stocking stuffers

I was playing with my little twister and made these cute little pot holders for the big kids for there Christmas stockings this year.  The green and blue for my daughter that loves owls. Grapes for my daughter-in-law who loves wine and the flames are for my son who loves to grill.

I sat and stitched the bindings on this morning so I can put them in the done pile and see what else needs to be added to the stocking pile and hopefully not have to go to town today.

 

Safe travels and Happy Holidays!

 

Robin

last ornament for 2012

This ornament is for my DH who loves motorcycles. The top item on his Christmas list every year is a Harley so this year he get Santa riding one.  LOL  Maybe someday he will get a real one, but they are so expensive. We looked at the Harley shop last weekend and the prices are crazy we could almost buy a second house. LOL

 

I feel pretty good this year I have all ornaments stitched and finished and its not even Christmas eve yet! I will have to remember my trick this year for next year start before Thanksgiving and they should get done. This year I only stitched 8 so that helped a lot too.

 

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Robin

Counted Cross Stitch

This is my latest finish my daughters ornament. The chart is from JCS 2008. I like to look at the old issues when trying to figure out what I will stitch for each family member. When I saw this one this year I  just new it was for my daughter. I didn't use the buttons it called for as I didn't have them in my stash and I thought these little lights were just too cute.

 

I'm doing pretty good on getting things done as I'm stitching the last ornament for this year. It's for my DH I don't know why but I always seem to stitch his last. This year it will be finished to go with his from last year that I finished this year. Oh well he just gets 2 this time.

 

Have a good day everyone I'm off to quilt class today,

Robin in Washington State

stitching

Finished and sent off another Round Robin yesterday. I don't know why this one took so long for me to get it stitched but it's done and on it's way to the next stitcher.

I also did a little finishing for me today. This is stitched over 1 on 28 ct this is the first thing I've stitched over 1 it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I used a little empty candle jar and some pink ribbon to finish it off.  The stitched area is only 1 1/2 inches tall.

 

Just have 2 more ornaments to get stitched and finished for this year I think I will make it.

Holiday Lane blog hop day 7

Hello and Welcome to day 7 my day of the Holiday Lane pillow blog hop.

I would like to thank everyone involved in making this a very fun blog hop.  The pattern was brought to us by Jill from Jillily Studio, please visit her and check out her other patterns. Pauline from Quilt N Queen who's are cheerleader and Madame Samm for her work in getting us organized.

This is only my second time in joining in on the fun and it won't be my last. The pattern was very easy to follow but while working on it I realized how large it was and decided to go with a wall hanging. In doing it as a hanging I was able to embellish a lot more than I could have if it was a pillow.

Here it is hanging above our TV.

Here is the right side and you can see that I used a pewter charm for the address on the house it's 2012.

My little snowman is all decked out for the cold weather in his polka dot hat and scarf.

This house my DH helped me with he felt it needed a window with candles.

Lots of decorations on the trees with garland too.

For the snow I used quilt batting. Not sure if you can tell but I quilted stars in the sky.

Thank you for looking and if you would like to see what others have done with this pattern please check out the others that I share my day with.

 

 

Thursday November 29

Words & Stitches

Trying to Blog

Peanut's Patchwork

Moosestash Quilting

A Loose Thread

stitch, stitch, stitch

In Stitches and Seams

Hooked on Quilting

A Reformed Heath'n

Elaine - that other blog

As Sweet as Peaches

The Learning Curve Quilts and Such

Geema's Wonderings

 

 

Holiday Lane blog hop

Today is the first day of a new blog hop. I'm having fun making my "holiday lane" I get to post about it on Thursday the 29th, but until then here are today's participants 

Enjoy........

Wednesday November 21

Just Let Me Quilt

Simple Sew

sew.darn.quilt

Color My World

Sew Maybe I Can

Handmade by Mary E

Sew Many Yarns

Pig Tales and Quilts

Tea Time Creations

Jane's Quilting

Ornament finish

Today I finished stitching and finishing another ornament, this is from JCS 2008 ornament issue. Heartfelt Harvey by Imaginating Inc.  Only 2 more to stitch so I'm almost there.

I'm also working on a project for the  next blog hop that starts on Nov 21st. My day is Thursday the 29th. See my side bar its called Holiday Lane.

Christmas gift help

Today my DH and I were talking about Christmas as in what do I want. I can't really think of anything I need, so while uptown I stopped in at a quilt shop that just happens to sell sewing machines too. I talked with a  sales lady and she showed me several but the one I liked best and fit in our budget is the Baby Lock "Elizabeth". Here is where I need your help does anyone have this machine or have any thoughts on what might be a better machine? I would like to stay with a Baby lock as I have a Viking and DO NOT like it.

http://www.babylock.com/a-line/elizabeth/   this is the one I'm leaning toward telling DH that I would like to have.

I guess I should look into selling or trading in my Viking/Husqvarna Platinum 750

Thanks for any and all help.

Christmas Biscornu

Yesterday I finished this little biscornu for myself this will be my Christmas ornament for this year.
It is a Pam Kellogg design from 2007 (I think) its stitched on 18 count  and finished with little gold beads all around.

Today I'm off to finish my Christmas shopping, don't worry the shopping maybe done but the sewing is still underway.

day 5 UR Priceless blog hop

Day 5 - Nov. 9th

Polka Dot Classic
Geta's Quilting Studio
Busy Bee Free
Briarside Lane
Quilts and Dogs
Blueberrymoon
Debbie R
suebee's World
Englating
Les passions de Cliodana
Colorpoint Quilter
On the Go Quilting
Personalized Sketchesand Sentiments
Freemotion by the River
grannygoodstuff
Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Looking for the complete hop schedule?

It's here.

U R Priceless -- day 4

Today is my day, this is my first blog hop so I hope I'm doing everything right.

Thank you Katherine at Sew Me Something Good and Madame Samm at !Sew WE Quilt!

Here's are the rest of the blogs that share my day.
Day 4 - Nov. 8th
Stitchin By the Lake
as sweet as peaches
Deborah B
Birgit H
Fish Creek Studio
A Quilter's Table
Lily Patch Quilts
Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio
Mary F
Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm
The Desert Rat Chronicles
Sally K
Paris at a Certain Age
From the Blank Pages
Quilt Taffy
Barb H


I really had no clue what I was going to sew until I started going through my fabric, then I couldn't stop thinking of different ways to make these cute little coin purses, unfortunately I ran out of time.

This was my first purse with cute little cupcake for the sides I used a dark brown that looks like chocolate frosting the inside is cream with chocolate chips.

Next I made my zebra and orange I used the same orange on the inside on this one I added a cute little zebra stripe beads on the side.

This one was my third try and I thought I would add some beads to the center of the flowers and along the top of the clasp as I sewed it to the fabric, adds a bit of sparkle.

Here is #4 Jungle print with brown and gold beads along the top.

My husband added his 2 cents for this one with his favorite football team, I used a fabric with footballs on it for the inside.

This one is my favorite one with the snowman face on the front and some snowflakes on the back. I wanted it to look like a real snowball so I used quilt batting as the outside to give it a soft look.

Are you ready for my last one I call it "piggy bank" and I did use a different pattern with a bigger frame.

Thank you for looking and please visit the other blogs and see the many different and lovely coin purses for the UR Priceless blog hop.

Robin in Washington State

day 3 blog hop

Wednesday day 3- Nov. 7th

I Love Wool

I Like to Quiltblog

Keep Your Fork There's Pie

Retired to Quilt

Selinaquilts

From This to That

Jenny E.

Domestic Deficit Disorder

Pig tales and quilts

CherrysPrairiePrimitives

Espritpatch

Maria

Count it all Joy!

Creative Notions

 

 

I will be posting my coin purse on Thursday!!!

better late than never

                                              Here is my DH's 2011 ornament finished!!

 As you can see it has a little charm on the back with the date. I found these at Shipwreck beads (they have a great website too) in Tacoma, WA last year. I made a trip up there earlier this year and bought some for this years ornaments as well.  I hope they will continue to carry them as it sure makes it easier than hand stitching the date.

Well I have more sewing to get finished for the blog hop and my day is Thursday. Hope I don't get called for Jury Duty on Wed or I won't get everything done.  :)    Off to the sewing room.

day 2 "U R Priceless"

Are you ready for today's Priceless line-up?

Let's go cheer these ladies on...



Day 2 - Nov.6th

The Crafter's Apprentice
Jane's Fabric and Quilts
Rosemary B
Why-Knot-Kwilt
Random Thoughts..do or "di"
Mary T.
Supermom No Cape
Lily Pad Quilting
.Quiltscapes.
Stitch, Stitch, Stitch
Rose Creations
The Treehouse
Gracie Oliver Arts
Quilting Prolifically
Stekje
Grammie Q's

ornaments

I have been stitching my family's annual Christmas ornaments and I'm trying to finish them as i get them stitched. Here are the two that I finished yesterday.

 For my son I stitched the "Year of the dragon" from JCS Christmas issue 2012 this is stitched over 1 with 1 on 28 ct even weave.

For my grandson who is in love with trains right now is a train engine, this one I found on the Internet. I finished them both with stiff felt on the backs this is new way for me to do them not sure I like this way but it will work for this year. 

Have 4 more to stitch and finish so I think I'm a little ahead of the game as last year I didn't finish stitching  my DH's ornament until after the first of this year and its still not finished into an ornament, this year he will just have two new ones.

UR Priceless blog hop day 1

Day 1 - MONDAY

Nov. 5th

Quiltin' Jenny
Hill Valley Quilter
Loopy Lou's Adventures Into Handicrafts
Just Let Me Quilt
Lixie Makes It
Beaquilter
Sunshine, Handmade
Buzzing and Bumbling
ANNIEOFBLUEGABLES

Needled Mom
The Slow Quilter
A Quilting Sheep
I Have A Notion
Quilt-n-Queen

Mouse

This is a Christmas ornament that I just finished it's for an exchange group I belong to, it will be mailed out on Monday. It's from the Just Cross Stitch ornament issue 2012 "not a creature was stirring". I may have to stitch it again for myself. :)  I have a few more that need finishing so off I go.

juat in time

I finished making my  daughter and grandsons Halloween costumes just in time, they had a photo session booked for the Sat before Halloween. Here are Rainbow brite and twink he didn't like wearing his hood with his star antenna but I think he is a cutie anyway.

The white of his costume was a pain in the butt to sew with and when I was done my sewing room looked as if I had sheared a couple of sheep, I'm still finding bits here and there.

Now that that project is done and a couple others are almost done I can move on to sewing for the up coming blog hop, UR Priceless  cute little coin purses. The hop starts Nov 5th and my day is the 8th so I best get started.

Happy stitching everyone,

Robin

Hello and good bye little one

This is Kristy she is a 4yr old long hair dachshund that I was asked to adopt. Her owner is no longer able to care for her due to age and health, she is 82 and just had a hip replacement. I said of course I would take her as long as she likes me. So off I go to pick her up we got along great at our first meeting. I loaded up all her things and off we go for home. She loved it here and my DH thought she was a cutie. So for a couple of days everything was great until Thursday. I picked my grandson up from day care and we come home to meet the new dogie. Everything was great until I opened the door and he saw her, she just sat there wagging her tail. He on the other hand went into a panic started shaking and crying he tried to climb up me like a tree monkey. DH hurried and put Kristy in the laundry room away from GS (he is only 2 1/2)  and we calmed him down took about 15 to 20 min he wouldn't even go down the hallway to his room to play.  Okay we figured it was just something new. Mommy picked him up to go home and he looked down the hallway and said by dogie.  On Sunday they come over again for a visit to see how things would go and you guessed it it was the same thing all over again. Then on Tue it was our day to pick GS up from day care again he wouldn't even come in the house he was so scared and shaking so we assured him the dogie was sleeping and he was safe. Wed I had to call and let the lady know we couldn't keep Kristy as my grandson is very afraid of her. Luckily my friend was able to place Kristy in a new home the same afternoon and she is very happy little lady.  We can't figure out however why my grandson was so afraid of her. Our travel agent has a dog in her office and he loves Cooper. Until about a year ago we had a sweet little Shih tzu Fro and he loved helping take him for a walk so we are unable to understand or explain why he didn't like Kristy.  For now we are dog free and will stay that way until we find a dog that my grandson likes.

I'm still here, I think

We have been very busy since I lasted posted.  As you can see in the new photo we took our grandson to the pumpkin patch. Good thing it was a nice day as he saw some other little ones getting there photo taken in costume so off came his shirt, all we can figure is he wanted to wear one too. Unfortunately we didn't have a costume for him to wear. We did have fun hunting for just the right pumpkins and other fruit and veggies as they have a big fresh market there as well. My DH of course found all the syrups and jams. LOL

We have also finished the painting and carpeting for this year, have more I want to do but have decided to wait until the holidays are over. I do have a couple sewing projects that I need to finish up so the rooms can truly be done. New dust cover for the spare room and such. I also realized that I have only 7 days to start/finish my daughter and grandsons Halloween costumes. I best get moving as she wants to use them as a change of outfits in there next photo session on the 20th.  I've also joined a couple blog hops so need to get busy on sewing for them as well. I think I've spread my self a little thin as I also have Christmas ornaments to cross stitch and finish for the year.

Looking at the calender I see the reminder that I also have a couple weeks of jury duty coming up. I guess I really need to get motivated and get some things done. Well with that thought in mind I'm going to get off the computer and start working.

hope your days are filled with smiles,

Robin

P.S. We also have a new fur baby which I will get some photos of and post about in a couple days.

I'm on a roll..... since painting the sewing room and getting it all in order I decided to tackle the spare room/ computer room.  I took everything out of it and started painting. The walls are the same green as the sewing room with the white trim,but this time I had to paint the ceiling now that is something that is not fun at all!! This morning I cleaned out the closet and started painting it, only the ceiling so far as I have a eye Dr appointment this morning but when I get home it will be finished. I need to sort through all the stuff from the closet and get rid of a lot of it. I will be organizing and putting it away later today, that is my goal. I have talked DH into using his 3 day weekend to start on the living room we want to paint and refinish the hardwood floor in that room so will need his help. We will go Sat and pick out new carpet for the computer room and hope he can install it on Sun. I need to get all this stuff out of the sewing room, my sewing machine is lost in the corner and I can't even get close enough to see her let alone use her. I have a beginners quilting classes starting Sept 12 so this has to get done soon.

Sorry no photos today as I'm using the laptop and don't know how to get them from the camera to here. Computer is in the shop for a update of memory or something DH thought was important.

Off to get ready for my appointment.
Have a good weekend everyone and be safe.

spiderweb

 

 

 

 

I found a great tutorial on paper piecing a spiderweb quilt block. So I followed it both words and photos and this is what I ended up with. Not until I took the photo did I see my mistake but that's okay it was a learning experience and I like the process so will be doing more paper piecing in the future. I can't find the tutorial right now but when I do I will post it here.

Thank you

birthday weekend

This last weekend I celebrated my birthday, yeah another year older not to sure about wiser. On Sat morning my sweetheart surprised me with a very sweet birthday card. Then after we were up and dressed we headed south on the highway to have breakfast. mmmm a crab omelet, I only eat these once or twice a year so its a special treat. Then we had a fun filled day with shopping and eating. Lots of new things for my sewing room the most important was the table we bought from IKEA!

I saw this on someones post a couple of weeks ago and then showed it to the DH and he remembered that I wanted it so planned Sat around a trip to IKEA so we could get it for my birthday. It has 6 drawers (3 each side) and both sides fold down to make it only 13 inches or so if it needs to be out of the way. We also made it to Fabric Depot and Joann's fabric for a few little things I wanted. On Sunday we drove to the beach for lunch at our favorite place. We had noticed a couple months ago that the old Costco store had been remodeled and a couple of new stores had gone in and one of them was a Joann's Fabric so we made a stop there on our way home. We've been talking about a new ironing board (DH didn't like my old one didn't feel it was safe, it liked to fold on its own for no reason) and they had a nice selection of them so with a 40% off coupon in hand DH bought me a new one of those as well.

Not a very good photo but it's a ironing board with a rest for the iron at the end. It is so much better than my hand me down that I had for 31yrs so not sure how old the thing is as it was DH's grandmothers old one she gave me when we were first married.

Here are all the goodies that we bought over the weekend, just little things I either wanted to try or things I needed to finish projects.  This little turtle is for my bracelet from my grandson who we call turtle he is now 2  1/2yrs old.

Thank you for your visit,

Robin

table runner

With encouragement from fellow blogger Bev I have decided to finish my Dresden plate into a table runner. I was going to do a table topper but I wanted to make it fit on the kitchen table for the holidays so a runner it will be. Yesterday I spent part of my day making another Dresden plate but not sewing the 2 halves together. This is it so far...

I need to go to the quilt shop again and hope they have more of this green fabric I picked up a few weeks ago as I only have half a yard and as you can see it needs be wider. I'm also thinking that the center peppermint needs a bigger center. Besides teaching myself how to quilt I love to do counted cross stitch. As some of you know from previous post my Mom just remarried. She has asked me to stitch her a wedding sampler something like I had stitched for my son and daughter in law. Since she asked me a week before the wedding it wasn't done by then but I did tell her I would have it done by Christmas. I have been working on it when its to hot in the sewing room (no A/C) this is it as of this morning...

Have a good day and happy stitching,

Robin

Bev...

this one is for you...

I call it "peppermint twist" and was going to make a table topper with it as it measures 17 1/2" or add a couple smaller Dresden half plates at each end and make a runner for the table for the holidays.

redoing my craft room

I haven't posted anything in a while but I have been reading and thinking (which my DH says gets him into more work) LOL
I have been reading about organizing sewing/craft rooms. I came across a post where someone had sorted there buttons and put them in jars with just one color in each, I thought cool. I have 3 big jars with buttons I can do that and it sure can't take to long right, wrong 2days later and a trip to Walmart for some cute little canning jars my buttons are sorted and sitting in the window of my sewing/craft room. I like the look but not my room so on Monday morning 2 weeks ago I start taking everything out of the room and started painting. I love the new green paint with white trim, I painted the closet all white from the ceiling to the floor. While I was in there I came up with an idea (this is where DH comes into the picture) I need more shelves so that I can organize more of my stuff. He's okay with that so off to the home improvement store and he's back measuring and making shelves not an easy task as nothing in our house is square. Our house was built in 1940 and I swear the contractor didn't take time to plum or level a thing in here. Okay everything is painted and I have new hardware for the window everything looks good. Now for the hard part making everything fit back in the room that came out of it. So I started putting things back and cleaning things out. We made a trip to the thrift store and lots of things went into the recycle box, some things I have know idea why I had them, but they are gone now. So here are some photos of the finish ...

Thank you for looking and now to get some sewing/crafting done.

hot summer days

It's been hot here and this is what I and my grandson did yesterday after his nap.

This is my DH playing with our grandson. You can't find me Papa!

I haven't been sewing or stitching much lately have been trying to get somethings done outside. When we finish for the day I'm just to tired to pick up a needle and thread.
Last week I took everything out of the sewing room and painted from ceiling to floor, no photos yet as my camera battery is charging. Now everything has been put back or sent to the thrift store I did a major de-stashing as somethings I had no idea why I had saved them.

Back to some stitching I need to get finished and in the mail before it even later than it is, was to be mailed last Fri. but I will get it done and out today.

Have a good day everyone!

Mom's Wedding

Today my Mom is getting married, the wedding will be at my sisters house and all of us girls have helped in getting everything ready. Here is a photo of the brides bouquet. Now off to the wedding.

sewing machine cover

While I was stitching this chart I kept thinking how cute it would be as a cover for my sewing machine. Well that is what  I decided to do, I'm not real happy with how it turned out but it works. :) I just drape it over the machine when it's not being used, so far the cats are leaving it where it belongs but the day I find it on the floor with a cat sleeping on it will be the day I need to figure out a way to keep it in place. 

Bone Cheeks

This has been finished for about a week now just didn't get around to taking a photo. My DH loves this pillow and says it's his.

my very 1st HST

Today while reading some of my favorite blogs I came across the instructions to make a cute quilt square. But since I don't know how to make half square triangles I wasn't sure I could make it. But I did it!!  Thanks to Mary's instructions. Here's Marys blog she has lots of cool quilts to look at. http://maryonlakepulaski.blogspot.com/2012/06/red-white-and-blue-blog-hop.html