Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

May we always be amazed at the goodness and mercy of God, who gave His son Jesus to be Emmanuel, God with us!

It's been fun to have the Christmas decorations around ... reminding us of Christ's birth, and making the season look festive ... reminding us, too, of friends and family who are far away ... 

Merry Christmas!

Blue Yo-yo Bits ...

Not long ago, I mentioned my quilty yo-yos in all different colors. I also mentioned that I was working on some blue ones.

When I started these, I was going to use them single-file on a wide border of a small project that never took off ... so, they're sewn in little rows of 3. Now that I'm thinking about sewing tons of them together, I'm thinking I might not want them looking this organized ... but when I get a few more blue yo-yos made, I can figure out whether or not to disassemble my little rows of 3 ...

I could add these to my random yo-yo stack, but I'm liking the just-blue look. Maybe it's to balance out the uncharacteristic randomness of the other yo-yo project, but I'm thinking it'll be fun to ALSO work on a mostly-blue yo-yo quilt.

So, here's a question for my fellow-quilters: How do you like yo-yo quilts assembled? 

• JUST the yo-yos sewn to each other, as a "coverlet"?
• The yo-yos stitched to something lightweight, like a sheet, to give it some stability?
• Yo-yos assembled and sewn onto a "traditional" quilt with batting?
• Something different, like yo-yos stitched onto fleece?

I realize that the possibilities are endless, so I'd love to hear from some folks who've made yo-yo quilts (or loved yo-yo quilts!), to give me ideas as I consider what to look toward in a finished product.

Scrap-Quilting thoughts ...

It's hard to believe that Christmas is nearly here! Time has flown so fast this year, and another year is on its way.

This week, I was pondering some quilting analogies while thinking about the busy-ness of life ...

During the past year, I've enjoyed making some real scrap-quilting projects. Out of actual scraps. Whereas many of my quilting projects have been made out of big pieces of intentionally coordinated fabrics, I've made a few things this year out of little pieces of fabric that were too small for my regular projects. Pieces of fabric that I wouldn't necessarily have thought would go well together. 

And, for me, it's a great reminder that the little things do add up. My tendency is to wait for the "perfect" timing and the "ideal" situation to work on important projects or priorities. But I'm seeing that even little bits of time spent on important things make a big difference. Little bits of effort spent on right priorities really add up. A small effort on a consistent basis goes a long way ...

Bits and Pieces ...

What I've been working on lately ...

Bits and pieces of things in little bits of time ...

Another star added to my English Paper Piecing ...

A few tiny quilt-y Christmas ornaments ...

 Putting some made-fabric circles on a quilt top ...

 

Tiny bits of Mary Engelbreit fabric for I'm-not-yet-sure-what ...

A few more rows on each lavendar sock. Almost ready for the toe. (I decided not to take the pics with my toes in the socks, although I thought about it. You're welcome.) 

Hope you and yours are having a great Christmas season so far!

Vintage Quilt-y Bits ...

A really long time ago, I came across a little stack of vintage fabric, already cut into appliqués (butterflies, I think), with the edges turned under and basted. Cute. Vintage. 

Quite old, as far as I can tell ... "actual" vintage, not reproduction fabrics, so I was kind of hesitant to do anything with them ... On the one hand, I didn't like the butterfly shapes, and didn't want to appliqué; on the other hand, I didn't want to cut the fabric; didn't want to mess up the cute vintage-ness.

But I finally decided that since I like the fabric, I should turn it into something cute that I will like. 

I've been seeing pictures of diamond English Paper Piecing (mostly at lifeunderquilts Just. Wow. And also here. Wow again.) I really like the diamond-star-tumbling-block look. 

So, finally, a couple weeks ago, I dared to cut the cute vintage fabric (yes! I did!), so I can try diamond-shaped English Paper Piecing. Here's the design idea I'm going with - the colors are random, just to give me an idea of where the colored pieces go, and where the plain muslin ones go.

 (Yay for free printable graph papers ... got this paper here and the printable diamonds to print on cardstock here)

And, since coloring on neat shapes is nearly irresistible, a small helper did some color-designing, too ...

And, as for the sewing, I'm super-pleased to report progress! I'm loving it!

Here's the first star ...

And the next one ...

Working on the 3rd star ...

And here's the combination of all of the above ...

Take Your Time Tuesday at So Happy is a fun spot to mention hand-stitching work like this ... So I'm planning to link this post to this week's Take Your Time Tuesday ...

(By the way, if you've seen a couple of my previous Tuesday posts, you might want to check out the finished product on my Christmas Hexagons Quilt ...)

Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory is another fun place to see fabric projects of all kinds, and I'm linking this post to this week's Fabric Tuesday, as well. (Click the button below for the most recent Fabric Tuesday).

Mini-Quilts in Progress ...

I don't have much mini-quilt news happening, since I haven't finished anything miniature in the past week ... but I've got some things in progress ...

A bunch of green, crazy-quilty 3-inch "made fabric" squares that are trying to become Christmas ornaments ...

... and a bunch of these little bits for a mini Lone Star ...

... influenced by this book that was given to me a few years ago, which is full of little tips and tricks ...

I'll share pictures when I finish up some of these cute little mini-things ...

Keep an eye out for some fellow-quilters' mini-projects shared at 

Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life's blog ...

Nativity Scenes ...

Christmas is coming, remarkably fast. It's so fun to see Christmas through my children's eyes, and to watch them discover more and more what Christmas is about: JESUS!

My oldest daughter, on her own initiative, updated our kitchen markerboard for us - with candy canes, Christmas trees, a list of Christmas-related events this coming week, and these two verses:

Matthew 1:21 

And she shall bring forth a son,

and thou shalt call his name JESUS:

for he shall save his people from their sins.

Luke 2:7

And she brought forth her firstborn son,

and wrapped him in swaddling clothes,

and laid him in a manger;

because there was no room for them in the inn.

This weekend, we'll probably (finally) get our Christmas tree up; but for now, we're feeling festive (and reverent and grateful) having these out ...

The glass nativity scene from the thrift store, on my Christmas mini-quilt ...

And, my personal favorite, the cross-stitched nativity scene that my sister made for us ...

I hope that you and yours are having a memorable time getting ready for Christmas! Have a great weekend!