Busy December, Quilting, Tatting, Sewing, Cleaning

Boy, did I have a busy December. Besides my business being very busy, I was trying to clean out my house, make gifts, and lots and lots of snow.

Here are some of the gifts I made for my family.
1st, I had gone to the bead stampede, and saw these wonderful crystals. They look different, depending the color you are wearing. I decided to make necklaces for my mom, sister, s-i-l, grandmother, & myself. I spent the day at our local bead shop, and the owner helped me pick out beads to go with it. We used Czech glass and Swarovski crystals. I sat there and counted and out and strung the 5 necklaces. She finished them off with the hooks and chains. Here is some pictures of the crystals on different colors and one of the finished necklaces on white and then on black.

I also made a quilted bag for my mom. The pattern is by Debra Geissler. Her website is at http://www.debrageissler.com/ . She has wonderful designs for quilters. I have purchased many to use in my quilting business. I do not have a computerized quilting machine, so I just quilted each piece freehand. Her pattern for the bag, has pockets on the front and the back, but I decided to only put it on the front. The inside pockets are done on both sides of the inside, but I only put them on the back. Here is a picture of the front, you can go to my webshots http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/225606433DdgiXj and see the sides, bottom and inside.

When I went to a quilt show in October, I found this pattern called Freedom. I immediately thought of my dad. It fit him perfectly. He is a Christian, a chaplain, a cowboy and patriotic. He also served in Army. So this was my Christmas present to him.

My son had his birthday this week. He loves those books about a dragon. Eragon and the rest of the series. I decided to tat him Anne Bruvold's Flying Minor Norwegian Dragons

Did you say snow?

Well it has been snowing on and off since last Fri night. Stopped on Mon and hit again Tue evening and yesterday. On Sat. I took a picture of my bike in the back yard. Today I took another. Look at the difference in the amount of snow.

No Tatting to Show and snow

Well.......been too long since I blogged. I have done some tatting, but forgot to take a picture before it went off for my ss.

Mostly I have been knitting scarfs to give to a group of college students that have been coming to our church. Last Sunday we were going to hand them out with cookies and it snowed so hard, church was cancelled. I have also been knitting Prayer Shawls. Love them. I love working with the homespun yarn. It is so soft and squishy.

Today it started snowing again. All day!!!! So now our quilt guild Christmas party was cancelled.

My golden retriever, Jack has not been out as much as he likes. The temperatures have been very chilly. On one website, they said if the snow makes crunchy sounds when you walk on it and your dog keeps holding his feet up.....it is too cold. The website has a pattern for making simple fleece dog boots. I had seen it before, but figured Jack would not keep them on. At first he rejected them and now he loves them. I found another website that says you can make them from upholstery fabrics. I was given lots of fleece fabrics and lots of the upholstery fabrics, so I can make quite a few. When he comes in out of the snow, he does not have all that compact snow between his toes. I just take off the boots and hang them on a hanger to dry. I think I will make them for muddy weather and rain also. A lot less mess to my floors. Here is the website and a picture of Jack in his. http://domestikgoddess.com/sew-your-own-winter-dog-boots/

Candy Corn Cookies

Well I made these cookies for the first time, last year. They were such a big hit at the last year Halloween Outreach, so I made them again. They are so much fun.

Corn? & Quilting

Well, last year I shared with you a picture of my broccoli growing experience. Ha Ha. This year I decided to plant some corn. We did not have a very long growing period and produce did not do well this year. First off, only one corn stock grew. I was told since only one grew, I would not get any corn because the stocks cross pollinate. I decided to let it grow anyways because it added a fun look to the yard. It only reach about 2 feet tall, but it did grow a ear. We left it alone till the first frost came and then picked it. Here is a picture. I plan to have a full garden next year. I hope I can find something I can grow.

Usually when I am working on a quilt, I try to match the bobbin thread to the backing. I decided with this one to use matching top and bottom thread. I like how the front and the back turned out.

Busy Weeks

Boy of boy, have I been busy.

Last weekend was our annual town festival. I was not too busy with quilting, so I decided to have a booth again this year. Well when it got near that time, the quilts were coming in like crazy. I took a couple of days to make things for my booth. I also got my husband a gig, taking pictures at it. We set up a area at the library. Used a green screen and let customers pick their background from a select few. I did lots of promoting for him, and did the computer work, collecting the money and email addresses, and printed out the pictures. A friend and I did our booth together. Her and I worked it on Friday, and I worked with my hubby on Sat.

By the end I was exhusted. Monday started quilting again, then got sick. I spent all day in bed on Tue, most of Wed, and then did quilting and resting on Thur and Fri. Hubby feels I over did it and took too much on. Won't repeat that again.

Well yesterday I finished a quilt I had been working on while resting last week. I love the way it turned out. Since the fabric had tulips in it, I purchased patterns at digi-tech http://stores.digitechpatterns.com/ that went along with it. I quilted them into the open squares and triangles, and then added outlining and feathers to fill up the space. I traced the large black pineapple diamonds in center and the tips, then traced part of the designs into that template to create the quilting pattern. Here is a close up of one of the squares. Go to my webshots http://community.webshots.com/user/tamidra to see the whole quilt and a close up of the triangle.

Blue Star Banner

Well this week I did some quilting, but mainly got all my stuff ready for the fair.

I made six of these Blue Star Banners. You can read the history of them at http://www.legion.org/national/supporttroops/bluestarbanner . They are for immediate family members to have in their window when they have a military member in harms way when we are at war. My niece's husband just left to go over there, so one is for her and one is for my sister. Then our middle son is over there, so one is for us and one is for our daughter-in-law. One is for my friend Teresa, who's son is over there also.

I did not tell my friend about it, I entered hers into the fair with a information sheet that will be posted on the wall next to it. It tells about the banner and then at the bottom tells who it was made for. So I only told her that when she goes there to look at the quilts and read all the facts about them. I hope she will like it.

The ones I made are quilted ones and the pattern is at http://www.quilterscache.com/H/howtomakeanarmedservicesflag.html

Yesterday, I spent the day at the fair grounds entering mine and my husbands things, and taking in others entries. I am the department head of the Knitting, Crochet, and Lace Department. It gets your juices going to see all the things they bring in. Spend time visiting with those who I only see at fair time.

Usually today I would be there already, handing items to the judges and putting the ribbons on. But, the judge came late last night, so I got to stay home a little longer. My friend Alex and I will be out today putting the ribbons on, and decorating and laying out our area, then hanging the quilts tonight, with my quilt guild.

I love fair time.