Merry Christmas, postcard, placemats, and zippers

I received one on Vicki's fancy postcards yesterday. It is beautiful!

I decided I needed to make some placemats for Xmas dinner on Friday. I found this leftover cutlery fabric and just started cutting. I layered some iron on fleece and a layer of batting with the iron on part facing the batting. It took me about 20 minutes to quilt each placemat. I had just enough fabric for the binding. I needed five placemats and yes, I did put minion fabric on the other side.

Here is one placemat where I had to piece together three pieces of fabric to get a big enough piece for that fifth placemats. It is not even noticeable! Finished the placemats measure about 17 1/2 x12 1/4

Here is the fabric I had left!

I received my box of zippers from Wawak. I ordered these Monday afternoon! I needed a black zipper for this boxy pouch.

Well, I couldn't order just one zipper and I needed to resupply and I needed to order enough to get the discount and free shipping - right? I ordered two types of zippers. The red one is a bag zipper and has a bigger pull.  I use those for project bags and thread beds.  The other zippers are for those curved top pouches.

I like to sort them by type and color.

Then bag them up. Now I have something to work with!

So today I will be busy baking pies and cookies for Christmas with my family tomorrow. I have some straightening up to do and a bit of cleaning too. I am glad to have the extra day to get what I want done. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!

Presents wrapped, cookies, and a table runner

In my effort to try and get ready for family to come on Friday for Christmas, I got all the goofy stuff I have collected for the What-a-palooza. Each person draws a number and in order take turns picking a package. You never know what you might get! The rule is you are supposed to open it and say "What?" since what you might get is odd. No crying is allowed although that did happen once. This was something I started years ago to keep the kids entertained a bit.

My neighbor stopped over and brought me a plate of cookies!

I had made several smaller wall hangings around 2010. They just sat in the closet. I decided I needed to use one as a table runner; I was channeling Wanda! This one needed washed and it came out ok. The blue did bleed a bit and dulled the orange. It measures 30" x 15". I hand dyed the fabric, improv pieced, has a facing binding, match stitch quilted, and splattered painted.

Thread beds done, cookies, thread, and a sunset

The matching thread beds are done for my sister. I have one more thing to finish and then I can ship all the project bags, thread beds and tote bags to her.

I had made the dough for Almond Butter Balls on Sunday. I baked them last night and took some to work this morning.

They are easy to make and taste so good if you have the right ingredients. Butter - Land O' Lakes and really good almond extract. Some almond extract is bitter and when you smell it, it smells awful. I had bought this almond extract years ago down in Amish country and it is so good! It can also be bought online.

The bulk food store I go to quit carrying this brand of extracts. The last time I needed vanilla I bought it online and yes, I bought a gallon! This company makes all kinds of extracts. Perrier Aromatics - google that and you will find them.

My African violets are giving me a show!

Superior Threads was having a sale and some of their cones of King Tut were 60% off! Odd colors, but such a great price. I know I will have a quilt that I can use these on.

Last evening's sunset

My sister's stuff, cookies, taco seasoning, cactus, and a site tour

I made good progress on my sister's project bags and thread beds. The project bags are done.  They measure 12" x 14"

These two thread beds are done except for the velcro closure.  These measure 10" x 13".

I had to make one thread beds all red since I used up all the Braves fabric. This all that I had left.

The other two thread beds need quilted, the flannel attached then the self-binding pressed and sewn. I did learn one thing; I added interfacing to the flannel. I like the way the interfaced flannel looks so much better. One of these is almost all the cream speckled fabric since I didn't have enough of the Braves fabric. They still match the project bags and I am glad I had enough fabric to add one piece of the Braves fabric to the zipper unit.

I was asked the purpose of a thread bed. Good question Vicki! Once you cut a piece of floss and pull a strand to use, you need some place to keep the other strands. That is where the thread bed comes in. You can stick the piece of thread to the flannel. The pocket is handy for keeping the skeins or bobbins of floss. You could also put your scissors in it. The green felt is good for storing needles. Here is my smaller thread bed for my John Wick sampler. I even used a P touch to make labels for the floss colors and drew what symbol they were on the chart; you need to keep your floss organized! The labels will peel off and I can use it for the next project.  See how the flannel is wrinkled?    Hopefully that doesn't happen with interfacing the flannel now.  

I picked this little piece of Christmas cactus up off the floor at the store. It was just going to be thrown away so It came home with me. After sitting around for almost a week, Wanda recommended I start it in water. I needed to find a something small to put it in and found this cap. It is getting roots!

I made a batch of chocolate shortbread cookies. I overbaked them, but they still taste good. Took some to work and they guys like them.

I made some taco seasoning to give the guys at work. I forgot to take a picture, but I filled four of these jars and three of the empty spice containers to give them plus the recipe so they could make more and the recipe for Salsa chicken.

Friday one of the superintendents took me out for a job site tour. I hadn't been out there for months. It was cold and snowy, but we were in the truck so no big deal. Here we are going south on the old northbound off ramp which leads up to the bridge. Those stacks on the left side are slabs of bridge decking. There is a aggegrate company right beside the job site. The guys built an access road so we can move the slabs over to their yard and they will then crush the slabs, remove the rebar, and resell the processed concrete.

Here you can see an area where the deck slab has been removed.  That is the new southbound bridge where the cars are driving.

Next we drove under the bridges. We are going up the hill. The guys made this access road for the crane that will be used to help demo the old bridge. They had to put in two switchbacks since the hill is very steep. We are headed up to where I drew that blue line.

Here we are at the top of the hill. The blue dot is where we were in the last photo. The bridge on the right is the old bridge for both the north and southbound lanes. The new bridge on the left is for the southbound traffic although it is now being used for both the north and south bound traffic until we get the northbound bridge built.  From the ground to the deck of the new bridge is 120 feet. 

Here is the crane that will be moved up the hill. Right now it is sitting at the bottom of the second switchback.

The northbound bridge will be open in early 2028.

Project bags and Thread beds status

The project bags and thread beds for my sister's friend are done!

Yesterday evening I cut out and prepped most of the pieces I need for the project bags and thread beds for my sister. It takes longer to do this than to sew them together!

Next batch of project bags and thread beds

I got started on the next batch of project bags and thread beds. I had to pay attention because the fabric is a one-way design. Don't want any upside-down bulldogs! I laid out all the pieces for each bag so I didn't get anything mixed up.

The first step is to sew the zippered units. I got a start on sewing the fabric pieces. Once I get all of those sewn, I will add the vinyl. This way I don't have to keep changing the zipper foot to the regular sewing foot.

My plans for the weekend it to get these project bags and thread beds done and bake some cookies. I am hoping the piece for my glasses comes in so I can get those fixed. We had two warm days and now it is back to cold and snowing. Have a great weekend!

Thread bed hidden pocket and pizza muffins

After work we headed down to a local bar for our project Christmas gathering. I forgot to take a picture of the giant potato, bacon, cheese tater tots. They were so good! By the time I got home I was tired so nothing happened in the studio. I did forget to show you another feature of the thread beds. There is a pocket behind the vinyl zippered pocket.

This morning I made a batch of pizza muffins. This was the first time and I made one big mistake. I should have divided the batter into 9 muffin cups instead of 8. They rose during baking and it was hard to get them out of the muffin tin with the cheese melting everywhere. They still tasted pretty good even though they were messy looking. I have a couple still left for my lunch so it will be good to see how they taste after they have sat a while. I will probably put them in the microwave just to heat them up a bit.

The guys at work ate them, but then they will eat anything! LOL!!