Bloggiversary Today

Wow... A year ago today I started this blog.  I started it with the intention to motivate myself to complete some long ago UFOs that are still awaiting my attention.  Instead it morphed into a growing friendship with an awesome  blogging community that I have fallen in love with.  You have motivated me to try new things and yes, most all of what I have started with you I have finished this year!!!

I have had a blast interacting with you and getting to know some of you through your comments and participating with you through swaps , blog hops , emails, and following many of you through your blogs!  What wonderful inspiration you have all offered me this year.  As a thank you for following my journey this year I am offering up 7 fat quarters to one lucky follower.

I had a blast picking these out, I love the aqua and red I see everywhere you turn nowadays so I had to get one of each for me too.

To enter the giveaway just leave a comment on this post letting me know you are a follower (old, new, yellow or blue). I love you all. That's it ... easy peasy.  I will have Mr Random choose a winner on Friday, January 4th and will email the winner once he does.  Please make sure you are not a no reply blogger so I have a way to contact you.  If you are not sure you can leave your email address in your comment post in this format:
username at service dot com (or net) for example mine would be 
kacagang at comcast dot net 

Looking forward to another great year ahead.   The New Year always find me contemplating what lies ahead. 

•  I am currently finishing up the Quilt U Be Mine swap ( ends in Feb)
•   awaiting my swap blocks from the Christmas block swap from Aunt Pitty Pat's group

• and needing to start designing my Zetti blocks for Rebecca's Quilt due in August.  I have been buying fabric like crazy for it and think I have enough to get going on it. 

•  I also will be participating in the Skill Builder BOM at Pile Of Fabric .  Check out the awesome quilt we will be making.  Best of all it is free and a QAYG project, too.  

• Another free BOM, I will be participating in is the one Kristy over a Quiet Play is providing this year through her Craftsy shop.  It will all be paper pieced blocks ( my fav ) and will be all sewing themed blocks.

Best of luck to you in the giveaway!!! All my best wishes to you in the year ahead.

Sweet Skating Sue

I got a very nice present in the mail right before Christmas.  I received my Sweet Skating Sue mini quilt from my swap partner.  It is so adorable.  I love the face she gave her and the fur trim on her jacket.  The arm she gave her is also something I absolutely love about her.  Don't ya just love the path her skates made in the ice?  I added her to my sewing room walls and am so grateful for the extra friend up there with me. A big huge thanks to Rebecca for all the love she put into my sweet new wall hanging. I love what she did with the pattern to make her unique and one of a kind and will treasure for years to come. Thanks Rebecca!!!

Three Finished Skirts , Two White Russians and a Partridge in a Pear tree

I know this is my own adaptation of a time old Christmas Carol, but after a couple White Russians one does feel Very Merry indeed and silly and relaxed and...almost prepared for the big day!!!

Hope you are feeling the load lighten and the anticipation and hope and love that the season is known for surround your activities.

Here are the skirts I have been busy making for the 3 grand-daughters.  They went together pretty easily considering garments are not my forte.  In fact,  I haven't sewn any for over 20 years since my oldest was about the age of my oldest grand-daughter who will be five in February.  I bought the shirts online thru Zulily and liked that I could get them personalized with their names.

Kiara is starting to wear size six and I remember that patterns run big so I made hers a size 4.

I believe it was a good choice because I believe the length turned out to be about and inch longer than her mom reported the length to just above her knee to be.

The pattern I used for this was a NEWLOOK pattern #0147.  It had sizes 3-8.  I found it at Joann's Fabrics.  Since Kiara was a size 4,  I needed Pyper's to be a size 2.  So I just shortened each tier by about a half inch and I believe it too is the right size, being approximately an inch longer than I wanted it to finish at. 

Jayda's presented the real challenge.  She is only 16 months old to Pyper's 3 yrs so I really needed to adjust the pattern quite a bit without making it too small.  It finished exactly at the length my daughter thinks it should be so let's hope she is right.  I think the girls are going to look adorable in their matching outfits and hopefully nana has gained the confidence to make more dresses and skirts for the girls in the year ahead.  I have been wanting to try a pillowcase dress and spring and summer will be here before you know it.

I'd show you the two White Russians but they are gone and just a memory. Here is the recipe if you'd like to join me:

2 oz vodka
1 oz Kahlua
Pour over ice in an old fashioned glass.  Top off with half and half.  Enjoy!  Yum Yum

And Yes a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Just don't drink too many White Russians least you think you see this Partridge in a Pear Tree

Gift Bag

I made this bag in one evening over the course of just a couple hours.  Heck most of the time was spent choosing fabrics and just the right Polaroid pic.  Face it so many of them I don't want to part with but I found the perfect one for Christmas and the added a little LOVE to the back of the bag.

I saw an adorable bag that Debbie made over at a Quilter's Table from the Jeni's tutorial using this pattern and knew I needed to give it a go.  She had used a Polaroid block from the swap she hosted this last year and I've been looking for a great way to use some of these and since it is gift bag season, this was perfect timing.  Debbie's bag can be seen here.  Jeni's pattern can be found here lined drawstring gift bag tutorial .  It went together very quickly and my Secret Santa gift for Amber was a big hit because she loved the bag.  She knew when her daughters saw it that evening they were going to want to steal out from under their mom's nose.  Check out the love on the back of it.

I just added a border around the Polaroid block and the another border to create the 12.5 inches by 10.5inch pieces of fabric I needed.  I inadvertently switched the direction of the 12.5 and 10.5 so I had a bag wider instead of taller but I just made sure I did the same for the lining and all was good.  You could make these in all kinds of sizes and make a bunch up to have on hand for all kinds of gift giving seasons. Thanks Debbie and Jeni for just the perfect inspiration!

Oh... Fiddlesticks

 I don't know about you but the last few days have been hard on the heart...  First our local mall had a shooting leaving two dead and then a rifle was found by a teacher at one local high school and a different local high school had a drive by shooting two days later.  Follow that up with the horrific atrocity of the elementary school shooting in Connecticut and one has a hard time finding the joy in the holiday season.  My heart aches for the families affected by the senseless shootings taking place in our country.  My prayers will be filled with strength and healing for the parents and families of the lives cut too short. 

I myself needed help finding the joy again and decided to search for some Christmas Tom Foolery to lighten my thoughts.  Hope they lift your spirits, too.

 One of our holiday traditions is the reading of 'Twas the night before Christmas, so when I saw this version from 'Maxine'  I knew it would be good for a chuckle.  I was right.

 I got a kick out of Santa in this next one.  Hope your season is seeming a little merrier and brighter than it did a few minutes ago. 

Now that I'm in a little bit more of the Holiday Spirit it is off to find the perfect Christmas tree.  Well maybe not perfect but close enough.  We normally would have had it last weekend but life was a little busy with the grand kids and the DH working so many hours lately.  My daughter and I hope to have one by the time he gets off work today.

 Cheeri-O

 

Holiday Baking Plus

Weekend went by in a whirlwind of Holiday Baking with Kiara.  We started with some Grinch Cookies that I found through Pinterest at Tasty Kitchen .  She insisted Grinch Cookies needed eyes but we just made followed the recipe. Here are the results. Her little sister found the irresistable!

Here is the sweetie who helped nana make them.

We also made Sugar cookies, which she loved frosting and some Gingerbread boys and girls. It was the first time I had ever used the girl gingerbread cookie cutter.  I hadn't even planned on using it this time but right off the bat she wanted to make one wearing a pink skirt. Well, nana couldn't say no to that, now could she.  Also made snowballs and some peppermint candy cookies. Yum Yumm !!!

Plus I am starting to get the rewards of cyber shopping week showing up in my mailbox.  Now to find the time to start tinkering with them all.  I did quickly slip in a Magic Washer into my Bobbin case and LOVED how great that works.  My bobbin case is a constant frustration.  I ordered bobbins for my Juki online and they have always fit tight and I finally had the DH sand them down a smidgen but they have rough edges which I have tried to smooth out but my tension has been fighting me ever since on some of them but these things really do help the bobbin glide in the case more smoothly.

 

I also bought the supreme slider I have been hearing about and a cheap new darning foot.  Mine that I free motion quilt with has a closed hole and since it is metal and costly I haven't wanted to try to modify it.  I love the video Angela Walters has on her web site showing how she modifies a cheap foot to open the foot so she can see what she is stitching.  I can see how this would be a great benefit and seeing how this one was less than $6.00,  I think I can afford to try her method of modifying the foot.  So you know I needed to buy her book and when searching for it I found a few others, I couldn't resist.  Too bad I still have to wrap all the gifts I've bought so far before I can find the time to properly delve into them.

In the meantime, I still have one more skirt to sew up for the grand-daughters before Christmas. I hope to have them done this week.  Instead of fininshing them this last week, I got distracted by this project below.

  We have a gift tree at work that adopts some of the Senior citizens my facility serves and one special sweetie requested, crayons, coloring books, a crayon box and something to carry things in. 

Well this sounded right up my alley so I quickly got to work this week on making her a tote bag to carry all her goodies in when I bought them.  I've been wanting to tackle a tote bag for a while now and thought this was a GREAT reason to just do it.  I have some blocks that I have been working on since May and only have about 5 or 6 of them done.  They measured 14 x 14 and the pattern that I found was for (2) 15-1/2 x 16 in blocks so I quickly and a couple more fabric pieces to increase the sides to the right dimensions and look at how nice they finished off into a tote bag.  This is a pattern I found in Simple Quilts & Sewing mag Winter issue 2013 I bought a couple of months ago.

Hugs