Merry Christmas....

....just putting in time before going to work. Spent some time on the phone with family which is always nice.

Here are a couple last minute gifts, well one is for me. It's hard to find the right background to show them properly.

lunch

Yesterday was the Sewcializers Christmas lunch at The Elk and Finch. Only 2 couldn't make it. The food was delicious and the gift exchange was fun. My friends are so talented. Thank you all for another year of companionship. As Cathy says, some days not much sewing gets done but we solve all the problems in the world. I had my camera with me and forgot to take pictures.

Then I had to go to a "tea" at my neighbour's. I'm not complaining because these ladies have been welcoming and friendly from the day I moved in. There are always too many goodies and yesterday was no exception. She went the extra mile with the fancy table and baking. Good thing I hadn't had dessert at lunch. Then she sent us home with a little plate of goodies. I'm not a fan of Christmas cake but since the others were saying how good it was, I tried it. And it was really good, nice and moist with icing on it too. But...afterwards I felt sick from all the sweets and skipped anything further to eat for the rest of the day.

Merry Christmas everyone.

I hate "garment" sewing

This apron pattern was one of the projects from the Schoolhouse Retreat in the spring. I  just made one  for my son and everything that could go wrong did..... from cutting of the brown  the wrong way to the beige being cut  too small, ( I measured 2 or 3 times)  to sewing the borders on wrong as the stripes were to be vertical and putting one of the slits for the ties in the wrong spot. But it looks OK cause you can't see where the beige is pieced.

He wanted some felt lapel flowers he had seen on an Etsy store for $20.00 each. I could buy a meter of wool felt for less than that. So I whipped up a few. The centre is needle felted in. That's a cool technique.

A few gifts....

for Gayle's birthday

for Sewcializers gift exchange

for my sister

I made a few runners for Christmas gifts. They have no batting or actual quilting holding the layers together which made them fast. Another circle one is underway as well as a wall banner for me. I think I will make myself a couple of new runners too as I'm tired of my old ones.

Phew!

Log Cabin Variation

Double Slice

As my friend Joanne would say "A flurry of finishes." These are all Scrap Bag quilts, some for donation this year and some to start up the stash for next year's donations. I think the one called Bricks cause I don't remember the name was from last year. The Log Cabin variation is something I started  last year when I was finally able to get back to sewing after Pete died. Just sewed pieces together and it came out OK looking. It's funny how doing these quilts to help out other people actually make us feel better.

Stash Buster

4 Patch

Bricks

birthday

My friend gave me this giant cup and saucer for my birthday as well as some of those red tools and the bum shaped spoon rest.I should have turned it around for the picture. The cup and saucer fits nicely into that corner  adding a punch of colour. We had a nice outing as her birthday was the following day. We went to the guild meeting in Kincardine then to the shop in Exeter. What a wonderful shop - Quilts and Calicoes. One of us forgot her purse at the meeting and it wasn't until we got to the shop that she noticed. It was 20% off during your birthday week there and they believed the one who forgot her BIG RED PURSE!!! Fortunately it was found safe and sound in the church office. This is about the 4th year that we've gone on a birthday outing, lunch and maybe even dinner. And this year we had both.

Ella Bella

practice piece

Double Slice

Finally got a piece loaded onto Bella after a lot of fits and starts. Now to practice and they say practice makes perfect. Got a lot of projects underway and planned  but seem to find excuses to avoid them all.
The brown Double Slice is supposed to be made with a layer cake but since I didn't have one I used scraps. I could call it a Slice of Chocolate cause it's all browns and beiges. It will go to a Scrapbag donation to a male. Joanne had made one but modified to a mini as she is getting well known for.I still have the Oct. SB one to sew  the rows together.  It's the same pattern as the Retreat quilt.I'm hoping to machine quilt all my SB and Guild quilts.