HQAL: Jane’s Quilt Update

The rain has been consistent and happily has kept me indoors crafting. It’s been another three weeks and time to update you on the hand quilting project I have been working on. I haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked but I am happy as I continue to get closer to a finish.

Just one picture of my progress this time. I completed the dark color cabin logs of this corner, which completes a bottom section all along the bottom or top, either way you look at it. You might notice the bottom and side log are not stitched and that is because I am not stitching all along the borders as there will be a binding that will cover them. I have moved the hoop to the next dark section and once that is done a complete half of the quilt will be finished. Actually I will be about 3/4 completed 🙂

I have been alternating with a baby quilt I am also hand quilting. Just a quick reminder of what it looks like.

Is anyone else feeling the crunch to get some Christmas gifts completed ? I can hardly believe we’re in November. I finished another hand quilted quilt that I haven’t shown as it is a Christmas gift. I have it wrapped and ready for mailing out for December 1st. I don’t want to ruin the surprise so I will show it in another update once it has arrived.

Also occupying my time and these rainy days are a few more junk journal pocket Christmas cards.

This card is so much fun ~ pic 1 has a vintage pin with monogrammed dangle attached onto the bottom ruffle. This has 2 pockets with journaling cards in them. Pic 2 the sweet framed golden song birds is the top tuck spot that holds the church card. There is gold glitter on the frame. Pic 3 is the back and these cards are attached with tiny clips. All of the printables are from RubyandPearlxo who you can find on youtube and she also has an Etsy shop.

This one is a favorite. Madonna themed and simple, the rose pocket holds 2 journaling cards and a vintage postcard. The rose pocket wraps around to the back framing in the rest of the printable. I should add the papers, also from RubyandPearlxo, are glued to a piece of sturdy card stock.

Now I am off to check in with the others and then get in some quality quilting time. Be well and see you all at the next check in.

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. Enjoy visiting the other members of our group! 

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

Christmas Eye Candy

It never fails, before you know it, Christmas is just around the corner with thoughts of sugar plum fairies dancing in our heads, Through out this year I have been working not only on my hand quilting and cross stitch projects but on holiday junk journals for gift giving. I thought it would be fun to give you a sneak peak at some of the projects in the works and/or completed.

These first 2 are Charles Dickens themed. The covers are made from recycled cereal boxes and bound with 1″ rings. This one below measures 4.5″x 7″. She has 10 pages filled with tags and ephemeral for journaling on.

This one below is also Dickens themed and is slightly larger measuring 6″ X 8″. Most of the digital prints are from The Graphic’s Fairy and some from The Digital Collage Club. Music pages from old piano sheet music books from the Goodwill. I also use magazine photos I find, like the horse & sleigh above. Ribbons ties are from my fabric stash. Shhhh – and you might have noticed the December 20th, not 25th, this is for a daughter (her birthday).

This next one is an envelope style with journal pocket card placed in front of the envelope. Both was made using a file folder. Angel themed, it measures 8.5 “x 5” I am not entirely done with this one. I am planning on adding some glitter edging to some of the cards. It is filled with all kinds of angel ephemera. All of the gifts have an original vintage Christmas postcard inside.

Simply made using a legal size red envelope this one has a tuck spot for journal cards in the front. This gift is bird themed with most of the ephemera inside and out having some sort of winter, bird, or Santa picture. Red sari ribbon and taffeta lace embellishments. The inside is filled with Christmas eye candy.

All of my journals have been made with a person in mind. This one is for a childhood friend who I share a special bond with. Measuring 5.5″ X 7.25″ this envelope is packed with 12 journaling cards, one for each month of the coming year. I love the red and gold sari remnant. I have not added a closure but I am thinking some white dotted swiss tule for a wintery effect. I will of course add a personal note to each journal before sending them off.

This hold in your hand cutie measures 3.5″ X 4″ and is Angel and Madonna/motherhood themed. Lots of lace and wispy threads are poking out and it is jam packed with goodies. The cover was made out of a jello box and there are 5 signatures with 10 making 20 pages in each signature.

The last photo I’m sharing is of envelope style journal pockets. These were made with cereal box or file folders for covers and I have 8 of them ready to go. I mostly used pages from Little Golden books that were Christmas themed, as well as other collected photos and ephemera. These are mostly for grandkids and their young families. I will tuck in a gift check and a restaurant gift card.

I am making it a bit easier on myself this year with no big gifts to ship with expensive post office fees. I hope you enjoyed this sneak peak.

What crafty holiday projects have you been working on?

SAL: Snowman and Reindeer Update

Slow and steady as I continue to work on my Snowman and Reindeer cross-stitch. Slow and steady gets the job done but I am nowhere near completion yet. At our last posting 3 weeks ago I was here with my project

As I continue to work on it, I am working my way around from the bottom up and over to the reindeer.

You can see what I have gotten done and what’s still to be worked in the photos below. Comparing the photos like this you can see I had tweaked the hat and you may remember how I decided to remove the ribbon after a considerable mistake with counting. Looking at the pictures together, I can also see how I confused thread colors for the brim. I am smiling through that mistake though – it wont be noticeable and the hat still looks fine 🙂

One of my daughters, Fawn and SIL have been down from Fairbanks, Alaska for a visit which cut some of my stitching time down to – nothing – they left Alaska with a fresh 2 feet of snow falling to mostly rainy days here in Bellingham, WA. They are leaving today. There was thrift store and antique shopping, a day of scanning pictures from the family photo archives, a morning in La Conner, WA, a historic seaside town and a sun break gave us a chance to bar-b-q one afternoon and get in some relaxing and a drink in the back yard. Mostly we were just inside and carefree.

Fawn posted this on her instagram

As much as I loved and enjoyed our visit, it will be nice to get back into my routine. Now I am off to check in with the others in our SAL, won’t you please join me by clicking on the links below.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, 

Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie

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

Photo

Continuing to work on my quilt for my granddaughter Tori aka Torance 🙂 I am ready to update for our three week posting.

In my last post I had completed 5 out of 16 blocks and for this posting I have added 4 more blocks making a total of 9 blocks – more than half way there 🙂 With all the blocks basically the same there isn’t much visual change. I’ll just add the 9 block picture of now.

Last time I shared my new passion – junk journals. I have been fiddling around with some ideas, working on a Christmas jj for a friend. I made a simple quilted cover for this one. It’s funny how when you look at your work in pictures you can really begin to critique and see what you could have done. I quilted around the bird and the single leaf under the bird button. Wow – what if I had quilted all the green leaves – that would have been better. It’s already glued in place and no changing it now. What I am going to do is create an entire quilted cover for my next try 🙂

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  the book is bound in red sari ribbon, along the spine is a piece of fabric that has been torn and glued in place.

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  you can see a hint of of the batting on the edging of the simply quilted sandwiched panel. It looks like the birds are sitting on a bed of snow.

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  Made out of two lunch paper bags, there are 6 main pages in the journal plus 12 page journal writing space.

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  Showing only 4 of the pages the snowglobeman is on top of one of the journaling pages.

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  Pinned to a page are 2 goody bags and peaking out of another page is a cute paper doll cut out from ‘thegraphicsfairy.com’

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  I have stashed all kinds of fun ephemera into the pocket tucks.
  

I always look forward to checking in with everyone in the group to see the progress on their creations. Won’t you join me by clicking on the links below. Wishing everyone well

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

SAL UPDATE: Christmas Greetings

SAL update with our three week posting. If you live somewhere with the time change don’t forget – I certainly have before. Here is where I was at our last posting. I was dreading all the backstitching. I just have such a tough time with it.

As you can see I have made a lot of progress. I have just a smidge to complete on the snow/ice surrounding Santa. Then I will go back around and fix some bare spots or spots that don’t look aesthetically pleasing to me. I didn’t follow the chart in working around Santa. It was just to difficult. If you remember I had to replace the floss and unfortunately I ran out of the blue I was using and tried my best to match it. The shade difference was almost impossible to see in my lighting and there’s a small subtle change. Perhaps you didn’t even notice it. I sure do, but I am ok with it. It’s a bit lighter and looks icy-er, if thats a word.

There is more to add – some holly leaves and some words. I’ll be giving this as a gift and I would like to have it done by our next posting. I love his skates. They remind me of the pair my father had, racing skates as opposed to figure skating skates. Growing up in New York we did a lot of skating in the winter. I wish I had my dad’s skates now to drape over the vintage sled I prop up on my porch in winter.

It’s time to scoot off and check in with the others in this SAL. I always look forward to visiting their pages. Sometimes I am unable to post a reply but please know if I haven’t left a note I have tried 🙂

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.

SAL Update: Christmas Greetings

I have continued to work pretty consistently on my ice skating Santa. With the exception of weekends and a few days this cross-stitch and along with Perry Mason reruns has been my faithful companion these last three weeks. I have put in a good 12 hours this report. Below is where I was at our last posting.

And here is where I am now. I have completed Santa and now on to the backstitching. I also need to add in the lacing on the skates. There is also background snowflakes and poinsettia leaves to add still. Those yellow spots in Santa’s beard will be stars.

I am off now to check in with the others in this SAL. Please join me by clicking on the links below.

*Just a quick side note – I am having problems previewing this post before publishing so I can not check it out first. Is anyone else with wordpress experiencing this? There seems to be a change with the format and look as well.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Constanze, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Renee,  Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, AJ, Cathie, Linda, and 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: Log Cabin Update

I am happy to report at this 3 week update I have completed quilting the Log Cabin.

Hoping to add a bit more interest, I went back and stitched a X in each of the center squares. With the very first one I could see it would be lost and didn’t pop as I had hoped but what the hec – it stitched up fast so I went ahead and did all 16.

I really like the back fabric’s. The fabric was from my stash and there wasn’t enough of one to cover the whole thing so … use two and make one and I added some contrast to an other wise pretty flat backing. I should have doubled up or even tripled up on the batting but I am happy with a light throw. It will be perfect on the couch for fall.

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Hoping I’ll get her done by our next check in. Fall has definitely arrived. The mum’s are here in the stores and I purchased some for the garden in front. Pumpkins are showing up too. My mini tomatoes – finally – are ripening, I can’t believe how long it took them this year but they sure are welcome for a fall treat and I love the pop of color they provide. I just want to add my zinnias are prolific this year with reds, oranges, yellows and deep pinks smiling up at me.

Now it’s off to check in with the other hand quilters. And if you are a hand quilter I hope you will consider joining us.

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

SAL: Wildflower Update

A beautiful spring day and the perfect time for another 3 weeks update on my Wildflower Jar. Below is where I was up to at our last posting .

This is where I am up to now.

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There’s still some more to do as you can see. Do I dare say I am feeling confident that in another three weeks I just might have this finished?

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Now it’s off to check in with the other crafters in this SAL. Please join me by clicking up the links below. Enjoy!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Renee, Carmela, 

Sharon (me), Daisy, Anne, AJ, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

It May Be Spring Time But

It may be spring time but there is a lot of holiday magic going on here.

I have been busy working on some cross-stitch Christmas cards. With 4 in the set, I’ve got 3 completed. I think I like the Santa the most, although the candy canes are cute and I can hear the church bells ringing with this sweet bell.

You may notice on the bell there’s a green border. I had accidentally trimmed one side to short when prepping it. To fix it, I found some green material and added it to both sides. You’d never know 🙂

Nothing like a tea towel for gift giving. I bought some new transfer patterns at the beginning of the year. I really love this one. I like adding red potholders or those holiday boxed tea bags along with the towel.

I was able to get one more transfer out of this pattern from the year before.

This is a set of 2 of the Happy Hanukkah pattern. This transfer was actually not good for a 2nd try. The pattern did not show well and I am really struggling with seeing and getting her done.

Have you started anything for the holidays yet? Here we are in June and I know, I know I know, I shouldn’t dare say it, the holiday season is just another six months away.