Merry Christmas!

A very Merry, blessed and wonderful Christmas to all of you!  I am enjoying a wonderful day with my family ... last Christmas, my darling son was in Michigan, so it is really special that he is back in San Diego.  Even though fiance and sweet granddaughter Kylee are not here, we facetimed with them this morning and it was so fun to see her enjoying her Christmas presents ... she is almost 10 months old and adorable as ever!  Enjoy your holiday season ... I will be back soon with a stash report update!  The very merriest of Christmas' ... xoxo

 

Merry, merry

Well ... whew ... that is the first word that comes to mind ... whew!  Amongst this season of everything screaming at us to hurry and shop, hurry and bake, hurry and be done, hurry, hurry, hurry ... I am trying NOT to hurry!  I am trying to just listen to the Christmas music I love, enjoy the people that I love, and keep busy ... to keep my mind off of all the things I am supposed to have done by now ... ha ha!

The move into my room continues ... the longarm was taken apart and reassembled last Sunday.  I made myself sick I was so worried about it ... I hired our handyman who I trust and who is wonderful, but still ... not the person that knows the machine.  He did a great job with the help of my hubby and son.  I started quilting on Monday on the machine and there was a big stiff spot and almost a drop, in one section of the machine.  I realized after fighting it for a while, that it was really a simple fix ... the frame wasn't square.  Got out my tools and loosened all the main connections and everything settled.  Felt so proud of myself!  I have since done 5 quilts on it, so I am good to go!  Yes, you read that right ... six quilts in the last week ... no wonder I feel like I'm not getting a lot of Christmas done!

I'll work backwards and show you a few of the quilts ... this beauty is a Kim Diehl pattern that a friend of mine made ... isn't it adorable? 

 I was a little worried about outlining around the applique ... sometimes I don't like the look ... I just don't feel like it blends well.  I decided to go around everything, it was what my friend wanted 

... but there needed something else to give it dimension, so I went in and out of some of the elements highlighting them. 

 I think it gives great texture and my friend loved it!  She is easy to please ... but I love it too ... and I'm not easy to please!  ha ha

I used Omni on top and bottom ... free motion all the way!  I am becoming a huge fan of this thread and I see it edging all the other threads I've used out ... it is very reasonably priced, comes in about 144 colors, and I can use it top and bobbin.  It also stitches beautifully!

Here is an adorable little quilt of another friend ... it was made with those little templates ... I can't remember what they're called. 

 Again, Omni in top and bottom and free motion.  I love this color Omni thread ... it is called Bronco ... it's a caramel color, lightish brown and blends well with many colors.  I have two cones of the same color I liked it so much!

I also used this color to quilt three memory shirt quilts; a friend of mine has so kindly been making them for months now for a friend of their's that lost her husband.  She made five ... I have quilted four, one more left.  I did not take pictures, as I just felt it wasn't appropriate.  I did a stipple on all of them; she bought minkee (spelling?) for the back and that is quickly becoming my favorite backing to quilt on.  It made me a little nervous at first because it is so stretchy.  But the plushness of it is wonderful!  It just soaks up the stitching and the back looks amazing because you can see all the detail.  It really feels great from the top as I am quilting.

Next up is this adorable quilt for a little boy ... what fun it is to quilt something so cheery and sweet!

  I just did my loopy swirl, going around the animal stitching ... it looks so cute and I'm sure that little person will love it! 

 I used King Tut on top and Glide in the bobbin.

Okay ... off to try and decorate my house ... we do keep everything up through the epiphany, January 6, so I never start too early in the month, but I feel like it's a little later than usual.  Oh well, I should just stop fretting about getting things done on time and realize I am always going to be a little behind!  Ha ha ...

And here is the sweetest thing for me this Christmas season ...

Stash Report

Well ... The longarm is moved so you know what they means ... Another week if no sewing!!  Haha ... I did manage a quilt, so at least I am all in one room now, back in the house.

This is my stash report for the week .. 

Yardage out - 0

Yardage in -  3/4 yd

Net used this year - 10 3/4 yards

 

There was a cute little polka piece of fabric left at the end of the bolt last week while working, so it mis have needed to come home with me.

More pics this week and reports of how my new space is working out!

Painting and moving

What have I been doing the last week?  After we got the granny flat painted and set up for my wonderful son, I had to move most of my crap out of there.  The upstairs of our home has three bedrooms ... son's room, daugther's room and spare room.  I used to have my sewing studio in our spare room ... when I moved into the granny flat, some of the stuff still remained in the spare room ... you know how that goes.  The upstairs looks like a bomb went off ... all of the stuff out of the g.f. went upstairs into the spare room ... well not all of it.  I am moving into my daughter's room, and she'll be moving into my son's room.  So most of her stuff got dumped in the hall upstairs and what wouldn't fit there, in the spare room ... along with the rest of my sewing stuff that came out of the g.f.  I have quite a bit of it in the closet in the new studio space (daughter's former room), but the rest is just in the corner of the spare room.  I won't even take a picture to show you what a disaster it all is. 

Her bedroom was turquoise blue ... she is 19, and I painted it when she was in 6th grade.  I was excited to pick paint colors ... after some severe deliberation, and help from my son, I decided on this wheat color for three of the walls ...

... and I decided to do a fun accent wall.  This is the wall my longarm will go on ... the color is Japanese koi ...

...  doesn't that look fun!  I figure if I really hate it, it's just one wall and I can redo it.  But I'm liking it so far.  Saturday we primed, yesterday we did the first coat, and today I put the second coat on.  My son is at work, so I was on my own.  Can't wait until it fully dries so I can start pushing furniture around and get some of my space set up.  That orange wall may need a third coat ... the guy that helped me at Home Depot warned me of that, but I decided that would be okay.  I bought a quart and I may have enough left for a third coat ... if not, my son taught me a trick ... you just buy a sample for a couple of bucks ... it's in a small jar and probably added to what I already have, enough to do the third coat.  The other great news is that I have about half a gallon left of the wheat, and that will be plenty to do the powder room downstairs ... we won't even talk about how long that has been in a "primed" condition.  Ha!!!

This is my granddaughter's first self-portrait ... Haha!  Isn't that funny ... She was looking at herself as mommy was holding the phone and snapped this picture.  Exactly what I've known all along ... She's a genius!!

Stash report

This is my stash report for the week .. nothing, nothing, nothing!  Ha ha  Well not really, I did acquire a couple pieces of fabric as gifts so here it goes ...

Yardage out - 0

Yardage in -  1 1/4 yards

Net used this year - 11 1/2 yards

 

Now last week I made the pledge to get some sewing done.  Well that hasn't happened ... does it count that I've been in my sewing room?  Close enough!  If it kills me, today I am going to sit and handsew for as long as I can just so I can follow through with my pledge to you!