Christmas Candles

Candles are fun - and floating candles are even more fun, for some reason.

I love floating candles, especially because my kids love them. And, the Christmassy holly candles just go well with the red rose. (Like I mentioned in the tree-skirt post, I like roses with "Christmas flowers!")

And candles and Christmas remind me of those places where the Bible calls Jesus "The Light" ...

"The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light:
they that dwell
in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined."

Isaiah 9:2

And, I also love the places where the Bible points out how Jesus fulfilled the things that were prophesied about Him in the Old Testament.

The people which sat in darkness

saw great light; and to them

which sat in the region and shadow of death

light is sprung up.

Matthew 4:16

More Fleece-and-Jeans Quilting ...

In the past few weeks, I've been sewing a lot of denim & jeans ... with pleasing results. :-)

Here's the latest fleece-and-jeans quilt.

(Apparently, it's all the rage to take quilt pictures with one's feet in the picture. No one's sure why. But, since I was wearing my favorite socks, I can go with it here ...)

This fleece-and-jeans quilt is a wedding gift for a friend who's getting married soon - so I had fun with the little custom detail of including their initials with a heart between ...

It's about the size of my couch, so it makes a good (big) throw-size quilt that's warm & fuzzy ...

Putting congratulations & best wishes into tangible form - into something warm and cozy - into something unique and customized - that's my kind of fun!

New Decorations!

I'm not a big decorator. And I'm OK with that.

But every now and then, a fun idea seems worth the trouble ... so, here's my latest Christmas decorating effort.

About a year ago, I read in somebody's quilt blog (can't remember which one!) that quilt bloggers sometimes decorate their walls with favorite fabrics in embroidery hoops. 

(Update: I found a couple of the links that inspired me: See some great pictures here, and a quick tutorial here.)

More recently, I heard that regular people like this idea, too, especially for Christmas fabrics, since the hoops look a little like Christmas-tree-ornaments. (Thanks for the inspiration, Sara!)

My new-favorite Christmas fabric that was leftover from the tree-skirt (see yesterday's post) made it into the biggest embroidery hoop. Add to that a couple of Christmassy remnants I'd already bought, and a couple of Christmas-colored fabrics that were given to me, and the rest of the embroidery-hoop frames were filled!

While not strictly a Christmas print, the one in the lower left is one of my favorites, since I love seeing cardinals in the winter, and since the house in the "picture" is a great representation of home & family, which are such a blessing.

I like the way this little set turned out. I'm enjoying my little fabric-collection decoration so much that I'm trying to figure out what to do with it after Christmas - Debating about maybe switching out the fabrics, to match the seasons ... Or finding more thrift-store hoops for another set of fabrics for when spring is on its way, so that I can keep this set for the Christmas box!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So - My Christmas tree has a TREE SKIRT!
For some reason, I feel very accomplished, having made a tree skirt for the first time. Ever.

I love that it only cost me a couple dollars, too. My favorite thrift store had this great jumper-dress made out of really neat Christmas fabric. I couldn't wear the jumper (or didn't want to?) - but I realized it was the perfect size/print/colors for some Christmas sewing.

So, sew I did. Actually, it was mostly serging, which made it nice. 

I love that this fabric has little shiny-gold highlights. I also love that this Christmas print has roses along with the holly and the poinsettias (and the other random flowers I don't recognize). It's "Christmassy" fabric, without being outlandish.

I'm happy that our Christmas tree has a "real" tree skirt. It would seem that the kitten is happy about this, too.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours

Enough said.

Fall Color

I've been enjoying some last bits of fall color in the flowerbeds before the weather turns colder ...

Chrysanthemums that I bought last year came back this year!

Little Lantanas that still have some blooms showing up ...

A last canna or two ...

And the occasional flower spike on what's left of the monkey grass ...

Right now, this chrysanthemum is my favorite.

~ * ~

"While the earth remaineth,

seedtime and harvest,

and cold and heat,

and summer and winter,

and day and night

shall not cease."

Genesis 8:22

~ * ~

Fat Quarters Cut from Shirts

Since my favorite fabric designers lately are Tommy Hilfiger, Eddie Bauer, Old Navy, and the like, I've had a lot of fun turning a lot of 100% cotton shirts into usable fabric.

I've been cutting recycled shirts into the pieces for my latest shirt-quilt projects, 

AND

I've also been cutting fat quarters out of the shirts.

I guess I can't strictly say these are fat quarters, since none of these are the result of a criss-cross cut of an entire yard of fabric. But they measure 18" x 22", the exact size of a fat quarter. And they're all 100% cotton, reclaimed textiles, and great for sewing!

And, since I figure that other quilters might be looking for a nice, neat little stack of shirt fabric, many of these will be showing up in my eBay and Etsy listings soon. (They might not necessarily be sold in the exact groupings pictured, since I'm continually adding to my stack of these ...)

So, that's another thing (among many things) that I like to do with thrift-store shirts!

More Dress-shirt Patchwork In Progress

If you saw my most recent post on the same topic ... this is more of the same. 

It's a small quilt top so far ... twenty-something inches by thirty-something ... And I'm brainstorming how to add some really cool borders that add size and interest.

And, since I consider this "test piece" pretty successful, I'm working on a set of several dozen nine-patches (and then several dozen of the modified snowball blocks) for a big quilt top ...

And, since I can't help myself, my mind is already planning at least two more shirt quilt tops after that! 

I'm pretty sure this kind of sewing is good for the creative side of my brain, because I find it very relaxing, as well as satisfying & challenging, to be designing & creating a few sewing projects at any given time.

T-Shirt Yarn

The other day, I had 3 T-shirts. 

Yellow, Rust, and Very-Orange.

100% Cotton.

Then, I cut them up ... each t-shirt into a single strand of inch-wide fabric. (Easier than it sounds, really.)

Then comes the fun of - - - stretching - - - the "yarn" so it curls ...

And, since I don't have any projects going right now that need this much orange or yellow, I'll be listing these on eBay or Etsy soon, in case somebody else does! 

More Dress-Shirt-Patchwork

I've been sewing with shirt fabric again.

Since fabric stores are few and far between here, and there are thrift stores galore, I've been stocking up on some great 100% cottons (from some of my favorite fabric designers!) at ridiculously great prices.

So, I've washed, pressed, and cut a whole bunch of shirts ...

And I've gotten out my graph paper and jotted down ideas ...

And I've had fun getting some progress made on my next couple of shirt quilt tops.

Updates and more pictures soon!

Another Pine Basket

After making the blue pine needle basket, it occurred to me how handy it would be to have a business-card-sized basket.

So, of course, I had to try it. 

Success!

Pink ribbon was what I had handy, but black ribbon would be a little more classy. So I just bought some black ribbon. Stay tuned ...

Another Plastic-bag Bag

Crocheting with plastic yarn is fun, and a neat way to recycle grocery bags!

Here's one of my latest ...

I like to line some of my smaller bags so so there's less worry about little stuff falling out between the crocheted "holes" ... So this one's lined with one of those plastic mailing bags. (You know, those "indestructible" rubbery-plastic bags that companies ship stuff in. I figure, if it can handle being a shipping container, it'll last a while as a bag lining.)

The Blue Pine Straw Basket

After making the pink pine needle basket, my older son suggested that I really should make something that's not pink. No problem, son; can do.

I already had the next basket in mind. It started out like this: 

And turned out quite nicely, I think.

This is curling ribbon again, smoothed out (curl it with scissors, then "uncurl" it by doing the same on the other side of the ribbon) so that it doesn't stretch at random later ...

Raindrops on ... Spiderwebs

Fun to see on a misty day ~

~-~-~

All things
were made by him;
and without him
was not any thing made
that was made.

John 1:3

~-~-~