Late Gifts.....Very Late Posts

These are a few Christmas gifts that I made for a friend back east. I finally got them done and sent out to her in January. Because of all the turmoil I didn't have a chance to get them done for Christmas. But as the saying goes.....Better late than never!

I found a tutorial on the Internet for the round one and then thought it would be nice if I were to round off the ends. I think the red and white one looks like a peppermint candy. I liked it when I first did it and then I did the other one and liked it so much better. I did make two more of them but I will post them later.

I paper pieced these trees. Normally I don't buy Christmas fabric but these fabrics I could not resist to make these trees out of. I tired to quilt it so it looked like there was snow there.

This is an awful photo but the only one that I have. It was a really pale photo and I tried to enhance it. It didn't look too bad when I was done but maybe it was the lighting at the time. Now that I look at it I didn't do a very good job on the enhancing part. Sorry about that. She has apples in her kitchen so I thought she might like these hot pads.

So there you have it. I have a few more things to post in the future. I have been busy

doing some other things as well and will tell you about that too.

Have  a good day and thanks for coming to my blog. Especially since I have not blogged

in forever. It was difficult to do when I was away from home so much.

Getting Caught Up!

I am finally getting caught up. I had two months of Bee's Knees Blocks to do. The first was a simple House block and was fun to do. The second one was a Tea Leaf block and was paper pieced. The last of the blocks are off in the mail today.

I had to trace the paper piecing pattern by hand because my printer decided to not work right and the blocks were all a different size. So I got out my light box that hubby made for me and went to work. I like to use a small stitch length with a jeans needle when paper piecing because the paper comes off easier and you don't have to worry about pulling out stitches. Then I usually do better taking the paper off first then sewing the block together.

My month is coming up for August so I had better get going and figure out what I want to do for my block. Also the Friday Night Sew in is coming up soon and I can use the extra sewing time.

My First Paper Pieced Project

I did this quilt quite some time ago for a little boy that I love dearly. I had the idea to do the sail boats because his Mom loves them. I had no idea what I was doing but I gave it a try anyway. I found the cutest fabric that I used for the strips in the middle and the backing. The sails are a navy check. I was very happy with the way it turned out because it was my first try. I am sure that I made a lot of mistakes while making it and have since then done a lot more paper piecing, it is addicting like they say. I tied this quilt because that is what the Mom liked and I had not yet attempted any machine quilting, not even stitching in the ditch. I can do some machine quilting now and I am slowly learning to free motion quilt, although I must say I don't think it is that easy to regulate your stitches. I just need to practice more, as they say,"Practice makes perfect".