All the mug rugs are finished at last.......... I can soon start wrapping up Christmas. Perhaps then I can bet back to my regular stitching.

I think it might be a good thing to hang on to this years Christmas list and to start early. That sounds good but we know it never works................


I finished two more hats...... These are going to Jason and a friend of his.......... Lately it has been colder in NC than it has been here in Massachusetts............

Now to wrap some of the gifts that are being mailed....................


Write out a few labels...............


Place tea towel between two sheets and stitch all around making sure you catch the string on the label in the stitching............ It is all ready to slide into an envelope and mail.

If I had more time I could cut out little shapes and ornament the front of the package but frankly right now I will be glad to see them wrapped and mailed.

Mug Rugs Part 2

A few strips cut and sewn together...................


Instead of embroidery I used a Green Gel pen for the holly leaves.................


Add three beads for berries, batting, backing with a bit of quilting and the binding and


Voila........... A lovely Mug Rug...........


A close-up of the holly with berries...........


that matches the side of the mug...........

These mugs were purchased years ago at an after Christmas sale. I knew they would come in handy one day...............

Mug Rugs

Mug Rugs seem all the rage these days. I have been mulling them over in my mind while busily stitching on tea towels.................

I consider myself an adequate journeyman. Not much creativity here but I can follow a pattern and my projects usually turn out well.

This is the design that I finally settled on. Seems like all I can draw is holly leaves.

And since I have some white Kona and red fabric left from the tea towels...........



I can perhaps put them all together and come up with something worthy of giving.

Only time will tell.

Saturday Shopping

Well, so much for finishing a few things. Saturday I went to Heartbeat Quilts for their end of the year sale..........................

Yes, I should have stayed at home and worked on Christmas gifts but my list of necessities was growing and I needed a break.

Saturday morning Lem and I did the house blessing because someone wanted to look at the house at noon. We got that done and did errands while strangers toured our home. Then I took him back to the house and I headed off to the big city of Hyannis. Only 30 minutes away but you would think it was much farther because of how rarely we go there.....

I had a few things in my bag that I had been carrying around for a very long time while I looked for exactly what I wanted..........

One was a pillow from Crab apple Hill. I found some fabric for this pattern and if I am smart I can begin on my presents for next year.





I also picked up some fabric for Bonnie Hunter's Christmas Lights pattern.


And I wanted to make some pillowcases................ I got these fabrics


and these looked like fun fabrics for pillowcases too........................



Everyone needs a Purple Thang and of course more needles for me to lose.......


While I was waiting for my fabric to be cut I found this..................


Doesn't that quilt just speak to you........... And I have those two big bags of scrap fabrics that would be perfect for this project. I plan to look downstairs some time this week for the red center fabric. I had some last year that I really liked and I used some of it for Christmas Stockings. I put the rest away for something special and this is just the project. Yes, it will take a long time but then again it is the perfect Leader/Ender project.


And this was in the same magazine................ And I already have a drawer full of strips to make the pieced blocks.





I picked up these two fabrics for the background and the green border. Another Leader/Ender project here.

After the Christmas presents are wrapped and ready I need to start on more piecing projects in the studio. After all, I am working now on a Log Cabin quilt as a Leader/Ender and here I have two more lined up............... 2011 looks to be a great year.

Oh, by the way............. The people that looked at the house on Saturday are coming back again today for a second look. Who knows, they just might make a decent offer........

Friday night I made Iowa Chowder.......... A recipe that I got from Judy at Patchwork Times.....You can find that recipe here.


I also found a recipe for Cherry Creme Pie from Nan at Pots and Pins. You can find that here...

I must have done something wrong because mine did not set completely. Doesn't really matter because it sure is good..............

No pictures, just chat...........

I haven't been able to get upstairs since the end of the Thanksgiving Holiday. Sometimes it is like that.

It appears that I will not get to sew again until next week sometime. Well, such is life and we need to be grateful for what we have. Remember, make the most of the least and the best of the worst.

The coming weekend will be a busy one for me. Someone coming to look at the house on Saturday. That means getting it vacuumed and dusted and ready to show Saturday morning. Since the washer died last year we have to go to the laundromat so we can do that plus a few errands while the realtor shows the house.

I am gradually putting the "Act as if it is true" suggestion into practice. I have always wanted to bake bread but felt that it was too hard.......... Then I started blogging and came across Patchwork Times. With Judy's encouragement I tried to bake my own bread. It was much easier than I thought it would be and now I wouldn't consider buying a loaf of bread. Of course it cost more for me to make my own because I like to give it away......... There is something special about the look people get when you give them a loaf of home baked bread.

Hanne at Hanne's Quilt Corner gave me encouragement to finish more and start less. It has taken me some time to get my mind around that concept but I am making progress and I really like finishing. There are so many things at my house that need to be finished and I am slowly starting less and finishing more...........

I enjoy blogging........ You learn so much from others and it has given me the courage to try things I never would have tried in the past.........

Curious George

This picture reminds me of the Curious George book where he has a stack of caps on his head.....

I can't seem to focus on anything too difficult in the evening so I am using up the extra yarn that Peg gave me and some skeins that I found in the knitting box. There were two more but they have already been mailed to my sister to give to friends of hers..................

This is a fun pattern and I am enjoying using up the skeins that are here. I will take the small balls left to make mittens................

Just a Wee Bit of Upkeep...

I wasn't happy with the arrangement of the studio....... It felt too messy, maybe because it was messy looking even though on some level it was reasonably organized.

I had two areas that were stacked high with boxes and baskets....... I moved the scrap bins from under the cutting table and added them to the other three that were lined up along the wall after I removed the stack of bags in the corner........


I brought the floor lamp upstairs which enabled me to move the lamp sitting on the sewing table. That gave me room to slide the sewing machine back and sit there and do my hand stitching........


Three stacks of tea towels on the cutting table.......... the ones on the right are all finished. The ones on the left front are embroidered and need the scallop edge stitched down. The ones behind need to be embroidered. I wonder if I really will get them done in time..................


I cleared out the baskets in the corner and put the upcoming projects there.........

And moved the baskets under the cutting table. This arrangement is not quite as unsightly as it was before.

The legs of the table have been placed in PVC pipes. They cut them for me at my local hardware store. It raises the table to the perfect height for me to cut fabric. An inexpensive way to get a table the right height and easy to take with you for a weekend retreat..............


Now I really must get started on those tea towels..................Ho ho ho

Something New...........

Peg gave me a sheet of Transfer-Eze to try.


Being frugal I managed to get more than one design on the sheet of Transfer Eze...... You know what they say.............Waste Not, Want Not...........


I cut out one of the designs.......................


Peeled it from the backing and put it on the tea towel. I tried a few stitches and it works a treat...... I will be getting more of this product.......................

Did I mention that I like to sew????????? And if I could I would spend my four days off upstairs playing???????????

There is just the two of us here and we don't really eat all that much. I have spent the day in the kitchen cooking the full Thanksgiving Day meal only to put most of in the refrigerator where we ate it for days............. One year we ate out but that was not really like Thanksgiving. So this year when Stop and Shop offered dinner for two for $25.99 I signed up.

Wednesday afternoon I went to Stop and Shop to pick up our T-day dinner......... They gave it to me in this nice insulated bag............


After spending most of the day sewing I went downstairs to "cook"...ahem....


All in nice microwaveable containers.......... 45 minutes later we had a delicious repast...... and there are leftovers for several more meals........... Thrifty and good and easy........

And Now There Are Eight.

I have eight of my pincushions made and ready to wrap. They went together faster than I thought they would. I am amazed at what I can get done when I can find time to be in the studio.



And one more finish........... A darling little baby sweater. The buttons are heart shaped. Now to get this gift wrapped...........

I seem to be on a roll but I will be slowing down a bit. The tea towels do take some time and I only have one completely finished. Four more are embroidered but the scalloped edge is not stitched down yet. And I will need to make at least 6 more of them from scratch...........

This Weekend I Tried Something New............

I saw a picture on Sentimental Quilter of a pincushion that someone had sent to Kathy as a gift. It looked like it might be fun to make for my friends..........


After a few tries I finally realized that I would need to make two squares in order to get pieces to go in opposite directions. That would mean that I would be making two at one time.


I checked out my little drawer with one inch strips.............


Dumped them on the table and got to work.


I cut two five inch squares from muslin and got to work covering them with strips



With that done I squared my block..................and cut each block into four pieces cutting each square on the diagonal..............



Sewed them together again.............


It sure is messy to be creative. I dumped some buttons on the workbench and made some selections........... I also cut some 5 inch squares for the pincushion backing.


I realized that I needed to add a border because the block I had was rather heavy with all the layers of fabric.............


Trimmed them down, stitched on the backing, added some buttons......... and voila......... Two gifts all ready to wrap.............. Now I need to make six more. I am using a 1 1/2 inch strip in the middle on these. I found that the one inch strip put the seam too close to the center.....