Retreat Next Week

We are holding a mystery retreat next week and part of the goodie bags will be a ToteAlong. That means that we have to make 40 of them by next week. Mary and I worked on them on Tuesday and got 13 done.

Lisa embroidered patches to put on the pockets of the ToteAlongs. She did 40 of them and we are making the ToteAlongs for each person attending the retreat. We are using peach fabric since Georgia is the Peach State.

I love the looks of these bags. I can't wait for all the participants to get their goodie bags and see these. There are other things that will go into the goodie bags but these are the best part.

We went up to Amicalola Falls today to check out the meeting room and see how we want it set up. This is going to be a beautiful place to spend a few days. The retreat is a murder mystery and there is also a mystery quilt that many of the participants are going to make. Should be lots of fun.

SSCS Gift

I sent my SSCS gift out and forgot to take a photo before I wrapped everything. I did post a photo of the packages wrapped before I closed up the box but you couldn't see what there was inside.

Laila posted a photo of the presents after she received the box so I am now posting it here.

Do you see the steno book cover? I told you I give them as gifts!

New Quilt

I am making a new quilt as a shop sample. Here are the fabrics that will be used in the top. I really like the brown and green together. The quilt has very large blocks and only nine of them so it should go together quickly, especially since I have not been sleeping well at night so have been sewing in the middle of the night.

I hope to get the top pieced in the next couple of days and then quilted early next week. Should be doable.

Don't forget to comment on the last post if you are interested in being in a drawing for a steno book cover. I will draw the name of the winner on New Years Day.

New Year - New Calendar - Giveaway!!!

I love the start of the new year when you have a fresh new calendar to fill with the next year's happenings. I thought I would share with you my 2009 calendar and notebook.

As I was leaving the office of President of the guild, it is traditional to give a small gift to each person who served the guild as a committee chair or officer. I decided to make steno book covers for each of them. I ended up making 40 of these in December. This is one that I kept. I use it to make to-do lists. Not sure if I ever do what is on the to-do lists but if I write it down, there is at least a chance I will do it. If I don't write it, I won't do it for sure.

This has been one of my favorite gifts to give this last year. I have made more that 50 of them during the year. I still have a few left that I have not given away so if you want to be put in a drawing for one, just comment on this post and I will draw a name on New Years Day.

I love everything black and white and have now fallen in love with it accented by yellow.

My friend Jan makes wonderful notebook covers - see the one she made for me at this post. Recently, she made some that cover a calendar. I bought this one from her. It is black and white and accented with little yellow birds. I made the steno book to coordinate with it. It will be fun to schedule my days in the calendar and then write my to-do lists in the matching steno book. All I need is a black and white tote bag to carry them in.

Wonderful Gift

Here is one of my favorite gifts. In 2007, my whole family went on a cruise to Mexico. This included my son and his family from Sweden, my daughter and her family from San Francisco, my sister and her husband from Seal Beach, her daughter and family from Cerritos and my children's father, along with his wife.

There were 17 of us, from the two 4 year old boys (my grandsons), my 7 year old granddaughter, my niece's two kids - 14 and 17 at the time. The rest were adults. We had a wonderful time for a week. A cruise is a wonderful trip to take with family. We had dinner together every night but we were able to do other things during the day that suited each family.

Shelly took a photo that we had taken on the cruise, each of us wearing our matching t-shirts on the stairs by the pool. She had it made into a notebook cover but then forgot to send it to me last year so I got it for Christmas.

I think she had it made at Cosco. Isn't this a great idea for a present? I love my notebook.

Christmas Gifts

Here are a few of my Christmas gifts. This is from my sister and her husband. It is a great shawl in wonderful colors. I love the way it feels and looks.

Both Robin and I are true bag ladies - we LOVE tote bags. Here is the one she sent this year. It is made from some type of recycled containers but I can't figure out what they were before becoming my tote bag.

This is from my niece Shelly and her family. It is a dog photo frame. Now all I need is a good photos of my dogs. Whenever I try to take one, I get red eyes that I can't correct.

This last one is a compact mirror that Robin and John sent. It is really beautiful.

I received several other things but these are some of my favorites.

Christmas Day 2008

Here is the Santa that Bill's mother brought to him. See the Pepsi emblem on his belt! His beard is turning kind of yellow with age but otherwise he is in great condition for being 41 years old. He gave it to her in 1967.

We went out to Aunt Jane and Uncle Steve's house for dinner. Here is Bill, Phyllis (his mother) and Burt (his step-father) at the dinner table. It is about a 120 mile drive each way so makes for a long day.

Here is the dessert table with my Sour Cream Poppyseed Cake, Pecan Pie and fudge. They all tasted pretty good! Fortunately we left most of it there for them to enjoy but we have some of each here at home.

I hope all of you had a great Christmas day and will have a wonderful new year!

Merry Christmas

I finally finished and delivered my last customer Christmas quilt today! Nothing like working until the last minute.

Bill's parents stopped by here this afternoon on the way to Aunt Jane's house for Christmas. We will be going out there in the morning for the day. They live near Lake Oconee which is about 120 miles from our house. It is a long drive for a day trip but they are the only family we have close by.

I just finished making a Pecan Pie and a Sour Cream Pound Cake to take for dessert tomorrow. We will make a large pan of Cheesy Potatoes in the morning and that will be our contributions to the meal.

Here are a few photos of my house decorated for Christmas.

This is my collection of Santas gathered on the mantel. Bill's mother brought us a Santa that Bill got about 40 years ago when he worked at Pepsi. He remembers how proud he was to get it for her. She is trying to downsize like most of us and is giving some of her things to her family. Pepsi Santa will look great on the mantle every year at our house.

Here is the dining room table and my collection of quilt shops on the sideboard. I have a whole town but every building except one is a quilt shop. There is one bowling alley for Bill but the rest are all quilt shops.

Here is the Christmas tree, complete with a new angel for the top. I am not sure what happened to the old angel but she could not be found this year so we got a new one. The tree is full of ornaments made by many friends and my kids. I love ornament swaps and although there is not much room left on the tree, I can't resist joining in and getting more.

I think my favorite ornament is the pink yarn octopus my daughter made in kindergarten or first grade. He only has four legs but is very cute and has been on the tree for almost 35 years now.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas from me, Bill, Max and Chula!

Last Meeting as President

Friday was the last meeting that I presided at as President of the East Cobb Quilters' Guild. It was our Christmas/Holiday party and a good time was had by everyone. It was also time to elect new officers and they then took over at the end of the meeting. I had a great time as President and am delighted that I am turning the gavel over to Danielle for next year. She will do a great job!

Here is a good photo of the Executive Committee that help lead the guild during this year.

It is a tradition of the guild that the outgoing President is given a quilt made by members of the guild. The First Vice President (Danielle) is responsible for getting the quilt made.

As you probably know, I love lime green. Danielle choose lime green, purple and white/light. The block is a split nine patch and each block is signed. There are even some extra blocks on the back. It was quilted for me by Betty, who is a wonderful quilter.


Here is the quilt laying on the piano at the church where we meet. Isn't it beautiful?

Here is Danielle and me holding the quilt. Look at how large it is. Danielle had not gotten the label on it so she sewed it on this Monday when she came over for lunch. I took a nap under it on Friday afternoon to break it in. I love my quilt!!!!

Allatoona Tote Bag Exchange

Today was the December meeting of the Allatoona Guild. One of the things we did was have a tote bag exchange. Here is the tote bag I made. I covered embroidery hoops with fabric for the handles. I put pockets inside, including one with a zipper. I then made a cell phone bag that is tied to the handle and can go inside the bag or hang on the outside. Lastly, I made a Tote Along bag that fits in one the pockets. I think the person who received it was pleased.

The fabric is from Amy Butler's latest line - I think it is called Daisy Chain. I used 5 different fabrics all together.

Here is the bag I received in the exchange. Jean made it and she did a great job. She also used Amy Butler fabrics - Midwest Modern. The pattern is one that several people made. Lots of different fabrics and looks but they were all great

Here is the back of the bag. It is a nice size bag and I feel very fortunate to have received it.

This last photo is of the bag that Mary received. While it is a purchased bag, instead of homemade, it is very nice and she was pleased with it.

We had lots of happy faces after the exchange.

By the way, I was voted in as President for 2009 and I am looking forward to a wonderful year.

Fiber Art Fusion Christmas Meeting/Dinner

Tonight was the December meeting of the Fiber Art Fusion group. We had dinner at a local restaurant. For the gift exchange, we each made a small piece of art and then drew numbers to select a gift. Of course, they were all wrapped.

The piece was supposed to by 5x7 which is a good size to play with. Not too big and not too small. Here is the one I made.

First I started with some yellow hand-dyed fabric and fused it to Timtex. Next I added fusible web and put lots of thread snips on it. As I quilt customer quilts, I put all the thread scraps in a plastic box. I dug through the box and put sections of different colors on top of the yellow background.

Next, I added some larger thread pieces of a variegated perle cotton. Then I got into the confetti and scattered it around the piece. Lastly, I topped it with a piece of netting to hold it all down.

Now the fun began. I selected different stitches on my Pfaff and using various rayon threads, played with the stitches. I really like the little diamonds in the right lower corner. Lastly, I trimmed it to the correct size and added satin stitching to finish off the outer edge.

This is the one I that received. It is mostly needle felted and made by Paula. On the back she wrote "I am running hot and cold". Isn't it great!

Strip Bag

We had a Christmas party for customers at Tiny Stitches. They paid $5 to reserve a spot and then when they left, they got a goodie bag. Part of the bag included a little roll of 1 1/2 inch strips. I cut them all on the AccuCut and rolled them. I tied them with extra fabric and they really looked cute.

Of course, they also got some other things in the bag, including a discount coupon for a future purpose.

Any way, after cutting all the strips and rolling up the strips, we decided that we needed to also give them an idea of a project to make out of the strips.

This little bag is what I ended up with. The strips were 1 1/2 inches by approximately 22 inches or 1/2 the width of fabric. There were 10 strips and I simply sewed them together. Once sewn, I trimmed them to a rectangle, added batting and a lining fabric. We didn't include the lining/binding fabric but all the customer needs is 1/3 yard.

Here is the bag opened. It really turned out good and hopefully many of the customers will like it. Making it was fun but doing the directions was a challenge. It is always hard to write directions that can be understood by almost anyone.

SSCS Received

I got my SSCS swap package today. I probably should have waited until Christmas to open it, but I didn't.

Here it is when it came out of the envelope.

Here it is all opened up. I love everything that was sent, all the way from Australia. The little bag is so cute, the needle case is great and the pattern is very interesting - I hope to make it next year.

Thanks to Leanne for everything she sent to me.

UFO Finished - Christmas Door Quilt

I made this quilt almost 20 years ago when I lived in Australia. I finally quilted it a couple of years ago but it still wasn't finished - I couldn't figure out what to do to it to make it better but I just didn't like it. Part of the problem was the fabric - not good quality at all.

When I was cleaning up my sewing area, I found a bunch of yo-yo's that I made a few years ago. I had the idea to make a table topper out of them but of course, never got around to it. I used some of the yo-yo's to decorate the Christmas tree on the wall hanging. I sewed buttons in the center of each yo-yo and that is what it needed. I am much happier with it now.

Here it is on my front door.

SSCS Swap Sent

I forgot to post last week when I sent out my SSCS swap package. It is going to Norway so will take a little while to get there. Here is the box right before I closed it up and sealed it. I found great lime green wrapping paper and ribbon so we will be able to have a lime green Christmas.

In the last week, I also sent out the Ornament and Socks Swap and my Apron swap. I forgot to take photos of the ornament swap package and will wait until the apron is received before I post those photos.

I have been working on a tote bag for the Allatoona Guild Christmas Party next Tuesday. We are doing a Tote Bag swap. I just finished the second handle of my bag this afternoon and should be able to finish it tonight or in the morning.

Ornament and Socks Swap

One more swap I have participated it recently. This one is from Mary Lou Weidman's Yahoo Group. We sent an ornament and a pair of socks for another group member. This is what I received from Reena.

As usual, I forgot to take a photo of the package I sent to her.

This was a simple swap and didn't involve making anything. Simple but fun!

Late Birthday Present

Yesterday was a planning meeting at the Allatoona Guild and my friend Mary brought me a belated birthday gift - aren't I a lucky girl to have a friend like Mary!

Last year I taught the guild how to make zipper bags and managed to talk Mary out of one during the class. She made me another one - look at the wonderful pincushion fabric.

Then she made a very unusual pincushion for me. The top photo is of the pincushion closed so that it can be used as a pincushion. The second photo is of it opened with the lime green felt pockets. You can store needles and pins in the felt and they stay safe while it is folded up and being used as a pincushion.

Thank you again Mary!