Make-A-List Tuesday - Because, Holidays!

 

Hi, all!

Am I the only person that gets really off schedule during the holidays? But now that they are mostly over, I have the urge (probably fleeting) to clean up my studio!  So this week will be dedicated to making a little more sense of the mess that is currently my studio.

I do have some "before" shots to share!  

First off, here's what started the cleaning binge - the new Echo Show that my husband gave me for Christmas!  It's small enough to put on my sewing table (if I clear off some other stuff) and keeps my lists, connects my devices, and allows me to stream stuff where I can see it, instead of on the tv behind me!  I have to say I'm getting spoiled being able to just tell Alexa to add something to my shopping list!  

To get the Echo on my table, I had to clear off a bunch of stuff, which I moved onto the carts to the left of my sewing table.  But - they were covered with offcuts of leftover batting, which then moved to....

...my comfy Poang chair!  Well, at least that means I can't sit down for a while and waste time!  But more about that in a bit.  Here's the rest of the studio...

Not too bad, but the piles on the floor and some of the clutter need to go!

This workstation is a disaster and MUST  be cleaned up before the end of the week!

And under the quilt frame, which isn't too bad a mess but could do with a good vacuum and some dusting.

And today I made a start on that pile of batting, which I added to by pulling all the bits out of the cubby by the quilting frame.  Lilli came over to help....

...and her face looks like I feel about making frankenbatting!  Actually, I caught her just before a sneeze, but it is funny looking!  But by the end of the morning, we had sorted out all the pieces that were of similar length in both white and natural, brought a few pieces to the desired length by "frankenbatting" them, and here's the result!

The next step will be to cut the long edges straight and join them together into one long piece of batting.  I'm thinking about rolling it up on the batting roller on my long arm, which has remained unused up to this point.  I'm aiming for 64" wide, which is the perfect size for most of the quilts I make, so when I have a 60" quilt, I can just pull up the batting off the roller and go.  And Lilli made me promise never, EVER, to let it get this out of hand!

And because I am impatient and hate using a slow machine for zigzag, I bought a lot of lightweight fusible interfacing that I'm cutting into 2" wide strips.  Once my batting edges are straight, I butt them up against each other, lay the interfacing over them, and press it down.  Inexpensive batting tape hack, and it works great!

So that's what I'll be working on for the rest of the week - frankenbatting and cleaning up the studio.  Hopefully I'll make some serious headway before my cleaning mojo goes away!

And now, I really need to know - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Christmas Can Finally Come....

 

Hi, all!

Well, here it is, folks - the next to the last Friday before Christmas!  But regardless of how close to Christmas it is, it's still a Friday, and we all know what that means - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!   Let's go!

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As most of you know by now, I make each of my grandchildren a quilt at Christmas, that usually reflects in some way their interests of the past year.  And I am ECSTATIC to say that all three for this year are finished, labeled, washed, and ready to be wrapped and put under the tree!  

Unfortunately, I was busy today (more on that later) and I didn't get any new pictures, but here are all three of them together.

This is Lilli's "Cookie Monster" quilt - the perfect quilt for her this year, as she is the master of all chocolate chip cookies!

Emmalyn's quilt was a little harder to come up with this year, because her participation in the play interfered with my first idea, which was to incorporate some of her little doodles in her quilt.  She started off providing me with pictures, but they trailed off once rehearsals started and I didn't have enough to complete my first idea.  However, the conjunction of her beach vacation and a bundle of pretty ocean-themed fabrics that came my way combined for a beautiful quilt that reflects her love of all things oceanic.  Her quilt label also reflects on her love this year of "floppy" bacon (yuck!) which I felt it important to commemorate!

And here's Nathanael's Pokemon quilt!  He loves all things Pokemon, so I'm hoping he'll really enjoy this twin-sized quilt on his bed.

Now more about why I didn't have time to take pictures today.  At the end of each semester, Lilli has a couple of mid-term tests each day, early in the morning, and then she can go home for the day if she wants.  She asked me last week if I could pick her up, offering to bake Christmas cookies with me if I did. Well, I'm not going to pass up an offer like that!  So today I picked her up at 11:30 and we got started baking - we made cream cheese cookies, white chocolate cranberry blondies, and brigadeiros.  Brigadeiros are a traditional Brazilian treat, consisting of a fudge center rolled in chocolate jimmies.  And now we have a funny story about them!

Well, I only bought one large jar of chocolate jimmies, and we ran out before we ran out of filling.  Raiding the pantry, we found several partial bottles of rainbow colored sprinkles that we keep on hand for ice cream, so Lilli mixed them into the remaining chocolate jimmies.  As she rolled the next brigadeiro, she said, "I guess these will be the gay brigadeiros!"  That child has a wicked sense of humor!  We've been chuckling over that one all evening....

And speaking of Lilli, here's a huge whoop whoop - she turns sixteen on Saturday!  It's hard to believe how much she's grown up since her first appearance on my blog back in January of 2010....

So - - - can we get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Finally Gifted!

 

Hi, all!

Well, here it is, Friday again, and we all know what that means - - - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!!  Are you ready?  Let's go!

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Many of you know that I was out of commission and out of the blogging world for most of the year in 2022.  During that time I undertook a pretty major handwork project.  Hexies seemed like just the ticket for something small and portable to take with me and work on in my chair, so I put together a small kit and started.  

At first, I intended to make a quilt - but after the first day, I thought it might just end up being a pillow cover!  Slow handwork is not my sweet spot, unfortunately.  But as time went on and the project grew, I fell in love with the process.  And when it was all finished, I ended up with a beautiful quilt top.  I appliquéd it to some vintage linen borders, and it sat on my "to be quilted" rack someday.

One day as I saw it sitting there, though, I realized that it needed a special home.  While I was out of commission, I worried about the quilt ministry and was afraid that it would dwindle away if I wasn't able to keep shepherding it along.  I asked my good friend Piper, who was a faithful member of the group, if she could help keep it going.  And Piper, God bless her, jumped right in and now has the group running so much better than I ever did!  

So of course, this quilt needed to go to Piper!  With a plan in view, I jumped into quilting it, doing diagonal lines through two axes of the hexies for a diamond grid.  The backing comes from a linen duvet I found on sale long ago and saved for the perfect quilt backing.

All in all, I really enjoyed making this quilt, even though all the handwork was a little tedious.  I may make another one for myself this year!

So - - - can we get a whoop whoop?

*&*&*&*&*&*&*

And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - A Little Bit of This and That!

 

Hi, all!

Welcome to another Monday!  After a whirlwind week last week getting the house ready for a round of Christmas parties, I thought this week would be simple, but we shall see! 

The first Christmas party went great - we had all the quilt ministry ladies over Saturday morning for good food, lots of laughs, and a fun gift exchange game.  A good time was had by all, and of course, I forgot to take any pictures!  And then Saturday afternoon, we went to see the incredible Emmalyn in her debut acting role of Snoopy in A Charlie Brown Christmas!

She looked so cute with her little black nose, but apparently it was "very annoying" and she took it off before she came out after the show for pictures!

Some of you may remember the videos of Emmy dancing when she was little - well, she put those skills to good use in her role as Snoopy and had a great time dancing on Schroeder's piano!  

I'm enjoying all the cute decorations in my house, but I have a soft spot in my heart for gnomes, so this is one of my favorites.  It doesn't hurt that he's an advent calendar, too!

But this afternoon when I went up to the studio to do a little sewing - I had an idea I wanted to try out before I forgot it - my beloved Juki decided it was time to stop feeding fabric under the presser foot.  I haven't been able to drop the feed dogs since Bill dropped her on her head (in the case, but it was still traumatic) and apparently something has changed inside.  So I brought out Old Faithful....

... and packed up my Juki to go to the shop tomorrow.  Hopefully they can fix her up and repair the pieces that broke at the same time!  

So here's my list for this week....

1.  Take my Juki to the shop.

2.  Make some rustic no knead bread for Wednesday night dinner.

3.  Make labels for the grands' annual quilts and attach them.

4.  Review all the Christmas presents I have stashed and see where I need to fill in any gaps.

5.  Start wrapping presents!   It's looking bare under the tree.

6.  Get the house ready for another party this coming Saturday morning.

I just got some Nana duties for later this week, so I'll have that to do too.  It's a busy time, so I'm just going to take some time to breathe while I'm getting all this done!

And now I really want to know - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? It's Beginning to Look Like.....

 

Hi, all!

Well, it's hard to believe, but today it is finally December!!  The last month of the year has arrived - doesn't it seem like a long time since Thanksgiving?  It was so early this year, but that just means more shopping and crafting days before Christmas, right?

And it's not only the first day of December, it's Friday - and we all know what that means - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!  Let's go!

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I have two Christmas parties coming up so I have spent the last week dragging all the decorations out of the attic and spreading them all over the house.  Because that's all I've been doing, that's what I have to share this week!  Let me take you on a tour...

This is what you will see when you come up to my front door - the wreaths and the live Christmas tree came from a local tree farm run by a friend of ours.  He started it as a way to pay for his kids' college educations and now it is a thriving business.  Notice the dog-themed ribbons on the wreaths?  That's a tribute to Bree!

Come in the front door, and you'll find a place to hang your hat or coat.  Someone must have snuck in while I wasn't looking - hopefully they'll pull out a few more decorations and spread them around!

And here's my "fancy" tree - new this year and artificial, after last year's debacle when the decorated live tree proved to be too much for the tree stand and fell down splat!  We decorate this tree with white and silver floral sprays, silver and gold ornaments, and our small collection of annual White House ornaments.

Here's thee new arrangement I made for the dining room table - lots of red and white poinsettias, some ornaments and some greenery.

The nativity scene sits on top of the piano.  I really love this set by Enesco - I don't believe it's available any more, but we collected it over the years when my daughter was little.  It's carefully wrapped up every year because I don't think I could replace it if it got broken!

I pulled out my snowflake pillow covers, which I think lend a lovely Christmas flair to the living room.  That pop of color always brightens things up, and they fit right over the existing sofa pillows, so it's easy to store them away at the end of the season.

This cute little gnome sits on my kitchen table, and keeps track of the days in December - there's a little snowflake attached to the tip of his cap and tiny numbered pockets you can put it in each day.  Quite a clever advent calendar!  The reindeer are a new find from the Dollar Spot at Target, and they are all residing on an old wreath that I had tucked away.

And speaking of reindeer, how about these two?  They also came from our friend's tree farm - he always has the cutest little decorations and Christmas "clutter"!

Here's our "family" tree - the one that has all the fun ornaments that we've collected or made over the years.   Each one has a story and memories attached to it, and the grands love to look at them and ask about them.  And see Max sitting there to the right of the tree?  We put him up last year to scare Bree away from the tree, and he did such a good job that he got the gig again this year!  Actually she's been really good about not getting into the Christmas stuff, even when we aren't here.  She was curious about it all when I was putting it out, but I told her "That's not yours", and that was apparently enough!  She really is turning into a good dog!

The stocking are hung by the chimney with care!  I can't put as much on the top of the mantel as usual, because my husband has an antenna for local channels up there and he gets irritated if I move it, so I put my mantel garland down on the floor.  I kind of like it there, though!  

And I didn't want to neglect my new side steps, so I've added a little color out there with some poinsettia garlands.  I also took the cast aluminum bell that was sitting on the railing up top, turned it upside down, and put some artificial poinsettia bushes in there, so it looks pretty too!

I think I'm finally done with the decorating now!   Maybe a little bit more outside on the front of the house, if I can get some help from my hubby, but that will have to wait because it's supposed to rain tomorrow.  So I'll take a breather and do some cooking tomorrow!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah