selina quilts: December 2019

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Christmas 2019 Incoming

I love Christmas. I love making and giving and I'm not adverse to receiving. I have a few old friends who I exchange handmade items with every year and I generally make some type of small gift to send to family with their main gifts. My next post will be dedicated to the outgoing but this posting is dedicated to the lovely homemade gifts I have received this year.

My friend B got a lovely Bernina from her hubby for Christmas a little early, just before Thanksgiving. She made this wonderful pillow for me on it.

It came with this great matching ornament that was ridiculously hard to photograph. This picture just doesn't do it justice.

my friend P made this beautifully hand quilted table runner.

and included in the package were these amazing buttons.

I love them. For the time being I am going to pin them to my design wall and just admire them. One of these days I'll come up with a plan for them but it will have to be a very special project.

I also exchanged goodies with some local friends.

I love FSL and received 3 beautiful FSL ornaments

And then there is this very cool snow

globe. Can't wait to try a few of these on my own.

Then there are the quilty thoughtful gifts from those who are not the crafty type but who really, really know me well.

Gift cards to my favorite quilt store in Wildwood, FL

a just a wonderful quilty gift from a quilt buddy

The small wool ironing mat. I already own the large one but this one is 10 inches square and fits right next to the machine or the mobile cutting mat. Perfect for the many small projects I like tinkering with.

My thanks to all of my quilty buds.

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Christmas Virtual Cookie Exchange - Annual Blog Hop

Merry Christmas and welcome to the Annual Virtual Cookie Exchange.

I have only participated in this hop I think once as I'm not a baker. I signed up this time because there were non baking options.

Well since I showed up I decided to give the cookie part a shot and once again I have proved my basic inability to bake.

Started the process and pulled together the ingredients. I could find 3 of the 8 needed.

Run to the super marker for the remainder.

It is pretty much a buttery shortbread type dough spread on a cookie sheet and covered with raspberry jelly and chopped walnuts and baked.

So where could that go wrong. Well I think for starters the sheet I used was way to heavy. And I apparently did a bit too much baking.

The upside is that the dough was so buttery the above pan ended up looking like this

after being wiped with a couple of paper towels.

After a bunch of fussie cutting I was able to put together a tray to take to Thanksgiving dinner

with leftovers.

They were not as bad as I expected just a bit dry but great with coffee.

So back to the options Carol offered to participate in this hop. I'm going with Christmas pieces from the past.

In this book from the distant past (publish date 1995 are patterns for jointed Christmas ornaments. Many years ago, maybe 2005 ish, I made these ornaments for my office staff and family. I always loved them. So every year when I pull my deorations out and see my lone jointed Santa I tell myself how this year I'll make some more just for me.

So thank you Carol for bring out these memories and giving me the incentive to slide a couple of gifts for me in to the holiday creating mix.

The scariest part was that I found the book in the first place I looked for it.

We had house guests for Thanksgiving breakfast and then we all went to dinner at friends. So after breakfast and before dinner I sat down and started the process while everyone else watched foot ball.

Copy the design to a fusible

Pull some scraps

Fuse the scraps to felt

Break for a wonderful dinner with friends. Come home and finish the process to more football.

Cut out

Add the details as in Jointed Arms and Legs

Iron and hand sew on the buttons and beads, no machine. I actually used a marker for the bears nose and mouth and around Santa's beard and eyes. I am so very happy with myself.

And because my deal with myself was to do at least one embroidered piece per hop for 2019 I am going to show one of the very first pieces I made on my machine, last December, just for kicks and giggles.