Christmas 2021

 I am definitely ready for Christmas.

But first a little review of projects completed recently.

My quilting group, Material Girls, had a Sew-In the second Saturday of December. We did a little potluck but no gift exchange. You know how challenging those gift exchanges can be...we were all up for removing a little stress from our holiday season.

  One of the ladies requested I bring in my latest Bucilla stockings…so of course I did!  

I also brought the set of companion mermaid ornaments.

After the Sew-In, I finished two more kits to compliment the stockings.

Seashore Santa ornament kit.

And Under the Sea ornaments

The stockings and ornaments are for my son and daughter-in-law who were married in Hawaii last February. They picked a beach theme for their holiday decorating…complete with a white tree. I bet all these ornaments look great on their tree.

I spent the Sew-In making another set of blocks in the Lori Holt pattern, Sew by Row. 

I really enjoy having a "row" to work on at these Sew-Ins. 

My big quilting project for December was a quilt for my granddaughter, “Mushing Santa.” About two years ago, P & B Textiles released a panel set, "Santa's Siberians," with the artwork of Jon Van Zyle. I love following the Iditarod race every year and bought two sets of the panel....I mean...how often am I going to find fabric with a mushing Santa? 

I then searched for a book about a mushing Santa Claus and found one about a dog musher helping Santa deliver presents to a remote Alaska village. The lead sled dog in the story is, “Kate.”

 That just happens to be my granddaughter’s name.

Oh my...what a serendipitous event!

I used EQ8 to draw up a custom layout for the panel pieces. 

That was the easiest part of the whole project!

From the start...I knew I wanted to add the names of the dogs to the quilt

 ...but then I got another idea in my head.

My son is a pilot in the Air Force and wears patches on his flight suit to indicate his unit and call sign.

 My granddaughter loves playing with Velcro backed patches.

 I decided to make patches she could put in place.

I washed the quilt today and did a trial run on adding the patches to the quilt.

The patches have the hard sticky side of the Velcro and the quilt has a little 2-inch piece of the soft side of the Velcro on the bottom edge of each dog panel.

I can't tell you how many nights I pondered this project when I should have been sleeping.

It was a challenge I enjoyed...making my vision work.

 Tomorrow I’ll see how Kate likes her new quilt.

And I have one more accomplishment to share.

 

I made a video for my YouTube channel.

My channel had been ignored by me for six years.

My videos are tutorials for constructing Bucilla felt stocking kits. 

This is just a little video of my holiday decorations...how I display 61 felt stockings! 

I need to brush up on my video skills and learn more about the editing programs...but it is a great start for my 2022 goal of making more videos. 

Thank you for all your visits and comments...here and on my other media platforms.

Merry Christmas