73 and Done!

 

73 Stockings

My weekend was spent making medium size Christmas

stockings for the kids at the Child's Haven in South Carolina.  

This all came about on Friday when Rebekah sent me an e-mail 

asking if I had time to make them for the kids this year. 

73 were requested and 73 are done and ready to

be sent to her.  Now back to other sewing projects

that I started pre-stockings. 

Ombre Confetti Metallic Fabric

 

I love this fabric line from V & Co. named

Ombre Confetti Metallic distributed by Moda.

This collection of fabrics came as a Christmas quilt kit.  I

made a test block using the pattern in the kit then decided I

wasn't crazy about the block so the stack of fabric sat on my table.

When I did a sample block using this pattern I decided it was

winner!  This quilt will more than likely stay here with me.

Since this photo I have all the blocks sewn together in rows.

When complete it will be sent to Florida as a surprise Xmas gift.

I L-O-V-E this quilt!

The bright blocks are leftover from another project.

The center strips are from Tula Pink's Zuma collection.

I'm going to put this one away until I decide what to do with it.

Sewing for Outreach

 

This is a collection of fabric from the estate sale and will

become a 'scrappy' quilt for Outreach using the layout below.

The sewing of this quilt top was finished last night.

I pulled the backing fabric from my stash so it's on

my stack 'to be completed'.

Some of the small Christmas stockings.

Sewing for Outreach in 2021

I can't think of a better and more worthy cause then 

the guild's Community Outreach program.   

Chris is this groups fearless leader.  She keeps tabs

on who needs what, makes the distributions of all items

plus she stores all donated items.

 Not to mention she keeps all donated fabric and

quilt kits that need to be made up.

My Donations 2021

I feel these numbers are pretty accurate but I

may have missed an item or two along the way.

Tops w/bindings [for others to finish]:  47

Completed Quilts [ready for distribution]: 59

Easter Bunnies [stuffed]: 16

Pillowcases:  17

Fleece Scarves [for kids]: 202

2-1/2" Scrappy Binding:  Bags of it!

Placemats: 13

Table Runners: 9

Stuff Animal Pillows:  23

Stuffed Small Birds:  3

Stuff Small Dogs: 3

Christmas Stockings [small]: 334

Christmas Stockings [large]: 2

Plus

In between projects I've worked on countless completed quilts 

others guild members have made that needed bindings

made, attached, and then returned to Chris for distribution.

On a side note:  

Derby goes nuts sniffing the quilts that come from others. 

I would love to know what goes on in his brain when sniffing.

 

Easy Layer-Cake Quilts

 

This is the book I've been pulling patterns from.

As the title indicates these are easy quilt to make. 

The first pattern I tried.

The second pattern made.

This quilt is made from fabric I purchased at the

estate sale.  It has a 'scrappy' look.  There are so many

small pieces of fabric from the estate sale sitting on my

shelves you will be seeing a lot of scrappy quilts in the future.

The third pattern.  I really like this one.  I just started to cut fabric

for another one.  This one will be something I'll work on between things.

This is a pattern layout that gives you flexibility in how you

lay out the blocks.  I originally put the blocks the way

the pattern indicated but then decided they looked better

in an "X" pattern [as seen below].

... Other Simple Quilts Completed ....

Julep

Quilt without Julep!

Completed and ready to pack up.

All the quilts shown in this post are headed to Outreach to

distribute to those in need.

 

A Little Yard Work+

 

I've been working with the fabric I purchased from the estate sale a 

few weeks ago.  Here is one quilt I have ready for Outreach.

The weather has been nice so I've been spending time in the yard

cleaning the beds and putting them to rest for the winter. 

Mums from years past I threw in the ground are blooming.

Berries on the Viburnum will be a winter treat for the birds.

While we don't have nearly the amount of flower beds like we had

in Bozman it's still time consuming to maintain what we have.

The Blanket flowers are blooming like crazy.  These are in

our wild flower patch along the back property line.

It's nice to see a pop of color when we look out the window.

Sewing Away

 

Several weeks ago I purchased a new book on simple and quick quilt patterns.

This is one of the patterns in the book.  

Work in Progress

The beautiful oriental fabric with gold accents was in the

massive stack of fabric I purchased from an estate sale.

The cream with gold print is from my stash.

While Julep is napping on the back fabric for this quilt

this floral fabric is also from the estate sale.  

The backing fabric I found on-line for $3.99 per yard.

That's a real deal considering the rise in price of

fabric over the past year.

The holiday table runners went to Outreach to donate to a school

fund raising event.  

The 3 pillowcases {I'm missing a photo of one of them} 

are slated to go with the 4 quilts to my neighbors grand kids.

Two fall table runners.  One went to my mom and one

went to a neighbor.

Update From The Sewing Room

 

For the 9 year old boy.

One of my neighbors down the street and around the corner has 4

grandkids.   Sharon baby sits the kids from time to time.  The

youngest is 1, two kids are 3, and the oldest is 9.  I gave her

four Halloween quilts for the kids and I asked her

if they would like quilts for Xmas - the answer was yes!

These are the quilts I finished for three of them.  I have fabric

pulled for the girl which is in my sewing stack of projects. 

This one is for the one year old.

For the 3 year old boy.

Outreach Completed Quilt #1

Since I couldn't get the lid on my box of my 6" x 2-1/2" blocks

it was time to make a few charity quilts for

Outreach.  These simple quilts are very time consuming. 

Outreach Completed Quilt #2

Outreach Completed Quilt #3

I put together several panel quilt tops in between this

and that projects.   I thought a long-armer could have

fun quilting this which would turn out so

much better than I could ever do on my Bernina.  

Oh, those smells ... an obsession

Derby is obsessed with anything that comes from

Chris for me to work on.  For example, sewing

labels and bindings on already quilted quilts

that were handled by other quilters in the guild.

This last batch Chris gave me Derby went particularly 

nuts over so I had to finish them right away and

put them back in the garage.  One quilt he tried

to pull off my sewing table while I was sewing on

the binding.  When that didn't work he decided to

step on my foot that was resting on the sewing machine

 pedal which made the machine sew faster {I'm

lucky I didn't sew my fingers together!}.  

Derby knows there are more quilts from Chris sitting in the

garage  ... they will stay there for a few days while I finish up 

a few other projects.

Piles of Fabric!

 

Just the Blues {fabric that is!}

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from my quilt guild 

saying a member passed away [from Covid] and that the

estate was selling everything in her home ... including

all fabric and various other sewing and craft items.

Originally, I deleted the e-mail {I really wasn't interested} but

 a week later I woke up one morning thinking about the fabric.

 While I was drinking my coffee that morning I sent an

e-mail inquiring about the fabric and the cost.

The answer was pretty much immediately and so I arranged 

to go over to the house and see what was there ...

bins and bins of fabric sorted by color.  

I asked the cost for the entire lot and it was reasonable 

after some negotiation.  They were so thankful I took

all the fabric since they didn't have to deal with people 

buying a few pieces here and a pieces there.   This would

have been very time consuming went you're 

trying to sell the entire furnishings in the home.

What I came home with was leftover odd pieces from various 

projects.  That's ok since I'll be using these fabrics for

Outreach charity quilts.  There were just a few yard+ fabrics

in the stacks so I think the 2 ladies who got to the sale before

me must have purchased the yardage.

In the score of fabric I also got 3 complete quilt kids,

2 Xmas pencil pine trees {I collect these} ...

and this Spartina 449 {never used} carry all which sells

new in stores for about $49.00 I got for $10.00!

So with all the pounds of fabric, 3 quilt kits, 

2 Xmas pencil pine trees and 1 Spartina 449 carry 

all the total was $200.00 ... I got a real deal!

In case you're wondering what in the world am I 

going to do with all that fabric ... I've been through

every piece and half of the pile of fabric has already 

been given to a group in Trappe called Granny's Quilters.

Shirley and her mom {who is 92} came by last night to pick

up the bags ... they were so thankful and so full

of positive energy it made me feel good to give

them this fabric.