chiapas Mexico, formed to address the poverty and migration from Mexico to the U.S.A.. During December if you buy 10 bags, you get one free bag and a colorful gift-bag for each.

      With all the sales I could not resist and bought fabric. Some was for charity backings which doesn't go into my stash but then I added 2 pieces to my stash. Both are for specific projects so I hope they will not be lingering in my stash. I have been wanting to make the Jelly Snowflake quilt from Fat Quarter Shop in 2020 and now have the fabric for it.

Stash Report for 2023

this past week- Used: 1.75 yds Added: 8 yds

So far this year- Used: 104.17 yds Added: 50 yds

Net decrease 54.17 yds

Goals for this week

1. Make progress on a UFO.

With holiday happenings I don't expect to get a lot of sewing done this week.

Hope you have a great week and enjoy some time for quilting.