Joy In The New Year Challenge

Jacquie at TallgrassPrairieStudio issued a challenge again last year to help us finish up some things before the end of the year.



For some reason, I can't get the photo of the table runner to be in the collage, so here is a link to that finish.

I finished only 7 of my 8 projected projects for this challenge. I knew that I needed to have all of them finished by Christmas or the end of the year, and the only one not finished by midnight on December 31st, was finished yesterday afternoon and it is Elizabeth's 1st birthday quilt. More on that one later today after her party.

Coffee Table Runner

After I finished quilting for customers yesterday, it was time to do one of my gifts. I quilted and sewed the binding on this 52x27 Christmas Star table runner, a gift for my co-worker Margaret. She shares a love of coffee with me and I knew she would appreciate it.



Hobbs 80/20 batting, Camel Permacore thread and the Swirls Circle Lord template made this a less than an hour quilting job.

Are You Sick of my Bindings Yet?

Saturday, at our guild sewing day, I stitched the binding on Vicci's block of the month quilt, so it's ready for the hand stitching. One more quilt for Vicci, after this one, and then hers will be finished.



I changed direction yesterday and quilted this little snowman panel for a christmas throw gift and started stitching the binding last night.

Cute, Cute, Cute!

That's what I say about these little things I created tonight.

A good friend is expecting her first baby in February, a girl, and we are having lunch tomorrow. I just had to have a Christmas gift, or two, for baby Maddie. I put together these "designer" burb cloths. They are just a prefolded cloth diaper with a cute fabric strip and some trim on both long sides. Aren't they darling?



Then a little bib for Maddie. I know she won't be wearing this for quite a while, but I want to be sure she knows she's a princess.



Then I made some more burb cloths for our grandson who will be born in March in Colorado. Do these fabrics look familiar? The are the leftovers from his giraffe quilt.



I washed all the fabrics and the diapers before I started and every one of the diapers looks like this on the ends.



Of course, Miss Elizabeth will need a new bib for Christmas, so I made this for her.



I also had the embroidery machine going while I was working...making 2 quilt labels for friends. It was a busy night and I suppose I should have been quilting or sewing binding, but I felt the need to be creative.

Dora Flannel

On Friday I got an email saying that the Blue Star Mothers group was providing some Christmas for 2 children who's dad is deployed. One of them is a four year old girl who likes Dora and her mom asked for a blanket. Well, I didn't have any Dora fabric, but Joann's did and it is flannel, so it's very, very soft. I assembled the top on Friday evening and loaded it and started the quilting. I finished the quilting last night and did the binding today. Then, I decided that she needed a pillowcase to match. They are both washed, dried and ready to go the the Blue Star Moms Cookie Brigade this evening.




I baked about 8 dozen cookies this morning to take also. I didn't mix them, just took them out of the plastic tubs and baked them. I do just love those fundraising tubs of cookie dough.

2 More Giraffes Quilted

Last night I loaded and quilted a giraffe quilt that Janet made for her new grandson, Krayden. She had baby shower attendees write a wish and/or a thought for the family. We printed them on Printed Treasures fabric and she placed them in the inner border. What a cute idea, huh?



Here's the back, which is actually a very pretty dark blue flannel.




I used Square spiral panto by Keryn Emmerson, white permacore thread and Hobbs poly batting on this one.

Here is my 2nd Giraffe quilt, made for my stepson Cory's soon-to-be baby boy. I loaded and quilted it this evening.



I used Warm & Natural batting, white PermaCore thread and the square Spiral also.


And the back, a Peter rabbit toile print.

Another Purdue Wall Hanging & Another Bag

Here's my design wall tonight:



I got this sewn together on Saturday and did the quilting this morning. I still have to hand stitch the binding, but it should be ready to take to Julie's on Thursday, to give to Jerri.

This afternoon I made another Charm Party bag. This one is for a co-worker to give to her mom for Christmas. It's all done also, so I think this was a pretty productive weekend.




I also made 2 batches of Biscotti, which was a first for me and I think it turned out wonderful. I'm sending some to Jeff and giving some as christmas gifts. I coated about 12 dozen pretzels with chocolate yesterday also. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....