Happy New Year Everyone!

  I was just sitting here trying to decide on my favorite make in 2018.  And my favorite make for 2018 has to be the long Christmas stocking cap I knit earlier this year.  I really enjoyed wearing it during December.  I wore it as often as I could on the weekends when it wasn't too warm out.  I had one comment from one young lady who thought it was cool.

    I already have projects started for 2019.  I've got pajama pants cut out to sew up, the black hat I'm knitting is almost done and I have an idea for a couple of Christmas table runners that are waiting for additional fabric and then will be ready to be cut out.  All of this should keep me busy in January.  And I still have to finish my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

   I'll be spending New Year's Day cleaning my oven and refrigerator, and taking down Christmas decorations.  I think that's a good way to spend the first day of the year.

   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WELCOME 2019!

From T-shirt To A Great Fitting Hairband

I love this hairband and it's so easy to make.  Here's the LINK to the video tutorial on youtube.  This hairband doesn't take that long to make and it looks great and fits even better.  I had an old black t-shirt and make this one in about an hour (maybe less).  I don't use the glue gun to secure all the ends and attach the cover, I sew it by hand.  I just think that sewing it makes it more secure.  I don't trust glue on fabric that I want to wear.

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.

Pleated Christmas Trees

     I made some pleated Christmas trees with a different background fabric.  The pattern is here:  Pleated Christmas Tree.  The original model in the pattern was made with white background fabric, and I have made two of these with white background fabric.  I wanted to do something different with the background and I found this gray fabric with white dots.   I think this looks like snow falling at night.  I still want to enlarge this pattern and make this tree bigger, so I can make it into a pillow cover or something, but I haven't tried that yet.

     Here are the two I made last night with the darker background fabric.  The first tree is a little lopsided because I was sloppy with my trimming.  The second tree came out much nicer.  I love that green plaid fabric.  I'm giving the second one to my daughter.  I put it in a dark wood 8" x 10" frame.

         

Christmas Cookies and A Christmas Decoration Fail

    I made gingerbread men today.  I used the Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman) recipe I found on line.

    This is the first time I have ever made gingerbread cookies and it will probably be the last.  It was tough mixing all that flour into the liquid mixture because I did it manually.  The recipe calls for a stand mixer, but I don't have a stand mixer and I didn't want to borrow my daughter's mixer just for these cookies, because I wanted them to be a surprise.

     These took a long time for me to make, between mixing the dough and letting it rest for two hours or more, then rolling it and cutting it out, I spent a good 3 hours hands on making these cookies and I didn't really enjoy it. 

      I didn't decorate my men.  I'm not supposed to eat a lot of sugar and these will be sweet enough without any extra icing or candies on them.

     In the future, I'll stick with sugar cookies or butter cookies put in a cookie press..

 

    I don't have a picture of my Christmas Tree decoration fail, but I will describe it for you.  I drew a Christmas tree shape and I cut out two pieces of fabric.  The idea being that I would sew the two pieces together and stuff them lightly with some polyfil, put a dowel stick in the bottom and put it in a small tin pail with some floral foam to keep it up right.  My pattern for my Christmas tree was not right and the finished tree looked awful.  I scrapped this project.  I'm looking for other Christmas decorations to sew.

    Here's a picture of some of my Christmas decorations.

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.

Christmas Kitties In The Kitchen

   I found this cute, cute, cute dishtowel at Hobby Lobby last weekend and had to have it.  I think it was 40 or 50% off.  Score!  I love the cat on this one.

I was going to cut it up into two hanging dishtowels then I got an idea.  I decided to keep it as one towel and make a hanging dishtowel that is doubled.  I folded it in the center and pleated it so the cat would show up real well on both sides.  Then I added a cap of the fabric below with two ties.

I love this old fashioned toile Santa/Christmas fabric.  It's so turn of the century, 19th/20th century.  Here is my finished hanging dishtowel.  I made this one with ties so I could tie it onto the refrigerator and I love that it's doubled so my hands will dry quicker.  I may make all my hanging dishtowels doubled from now on.  This took me about 30 minutes to make from first cut to last stitch.

I hung the kitty from the freezer handle so I could get to it better and see it all the time. 

Deathly Hallows Fabric

This is a project I couldn't share before.  For our trip to Universal and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter I made my daughter and myself a water bottle holder and a small zippered purse out of this fun Deathly Hallows fabric.  I added a wrist strap and a small loop to the zippered purse so we could hook the purse onto a carabiner and attach it to our belt loops.

When we planned this trip my daughter had announced that she wanted to carry as little as possible into the park so a small purse for cards and water bottle holder would be all she needed.  I worried about how I would do this and decided I could stash stuff in my jean jacket pockets.  Being late November I thought it might be cool enough to wear a jacket in Orlando.

 But two days before we left for our trip, dear daughter decides that she can't possibly travel to the park without a big backpack and all manner of emergency items.  She had decided that she was going to rent a locker for the backpack each day.  She was much happier with this plan and I just wanted us to have as much fun as possible no matter what we had to carry.

The first day we were in the park we bought an small backpack (fanny pack size) because it was way too warm for me to wear my jacket and I needed something to put my cell phone and lip balm in.  We also bought a ticket lanyard, because you have to show your ticket all the time when you go from Universal to Islands of Adventure or to City Walk.  I ended up buying a Slytherin ticket lanyard because I am in Slytherin house and I'm owning it.

Here's a picture of my water bottle holder and purse.

The Black Lace Knit Scarf Is Finished

   I finished the scarf this morning before work.  It's a little over six feet long and it took about 1.5 skeins of Vanna's Choice yarn,  I love this.  It will join others in my wardrobe.  I made one in white, blue, and grey this year.  I will be making more in different colors.  It's an easy pattern and it is really nice doubled up when I wear it.

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.

Lots of Snowmen

    I made the rest of the snowmen ornaments and used up every inch of the white felted wool I bought.   Very little waste on this project and I love these guys.  There are twenty three of them.  I made two banners of ten snowmen each with some bakers twine and they are hanging in my living room.  The other three are standing with my trees in my dining room.  So much fun.

I've Been Making More Hanging Dishtowels For Holidays

   I made some hanging dishtowels to keep and share for the Thanksgiving holiday.  This is a picture of four the the six that I made.  The other two are gifts and are going to get mailed later next week.

  The towels with the white background have doggies on them and they look like this:

    I'm share these towels with dear daughter and she will get hers tomorrow.

Secret Birthday Sewing and Gifts Revealed.

   I made my dear daughter several things for her birthday.  They included three shopping bags.

   Two made with this fun pineapple fabric with a fun lining on each outside pocket.

  

    One made with this fun blue and white plaid and I gave the outside pocket a wonky look with a fun lining.

 

    I also made her a 16" pillow cover with snowflake fabric in a star pattern.

     front

     back

    Lastly, I made her a 16" pillow cover with the fun snowfolk on it.

   

    I bought her some needle nannies from etsy sellers, some cross stitch needles, a set of steak knives, a book about aprons called "The Apron Book" by EllynAnne Geisel, and I also made her six white wool dryer balls.

    We went out for dinner the day of her birthday and had a lovely meal at a local owned Italian restaurant.

My Favorite Tutorial For Joining My Binding Ends

   I wanted to share my favorite youtube video tutorial for joining my binding ends.  It's really simple and it works every time I use it.

    In case you can't get it to play from my post, here is the link here.

How I Make My Wool Dryer Balls

   I bought three skeins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes bare bulky yarn to make six wool dryer balls.  I wound two dryer balls from each skein.  After winding the balls I secure them in knee high stockings to felt the balls.  I put three balls in each knee high.  I put one wool ball in and I tie a knot in the knee high, then I put the second wool ball in and tie a knot, then I put the third ball in and tie a knot.  I took a picture of this step but my camera wasn't charged and it didn't take the picture.

    Once the balls are in the knee high, I soak them to get them good and wet.  I wash them in hot water with a towel and detergent.  Once they are washed, I put them in a hot dryer with the towel.  The first go in the dryer didn't felt the balls right away, so I wet the balls two more times with just plain water and wet the towel and ran them in a hot dryer.  After the third dryer cycle the balls had felted very well.  I cut the knee highs off and put the balls in a bowl to let them completely dry.  I made these for my daughter for her birthday.

Happy Birthday Cake

     I made my daughter's birthday cake a little early this year.  I like to get this done on the weekend.  Her birthday is tomorrow, but she got her cake yesterday.  It's a Bacardi Rum Cake, a recipe from the The Cake Mix Doctor book.  It's the only cake I make from that book because it's always so good.  I have been making this for DD's birthday for a few years now.  She loves it.

Halloween Table Runners

Yes, Halloween was yesterday.  I now have two Halloween table runners.  The pumpkin table runner has been done for weeks but I forgot to put a picture here.  I finished the black cat table runner tonight and it will be ready to use next year.

Halloween Black Cats

    So I made myself cut the sashing for my table runner and I actually put it together today.  I started early this morning before I had to leave for work and got the rows put together.  Then tonight I sewed all the rows together with sashing.  What a quick make.  I love all the different poses of the black cat.  He/she is wonderful.  I just have to sandwich it, quilt it, and bind it.

One Project That I Had to Give Up On

    I recently frogged the hat I was making from this yarn.  It was a project that I started several months ago.

     I tried to love the hat, but it was not going to end well.  I was holding the yarn double and it was not a fun knit because I was using a size 7 needles and those needles were way too small for the yarn doubled.  I made the fateful decision to take it apart. 

    I still have almost four skeins of this yarn and I have to find a project for it so I can use it up.  I love the color, but I don't know what to do with this yarn at this time.

Pattern Purchase

   I had to have this cute pattern.  I'm going to put this on my to do list for next fall.  This is called Patchwork Pumpkins by the Crafty Quilter.

More Knitting Projects

   I shouldn't have even started these knitting projects, but I wanted a hat and scarf made with black yarn.  Of course, my yarn is acrylic.  One of my favorite acrylic yarns is Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in black.  This yarn is super soft and so affordable.  I bought four skeins from JoAnn's the other day.  They were on sale for $2.99 a skein and I got an additional $20% off, so the four skeins ran $9.57 plus tax.  I ordered them online and picked them up in the store.

    I'm making The Boyfriend Hat, my favorite knitted hat pattern.  Link to knitted hat pattern.  It's a 3 x 2 rib that comes out perfect every time.  I'm going to make this one a little slouchy and see if I have enough yarn to make a pom pom.  I knit this hat in the round on a 16" -  size 7 circular needle.  When I get to the crown decreases I move my stitches onto two circular needles, splitting the 100 stitches to 50 stitches on each needle and work the decreases that way.  It's the easiest way for me to make my hats.  I could always use magic loop, but two circulars works really well for this project.
Yes, I know there are a lot of stitch markers, but they really help me know where I'm at when I'm knitting one hundred stitches.  I put a stitch marker in for each 10 stitches and with 3 x 2 rib that includes 3 knit stitches, 2 purl stitches, 3 knit stitches and 2 purl stitches, so as long as I can count to 10 I can tell which stitch I'm supposed to be making.  It's very helpful to me have all these stitch markers in here.

    I'm also making a lacey knitted scarf in the same black yarn.  It's the same pattern I used two other times this year to make scarves.  I made a white one and a blue one.  I should be able to make a six foot scarf with a little over one skein of this yarn.  I'm knitting this on a size 11 circular needle to get a very drapey fabric.  So pretty.

I Thought I Was Finished Making Fall/Halloween Decorations

I really disappointed in myself.  I am still not finished with all my Fall/Halloween decorations that I want to make.  I still have a Halloween table runner that is partially cut out.  It will be made in the next week, but not in time for Halloween.  Once I finish that table runner, I can get started on my Christmas projects.

This past weekend I made myself some hanging Halloween dish towels.  I love these.

And tonight I finished decoupaging cards and paper napkins onto painted 8" x 10" canvas panels that I got at JoAnn's a few weeks ago.  The panels came in a pack of three for about $7.99.  I think I had a coupon as well.  I already had the paint and the Mod Podge.  I bought the cards a few weeks ago and the paper napkin was a donation from dear daughter.  She likes to do decoupage projects as well.

This is the front a greeting card that I decoupaged.  I think I got this card from the Dollar Store.

This is the paper napkin.

This is my favorite.  I love this card (my daughter has a Cairn terrier) and I love the paint treatment I gave the panel.  So much fun.  This card was more expensive, it came from Target.

Halloween Hanging Dishtowels

I made these dishtowels for dear daughter to help her decorate for Halloween.  I love the black and cream homespun fabric on these.  The other black fabric has the deathly hallows symbol on it from the Harry Potter story.

I know I said I would stop knitting dishcloths, but I can't.  I knit dishcloths all the time now.  It's the perfect waiting room knitting.and I'm really enjoying using the dishcloths in my own kitchen.  I found that I like them a lot better than the crocheted dishcloths I have been making.

One Last Halloween Decoration

    I've been waiting a couple of months to make this witch hat.  I found this tutorial back in the beginning of August, but I had to wait to make it because dear daughter wanted to make one too.  We had to coordinate our fabric buying trip and our sewing day.  We finally got the hats made today.  I love this project.  It was really simple to make  and lots of fun to decorate.  I used the tutorial you find HERE.

    Here is the hat I made.

More Pumpkins, This Time It's Fabric

    I need a fall table runner, nothing fancy, just a little something on the table that says fall.  I was hoping I could find fabric for the entire thing in my stash and I did.  I have at least a couple of yards of the orange fabric, perfect for the pumpkins, backing and binding.  The purple and green are the canvas I have leftover from making bags with my souvenir fabric from Hawaii.

    There are loads of free pumpkin block patterns out there.  Here's how I made the pumpkin.  The orange fabric is cut 10" square, the snowball corners are 3" squares, the stem is a 1.5" wide by 3" piece and the purple sashing is 3" wide by however long each side needs to be.  The bottom sashing was trimmed down to a narrower width to accommodate the length of a side piece.  Easy.

   Here's a picture of my first pumpkin block.  I know my piecing could be neater and more uniform, but I don't care.  I will make two more of these to finish this table runner.  I love this project.

A Few Little Fall Decorations

I went into the Dollar Tree the other day to look for Halloween decorations.  Someone I know is going to make their own Harry Potter Wizard Wand using a Youtube tutorial.  The person doing the tutorial used some skeleton decorations that you can find at Dollar Tree and I had to get some of those exact skeletons.   Here is a link to the wand tutorial.  It's a really good tutorial and lots of fun to watch.

While I was in the Dollar Tree I took some time to look for Halloween and Fall greeting cards to frame.  I ended up picking up three cards,  the Home Sweet Home card and the Happy Thanksgiving card were inexpensive and look great in a frame.  These cards were $.50 each and the frames were cheap frames I found at Walmart.

This pumpkin is a free image I found on the internet.  I printed it on regular copy paper, cut it out and  placed some burlap looking scrap book paper (on sale at Hobby Lobby for $.29 a sheet) behind it.  I set it in a 8 x 10 clip frame.  I'm not crazy about the frame and I will probably re-frame this at some point, but I love this.

The one Halloween card that they had that I like is this one.  I painted a wood plaque with purple paint and decoupaged it onto the plaque.  I already had the paint and the Mod Podge, the card cost me $1.00 and the plaque cost me $1.99.  I love this.

I saw a few pumpkins in Hobby Lobby over the last few weeks that are a teal/turquoise color.  I love the idea of adding that color into my fall decor so I bought a small pumpkin at JoAnn's for about $2.50 (used a coupon) and some turquoise paint which cost me $1.99, I think.  I did prime the pumpkin with a coat of white paint (which I already had) before I painted it blue.  Love this.

I also found a beautiful Youtube tutorial on painted pumpkins.  She does such a good job layering paint and she tells you exactly how to do it.  Someday I want to try to make the silver leaf pumpkin.  Here is the link:  Simply Handmade Pumpkin Painting Tutorial

One more project that I will be taking care of is cleaning out my old hand sewing needles.  I have some hand sewing needles that have eyes that are too small for a wire threader to fit in.  At my age, I don't need needles with eyes that small.  I will be donating them to my dear daughter.