HQAL: Tori’s Quilt

Our last posting was Dec 5th. I had anticipated a posting after Christmas however like most of us, Sunday came in whirlwind of activity and when I saw no postings I believed we were skipping, which was fine as it had begun snowing Christmas eve and didn’t let up all Christmas day. I was truly mesmerized by its beauty.

Having seen Kathy, our hostesses posting today, I am following suit and here is my report ~ At our last posting I had two blocks left for completing the quilting process. The next step was the binding and then I would be done. My goal was to complete this quilt.

I am happy to report I am wrapping up 2021 with the completion of Tori’s Quilt

I am in love with the backing material. These little lambs are so precious

This year I worked on two quilts and with your encouragement and support completed them both. A big thank you to you all.

It’s been a good productive year and I am excited for the start of 2022. I have an idea of what I might want to work on but the snow, and more to come is delaying a trip to the fabric store. I have a beautiful tulip quilt top that I picked up at our local Goodwill years ago that has been waiting patiently to be backed, sandwiched and quilted. If I don’t get to the fabric store and or decide this is the next project, I really need to get my head wrapped around what I will be working on. One thing for sure is that it will be a surprise for me as well as you 🙂

A healthy new year to you all. Until we meet again in 3 weeks …. enjoy!

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

 Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, and Daisy

SAL Update: New Project

At our last check in, I had finished my Skating Santa by Joy Sunday and delivered it to my friend.

I admit holiday happenings delayed my picking up my next in line project, also a Joy Sunday kit I had bought at the same time as Santa. I opened it up on Tuesday, determined to get started for this check in.

I loved the cute owls but I wasn’t thrilled
knowing I was going to have to change all the floss since I had discovered with the prior kit that their floss is not the best. (I also knew I would never buy another Joy Sunday kit.)

But imagine my surprise when I pulled out the directions.

I must have done 3 or 4 double takes, checked inside the packaging, were my eyes deceiving me? Had I ordered wrong? Yes it was Christmas Owls on the outside package and Halloween Owl directions inside – my next project was a no go.

I have purchased another kit by Dimensions and am waiting for it to arrive. I will have a grand reveal and start next year 🙂

Wishing you all a safe and healthy coming year filled with love and lots of laughter.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all who celebrate!

Please check out what everyone else has been up to by clicking their names below. We live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen

About the SAL

Please note this SAL is not accepting any more new members until further notice but this is what it’s all about anyway. This SAL (Stitch Along) is slightly different to other SALs in that we don’t all stitch the same design at the same rate. We choose ONE unfinished project, or ONE new one, and show progress of its completion over a series of three weekly updates. There are no deadlines and no set amount to stitch. The result is that the space in our drawers full of WIPs (works in progress) is gradually being freed up to store lots of new crafty goodness. It’s surprising how much motivation I’ve gained from being in this SAL.

HQAL: Tori’s Quilt

Three weeks posting update again and I think most of us will agree, Holiday gift projects have taken up the bulk of our time along with Christmas sneaking up rather quickly. Forget Hanukkah, I hadn’t checked the calendar for the dates this year and bam, it was here and now the end.

At our last posting I had completed 9 out of 16 blocks and showed this picture of her draped over the back of the couch (in the dark morning light)

I am actually shocked at what I got done this posting. With only 2 blocks left, I completed 5 blocks for 14 out of 16 finished. How did this happen? Here she is, pinned to my design wall – my bedroom curtains. I just have the 2 end blocks on the bottom.

Before I close this posting and move on to visiting the pages of the others in this HQAL, I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to Kathy for being our Hostess for this group along with thanking you all for your encouragement through out this last year. I always look forward to visiting your pages, you never fail to inspire me when I do. Our next posting will be after the whirlwind of another Holiday season and I wanted to wish you all – no matter how and what your celebrate or not – happiness and health. What ever you are doing … make it magical!

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below

 Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, and Daisy

Holiday Gift Wrap Up

I have just about finished up on my holiday gifts for this year. Now to get them in the mail or delivered. I wrapped up my cross stitched cards with this adorable Santa and I have to say, I am having a hard time deciding what to do with him. I just love him! Would it be wrong to keep him for myself ?

I made two Hanukkah dish towels for 2 dear (sisters) friends. But with the holiday almost over I don’t think I’ll deliver them in time. As it turns out – not only friends but DNA revealed we are distance cousins connected abt. 5/6 generations back.

Skye (our mini schnauzer fur baby) will head for one last groom for 2021. I always give her groomer a monetary tip at the end of the year and something yummy for the staff. Her groomer, Katie will be getting married in the spring and I wanted to do something a little extra special this time. I decided on a wedding junk journal and I could tuck her tip into one of the pockets with wedding ephemera. Below Katies journal.

Here is the cover of the journal. I photographed the cover of this on a 1935 copy of the Delineator Magazine. How perfect, looks like a wedding reception party for the background. A luscious satin creme ribbon and gold sari fabric ribbon holds a gorgeous envelope in place. Perfect for tucking any gift checks/cash they receive. Below is a few of the pages that I created. I had so much fun with this project.

Stashed in a pocket, ads I got off of newspaper.com papers, a sweet envelope, and Journalling card.

I used wedding photo copies from my collection of family photos. The black/white opens into a card for journaling. I love the vintage pearl botton

Under the book page ribbon is a wedding reception announcement from 1929.

I kept the signaturen for this all in the same white pages. There are 12 pages for writing in. There’s an envelope and tag clipped to this page. I used my sewing machine and zig zag stitched around the envelope.

And in this tuck is two wedding ephemera also from newspaper.com

More stuff tucked into pockets. A vintage Valentine postcard proclaiming her love.

‘Your Words’ is another writing pad to journal on.

Below a fun Christmas Journal ~ darn word press – as hard as I tried I could not delete this grouping. I decided I just wanted to show you a few pages from a bunch of journals but for some reason I couldn’t do that. So this grouping is of 5 photo’s from 1 journal.

The cover will be wrapped up in red sari ribbon

In all the journals I put in vintage photo’s of the Virgin Mary, as well as a vintage Christmas postcard.

Adorable paper doll cut out peeking out from the next page. She has a few winter outfits as well. I clipped on a few plastic holiday goody pages.

Below are just some random covers and pages from a few different journals I worked on. All of these were created out of 2 lunch size brown paper bags. Just like our hand quilting/quilting community, there is a huge junk journaling community that can be found on you tube and the ideas are endless…….

There’s a Theo Chocolate bar peeking out of this one.

I bought a lot of junk Christmas pins off of ebay and added some to covers.

This one is a boho themed journal for my next door neighbor.

This is a photo of a group of children (1950’s) caroling. It is clipped on and opens up to whole bunch of children, found in a random magazine. Theres also some stickers behind the picture.

I used fabric from my stash and created ruffles on some pages. A match book cover ‘ignite your spark is peeking out on this page.

Photo of the woman is from my adopting ‘Brown’ family. She just looks so wintery in her fur lined coat and hat. Who wouldn’t want to go for a sleigh ride in that outfit.

One of the boho pages. I had these Freda cards in my stash for years, finally a use. I used that great red button for a closure for the envelope I made,

I hope this post sparks some new and exciting crafting ideas for you. These junk journals are a totally new art expression for me. And as I said you tube was a huge help in getting me started.