Christmas Tree Garland

This summer I logged many hours at the skate park with my youngest son.  My take-along sewing project most of the time was felt Christmas Tree garland, using a tutorial posted by Anna Maria Horner found here.

Today, I put it on our tree!

It was really easy to make and I love the homemade, colorful look it gives to our tree.  Most of the ornaments on our tree were made by the kids or by me during my elementary school days!  I'm so glad my Mom saved them. 

I used lots of colors, trying to limit the green circles since I thought they might not show up as well on the green tree.

I love the blanket stitch on felt.  It's so easy and very forgiving.  I changed the thread color, using whatever contrasted well with the color of the felt.

It was hard to decide which picture to post here because I love all of our ornaments so much!  Here are two hallmark ornaments.  My first son was born in 1993, and that was the year I received the Mom ornament from my Mom.  The mixer ornament represents my love for baking and is signed on the bottom by the artist! 

Of course I have a framed picture of Duke on the tree.  He's one of the family!

We love our Duke!

My son will be excited to see this on the tree when he gets home from school.  He knows first hand of the hours logged making it!

This was what it looked like "in progress"!

I hope you enjoyed this tour of our Christmas tree!  I am linking this post to Sew Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday, a couple of great places to go for other great ideas in blog land!!

Kris



Chevrons and Cheeseball on a Saturday afternoon

I worked some on my Chevron quilt today since the next set of instructions are coming out tomorrow and as usual, I'm behind!  Have you joined in?  Jennifer is hosting this chasing chevrons quilt along and here is Part 2 over at that girl that quilt.  She gives really clear instructions and well, so far, so good!

Here are my first blocks, just after I squared each half square up.  That sure helped to make the blocks come together easily.

The seams are pressed open and aren't they just lovely?  Seriously, it's nice to see things look "right" on the back side of the block, too.

Just sewed  parts A and B together...

and oh, yes, you can guess who was snuggled at my feet...

Yep, it's the Dukester!  I didn't even realize he was there until I glanced down.  He is seriously ALWAYS in the same room that I am in.  Love that boy...

So it was back to pressing one more time and .....

I completed 6 blocks! 

I don't even want to look back at the instructions to see how many more I need to do.  No worries, I'll keep going! 

Guess that means I better get off of picnik and back to the sewing machine!

Today is the Apple Cup here in Washington.  The University of WA Huskies play the Washington State Cougars in what is THE college football game of the season to watch in this neck of the woods.  We're having a few of Jack's friends over for pizza and football....and screaming and shouting.  I made hubby a cheeseball - his favorite snack.

It's my Mom's recipe and super easy.  Cream cheese, chopped green onions, chopped dried beef (yes, from the jar) all mixed together and rolled in pecans.  Any quantities will work, always a winner!

Anyone else sewing to the sounds of a football game today? :-)

Kris

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yep, I made four pies!  The first two were requests from my sons and the second two we took to Thanksgiving dinner (on Thanksgiving eve) at our friends' house.  I love traditions. Pie making is something my Mom taught me.  We make our crust with Crisco and don't add salt.  I picked up some additional tips from http://www.make-it-do.com/ this year, such as chilling the crisco before putting it in with the flour and using a cookie cutter for the tops.  (See my stars and apples) 

We will spend Thanksgiving day in our PJs watching Christmas movies and eating leftovers.  Then I think we'll be getting the Christmas tree out of the box!  So says my husband....we'll see if a nap doesn't take priority.

Speaking of naps....Duke in his big brother's lap.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Sleeping Companion

My husband has been out of town.  Duke seized the opportunity to sleep in a soft, warm, bed.  Mine!

He loves my pillow quilt.  When he's not sleeping under it, he's sleeping on top of it! 

Happy Monday!

Kris

My Sewing Corner

I'm looking forward to spending some time here today!

Duke loves the humming of the sewing machine.

Yep, he's ready to "assume position"!

String Quilt

I'm really itching to start a new quilt, but with so many in progress, that seems like a really bad idea.  Plus I'm starting that quilt along, too.  OK so staying focused today....on the strip quilt.

Here's how it looked a couple of weeks ago on my design wall ( flannel sheet pinned to the wall).  Our  kitchen has two doorways and my guys were forced to walk "around" to the back side to come into the kitchen while this was up.  "How long is that going to stay up, Mom?" I heard this a few times.  Then hubby chimes in, "Won't the quilt smell like pasta sauce if we don't take that down?"  But here's where my fellow quilters will surely agree - out of sight, out of mind.  Am I right?!  So since it has come down, I have made a "little" progress, meaning I think I worked on it twice.  The good news is all of those squares are now sewn into rows!  Next step, press rows and sew them together and ladies and gentlemen, we have a quilt top! 

Here is what I was shooting for when I sewed the strips together.  I wanted diamonds to come together at each corner, though I didn't care if they were all the same size.  Well it worked out, but first I had to label each piece of paper with which square it was by row and by order and then write what color the corners were to be.  A little confusing, but doable.

Probably my least favorite part was ripping off the paper.  The stitch count needs to be set between 1-2 so that the stitches don't come out when you rip of the paper.  Here's what the back of the papers looked like as I took off the paper from the fabric.

Duke can't wait to have another quilt to sleep on!  These pictures will show Duke's love of quilts and pillows...

What a face! 

This "was" Jack's reading pillow.

Finally, I can't blog on November 18th without wishing my son, Mitch,

 a Happy 18th Birthday!!!  Here are some highlights of when you turned 18.

* You are extremely focused on selecting your college

* You enjoy music, both singing and playing your bass guitar

* You are Senior Class President and love being involved at school

* You are quite smitten with Darian, your girlfriend of 6 months

* You love Duke almost as much as I do

* You are co-hosting your own radio show with Cody and loving it!

* You are very close with your Dad

* You love your brother and want to attend all of his sporting events

*You have a weekly lunch or dinner out with just me

and we call it "Mom and Mitch time"

*We love you and we are so proud of you!!!!!

*

Mitch and Darian, Homecoming 2011

Sleeping with Duke

LOVE YOU MITCH, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday and Megan at her blog.

and the girls over at Quilt Story

Chasing Chevrons Quilt Along

I'm gearing up for my second quilt along.  Now that I think about it, I never finished my quilt top for my last quilt along.  Is that bad?  Oh well!  All the blocks are in the "to sew" pile.  I'll get it done eventually.  But back to this upcoming quilt along.  It is with Jennifer over at That girl...That quilt.  I've seen chevrons in other quilts lately, so it's gonna be fun to make them in this quilt!  I love a gray background but have never done one so this will be my first time.  Here's a picture of the fabrics I have chosen:

They are bold and fun, don't you think?  I have made lots of pink and green quilts, so this will be out of my comfort zone. 

In other news, Duke has completely healed from his paw surgery.  Here he is showing off his drinking fountain talent.  He played hard and was soooo thirsty!

After a good run, Duke is always searching for a comfy place on the couch.

Silly guy - always loves a pillow, too.

I'm off to see what Christie's dogs are up to at http://www.describehappy.blogspot.com/.  She's another dog crazy girl like me!  Happy Thursday to you.

Kris

Ruffles

I'm new to ruffles - and now I love them!

I think a ruffle really adds a fun touch to this.

I also really like these colors!  I might have to make a quilt out of these colors.

I added a little hand stitching to the back.  This is a JoAnn's fabric that reminds me of Anna Maria Horner's fabrics.  One of these days I AM going to order some of her beautiful fabrics!

Hoping to finish one of my many work in projects this week.  Finish might be too big of a word.  "Work on" might be more appropriate!!

Since this is a "finish" I'm linking it up to Finish it up Friday over at CrazyMomQuilts. Love her!

Knit Fringe Pillows

I saw this tutorial by V and Co and had to try it.  The first one took me a LONG time to make, but by the second pillow, I've picked up some speed!

Here's a picture of the back of this one.  I ended up stuffing it more.

The gray and light blue are not typical colors for me, but I do like how it turned out. 

Next up, a purple front, with a pink and purple retro sweater back.  I'll post the picture soon!

Linking up to Quilt Story and their Fabric Tuesday!  See their button in my sidebar.

The New Blog and Musical Pillows

I've made the switch from typepad to blogger!  Getting ready to add some pics of what I've been up to since my last blog post in September. 

Thought I'd start with a couple of pillows

Pillows!  They are a fun way to experiment with a design and reach the finish line much faster than trying the same block in a quilt.  I saw a lightning bolt design on several blogs like this lightning zig zag tutorial and wanted to give it a go. 

I added in some hand quilting and put a ruffle along the edge. 

The pillow is backed with some fleece I had with musical notes.  I picked it up at Hobby Lobby awhile back, knowing that with two boys who love play instruments, I would use it eventually!

And so I made semi-matching pillows for my older son and his girlfriend.  They are both VERY musical!

Here they are singing with the Gig Harbor High School Meistersingers.  They are both Seniors.  Where does time go?! 

Thanks for checking out the new blog!