Hooray!

My first REAL blog post of 2014!  I hope I can keep up more frequently this year.  My poor blog was so neglected last year.

We got through the holidays just fine this year.  No one got sick, which is a nice change from last year when DH and I both had a nasty virus.  DH was on a business trip to China for most of the month of December, so guess who did most of the shopping?  (I LOVE shopping on-line!  It's way too easy.)  He arrived home one week before Christmas, and managed to be mostly awake for all the festivities.  Jet lag is so terrible, but fortunately it didn't bother him too badly until Christmas was over.

I didn't get much sewing done, but did manage to get 8 pillowcases made for presents!

These are the ones for K. (who is A.'s mom), my dear DIL A. and DS #1.  

Here is a close-up of DIL A.'s pillowcase.  I found this fabric with names of places in Paris and knew it would be perfect.  A. has been to Paris 4 or 5 times (they were stationed in Germany) and Paris is her favorite city in the world.  

Pillowcases for the granddaughters.  The older one is really into ballet (3rd year of classes), and the younger one loves kitties and puppies.  She got kitties last year, so this year it had to be puppies.  *grin*

I somehow managed to NOT get a photo of the pillowcase I made for DS #2.  Bad Mom/blogger.

And these are the pillowcases for my DH, The Potter, and myself.  I'll bet you can guess whose is whose!

I also made some Winnie The Pooh potholders for my DIL's birthday, which she LOVED!  It used up the very last of my Pooh Bear fabric.  And I managed to NOT get photos of those either.  But at least I got them done in time!  Now I need to make some for myself (not Pooh Bear though).  I somehow managed to lose my selvage potholders, and am missing them.  Since I have an abundance of selvages, it shouldn't be too hard to do.  

I also managed to make some blocks for the Block Lotto.

These are the December blocks, called "Stripes".   It was surprisingly difficult to be 100% accurate on these.  Maybe I was distracted??

blocks finish at 7 inches by 14 inches

And these are the Chevron blocks for January.  Sophie had a fun, new-to-me technique to make the HST's for these.  You just cut one big square (9 inches in this case) from the background and the featured fabric for each chevron, and based on how you sew and cut that square, you get 8 HST's.  You can see her directions here.  Because you're cutting slightly larger than you need, you then trim to an accurate size (4 inches in this case, 3 1/2 inches finished size) and they're so accurate that everything goes together just slick as a wink.  Easy-peasy!  I love when I find a new technique that is easy and accurate!

I haven't had a lot of time to sew the last couple of weeks, and am trying to decide what I want to work on first.  Finish a quilt that is in-progress, work on a charity quilt or start a new quilt??  Of course, I could clean the quilt studio first, but that's not as much fun.  *wink*  

Have a creative weekend!