Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2025! I'm hoping the new year isn't as bad as many of us expect. Let's hope for the best and enjoy the new year. 

Cheers to a new year and whatever comes next! We can do it!!

2 BOMs????

I already signed up for the Block of the Month from The Quilt Show. I bought the kit awhile ago and am waiting for the the first month of directions. However, in the meantime, I saw this adorable Halloween Block of the Month and I just couldn't resist! It's all paper pieced and you only get 1-2 blocks per month. It will be all done by September. I signed up yesterday. It was too cute to pass up!

As a bonus for signing up early, they gave you directions for this cute 18"X18" table topper. I thought it would be good practice for when the bigger blocks get released so I started it last night.

Here are my 2 first blocks for the table topper! It took me awhile to figure out how to paper piece them. I use the freezer paper method where you don't sew through the paper so there are no stitches to rip out when finished.  Some of the angles were a little weird and I had a hard time filling up the whole space. I think I'm getting better at it. Hopefully, my muscle memory returns. I think I'll be busy with my BOMs plus quilting  Alaska. I'm actually looking forward to working on my projects. It will be nice to sew and have the holidays done. I'm still tired from all the work the holidays entail! 

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

I Like Thursday #259

Welcome to I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to link up to more bloggers. I'm happy to report that my cross stitch gingerbread house is finished and hanging on our tree! I literally finished just a few days ago after the tree was already up. I just had the roof to work on. This was a kit included in a cross stitch magazine that I received last year at Christmas. I worked on it over the summer. So glad I started early!

I added borders to my little possum witch cross stitch piece. I had made the same item for my daughter-in-law. I liked it so much that I had to make one for myself! I just have to add a few quilting lines as well as the binding. I'll be all set for next Halloween!

I'm making progress on quilting Alaska but it's not a quick process. There's lots of custom quilting going on. This is a 4 pointed start made into an 8 pointed star with a few ghost diamonds added in there! This block didn't take too long since I didn't have to mark ahead. However, I'm echoing each diamond 1/4" apart but the background has 1/2" lines. So easy to mix those two up! Ask me how I know!! 

The prompt this week asks about our childhood Christmas. We had a silver tree with red balls with the spinning color wheel. I'm surprised I could find a picture online of a similar tree! My parents learned about American customs from friends and neighbors. There was no Christmas tree in Italy when my parents lived there. My brother was always up very early but my mother would get up right after him. We would wait for my father who liked to sleep late. I think my mother would try to get him up since we were so excited! We always had a huge dinner. We would always have lasagna or stuffed shells with some kind of meat. My grandparents would come some years. Some years, it was just us four. My brother and I didn't care since we just wanted to play with our new toys!!

Have a great weekend! Stay warm!

Feathers Everywhere!

 I've been quilting feathers on my Alaska quilt. I've been online searching Alaska quilts that have been custom quilted. I've taken the different ideas and made my own quilting path using a hodge podge of motifs from these finished quilts. I wanted to accentuate the circles that are made by the placement of the fabric so I liked the idea of outlining the circles and filling them with feathers! This picture is in the middle of the row.

This set of feathers is the first in the row. It's a little smaller since the border blocks sort of cut into this row. These feathers aren't very large and very easy to plan. I just have to make a few lines to keep the size in check. They look much harder to make but they're not bad at all.

This picture gives you a better idea of how the row looks. The quilting isn't straight as the rows are but rather dip down into the lower rows as well. It's a lot to keep straight sometimes but I'm loving how it's coming out!

I Like Thursday #258

It's Thursday so it's time for a fun and happy post. Please visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to hook up to more fun blogs. I finished my last Christmas ornaments yesterday. I plan on giving these ornaments as gifts this year. We had a bad rainstorm so I stayed in and finished my ornaments. I really love how they came out. I hope my friends will love them as much as I do! I wasn't sure how to add that thin trim but I figured it out.

Here's a bird's eye view of my Christmas bargello table runner. This is probably my favorite of all the things I've made for the holiday. I loved learning bargello and being able to applique the ornaments. I just hope my cats don't "discover" this table runner and start pulling off all those ribbons.

Everyone hears how crazy cats can get once the Christmas tree is up. I wanted to show you a picture of Molly just chilling under the tree. Neither one of our cats tried to climb the tree. They enjoy sleeping on the tree skirt. That's fine with me!!

I've been reading so much lately that I was afraid of getting burnt out. I decided to read a book of short stories. I can take my time and the stories aren't very long. I usually pledge to read a certain amount of books every year but I'm not going to do that this year. I'll be taking my time! I'm tired of rushing. Life's too short.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Stay warm!!

 

Quilting and Decorating

 I've been trying to quilt Alaska in between shopping and getting the house ready for the holidays.  I'm making progress although a bit slowly. I finished the top border and about half of the next row. I ended up breaking the thread guide on my longarm yesterday morning. I drove to the quilt store where I bought it and bought a replacement. Then, I came home and had to figure out how to place it on the machine. I did it! I'm not sure how, but it's working fine.

This is the thread guide I broke. It's the last place the thread goes through before it passes through the needle. So little but so much trouble!

                      

    

I've been decorating the house for Christmas and found these two wall hangings. I had completely forgotten that I made them! I have them hanging in my family room. They're a little wrinkled but they're looking better every day! Only two more weeks until Christmas?! I need more time!!!

I Like Thursday #257

 It's time for I Like Thursday. I've been out and about this morning and am finally getting to my blog. I finally started quilting the ghost blocks in the border of Alaska. So far, so good! I'm so used to outlining all the seams so that's a little different for me. My markings are working out well. I hope it continues to be this way. We'll see!

Here's a picture of my immediate family at my son's wedding. I'm still going through the photographer's website. There are too many nice pictures to choose!

We started putting up a few Christmas decorations. The cats were happy to see the Christmas bus. I wonder who's really driving???

My daughter received an advent calendar from her boyfriend's mother. Each day has a new toy for the cats! Yesterday, they received a little Christmas bowtie. We got pictures of them wearing it but they didn't enjoy it for one minute! I'm surprised they let us take these pictures!!

I'm linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color. Please give her blog a visit! Have a great weekend!

Quilting Alaska

 I can't believe it's already December! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had great food and even greater company! I'm finally getting back to my quilting. Alaska has to be quilted and I've been doing all sorts of searches to see how other people quilted theirs. I'm taking ideas from a few different quilts I saw. I was going to quilt feathers in the border but I liked the idea of these ghost blocks. It's nice to finish the pieced blocks into the border. I marked every line and point just to make it easier for me to quilt. I have some ideas as to what to do in the space left in the border. I haven't decided yet for sure.

I'm using a different batting for Alaska. I thought I'd give this Dream Wool a try. It seemed to get great reviews online. It feels nice and soft to touch it. I hope my quilting looks good with this batting! We shall see!