Some Free Christmas Gifts You Can Give Yourself

Merry Christmas to you!

There are some free crafting, sewing, and quilting on-line classes and a free Ebook available that would make nice little Christmas treats for yourself.

1.  Click HERE to access the free classes.  I am not being compensated in any way to advertise for Craftsy, just thought it would be a nice Christmas Eve thing to do.

At Craftsy there are several free mini classes available. I signed up for several which include bag making, cake decorating, quilting and sewing.

The neat thing about these online classes is that you have unlimited access to them and so even though probably none of us have time to watch the classes for the next few days, we can watch them later at our leisure.

Of course, there are classes that you can pay for and until Midnight tonight many are on sale. I plan to watch my free classes first to see if I like them enough to buy a class later on. I would love to take a beginning knitting class and many others. The names of the free classes I signed up for are:

1.  Bag making basics - Reversible Tote and Zipper Pouch
2.  Bag making basics - Drawstring bag and Bucket Bag
3.  Creative Quilt Backs
4.  Craftsy 2012 Blocks of the Month
5.  Sewing Machine 911
6.  Modern Butter Cream (cake decorating)
7.  Micro Torch Basics (jewelry)

2.  There is also a free E-Book right now at Fons and Porter which is entitled, Build Your Best Log Cabin Quilt.  Click HERE to download your copy.

I hope that you will enjoy your freebies!

May all your celebrations be a Blessing to you and yours.

The Truth about the batting in The Winter Quilt

I was ready to finish the Winter Quilt a few weeks ago and discovered I had no quilt batting large enough. I didn't want to make a trip to the store for the batting which would have taken too much of my quilting time.

Its not recommended that you piece quilt batting, unless its maybe just two large pieces.  But I pieced the entire batting using left over strips from other quilting projects.

I felt comfortable doing this because I knew this quilt would be mostly for display and would not receive the heavy use and laundering that a baby quilt or bed quilt would receive. I laid the quilt top on a bed and then laid out the strips in different shapes and positions until the top was covered.

To make the strips fit together snugly I overlapped them and cut through the middle. When I removed the two little strips on each side of the cut the pieces fit together better.

Then I hand sewed together the strips. This did take a little time, but was much less time than making a trip to the store. We don't live too near any stores that sell quilt batting and besides, this was a no cost batting.

Then I pin basted the quilt as I normally do.

The small free motion quilting that I did also serves to secure the layers, including the pieced batting.

So, now you know my little secret....

String Pieced Quilted Tree Skirt.

I made this small string quilt from Christmas fabrics a few years ago. Its perfect to use for a tree skirt
.

I'd like to do some more string quilts in 2013! Sure do have plenty of strings!

Cutting Edge Technology...

As you know, my Hubby has been housebound for a while, recuperating from his knee replacement surgery. Recently, his plumber/friend came to make some repairs and visit him. When he saw my sewing room and found out I sew, he went out to his truck to retrieve this:

Its a 1960 Singer Sewing Machine Buttonholer.  All of the parts and the instruction manual are contained in the space ship shaped plastic case.

The story of where he got it is interesting. We have been driving by an old building down the road that was leaning precariously for years, kind of like the leaning tower of Pisa.  Recently the building finally fell. When the area was cleared, this Singer buttonholer was found in the rubble of that building.

I got a chuckle when I read the first page of the instruction book!

"This attachment is intended for use on SINGER Family Sewing Machines and makes straight and keyhole buttonholes in a great variety of fabrics without any special skill on the part of the operator. The buttonholes are produced automatically in a fraction of the time required for hand work."

 

That's exactly what I need! A sewing gadget that requires NO SPECIAL SKILL ON THE PART OF THE OPERATOR! LOL

My Grandmother's antique treadle machine is not a Singer.  Also, I think the buttonholer would be too modern to work on it, even if it were a Singer.

My vintage 70s Singer machine would be too modern for the buttonholer and I already have the one that fits it. I've never used it, however. I just never took the time to learn to use it.



But you never know.  With my love of collecting things, I may acquire a Singer Sewing machine that this buttonholer will fit.  For now though, its an interesting piece of vintage sewing machine history and conversation piece.

The Winter Quilt

I finished the winter/Christmas quilt that I have been working on all year doing the bloggers' block of the month designs.

This quilt is entered in the 2012 Winter/Christmas Quilt Show HERE at the Quilting Tutorials Blog.  Be sure to go over and look at all the Winter/Christmas quilts.

 This weekend I plan to put away my Fall things, including the fall quilt on the back of the couch.  I'm sorry to see fall end, but its time to get rid of all the pumpkins and sunflowers.

This quilt isn't too Christmassy so it can stay out all winter.

Thank you Coleen for the wonderful Winter fabrics!

Zoology Baby Quilt

Life has slowed down a little bit for me.  The loss of my dear Mama and my hubby's knee replacement surgery are behind us.  The healing from both of these events is still in progress.... 

But since I had a 4 day weekend off from work, I got busy finishing up the baby quilt I was making for my step-grandson who is supposed to come in January.

A baby shower is planned for next weekend, so this will be my gift for Baby Walt.

Before binding the quilt on a sunny morning:

Turkey basting wasn't the only kind of basting going on Thanksgiving morning.  I was pin basting the quilt while the turkey was roasting.

 I started quilting it Thanksgiving afternoon.

The back:

A tiny heart.  I Wonder if Baby Walt will notice the heart when he is a little older and is cuddling with this quilt?

From my heart to yours, Baby Walt.

Heading Home

In Loving Memory of my Mama. "Mama Alice". 1925 - 2012