Hush My Darling

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight...

Sometimes when I'm quilting, lyrics to songs pop into my head. While quilting yesterday, I thought of my niece and her new king, a beautiful baby boy. The next thing I knew I was singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight from The Lion King over and over again.

My back fabric is a jungle scene. To tack down the binding, I used the arrows decorative stitch. These jungle creatures look friendly and kind, but they need to be kept corralled so that the new king always has pleasant dreams.

This was a fun quilt. Most of the blues came from the stash of fabrics that my mother had sent me. So, I can say that Great Grandma had a bit in making of this quilt. Piecing was done on my Eldredge Two Spools, Quilting on Davis NVF, and decorative stitching on the Singer 224.

Inventive

I wasn't clever enough to come up with this technique of tape marking quilt lines, but I'm sure glad that Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio shared her information on this technique:http://tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com/2009/11/straight-line-quiltinghints-and-tips.html

Since I don't like marking my quilts because there is always at least one chalk or pencil marking that will not come out, I'm happy to discover this method. After quilting next to the tape, I then ran a line down the quilted line and then placed the tape next to that new line.

This process didn't take very long. I used the same tape until it was no longer sticky and then replaced it with another. In total, I used three pieces of tape for this 40 x 53 inch quilt.

Persistence

I enjoyed knitting two socks at a time. To my surprise, it took less than a week to make this pair. I'm not the fastest knitter, and I don't care to be, but that was fast for me. Luckily, I was able to complete the project in time for my daughter to take them back with her to college so that I didn't have to mail them.

This pair is a Christmas gift for her boyfriend. I hope it keeps his feet warm since the weather there is freezing.

 

New Endeavors

On New Year's Eve, I started working on my first knit 2-at-a-time socks project. I finally got brave to tackle knitting two socks at the same time. Since I prefer knitting from the toe up and the book that I own, 2-at-a-time Socks, only demonstrates from cuff down, I had to watch a youtube tutorial on how to get started. Once I figured out that technique, my worries faded. Knitting two socks simultaneously is not difficult at all and very rewarding to see two socks materialize at the same time.

And on New Year's Day, I started piecing the baby quilt that will be for my niece's baby boy that is due very soon. The piecing for this quilt is with my Two Spools.

Duck Cloth and Wool

I finished the socks that I was knitting for my husband in time for him to wear the socks on New Years Eve. Since shoes are not worn in the house, the family wears socks. At night, my husband always switches out of his socks that he wears during the day and puts on the socks that I have knitted for him. I call those knitted socks his lounging socks. These socks made of wool should keep his feet very warm this winter.

The other gift that I made for my husband this Christmas was this magazine holder that fits on a towel bar. Magazines were always congregating on the bathroom floor, but no longer. Since I could not find a pattern to use, I design the magazine holder myself. The material used was duck cloth, and all the sewing was done with my Davis NVF.

Earbuds and Socks

...were some of the gifts that I had made as Christmas gifts for my family.

The earbud pattern can be found at Erin Erickson website: http://www.dogundermydesk.com/2011/11/circle-zip-earbud-pouch-tutorial/.
I was so happy to come across this pattern the week before Christmas since I was looking for new items to use as stocking stuffers this year. This pattern comes together very quickly. My only mistake in following the directions was with the first earbud, the blue one. The zipper tab was placed in the wrong direction, but that really is no big deal since it can still be unzipped and zipped.

The other gift that I was able to complete in time for Christmas was this pair of socks for my daughter. My husband's socks are still on the knitting needles and hopefully will be finished by end of this year. So from now until the New Year, I will be knitting.

A St. Nicholas Day Gift

I was a wee bit late in getting this project done in time for the Feast of St. Nicholas, Dec. 6. I spent the day after the feast day finishing up the quilting. This gift is headed to my mom since she has sent me boxes of her fabrics to use in my quilts. All minus the yellow fabric were from her stash.

This pattern, Fun Poinsettia, is from Sew Kind of Wonderful (http://sewkindofwonderful.blogspot.com/2013/11/fun-poinsettias.html). I didn't have the curve ruler that she suggests. Instead, I used a curve ruler with lots of curves that I already own and selected a curve that worked close to the directions on the placement of the ruler. I had to make some modifications since the curve was slightly off. Also, I only made one flower since I only had enough fabric for one. Piecing was done on Davis NVF since the walking foot on that machine is easy to use for curves. Quilting was done with the Davis NVF, along with part of the binding. The decorative stitching on the binding was done with the Necchi Supernova.

An Offbeat Jacket

My mom sent me a box of fabrics with a pattern that she had planned on making. Since she lost interest in making the jacket, she thought that I might be interested in making the jacket for myself.  Instead, I decided to make it for her as a surprise gift for Christmas.

The pattern is Vogue 8863 by Katherine Tilton. I do NOT recommend this pattern since the directions to the pattern are poorly written and difficult to understand in a couple of steps.

I made one change to the zipper since I don't like the composition of the design for the zipper. Even with this change, I'm not thrilled with the overall effect.

I installed the zipper on the inside of the right jacket flap by machine-stitching close to the zipper teeth and then sewing the other edge of that zipper strip down by hand.

I do love the choice of fabrics that my mom picked for this funky jacket. 

Another Season

My mom asked me if I could make a mini quilt like the one I gave her for Mother's Day. She wants to give this quilt as a thank you gift for receiving free organic veggies from friends whose kids own the farm mentioned on the mini quilt, One Straw Farm.

Since I no longer have some of the same fabrics, I changed most of the fabrics. I like the background fabric for this project since the vegetable/fruit look like little, round, red peppers. The paper-piecing was done on my Singer 201, quilting and binding on Davis NVF, and the decorative stitching on Singer 224.

A Redcoat

My son needed a Redcoat costume for his AP History oral presentation. After searching numerous places, I found a red jacket at the Goodwill shop to use.

I'm almost finished; I just need to add buttons and sew the inside flaps down.

 The finished coat.