November-December threads

October 31 brought a great surprise!!! Was one of the Block Lotto winners. So, all during November I received lovely mail from all over the USA and even Australia. When I had all my winnings I took them to the "Stitchers" and put them randomly on the design wall to show (off). Now I have to wait patiently until I have time to make the quilt. Of course I also have to decide how I want to finish it.

November 9 - day of the monthly lace meeting, this time at Lali's. She had a wonderful dessert for us.

I felt also very good because I was able to make another lace symbol for my Lace Adventcalendar.

November 10 - monthly CR Quilters meeting. We met at Janet's house because the CR ballroom was needed for something else. Janet gave a great workshop.

In the evening - Church Mice meeting - great show+tell

And an interesting lesson about English paper piecing especially hexies.

November 16 was the day of my church's Holiday Market. I demonstrated bobbinlace making. In the process i made progress on another Chrismon in Lace series. Started it the night before and finished it that evening.

A visit to Nashville finished William's socks. He was very happy.

December 10 was the "Stitchers for a cause" last meeting and potluck party. I did manage to finish my latest top. I didn't want to come back in the new year not remembering what I had planned to do. Can't wait to see this one quilted.

December 14 - monthly lacemakers' meeting, this time in my house (like every year ... It's a tradition).

No lace was made but this paper star.

Needless to say that my queendom is in a mess in this "before Christmas time". Ha-ha, no photo! But I think the New Year's Day resolution is to get my queendom organized again.

Posted with Blogsy

October threads

No September threads since I was in Europe pretty much the whole month. The Colonial Lacemakers had a lot going on and I really missed being a part of it. Missed my sewing friends too.
But then there was the CR Quilter's meeting on Oct 13. The 9 of us had a great time learning from each other and sharing. I explained what I learned doing the September (Tulips) and October (Twinkle Star) Block Lotto patterns. Everybody liked them. I also shared my black+white almost finished stack and whack.

Janet talked about the November project which we will do at her house next month.

Jane is our oldest member with 90(+?) years but she has a great sense of colors and everybody always loves her creations.

The Church Mice Quilting Group met as always same day in the evening. Interesting show and tell.

Because all know that I am a lacemaker somebody had brought this. She had found this between the layers in an old frame. Handmade Honiton lace. How lucky!

Sometimes there is show and tell at the Thursday Stitchers too. All hand appliqué and hand quilting.

Sharing my personal finished top.

My present project at the Stitchers. Same technique as the black and white above, just different fabric. The big piece in this photo is the original fabric. Above three stack+whack blocks.

Because of the 4 identical squares you have to choose from for possibilities for each block. Just turn the squares.

And this is it for this month so far.

Posted with Blogsy

The Making of a quilted Adventcalendar with Cross-Stitch Chrismon

My sister-in-law Jane has stitched the most beautiful things in the 40 years I am married to her brother ... but not lately. When I asked her about it (with a certain thought in my mind) she told me that she only likes to do it with a purpose, not just for the sake of stitching. No need to hang anything on her walls any more. I asked her whether she would stitch something for me.
James is one of five and the siblings had arranged to meet in Windsor England (their hometown) in January 2015. I assembled a "kit" and sent it with him. I had cut the little AIDA squares and it only needs three different DMC colors. I had found 15 different Chrismon patterns in these books:

In May Jane came to visit and it was an opportunity to stitch the rest of the Chrismons.

I designed 9 so there would be the 24 needed for the Adventcalendar. I had to hurry to stay ahead of Jane. I will share my design here later too (have to make nice drawings first).

After Jane's work was done, it was my turn. I borrowed last year's raffle wallhanging from the lucky winner to test the size, discovering that this design would not work.

But I had bought a pattern which I thought would work and went to work.

At that time I was not very familiar with paperpiecing so I cut the pieces ...

... numbered the fabrics I was going to use

... and cut the pieces with the 1/4 inch seam allowances. I used 505 spray basting on the back of the paper pattern so it wouldn't slip on the fabric. It worked really well.

Trying out the size. I think it will work well.

I bought 24 of the little round frames at a craft store. Ladies at an ECW workshop cut out 24 circles from quilting batting the size of the white backs and also the numbers drawn mirror image on the back of the cream fabric prepared with iron-on material.

The green circle got running stitches all around.

This part was easy: green fabric circle good side down, batting, white back, pull tight and knot. Iron on the numbers.
The layering: frame front down, clear plastic circle, stitching face down (cut into a circle by using one of the clear circles for fussy cutting and drawing around it), a circle of batting and the back. Since I made a booklet with the explanations I had to be sure to put the correct number with the Chrismon.
Still laying face down I pressed the back down and dripped super glue all around but carefully and sparingly.

The finished wall quilt. My husband is holding it up.
It can be used year-round without the Chrismons.

Advent calendars are originally a German custom. Ornaments are numbered from 1 to 24 which means you turn # 1 over on the 1st of December (#2 on 2nd of December etc) to reveal (in this case) a Chrismon, a symbol which reminds us of the real meaning of Christmas.

On the back is a pocket with a little booklet explaining each day's symbol.

This is the ECW (Episcopal Church Women) of St Martin's 2015 raffle. For a donation of $5 you get 1 chance to win this treasure (yes, I am very happy with the results) or for $10 you get 3 tickets.
The money raised is for a good cause and ... you could win it. Somebody will go home with it (or gets it mailed) !!! If you would like to have a try, you could mail a check to:
St Martin's Episcopal Church
Attn: Christa
9000 St Martin's Lane
Richmond, VA 23294
I promise I will take care of it and your ticket(s) will be in the box. The drawing is on Sunday November 15.

If you would like to make one for yourselves and have a question, feel free to contact me.

Posted with Blogsy