Sunday, December 31, 2017

Finally Finished Christmas

I was late in getting all my Christmas items finished for the ladies of the family, but now I am done. Quilting was something I wanted to try, but know now that I will continue to tie my quilts in the future rather than do actual quilting stitching.  My fingers have lost their dexterity to work such fine stitching and it is much too painful to do. I am quite happy with the look of the fronts of these wall quilts, but I'm glad they actually hang on a wall so as not to have to see the backs.  The stitches are much too large and uneven.  Some are too tiny and barely pierce the material, while others are very long. I guess it is the final results that count and the part that can be seen looks nice to me.

I showed this before in pieces, but this is how the Portuguese rooster quilt turned out.

This one is for my daughter, Cheryl. It is called Ham and Eggs. I could not get the quilting frame on this one because the animals are cut from felt and they simply were too thick to get the frame to hold.  That explains why there are puckers in the material. The checkered border was very difficult on this one because each square had to be sewed into place. It was very time consuming.

This Wooly Sheep one is for my daughter-in-law, Kim. The hardest part of this one was doing the applique around all those flowers on the border. Each stem and leaf needed to be cut, heat bonded, and then appliqued onto the quilt. The sheep were the easy part.

This was my first wood burning project. I made it for my friend, Nancy, who lives in Utah, but did not show it until now because she reads my blog and I didn't want her to see it until she got it for Christmas.  It certainly isn't perfect, but I did learn to do a lot of things with the wood burning tool while making it.  The first thing I learned is that you use black, not red, for tracing the picture onto the wood.  I thought the red would come off in the sanding, but it didn't.  With this picture, it kind of looked better anyway because it added color to the fruity arrangement in the basket. Sometimes mistakes turn out to improve your intended outcome and with this one, I call it a "happy accident."


I am now working on doing the shirts for my husband.  I made one for him, but it was too small.  I bought more material and wrapped it and told him I would finish the other shirts when I saw how the other one fit.  I have cut out two and will get them sewed for now.  I may not do the third but I bought the material so he could choose which he wanted. Once these are done, I may need to take a break until my hands heal.  I see a specialist in two weeks to see why my fingers are so numb.  Hopefully, I will be able to continue to do my crafting.  For now, knitting does not seem to affect them as much as does the needle work, so I will need to stick to that if I feel the need to work with my hands, and I am sure that will be the case.  I can never stay idle for too long.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

CHRISTMAS THINGS

I have finished most of my Christmas, but this year I will need to finish some things after.  I thought I was going to have some time between Christmas and New Year's to finish the presents I was making for the ladies of the family, but plans have changed and we are having our celebrations by Christmas and so I ran short of time to complete them.  I did get one done because it has to go back to Maine with my son and he will be leaving on Christmas day.  The others live around here so I can do theirs after Christmas.  Since they are done from kits, I am wrapping the kits so they can see what they will be getting when I finish them.  I did get all the pajama bottoms done for the kids.  Since I bought regular shirts to go with the bottoms, I made the shirts look like part of the whole pajama set by adding a picture from the printed bottoms or by adding a iron on applique of something like the bottom, or in the case of the boys, with something they like (football).

This is the one wall quilt that I finished for Shana. I bought the kits in Penn Dutch last summer because
I wanted to learn to quilt. I have never made quilts with the quilting stitch but usually just tie my quilts.
I'm afraid I will have to stick to tying since my fingers are no longer able to do small stitching. The back doesn't look
that great, so I'm glad these quilts will be hanging on a wall.
This is what the top of my quilt for Kay is going to look like.  I designed hers from scratch and not from a kit.  She loves the Portuguese rooster and so when I went to the Azores this past fall, I bought a set of pot holders and an apron for her.  I used the material from the apron to cut out the different objects and appliqued them onto the front.  I actually turned the instruments so that they overlapped the yellow borders and put small dotted circles above them.  I finished the top only so that she could see what hers would look like after I finished it after Christmas.  I have actually sewed the top together but didn't take a picture of it after.  I took this one so that I could remember the layout once I picked it all up.



These are for baby Mabel, born 7/3/17

Lady bugs called "Love Bugs on pajamas makes a
nice print for little Annie age 3

These woodsy looking print bottoms fit Portia, age 6,
quite nicely. They are actually more purple than
shows and I put one owl on the shirt.

These are for Ellis, age 10. His has a football
helmet to go with the plaid bottoms.

These are for Nnenaya, age 14.  I bought her a
lady's top and didn't add a picture, of course.

Dawud, age 16, has the plaid bottoms with nothing
added to his shirt.

These cute little kitty print pajamas are perfect
for Lexi, age 7. I put one of the kitties on the shirt.

This is a flower print for Zoe, age 8.  The flowers
were too small of a print so I used and iron-on
flower that matched in color to the ones on the bottoms.

Fly me into outer space made a nice print for
Jackson, age 7.  I used one of the rockets and
planet sections of the print to put on his shirt.

Joey, age 8,  loves football, so he also gets a
football on his plaid bottoms.

Ezra, age 5, is all about outdoors, so these fox
print bottoms with a fox on the shirt are
perfect for him.



Lucy, age 7, is a love, so hearts made perfect sense
for her.  I just used an iron-on heart since the hearsts
in the print were too small.

Dot, age 8, loves owls and purple, so these pajamas are
perfect for her with one of the owls on the shirt.