After Christmas Catch Up

Merry Christmas to one and all!
Hope it was joy filled and happy!

We spent Saturday, the 24th at home with our children. We did things a little different this year. As a child my family had a tradition we called 'cumin up shtaln', which loosely translated, means, 'setting up bowls'. This just simply meant that we all put our special bowl at our place at the table before we went to bed. In the morning we'd have candy, oranges, peanuts, and small gifts in these bowls, while our larger gifts were on the floor behind our chairs. I decided to carry this on with our children. They had a great time with this idea! I also had a bit of timeline to keep things moving. While the baby and the two year old napped we played Firefighter Monopoly with our older two. Great memories to cherish forever.

             Christmas day was spent with my husbands family. I created this piece for my mother in law:

It's a mini quilt/table topper type of thing. I found the pattern in the book Country Threads goes to Charm School. I tell ya, working with those small pieces was just as much work as any big quilt I've ever made!

                         I made this set for my sister in law, along with a Pampered Chef pizza stone.

I will post some pics of the quilt I made for my husband in my next post. I also plan to change the name of my blog here very shortly before my following gets any bigger! More on that next time.

Sewing Room: Occupied

Well, once again, much water has passed under the bridge since my last post. I have a lot to say, but I'll break it up into a few posts so as not to bore you to much. I came across the Occupy your Sewing Room challenge at Sew Much 2 Luv a week ago, and as I was planning to sew this week anyway, I decided to join in! There are awesome prizes to be won when you link up your projects. So here are some of the things I did this week:

This quilt is basted with backing. It just needs to be quilted and bound. This was a quilt kit I picked up at Quiltworks Studio in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan. It's the owl line by AdornIt.  Super cute and fun!

It will probably be a baby gift next spring.

I also need to sew Christmas dresses for my ten year old. It's been awhile and she's in a huge growing stage so I decided to quick sew a few patterns with not so important fabric before I just go ahead and cut into our Christmas fabric so here's one of the dresses:

She wore this one to school the next day! She loves the little yo-yo button accent. Very quick and easy pattern. Need to cut the next one a little bigger under the arms. I cut out two more. My MIL took one and sewed it together, but we don't have it back yet. The other one is still laying in pieces by my sewing machine. So, next Friday evening is our school Christmas program. Gotta get the real dress done!

I also sandwiched and finished a quilt for my significant other but it's to be a gift so that picture will have to wait. Thank you for visiting my blog. It really added an enjoyable dimension to my sewing this week to know that I was doing this Occupy challenge. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Saturday Morning Musings

Upon sitting back after a very satisfying breakfast of eggs benedict deluxe (which he had created), my husband began to indulge in one of his favorite pastimes, corrupting poetry.


Once upon a midnight dreary
   While I pondered weak and weary
    Oer the stacks of dirty dishes on the counter space
Suddenly there came a tapping
   As of someone gently rapping
    Tapping on the dishwasher door
Only this and nothing more.

Open then I flung the dishwasher door
   And the genie stepped out upon the floor
    What is thy wish, master?
    Clean up the dirty dishes.
Quoth the genie,
    Nevermore
Only this and nothing more.

My apologies to Mr. Poe but I couldn't resist sharing this with you.

On a more quiltier note, I made four mug rugs last night and I'm busy quilting them for a wedding gift for tomorrow. I'll post pics of the finished products. Have a safe and happy day!

New Giveaway at MRL!

Rebecca of Making Rebecca Lynne is having a giveaway for a super chic little clutch that she made. It's open to everyone so be sure to check that out here. I really enjoy her blog and marvel at her seemingly effortless ability to quilt, sew, knit, you name it.

Please Excuse Me

Not like I have a huge following or anything, but anyway. So, a quick catch up here. Nearly every day I've thought about this blog sitting here neglected. Oh well, family first. The last month has been spent gardening, canning, sewing, traveling, being a mommy, nursing my baby, changing two diaper babies, pulling up rug and painting floors, umm what did I miss? Oh, housework and laundry!  So with nursing I still get to sit by the computer and keep up with everyone else's blogs but not so much keep up with mine.

My 'first set' of children (as I like to call them) started school on the 15th so everything is starting to slow down around here. That leaves me at home with the 'second set', my two year old and five month old. I've been gathering fabric, won two giveaways, and I feel ready to go.

Unfortunately, I committed to the ATS quiltalong just before we went into this frenzy of preserving and what not. So sorry, Jennifer and Sara, I've loved watching everybody else but I have to bow out. Great job of  detailed posts and easy to follow instructions.

This is lengthy enough for now. More to follow soon. (with pics)

Now the day is over (theoretically)

I suppose for some in like, say, Africa, the day is dawning. I'm nursing my baby, I've yet to nebulize my 6 yo and tuck my 2 yo in, but we're getting there! So I'm in this Autumn Leaves block swap over on the Quilting Board Forum. Here's my trial/mock-up:

I need to sew 12 of these maple leaf blocks before we 'leaf' on holidays this weekend. Ouch, sorry. So I have the pieces all cut and it shouldn't take very long to sew these, but I'll tell ya it can prove difficult to find any time around here. Plus, not only do I work better under pressure, seems I work only under pressure!!

I'm getting to a point with this, it being that I may be up rather late tonight. I don't mind, I've always been someone that doesn't really enjoy nights. Guess we'll see how it goes.

More giveaways, YAY!!!!!!!!

Okay so seems all I do these days is enter giveaways. I promise one of these days I'll post about something I'm doing, For now p.s.i quilt is doing a fat quarter bundle giveaway here and the green fairy is doing one for a good cause, Check that out here. I'm such a sucker for precuts.

GO! Baby Giveaway!

It seems like every time I see a GO! Baby giveaway I've just missed it. I'm excited to finally find one still open! Head on over to Love Affair With My Brother to get in on the action. Who knows, today may just be your day!!

Another Project, YES!

I am joining the quiltalong from Jennifer @ Ellison Lane. She has an awesome blog. I love her use of fresh fun color and simple patterns. I hope I can keep up with this quilt along. I have a layer cake in Hoopla that might be just the ticket! She did mention the sale at Sew Fresh Fabrics with discounted shipping to Canada (yay!). I just might feel a few more precuts calling my name :)