Celebrate Spring Tea

Spring Blooms From My Garden


   The Centerpiece for Tea Table

Love the fragrence of Freesia, the color of Alstroemeria, and the abundance of pink Orchids.  All grown by ME!

                                                               March 19, 2016

The first Celebrate Spring Tea was held today.  It's a first in many more to come!  The tablecloth was begun by me during the winter when I taught in Idaho, but I never finished it.  My mom, bless her heart, took the job over and finished all the cross stitching on the cloth.  Love that her hands did such a wonderful job.

The menu for the tea consisted of melt in your mouth tea cookies, orange scones (thinking that the pink glazes wasn't such a great idea) with orange honey butter or lemon curd, chocolate banana cake, cherry tarts, chocolate covered vanilla cookies topped with walnuts, egg salad sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches( chicken, pecans, crasins, celery and apple pieces) and cucumber radish and cream cheese sandwiches.  Oh my was it good!

It was such a great day with my knitting group and a few quilting friends!  Was such great day filled with laughter, good food and great conversation!

Now I need to begin the search for decorations (no bunnies- not Easter but spring tea), serving plates etc. for this annual event.   Each guest received a small hexagon mug rug made with tea cup fabric. Looking forward to November and my Thanksgiving Tea!

Table RunnersI

I've been cleaning out my UFO drawer and found these table runners that I had not completed.  So I got busy and finished the Valentine runner before Valentine's Day, okay it was the day before but who's counting.  Then I finished the Patriotic runner even before July Fourth.  Amazing!  The Patriotic is made with 2" tumblers.

Well then I saw this quilt top on Pinterest and had an idea for a topper for my tea cart.

Here's the one on Pinterest.

I thought it was so neat that the quilting was done on the machine with out doing free motion. It's such a darling little quilt.

So here's my verion of the topper I made for my tea cart.

The quilting was done with straight stitches and then added one of those fancy stitches that are on my machine but never used.   Well  I think it's pretty cute and I'm thinking I need to make a square topper that matches for my dining room table.  

Oh, forgot to mention... All the fabric for these toppers came from my cupboard.  Bunches of fabric is still available!  Ready, Set, Sew!

Knitting Bag

I wanted a "travel" knitting bag that I could take to my Monday knitting group meeting.  Rules for this project:

1) purchase nothing for this bag
2) everything needed to come from my stash
3) two day project
4) sides had to be firm to stand

I found this owl fabric and knew that this would be the fabric for the bag!  I looked at several  pattern projects but either had too much fabric OR not enough.  I wanted to use the whole piece of fabric. So this is my variation of the patterns I had.  But I didn't take into consideration the size of the pockets.  They should have been placed higher.

This will work just fine!   (I lifted the knitting project so that it would fit in the photo. )  It fits just fine, has stiff sides, only used fabric from the cupboard and took two and a half days to finish.  

Goals met!!

Years End

This year is almost to a close!  Whew!  where did it go:  quilting, gardening, reading and cooking, all may favorite things to do, have filled my days and nights. I accomplished one goal, I taught myself to knit Wahoo! I formed a group of friends who meet twice a month to knit and chat! Four new friends who have become special and supportive to me.

This year has been filled with joy, fear, sadness and health but the key to all was my faith.  My Faith has encouraged me daily and strengthened me as I approach 2016.

In 2016, my goals are to be a consistent knitter (one where the stiches are equal), become a better free motion quilter, and most of all make a 100% effort to make a contact with people I don't see on regular basis.

Here's a photo of a scrap quilt I want to have completed one year from today (12/27/16).  I'll keep my progress posted.

I love this quilt and I DO have scraps of fabric.  It's basically two blocks and the movement excites me.   I found the quilt on Pinterest but No pattern, oh that is special.  So I'll begin with the two blocks that make the pattern.   I'll need to play with the sizes  oh my, scary!

Happy New Year Friends!!

Pink Penguin Bags

I found this bag tutorial on The Pink Penguin Blog.  Such great directions complete with photos.  Superior  tutorial!  The pattern indicated lunch bags, but I think they are versatile bags.  Choosing the juvenile fabric was a challenge.

I made the three bags for my Great Granddaughters.  Each of the girls have individual likes and desires.  I chose one fabric with cats, one with dogs and one with Nemo.   I filled them with items I thought that would amuse them.  

I love these three and their joy for life.

Molly's Hat

Great Granddaughter Molly is wearing her new hat and scarf that was one of my first knitting efforts!  She looks so cute and was excited for the first frost so she could wear the hat and scarf. 

My knitting is progressing!  I am really enjoying sitting with a ball of yarn and needles and knitting away.  I love using the circular needles (which were used to make this hat and scarf. ) Not bad for a beginner.  The yarn I used for this project is Chaisma. It's so soft and cuddly.  I really think that I have developed a strong liking for varigated yarn. Solids are good but varigated make my heart sing.

Pumpkin Table Topper

Never enough pumpkins at my house! Used Lori Holt's design and copied Melissa Corry's idea from her blog, Happy Quilting.  Melissa used the strawberry block but knew that I'd prefer the pumpkin!

I love the results!  But I have to admit, when I cut the orange squares, I cut them at 2" squares the pattern stated 1.5" squares!  Oh my, so then I had to refigure all the other pieces.  I guess I needed a challenge. I could have cut all of the piece down but just couldn't see cutting 120 pieces down to 1.5".  Much easier to cut the other pieces to match my mistake.   It makes me happy and later you'll see what's on the back.  You'll be so surprised.