Stitch It and Gift It Blog Hop - Hotpads

Hello and welcome to my stop on the Stitch It and Gift It Blog Hop!  I am so excited to see all the great ideas that everyone is sharing with us this week, and I hope you enjoy seeing my projects.  Thank you Carla for the opportunity to participate!  I encourage you all to visit Carla's website by clicking on the image above, and enter into the drawing for a gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop and be sure to visit the others today too!

Wednesday, November 13th

MooseStashQuilting

Pampered Pettit
Mary Mack Made Mine
The Quilted Snail
Days Filled With Joy
Melva Loves Scraps

Limeleaves

I created/finished up a couple hotpads that will be gifted on Christmas Eve to an unknown recipient.  We do a form of White Elephant gift exchange in our family, the only rule for the item is the item can't cost more than $15.  So I am pairing my two potholders with a big bag of monster cookies and apparently my sister has already decided she will fight for these.  She actually tried to sneak one out of the room earlier this week, LOL!

This hotpad was actually a 6 year old UFO!  It is also the very first thing I ever quilted feathers on, and it was quilted on my Bernina.

This block was really fun to make, so much so that I actually made 2 blocks, but one is going into a future Christmas sampler.  (I like to make sample blocks with Christmas fabric when testing a block, eventually I will have a king size Christmas quilt!)  This is also the first time I have purchased a book and actually made a block out of it!  I had pre-ordered Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage 2 from Fat Quarter Shop earlier this year because I felt like I would definitely use it, and see, I was right.

The block in the book is the Evening Star, isn't just amazing how the colors make a block so different?  Also, look at how many other blocks I have marked in here, they will all make awesome potholders...

Isn't this little tag super cute?  One of our LQS (Stash of Walla Walla) has them and I just love the added little sentiment!  Also, I obviously was not going to hand stitch the binding down on this LOL.

You might notice how puffy my hotpad is, I like to use 2 layers of Insulbrite, or one layer of Insulbrite and a layer of cotton or 80/20, which ever is more available at the moment.  I also find that I prefer to use the couple of 12 inch hotpads that are in my kitchen drawer over the smaller ones since most of my pans are pretty large, so I figure the bakers in my family will also enjoy larger ones.  Or, you know, my sister will, since apparently she is willing to take on the family for these... (I am making extras for her Christmas stocking so she will have some no matter what).

 Thomas says to remind you how wonderful and comfy pillows are too. (Football block from Cluck Cluck Sew's Touchdown pattern.)

Belle learned the beauty of a tied fleece blanket this last weekend, so quick and cozy!

And finally I leave you with a little parcel that I am gifting to my longarm quilting clients this year.  I am so thankful for the people who are supporting my business (Blue Spool Sewing Room) and look forward to giving them their little gifts!  I will share later what I am gifting them, it's not a sewn item and it's a surprise.   But I am making the bags to put their gift into!  Selina shared some cute bag ideas on Monday, in case you missed them definitely go check her's out.

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you all have a wonderful time exploring all these great gift ideas and have fun making gifts for the holidays!

~Brandy

Ahh, a break

Hello again!  It's been radio silence for quite some time, perks of working for a packing and shipping store during the Christmas season. :)  We have been quite busy, as I'm sure you can imagine.  I have found time to sew a couple times this month though!  We had our potluck guild meeting on the 8th and had a gift exchange, so I made this potholder:

 I had to fight for my chair again...

He is getting entirely too comfortable.

 

Also, I took the time and painted my nails during a Seahawks game!  Strings of lights, next time I will go a little more simple though.  I ended up changing my nails to just the red and green tips halfway through the week, and had a ton of complements on them.  Simple is effective!

 

I made up some wine bottle bags to sell at the store, last year we had people asking for something similar (we are the only place in town that can ship wine besides doing so directly from the winery itself) so I figured I could pick up some pretty fabric from Joann's and whip up some bags pretty inexpensively.  We only have one left now!  I think I made a total of 10.

We put together a little gift package for my brother-in-law Joe and his daughter Eryka, and I included this jar in the hopes they will bake the cookies up together.  Or Eryka will do it with Joe's girlfriend Sarah.  Whatever, just make the cookies!  I was pleased that I was able to cut my usual chocolate chip cookie recipe in half and it fit in the quart jar without issue.  I do understand now why people put the brown sugar on top of the chocolate chips though, that flour sifted right through them hahaha!  Silly me.  Next time I will do Flour, chips, brown sugar, flour, brown sugar, white sugar.  Then I'll still have the layers but it will be more clean.  I think.

I also was able to use almost all of this last Sunday to cut up fabric for this table runner, it's a French Braid runner and the first time for me making one.  It is coming along nicely, I just hope to finish it before 1pm on Christmas (that is when I will see the intended recipient).

 

I have been making tumblers as a leader-ender project as suggested by Bonnie Hunter.  These are pairs laid out next to each other, it's fun to see the progress!  Of course I went with 2 1/2 inch tumblers, why would I use larger ones that might go together quickly?  I have decided I need to go through my fabric and cut 2 1/2 inch strips from each piece so I can have more variety in my pieces, I don't have a lot of scrap in general and definitely not in that size.  So I will have to create some.  And I'm fine with that, just need to make the time to do it.

I also finally sat down to see how long it would take to make this Hunter's Star quilt, and it turns out it takes ~half an hour for me to make one block.  I need more than 30, and that means at least 15 hours just to assemble the blocks for the top.  So I will not be trying to complete this for Christmas.  Probably Father's Day though.

 

We have had one GOOD frost this month.  Even snowed for a day!

And then we had sunshine.  It's actually sunny right now, I can feel it on the back of my neck.

 

 

The cats were so excited yesterday morning, running back and forth between the side window and the front window, and then John and I heard this thunder-like noise, and when we looked outside we saw a HUGE cloud of birds flying in our yard!  It was the first time we've been so close as to hear them flying, it was really neat.  We tossed some birdseed in the yard with the hopes that they will entertain Belle and Thomas for a while.  It's working.

 

I also took a few minutes this weekend to finish decorating the tree.  It always makes me so happy to bring out my ornaments, I have many old friends in my boxes.  And John and I have picked up some new ones, the black and white zig-zag one on the bottom left is from our visit to Mesa Verde in Colorado.  And our topper this year is an heirloom from my Great Grandma Schuster (the same grandma who I inherited the White from).

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, I am personally excited that I have Christmas Eve all to myself for ~8 hours to make candy and sew up a few more items before John gets home and we head to my aunt and uncle's house for the annual Lasagna Feed.  Oh, I better remember that I'm making a lasagna this year, oops!  Guess I know where I'm going after work tonight!

 

Merry Christmas!

~Brandy

 

This may be one of those times it's ok to let the cat out of the box...

 

Hotpads

I gave my Great Grandma her puzzle hotpad/potholder on Mother's Day, and she was really impressed.  Everyone loved the colors, I had to point out the quilting.  My family is still in training...

 

 

And I finished my sister's Christmas/birthday present hotpad, I still have a pen case on the books for her.

 

The quilting in progress.

Making a flanged binding for Jen's hotpad, my first flanged binding.

Still trying to figure this part out, it's fine on the inside!

I love the framed look!



You can see the quilting really well on the back, I tried to vary it to look like the cup is on a table.

Very nice!  Slow and steady, really important.

This is my next project, finishing this wall hanging from Connecting Threads.  I was able to get two of them because they were on clearance in January.  Not sure yet what will happen with the second, probably someone will come along in our lives who's obsessed with fish or has a nautical-themed nursery.  We'll see

Love the fish block!!

 

Alright, off to work now.  Have a super sparkly day!

 

~Brandy

 

Thomas and Belle want to remind you to take it easy and enjoy the sunshine!

 

 

 



T'was the Night - Day Three

Oh happy day!  It's my turn on this wonderful blog hop, and I couldn't have been much more excited about participating in this one.  Not only do I love making small and quick projects, but I got to give one of them to a fellow quilter/blogger!  I just love giving homemade gifts.  Thank you very much to Marlene and Madame Samm for organizing this hop, I'm having such a wonderful time.  And thank you so much to all the others participating in the hop, I am loving seeing all the great ideas everyone has!  Be sure to hop over to my fellow ladies of the day, you can find the links at the end of this post.

 

First off, I wish to share with you what I received from Jill at Apple Avenue Quilts.  I was so excited to see what she made for me!

 

What a beautiful wrapping idea!  (sorry, I'm new to the idea of the use of ribbon.  So every time I see something wrapped in it I get all excited :)  )

I admire people with knitting skills, this is a beautiful washcloth Jill.

Buttons, yay!

And a couple great potholders, and perfect timing, I just had to retire a bunch because they were beyond saving.  I think you can't have enough of these, especially if you entertain ever.

Remember to go to Moose Stash Quilting next to see what I made for Joan!

 

And here are some ideas I found only took me a couple hours to make:

The Mortimer moose wall-hanging I made last year, you get the idea, small (it's only 17"x17"), simple patchwork, and simple applique.  Ta-da!  Stinkin' cute wall-hanging.  Then a patchwork pillow sham, a potholder using fancy fabric and flower shaped quilting, and some decorative stockings.

My great-grandma Pawlik inspired me when making these.  She made a bunch for the ladies in our family about 15 years ago, and we still all put them up for Christmas.  I'm hoping that will happen with my family when I'm a grandma someday!

Here are some more everyday-type gift ideas:

 



A project bag.  I love the size tremendously and got the instructions from Jina.  Not only will it hold all your sewing items you'd need, it is also the perfect size for a cosmetic bag, or to hold snacks on a car trip, or colored pencils and a small drawing pad... so many options!

A plastic bag holder.  My grandma Kathy showed me how to make these on Sunday, thank you grandma!  This one has already been claimed by my sister, which fits, she has a rooster-theme going on in her kitchen. 

And a lap quilt.  So this is the same idea as the self-binding baby blanket from Missouri Star Quilt Co, I just made it as large as I could while maintaining the 10" difference between the small and large piece of fabric.  I also managed to get a layer of batting in there, it took some finagling...

John agreed to model my lap quilt for me, wasn't that nice?

 

While I'm happy with the gifts I created, I believe my favorite last minute gift is the sweetest, and that is homemade candy!  Here's my dad's favorite recipe:

 

 

Chocolate Peanut-Butter Balls

1 C peanut-butter

1 C powdered sugar

1 package chocolate chips

 

Melt chocolate chips using whatever method you prefer.  Double boiler seems to be the most popular.

Prepare a jellyroll pan by laying out a piece of wax paper on it.

Mix PB and sugar together, roll into 1 inch wide balls, and dip into melted chocolate.  Place on jellyroll pan, and when the pan is filled place PB balls into fridge to set.

That's all there is to it!  You could then make a fabric box like Connie talks about in this post, line it with parchment or wax paper and fill it with these yummies for a quick treat too.

 

Here are the other ladies who are showing their gift ideas today:

 

Daisy Days

Just Keep Swimming

Words and Stitches

Apple Avenue Quilts

Pampered Pettit - that's me!

Moose Stash Quilting

 

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! 

~Brandy



with love to Konnie the cat, we'll miss you this Christmas my furry little sister