Dancing Dishes, Teapots, Chickens and...

One of my goals (#14)  for Q3 Finish Along with Adrianne on the Windy Side was to embroider 10 towels and make 10 hotpads to go with the 10 crocheted dishcloths I had made.  

I give sets of towel, hotpad and dishcloth plus other gadgets like refrig magnets or chip clips or colorful bowl scrapers as Christmas gifts or birthday gifts. I like to have several sets on hand. 

I use Insulbrite in the hotpads along with either an old piece of terrycloth towel or piece of cotton flannel. I actually used some flannel scraps from a nightgown I made my daughter when she was probably ten or twelve. She's 39 now.  (Can you say, hoarder?????)

I especially like old 50s looking dancing dishes, silverware, etc.  I even had some scraps of dancing dish fabric in my stash to make hotpads. 

I know a couple of tea drinkers so sets with teapots are for them along with their favorite tea or some nice mugs. 

Chickens are also a favorite of mine. I will probably make a fabric grocery sack with chickens on it and send it and  this set to one of my sisters who lives far away in CA. She was married in June for the 3rd time so I probably shouldn't even send her another wedding gift but every once in awhile I'm nice. 

Not sure who gets this set....

...or this set. Maybe they will stay in my box of gifts until the right time arrives. 

One or both of these sets will go to my husband's brother Marty and wife Barb for Christmas.  Barb loves to pile butter on everything she eats. She loves it so much that we joke that sticks of butter are her "snackin' sticks".  

For the chocolate lover along with a box of chocolates. (That might be me).

This set is for one of my brothers.  He loves...

...bacon.  Every year for Christmas for the last 7 years my brother has received bacon gifts from almost every family member. The hunt is usually on at the beginning of the year to find the weirdest bacon gift. It's been kind of a fun tradition.  The back of his hot pad is bacon fabric left from when I made him bacon pillowcases years ago. 

As I said at the beginning...this was a Q3 goal (#14)     for   2015 Finish Along with Adrianne at On The Windy Side.   Goal accomplished! 

What to Do...What to Do

I've finished the embroidery on 3 napkins.

I don't think I'll be able to finish the fourth one today (and I'm so close) because I'm about out of thread and don't want to drive into town after a skein of floss.  Gas is just too expensive. I'll just pick some up on my way home from work tomorrow.  

I picked up a package of these napkins stamped and ready for embroidery at the thrift store for $1.95. The original sticker price was $9.50.  They were stamped for embroidery and have serged edges. According to the directions - after embroidery they are ready for use. 

I tried to keep my embroidery on the back neat. Well, that's REALLY neat for me.  But, I don't think I like the napkins with all that embroidery showing on the back and I really don't like the serged edges either.  So I was thinking about adding a solid white backing.  I think the napkins will look more elegant that way - no serged edges; no embroidery back showing.    These will be a Christmas gift for my daughter. 

What do you think? 

And since I don't have enough embroidery thread to finish my napkins I stamped some pillowcase cuffs with HIS and HERS.  When finished I will store them in the hope chest for my granddaughter along with the Double Wedding Ring quilt I made her. 

Strange thing...notice how there is a vine under the HIS that goes along the edge of the pillowcase?  It's not there for HERS. I looked at the package again and see it's not in the example on the envelope either.  I tried to fit the vine in the same space as HERS but it didn't fit so the letters must be a little bigger on HERS. Very strange.  Wish I had noticed before I had HIS all stamped.   Well,  it will give my granddaughter something to wonder about  in the future when she receives the gifts. 

Are you slow stitching on something today? 

Join the virtual Slow Sunday Stitching bee at Kathy's Quilts. 

Slow Stitching Sunday

I've finished the embroidery on four dishtowels which will be Christmas gifts - part of sets which will consist of an embroidered dishtowel or two, crocheted dishcloth and a couple of potholders.  I make lots for friends and family. 

I was looking for my chicken embroidery transfers for the next set but they seem to have flown the coop. I have a friend who likes Black Americana so I'll embroider her towels next. 

I've prepared 3 blocks for my Crazy Quilt Journal project - a lap quilt called Crazy Cravings.  I pin fabrics to a muslin foundation, blind stitch them together and then embellish the seams.  

A lovely lady (thanks, Kathy!!! ) sent me some fun fabric snippets for my quilt. 

After I finish these three blocks I will have 14 - 12 inch blocks. I'm thinking I'd like to have at least 20 blocks. 

If you are hand stitching anything today why not link up to Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts. And, if you aren't hand stitching why not check out what everyone else is stitching. You'll be inspired to try some hand stitching yourself. 

In Your Words - Words from the Heart

This is my first time to participate in a blog hop. When I saw it was about WORDS I took the plunge and joined in.  Thank you goes to Linda at Buzzing and Bumbling and to Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt for hosting this event.

I have been collecting fabric with words/text for quite some time in order to make a quilt for my best girl friend (my husband of 40 years  is my best friend) who decided a couple of years ago to go back to school at the age of 58 to finish her bachelor's degree in Creative Writing. I want to surprise her with a quilt full of words when she graduates in the fall of 2013. (I do keep some secrets from my best friend. She doesn't know I have a blog.)

I started her quilt last year when I thought she was going to graduate in the fall of 2012 but it became a UFO when I found out I had until 2013 to finish it. Thankfully the blog hop came along and pushed me to finish a UFO.  My friend's favorite color is purple so that is the color I used for the background. I used text fabrics within the hearts, purple and white striped fabric for the backing and purple polka dotted fabric for the binding. The quilt finished at 48x60- each block finished at 12 inches. I've called it "Words from the Heart".

(No matter how many pics I took of the entire quilt they just looked blurry but there are better close ups below that are easier on the eyes.) I used a heart block pattern from Cindy Carter and I free motion quilted it with hearts (that look more like leaves) and with 30 different words important to me and to my friend - create, sing, write, give, inspire, love, cherish, dream, mentor, pray, give, simplify, think, celebrate, try, dream, grow, savor, listen, learn, thank, dance, live, joke, protect, play, donate, be, do, plan. I used variegated purple thread and did the best I could on my plain Jane sewing machine. My friend doesn't sew so she won't notice any flaws. (She overlooks mine).

 "Words from the Heart" has hearts full of 2.5 inch squares of the fun text fabrics I've collected over the years, some pictured below laid out on the back of the quilt (which looks like a mattress but the price was right !)

GIVEAWAY

I have some 2.5 inch squares left over. I think the pile has 2 squares each of 50 different fabrics that I will mail anywhere.  Leave me a comment with the title of the last good book you read and would recommend to others. Follow my blog if you wish - it would be nice - but I don't want you to force you so no extra entry. I'll use random generator to pick a winner on Sunday morning, Jan. 30 after I have my morning coffee. 

Thanks for your visit. 

Please visit today's other wordsmiths below. 

Monday, January 14

Gracie Oliver Arts (Jeanie)

Clothes and Crafts (Maria K.)

Cherrys Prairie Primitives (Cherry E.)

Simple Sew (Shirley T.)

Woolie Mammoth (Anna B.)

RocknQuilts (Mary Ann)

Celynn's Sunflower Patch (Celynn)

A Quilting Sheep (Amy)

Sane and Crazy Quilting (Cathy L.)

Quiltsmiles (Jane E.)

Feathered Nest Studio(Jennet)

A Few More Handmade Gifts for Friends and Family

A couple more crocheted dish cloths...

...I added a dishcloth to the collection of gifts I made for my good friend, Marsha, who LOVES purple. I used one of my vintage Black Americana dish towel transfers on a large flour sack dish towel and embroidered it with 3 strands of floss and did a running stitch along the outside edges in perle #8.  (Doesn't the cat look like it has a moustache, not whiskers? That cat is kind of creepy. ) Previously I embroidered other days of the week towels for her. And then I made one of those quick and easy hot pads from 5 - 9 inch squares plus a square of Insulbrite and quilted it with perle #8. ..

 ...and I will gift it to her in this groovy reversible grocery bag...

...and finally, I made two totally groovy coin purses for my lovely 8 year old granddaughters. Little purses to follow in the next few days. Peace, baby!

Stuff...All Kinds of Stuff

I made this Victorian Heart Pincushion as a challenge project with the Yahoo Stitchmap Group (see link on sidebar). Since I don't know anyone that sews I get to keep it as my own Christmas present.

Potholders for my DD and SIL who are avid mushroom hunters.

These are kind of pasta or Italian themed. They will go to some of the many family members I try to give a hotpad every year. Inside is Insulbrite and terrycloth so they are thick.

Peace, baby! Groovy potholders for some of those 70s love children! (Where are my bellbottoms when I need them).

Yummm...chocolate.

The chocolate hotpads will go into kitchen sets for some lucky gift recipients. The chocolate embroidery transfers are enbroidered (by me) on flour sack dishcloths and I crocheted a dishcloth to complete the set.

A couple more crocheted dishcloths on a pile of hotpads waiting for embroidered dishrags (er, I mean dishcloths) to complete a set.

And, finally, I think this is the last of the pillowcases I think I need to make for gifts. These go with the "Fruit Basket Upset" quilt I made for my oldest son for Christmas.

The Case of the Floating Jar

I've finished my last Christmas gift quilt for this year. It's for my youngest son. It's a bookcase quilt full of jars of sand (he collects them from places he and others go on vacation), candy (his daily diet), aquariums, books, money and all sorts of other goodies. It wasn't until I took this picture that I noticed I left one jar floating above the shelf. How it does that is a mystery to me! And so I've labeled this one "The Case of the Floating Jar". Get it? (My husband didn't).

Bound for Turkey

Bound: I finished sewing on the binding on 3 baby quilts last night. They are made of scraps - novelty fabric fronts, batting scraps from other quilt projects, flannel scraps pieced together for the back. Nothing fancy but they should keep a few babies warm.

Bound: I mailed them this morning. They are now bound for Turkey- victims of the earthquake sleeping in tents in wintery conditions. I hope they have a safe and speedy trip and warm some children's hearts and hands.

Sweet Dreams

I made some pillowcases that should glow in the dark. Each of these will go to a granddaughter (aged 6) for Christmas.

I backstitched around the cupcake frosting with the glow-in-the-dark thread I talked about in a previous post.

This one if for my 2 1/2 year old grandson. I backstitched a "path" on the pillowcase cuff with glow-in-the-dark thread. I was going to overstitch some spider web fabric for the cuff with some spidery fabric for the case but remembered Jacob is afraid of spiders. Well, he was afraid of them last year. He didn't want to jump in a pile of leaves with the other kids. His sister finally told me he was afraid there might be spiders in there.

These pillowcases are for my DD and SIL. They love to fish, forage for mushrooms and camp. A couple of years ago I made them a quilt with naturey type fabrics they have on their bed so the pillowcases should go well with the quilt.

And these are pillowcases for my brother who will be visiting us from Florida for Christmas. He loves hot peppers.

Funny story about the glow-in-the-dark thread: I keep a jelly jar for orts on a table next to the couch where I do my hand stitching. I threw all the glow-in-the-dark orts in the jar along with other threads. The granddaughters were out visiting this weekend and woke up around 5:30 a.m. and saw the glowing glass, were amazed, took threads out and stuck them in their hair and danced into my bedroom to show me. I must admit I put some in my hair and danced around with them for a bit. We pretended we were fairies until the thread all fell off of us and onto the rug, couch and ...well, all over the house.

Shhhh, the glowing pillowcases are for them for Christmas and I'm not going to tell them they glow.

Feeling Crumby

I had (and still have) a lot of novelty fabric "crumbs" - pieces I refuse to throw away - ends from cutting for I spy swaps, pieces left from other quilts.

Grandma taught me about quilting and about "waste not, want not". So, I decided a box of crumbs had to move out of my sewing room and into "I Spy" crumb quilts to give as Christmas gifts ...

...for some grandparents like my brother and wife who live in TN and have three grandkids under the age of four...

...and for my sister and husband who have 4 grandchildren (or is it more now?) and I think 2 are under the age of 4...

...and one is for my grandson, Jacob, who is 2 1/2 and loves challenges. We will start with find a "watermelon" and advance to "find a fruit", "find something to eat", find something you would use in a game", find something that rhymes with fat"...

With these quilts I really have wasted not so I should not be wanting for quite a while. Front was made of crumbs, I sewed together pieces of batting (also hogging up room) to fit the quilts and used thrift store flannel sheets for the backing. Binding was also old fabric and so I guess the only thing new was the thread.

I spy some fun and games between generations coming soon!