Something About Nothing

Another set of stamps from left over bits for Day 7 of Carve December. These leftovers are from the Celtic knot stamp.  I thought they could be little evergreen Christmas trees. My daughter thought they looked like mountains.   I decided to try her idea out first: Yup, cute little mountains! But they also make cute trees when you add a few more little bits to them. I carved a star, and lots of little presents and added more details with a micron pen. The little bits are pretty wonky but they do a nice job!

My oldest daughter and her group of friends dubbed themselves The Anderson Family while in high school.  They have long since graduated and went about the world serving LDS missions, going to college, graduating, getting jobs, getting married and starting families - not necessarily in that order nor have they all done all of those things.  Through these years they have stayed in touch and every Christmas they have a family party in which my daughter and the "Mom" of the family give each member a lovely homemade gift with The Anderson Family logo   on them.  This year they wanted to create a Christmas tree ornament.   I suggested that we start with a ready made ornament and add some vinyl using my Silhouette Portrait electronic cutter.  I bought vinyl when I bought the machine but have been scared to try it.  I'm really sorry I haven't tried it sooner.   IT WAS SO EASY! I started with their family logo: Set it up in the software for ...

I received a little surprise in the mail this past weekend. . . . . .the latest issue of Quilting Arts Gifts   which contains all kinds of yummy patterns for holiday Gifts. My friend Candy's pattern made the cover! Wahoo Candy! There are a lot of creative items to make in this issue.  I am always excited to see the great ideas people come up with!  And this time I was very excited to see that one of  my Gift Tags made it into the Gift Tag Challenge pages. . . (blue snowflake by the arrow!) . . .and my Ghostly Trio Banner pattern was publish! Wahoo! There is also a bonus online pattern for a Jack'o lantern variation, and another bonus of holiday cookie recipes that anyone can download here . This coming in the mail reminds me that there are only about 3 1/2 months until Christmas!   Gah!  I should start my Christmas making!   Have you already started? You haven't?  Well maybe a copy of Quilting Arts Gifts wi...

We are having our Christmas Dinner today so I'm baking and wrapping and remembering people I should have bought gifts for. Maybe I can make a few last minute things. I've noticed a few great websites I need right now and thought you all might need them as well:   1) Gift Wrapping - Over the past few years we have been trying to cut back on the paper wrapping paper heading off to the recycler and dump by wrapping with fabric. I've found this wonderful website that shows you how to wrap with fabric according to the Japanese style of Furoshiki. 2. I've had the Little Bit Funky blog up for the last week wanting to make these lip balm cozy's to put in my kids stockings. 3.  I also had plans to make a few of these circle zip ear bud pouches but my first one turned out a little wonky and I forgot to put the tag on until I was almost done so I placed it in a different spot.  Ooops!   I'll go back to making more eventually.  Maybe these could be V...

We pulled out the Christmas decorations this week and I was reminded of where I started as a quilter and how far I have come.   In the 1970's - I Tied quilts - it was all I knew and it was quick and easy work!  (I was very young) Early 1980's - I learned to hand quilt and hand piece.  I struggled and it took an eternity to finish a project. Late 1980's -  I had moved on to machine piecing and heard about machine quilting. I gave it a try.  No lessons.  I was terrible.  I didn't know to baste A LOT and I used polyester fluffy batting. Yikes. 1990's - I went back to tying or more often than not - no quilting projects at all.  It was a time of tole painting and making clothing for the kid-a-lees.   It was cheap to make clothing then. In the early 2000's I joined a local quilt guild at the urging of my friend, Lorraine.  The ladies were kind and so willing to share their knowledge with poor little me. Little did I realize they woul...

The presents are open, the special treats are eaten, the decorations are packed away and now the last of the children has left to go back to school. The holiday's are officially over. Time to clean. . .  *Sniffle, sniffle* Excuse me while I go get a tissue on my way to the sewing room.

I'm attempting to complete my Christmas sewing  but there is a cat who thinks the world revolves around him. I did manage to get 99% of my challenge quilt completed.  Just the binding is left.  I will post photos once the judging is done next week. I've also cut out 70% of the 40 Produce Bags that need to be made and started sewing them.  Now if I could just get my friend's embroidery machine to cooperate I could get my daughter's fleece blanket project done.

I love when I finish a homemade Christmas gift. . . and there is nothing like finishing a gift just 15 minutes before you are scheduled to give it!  Wahoo! Such was the case today with a quilt I made for our good friends who happen to also be our neighbors. Elmo enjoyed his new toy - not handmade but enjoyable all the same. And Dawn and Marco loved their quilt. I forgot to get a close up of the quilting. There are leaves quilted in the white portions. And the back is a Kaffe print that I love. When asked what they did to help Mom with the quilt my daughters responded truthfully. . . "We stayed out of her way." And now that the sewing is done it's time to bake!

I saw a great project on the Mod Podge Rocks website which I thought my two youngest would love to make for friend gifts.  Turns out one thought it was fabulous and the other wanted to be on the computer. What a surprise. Those of us who liked the project had a great time. I found these great little frames for 50% off at the local craft store. We scraped off the Christmas bit and modge podged cute paper on top. We really made a big mess. These are a few of the nine my daughter made (glue still a little wet). And here are the five I made. What are you making this Christmas?

I've been a bit absent in the blogsphere because I've been busy shopping as well as making presents for Christmas and some of those gifts are for people who read my blog.  I wouldn't want to give away any secrets.  However, I just finished one project I can actually share because it's for me and I already gave it to myself so it's no longer a secret! I think I may have to make more of these for other holidays.  Perhaps even one to replace the cardboard Happy Birthday sign that has been hanging in my kitchen for the past 5 years.  If anyone is interested in learning how to make one of these I can write up a tutorial and post it here.  They make up very quickly.  Just drop me a line and let me know.

It is getting to be that time of year where I need to really get my act in gear for Christmas if I truely want to make gifts.  I love sharing the things I make but as the items are gifts for the people who read my blog (well they look at the pictures actually - they rarely read what I write so I could tell all about the projects and not just post pictures ;)), I can't really share anything.  However I do have something to share that may be of interest.  I've run across a couple of blogs with great gift ideas and I thought others might want to check them out to get some great ideas: Chickpea Studio - My friend Juliette is very creative and posts fun projects to her blog. She has a list of tutorials down the side of her blog with fun projects.  She and also writes tutorials for Berninas Sewing Republic. I've made her key wristlets and crocheted baskets. She also has a great tutorial for a fold up, take along crumb catcher to put underneath a high chair....

Are you thinking about Christmas yet? I made this perfect little Petunia Pig (pattern by Melly & Me ) for Whimsy the other day and decided to get her ready for Christmas because the Christmas fabrics have started arriving. That's right, if you want to avoid the "oh my, it's two minutes until Christmas and I haven't made the (fill in name of project here) for (fill in name of favored person here) yet!!!" then you had better get busy. NOW!

Christmas Past 1987 Mamaw, my darling husband, Me, J and Mom (oh and Babycakes the cat) Lets see how we can tell it's the 80's in this photo: Look at the very large lenses on every one's glasses, the stonewashed jeans, my curly hair style, my wild shirt phase and of course the fact that it was J's first Christmas and he is now 22. Here is Sistah looking hot and skinny. And my loving mother spoiled us this year with our very first VCR! I can trace many things back to this first VCR, namely my darling husbands aversion to electronics, and J's addiction to watching movies over and over. My darling husband left me to figure out how to hook up this first VCR while he was busy with school, and the pattern has continued. Every new electronic gadget we receive is my responsibility, and he feigns ignorance, kind of like my ignorance of how to clean an oven - we could do it if we took the time to figure it out but why bother when our spouse will do it. As a child J lov...

Sunday nights seem to be my night to attempt a plan for the week ahead. I can often overwhelm myself with all I want to accomplish in the upcoming week and so I decided that perhaps I would write a "to do" list, however sometimes my these lists can be a little overwhelming. I decided that I should write an "I Did" list instead. A list that will help me to remember that I did more than just get out of bed last week. Here goes: I Did . . . read the Scriptures with my daughters every morning (wahoo). . . . walk my daughters to school every morning, and picked them up a couple days. . . . pick up my daughters and all their friends in the van one day because it was still pouring rain when school got out. . . . went to an Enrichment meeting at church and heard all about gratitude, for which I am grateful : D because I really have A LOT to be grateful for. . . . pick up my paycheck and of course I had to buy a piece of fabric while I was there, but I needed i...

Circles are fun. Who hasn't enjoyed a game of ring-around-the-rosy in their life at least once, or maybe played with a hoola-hoop. Circles are also yummy, like the doughnuts that my girls and I made last night. Circles are serious too. Teachers like to use them with red ink to emphasis something you did wrong on a test, or to bring attention to the fact that you received a big fat F on same said test, or maybe an A, or a perfectly acceptable C. Circles are also symbolic. Stonehenge is built in a circle and people have been arguing about what these stones represent for many years. Wedding rings are circular and represent the commitment that a man and woman have made to one another. Often though, especially on Sunday afternoons, circles at our house mean that the sale ads have been scoured by the children. They will spend a few hours perusing the sale ads and circling all they would like to have. They want to make sure that Mom knows exactly what they like and think they should be al...