Santa Sack Swap 2016

I participated in the Santa Sack Swap again this year and had a fun time making the gifts for my partner. When we made contact, Marjory said she thought it would be fun to have a pillowcase and I agreed. As we mailed, we decided to wait until Christmas to open our packages. I opened the box, just to peek at what was inside. I saw the lovely pillowcase that she had made and some packages. Here's everything once it was out of the box.

           This is the lovely pillowcase that she made.

 

On Friday before Christmas, I decided to open just one of the gifts (Friday had been a long, busy day and I needed a treat). I chose one of the red packages and found these ornaments inside. It was so much fun to add them to my tree. I think I picked a good one to start with!

My family and I celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve so I decided to open another present after everything had settled down. Inside the package I chose were these cute and useful pot holders! Don't you just love them?

Here are the rest of the things that I found in my box.

There were some nesting pouches in a really great colors! They were all zipped up inside of each other and I had a great time unzipping and finding another pouch in a little different fabric.

Then an adorable table runner. I love that it is winter themed and can be used after Christmas!

On the bottom of the box was something that felt like a frame. When I unwrapped it, I found a cute snowman that was drawn and painted by Marjory and put into a nice frame. It is so cute and I can't wait to find just the right spot to hang it!



Thanks so much Marjory for all the wonderful gifts!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Dee

Looking Back and Looking Forward

I have not done very well with my blog this year and it makes me sad to think about it. So I've decided to make a change in the way I blog. In the past, I think I've tried to put too much in print, to make my blog have lots of pertinent info about what's been going - I think this has made it hard me to blog because I can't find time to finish a post. This is the change that I'm going to make - I'm going to make an entry and just put into it whatever I can at that time. If I don't have pictures, there won't be any for that entry. If it's just a few lines long, that's what you will see. I'm not going to save it for days on end and try to finish  it up later.

So here's what's been happening with me lately!

My hubby retired in July after 30+ years at the same company. That means he is home all the time and this has been a big change for me. It feels even stranger because I haven't retired. This means that I still have to wash, cook, clean, iron, plan meals, etc. And I still want to sew . . . . another change in the way this gets done. I also continue to substitute a few days here and there.

For sewing/quilting, I have joined in the Splendid Sample project, hosted by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson. It will be 100 - 6" (finished) blocks, plus a few bonus blocks here and there. I am using my stash (mostly) but I bought a fabric to put in a lot of the blocks to tie them together. I'm a little behind but am working to catch up. Here are a few that I finished recently.

 
  

At the end of May, I had surgery on my left rotator cuff and expected to be several months without sewing or quilting. It turns out that the tear was much smaller than they thought so they removed a sizable bone spur, which resulted in a much easier rehab. So once I could hold my ruler down without a lot of pain I began sewing again. This is why I got behind in my Splendid Sampler blocks.

I have been doing more embroidery with my machine. Here are a couple of projects that I have done in the last couple of months.

Blessings,

Dee

Santa Sack Swap 2015

I joined the Santa Sack Swap for 2015 for the first time and had a great time choosing and making gifts for my partner Sharon. The swap started in July and was to be mailed near the end of November. Each person was to make a stocking, bag or basket with 5 gifts -1 per month - most were to be handmade . We both decided to wait until Christmas to open our packages but that meant about a month of looking at the bag, or trying not to look at the bag, and the wrapped gifts inside. The wait was definitely worth it!

This is the outside of the bag- the front and the back- and I am in love with this fabric!

When I took everything out, here is what I had - I was pretty sure that there was a jelly roll in here!



I was right - the jelly roll was by Me and My Sister designs - one of my favorite designers. Great colors!

And then there was this intriguing "folder" tied with a ribbon. Inside I found a great pair of small scissors, a little snap pocket, a place for pins, and pouch pockets along the bottom. What a wonderful way to carry some sewing supplies when I travel! 

There was also a bag of goodies, a wall hanging, and a table runner.

The colors in the hanging and the table runner will work perfectly in my house! Thanks so much Sharon for these wonderful gifts!

I am joining Pat Sloan in her "UFO Busting Plan 2016"  in an effort to finish up some of my projects that are "hanging around".  She has a plan for us to use to get us started. If you want to read more about this and make a dent in your UFO stack, you can read about it on her blog here:  

http://blog.patsloan.com/

Along with finishing up some UFOs, I plan to do better in 2016 with keeping up with my blog - so I'll see you more next year!

I hope you had a good Christmas and that 2016 brings you good things.

Dee

Where Does the Time Go?

This post was originally written in June and never published. So I'm going to put this one out there so that I can jump start myself ! So this info is old but still valid. I will begin working on a new update and see if I can catch up.

Does it ever just seem that a whole bunch of time has passed and you didn't really notice? Of course you know that time is moving on but sometimes it is hard to believe how quickly. I can't believe that it's already mid June and I have not written a post since April. I've had things to do during these last couple of months but not so much that I couldn't write. I think a lot of it is because blogging is fairly new to me and it's not a habit yet. 

With that said, I'll give an update on what's new with me.

I'm still working on my vacation block of the month with Pat Sloan. May's block is done and June's block is in the planning stages. 

This is the block for May, called Beach Bag.

I've narrowed down the fabrics for June's block but have been busy working on other things so I put it aside for now. When we started this BoM, we numbered our fabric and usually I just use whatever "number" fabric that Pat has used but this time I decided to do it differently. I started my color palette with a FQ pack that I had and added extra fabrics to with those fabrics. When using Pat's set-up with a certain number of each color, I had a few fabrics that didn't really work as well for one reason or another. I decided to pull one of them for the center of this block because they just seem to work well. Now to decide which one! Here is what I'm considering.



I've been working on this one with the fabrics that I showed you last time.

Talk to you again soon - hopefully in a few days.

Dee