Christmas Table Topper

I have one more little Christmas item to show you. Another quilt that's been on the UFO pile for a good, long time. It was a UFO back in 2009 when I first blogged about the things that got me stuck. Then I finished the top and got stuck on how to quilt it. I passed it off to Angela sometime earlier this year to quilt and was so happy to sew the binding on over my Thanksgiving trip to Texas.

It's fun to look back and read what I was struggling with and how far I've come in the last couple of years of sewing. I remember picking out every piece of this fabric at Stitch On. I think it may have been the first project I chose individual fabrics off the bolt. I was so nervous!

The pattern is Christmas Cookie Crumb Catcher from Chickadee Hollow Designs. I decided to omit the applique and embroidery. The embroidery was what drew me into the pattern initially but when I was actually finishing the top I wasn't really interested in doing either. 

I knew I wanted something interesting quilted into the center square which is really beyond my abilities at the moment. I think Angela did a beautiful job highlighting the center and I love all the loops in the different borders. 

I'll leave you with this picture of Jenna with her Gingerbread house. We've made a tradition of going to see the Gingerbread House display in Lawrence and then making our own. It's so much fun to work together on it. I pipe the icing and she places all of the candy. Teamwork!



Well, I'm off to to do some wrapping and laundry and work on one final present with Jenna since she's on Christmas Break now. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! 

P.S. Laurie is the winner of the Sleigh Bells Stockings Pattern. Thanks to everyone for playing along!

Sleigh Bells Stocking Pattern Giveaway

Thought I'd take a moment to pop in and share a couple Christmas stockings that are new to our house this year. We've been enjoying some fluffy red and white stockings from Target the last few years which were great but I'm so excited to have something I made waiting for Santa this year.


Shea from the Empty Bobbin Sewing Studio asked me earlier this year if I'd like to test her new Sleigh Bells Stockings pattern and of course I jumped on the opportunity. Even in the testing phase, her patterns are so well written and I just loved the designs.

I chose Basic Grey Grunge fabrics. I love that they read as solid but the distress print gives a bit of dimension and illusion of texture. I tried a little hand stitching around the circles and absolutely loved the way it turned out. The detail of the white trim on the cuff gives it such a finished look. 

Jenna claimed this stocking as soon as she saw it and I'm so excited that she loves it. She was a little unsure about sending it off to Shea to photograph but I promised her it would be in good hands. In fact, this stocking got to take a trip to Houston to hang in Moda's booth at market this fall which was pretty exciting! It's back home now and I can't wait for Santa to fill it. It's such a good size and I think Santa will find the shape of it easy to work with since the toe points at such a great angle.

This is the other style I tested. I really liked all the little piecing on this one. As part of the testing process, the blocks on my stocking ended up smaller than the actual pattern. I just quilted it along the seam lines where the blocks join. My husband will get to dig into this one Christmas morning.

Here's a peek at the back.


So are you wondering where my stocking is? Life has been a bit hectic the last few weeks as I've been teaching a little more, volunteering, finishing up a great college class, recovering from bronchitis, and preparing for guests, a trip and Christmas. I'm so glad I had a chance to work on these earlier this fall before the pace of everything picked up so much, but my stocking will have to wait until after Christmas. I'm sure Santa doesn't mind waiting until next year to see it! I'm going to try star blocks in the same colors of fabric.

Shea's been showing some great versions of these stockings on her last few blog posts: half square triangles, Kelly's raw edge applique, and Lisa's silk stockings. The wonderful thing about Shea's patterns is that she includes so many color photos of options in the actual pattern that you can be inspired to create something that's just perfect for your own taste in fabric and design.

So....How would you like your own copy of The Sleigh Bells Stockings Pattern? I have one to give away if you'd like to join me in some more Christmas sewing!

One entry - Leave a comment telling me if there was something you always found in your stocking Christmas morning. I remember an apple, orange, nuts, and a big bag of M&M's at the bottom of my stocking every Christmas with some other fun goodies mixed in of course.


Second entry - Follow my blog or let me know you're already follow.

You have until midnight Dec 18 and I'll post a winner on Monday. Good luck!

Friday Night Sewing

There was a time when Friday night meant dinner out with friends, maybe a movie or a gallery exhibit afterwards. I still get that sense of anticipation on Friday afternoons and we considered taking Jenna to a photography exhibit this evening but the reality is that Jenna's exhausted from her first full wonderful week of school so were taking it easy with a family movie night.

Which means I am determined to finish the binding on this quilt tonight while Rio entertains us all. I'm declaring it to the world so I can deliver this gift before the my friend's sweet girl graduates from college! Well, she's only seven months old, but good grief, this quilt isn't that difficult.

I'm in love with Basic Grey's Christmas fabrics. I've been collecting pieces for quite awhile now to make a particular quilt. I think I have enough fabric now for three quilts and just added these Grunge solids to the collection. So I'd better get cutting if I want to enjoy them this Christmas.

So that's what this mom is doing on a wild and crazy Friday night. The good new is, I actually have a REAL date with my husband lined up for this weekend and next weekend too. I can't wait! We might be making this a habit ;)

I'd love to hear what you're all up to this weekend!

Instead of Blogging...

and finishing this quilt....


I've been....


*visiting with my mom and dad 


*celebrating a big birthday

*cleaning my basement and sewing room

*having a fabulous Christmas Brunch with my MOPS friends


*helping a few families have a Merry Christmas


*putting on a puppet show for Jenna at the library


*watching Santa get rescued from the top of Weaver's Department Store


*having dinner and seeing the Christmas Lights on the Kansas City Plaza






*watching the Old Fashioned Christmas Parade in Downtown Lawrence


*caroling and crafting with preschoolers


*viewing Gingerbread Houses (I want to live here!)


*sewing with my mom

*giving long arm quilting a try (and loving it!)

and enjoying every minute!


Hope you are enjoying this Christmas season too!

Gingerbread House

I've had such a fun December with my little one this year preparing for Christmas! I took her to a local gingerbread house tour to introduce her to the concept and that in itself was so fun. There were so many imaginative creations. A few days later I brought out a Wilton kit to try. I was hoping it would go smoothly and walls would stick together. I'll say, she was very patient with all of the waiting in between steps. We did the piping hand in hand and she had fun putting all of the candy in place.

My mom sent her an apron which she loved working in and she also wore it while we baked cookies with her other grandmother. It felt like my mom was involved in the festivities just a little bit, too!

She told Santa that she would like and Achoo Baby and a blanket for her baby. Santa asked if I could help out so I dashed off today to find some flannel fabric and hopefully I can put together a quick blanket in time to give Santa to give to her.

Something for Santa

Here's a little peek at something I've been working on for Christmas. I started it at the retreat and have a little more of the piecing to do. I'm not sure how far I'll go with embellishing it. The pattern I'm using has some applique and needlework included but I may make some modifications. I love the holly/peppermint fabric.

And before anyone is amazed by how on top of things I am to be getting ready for Christmas, let it be known that this was going to be gracing our home for my sweet little girl's first Christmas. She's three now.....I had all of it cut before she turned one but had stopped because when I was ready to cut the last part (the binding), I got stuck. I didn't know whether I should cut it on the bias or straight. So I put it away until I could figure it out. Now, I'm not sure why I was wondering that but I must have learned along the way that bias binding is for curvy edges. It was obvious to me when I pulled it out to work on again. But I still haven't cut the binding. I just got started sewing.

In the process of sewing, I discovered that I have either put back on my original non-1/4 inch foot or my 1/4 inch foot is not really a 1/4 inch foot. I decided to leave it on and continue as I was so that it all turns out in the end but I discovered it when one of my borders turned out too long. I was also getting frustrated that my corners were not aligning. One of my lovely new friends inspected my project and decided I was overcompensating in my attempt to make the seams match so they were overlapping a bit. UGGG! It's so hard for me not to pull that seam ripper out of the little box it sits in. I'm going to keep going carefully and keep learning and live with my progress and little mistakes. I crave that precision piecing though that I need to to some more intricate work.

I may try to just do my piecing with my walking foot on so that the fabric feeds evenly on both sides. I think my mom does this and several of the other gals at the retreat do the same thing. But I really like using the edge of the foot as a guide so I'll have to experiment a little