For some reason the snow last week left me inspired to work on my Dresden plate quilt from my class in Sisters, OR last summer rather than my snowflake quilt. Isn’t that funny… when it’s not snowing I’m all excited about my snowflake quilt. And then when we finally do get a little snow, all I want to work on is something that reminds me of flowers and summer.  Fickle I am.

The snow also inspired me to clean out the hall closet and move some of my sewing stuff into it for better space organization.  My sewing room always feels so small and cramped.

I also prepared all the bag pieces for the Amy Butler bag class I am teaching tomorrow at work.  Everyone is picking out an Amy Butler bag to make from either her patterns or her book and then I’m going to give moral support and technical help where needed.  I’ve wanted to make this Sophia Carry All bag for some time now.

I also made these potholders.  At work we are starting a Small Project of the Month club and these potholders are the first project for February.  The pattern is the Handy Heart Potholders and the shop is making kits to sell.  Call the shop (no online shopping cart) if you would like a kit. I think we might make some more kits in other fabrics as well, but we were shooting for a Valentine’s theme for February.  (For those of you who may be new around here … I work part-time at Gathering Fabric Quilt Shop.)

The potholders gave me a chance to play around with some of the fancy stitches on my Janome.  That was kind of fun and something I don’t do very often.

In case you ever wondered… this is what the backside looks like when the thread in a drop-in bobbin comes out of it’s guides. What a mess!  And let me tell you how fun it is to rip it out.  Not!

One last shot of the snow before the last of it melts away…  Only the piles where we shoveled are still left. And the weather is back to our normal Pacific Northwest fickle self.

I haven’t been sleeping well so there hasn’t been much blogging going on.  But I do love a good snow day.

And, what’s not to love in that sweet kitty face?

I figured that a good way to start out the New Year would be to replace my old shopping bags. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time but kept putting off.  There always seems to be something more important that needs to be sewn.

Above are all of our old shopping bags that I’ve collected over the years from various grocery stores. None of them are very laundry friendly. But especially the purple one! It bleeds like crazy. And the recycled plastic non-woven one on the right can’t be washed either.  The bottoms on all of them look really stained and ratty. And at least one is developing a hole.

Tada. The new bags. I really want to be able to throw our grocery bags in the laundry with everything else and not have to worry about it. All the fabric was pre-washed before sewn.  And they needed to be be husband approved so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed to take them to the grocery store. Hence the neutral colors.

They all are essentially the same bag with various tweeks.  I love starting with Terry Atkinson’s Fat Sack tutorial and then making changes as desired.  The pleated bottom is so easy!  I’ve made these before as gifts.

The two on the left have shorter handles because I forgot that I like them longer. And the two on the right got longer handles, but I stitched them to the top rather than extend them all the way to the contrasting bottom piece.

There are so many grocery bag tutorials and patterns out there that you can make.  Go ahead and give one a try.  You can never have too many bags.

It’s a new day, a new week, a new month and a new year.  So I threw out the guilt from not finishing my WIP’s from last year and settled into the sewing room with a couple of things that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.  And it felt good.

Above:

1) The sunrise this morning was brief but gorgeous!

2) Dear Jane blocks on the left (only 22 made in 2011 for a total of 50 blocks) and Lotta Jansdotter fat quarters on the right.

3) The wee pincushion made & given to me by Ms. Chickenfoot sits so nicely on top of my sewing machine.  I love it!

Not much has been happening in the sewing room the last couple of weeks. I did do a machine sewn binding demo at work on some potholders, then managed to make a hot pad to go along with them.  The hot pad is made up of 2 1/2-inch strips from my French General stash, sewn together and cut into triangles with my 60-degree ruler.  I added a layer of Insul~Bright and scraps of batting to make them all heat resistant.

Frankly, I have had no real enthusiasm to do anything beyond the necessary in the sewing room.  Napping, reading and knitting a pair of socks has been about all I’ve done.

I did try to trick myself into working on this long-standing WIP – or is it a UFO now since this is the 3rd Christmas where it still isn’t finished.  But it didn’t work.  I’ve been stalling because I don’t know what I want to quilt in all of those setting triangles. In my mind I have visions of beautiful feather quilting which exceeds my abilities. So, to keep the front from intimidating me, I turned it over and started doing pebble quilting on the back.  But I don’t really like it. Plus, it really eats up the thread… a little more than a bobbin of thread for each setting triangle. I’m tempted to rip it all out entirely. Why has this one been so hard to finish?

This last year has been a challenge that won’t be missed.  We’re still trying to figure out why I am not sleeping well and suffering from insomnia.  At least I think I’ve finally found a doctor who is willing to investigate.  I’ve been given all sorts of crazy explanations. And any prescription or over-the-counter sleep aid seems to do the complete opposite and keep me awake. We did discover that I have non-reactive mono. Once exposed to the mono virus it can reactivate all over again.  Non-reactive means that it is trying to reactivate but just isn’t quite there yet. That explains part of my tiredness.  And we also discovered that I am allergic to eggs and a few other things… just in time to be excluded from all of the holiday goodies.  BTW, ground flax seeds soaked in water become gooey and can be used as a binding agent to replace eggs. They seem to work well in pancakes, meatloaf and  scones.  So far that’s all the recipes I’ve tried to replace the eggs.  I’m ready to put this year behind me and start a new one.

Unfortunately, there are a few UFO’s that will be waiting for me on the other side.   And hopefully I’ll have more energy to put towards some new ideas floating around in my head.  I’m ready for the New Year to start.

Well, I’ve been egg-free for a little more than 1 1/2 weeks and my eczema is starting to clear up.  3 cheers! Hip hip hooray!  That’s a pretty good Christmas gift I think.  So, in honor of this being a crappy season to have food allergies, I made these holly potholders for a friend who also has allergies and can’t eat most of the holiday goodies. The upside to not being able to eat all the goodies is that I’m not gaining the usual holiday pounds.

1. peppermint potholders, 2. Candy Cane Pot Holder, 3. Christmas potholders, 4. A modern Christmas – Jolly Pillow, 5. noel3, 6. IMG_6184-1, 7. Quilting Arts Gifts 2009, 8. For Paloma, 9. Close up of flower and quilting

The potholders were shamelessly copied from this inspiration board I made on Flickr with the Big Huge Labs’ mosaic maker. I really want to make Noel potholders too!  AND… the Christmas tree ones.  They are a free pattern over at Pink Chalk Fabrics.

I haven’t been doing much sewing this week. But I did finish these socks that had been languishing due to the fact that the foot on the second sock was knit too short and I had to rip it back to the heel.  It feels good to have those done!  The pattern is Pinked from Interweave Knits Winter 2010 issue. You can also buy the pattern in their online store. My fair isle knitting stinks. I really need to do more so that I get better at it!

And this was a secret project that was recently finished.  All of us at work made our boss a quilt and gave it to her last weekend! Each of us made a bunch of blocks and another quilted it and another sewed on the binding. The fabric is Christmas Candy by Riley Blake. And I made up the pattern in EQ to utilize a fat quarter tower (plus a little more fabric).  The back is pink minky dot. I wasn’t a huge fan of minky until one of my long-arm quilters brought into the shop her daughter’s quilt. Oh man was it cozy!  I think it might even be better than flannel! Seriously.

Can you believe that Christmas is just a little more than a week away?  This has been a slower-than-usual month for us this year. And I am really appreciating that!  I finally put the decorations on the tree today.  We had just put up the tree with lights after Thanksgiving and didn’t have the energy to do any more. Next week we are taking a “stay-cation.” Actually, just my hubby is taking off from work. But I only have to work one day next week, so essentially the rest of the week we are going to relax, sleep in, eat when we feel like it, nap when we feel like it, and generally do nothing unless we feel like it. A self-indulgent break.

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays!

And whiskers on kittens…  these are a few of my favorite things.

Okay… maybe I’m kind of corny. Nope, not just kinda. I am.
But it’s that time of the year to watch The Sound of Music again.
Why has this become one of the Holiday favorites? We have a few others as well.
What are some of your favorite holiday things?  I need to get into the spirit.
My snowflake blocks are done. And one extra for a pillow.
I have some ideas for making the quilt bigger. Just wait and see!
And those are a couple of my bee blocks from this year up in the corner.
I really want to work on that quilt too.
Maybe it can be next after this one.

All the effort we’ve made so far this year for the holidays is to just put up the Christmas Tree with a few lights.  But I’m torn. I kind of like it so simple like this.  I also like it fully decorated.  I sort of want to just make a few simple decorations and call it good.  This year our December is not scheduled up nearly as full as in the past.  And I am enjoying that.  Every year I dream of taking two or more weeks off to avoid all of the holiday hustle & bustle and just enjoy the season.  This is about the closest we have ever come to slowing down and just enjoying…

For everyone who has been wondering about the outcome from my allergy test… I am allergic to eggs, bananas, whey, cranberries & pineapple.  The whey is kind of throwing me because whey is the liquid portion of dairy. And I am not allergic to casein which is the solid portion of dairy. So, most cheeses are fine for me.  But when I search the internet for whey allergies everyone seems to lump it all together and call it dairy. I am extremely happy that I can continue eating bread & cheese!  And disappointed that most chocolate things contain whey.  I’ll have to search for some vegan chocolate recipes to make to satisfy that chocolate craving!  And while I like bananas, cranberries & pineapple, it won’t be much of a hardship to give those up.   As for eggs… I am undecided in how I feel about that.  For now I’m just hoping that the eczema will clear up.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season!

I’m quietly working on my snowflakes this week while I try not to think about what foods I might be allergic to/intolerant of before I get my test results back next week.  And I’m trying to eat gluten-free this week to see if it makes any difference. I’ve had eczema on my eyelids for quite some time. And I recently switched to a naturopath doctor. She thinks it could be food allergies. I made gluten-free cookies the other day. And I bought some gluten-free bagels yesterday. They were pretty good. But they definitely don’t have the same texture as wheat products.

And… here’s my last photo for my final assignment in my photography class.  It had to be done, right?  No Gothic windows here… we live in the suburbs of 1970′s ramblers and split-entry homes.  So we borrowed the neighbor’s house in the background because that was the direction of the light that morning. And it was COLD outside.  You can see the frosty roof.

The first time we went out, the sun was still too low in the early morning. It got better a little later in the morning and we set up the shot again. I think it turned out okay.  I’m half tempted to frame the 3 funky photos of us just for the fun of it. If I can find some cheap frames.

Along with just trying to appropriate old paintings, it was also interesting to read some of the history behind them.  This one was especially interesting and caused a lot of controversy at the time it was painted in 1930.  Most people think of a husband and his wife when they see this picture. But artist recruited his sister and his dentist to pose for the painting. His sister was appalled that it looked like she was married to someone twice her age and began telling people that it was a man and his daughter.

You can read more over in Wikipedia.

Hope you are all are having a good week.