Stitching the last days of December

Last night I finished off as far as I can on my new addition for my Bionic Gear Bag.  Sally Thompson aka Ripstitcher designed a Little Trash Bag Thingie to hang off the bottom of the BGB.  I'm waiting on some special glue to arrive so I can add the magnetic snaps to the bottom of the BGB, straps and Little Trash Bag Thingie and it will be done.  Currently I've just pinned it in place.  

 I managed to cut up some of the very few scraps I have remaining for my original bag to make this and just love how it turned out.  It actually folds down and fits inside of the BGB!  If you are interested in buying a pattern or joining her series of Mastery Classes check her Sew Much Nicer webpage here. You can also find some of her other patterns on Craftsy here.  I'm planning on making her new Mother Lode Retreat Bag which will be able to accommodate a 6 1/2" x 12 1/2" ruler and all sorts of other goodies. She has a Facebook community that you can ask to join where she share some hints and has some videos to share and lots of shared images of these bags.

 I also finished up the stitching on my Cheri Payne Santa Clause comes but....

 I realized I probably should have mixed up the whites on the hat and his beard but love how they turned out.  Here is a closer look at number 1.

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 Santa Claus come but once...

 ...a year bringing toys and cheer..ho ho ho

 I've also decided to have some fun making some free cut Christmas Trees.  I cut two rectangles about 6" x 8" and then used my ruler to cut the lines.  This requires some straightening of seam lines and the resulting blocks are about 5" x 7".

 I've seen some that were paper foundation pieced but want to have fun seeing what will come when free hand cutting.  My second set were also done in pairs and started with rectangles about 5" x 6" and ended up a bit bigger than 4" x 5".  I changed the angle of the bottom of the tree and varied the width of the tree trunk also.

 I'm contemplating making some in the 5" x 7" range and see how they work out.  I'm also hoping a couple of friends will join me and swap some out with each other, but will see what happens.

 I also got a charm square package in the mail as a gift for subscribing to both Simply Moderne Quilt Magazine and Simply Vintage Quilt Magazine from Quiltmania.  They are from Kathy Doughty's new line Folk Art Revolution. I'm hoping to get some yardage of a couple of these to work with the charm squares.

My phrase last year was Explore new directions, looking at things from a different perspective.  What appears straight can be full of twist and turns.  I'll have to see what next year's phrase will be and how many different perspectives I took in the past year and review them with you before the year's end.  Enjoy these last two days of 2016.

Santa Comes But Once A Year

Bringing Toys and Cheer...ho ho ho.  I finished the applique on this little Cheri Payne quilt last night just before midnight.  It needs the words to be embroidered along the top and side of the quilt.  I plan on doing that today while waiting for the turkey to cook for dinner tonight.

 I started appliqueing the Santas just about noon on Friday.

 A closer peek at Santa, I'll add buttons for eyes once it is quilted.  All the backgrounds have stars on them.

 You might be able to see that three of the branches have words on them.  The top says Spirit, the fourth says Kindness Wonder and the bottom says Share the Love, Feel the Joy.

 Got my Christmas tree up last night, it was a swap of Christmas ornaments with my Mary Lou Weidman group.  We all used the same background and then put them together as we wished.

 I also hung my favourite Primitive Gatherings Winter Banner.

We still have snow on the ground but not expecting any to fall today but maybe tomorrow.  It is sunny and bright.  Have a very Merry Christmas with family and friends.

Some Stitch and a Snowy Sunday.

I made my A Homespun Christmas piece into a pillow the design is by Cheri Payne. Cheri has a Facebook page called Quilts by Cheri~Friendship where you can join and get some of these patterns by clicking here to ask to join.

 I also made on of her Christmas Trees with round snowflakes and added a Crescent moon.

 Here is another of her snowman designs.

 Another one.

 And a head that was part of a pieced SNOW with the head to be the O and the rest pieced.

 I thought they looked cute in this Let It Snow box I got.

 My Buttermilk Basin Tree and Cheri's in the box.

 Then Cheri's in a Snowman basket.

 I woke up about 0630 on Sunday morning to see a dusting of snow in the courtyard.

 Then looking towards the river.

 Just before noon I went for a walk and saw snow and sleds on the Quay.

 One of two cross country skiers.  It was snowing during the walk.

 One of the many decorated condos along the Quay.

 Trees starting to be covered with snow.

 Five Robins in this tree.

  A bit closer look, you can see their red breast feathers are plumped up.

 Got a better picture of this one in another tree.

 Looking down the brick walkway with the snow coming down.

 These palms have been along the Quay since I moved here in 1988.

 Peeling Bark Maples looked pretty with the snow covering it.

 A view looking into my condo complex.

 Looking from the foyer across the now snow covered ice on our water feature towards the river.

 At about 3:30 I went for a second walk the snow carried on most of the day and it was blowing around with the wind.

 The cherry trees at the front looked very lacy covered with snow.

 Ice was forming in the river.

 One of the city maintenance workers with a John Deer mini bulldozer clearing the brick walkway.

 Snow was accumulating and we had between 4-6 inches.

 One of tugs out doing a job in this weather.

 The palms were getting very heavy with snow.

 One of the Peeling Bark Maples.

 This one looked so pretty and lacy.

I woke up about 6:30 to the sound of rain which was promised.  But there is another dusting of snow and we may get more but sunshine is expected by afternoon.  We will have to see how long it lasts.