Happy Thanksgiving...

May you all enjoy your turkey as you count your many blessings...

Christmas Hotpads and Little Birdie Stitches

 These are the Christmas hotpads for 2012.  Since Christmas is all about gifts, I thought these would be really fun for the festive season...

November Birdie Stitches block.  Only one more month and I will be sewing my quilt together.  All the other blocks are assembled to make a queen size scrappy quilt...

Ghoulfriend's Night Out at My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe...oh and Halloween Hotpads

 Last night, our local quilt shop, My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe, hosted a Ghoulfriend's Night Out.  These girls really know how to throw a party..from treats to make it and take its to spooky specials throughout the store.

 The store was all decked out and then additional spaces in the building were turned into a most spooky atmosphere...These are food ideas for Halloween...

 It was so much fun to see all the decorations and the creative ways things were set up...

 Love this pumpkin with the google eyes..such a simple thing but oh so clever...

 Great use of a candleabra

 Fun Halloween quilt...it kinda gets one in the mood don't you think??

 In this space we were making stuffed pumpkins...

This year's Halloween hotpads...Does it make you miss your mummy???

Hotpads and Cooper...

Ruffled Hotpads...pattern by Sweetwater, you can find the pattern here

This sweet bundle of joy, Baby Cooper has been filling some of my time--priceless!!!

Run, run as fast as you can...

Should you wish to whip up a couple of these for your holiday giving, it is a simple 9 patch block. Squares are cut at 3". For the arms, I used 1 1/2" squares sewn on the diagonal on the corners, trimmed and flipped like you would do the flying geese. Ric rac was applied before sewing the blocks together. Enjoy!!

Gift Exchange...

Each year in our quilt guild, we have a gift exchange. The exchanges vary from year to year such as a dishtowel decorated with embellishment, a pincushion or a hotpad. It was voted on this year to do a hotpad so this is my gift exchange. Just need to wrap it up and I'm ready to go for December's guild...

Have a Gratitude Attitude...

Just finished...I got the inspiration and pattern from Nancy Halverson's book Easy Does it For Autumn...a little labor intensive but turned out really cute for the Thanksgiving season...

Bewitching...

I'm in the mood for Halloween. I made these little witch hotpads again. The witch is paper pieced and I added a 1" border around...

Auction...

Next Thursday for our Relief Society meeting, we are having an auction...We've been asked to donate items for this auction and in return, we get to participate in the auction. No money will exchange hands. Everyone has different items that they can donate such as haircuts, gardening, cooking, babysitting, etc. I signed up to donate hotpads....

and a table runner....

and some homemade bread. I think it will be a fun evening....

I am trying to manicure my stash...which includes my favorite thing to buy, charm packs. I used some leftover charms to make this table runner, pattern is by Sandy Gervais. The hotpads were made from leftovers from a quilt I made a couple of years ago. It is really fun to revisit these wonderful fabrics!!

Every once in awhile, I will run across a fun little pattern that sews up in nothing flat. This little pattern is one of those. The pattern describes the Hot Fingers as: "The best friend your fingers will ever have! So grasp your cup, pull open that steaming bag of popcorn or grab that baked potato, all without burning your fingers! For Microwave Use Only!" You can find the pattern here http://susiecshore.com ,#ST-944. Would make a great happy gift, neighbor gift or whatever....

Peep Peep...

Happy Spring!! You can find the embroidery pattern at http://cedarberrystitches.com/kassie.html. The paper pieced chick pattern you can find at http://patchpieces.com/sharingpatch.html. I enlarged the paper pieced pattern to the size I wanted. Fun project---enjoy!!!

Busy, busy, busy--lots of small projects...

This is my new project bag. It is made out of the heavy duty screening, (vinyl coated polyester) with a fabric top and zipper to enclose. Way fun to make and only took a little bit of time. Great pouch to put your needlework in or a good book, etc. Give it a try. You can get this screening at Home Depot on the roll. Make sure you get the vinyl coated polyester--not the fiberglass....

I made a Valentine quilt for the store last year and had a bunch of odds and ends left over that I really wanted to use up. I took the leftover panel designs and cut them into 5 1/2" for this mini quilt and 6" for the hotpads. I was able to use them up and now have more fabric recyled into fun projects. I added beads and sequins to the small circles on the heart for that glitzy look and did a simple backstitch with embroidery floss around the heart.

For the hotpads, I added an 1 1/2" border around the cutout and then layered batting and a prewashed dishtowel for the back. I then quilted and bound the hotpads. I make a lot of hotpads--they make great gifts and a great way to use up leftover batting and fabric. Give it a try sometime.

Santa Hot pads...

I saw some Santa hot pads in Hobby Lobby and they looked like this but they were solid red. I thought they were really cute. I went to the local quilt stores and all they had in the red department with dishtowels was this bricked check. So Santa has a modern quilty look this year at my house in my creating corner.

I prewashed the dishtowels because they shrink. I then cut them at 8" and did a 2" x 8" strip of black that I fused for the belt and drew a buckel 2" square with a hole in the center. Fuse, applique and then sandwich your batting between the 2 layers of dishtowel squares (I actually cut the bottom one 1/2" bigger--it just works out better that way and then I trim it down after quilting it). I use one square 8" of left over batting from quilts and 1 8" square of the insul-brite stuff to keep yourself from getting burned. I quilted it on both sides of the belt and put a binding on.

So, what do you think of this project?

Just finishing up my Thanksgiving projects--turkey hotpads

Being the Nancy Halverson fan that I am, I whipped up these cute turkey hotpads--(not really). A little time intensive, but so very cute and festive for the season. This pattern I revised for the hotpads using her book Acorn Hollow. I'm so excited to be finally making something from this wonderful book. I've had it for years as I collect cute patterns, but have finally made up a few things.

Spooky Halloween Sky...

Last night, my husband and I came back from a trip to the store and this is what greeted us ...a fairly spooky Halloween looking sky.

And since I am in the Halloween mood, this is what I have made...Frankenstein hotpads....fun huh? For those of you wishing to duplicate these little pretties, I took the design from a pillow featured in Holiday Crafts by Better Homes and Gardens 2009. Enjoy....