Mugs Rugs Made Into Pot Holders

    I found a cute mug rug pattern at Quilt Addicts Anonymous, link here.  The pattern is free, but you do have to put it in a cart to get the download.  

    I enjoyed making these tree blocks.  I used Christmas fabric I already had and muslin for the background, but I did buy two yards of the green fabric I used for the borders, backing and binding.  They finish at 8" before binding, so I added 1.5" borders to them to make them a little bigger for potholders.  I put two layers of cotton batting in my potholders with a layer of insul-brite in the between the cotton batting.  I like the scrappy trees, but I really like the tree where I used the Christmas light fabric on the entire tree.  That is my favorite.  I made seven of these potholders.  Three for me, three for dear daughter, and I sent one up to my sweet big brother who is always looking out for me.

I have more fabric cut to make more of these blocks for a wallhanging.  So that's what I'm doing in January, making home decor items for Christmas 2021.

Finally Found A Use For Something I Wasn't Using By Painting It

 Last December I bought this very small two tiered tray from Amazon.  I thought I could decorate it for various holidays, but when I got it and it was so small (about 12" high all together) I couldn't decide what to do with it and I put it away.  Last week I was baking and painting some pine cones to use in my Christmas decorating and I thought the pine cones would look nice in a red bowl but I don't have a red bowl, so I went looking around the house for something to put the pine cones in or on and found the tied tray.

I thought I might paint it red for the holidays but painting it navy blue to go with my kitchen curtains would be better and I could still decorate it for all the holidays.  I sanded and painted the trays navy blue and put a blue gingham bow on it.  It's a great place for small holiday decorations.

One More Valentine Decoration

   I like to hang garlands from two set of spotlights in my ceiling for holidays and seasons.  It's a great way to keep decorations from prying kitty noses and paws.  I found some ultra cute red gingham hearts at Hobby Lobby yesterday and I had to have them to make a garland for Valentine's Day (even though they were not on sale).

   These hearts needed loops and I know the easy way would be to get some red ribbon and glue that to the hearts, but I don't have any pretty red ribbon, so today at 5:00 a.m. I was rooting around in my fabric stash looking for some red fabric to make loops.  I wasn't sure I would find any because I don't have a lot of red fabric because of the dye running issues it has, so I usually stay away from red. 

   I was lucky I found a piece of red with tiny white polka dots on it in and that became the fabric for my loops.  I cut the fabric into 2" x 4" pieces and folded it up, ironed them, and sewed the folded edge closed..  I plugged in the glue gun and glued the ends together to make the loops and glued the loops onto the back of the hearts.  This project took about an hour and a half from fabric finding to finish.  So easy, fun and adorable.  I'll be stringing these up with some jute twine.

Clear Cookie Plates With Holiday Fabric Decoupaged On Them

I wanted to make four of these for the holidays and I ran out of time.  They will be ready for next year.

I'm using the dishwasher safe Mod Podge and it needs at least 28 days to cure.   I'm also using the tutorial on youtube found here.  The person doing the youtube tutorial mentions that you can cure it by baking it in the oven for an hour, but I'm not 100% sold on that so I'll just let my plates cure for 28 days.

This is the first plate.   I'll share the others as I make them.

I Made A Quilted Christmas Table Runner

   I have been planning this table runner all year.  I made this one for my dear daughter.  I am going to make a second one for me. 

    Trying to find the best block to use in this table runner took me almost all year.  I knew I wanted to use solid pieces of the pretty Makower fabric alternating it with a pieced star block, I just couldn't find one a block I was in love with.  I finally found a block in one of my Civil War quilting books.  I found the New England block in "Civil War Sampler" by Barbara Brackman.

     Here is a picture of the runner out.  It's 84 inches long and 12" wide.

    I think the New England block looks like a Christmas gift wrapped up and it still has star points.  I love it.  The book only includes cutting instructions, so I was careful with my piecing.

    Here are the individual blocks up close.

 

Cats and Christmas Decorations

     I did my decorating in the house for Christmas.  I pulled out three big bins of decorations and got it done last night.  I don't put up a regular Christmas tree because I have two cats and I gave up my precious Christmas tree when the cats came to live here.  I do have a nice collection of small trees and I put those on my dining room table. 

    One of the newer things I bought to decorate for Christmas this year was this pretty ceramic mixing bowl that I found at Marshalls.  I added a small lighted tree to it.  I found the tree at Lowes, but I also saw it at  Joann's and it was cheaper at Joann's.  I love it.  This picture was taken on my kitchen counter but this mixing bowl and tree will not stay there because, well, cats.  I know that any large glass decorative items I want to keep need to be placed on the floor.  My cats can be kind of crazy when they are chasing one another through the house.  If the bowl is already on the floor, I don't have to worry about it.

A Quilted St. Patrick's Day Decoration

   I'm calling these St. Patrick's Day Stars.  I made these small wall hangings in green, orange and white for me and DD.  We love to decorate a little bit for the holidays and I like to make her little things to put around her house with the holiday color.

    I used a free paper piecing star pattern from the Carol Doak website.  The link is here.  It's the star pattern that is called Introduction to Paper Piecing and it's about half way down the page.  I've used this free pattern before I love it.  With the borders and binding they measure appoximately 13" x 13" square.  I gathered my fabrics for this project right after Christmas.

    These were fun to make and DD loves it.

Merry Merry Christmas

I spent Christmas Eve with my daughter.  We had a wonderful lunch.  I made a lasagna, and my daughter made salad, bought wine, and chocolate for our meal.  I also supplied the last of the gingerbread men to have with coffee in the afternoon.

We watched two Christmas Carol movies, the version with Albert Finney (musical) and the version with Patrick Stewart (make it so, Bob Cratchit), we took her little Cairn terrier for a walk through the neighborhood and then we watched Frosty the Snowman.  I got a my last chance to wear my long red and white stocking cap in public.  I've been wearing it on my weekend shopping trips all month long.  I love it.

Today, I'm spending Christmas at home alone doing some organizing and sewing.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, whatever holiday you celebrate.  I celebrate Christmas, so Merry, Merry Christmas.

Paint, Modge Podge, Fabric and A Christmas Card

    I got this odd size free piece of wood a couple of years ago from Lowes or Home Depot when I was shopping one day.  I've been trying to figure out what to do with it since I got it.  I found this card a couple of weeks ago and I started getting the idea of using it on this piece of wood.  I painted the board, decoupaged a piece of pretty light blue polka fabric on the front and then I decoupaged the card on top of that.  It was fun to make, but I don't enjoy painting because it takes so long to dry.

Heading To The End Of The Year

I haven't posted for a while.  After my last post, I was busy getting ready to go out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday.  My DD and I drove down to Orlando and spent the weekend at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure riding rides and have a lot of fun.  The four day weekend is a perfect time for us to drive five hours to Orlando.  It's a little crowded at the parks at this time but I don't have any vacation time left at work.  The parks were decorated for Christmas and Christmas music played.  We stay at the Doubletree within walking distance of the park and we had a blast.  We rode all three Harry Potter rides (Escape from Gringotts, Hippogriff roller coaster, Secret Journey at the Castle), had butter beer, lunch at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade, saw the dragon in Diagon Alley, we rode rides at Dr. Suess Land, we rode the Men in Black ride (twice) and I even rode the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster (my eyes were closed almost the entire ride).  It was an awesome weekend.

I missed cooking a big meal for Thanksgiving, so this past weekend I made myself a homemade Thanksgiving dinner with roasted vegetables, homemade stuffing (just the way Mom used to make it), baked chicken breasts (because that was just as easy as a turkey breast), and homemade cranberry conserve.  It was wonderful.  I got up really early on Saturday morning, made everything and had Thanksgiving dinner for breakfast that day.  I'm still eating leftovers, but they won't last too much longer.

I'm knitting my scarf and my hat with the Vanna's Choice in black.  I decided to make the hat into a stocking cap and I bought another skein of yarn to add to the hat.  The scarf is more than half done.  Here's pictures of my knitting progress.

Hat

Scarf

Last night I played with some 5" felted wool squares that I bought.  I made some Swedish heart Christmas decorations.  I thought they would be cuter and I suppose if I used prettier colors they would be.  I made these to give to DD if she wants them for her tree.  I used the Missouri Star Quilt Company youtube video tutorial to make them.  Here's a link to the video:  Link here.  Jenny even provides a pattern you can print out.  She used 5" squares for her hearts as well and that's where I got the idea to buy the squares.

Additions To My Christmas Fabric Collection

    I found these at Marshall Dry Goods.  I bought one yard of each.  These will make great napkins and potholders for next Christmas.   

Christmas Hanging Dish Towels Are Finally Done

   I finally sewed the buttons on the Christmas hanging dish towels that I have been making for a couple of months.  I ended up with six of them and I'm giving away five.  Dear daughter gets three of them, she will keep one and give two away.  I'm keeping one and giving two of mine away.  I'm so glad I started early making these because they took way longer than I expected them to.

    I wanted to put green buttons on the top, but I couldn't find a button in a good green color for these, so I ended up using some of the red buttons I have.

    Here is a picture of four of them hanging on my oven door.

Christmas Is Coming, Believe It Or Not

    I thought I would get an early start this year.  I hate giving Christmas gifts, I have a hard time deciding what to give anyone.  I do know that my daughter and my brothers like the hanging dish towels that I make, so that's what I will make to give to them.   I will make five of these pretty dish towels and I should have them all finished by next week.

    I bought the fabric and the towels for this project last month.  I bought two huge white tea towels and cut them into quarters.  I hemmed the one cut side on my sewing machine and then I put the towel into the hoop to add the embroidery to it.  I only got one embroidery made tonight but I love it.  I will embroider the rest over the weekend then I can start adding the fabric toppers to each one.

    Here's the embroidery design I'm using on the towels.

     This makes a nice break from hand sewing hexies.  I really miss my sewing machine when I'm doing a hand sewing project.  I love pressing down on the foot pedal of the machine and sewing at full speed.

Cloth Napkins Made With Christmas Fabrics

   I finished a set of 8 cloth napkins made with Christmas fabrics.  I will share these with my daughter and we will each get a set of four, all different.  These are easy and fun to make.

Remembering Mom On St. Patrick's Day

        I'm counting down to St. Patrick's Day.  This is just one of the days of the year that I remember my Mom.  My mother was 100% Irish and very proud of her Celtic heritage.  One of her favorite days of the year was St. Patrick's Day (March 17th).  I like to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in honor of Mom.  I don't drink green beer (why ruin a perfectly good refreshment with food coloring), but I do wear green and listen to music by the Chieftans.

This is one of my favorite Irish blessings:

May those that love us, love us.

And those that don’t love us,

May God turn their hearts.

And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,

May he turn their ankles,

So we will know them by their limping.