Vintage St. Nicholas Panel & Silly Me

 I’m typing my post as snow is falling here in Ohio.  One to three inches is expected.  My Great Room Fireplace is on and my white lights Winter Tree is still up.  Today is my busy day doing laundry, making the bed, vacuuming the floors and cleaning my stove top.  Now I can rest and enjoy watching the snow fall.  I’m happy I don’t have to shovel it.  My niece’s boyfriend will do that for me.

Now to apologize to all who have commented on my blog since 2019.  I guess this is another senior moment for me.  I went in blogger to do this post and just for the heck of it, I clicked on “comments” and was so surprised there were 83 comments waiting for moderation.  I did’t even realize I had “moderation” set on my comments.  Luckily, many were spam but quite a few weren’t.  Now I know to check that more often.  I asked on my last post if anyone was still reading my blog not realizing there were comments left. So thank you all.

Getting older is no fun.  The body aches and one has to take many more breaks.  Speaking of getting older.. I did something today that I thought was so funny.  I got two Echo 5 thingies (they were on sale on Amazon) one for my Great Room and one for my bedroom.  My niece also got two for the Media Room and her bedroom downstairs.  When I realized I could control my lamps from the Echo 5 through Alexa I purchased several “smart plugs”.  I have the majority of my lamps controlled by Alexa now and really like it.  That is until I had WiFi outages and had to reset the “smart plugs” over and over.  I ended up replacing my Orbi router with a new beef up Orbi 6 Mesh WiFi router and satellite to cover 5,000 square feet and over 60 devices.  I’m hoping that is the last time I have to reset all the “smart plugs” until this router dies.  Now what did I do that was so funny.  I told the Echo to turn on my Great Room lamp.  She wasn’t responding and I couldn’t figure out why.  Then I realized I was telling “Amazon” to turn on the lamp and not “Alexa”.  LOL

I want to show you this beautiful vintage St. Nicholas fabric panel I made into a wall hanging for my niece, MJ.  I bought it at a quilt shop but don’t remember where.  I think it was when my quilting cousin and I were driving from Ohio to Florida a few years ago. As I was working on it I was texting and calling my quilting cousin for help.  I free motion quilted it too.  That’s Lucky, our new rescue pup watching me.  He’s the sweetest the puppy!  Tomorrow I hope to take down the “Winter Tree” but if not I’ll enjoy it a few more days.  Thanks for visiting dear friends!

Charming Christmas Tree Wall Hanging

Just a few days before Christmas I decided to try my version of the free quilting pattern, “Charming Christmas Tree” by Pat Sloan.  It seemed everyone was making this fun pattern.  I used scrap fabrics I had on hand in some of my favorite Christmas patterns and colors. 

This pattern is made up of 2.5 inch squares and half square triangles.  When I tried sewing the half square triangles in the method where you draw a diagonal line and sew 1/4 inch on each side of the line, my squares ended up much smaller than 2.5 inches.  I tried cutting the squares larger to 3 inches but that sample was still too small.  I ended up stitching on the diagonal line and cutting off the part not needed.  Those were perfect 2.5 inch squares.  

After attaching the inner border of mixed fabric squares, I discovered I had just enough of a lovely green fabric for the outer border.  I liked it better than using white as the pattern instructed.

To embellish the tree I drew a star pattern, cut out the star from a yellow fabric and appliquéd it to the top of the tree.  I used my Jamone 15000 sewing machine’s triple stitch to add the rays coming out from the star.

I had some fabric scraps printed with cardinals so I fussy cut four cardinals and appliquéd them under the tree.  To finish it off, I used red fabric for the binding.

I free motion quilted falling snowflakes and snow drifts.  I tried out my new Marcia Baraldi Quilting Grip gloves I ordered from Amazon and really liked them.  They have excellent grip on the palms and one’s fingers are free.  

I have taken down my Christmas decorations but this adorable wall hanging is still up.  I just love it.  I have removed my Christmas ornaments from my pencil 7.5 foot new tree and switched from colored lights to white.  I now have my Winter Tree which will be up until the tree bag I ordered from Amazon is delivered.  Last year I started storing some Christmas decorations upstairs rather then in the unfinished basement.  This way I don’t have to lug everything up and down the stairs.  I’m thinking about storing the new tree in my guest room closet (if it fits) along with the ornaments.  But first I have to measure and go through the old clothing I have in there. I’m lucky my niece, MJ, and her fellow, Andrew, currently live with me so Andrew carries the heavy stuff for me. 

I really need the cheer during this COVID isolation and all the political crap going on. It continues to be lonely facing each day without my hubby.  At least my hobbies and house responsibilities keep me occupied.  But now holidays and special occasions will never be as happy and joyful as they were with my sweetheart.  

Friends gifted me this huge beautiful Poinsettia plant!  I can’t believe I haven’t “killed” it yet.  I usually “kill” any house plant.  At least I’ve learned.  I’m not over watering this one.  

And here is a photo of my Christmas Tree decorated with ornaments and colored lights.

  I called this my “smart” Christmas tree because it is prelit and I can program either colored or white lights in various modes.  The star topper is similar.  I am so pleased how nice it fits into it’s space in my Great Room.  Excuse the furniture moved out, I was still working on how and where to plug it in.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  

My Christmas Gift Wrap Quilt

What do you think of my Christmas Gift Wrap quilt?

I saw it hanging in a quilt shop and bought the kit.

Cutting all the strips.

All the little bow pieces.

Bows sewn together.

Blanket stitched bows.

Everything else is pieced.

I mailed it to a quilter friend who used her long arm to quilt it with a gift box design.

And then I sandwiched it and finished the binding.

I’m so pleased with it.

 

Zippered Little Christmas Bag

Still sewing Christmas projects at Embroidery Club this month.

What can I say…I love Christmas!

This is a zippered bag (an Anita Goodesign pattern) that can be completely sewn in-the-hoop!

And the design graphic and lettering can be changed easily to another holiday or event if you have embroidery software.

I love the holly fabric in red and green.

The back of the bag is in the red holly fabric.

Here you can see me stitching it out in the hoop.

The zipper is already done.

The only stitching done out of the hoop is sewing it together.

I can't wait to sew up some more of these cute little bags.

The pattern comes in three sizes too.

This is the smallest size.

I just may make several of these for Christmas this year for the girls in my family.

Anita Goodesign's collection also included a zippered Sewing Blackboard Bag (video here).

Watch the video it is so neat to see this little bag sewn in-the-hoop.

Since I used fabric instead of felt I had to double the fabric on the front and back and fold over at the zipper so no raw edges showed.  

I am having so much fun machine embroidering!

Thanks for visiting!

Horseshoe Coffee Cosy

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!  

We did... except my Hubby caught a bug and was a little under the weather but he is slowly feeling better.

I had shared a pin from Pinterest for a cute coffee cosy and my niece commented that a cozy with a horseshoe motif would be cute.

So off I went hunting for a pattern.

I found a free coffee cosy pattern (here)…

Mrs. Greene's "Cup of Tea" Coffee Mug Cozy with Non-Slip Backing.

And, of course, I switched out the "cup of tea" motif for "interlocking horseshoes" for my neice, MJ, who loves riding horses and also skipped adding the non-slip backing on the cosy. 

I looked at photos of horseshoes to figure out how to shape and crochet them. 

I ended up just chaining the length I needed to fit the horseshoe motifs nicely on the cosy and added one row of single crochet.  

Then I shaped the pieces into a horseshoes, interlocking them and stitched them in place with white yarn. 

The last step I added a nice rustic looking brown button. 

My niece knew immediately what the motif was (thank goodness!) and liked her coffee cosy. 

Click (here) for my project details on Ravelry.

Now to get ready for celebrating 2015!

Merry Christmas 2014!

One of my favorite gift shops had this delightful Santa Claus rug displayed at their entrance . 

I hated to walk on it it was so beautiful. 

I didn't even know you could buy Christmas themed rugs!

I gushed about it to my Hubby who commented, "I thought you said you had too much Christmas decorations and wanted to cut back?"

I replied I must have had a moment of insanity when I said that.  

And continued, "Wouldn't it be adorable to have a Christmas theme rug in our foyer?"

I think he was shaking his head…probably thinking I'm crazy?  

But I would love to have a rug like this.  

Maybe I can find one for next Christmas?  

You know for our new home!

Merry Christmas to All!

Happy Christmas Eve!

My Santa Claus Mugs

Only five days remaining until Christmas!

My favorite time of the year.

I found these adorable vintage-looking Santa Claus Mugs at Pottery Barn.

They look cute next to my "true" vintage Santa Claus candles!

There were three designs; a Santa with open eyes, a winking Santa and a Santa with closed eyes.

My Santas are sitting on a beautiful red and white small gingham tablecloth I bought while we were in Italy.

My brother-in-law and his wife bought me the lovely lighted black deer lantern for my birthday.

The Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus Salt and Pepper set are from Avon - I think I bought this set back in the 1980s. 

And, of course, the "Ho, Ho, Ho" wall hanging is one I machine embroidered this year.   

I bought four Santas... one of each design plus a second winking Santa.

Once I had my set of four home I decided I wanted a set of six; two of each design.

But when I returned to buy two more they were all sold out.  

I'm still happy I have four!

How about you?

Do you have any Santa Claus Mugs?

Xxx

Country Christmas Doily

I fell in LOVE  with this free Christmas doily pattern, Country Christmas Doily. 

Head over heels in LOVE!

Red and White together - stunning!

First I tried using #10 cotton thread with a tiny steel needle. 

Nope, not going to work. 

It's too hard on my eyes and my hands.

Luckily I found some thinner cotton yarn in my stash that is easier for me to crochet. 

The only problem is I only bought one skein of each color and the flower took up quite a bit of the red yarn.   

So I'm not sure I have enough red yarn to finish the project.  

If I run out I'll frog and use white in place of the red to finish it off.

  

But I couldn't wait to show my work in progress photos of this beautiful doily.

Hop over to my Ravelry project page (here) for more details.

Do you think this pattern would be lovely as a small throw? 

I think it would. 

But that flower would probably be HUGE in acrylic yarn!

I also want to crochet one of these cute red and white pin wheel Christmas throws one day too.

What about you?

Do you love RED and WHITE together too?

My Santas!

   Santas are everywhere here at Teacup Lane!

This one…

I worked his beard in white pom pom yarn!

And his buddy…

For his beard I added three chains between each single crochet.

Two are better than one...

And finally this Santa…

I've had this Christmas Santa fabric panel for years!  

I started free motion quilting it last year.  

I was hoping to finish it in time for Christmas this year but I don't think it will happen. 

But it should be ready by next Christmas!

I used my recently purchased beading foot to attach a string of red beads on Santa's reins.  

I didn't have enough to do all of his reins so I will have to make trip to the sewing/ craft store to buy more beads.  

I have more Santas coming!

Remember when I machine embroidered pillowcases this year in redwork?

This is the Santa one.

These will be put out on our bed next week. 

I found a delightful free crochet pattern called Country Christmas Doily that I'm working on now. 

You are suppose to work it in 100% cotton THREAD with a small steel hook.

I tried…I really did…but I can't handle small hooks and thread.

Luckily I found some thinner cotton yarns in my stash that are a joy to crochet with and I can't wait to share this Christmas project with you! 

All this R.E.D. is making me happy!