Slow Sunday Stitching

My daughter gave me the most wonderful quilting book for Christmas.
I would recommend it to anyone. I love it! 

Tula Pink’s City Sampler ~ 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.
(I have linked the title up with Amazon.)

The book is divided into six sections dealing with different types of blocks.

The first is crosses. The others are rectangles, triangles  stripes, squares, and Haiku. 

There are 14 different cross block patterns in the book.

On the left side page is a completed block.

On the right side page is the piecing order guide, recipes as to what size pieces to cut and how many, and room for notes.

 I am determined to make each of the 100 blocks over 2014.

 Here is what I have done so far...

 This is my interpretation of the book’s Block 5 shown above.

 It is hand pieced, and hand quilted for use as a coaster for my tea cup.

Back Side

The following three are my experimentation with the central cross pattern.

I was trying to see which I liked better...the dark background or the light ones.

This is another design with a floral cross and then the dark center cross.
I really like it.

I have had a wonderful 3 days playing with my fabrics, mixing and matching colors, and hand stitching. When the arthritis in my thumbs gets too bad, then I hit the sewing machine...but it is much more calming and soothing to hand quilt.

I also have followed the book’s suggestions and made myself a modified design wall. I took an old white board and affixed cotton batting to the cork side. The fabric blocks adhere to the batting wonderfully so I can see what I am doing. Easy Peasy! The problem is...where am I going to make one as the number of blocks increases?????? That’s gonna take some creative doing :-)

This post is linked with:

Confessions of a Fabric Addict~Whoop Whoop

Slow Sunday Stitching ay Kathy's Quilts

More Christmas Presents

Little appliquéd felt and cloth ornaments...

Quilted Table Runner 

I made this for my daughter and gave it to her at Thanksgiving. She created the fun centerpiece out of colored paper, a marker, and a pineapple.

Quilted Table Runner in Blues


Christmas Tree Coasters
These are made following Tree Trivet Tutorial over at Stitching and Bacon.
It was the Christmas in July Challenge ~ July 10, 2013 post
I modified the pattern leaving out the hangers, but otherwise I tried to follow it as closely as possible. It is a wonderful tutorial.

Fronts of Quilted Christmas Tree Coasters

I have the pattern and the link to the tutorial if anyone would want it.

Backs of the Quilted Christmas Tree Coasters

Here are some extras that I am finishing up now. They need batting in the centers and a backing fabric.

Wooden Tag Banner 

The wooden tags came from an old timey Ben Franklin store in Fayetteville, WV.  The backs had seals on them saying where they were made and a bunch of other stuff so I got hot water and removed them. Then I took Christmas cupcake papers from the dollar bins at Michaels and glued them to the backs. I used green wired twine and then green wired ribbon to tie them together. I covered clothespins with Christmas paper and used them to hold the twine to the ribbon. The final thing was to take a glue gun to be sure the ties were secure on the backs and glued little holly thingies on the holes. 

Cork Garland ~ 1

Twine, bells, colored plastic beads and some wooden ones from Michaels, old corks, eye screws that go into each end of the corks, a glue gun to affix the beads and the bells so they don’t move, and ribbon for the ties on the ends. Easy Peasy!

Hope you can see the little eye screws.

Cork Garland~ 2

I made this one for my son, Gene. I used larger wooden balls/beads for it.

Tied Christmas Wreath

I used Williamsburg replica cotton prints. All the edges are pinked. The form is from a roll of some kind of Large bendable wire from Lowe’s.

A Silly Cork Christmas Tree

All of my presents are made and I stuck to my guns...I made them all. These are just some of my favorites I shared with you all.

This post is linked with:

Slow Sunday Stitching

Sew Darn Crafty 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It’s Present Making Time

 I am working hard making my Christmas Presents

Quilted Christmas Table Runner

The underside is a pattern which can be used all year round.

The lighting in my dining room is nada so will try again to get a better shot.

Inexpensive student composition book covered with fabric for use as  journal.

 Christmas table runner under construction.

The backing of this one is a batik.

 Four quilted hot plates under construction.

Two mores pieced squares to make into quilted hot plates.

Quilted Christmas tree wall hanging under construction.

A fall wreath with pinked ties knotted around a coil of medium wire covered with formal tape.

My Owls Arrived & Are Having a Hoot-Out

These are the owls I received from the Fall Owl Swap 

in which I participated.

This one was sent from Holly Crowder at cottonpickinfun.blogspot.com. It is precious standing about 6 inches tall. He’s made from felt with a woolen scarf, a fleece cap, and a bell. He is just the cutest guy. THANK YOU HOLLY. I love him. 

Debby, from over at cozy blanket.blogspot.com and the sponsor of our little fall owl swap, sent me this adorable owl. He is sitting on a bed of twigs, and a fabric covered Ball jar lid serves as his stand. I put him on the “dream” texture by Kim Klassen because Debby is always dreaming of owls. THANK YOU, DEBBIE.

This sweet little owl was made by Judy over at 20NorthOra. I am going to hang it on my Christmas tree. It is a piece of burlap cut into the shape of an owl with fabric added for wings, buttons for eyes, and felt for the nose. It’s petite and oh, so cute. THANK YOU, JUDY.

This is a little treasure Debby sent to me...it is a necklace on a remake of a small pocket watch. I always wore necklaces and pins all the years I taught school, and I do not seem to be able to break the habit When I get up in the morning and get dressed, I still put on a necklace. DEBBY, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I LOVE IT!!!

Christmas before last I participated in a Swap for All Seasons where we made 25 decorated, small match boxes and put inside of each a tiny little gift. When I received this larger matchbox from Pam all the way over the pond in Norway, I immediately knew there was going to be something small and special inside. Sure enough there was...a baby owl, a little pillow and a precious little bed with lace on it...and they all fit into the matchbox. They are absolutely the cutest things ever...all homemade with lots of tiny stitches. THANK YOU, PAM. I love my owl baby and its little box tree house. I appreciate all the time it took you to put this together because I am a hand sewer, too. It is sososo creative. Be sure to check out Pam’s blog at Winkels Crazy Ideas.

Quilts for Special Friends

Faith’s Quilt

This baby quilt was made for the newborn daughter of my dear friend and fellow middle school English teacher, Megan Ziegler. Megan and Timm gave her the most beautiful name... Justice Faith Ziegler

This lap quilt was made for my friend and hematologist, Dr. Padmaja Mellidi.

Fall Table Runner

I had a bunch of little ends of fabric left from fall last year, so I went online to find a pattern for a table runner. I found the easiest tutorial at Amy Smart’s "Diary of a Quilter Blog". Here is the link:

http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2010/08/table-runner-tutorial.html

She also posted a wonderful tutorial for making and sewing on the binding with nice corners.

http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2009/05/finishing-quilt-tutorial.html

I made mine shorter than hers because of a smaller table, but it was such fun to make. The best part is I ended up quilting as I went along so once all the strips were sewn and a few extra lines run, I was ready to bind it off.