December

December is always a busy and delightful time of year for our family, 

filled with holiday music and movies, plays and musicals, 

goodies, and time spent together. 

This year Christmas was at our home 

and I decided I wanted to slip a little something

 into the stockings of family visiting our home. 

I needed seven stockings, we have five. 

So kind of late I decided to make seven quilted stockings, all different.  

 

This is the first one, with the half square triangles finishing a 1 inch. 

I had to go bigger, it was taking too long with so many pieces.  

Here is a peek at the back

Once I decided to go bigger, they went together quickly.  

All seven, nicely hung upon our ladder. 

They were a hit and I love how they turned out. 

A wonderful new addition to our Christmas celebration.

A few family photos from the end of year.

 Three cuties waiting patiently for stockings and gifts : )

Its that time again, to say goodbye to the year and embrace the new year. 

Fresh starts, renewed determination and new beginnings. 

Welcome 2012, may you be filed with lots of love, warm hugs, and laughter.

Hope you all have a fabulous 2012

xo, Wendi

Thankgiving

             This photo was graciously lent to me by a very special lady Betty Nybakken. Photo taken in Pacific Northwest.  

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

I love Thanksgiving. A time of reflection. This chorus sums up all I am thankful for. 

His faithfulness, His mercies anew, His provision. His blessing in my life. 

May this season be full of Gods blessing for you and those you love. 

First Craft Market

The Big Day has come and gone. 

Everything went smoothly for us as first time craft market sellers. 

All the vendors had beautiful booths, and wonderful products.

It was a day filled with fun, treats and the support of family & friends.

 Nicole and Kristen went above and beyond putting on The Threadery.  

 All in all they did a fabulous job, which contributed to our great experience and fun. 

Here is a photo of our booth, with little Madi sitting right in the middle. 

What a cutie. 

 I brought my camera then couldn't find it so this is all I have.

I wish I would have gotten photos of all the other vendors and a few more of our area.

It really was a wonderful day and so special to have my niece, her friend, all my daughters, 2 grand daughters, my mom, Auntie & my hubby all there for support. : )

The Threadery

This is Amanda, and I am guest blogging for my mom tonight.  Mom is busy making all sorts of amazing goodies for this upcoming weekend.  After many years of people telling her she could sell her creations, we were finally able to convince her.  So we looked around for just the right event and were so happy that we happened across The Threadery.  The Threadery is a handmade market that is going to be taking place in North Orange County this Saturday.  If you live in the area or what to go for a little drive, head on down to check it out.  There is going to be a bunch of vendors all selling their beautiful handmade  goods.  You can also check out the blog Rock a Bow to learn even more about it.  We hope to see of you there. 

 

What Shall I Do....

What shall I do with my day off work?  

Play I Spy!  

My husband takes care of Little Madi 

five days a week, so I took her shopping to give him a break.

During nap time I was able to piece together all the nine patches

for a boy themed disappearing nine patch.

Yesterday I was able to piece together 64 two inch girly squares for a girl I Spy Quilt.

I forgot to take a photo, but I will soon. 

 Choosing and cutting the novelty prints takes the most time.
Once that's out of the way, these two quilts come together pretty quickly.

I took a pause to attend an evening Bible Study, but I am happy with today's progress and will post a photo in a couple days of the completed tops.




Here are my most recent bee blocks, already on their way to their new home

Jill sent the center fabrics and asked for squares,
wonky or otherwise.
I enjoyed pulling fabrics and working on these.

Been Up To Stuff

I didn't mean for it to be so long since my last post. 

Its been very busy around here and I imagine it will stay

that way until after the first of the year...yes, 2012 is coming before we know it.  

Our garden gave us plenty of zucchini

so I made

zucchini bread and chocolate zucchini bread

Our plum tree was also very generous, yielding enough fruit for nine 

batches of plum jam. This is something we make every year.

I am so glad the crop was large this year.

We have many request for it and our whole family loves it, as well. 

The poor tree was so heavy laden, I couldn't bear to take a photo.

We celebrated a birthday (my hubby's).

There was family time and this is what we ate for breakfast,

not so nutritious, but very delicious!

A Pinterest find. I love Pinterest, but more about that another time.

We found time for hair cuts.

and naps,

(I know, I know this couch/fabric is soooo dated, 

we tried  to find someone to reupholster it yesterday, but no such luck)

 fun in the tub,

and play time

We even enjoyed seeing Poppy (grandpa/my hubby) in concert at the park.

 I really need to take more photos of the adults 

that belong to these children. I love them too! : )

Gigi (great grandma to the children, mom to me) with the littlest one, Kinlee

Whew, a busy last few weeks, but I did find time to sew a bit. 

A few backpacks. 

The perfect size for a cute little one.

and a new tote pattern

Now for the next few weeks.....

Quilts for Kids

It's been a while since I've posted, shame on me. I've been busy, busy, busy. 

Today I  want to share just a tiny bit of my busyness. 

Quilts for Kids is an organization that provides a comforting quilt for ill children.  

They will provide a kit to make a quilt or you may make your own, 

using your fabrics and patterns. 

I wanted to get involved. I ordered a kit, so I would know what they were looking for. 

I was so excited, I got the quilt top done right away. 

Several months later Quilts for Kids emailed me about the kit.  

Oh No! Turns out it found its way under a stack of fabrics and I forgot all about it. 

I had wanted to send a few more quilts back along with it, 

but now I was really behind and I'm not a fast quilter. 

I quickly started  planning and making a few more to go along with it. 

One of the quilts, which I thought was a

fabulous idea (so wonderful in my head) turned out not to be. 

It's not terrible, just not how I envisioned it, so 2 steps forward and 1 step back. 

Then I remembered I had a couple quilts in the closet. 

Made them, never used them or gifted them.  

I got them out and they joined the stack nicely. 

This is the kit I was sent. It is so cute with all the trucks and I love the stripe binding. 

The binding wasn't included, but the stripe was the backing that 

was included and I squeezed out enough for the binding.

These are the three I had stacked in the closet 

just waiting for the right home.

I added a bit more quilting and zig-zagged around the 

binding per Quilts for Kids preferences.

And this last one I made just for some sweet little girl that might like butterflies.

I had a few yards of this brighter blue, and it needed butterfies.

Can you believe the salvage said Patrick Lose 2002.

I really need to get using my stash!

Here are all five waiting to be boxed up for the ride.

I was thrilled to finally get these in the mail, but not happy about how long it took me. 

If you're a quilter, check out Quilts for Kids.

Bliss Quilt

Seems so long since I posted. What have I been up to?  

Well, I guess I have been pretty busy.  Just sometimes it doesn't seem like 

much is accomplished until you stand back and take a look.  

I headed back to work after the 6 week summer break. Usually by the end of 

summer I am looking forward to returning with a bit of delight, 

but not this year, summer vacation was just too short.  

Been back for almost 4 weeks now and it has been crazy busy.   

I finished a quilt for my sweet new little grand daughter.

Isn't she a little cutie? 

She is 3 months old, so I am a little slow in getting a quilt to her. 

Yes that's right, only made one quilt for her. 

As a quilting Meema(gamma) I feel shame. 

She deserves an abundance of quilts.

I had a charm pack of Bliss, and I knew my daughter would love it. 

Just went with half square triangles. A simple design and I thought the fabrics 

looked great all lined up next to each other.

close up

Used Bliss and some of the inner border fabric for the back. Didn't get a photo

I've been working on a few more things, knitting my first pair of socks and some creations I hope to donate to my church for a fund raiser. I'll have to share when I get a little further along. 

What haven't I been working on? Some bee blocks that have me stumped 

and my Farmer's Wife blocks for the quilt along. 

I want to, I really just get stuck over choosing fabrics.  

UGH! I need to just do it already!
 

School Is Cool

School starts here in nine days. 

My grandson needed a little something of his own for pre-school. 

What's a gamma to do?

Make a backpack with that pattern she bought last year from made by Rae

He's three and has a love for cars!

The inside is lined like a checkered flag

 It's cousin approved and checked for size.

Will HE like it?

Yay, he likes it!!

He wouldn't even take it off for dinner! : )

Enjoy your backpack little man.

You melt my heart  ; )

**  There are lots of backpack patterns available, but if you're looking for one, give this one a try. It went together very smoothly and is the perfect toddler size. I added the side pockets.

Nine Weeks With The Farmer

Well, here I am.

I was hoping to get a few more posts in before now, 

but I started back to work and 

had unexpected, but welcome company with us this past week. 

I'm generally feeling unorganized and lazy. 

I suppose I'm just adjusting to work after six weeks off.  

(Ok, I'm done whining now, I think)

I finished 4 more Farmer's Wife blocks

I just realized I didn't take photos of the blocks individually. Oops!

From the top is #39 Friendship,

#14 Butterfly at the Crossroads,

#13 Buckwheat and 

#45 Grape Basket

Do you want to see an "oops" from this week? 

I made Grape Basket and something was just not right.

The color. It was blah. It had no life. 

So my Honey made suggestions and here is my

new Grape Basket along side the blah one.

Much better, huh?

The Farmer's wife quilt along is on week nine, but I've only gotten eight blocks done.
I bettered stop spending so much time on the color combo dilemma and get more blocks done!

My Honey went on a vacation to visit family a while back (I was unable to go).
While he was gone he went to THREE quilt shops.
I like to think it was because he missed me, but it was probably because
he was with his sister, who is a quilter.

He returned with a kit to make a brightly colored block and

some "Florida" yardage that he picked out,

and his sister sent two kits alike to make doll size quilts.  

I loved the fabric and thought I would combine the kits to make a slightly larger 

doll quilt, but as I was working I started thinking how I needed another 

apron and the colors would go with the kitchen nicely. 

Those two kits were just enough to make a wonderful apron.

I didn't have a pattern, but it turned out alright.  

There are a few things I will change next time.

Unwashed

modeled by my daughter

hanging with a friend

My sister-in-law doesn't have a blog. 

She does beautiful work and is quite fast about it. 

Here is shot of her most recent work she sent me.

Have a wonderful week.

Wendi