Checkers

My mother-in-law made these for us a few years ago

Merry Christmas

My hubby let me peek in my stocking tonight.

Back in the day (before kids), there would've been a sizable Victoria's Secret gift card inside...

He was much more practical this year.  A very nice gift card to my local quilt shop, Quilter's Haven.  :D  What a man!

Thanks for visiting my blog! I hope you have a very merry Christmas, too!!!!!

My mother-in-law & her noodlehead clutch

My mother-in-law & her noodlehead clutch, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

Closeup

Closeup, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

A Little Amy Butler

Finished 5 tonight, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

Finished 5 of these tonight and worked on 3 more...

These will be for my two sisters, my mom, my aunt and my cousin.

The next 3 will be for my mother-in-law, my grandmother and my step-mother.

I have one for me partially cut out, but I think it will have to wait until I get back from my post-Christmas trip out of state.

I am getting good at these! Might have to make up a few extras for last minute gift giving. I wouldn't mind having more than one of these in different colors...

The tutorial can be found online. They're Noodlehead Gathered Clutches, although I didn't gather them. It's a great way to learn to master those scary zippers!

More

Busy bags

Am wrapping gifts for my nieces & nephews in these busy bags. Perfect for packing toys for a trip.

Sweatshop

I'm heading up to the sweatshop.  Hopeful that I can finish my Christmas sewing tonight.

I need to make 4 bags.  It can be done.

Will post pics...

Downy quilt

I'm at the gym. Binding a quilt in the cafe. :)

St. Nick Swap

If you've been around me lately, you'll know that I've been doing a few swaps on Flickr.  Very fun, but addictive.  Here's my recent loot from the St. Nick swap I participated in:

All of that (except for the wine) from The Patchwork Queen.  Very generous!  The chocolate's almost gone already!

With that being said, I think I'm going to lay off on swaps for a bit.  All of my swap obligations have been sent away and I've received everything, too.

I am in 3 sewing bees.  One uses vintage sheets and it's got about 6 more months in my commitment.  Not sure if I'll do another round with those.  While I do have a pretty decent stash of vintage sheets, I don't LOVE sewing with them.  They are so thin.  And when you iron them, the smell is not so pleasant.  Poly, I guess.  Sometimes you can smell perfume when you iron them.  Or old man sweat...  We generally mix them with quilting fabric (cotton), but it's not my very favorite fabric.

I'm in a bee with some of my KCMQG members.  I'm really enjoying it.  Some really talented ladies who are challenging me and teaching me, too!  At the end of April or May (I forget), we will have completed one year.  I'd imagine we'll do another year.  I'm going to be game, if so.  I'm the mama on that bee.

And I'm starting a new bee in January.  The Lovely Linen Bee.  We will use a combination of linen and our scraps to make blocks for each other.  Seems like a lively group and we've got a blog already (will link to it in a future post).  I think it'll be fun.  I've never sewn much with linen.  I intend to build up a little stash of it, but haven't taken the time or $ to buy much yet.

So my resolutions for this coming year:  Less swaps, more fun with bees (but I'm not joining any more bees) and maybe finishing some projects I've had ongoing for a while.  I'm starting to be more confident with my own quilting.  Will save me money by quilting things myself!

I'll leave you with a little eye candy from my bee blocks for the Bee Vintage bee and the KC Scrappy bee...

Christmas Gifts

I've made several of these baby doll quilts for my nieces and my nephew.  Tried out my used (new to me) Bernina and some new feet to do different quilting on each one.  This was my first attempt at free motion.  I sewed thru my thumb on this one!  OUCH!  (It wasn't QUITE that bad... but it scared me!)



This is attempt #6, I think at a Noodlehead Clutch.  I skipped the dividers inside and I like it a lot!  It will be for Olivia.  She loves animals.  The fabric is one of my very favorites.  I think the gray stripe makes it seem more grown up/mature.  She's 7.  My sister said she and her sister, Cameron need something to put their allowance in.  I'm giving her a smaller coin purse, too.

These are for Cameron.  Above is the back...  Below, the front.  Cameron is such a girlie girl.  Everything pink and sparkly for her.  Will have to add lip gloss to their clutches.  Maybe nail polish, too...

Finished

Just in time for our gift exchange this weekend, I finished my in-laws' anniversary wall hanging. Just need to wash it!

Anniversary wall hanging

Signed by family & friends at my in-laws' 50th anniversary party.










Going to bind it tonight. Giving it to them Saturday night.

Fa La La La

My Christmas shopping is done.  Gifts are wrapped.  The only exceptions are the items I'm working on in the sewing department.

Here's my to-do: (Updated)

1.  Piece, sandwich, quilt and bind in-laws anniversary wall hanging (may work on that today) (Completely FINISHED!)
2.  Finish 2 Noodlehead clutches for my sisters
3.  Cut out/sew 2 more Noodlehead clutches for my nieces, Camron and Olivia
4.  Bind 3 baby doll quilts- One for our buddy Mikie, one for my niece, Marley (halfway done) and her brother Jayden
5.  Sandwich, quilt and bind baby quilt for Charlie.  Charlie is the shiny new baby boy belonging to my first boyfriend (in kindergarten), Chuckie Eason.  We grew up together.  They live next door to my grandparents and I pretty much lived there.  I want to take it completed when I go home to visit after Christmas.  I made 15 inch squares and will make it fancier by quilting it with fun thread and fun stitches.  Cowboy boot fabric!  Yee Haw!
6.  A couple more zipper pouches for my nieces.
7.  Optional- Zipper bags for baby dolls for Marley, Jayden and Natalie.

I'm tired just thinking of it...

But Kristen's baby quilt is finished.  So are Katie's 2.  They're wrapped and everything!

I'm going to change a diaper or two, shush them to bed and then if I'm lucky, I'll get a couple hours to make some progress!

Time

This afternoon, I decided that instead of putting the boys to bed right after lunch, I'd turn on the baby monitors and let them play together... running back and forth between their bedrooms.

And I took some time to head upstairs and tidy up my sewing room!  The chaos is causing me to be less productive, if I'm completely honest with myself.  I must get rid of some things *gasp* and organize the rest, pronto.

But I digress...  I was cleaning and listening to the baby monitors (my sewing room is just around the corner and up the stairs above their rooms) and I realized they were really, really quiet.

So I crept downstairs and peeked through the crack in the closet door...




They were playing quite nicely together.  Quietly.  Bliss.
*Please kindly ignore that they're both still in their pajamas at 2 pm.  That's the way we roll.*
My sewing room is still chaotic, but the area around my machine that holds my spools of thread, bobbins, accessories to my machine, etc. is quite tidy.  Even dusted!  I also found the biggest plastic tub I own and shoved as many of my scraps inside as possible.  I still had a large laundry basket and a couple small bags besides that of scraps.  I shoved it all under a table.  Out of sight, out of mind!
Now I need to get busy.  I have 2 projects on my design wall that I'd like to get pieced pronto.  One is my cousin's butterfly quilt.  It's about 3/8ths of the way pieced, although all of the blocks are finished.
My other project is a little more rushed.  It's the wall hanging for my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary.  Remember?  The one where everyone signed blocks?
Truth be told, I lost one block (the one my brother-in-law signed) in my sewing room somewhere.  I am thinking that I'll find it soon if I keep cleaning... Right?
Enough talk.  Time for action.  Might post pictures if I really make some progress... Stay tuned!
And drop me a comment.  Sometimes I think I'm talking to myself.  Thanks!