Pillow Cases

Pillow cases are on my sewing table right now. I'm making several sets of pillow cases as gifts for Christmas.  I will post some pictures tomorrow.

Making Christmas Presents

I have been making a table runner, table topper, placemat and pot holder for my daughter.  They are turning out really nice.  The fabric I picked to match a set of mixing bowls that my grandmother bought for Lauren a few years ago for Christmas. I think she will really like all of these when she opens them.

Weekend Christmas Sewing

Working a full-time job, I only get to sew on the weekends (if I feel well enough).  This weekend, I was able to start the Christmas placemats for my sister.  A design I made up myself.  When I first saw the Riley Blake Christmas Candy fabric, I fell in love with it!  My sister loves gingerbread men in her kitchen for Christmas, and I knew I wanted to do something with this fabric.  Well, here is what I came up with.

I started with printed paper and made a design of what I wanted.  From this printed paper, I began my work with the real fabric.

Backing fabric and fusible fleece, and then my two top fabrics.

I found a printable gingerbread pattern online to trace.

Traced my gingerbread man onto heat-and-bond and then bonded that to my brown fabric.

I then fussy cut out the candy from the fabric to decorate my gingerbread man.  I again used the heat-and-bond (extra heavy) for this application.

After I decorated him with candy, he needed some "frosting" so I free-motion quilted some frosting look swirls all around the edge of him, plus this helps to hold him down on the fabric.

I turned the backing to the front and top stitched.  I also quilted a zigzag stitch every 2" across the placemat and it looks so cute!  Now I have 5 more to go!

Halloween Sewing

I thought I would show some of the Halloween sewing I've done.  Quilt as you go placemats for my sister Sheila, a toothy cat wall hanging, and a pillow case for my daughter.  All fun and easy to make projects.

This is Riley Blake fabric, some of my favorite.

Placemats I made for my sister Sheila.

This was a kit for a 12" mini quilt I picked up from a local quilt shop.  Very cute!  I love how the stitching I did around the eyes turned out to look like lashes.

Fighting The Fatigue

I have not been able to quilt for the last four days due to fatigue. I have also missed two days of work this week, and I'm not happy about that. It has turned a little cold here in Michigan and I wonder if that is the problem. I have several projects I want to start on for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I hope to post pictures this weekend. My fabric arrived yesterday and I'm so excited. I'm making my first Christmas count down calendar. and a scroll with the story of the "Night Before Christmas". Of course, one for me and one for my sister. Until next time. Lisakb

Weekend update

I've been making some Halloween and Christmas pillow cases.  I also made two king size cases for myself out of some Robert Kaufman "La Scala" fabric my local quilt store recently got in and I just love them! That is really a gorgeous line of fabrics. Much prettier in person than on the computer screen.  Those were something special for my husband and I for our 24th wedding anniversary we are celebrating today, 10/10/2011.  I can't believe it has been 24 years already.  Here is a picture of my husband and me.  I will post some pictures of the pillow cases soon.  Thanks for reading.

TODAY IS DAY 1

Today I'm starting my quilting blog.  I've always wanted to do this and now I'm jumping in. I want to show what I can do with material and my hands while I can still move.  I have arthritis, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Quilting is what I do for stress relief.  I also work full-time so I only get to quilt and sew on the weekends.  I hope to upload some pictures of what I've done very soon.