Trick or Treat pillow finished

Went to JoAnn's yesterday, and discovered that Christmas shopping is in full force!

It was jammed packed with shoppers!

I picked up a pillow form and was able to finish 

my Trick or Treat pillow this morning. 

It's now ready and waiting for next year!!!!!

Poor Skittles is looking a little sleepy! He'll be unhappy when I want to finish quilting 

my Sweet Dreams doll quilt!!! 

:)

Speaking of my Sweet Dreams quilt

here is a picture of the quilting I've done so far.

The blue marking my quilting pattern washes out. It is there

just to show me where to do my hand quilting. 

I'm finding it is slow going, my carpal tunnel in my left hand

is really bothered with the quilting. So I'm only doing a little at a time.

This was made from  a few leftover pink squares that I used for a baby quilt 

I made last year. Doll quilts are good ways to use up leftovers.

:)

Progress Report on the Christmas stocking

In the last few days I've made a tiny bit of progress on

Josh's Christmas stocking. I'm trying to build in some

of the main colors so I can go back and fill in the shading.

It's quite tedious and I have to count and double count

where the stitches go, but I'm having fun doing

cross stitch again.

In the last few days I've also finished the pillow top for my 

cross stitch Trick or Treat pillow. I had to go buy more 

purple for the back of the pillow as I didn't have enough to fit.

Unfortunately, I only have 18 inch pillow forms so I'll have to 

go get a 16 inch on Monday.

Then that will be done!

I also made myself two Christmas pillowcases. They are soooo easy to make,

I'm planning to make more.

I also made a doll quilt top and have that one basted and in

a hoop, and have started hand quilting in an all over pattern.

I embroidered "Sweet Dreams" across the top in variegated thread.

Shouldn't take too long, should be done sometime next week.

I'll try to put up a couple of pics of the pillowcases and the Sweet Dreams

doll quilt soon.

A New Start, Christmas stocking

I have made Christmas stockings for everyone in my immediate family. 

Even before my son married I made his girlfriend a stocking.

 I knew she was going to be a member of our family! :)

These stockings take an extreme amount of time to make so I don't make them lightly. 

You had better become a member of our family or you won't get one.

I am now working on another one for someone who I consider a part

of our family. 

This is the start of it. We'll see how long it takes.

Better Homes and Gardens had a series of these

patterns in their magazine in the "90's. I made one for my daughter, both boys

and my husband. I also made one each for my father and my mom, though

they were just the cuffs on their stockings.

 My sister made a stocking for me since I mentioned one time that the 

whole family had one but I didn't have a homemade one. She is so sweet!

This is the one I will be making for Josh. He is into hunting so this was perfect for him!

As you can see I've started in the middle working on the fireplace.

It is going pretty quickly, once I get started I don't want to quit.

The hardest part so far was stitching in the grid with sewing thread.

I am going to have to go and get a magnifying lamp for when I work 

in the living room. The light there is not the best for such close work.

This shows some of the patterns available in the magazine. I made the first one for my son. Haven't made the middle one yet, will do so if I ever have a granddaughter! :) And I would like to make the sewing theme one for me someday, even though I still have the stocking my sister made me. I'll have two to fill up with goodies! LOL!

and almost a finish!

In my last post I showed the cross stitch that I started and 

wanted to finish for Halloween. I didn't make it but will 

have it finished for next year.

I decided to make it into a pillow.

I put the cording on the other day and will be adding

a purple back today. Another finish!!! :)

I was able to have my sewing room carpet cleaned last week and so decided to clean out and discard a bunch of stuff I wasn't going to need any longer. I got rid of tons of old quilting magazines, some from the 70's and 80's. I am not planning on extending my subscriptions when they run out, I've been disappointed in the content published nowadays anyway. Same old, same old. I'm keeping some of the newer ones, but will go through them every year. I promise!!!! :)

I also finished a cross stitch project

I has started years ago. Found it in the clean up!

It was a pain in the you know what to make!

That is probably why I had it in the stash unfinished for so long!

I am a very good cross stitcher and have done some

complicated designs but this small one had

me pulling my hair out!

So glad it is done and framed!