Toting around An Irish Chain.

 I did not have a plan for this week's Challenge at Persimon Dreams Blog. I thought about it for a while and decided to sew this Nine Patch Tote Charise Creates. I have had this tote pattern for quite a long time, but have not sewn it. Totes are so useful.  I do believe the front resembles an Irish Chain.

For the back I chose this cute animals in the forest print.

And, of course, I had to add a "Happiness is Homemade" label. 

Now I have a cute and fun tote bag for my excursions.  Thanks to Kim and Trish for all of these challenges this year. I am happy to say that I have completed all of the challenges this year. 

Cookies and Quilts - what could get any better?

 The Virtual Cookie Exchange is here. I will start off with the cookies, Yum! I love the Sugar Cookies recipe that a friend from work gave to me. I made one batch. They are a soft cookie with cream cheese icing. 

Christmas Cookie Cutter Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups confection sugar                                2 1/ C flour

1 C butter, softened                                            1 tsp baking soda

1 egg                                                                    1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond flavoring

Cream sugar and butter. Mix in egg and flavorings. Blend in dry ingredients. Refrigerate 2-3 hours. Divide dough in half and roll out on floured surface to desired thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes and place on lightly-greased baking sheet. Bake until delicately golden - baking time depends on thickness of cookie. Approximately 8 minutes. Can sprinkle sugar on before baking. Or let cool and ice with cream cheese icing. 

I have had this tea towel with a Sugar Cookie recipe on it for quite a while. It has not been used and needed some prettying up. The tea towel started out like this. Just rather large and not so fun or delicious-looking. 

I trimmed it down to a smaller size and added some 2 1/2" squares - well, just because... It now looks like this.  I probably won't use this too often to dry the dishes because once it gets used, it will quickly become not-so-pretty. This should brighten up my kitchen a little just by hanging it over my oven handle.

On to my quilt project. I received the fabric and pattern from The Sweetwater Company for this table topper. I really just loved how the pattern had all of these Christmas trees on it. The rectangles are from a charm pack, plus some are cut from yardage. I made a plastic template from the tree pattern and cut them all out.

Christmas tree table topper

The Christmas trees are appliqued onto the rectangles. I used the blanket stitch on my sewing machine. The white fabric has little dots of snow on it, which I liked. It's hard to see in the photos, but some of the fabric in the charm packs, like this black-colored one, have snow, also.

The back is some Christmas fabric that I had purchased as a bolt end. It was good to be able to just cut a piece off and use it. It's a little time-saving when you don't have to piece a quilt back. This quilt is approximately 35" x 35" so it worked out good using the width of fabric.

In addition to my quilt, I made some Lined drawstring bags to use for wrapping gifts. I wanted to use these panels for the bags so they are a larger-sized bag. I had framed the panels and then followed the directions.  

Thanks for joining along on my Virtual Cookie Exchange. Please visit all of the bloggers shown below. I'm sure there are many wonderful cookie recipes and Christmas quilts!

Thanks to Carol at Just Let Me Quilt for hosting this great Blog Hop.   

DECEMBER 4

Just Let Me Quilt

Inflorescence

Songbird Designs

Words & Stitches

DesertSky Quilting

Quilting Gail

Days Filled With Joy

A Quiltery-For the Love of Geese

 DECEMBER 5

Selina Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Karrin’s Crazy World

Quilt Schmilt

Domestic Felicity

Happy Cottage Quilter

Nettie Sews and Lucky Quilts

DECEMBER 6

Hill Valley Quilter

Beaquilter

Crazy'boutquilts

Bumbleberry Stitches

That Fabric Feeling

Homespun Hannah's Blog

 DECEMBER 7

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilt Doodle Designs

Quilted Snail

Sew Many Yarns

Just Sew Quilter

The Life of Grammy

Gifts for my sister's 60th Birthday.

 When considering gifts for my sister's birthday this year, I looked through the quilt tops that I had completed. Most of them were seasonal or whatever, not really a nice throw-size quilt top. So I did decide on a top that I had sewn from Rollin' Along. I had sewn the cover quilt sometime through this past year. I was pleased with how it came out and it did need to be quilted and finished up.

Sometime while finishing this quilt, I decided to sew a gift bag to hold the quilt. I have made quite a few of these Lined drawstring bags. The laundry bag size fits a throw-size quilt very well. It probably can fit a queen-sized quilt. I wouldn't necessarily do this much piecing on a bag for myself, because it did become a little bit tedious. For a gift, though, it is fun. Plus I used up quite a bit more jelly roll strips. My sister can store the quilt in this bag and put it in the closet when not using it.

In addition, the thought came to me to make a mini quilt with a cupcake for her birthday. I like how the cupcake came out, too. I think I managed to hurry up and zap this out in a day. This cupcake quilt block was in one of my magazines from when Quiltmaker put out the 100 Quilt Blocks magazine. 

I do enjoy these labels that I purchase from Sweetwater . I receive monthly labels with my name to label my quilts. This Happy Birthday one was purchased separately.  I thought it added a nice touch.

Laundry is fun!

For the Project Quilting Challenge #14.3 , I looked up the Generations quilt block, for my 54-40 or Fight block. I used their paper-piecing pattern which worked out good. Then I decided to add the block to this Laundry bag.

I have made quite of few of these Lined drawstring bags. This one will work out good for storing a whole quilt. When we go camping, I may bring it along for packing the dirty clothes. I used scraps leftover from this quilt.

Threadology Front

Completed back

Completed in 2020. Clearly, I still used the 2019 label.

I do use this quilt quite a bit on my couch. It is a good size that I can just throw over myself if I get cold. Couch quilts are a necessity. 

It was awesome that I won a drawing for the 2nd challenge. I won these fabrics from Electric Needle.

They also gave me a 3 pins. I always enjoy some sarcasm.

Thanks for the challenge. We do not know what Challenge 14.4 will be.

Drawstring bag delivered in the snow.

The 13th season of Project Quilting at Persimon Dreams Blog is starting off the New Year of 2022. Here is my first project for All the Colors Challenge:

I used Jeni Baker's pattern at In Color Order. This is a fairly good-sized drawstring bag that I could use for my hair dryer and curling iron, possibly. Or who knows whatever else. I'm trying to use up some older fabric that I've had for years.  Enjoying our first snow for 2022.

First Challenge completed. Linking up to: Challenge 13.1

Yeah! Some finishes for May 2020

I am so glad that I finished this quilt as my OMG for May. Granted, I chose a very small goal this month; however, if I had not chosen it, I might not have worked on it.

Four Star Spring Quilt

Back

I quilted this quilt in the circular pattern. I swear, I will NEVER do that again: #1 I kept getting puckers on the front and the back - how annoying. Some swear words might have been said in the process.  #2 When this thing was done and washed, it does not lay flat! It bubbles up in places. And #3 I really did not enjoy forcing this under my machine in order to quilt the circles. Well, chock it up to experience.

I have been participating in the #miniseriessal so I wanted to show my finishes for this, also. The paper-pieced blocks are tiny and they do sometimes take quite a bit of time to sew. I liked a few of the blocks and I disliked a few of the blocks. But I did get them all done.

If you completed all 8 blocks and sewed all 8 blocks into one or more completed projects, then you receive a finisher pin. Well, of course, I have to have the pin. These are my finished projects that I got done just in time to upload my photos for the pin.

Above the door quilt

This is a quilt using 3 of the blocks. I have just kind of taped it above my kitchen door. I will hang it better once I get something to better to hang it with.

I sewed 2 pin cushions. These were different fabric than the others and of course, I always need another pin cushion.

I sewed these lined drawstring bags using Jeni Baker's Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern. I do like how they came out and may use them for gift bags down the road.

Lastly, I sewed this mug run/coaster. I didn't know what else to make with the block and frankly, I was getting tired. So I just chose to add a small border, quilt it and bind it. I am linking my finishes to Elm Street Quilts OMG for May.

Sending my Baby Shower gift through UPS

Since the baby shower that I was invited to in April had gotten canceled, I am now sending my gifts by UPS. First I completed this quilt:

I had started working on it when I received the invitation in the mail. This is a panel that came with a grouping of fat quarters. I had the panel left over, so I thought I would try to use it for a quilt. So I added the piecing and borders. I hope the new Mom likes it. Here is the back:

I had purchased the walking animals to add to the fabric that I had. I tried to get it all centered. Sometimes I am not the greatest at getting the back to look centered and nice.

I, also, sewed this basket. When I wrapped the items to be delivered, I put a whole container of Huggies Diapers in the basket. I should have taken a picture, because it is nice how the basket fits all of the Huggies. Plus, it makes the basket sturdy so it won't get all squashed in the box.

Of course, we always have some leftover fabric, so I sewed these burp cloths:

I like to sew a seam breaking them in thirds so that they are easy to fold when they come out of the wash.

Lastly, I sewed this little toy for little hands.

The new Mom was registered at Target and it appears that she has received a lot of the requested items. She had selected some zoo animals for sheets and other items. So I'm hoping that these items will fit with the baby's nursery. I will be sending my package UPS today.
I am linking to Elm Street April OMG since the quilt was my goal for April. Here is my: original April post.

Also, posting to From Bolt to Beauty Pageant

A few purple sews.

Looking back through my photos, I have come to realize that I have sewn a few purple items. However, they really are not current items. In addition, they really are not being used at present. These have been completed in years past. Sarah Goer quilts is hosting a monthly link up and January's link up is Show me something Purple. 

This is a wall hanging that I purchased in a kit, from Keepsake Quilting, when I first started quilting. I discovered that I really did not know what I was doing and I didn't particularly care for fusible applique. It sat in a drawer for a while until I finished it. However, it is still not hanging on a wall anywhere. It is Oregano in bloom and I do love oregano plants.

In addition, I have sewn this purple pouch a number of years ago. It was a gift for my Sister-in-law and she did like it at the time. Not sure if she is using it now.

And my final purple item is this bag that I made when I was sewing bags. I have gotten away from sewing bags as much because they chew up a lot of my time. Plus, you cannot just throw them in the washing machine like a quilt.

Seeing this photo reminded me of the trouble I had sewing the top where the spotted fabric meets the binding. I either printed the pattern incorrectly or something because I had to make tiny pleats in order to get it to fit. I did use this for a while, though.

I guess I need to look through my stash and sew some new purple items. Either that or buy some new stash of purples. 

Q3 Finish-A-Long: Gingham Tote Completed

This is my 2nd finish for Q3 Finish-A-Long. I completed this Gingham Tote that is in Noodlehead's  "Handmade Style" book. I have been using it now for a month or so and I really do like it.

Here is my Original post for Q3 goals. It is #18 on my original list. I am linking this finish to Capitola Quilter Q3 Finishes