What a Weekend! Christmas Quilting Blitz!

Christmas Tree
From our backyard.  This tree was planted after
our first Christmas in this house and had more
than doubled in height.  The tree needed to be
removed from the backyard....

So the top came into the living room :)

I had lots of help in the sewing room the weekend before Christmas.   No let me re-phrase that..... I was the help, the teacher, the mentor, the coordinator..... my sewing time was limited, I did the binding on 4 quilts, and quilted one quilt.  BUT we did get 4 quilts done in 4 days!   And this was all from stash!    The Friday evening before Christmas, we (definitely not me) had this brilliant idea to make 4 quilts for gifts!!!!!  So I put the condition, that everyone must help, and the fabric had to come from stash.

A Pillow Case

Tic Tac Toe Game

Friday night we chose fabrics, Saturday we started and finished 2 quilts (except binding), Sunday we did the other 2 quilts (except binding), created labels for 4 quilts and bound 1 quilt for Monday night.  As well we did a tic-tac-toe game and a pillow case!   Tuesday I finished up with the binding on 3 quilts.

The Tic Tac Toe Game is a free download from Craftsy.   The bag was self designed and I added the outlines from the Tic Tac Toe Pieces.  The Bunny embroidery was from Bunnycup Embroidery.

We had some friends over to so crafts....

This is the prep work we did before they came over.....

These are the completed crafts

Quilting Process:   These quilts were quilt as you go on the longarm.   First the backing and batting were loaded on the machine.  Each quilt has a different batting as these were from stash -- one has wool, one poly, one is an 80/20 and the last I think is a 100% Cotton.....   They are all the width of the backing -- and strips cut width of fabric....  and stitched down using the horizontal lock, then flipped and quilted.   The kids quilted their projects using wavy lines.... I used free hand scrolls.

I had some wonderful helpers.....

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Quilt 1: For Grampa

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Quilt 2: For Gran

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Quilt 3: For Gramma

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Quilt 4: For my Brother

Wow! A bunch of finishes

I imported an image of the fabric into Embird and using the Studio Plugin I created this snowman.   I had a few difficulties when I embroidered him as some fabric got caught on the needle and tore.... wondering what I could do to solve my problem, I decided he needed to be on the snowbank to hid the small holes below the right foot....

When I got home from dance classes with the girls tonight, I gave it to my 9yo.... and got a great big smile and some wonderful hugs.

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I've been testing the Holland Road Pattern for Sara @ Sew Sweetness.   You can see lots of other bags of hers in her Flickr group.
Like all her other patterns this went together easily and had great photos and instructions.  I did add the zippered pocket as I thought this particular bag needed one.  It will be donated to the RMM Pipeband's Silent Auction Fundraiser at our Robbie Burns dinner.
 

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My 11yos dance teacher is dancing at a Christmas Dance performance and needed a new costume. She asked if I could sew her one. We traded, my sewing for lessons for my 11yo. I made her the black bodysuit, red glitter sparkle (on black) skirt and a cummerbund.

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And the  holiday season isn't complete without a gingerbread house!

posted from Bloggeroid

Christmas skirts

2007

2010

When the girls were little I made them a fun Christmas Skirt.... And then when A grew out of that one, I made another. This year she was quite sad when the Christmas box was opened and I handed her Christmas skirt to her sister.... She said she didn't care if I made her another when I asked. BUT I know my kid.... so I dug through the Christmas fabrics to come up with a stack of fabrics..... and then through the notions to come up with trim.... So what did I find to use 2/3 yd pink, 1/2 yd each print, 1 yd blue and 1/4yd green.... Red rick rack, red wide bias tape, blue &2 white eyelets, blue ribbon, clear elastic for gathering and elastic for the waist..... A few hours, some serger thread, a few colours of thread on the sewing machine.... One mom up late! And a great big smile this morning, then she ran back for a hug!

Stash fabrics

2014

Spotted headed out the door today....

posted from Bloggeroid

Ho Ho Ho! Let's Blog Hop!

Welcome to Day 6!

Many thanks to Madam Samm at Sew We Quilt and Carol at Just Let Me Quilt for hosting this Blog Hop. It has been great getting a head start on Christmas sewing...

August 7

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

From This to That

I Like To Quilt Blog

Leah @ L3Designs (you are here)

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much?

Just Quilt It

Meadowbrook

Peanut’s Patchwork

Around the Homestead

Feathered Nest Studio

In The Boon Docks

MO Broker, My Creative Side

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This week my 10yo daughter and I have been working on our entries.  Our first project was a Penguin Pillow.... She drew the penguin and I turned it into a fusible applique pillow....  And I used lots of decorative stitching for quilting the borders. 

and he looked lonely so we also worked on a Polar Bear Pillow.

Here they are both together....

Also using Connecting Threads Christmas Mini Charm we made a quilt top for a table topper... Haven't decided what to back this with, or what to use for binding....  And I'm out of batting, so this will have to wait until I can get to town (or get my husband to bring some in his backpack to the island)

Thank you for making time to visit, I really appreciate it. Please visit the other blogs at the links above. They all have beautiful projects to share and perhaps a Giveaway or two. Thank you! 

My Handmade Christmas Gifts

This year I worked hard on making it a handmade holiday.  Many on our list this year got handmade gifts...  Classroom teachers, music teacher, dance instructor gifts were finished earlier this month (some were finished really early, here, and some more, and others are pictured below).  The only gift item made that hasn't been photographed is some underwear for my husband...

And all the quilts were signed, and even made myself a paper pieced Mug Rug...

4 Santas, A Star, Quilts Labelled, Paper Piecing

Mountie Santa, Checking his List, Over the Tree Tops, Scottish Santa

Blankets, Mugs & Mug Rugs, More Towels

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday...