Decorating for Christmas

Last weekend I had a wonderful time at a quilt retreat held by my local quilt shop. I didn't know any of the ladies attending but of course it was a great way to make nine new friends! 

My retreat project was the kit, Hootie Patootie. Very fun project...perfect for the limited space at the retreat. I finished the blocks...just need to stitch them together.

I have one more stocking close to being finished...this one is for my grandson. This is the second time I have made this kit and I was a bit more savvy on the layers of construction using quilter's plastic template in the wings and plane body. The stocking front is done. I want to get the stocking fully finsihed by Thanksgiving when they come over for dinner.

I also finished an ornament that came with the kit.

I also finished stitching one more set of Noah's animals, sheep. Only two more animal sets to stitch.

Christmas decorating is underway at my house. It takes me weeks since I don't work on it everyday...and I have a pretty hefty stash. 

Switching out all my hanging quilts was an important first step.

This sweet little wall hanging was a kit given to me by my mother-in-law many years ago. We used to live in San Antonio and she lived in Houston. For many years we went to the Houston quilt show together. She no longer quilts but she certainly shares the love of quilting and hand stitching with me.

I do enjoy tackling quilt projects to employ different techniques. I'm always attracted to projects with little gimicks like unique buttons. I also am a big fan of the quilt and fabric designer, Nancy Halvorsen. This quilt is from her book, "12 Days of Christmas." 

It was a nice little challenge to figure out the quilting for each block.

I did a fusible web adhesive for the appliques and top stitched by machine with a blanket stitch.

It took me years to make this quilt. 

I remember working on all blanket stitching while living in Paris...

in my sweet little sewing room.

By far...the quilt that was the biggest challenge for me was this quilt design by Sue Garman, Classic Nutcrackers Block of the Month. I did needle turn applique...hand stitched it all!!! I saw this kit advertised in a quilting magazine and immediately signed up. I have the original advertisement...$7.75 a month for the pattern and fabrics each month. What a screaming deal! 

Looking at each block...I am so even more impressed with this accomplishment!

The detail in the design is amazing. It took me eight years to make this quilt.

The Carpenter's Star below was made with scrappy HST's from a bigger quilt...which reminds me...I need to pull it out of storage but I have run out of wall space for it!

The next quilt is another one related to my mother-in-law. I bought this kit for her and several years she returned it to me..unmade. It is a pattern by Sandy Gervais, "Shopping's Done! Gifts Wrapped." It's a fat quarter pattern where you stack the fat quarters and cut them in the same shape and switch the fabrics to mix up the colors. Lots of fun to make the blocks.

And some smaller quilts. 

I did hand stitching to make this red work quilt. I also handquilted this small quilt. It is a design by the Australian designer, Lynette Anderson. She sold the blocks individually and called her series, "Sweet Christmas."

I bought a few of the blocks in a Paris quilt shop when my mother-in-law was visiting. 

I'm a sucker for cute projects with cute buttons. 

I didn't find all twelve blocks in  Paris...

but my mother-in-law hunted down a shop that carried them when she went to the next Houston quilt show. 

Every Christmas season starts with theses two pictures being hung first...my oldest pieces made by me. 

My mom stitched two huge crewel pictures when I was growing up. My dad was in the Marine Corps and we moved a lot! Those two pictures my mom had stitched were the only pieces that were ever hung on our walls. There was a huge tree she stitched and a floral still life. I don't know what ever happened to those pieces...sad. 

I made the top Christmas tree when I was in college. I went to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. It was...and still is a women's college. The University of Missouri Greek Town (fraternity houses)  bordered our campus. Very convenient for dating. The boyfriend of one of my friends thought I was doing homework for a class when he saw me stitching it.

I was a second lieutenant in the Air Force when I made the Christmas Tree below. That was before I was a quilter or cross stitcher. I was always a big sewer of clothing from about the age of 11.

I am working to instill the gift of creating with my oldest granddaughter. She spent the night last week and wanted to help me decorate. I turned it into DIY with Gigi! She loved it. We had a great time coming up with these snowflake decorations.

Time to get back to decorating!

Quilting Intensity

 Retreat Season is in full swing. 

I finished October with my third quilt retreat, Material Girls at a B & B in Wasillla. I was a monagamous stitcher. My goal was to minimize my packing. 

All blue matalic batiks fabrics from my stash. I still need to sew all the blocks together.

This is a free pattern from Scott Flanagan's blog, 4th and Main Designs. He has done a free quilt along in the summer the last three or four years. I always print up the pattern but this one was finally the one I had to make. 

I finished quilting my grandson's quilt and for the first time used a minky fabric for the backside. 

"Enchanting," is the pattern from the book, "The Magic of Three Yard Quilts."

Hard to see but the focus fabric is a batik with the state of Alaska.

I'm definitely a fan of the minky backing and had no issues quilting with it.

The Breakfast Club group I quilted with many years ago desolved and a new group formed, the EOB...End of Bolt group. They meet every Tuesday at a quilt shop in Anchorage, Seams Like Home. I made it one day last month. As I am typing I am realizing it's Tuesday and I'm missing the group! It's just not in my habit pattern...yet. 

So...my goal for the one time I attended the EOB Tuesday was to finish cutting out parts for a new quilt, Blue Onion. It requires an expensive Creative Grids ruler that I was borrowing so I needed to return it to my friend that Tuesday. I stitched one block...came together beautifully with a lot of tips from other quilters on YouTube. 

The colors look so intense in this photo...color of my world has changed with the arrival of winter.

The quilt shop in Eagle River has a class for the Blue Onion pattern so several friends have made or are making this pattern. Seemed like the perfect time to jump on their bandwagon.

I have a retreat this upcoming weekend in Eagle River at my local quilt shop, Twisted Sisters Quilty Pleasures. For the first time I am attending a retreat run by the shop's owner. I really prefer these daytime retreats...sleeping in my own bed.

I have picked my focus project. A kit...not batiks. I seem to be captured by panel projects. A new phase! My granddaughter Kate loves purple...I think she will love this quilt. 

October Bucilla projects were devoted to Halloween.

Trick or Treat Puppies

Purrfectly Spooky

and Halloween Squad...

which I finished but never took pictures and now all the Halloween decorations are packed away.

I had enough decorations to fill a pretty good sized tree. My grandkids loved it!

I also stitched up a Lizzie Kate chart, Vinnie Von Fang. 

There are several embellishments to add to Vinnie and he will be finished as a stand up piece. There is a companion witch I hope to get done by next year. 

I also made a pinchusion kit I have had for several years. There are three more pieces to make in the kit. Maybe next year. This is from the pattern, "Fright Night," from Cottonwood Creations.

We've gotten some snow. It is with much relief our winter is looking a bit more normal than the last two that slammed us with record breaking snow fall amounts. 

I have started putting my Christmas decorations up. 

It is so dark in the winter...those Christmas lights really help!

Quilting Season Kicks Off in Autumn

 We are quickly switching from Autumn colors to WINTER….NOOOO!

I know…last time I posted it was still summer. Autumn is my favorite season…love the colors. But it only lasts about three weeks where I live. No hard frost yet which is amazing but most of the leaves have dropped from the trees. My biggest accomplishement was finishing the quilting of my version of Lori Holt's Chicken Salad, "Kauai Chicken Salad." I still have button eyes to add but I had to take a photo outside while I had some decent sunlight.

I really love this quilt! I did Lori's method of an interfacing backside on the applique pieces...and tiny strips to make the feet. Would never do either of these methods again. Fusible applique would look just fine and be so much quicker! I will probably do a post with close ups of all the blocks once I get the eyes stitched in place.

On to all the activities that took place in September. 

I busy with lots of quilting happenings...SWEET!

The Alaska State Fair ended on Monday, September 2nd. I entered five pieces and came home with five ribbons. I don't enter to win ribbons but it sure is nice to get them! I enter to support the wonderful tradition of sharing accomplishments in my community in the hope of encouraging others to enjoy these hobbies too! I love taking time to look at all the handmade pieces entered...especially the junior categories. 

We do have a lot of great quilters in Alaska...and I wish more of my friends would enter. 

All three quilts I entered won blue ribbons. The second quilt hanging from the rafters at the fair was my king-sized blue version of, "Sky Full of Stars." 

My favorite photo of the quilt is my grandson, Austin, on my son's shoulders as they checked out my entries.

The third quilt hanging in the rafters was my smaller version of Bonnie Hunter's mystery, "En Provence."

And my third quilt entry was a lap size version of the pattern, "Take Flight.

For the first time I entered some of my Bucilla pieces. Understandably, kits are not as favored as more original pieces. My goal here was just to share them. I want these kit to continue to be made and no stores in our area carry any felt kits so how will others learn about the possibilties?

I am working diligently to encourage my granddaughter Kate to enter pieces into the fair. I tried to get a photo of her in front of her stocking but the camera couldn't focus on both locations. 

The last of my entries were two cross stitch pieces. 

The winning cross stitch pieces were all large...and beautiful. No aspirations to take on full coverage or large pieces.

Quilt retreats start up in September. 

The first was the, "Sisters Retreat," group...started by three sisters, one of which asked me to join several years ago. We meet at our local quilt shop in Eagle River for three days, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

I worked on two quilts. I started with making log cabin star blocks. I am trying to decide how I will handle the borders. I have very little fabric left of fabrics in the log cabin blocks.

The second project was a pattern using 6-inch strips, "Stepping Up." I bought several sets of 6-inch strips over 10 years ago when I went to Hancocks of Paducah. I expect to make three more tops with this pattern. I think that means I like this pattern.

The second retreat I attended was also a daytime retreat at my local quilt shop, Twisted Sisters' Quilty Pleasures. This group only meets once a year...every September. A lot of the ladies were in the Breakfast Club with me that I attended sooooo long ago. We picked a new name, Savvy Stitchers. 

I mostly worked on a big, but simple pattern, 2M Quilt from Villa Rosa Designs. Super easy and very striking. I saw this made up at the Houston quilt show last fall and immediately came home and ordered the pattern and fabrics. Most of the fabrics are from Tim Holtz through Free Spirit fabrics and it is on their website.

We also had some surprise projects to make at the retreat. A chicken pincushion and a little basket

The next retreat is with the Material Girls at a B & B in October. 

I worked on many hand stitching projects in the evenings.

I finished the ornament set that accompanies the stocking I made for my granddaughter Kara.

This was a challenging set of ornaments...just like the stocking.

I then took a detour from Christmas projects to a new kit for Halloween,

Another mantel series from Merry Stockings

I set up a small Christmas tree and am working on putting Halloween decorations on it. Photos to come once I get it done. 

Since I use this blog as a journal I am including a couple of photos of quilts taken in the sunlight. We are losing daylight hours and I hate when I give a quilt away and don't have a decent photo of it.

Not sure who will get, "En Provence," but it will be one of my granddaughters.

I'm giving, "Take Flight," to my grandson next time he is over at the house...hopefully next week.

It's rutting season for the moose so lots of them roaming the area. I feel like half of my trips into town involve a moose sighting. It was a little foggy but you can see we did have some pretty fall colors.