The Stockings Were Hung...

So last week I finally made Becca a Christmas stocking.  I saw this stocking a few weeks ago, tweaked it and made it my own.   OK, quite honestly, I couldn't figure out the directions the first two times I read it, so I just winged it.  Not exactly the same but good.  :)

When I finished, Colleen asked why Becca got a prettier stocking.  It is definitely the prettiest of the stockings.  So pretty in fact that when I first hung it up I felt a bit uncomfortable.  Like it was a stocking that would be found in a matchy-matchy-home-decor type of house - not ours.  We don't have a great place to hang the stockings, so we hang them from the window latches.  I think I actually like that better than having them on a mantle because it spreads the Christmas decorations though out the house.

So let's take a look at the other, less pretty, stockings - a journey if you will - following the development of my tastes and skills.

The red stocking on the left is mine.  It was made for me when I was a baby by my Grandma Doreen.  She knit it and it says BABE on the side.  I always thought it was cool that my stocking was super long and had bells.

On the right is the stocking I made for Brian the first year we were married.  His stocking from when he was  a kid had been eaten by the dog.  :(  I think I wanted to go for a masculine rugged country feel.  Not what I would choose today.  It is made of flannel and unlined.  Unlined?  How far we have come.  :)

This is Emily's stocking.  I made it when my husband was in graduate school.  I remember sitting on the craft store floor and setting out the pieces of felt and figuring out exactly how many I needed.  You know you're poor when you don't want to spend 25 cents on an unnecessary piece of felt.  :)

Aleah's stocking.  Still in graduate school, but with a larger stipend.  :)  Made of flannel, fleece and buttons.  The back side has snowflakes made out of white buttons.  I must have had a lot of time that year.  I still really love this stocking.

Colleen's stocking.  Ok, she did get the short end of the stick.  When I was in college, my roommate's mom made each of us a stocking one Christmas and I hung onto mine.  One year Emily decided that she didn't like her stocking.  (She was a real pill about it.)  So I cut off the cuff of the stocking that said my name on it and replaced it with the red cuff.  When Colleen was old enough to need a stocking I already had this one and she liked it so...  that's just what she got.  A hand-me-down stocking.  If it was ugly I would feel sorrier for her, but it is totally cute.  I might applique on a big C on the heal to dress it up a bit though.

Kate's stocking was made a bit before I did the Crazy Quilt Along.  Can you tell?  I really like all the reds, the polka dots and the touch of green rick-rack.  So that is our stocking journey.

It snowed a few days ago and is starting to snow again.  Snow is so much prettier than dead grass.  :)   I hope you all have a great Christmas!

Kate's Music

A few days ago we were in the car and I let Kate choose the radio station.  As I flipped through the stations, here is what she said:

50's Music
- No, too silly.

Classical
- Too quiet.

Country
- Too farm-y.
- Too what?
- Too farm-y.

Turns out she likes 80's and 90's punk/grunge bands.
Red Hot Chile Peppers was on and she was a fan.

Flanges! a tutorial for making a flanged binding

I LOVE Flanges!   I have been making a bunch of pillows for Christmas presents and find that I want to use a flange on every. single. one.  Flanges - a narrow flap of fabric - put on a quilt right before binding can make the binding really pop.  I love the look of the double narrow border that a flange makes.  It looks totally tricky and cool, but is soooo easy.  Let me show you.

Make your quilt/pillow and quilt as desired.  Trim the edges like you would before binding.

Cut out four 1" strips of fabric that are a bit longer than each side of your pillow/quilt.  Fold them in half and press.

Take one strip and lay the unfinished edges along the edge of your quilt/pillow.  Zigzag along the edge.  Make sure you are right on the edge so the stitching doesn't show when you put on the binding.

For the next side simply zigzag another strip to the quilt along the edge.  The ends will overlap like so.

Trim off any extra fabric.

At this point it should look like this.

Next attach the binding as usual.  When you pull back the binding you will see about a 1/4" of flange fabric along the edge.  LOVE!!!  Some people choose to top stitch the flange down along the loose edge, but I don't feel it is necessary.

You can also add a flange along the edge of a quilt top before you add the final border.  This gives you a narrow interior border without having to try to sew a 3/4" piece of fabric along the edge. (shudder)

I personally like to have the interior flange be the same color as the binding.  I think it looks nice that way but they could be different colors too.

Let me say it one more time:  I Love Flanges!  Blessings on the heads of the older ladies at the quilt store who showed me how to make one eight years ago.  How about you?  Have you ever used a flange in quilting?

(And is it just me or does flange sound like a bad word?)

Double Wedding Ring Christmas Wreath

Well, here it is.  The only Double Wedding Ring that I am ever likely to make.  :)  No, it wasn't really that bad, but it certainly is time intensive.  I threw around a few ideas for the DWR Challenge, but this is the one that stuck.  A ring in solid greens and and a red bow.

  I did a tiny stipple on the white and quilted leaves on the greens.  It was my first time doing leaves but it won't be my last.  I love how they look and they are pretty forgiving.  I am loving the flange binding too!  I want to do double bindings on everything these days.  :)

I made the back so it can work as a pillow or a wall hanging.   I am entering it in the DWR Challenge Small Category.  There are a bunch of great single rings over there, check them out!

Zipper Pouches

I taught a class this month at our church's Christmas Craft Night.  I am a firm believer that everyone should sew ;) so I suggested making zipper pouches as one of the activities.   I based them off of The Circle Zip Ear Bud Pouch - except that we used a 5x7 piece of fabric, no batting and zig zagged around the inside seam instead of  top stitching around the edges.

Here are two zipper pouches made by a mother and daughter team.  Love them!  They even went back and made a second set of pouches.   I love the bright contrasting zippers and pop of color on the inside.  Perfect for crayons, cars, IPods and all your special stuff.  The only bad part was that I missed out on taking the Learn How to Knit class. :(   But that is probably a good thing.   Goodness knows I don't need another hobby.  ;)

I have been trucking away at making Christmas pillows, quilt and tree skirt but things slowed down when I ran into trouble with my machine.  $%^#?^!  I was very frustrated with it, but we seem to be doing better.  Note to the wise:  when oiling your machine be careful not to get oil on the belts.  Not good.

Hope you are having a great weekend and can find some time to sew!  :)

Giveaway Winner, Branching Out and a Bit Nerdy

Lee Peters is the lucky winner of the beautiful rainbow fat quarter bundle!  I have emailed her to let her know.  Thank you soooo much for all the love and great recipe ideas.  I am going to come back to that post if ever I can't think of something to cook.  :)

I need to apologize.  The new Yahoo Mail format has thrown me for a loop.  It bundles all of the post comments in one email, which is nice so they don't take up the whole inbox, but it was hard for me to respond and keep track of who I had responded back to because my responses were put at the bottom of the list.  Then someone responded back and I didn't see her message for days and just now as I emailed Lee I saw a little link that said "25 more" and there were 25 more comments that I hadn't seen!!!  So if I didn't respond you might have been one of those 25.  Sorry.  I read all the comments as they appeared on the blog - it was easier  :) - and I truly appreciated every one.

This last week I branched out from quilting.  My friend Julie makes some awesome crocheted hats (check out her etsy site) and I have been bugging her for months to teach me how.  So with the cold weather coming, I finally went over.  I know how to do basic crochet, but can't really follow a pattern.  She sat by me and gave me step-by-step instructions as I made the purple owl hat.  I love it!  The girls all loved it too and each placed an order for their own owl hat.  I made the base of the blue/green hat (all by myself !) and just need to add the extras.  I also made a coordinating scarf.  I used a larger hook and double crocheted (DC for those in-the-know) a strand of blue and green at the same time.  It is super thick and warm.

So last Friday, my husband and I went out to dinner with another couple.  So fun!  I brought my yarn with me because I thought there might be a wait and figured I could work on the scarf at the restaurant.  As we waited for our meals to come, I reached into my bag to pull it out.  Then I stopped.  I looked around and thought, "This is going to be really weird if I pull this out.  No one else is crocheting...maybe I shouldn't."  Then I felt rather ashamed of myself for feeling embarrassed about my hobby.  Goodness, my husband and friends know I crochet and it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.  For the record, I don't think one should pull out a knitting project on a first date ;) or if it will distract you from participating in a social situation, but that was not the case here.  So I pulled it out and got a few more rows on the scarf finished before our meal came.

Have you ever felt odd/embarrassed/nerdy because of quilting/sewing/crocheting/knitting?

Too Sweet For Words

This afternoon my girls' friend A___-across-the-street (yes, that's what we call her) came over with a present for my girls.  Three little rag quilts!  My girls were tickled pink to have their own special quilt made by their favorite A___-across-the-street and  I was beyond touched.  I think only a quilter really understands the effort goes into making a quilt.

So I decided to interview seven year-old A____-across-the-street about her quilts.  (Pictures and interview posted with permission from her mom.)  I love kid interviews.  :)

Me - Why did you decided to make these quilts?

A - My mom had the idea because she wanted to make quilts and she promised me we could make them.

Me - So you made them together?

A - We made them nights we had free when I wasn't doing stuff.

Me - How did you decide on the colors?

A - My mom bought some gingerbread men fabric because we are going to make some for Christmas presents and she thought it would be nice to make some for the neighbors too.

Me - What was the funnest part?

A - Clipping the edges.

Me - Did you get to use the sewing machine?

A - Yes.

Me - Is there anything else you want to tell me about the quilts?

A - No.

A quilter in the making!  (and a new quilting friend across the street?)  I can't wait to get the quilts in the wash and all frayed up and fuzzy.

Thank you!!

Three Years, 250 Posts and a Giveaway

Yes, this is going to be the giveaway prize,
but first you have to suffer though some rambling and self introspection.  :)
Just keep scrolling down and down and down.

This is my 250th post!  And my first post was three years ago this month so it is time to celebrate with a giveaway!.    It seems bizarre that five years ago I didn't even know there were such things as quilting blogs and now, for better or worse, this blog and other quilt blogs are a significant part of my life.  I have spent a lot of time recently wondering if I am putting too much time into this quilting/blog thing.  Am a keeping a good family/quilt balance?  Am I driving my husband nuts with all the fabric strewn all over the house?  ;)

As I put together this post I realized the highlights of my blogging journey were when I was sharing and teaching.  I like to teach.  I love teaching "live" classes and I enjoy blogging and sharing how I make stuff.  It is extremely rewarding for me to have someone make something I wrote a tutorial for or say in a comment that they learned something.  I believe that teaching, sharing and connecting with others is a worthy thing, so I will keep piling fabric around the house.  :)

Humor me for a moment as we go on a trip down memory lane...

About 5 months after my first post I wrote my first tutorial for the Diamond Quilt.  I love the Diamond Quilt and I am currently using the tutorial to make a tree skirt.  (I've got to get sewing!)

A year later, I did several tutorials for The Moda Bake Shop.  (Amish Braid, Simple Drawstring Bag, Charming Christmas Ornaments and a Reversible Child's Apron.)  In the same spirit of sharing I wrote a post about the experience of becoming a "Moda Chef."  I had been pretty clueless/intimidated about the process and hoped by posting about my experience other people would feel more comfortable taking the plunge and applying to be a chef.

The most significant thing I have done on this blog is host the We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler.  Over a year of quilt block tutorials - 36 in all!  I have to admit that there were some weeks I thought "why am I doing this?" but it was totally worth it.  I learned Tons and I loved seeing everyone's blocks on our flicker group.   And the group is still active!  There are some people who recently found the sampler and are posting pictures of their blocks.  Yea!!

Blogging is all about sharing something you love with others who have the same passion.  Thank you so much for reading!  I love this space and the quilting community!

So at last, to celebrate 3 years and 250 posts I would like to share 10 fat quarters of some of my favorite prints - a rainbow assortment and some neutrals.  I even threw in some brown, a nod to Alison and her tireless promotion of brown.  ;)

1. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment.
2. If you follow the blog (thank you!), leave a second comment suggesting a good recipe.  I have been in a cooking rut recently.  I have a ton of ground pork/sausage in my freezer.  Any ideas?

I will ship anywhere and will pick a winner a week from today on the 6th of November.

Thanks again!

Giveaway Closed....

My Tree Quilt

I posted a quick picture of this quilt in July before I rushed it to the fair but it is past time that it got it's own official post.  I think I have a thing with improvisationally pieced tree quilts.  This is #4. 

Here are three others that I have made.  The one on the top left and the one with the green border were made from bee blocks that I received in 2011.  Looking at all the quilts all together makes me realize that I really like the thin brown border - I think I should have added one to this quilt too - oh, well...

It wasn't all same-o-same-o though.  There were a few new things that I tried with this quilt.  First, the blocks aren't arranged in a grid like in the other quilts.  It made it a bit more of a challenging to piece, but I think I like the look.

maple

leila

I also quilted it with the names of trees.  I marked horizontal lines three inches apart on the quilt and then just started "writing."  It takes a lot of tree names to fill up a quilt!  My husband came up with trees that I didn't even know existed.

By the end I totally ran out of tree names and wrote the names of my children on one line.

I also used quilting to label my quilt.  On the very bottom, I quilted "made by leila gardunia july 2013 h____ iowa."  I think I may label all of my quilts this way from now on.  It's not super easy to read, but a quilt historian would be able to figure it out.  Plus I wouldn't have to worry about making a label.  :)

Poplars

Pine

Some of my favorite blocks.  Although I am rather fond of the cut down tree too.  :)

On our walk back from the photo shoot we saw plenty of other pretty trees.  I love fall.

I am linking up with the Blogger's Quilt Festival and entering My Tree Quilt in the throw quilt category.  Head on over to see lots of cool quilts!

PS. My next post is my 250th and I have been blogging for 3 years this month!  You may want to check in later this week.  ;)

Do You Ever Wonder...

...if you should have a home decor/diy type of blog?  I wonder if I would get more done around the house if I was motivated to finish painting/peeling wallpaper/organizing closets/washing dishes so I could post cool before and after pictures about it.  ;)  Instead I sit and work on English paper piecing in the evenings.  I am working on a bunch of Christmas pillows right now - way more relaxing than peeling wallpaper.  I never wonder if I should have a "kid" blog.  Blogs are breaks from kids.

...how people seem to do "everything?"  I know they don't, but I always seem to be biting off more than I can chew and then wondering why I am making myself stressed.

Case in point, my "does-anyone-want to-sew-along-and-make-a-tree-skirt-post".   I don't know what I was smoking when I wrote that.   A "real" quilt along would be way more than I could handle at this time, but at the same time I would LOVE to sew along with other people.  So here is a happy medium idea: if you would like to follow the original instructions for the Diamond Quilt and post pictures in my new-fancy-dancy Sewn By... flickr group then we could all cheer each other on and I could answer any questions you might have about the quilt.  And it could all be done without having a nervous breakdown.  :)

Linking up!  Hop on over to see some great EPP projects!