Dutch Treat

Dori has been bitten by the HST bug and on her design wall now hangs this beautiful quilt for her friend Roy. They have been great pals since college and, despite the fact that Roy has moved back to Amsterdam, continue to stay in touch. He's a wonderful guy and has such an infectious laugh that it's hard not to feel good when he is around.

As usual, Benny likes to test drive all of her creations and he seems pretty comfortable with this one.

It is based on a pattern by Denyse Schmidt (you can see some of Denyse's prints in it too) and measures about 62" x 50" so the blocks finish at about six inches; she is contemplating adding white border to it and I think that would be a nice finish.

The search is now on for a backing - something blue - he loves blue. And in the vein of trying something new, she is going to try and quilt it by machine; she's done smaller quilts but this will be her first large one done on the machine. I know that he will love it and appreciate both the thought and all of the work that is going in to it. That's what makes him such a great friend and the 'making' a real pleasure....M

More Potholders And a Few Little Birds, Too

My Holly Bazaar plans enjoyed an unexpected bonus when I discovered three unfinished Log Cabin potholders under a pile of fabric on my sewing table; all they needed was binding. Amazingly, they had been sitting there since this time last year just waiting to be finished (I think I had run out of time to bind them).

So, I whipped up one more with the strips that were still sitting there too. How I could work around them all year and not notice them is a small miracle because my table isn't that  large.

They are all finished now and bound for the bazaar.

I also finished a batch of blue birds and they look really cute sitting all together.

I embellished one with some embroidery and beads but wasn't that keen on it until the ribbon went on. He'll look sweet on a Christmas tree, I think. There is still a batch of red ones that need eyes and ribbons.

The Official Cookie Tester is quite taken with them so I think one might also find its way into his stocking....M

Gone To Pot(holders)

The Holly Bazaar is inching closer and closer and I'm on a potholder roll. Lately I've tried my hand at making a few using the Granny Square block, and they are really sweet.

It's a fun block and I think I might try making a baby quilt using the same pattern but larger blocks; these pieces finish off at one inch square and I think I'd aim for a finished block of either two or three inches.

It's been fun incorporating some of the holiday novelty prints like this tiny mitten fabric.

I was playing around with fabric options and ended up with two very similar versions so I decided to make two identical sets rather than have them look slightly mismatched, which meant that I had to make two more.

I got the first one all together but goofed big time when I went to trim it - I took off an extra quarter of an inch on two sides before I realized what I was doing. *#!?!@!*! The air was too blue for me to tackle ripping out the border blocks and replace them so it is still waiting to be finished. I was in too big a hurry trying to get them done so I could sit and hand stitch the binding.

There's also one with a green dot for the background fabric, which is going to be for me. I may have to wait until after the bazaar too put the pair for this one together but they will be fun to use during the holidays. I don't think that I have ever made myself a potholder, so this will be a first....M

Smitten

Fly Away Home is all together! I started putting everything together on Friday and by Monday it was a quilt top. I am truly smitten. The diagonal layout is even better than I had imagined - this is going to be a favourite part of our Christmas traditions for years to come.

I keep expecting to find geese flying in the wrong direction, but so far, so good; if I find any they will stay where they are :).

But it wasn't without it's challenges. I had just put together the first few rows when my machine decided to do it's best impression of something demon possessed - it wouldn't sew, I couldn't adjust the stitch length and I just about lost a finger because the needle kept randomly bobbing up and down. Not impressed.

After calls to the shop and Janome I decided to take it to my regular guy here in town for a look, which was fine, but that meant that I didn't have a machine and I was raring to go. There was only one thing to do - resort to a life of crime.

Anne was away for the weekend so I planned a B&E (actually, I have a key, so that part was really easy) and absconded with her machine. Not knowing what projects she might have on the horizon I want to get it all sewn together before she returned late Sunday. It took me 'til Monday.

It was a 'pinfest' - every one of those joins needed to be pinned - so I just got into a good rhythm with it and slowly worked my way through.

I still need to trim it and sew the backing, but the deadline worked in my favour.

The colours are going to look great in the living room. It's almost hard to believe that I will have this for Christmas. "Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus"....M