In our usual fashion we made some Christmas gifts this past Christmas.  As I was browsing around Pinterest 
as I sometimes do.  Well, maybe I should say, as I OFTEN do, I happened on this.

With all of the growing grandchildren we have I thought this would be a perfect gift for each family.  So, of course I enlisted Bud's help.  He knows lumber, and I don't!  He bought the boards, cut them, and routered the edges of each board.  Then he stained the boards.  I was up next. I painted the lines and numbers on each board.  The final step was a light coat of clear gloss then picture hangers on the back.  We ended up with this: 

Well, actually we ended up with four.  I'm not sure where the fourth one was at this point.   Anyway, we gave one to each of our kids for Christmas.  I look forward to seeing the marks on there as the grandkids grow.  And, best of all if they move it can go with them unlike a doorjamb!

Here Grayson is standing by his before it is hung.  If you are interested in making your own. Check out my board on Pinterest titled For the Home, or go here for directions.

We enjoy making things for our family, and we hope they enjoy them as well.

T-shirt Quilt #4

I made a t-shirt quilt for each of my four kids. You can see the other three under the 11 in '11 tab at the top of my blog. BUT, I was having so many problems with my sewing machine that I didn't get Trina's finished until now.


Trina was into music with just a touch of sports, so used fabric with music notes on it for the shashing. The back is a little bit scrappy with music fabric down the middle, and some black fabric at the edges.


I sewed around the edges of each square and then from corner to corner.
Then I meandered the shashing.


Merry Christmas, Trina!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A House for the Princess!

Clara's dad, Kyle, has mentioned several times the little cloth house his grandmother made that went over a card table.  He talked of all the fun times he and his siblings had with that little house.  It was even at the visitation for his grandmother who was a quilter and sewer.  This had me thinking about my kids playing with blankets over the table and all the fun they had too.  So I made Clara a little house for Christmas.

It was a big hit Christmas Day!  Here you can see Chance sticking out of it!

I used a pattern, but I did adapt it some.  

The playhouse really does fit better than it appears in the photo, but there were little ones inside pulling on the fabric and having a great time!  In researching these I found an etsy that gave me lots of ideas.  You can check it out here.  Now, if I could find enough customers to pay me that much for the playhouses I might be able to consider retiring in a few years!!  I have a lot of ideas for some of the other grandkids, so stay tuned.

And I'm counting this as #12 in '11!!!

Finally, A Day at Home!

It's been awhile since I've blogged because of  lots of things going on this month!  I'm finally at home with the lights on the tree,

a fire roaring in the fireplace,

and since we finally finished our shopping I have a pile of gifts to wrap.

So, this is where I'll be today wrapping, wrapping, & wrapping!

December update will come after I wrap, clean, and bake at least a few Christmas cookies!

Christmas Gift

I've slowly been working on a few Christmas gifts.  This table runner is one that I showed a peek of a while ago.  It was my second free motion quilting project.   I was happy with how the quilting turned out.

I used some 5 inch charm squares from Wiccaset and Portebello Market both by Moda.  I thought the colors blended well.

If you wanted a plainer look I think you could turn it over and use it with the  other side up too.

I had it folded in my hand sewing bag waiting to get the binding finished so it wouldn't lay flat!  I hope the recipient likes it.