Aloha Paradise

 I’ve been missing from social media for several weeks. 

Just getting a little break from the cold and dark.

 Heading back to Alaska today.

I have a quilt on the frame patiently waiting for me to finish it.

I suppose the moose and snow will also be waiting for me on my return.

I made lots of progress on several cross stitching projects on my vacation and did a little bit of batik fabric shopping at the two quilt shops on Kauai.

Most of all, I’m ready to pick up my critters a snuggle with them.

February 2022 Update

 Wow…2022 is just flying by so far.

I had a Material Girls retreat last weekend which meant there was lots of activity getting ready and lots of accomplishments. 

First, we had a challenge to finish whatever Moda Frivols kit we were given last May. 

My pattern was, “Lakeside,” with Brenda Riddle as the fabric designer. I had to supply the background and binding fabric. There is no batik fabric in this one so that was the big challenge to for me as I like the tighter weave of batiks. But it is adorable and will make a great baby quilt.

I like to work on a different project every day of a retreat. I started with a quilt I kitted up from my stash with a batik border print being my inspiration. The pattern is a freebie from In the Beginning Fabrics. It is a design from Jason Yenter, “Winter Elegance.”

I am calling my quilt, “Autumn Elegance.” I just need to add the borders and this quilt top will be done. 

 

My second project was, “Ice Castles,” which I also kitted up from my stash using a pattern from McCall’s Quilting, February, 2009.

I got all of the snowball and star blocks made at retreat and quickly made up the border blocks yesterday. I  still need to sew all the blocks together. Then there will be a focus fabric for an outer border. 

And my final start at retreat was another blue and white snow-themed quilt, “Snow Stars.” I kitted this one from my stash…and I’ve not even made a tiny dent in my stash…but I am trying. 

I forgot to take my Bloc-Loc ruler to size these half-rectangle triangles so I moved to the second step which is making hundreds of four-patch blocks. 

Most of my show and tell at retreat where pieces I’ve shared on my blog but I added a Seminole border to the Chandelier top made with sewing-themed batiks.

Just a little info about our retreat group. 

Our Material Girls quilting group meets during the “school year,”…summer schedules are too hectic for us to meet. We schedule 3 retreats during our quilting season, October, February and May. We also meet for a Saturday Sew-In day at our local quilt shop, the second Saturday of the month, for the months we don’t have a retreat. 

I think I joined the group in 2016.

I love it!

We decide amongst ourselves what “challenge,” we might tackle during the season. 

Since we just finished a challenge we are weighing two options. One is a mystery quilt one of our ladies will select and lead or making a quilt with the pineapple block using whatever method you want. I believe there is a new Creative Grids ruler a couple of ladies have for making pineapple blocks. I have a magazine pattern that uses paper piecing. We will decide at our May retreat. 

As always…there were some handwork projects I stitched on recently.

My latest Bucilla kit project is a vintage kit that is a 3-D tree. I have to make the tree and all the ornaments. I think this will take me a couple of more months to finish.

I officially finished the 2020 trio of Mill Hill Jim Shore ornaments.

Feathered Friends Snowman, Gift Giving Snowman and Clean Sweep Snowman.

I am now working on the 2021 Jim Shore series of snowman and have one done, 

Snowman with Cocoa.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Starting 2022 the Right Way

My husband and I did some traveling to kick off our New Year. We got to be a part of all the flight cancellations and delays but did make it to our first destination, the Austin area in Texas. We hadn’t seen my husband’s parents in two years so it was a long overdue visit. 

We then made a little trip to Las Vegas. We went to the show, “Absinthe,” and a Golden Knights hockey game. We also ate at Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen…yummy. 

Then another quick trip to see more family in California. 

And finally a return to cold, dark Alaska. 

I did finish up a little quilt and mini storage case for my granddaughter’s 2nd birthday.

I tried out some different strip fillers when I was quilting this little quilt. 

And the cute mini storage case…which is mini iron case in reality.

I also finished a little top that was a Moda Frivols kit in a special tin that I received as a gift as part of a challenge for my Material Girls quilt group. I need to have it quilted by our February retreat…I think I will make it!

There is always a little cross stitch ornament kit in my stash to work on…finished a Jim Shore design from 2020. Just need to add beads to a second snowman in the series and have started cross stitching the final snowman in the series. 

I like to do little ornament projects when I am flying…really helps the time pass more quickly and they are small little projects that are easy to carry almost anywhere.

I feel like I am so far behind getting my plans organized for 2022…so silly of me since I rarely follow any plans I make at the start of a new year!

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

Catching Up on Projects

It’s here…the holiday season! 

The last week of October and the first week of November were isolation days for hubby and me as I caught Covid and then I gave it to him. The good news is we are both pretty much back to normal and getting on with life…yeah!

We were able to get an infusion of monoclonal antibodies which helped quicken our recovery. I did my first telemedicine appointment with my natural path and she loaded us on some immune building supplements. We had to cancel a trip to Houston to visit friends and families but it worked out that our son who is in the Air Force and doing a three-month deployment with his unit got a week off and was able to come to Anchorage. My other son who flies for a cargo company was in town too so for the first time this year…we had a complete family gathering. We’ve all had Covid so no more worries about family gatherings. 

I did work on some cross stitch projects…I felt good enough to count. I finished up a set of Mill Hill witches, Miranda, Mimi and Muriel. 

I finished hand stitching the binding on  my, “Tropical Dreams,” quilt. We get almost no sunlight on our house this time of the year and soon we won’t get any until late January. We have 18-inches of snow on the ground so I did snap a photo…but the light has a definite blue cast to it. This is a huge 110 x 110-inches. I am imaging running my toes through warm beach sand instead of trekking around in snow boots. 

More photos to come of this quilt in the summer!

This is a fat quarter friendly pattern, “Gimmie Diamonds.” I added a piano key border…had enough scraps to make it happen.

For several months now I have been creating quilt kits from my stash of fabrics and patterns. It really makes me feel great to commit fabric to a plan. Plus…I’m ready for any sewing/quilting gathering that I’m lucky enough to attend. The latest kit is a pattern from the magazine American Patchwork & Quilting, December 1997 issue. I’ve also been trying to pick patterns that use the many specialty rulers in my stash.

I’m really excited about this kit. The snowflake fabric is a piece I bought on my Bali trip in 2013. I had the blue mottled batik and the white solid in my stash. I sewed a sample block…trimming with the specialty Bloc Loc ruler. It is perfect. 

My Material Girls group has a challenge due at our February retreat. EEK! I have one of the four blocks completed. My goal is to get one done a week…and I haven’t gotten this week’s  block done yet.

One of the Material girls had set of the Frivols kits (a monthly kit released by Moda several years ago). This is the kit gifted to me, “Windermere.” Lots of points to match up!

We had a Sew-In Saturday last week and I worked on my next row in the Lori Holt pattern, “Sew by Row.” This is a very fun project to stitch on every now and then!

I finished stockings for my newly married son and his bride.

They were married on the beach of Oahu so a beach theme was picked. I’m working on finishing companion ornament kits.

Where ever you are in the world…hopefully it is a bit warmer. We are in a sub-zero stretch of weather right now which usually means clear skies. It is beautiful but outside excursions require lots of layers.

We sit on the side of mountain in a valley. The sun skims the mountains across the valley from us and then we are in the shadow of those mountains which is why we loose our sunlight on our house for a two months. Every day the sun’s path across the horizon is lower and lower…until one of my favorite days of the year, Dec. 21st. Then we start gaining sunlight. 

My next post will be loaded with…Christmas decorations. I’m in the thick of it. I usually have some glitter in my hair or stuck on my face…very festive around here!

Happy Thanksgiving!

October Retreat

I'm back from a four-day retreat where I sewed on lots of fun projects.

My first project was to add borders to my last retreat quilt top. I have a specific wall I want to hang this quilt on so it needed several borders to make it fit.

Next, I decided to start a row of blocks from the book by Lori Holt, "Sew by Row."

These scissor blocks were pretty challenging. So my next project was simple, mindless stitching. I made 156 flying geese for a Moda Frivols kit. We each received a Frivols kit as a gift at our retreat in May and our challenge is to have the kit done by our February retreat. 

Remember, we all pretty much stop sewing during the summer months, so several of us were starting our kits at this retreat. 

After all that mindless sewing I decided to tackle the charm quilt, Chandelier from the book, "Charm School." This was a super quick quilt to put together, which finishes at 60-inches square. I have some scarps left that might have to become a Seminole border. 

Then Sunday morning I had a few hours before I had to leave so I made the pincushion blocks for the second row of the Lori Holt pattern. 

It was one of the easiest retreats to prep for since I had cut all the kits for these projects a month ago! And I still have two kits cut out that I didn't touch. 

I think I got a little inspired by watching Floss Tube videos by cross stitchers who seem to have lots of kits prepped...almost as soon as they buy a pattern. I looked at my huge stash of fabric...half of which I did buy for specific projects that I had the patterns for so I just started making kits. I'm going to continue with this process. I haven't even made a dent in my stash.

Now if I could just get better about quilting my tops! Loading the quilts on the frame is definitely where the hold up is.

A Finish to Start October

 I am so excited! I finished my second, “By Annie,”  bag pattern,  “Tools of the Trade.”

Here she is…sitting on top of my sewing machine tote. She is large enough to carry my acrylic sew steady table, a cutting mat 18 x 24-inches and a ruler, 24 1/2-inches long.

And the base is almost 5-inches wide so a lot more items can be stashed in this awesome bag.

I also finished a little case for my travel iron…now I have quite the retreat ensemble.

I was thrilled to have a mini three-day quilt retreat at my local quilt shop. The classroom was open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is a great space with very good lighting. The tables were custom built so very sturdy…no plastic folding tables that jiggle when you sew at a fast speed. 

One of the ladies snapped a photo of me at my work station. I grabbed the table farthest away from the door as I tend to get cold so that put me closest to the little kitchen space.

My goal was to get all the blocks made for a little fall themed quilt.

I get a gold star…I finished piecing all the blocks and got the rows sewn together.

This is a freebie, “Absolute Autumn,” from the Forth Worth Fabric Studio. I think I found it through Pinterest. Might be the first project I found on Pinterest and actually made!

Just before the retreat I finished a little quilt top for my granddaughter.

I have bought her several “llama-themed,” books. 

Another freebie pattern on the internet.

 It’s on the Windham Fabrics website, “Craft Buddy Quilt & Pillow.

Evening projects are getting tackled. 

I cross stitched a little Mill Hill witch kit, Miranda in the Hocus Pocus series.

And my next Bucilla stocking is a companion to the Mermaid stocking, “Seashore Santa.”

 It is a new kit for this year.

The biggest challenge on this stocking is not to loose the little felt pieces for all the shells that finish out this stocking. 

We had our first snow storm for the season last weekend. The snow was a good two or three weeks early. All the leaves were still on the trees so lots of tree damage due to the weight of the snow on the branches. We had two birch trees we had to cut down yesterday that broke in half. We also had lots of smaller alder trees that were damaged so yesterday was a big clean up day. Most of the 6-inches of snow we got has melted but we woke up to an inch this morning…though most of it has melted. 

The weather is always the main topic of discussion in Alaska. I got my winter tires on a couple of days ago so I guess I am ready for the cold. I have lots of quilting events on my agenda for this winter so hoping to get through it without getting the winter blues.

Needless to say…last winter was difficult…very lonely. I think I called repairmen mainly to have a human being to interact with for a few minutes. My husband flies for Fed Ex and he worked sooooo much overtime last winter. He has a health issue that will keep him home this winter which makes me happy. He’s getting a shoulder rotator cup fixed next week. And my DIL and granddaughter will be in town quite often. I’m not dreading winter as much as I usually do.