Fleece Pajama Pants!

I got our fleece pajama pants done for Christmas and they turned out really cute, don’t you think??

 

We’re laughing in this first picture since my husband was trying to set the camera to take a timed picture so he could be in it… well, he missed getting there in time for the first picture…

 

And, he made it! : )

My oldest son on the right, the one who said he wanted his fleece pj’s to be basketball shorts length, is still trying to convince me that he was kidding… well, too bad. His are short!

 

My second oldest son is not in the picture since he is on a mission in Kentucky for the next two years!  

 

I even made a pair of jammie pants for his girlfriend (who he is not going to get to see for three years, since she is planning on going on a mission, too, and their missions will overlap!) 

She really liked them! : ) 

 

What a doll she is!

And yes, if you happened to make the connection… she is my quilting mentee. : )

 

 

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict’s Whoop! Whoop!

and Lily’s Quilts

2012 - A Great Year to Start Quilting Again…

So here we go again… ending one year and beginning another.  I’m so glad I started quilting again this year as it’s brought me a lot of joy.

Here’s a collage of a lot of the things I sewed this year…

 

The best thing about sewing and quilting is that, usually, the things you make are for a gift for someone you love. So, the project often evokes a feeling of love for that person when you see it.  What a wonderful hobby!

 

 

Grandma’s Hand Print Quilt

Several months ago I posted about a quilt I was planning to make for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Well, now that it’s Christmas and I’ve given it to her, I can follow up and show you the completed quilt, and the happy Grandma!

 

 

It took me a long time to try to figure out what to do with the blocks in between the hand prints.  I worried that if I did much piecing in these blocks that they would detract from the hand prints. I tried to envision different kinds of blocks and since I couldn’t really envision what they would look like, I just decided to do plain fabric squares. I did modify six of the blocks and put in four-patches instead.  I’m quite pleased with the outcome.

 

 

The blocks are 9 1/2” (cut) each and the finished quilt is 56” x 74”.

I appliquéd the hand prints using Heat n’ Bond lite, and then did a narrow zig-zag around the edges.

I used fabric from California Girl – they look so bright and cheery!

 

  This block is one of my favorites. Since one of the grandchildren had a baby this year, that means Grandma is now a Great-Grandma! It didn’t work to give the baby her own block since that threw off my pattern, so I sewed her right along-side her daddy’s handprint. Adorable!

 

 

Near each hand print I fmq’d a little heart. (I need to get better at doing hearts!)

 

This block has the youngest grandchild’s hand prints on it, and since she’s so little (she’s only two) I decided to put both of her hands on it. Cute!

 

 

I labeled all the hand prints and this little tag on the back of the quilt using a permanent Micron pen. That’s what the gal at my lqs suggested I use and it worked great!

I backed the quilt with that double sided super soft stuff - it’s like minky without the bumps. What’s it called?? All I know is it’s SUPER soft and snuggly! Yum!

And yes, I did use batting as well. I wondered if it would be too heavy, but we all agree that it really is very snuggly and not too heavy at all.

 

And, yes, I remembered to sign my name!

 

This is my daughter snuggling up in it before we wrapped it up.

 

And here comes the big moment!

 

I LOVE to see the pleasant surprised look on people’s faces and you know you’ve given them something they love. : )

 

Oohing and ahhing over each grandchild’s hand print…

 

Yup, she loved it.

 

This is the youngest grandchild putting her hands on her hand prints. So sweet!

 

 

Linking up with Confessions of a Faric Addict – Whoop! Whoop!

and with Crazy Mom Quilts

and with Lily’s Quilts

My husband gave to me….

On Christmas Eve there appeared a couple of big, gorgeously wrapped red packages near our tree. There were no tags on them, so I could only properly assume and hope that they were for me! : )

 

 

(Notice the two pillow shams on the right of the tree… I’ll blog about them later…)

 

This is me in a slight state of shock…

(I LOVE Bernina sewing machines! I grew up on them as that’s the only kind my mother ever bought, and they are wonderful!!!)

 

 

…could it really be?…

 

 

What??? A B750 QE Bernina sewing machine????????

For ME???

(The second box contained all of the accoutrements, such as the tray, instruction manual and dvd, etc.)

And yes, it came with a Stitch Regulator!!!!!!

 

Yes!!!!

It really is!!!!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sharing the love of quilting… continued

My sweet mentee and I had another opportunity to get together to work on her quilt. It is coming along nicely!  She is such a dear person, and it is really a joy to see her find such joy in quilting and creating something beautiful.  I’m so glad for her!

 

She is doing so well! She’s a very diligent student, and a delight to spend time with.

She was so pleased to see it begin to fall together, to see the chevrons become chevrons!

More to come!!!

Dresden Table Runners

 

My sister’s birthday is in November so I thought I’d make her a table runner. Her kitchen is decorated in black, white and red and it was pretty fun shopping for fabrics for her runner.  I fell in love with these dresden plate table runners (here and here) earlier this year and decided that I was going to have to make one sometime soon.

 

 

The large dresden in the center was cut at 5” and the smaller dresden’s on the sides were cut at 4”.

This was the first time, in probably forever, that I actually felt it was a good thing to do chain stitching. :)

 

I had a hard time deciding what color of thread to do the fmq in but I think white turned out to be the best.

 

I love the backing fabric, too!

Do any of you get carried away while cutting things out and cut more than you actually needed?  Well, I did this time and cut out one more large dresden, so I made a small square table runner out of it.

I thought it turned out pretty cute!

I LOVE this red on black print!

 

She loved her gifts! I was so glad. Sometimes it’s hard receiving homemade gifts since it may not exactly be something you really like, but you can feel obligated to keep and display since it was given to you. I told her that’s how I felt about it and that if she didn’t really, really like it that she should give it to someone else. I didn’t want her saying, “Oh no! Myra is coming over! I better get those table runners out!”  : )  But, she seemed to really like them, so that was fun.

 

Santa’s little helper…

I got a bee in my bonnet the other day and decided to make matching fleece pajama pants for myself and my daughter for Christmas. While I was at the store, I decided my two younger boys would probably like to have some, too, so I bought more fabric.  I was sure that my husband and two older sons would NOT be interested in matching fleece jammies so I didn’t even think more about them.

 

Well, long story short, later that day I got to thinking that I had better be safe and ask my older men-folk just to be sure. I was right about one older son and No, he does not want a pair for himself.  However, the other older son said that he would! But, he would like them to be fleece SHORTS, as in, basketball length shorts. Whatever! Then, my husband shocked me and said that he would like a pair of jammie pants, too. WHO KNEW! Good thing I asked!

 

So, back to the store I went and purchased more of this adorable red fleece fabric. Thank goodness it was 50% off and the patterns were only a dollar!

 

AND, since I’m gonna be making so many pairs of jammie pants, I decided it was high time to get my serger out of storage and get it serviced so I can use that puppy on the jammies!  So, I did! Woohoo! I’m so excited to get that serger up and running! My sweet mom gave it to me y-e-a-r-s ago and I have used it once about 8-10 years ago.  I’m so happy to have it going again. I plan to keep it in my sewing room as a regular piece of equipment!

 

These are going to be CUTE!

Sharing the love of quilting…

Today a very special young lady came to my house to begin learning how to quilt.  She is such a sweetheart and is very eager to learn. Last week I showed her some pictures of quilts that would be good beginner quilts and she chose to make a chevron twin bedspread.

When I took her to the fabric store to pick out her fabrics, you would have thought she had died and gone to fabric heaven!  So many lovely fabrics to choose from! She’s a lady who knows what she likes so she was easily drawn to her fabric choices.

She told me a couple of days later that she had dreamed about her fabric. A true quilter indeed!

 

Here are her cute little 5” squares.

 

Her first little chevron! She was so excited!!

 

 

And here’s the darling girl herself. How fun it is to pass on such a joy as quilting!  

Fandango!!!

Tonight was our Liberty Girls Family Fandango!!!

Wow! What a night! It was so fabulous! We had delicious food, terrific company, and amazing performers!!!

Don’t our little Josefina dresses look adorable on them!

 

Each of our Liberty Girls moms brought a dish that would have been typical of mid 1800’s New Mexico. We had Carne Adovada (meat marinated in red chile sauce, yum!), refried beans, flour and corn tortillas, Quelites (cooked spinach), Calabacitas (yellow and green squash with corn). For dessert we had hot chocolate and bizcochitos (yummy cookies).

 

And the girls brought their 18” dolls dressed up in their Josefina outfits too! Cute!

Here’s all the girls waiting for the performance to start.

 

We were then treated by an amazing group of young dancers called “Viva Mexico!” They were SO great! WOW! These kids did such a lovely job doing their dances.  So adorable. And their costumes were beautiful!

When these girls came out in these lovely skirts, my first thought was “Hmmm… I think I know what my daughter is going to ask me to sew for her after this!” And you know what? She did! She wants a skirt like the pink one on the right. : )

These dancers were so adorable!

I need a faster camera to catch the action better!

 

This picture is of all the dancers and all of our Liberty Girls.

I’m on the left with the teacher of this group. And yes, I made myself a Josefina outfit, too!

What a great evening!!!

 

After it was over, my daughter ran into her room and put on this long circle skirt I had made for last year because it was the closest thing she had to the kind the dancers had. She danced and danced to the music…

Yes, she loves to dance and is in dancing lessons. : )