Happy Thanksgiving!

Whether you are alone with a peanut butter sandwich, surrounded by friends and loved ones, or somewhere in between, I hope that you are having a day of thanksgiving.

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Here's an update on those Christmas wall hangings. I've finished all of the actual piecing and ended up making 7 wall hangings instead of 6. One, as you can see, is different. I ran out of the fabric that I used in the others and thought this would be a better fit for my recipient anyway. I'm only showing you the backsides so that I don't completely spoil the surprise.

Now the hard part begins. I have appliques to sew onto the squares, then embellish, then quilt, then bind. Much of this can be done with the sewing machine. I'll have to hand sew the the binding to the back of the quilts and that part will be quite time consuming. There will be approximately 43' (yes, feet) of binding to hand sew! I'm just trying to finish them in the order that they will be given away, one by one. Fortunately, 95% of my Christmas shopping is done and I'll be able to devote lots of time to complete these. Wish me luck!

In early September, I joined a Pincushion Round Robin exchange. It works like this......after groups are assigned, the hostess fills the box with pincushion(s) and/or pincushion making items. It is mailed off to the first participant on the list. She takes out anything from the box that she wants, then replaces these items with items of her choice. A diary was also enclosed to write about yourself, your selections, and anything else that you wanted to add. And on it goes. There were 12 ladies in my group and I was number 10 on the list. The box arrived yesterday and here it is! I think the best part of this whole Round Robin exchange was the anticipation of waiting on the box and wondering what would be inside. When the exchange is over, I'll find out how many miles the box traveled. (Update--the hostess tells me that the box will have traveled 13,354 miles and visit 12 states.......not bad for a box......will it get frequent mailer miles?)
Here's an overall shot of the contents. The box weighed over five pounds and had lots of goodies in it. You can't really see everything that was stuffed into this box, but you get the idea. After searching through everything, I only kept three fat quarters, some plastic feet that had the potential of becoming PC's, and some ground walnut shells, which can be used to stuff pincushions.

I added this bottle cap pincushion that I made to the box, plus a ceramic turkey that was supposed to be a tea light holder. It was just screaming (gobbling?) that it wanted to be a PC. The box was then repacked and off it went to the next lady.

If you are ever invited to join a round robin exchange, I would recommend it just for the fun of waiting for it to arrive!

I'm working away on those Christmas wall hangings and thought that I'd better post something, even a past, but yet to be finished project.

This is a table runner that was made out of 5" charm squares. As I post more and more, you'll see that I like to make table cloths, table runners, place mats, wall hangings, etc., because they are quicker, cheaper to make, and easier to squeeze into my tiny home. I don't have much room, so I rarely make a full sized quilt.

Back to the 5" charm squares. This technique may be used with any sized charm square, not just the 5"ers. This runner took 34 charms (16 light, 16 dark) and 2 for the cornerstones. Two 5" charms yield 2 smaller star point blocks. In other words, each of these larger blocks (there are 8 larger blocks in this runner) contains 4-5" charms, in two color combinations. Confused?......me too. I learned how to do this at a class and I'm not sure about actually showing you the technique. I'm sure it may be found in many charm patterns with a little search. It's a beginners project, yet it looks like you would need to be a somewhat experienced quilter. Not so. The charm squares were provided in the class, so there was very little planning or complicated fabric selections. It just seemed to work as long as you had contrasting light and dark fabrics. I like this runner but I still hope to make another one with my own fabric choices.

This Psalm block is Psalm 90. Although this may not look square, it really is a 12" block. I must have taken the shot at an angle and the pieces themselves give your eye a bit of a wonky view.
Psalm 90:10-17 reads;
The length of our days is seventy years--or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due You. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, O Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May Your deeds be shown to Your servants, Your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of Your hands for us--yes, establish the work of our hands.

All day long they work so hard
Till the sun is goin' down
Working on the highways and byways
And wearing, wearing a frown
You hear them moanin' their lives away
Then you hear somebody sa-ay
That's the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang
That's the sound of the men working on the chain gang

By Sam Cooke

Well, I've been working on the chain gang today, chain sewing some of those 800 quilt pieces. This picture shows 86 pieces, the most I'm able to chain sew before having to connect to other pieces and actually think about what I'm doing. This surely saves a lot of time. I now have 3 of the 6 wall hangings pieced together and I'm feeling like I might be able to finish them in time for my Christmas exchanges. Yippee!

Happy Un-Birthday to me...to me!

Yesterday, five of my wonderful girlfriends got together to celebrate our birthdays. Because of our crazy schedules and life getting in the way, we hadn't managed to get together for our individual birthdays. So..........we had one day where we celebrated all of them! I didn't make this cake, Penny did. She just started taking cake decorating classes and wanted to give it a try. We had a delicious lunch and an afternoon filled with lots of fellowship......and even presents! It was a great, belated birthday celebration!

For some mindless, addicting fun, go to;



http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/



It's called the Eyeballing game and it's very easy, yet you want to try it again and again to get a better score. I just scored 3.63 and I just know I can do better!

Before viewing my silly crafting pictures, please take a moment to remember and honor all of our past, present, and future Veterans. We literally owe our lives to them! God Bless!

And on to my silly crafting pics.......

I made two fabric post cards this morning and they are almost ready to mail. I belong to a Fabric Post Card group that always has ongoing swaps with various topics. This one is called "Winter Windows" and I did a stained glass quilting technique to make these cards. There were three of us in this swap, so I only had to make two cards to send out. I've added a little glitter for snow in the window corners.

This shows both cards, more or less the same. You don't have to make them identical, but I find it's just easier than planning several cards. They limit the number of participants in each swap, but you could have as many as five cards to send out. Making them the same, just simplifies the process.

This is the back of the card. I just wanted you to see it before I addressed it and wrote a note. These will go through the mail like any regular post card, except they will have to be hand cancelled. Both of the other ladies in this swap live in England, so these cards will have a long trip "across the pond" and I hope they arrive in good shape. They really are very sturdy, as they have many layers of fabric and stabilizers in them. The only problem that I foresee is losing some of the snow glitter along the way.

When my exchange partners send me their cards, I'll post pictures. It's always fun to wait on the swaps to arrive!

I had a chance to sew yesterday morning and managed to get two blocks done before I had to get out and about.

This is block #3 in the Mystery Block of the month series. I put this one together as they designed, except I changed the green fabric. The fabric that was enclosed with the instructions was a dark, solid green and I didn't like the way it stood out. By substituting this softer green print, I feel like it blends in better. This block is another 12" block.
And this is block #11 in the Thangles series. Only one block to go, then I can set them all into my table runner.

This morning, I started working on those 800+ quilt pieces that I cut out last week. I was a little afraid to chain sew all 6 wall hangings without making sure that it was all going to work out. I sewed just one hanging, from start to finish, and it actually did come out great. Of course, only the top is pieced and now I have a fair amount of hand stitching for embellishment, and finally, to quilt and bind it. And then.........only 5 more to complete! As overwhelming as that sounds to me, I may just complete them one at a time. I know it's the same amount of work ...... and it's actually more efficient to do them all at once ....... but somehow it seems easier to undertake these hangings by nipping them off, one by one.

Another Psalm block. This block is called "Road to Heaven" and the Psalm inspiration is Psalm 73:23-26.

"I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

VOTING DAY!!


VOTING DAY!!

Please take the time to stop and cast your vote. As a democratic society, we often take voting for granted but it truly is a privilege. Remember, if you don’t vote, you forfeit the right to complain!

I challenge you to resist listening or watching any media until you have cast your vote. The media is careless and irresponsible when it comes to reporting the truth. How many elections have been determined by the media and the way they presented an election and predicted winners? In the recent past, we have had several elections that may have had different results if the media had not been negligent in their efforts to “report” the election results. To declare a winner before the voters in the central and west coast areas have even cast their vote is wrong. People hear the results and don’t even bother to vote as the media declares premature winners. I urge you to turn off all media and cast your vote based on your own opinions of the candidates and their plans for our future. There will be plenty of time to listen to the voting results after you have cast your vote.

I’d also like to request that you pray for whoever wins the election. Regardless of who becomes our next president, they have quite a challenge ahead of them and will need all of the help and support that they can get!

Now I’ll get off my soapbox and head to the polls!