Catch-up Post and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Are you all ready for Christmas yet?  If so, congrats! If not, why are you sitting there reading this when you still have things to do?  LOL

We are ready here at the Kizerian Love Shack. I may still make a pie or some cookies so I have sweets when the families swing by. But since we are feeding some of them brunch and some of them dinner, and Bruce and don’t generally keep a lot of junk food around the house (because I would eat it), that is a maybe.....

Anyway, I wanted to show you a few things I have finished up in the last two weeks or so. So let’s begin.

First is the Cozy Cottage pillow I made. It is a Lori Holt pattern from her Farm Girl Vintage Calendar for 2016 (which you can buy at the Fat Quarter Shop. It has lots of cute ideas and patterns in it besides the calendar part).  I want to make another one next year in Christmas colors.

Next we have the Milk Cow Block. I have embroidered the eyes, but need to redo them because they are hardly visible. I had a lot of trouble with this pattern and even discovered a couple errors in the directions, so had to recut some pieces. Not my most fun block.

Barn Cat went together smoothly, but I don’t like my fabric choices. Oh well. In the big, busy quilt, these tame fabrics might be a nice place to rest the eyes. Obviously, I still need to embroider eyes, nose and whiskers. Because, what is a cat without whiskers?

All I need now is to finish up the blocks I will use for pillow shams;  the tractor for Bruce and who-knows-what for me.  This will probably begin coming together before the year is out.

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In the past I used to supply vintage Victorian postcard images having to do with each respective holiday. This year I decided to show a few decorating vignettes around our house instead.

The first is on our antique sideboard. I love the traditional Christmas colors of red and green and gold. Sometimes other colors appear (orange, blue), but for the most part, this old gal sticks with what she loves.  By the way, in the background you see part of one (of a pair) of carved griffins on this sideboard. The furniture is part of a set that my ex husband and I bought for our larger home with a formal dining room. This is the small sideboard; he took the big one. I got the vitrine (china hutch) and we sold the dining room set with chairs. It was all a matching set that had been imported from Europe. It is circa 1860’s, Dutch. Maybe I will show more pictures sometime.

Below is an antique Father Christmas that my former sister-in-law gifted me one year, back in the 1990’s. It is composite and circa 1900-1915. Father Christmas stays out all year because I love him!

We have 3 bathrooms in our little home. When we remodeled all the bathrooms a few years ago, this main bathroom is the only one where we were able to maintain the original tile (counters, walls and floor). It is usually decorated in a peacock theme (I have shown pictures of that before), but this year I have a few of my older-style ornaments set up here.

In our master bedroom, on the dresser, sits my collection of Willow Tree Angels. At Christmas time, they are graced with two beautiful Christmas-themed postcards, which I bought from one of my favorite crazy quilters, Margreet deReus.

I collect vintage cookie jars, and while this one isn’t vintage (the left one is from the sixties, though), the Fitz & Floyd Snowy Woods Father Christmas jar is one of my favorites. It was produced from 1992-2000 and like all F&F, is highly collectible. What is sweeter than Father Christmas being surrounded by woodland bunnies??

Wow. That makes me want to start collecting again!

Back to sewing, I finished up a spur-of-the-moment idea for the grands; an I-Spy quilt. I had lots of 5” I Spy blocks hanging around since I attended the 2012 Sewing Summit. So, I arranged them, stitched them together, basted, quilted, bound and washed it. Done in two afternoons. It measures 45x45”.  The binding is scrappy leftovers for quilts past.

And finally, I cut and pieced my Helen’s Garden quilt last weekend. Yesterday I basted it, and I plan to get quilting on it this evening perhaps.

As this fabric line has a lot of large-print fabrics, I decided to do this easy pattern from Missouri Star Quilts. I did omit the outer border though, because the vintage sheet I am using for the backing was not large enough, even with the addition of an extra column of leftover fabric. I will show pictures of front and back when complete, since I need to do a post for the 2015 Finish-Along. This is one of my 4th quarter goals I didn’t know if I could really get done.

The dragonfly fabric, below left, is my favorite print in the line. I have another yard of it left over, so I will need to mull on how to use it. This fabric is by one of my favorite designers, Tamara Kate.

And I think that catches us up. So all that’s left is for me to wish you a beautiful and Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.  I will be back after Christmas with a final year-end wrap-up post.

Until then,

Postcard Swap

At Crazy Quilting International, we just had a postcard swap in February.  I showed you the two I made earlier and sent off to my friend Debbie.   Well, a couple days ago, my postcard arrived in the mail from Sandy Larson in AR.  Oh. My. Goodness.

Will you look at that?  Does that say Spring, or what?  Isn’t it beautiful?  Sandy, I love it to death!! The stitching is so dainty and perfect.  The birdsilkie is darling!! And look at how Sandy carried the silkie a bit further by employing 3-D techniques with lace flowers and silk ribbon embroidery. Not only does it enhance the print, but helps to softly frame the print, blurring the hard edge.

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I have pieced a “Snowball” (a 3.5” circle to trade) for Connie, but have not photographed it yet. I will get a picture before I stitch it this weekend.  I hand pieced it not only because of the curves, but because my d*** sewing machine is in the shop.  Well, it’s not the sewing machine’s fault, actually.  It is just there for a cleaning and “tune up”.  The tension has been wacko for weeks.   So, when it gets back all nice and serviced and in good working order, I am selling it.  It’s a 15-year old Viking (Husqvarna) that has been OK, but has always had tension issues. 

And after doing a lot of research (consumer reviews and reading), I am going to get a Brother PC-420 PRW (limited edition Project Runway) sewing machine.  See the Amazon picture and information here. I think part of it will be my birthday present, and Crazy by Design will pay for the rest. I am gearing up to begin stitching boutique items for the spring-summer boutique season here, and need a reliable machine.  I am so excited!!!!!  It has 294 stitches and 3 alphabets. And costs almost $100 less than the Viking I bought 15 years ago.   

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And finally, yesterday was Londay (the day we watch our DGD London).  We only watch her for half days now because we have a hard time keeping up with an active 2 ½ year old.  No kidding.  Now I know what they mean by “silence is golden”, hehehe.  London is a total chatterbox and rarely stops talking or singing or commenting.  Yesterday she was trying to get up on the daybed in her room. Actually, it’s our guest room where we keep her porta-crib. But that is being put away this weekend because she will not stay in it. I just pull out the trundle from the daybed. Of course, she won`t stay in that, either. You know 2-year-olds. They`re in charge. They wear you down.   But I digress.  

London was climbing on the bed, saying “I need clenentine”.  I couldn’t figure out what she meant until she grabbed the stuffed Panda teddy bear. We (Bruce and I) had sung to her “Oh My Darling Clementine” a couple weeks ago, and we had decided to name the teddy bear “Clementine”.    So, she came out and held the bear and sang “Clementine” with us. 

London is getting into Grammy’s yogurt and strawberries.  Note that she has the same thing on HER plate, but that’s not as exciting I guess.  :-)

Someone should award a Nobel Peace Prize to the person who invented Sippy Cups.  

Until next time,

Fabric Postcards

Over at Crazy Quilting International, we are having our first swap of the year, and the subject is postcards. The only time I have ever done a postcard was in a Helen Gibb class back in 2009 at the CQ retreat in Omaha.   Here is that card from almost 3 years ago.

While the thought of experimenting with other methods of constructing a postcard (like crazy quilting) did occur to me, I thought I would stick to a tried-and-true formula for me.  I love the feminine look with a printed silk image  as a focal point, with lots of lace, ribbon and flowers.

So these are the two that I came up with, below.

I really tried not to foof up this one (above) too much, but that was the best I could do, LOL.  There are some vintage elements in it, like the meandering pink and blue trim (purchased at Piecemakers in So. Cal. years ago), the two little flowers above it, and the center leaf thingy above that.  The rose and trim above the silkie print is my own golden dyed lace of course, and that is layered over some vintage lace.  The leaf that you can barely see in the lower right was actually cut from a 7” piece of a three-figure-per-yard fabric I bought several years ago in Denver. Yep, I only bought 7” - they would only cut it along complete motifs, and I could not afford 14”, LOL. 

This one is my favorite!

All the laces on this one are vintage.  So are the vintage millinery flowers along the silkie print left upper side and the millinery leaf “fan” she is holding in her hand.

I will put these in sleeves and mail them in envelopes instead of as postcards.  Actually, I only signed up to swap one postcard, but I want to give Debbie the hostess (I doubt if she reads my blog, LOL) her choice of one first as a giftie.  :-)  Anyway, I forgot to take a picture of the backs, but they are covered in a coordinating cotton.  In the center layer is a piece Tyvek that I bonded to the front and back, then zig-zagged over the edges.

Now, back to the sewing machine!  I have been making fleece jackets for my two grand-dogs. They are coming over for a fitting tomorrow courtesy of my DD Megan and DSIL Ron; the dogs Chip and Charlie have yet to learn how to drive.

Hugs,