I've been busy---

I have been very busy and quite productive the past several days. Judy was hosting another Quiltathon and I was able to participate this time. Thanks, Judy for getting me in gear! I love getting a little motivation from friends!!!!

I finished both of the quilts that I was making for my great-niece's birthdays. The other one has horses in the squares where this one has the music notes and records. I picked embroidery motifs that would reflect their individual personalities.

I have also been cleaning up my sewing room. I was getting way to many things piled around and laying on the floor. I had made two quilts tops last winter for charity and I am finishing those up.One of them I will just take to our church's Humanitarian Center and the other I am donating to the Boy Scout's. They are having a Rummage Sale to raise money for their Scout Camp.
A couple of weeks ago, at church, I volunteered to do the machine quilting and binding on 2 more charity quilts. I have those ready to take back to church this week.
Sorry, no pics of the charity quilts. :(

Hugs & Stitches, Julia

Some of My Favorite Things

I just about have all of my Christmas decorating finished. I just need one more string of lights for the tree, then I can finish decorating it. Speaking of lights, how is it that they are working when you take them off of the tree, they are gently stored in a box downstairs all year and when you bring them out, plug them in, they are dead? How does this happen? Well, I don't mess with them, drives me insane. I will just go and buy some more. Need to help the economy anyway, right? :~)

Anyway, I wanted to share a couple of the decorations with you. I made this several years ago when I used to do ceramics. This is my all-time favorite decoration. To me it says what the season is really all about. Even Santa kneels at the manger of our Lord and King!



This little wallhanging was the first Christmas quilty item that I ever made. Not my best work. Fun to see that I am improving with my fabric choices, piecing skills, and definitely my quilting skills. I still like it though. Makes me smile! :~) On top of the shelf is a few of my nativity scenes. I collect these and have several of them displayed throughout our home.

I am going to my guild's Christmas social today. Should be lots of fun. I will take my camera and if there is anything interesting to share, I will be sure to take pictures for all of you.

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

I have walked 4 1/4 miles so far this week. I did go shopping with my daughter for 4 hours yesterday, do I get to count that as part of my walking too? hehe

UFO Challenge

My guild is having a UFO challenge that I decided to sign up for. I need to get some of these UFO's done. It drives me insane to have to many projects going at once! There is so many new things that I want to do, so I am going to make myself finish at least two "old" projects for every "new" one that I begin. Wish me luck! :~)

If I don't have this done by March, then I have to donate 5 fat quarters to the guild. Not a big penalty, but something to give me a little incentive to finish this. I made it this far, before I put it away. I am working on all of the little stars today.

I have to make 44 of them. I have 12 done! EEP! I have a way to go! :~)

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

Swim Lessons

No quilting going on in my house the past week or so.
This is what I have been doing.

We are into week 2 of swim lessons. Ethan is having lots of fun! Made me a little nervous the first time that they had him jump off of the diving board. At least, they had a life belt on him. When they have him jump in off of the side he doesn't wear one. That really makes my heart jump until I see that cute little head surface the water.
Sure wish it was an outdoor pool for this time of year. It is a little humid and stuffy in there for me!

I am also working on some new embroidery designs. They should be ready for sale in my Ebay store by the middle of August. I will show some pics of what I am doing when I get a little further along on them. This is my favorite set that I have done so far.
I am also thinking of opening an Etsy store too. Has anyone sold through Etsy before? Is it simple to set up? Do they charge any fees?

Hugs & Stitches, Julia

Wooden Pumpkins

I spent the day, Tuesday, with Kristy (DD). We each made one of these. Now painting is not one of my creative talents. So I was very pleased with how these turned out. We had a lot of fun laughing and painting. Oh, and trying to keep the 18 month old tornado (grandson) out of the paint. LOL

My guild had a guest speaker and a trunk show yesterday. I took lots of pictures, will share those on the next post. Right now I need to finish up Kristy's birthday present. It was her birthday yesterday. Not sure how it happened, but my baby girl is 28 years old! ACK! What a blessing she is to us, she is my best friend. We spend lots of time together. Now if I could just get her interested in quilting. She loves the finished product, but doesn't want to make it herself. She says that is my job. :~)

Hugs&Stitches, Julia

Birthday Totes

We have two granddaughters with birthdays this month. They are sister's, 7 years old and 3 years old. I decided to make them each a little purse/tote. What girl doesn't like a new purse now and then. :~) I thought that I would also fill them up with some goodies. I had lots of fun making these.

As you can see in the picture, I made the handles on the 3 year old's a little shorter.

Right while I am having fun making totes, I think that I am going to make me a big one for carrying things in when I go to classes and retreats/sewing days with friends.

I am still waiting on the border fabric for the Purple Star quilt. It should be here this week sometime. I usually don't name my quilts, but I think that I am going to give this one a name, "Blackberry Twilight". What do you think? I really need to get into labeling my quilts. I usually always put a label on the ones that I make for gifts, but I never seem to put a label on the ones that I keep. Not that I really stress over it, it just might be interesting after a few years to be able to see the date that I made them.

Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a

I hope that those of you living in Australia are safe and not involved in those terrible fires. You and your countrymen are in my thoughts and in my prayers. :~)

String Scrap Quilts

I finished up two of my string/scrap quilts.

I have another almost ready to load onto SuzyQ. I have another that I am working on, using up some 2 1/2" strips. I will just work on it here and there. I want to get back to some of my other projects. These are fun to make though. I use a muslin foundation. You can stitch away and not really think about what you are doing. I will be donating these to the LDS Humanitarian Center.