Black Friday and Saturday MERCY!

Had a friend who woke up Friday morning at 3:00A.M.......got up at 4:00 and went shopping the sales....wow, that is really getting a head start on Christmas shopping. I have never been out shopping at 4 A.M. EVER, and hopefully I shall never be!
We had a lovely Thanksgiving, even though I thought I'd expire before the day was over. Lifting a 15lb. turkey out of the oven nearly did me in. First of all, I had to move the African violets out of my oven, dust the cobwebs out, and think, "How in the world do you turn this oven on?" It was at that point that I thought to myself, "Why in the world did I say I would do dinner for 10 people on Thanksgiving, when I should have been sitting on the sofa sipping my diet Coke, and watching the Cowboys get beat, again.
I guess I shall never learn my limitations. I would do it all over again, though. It was fun sitting down at the table with family and neighborhood friends. Thank goodness I remembered how to make my momma's "dressing and turkey gravy." She was a gourmet cook, and wrote down her directions for me the first year I was married. Of course, her directions started off with, "First, you pluck the turkey." She had a great sense of humor!
Hope you have taken all of the November attachments off your Seasonal Quilt. I am bagging up the attachments and labeling the plastic bags as to the month so that next year I'll have all of them ready.
December's attachments are pretty, so get busy making the poinsettias, and the next attachment is really fun to make.
Happy Days.............:)B

Christmas poinsettias Step 4

Christmas poinsettias Step 1

Christmas poinsettias Step 2

Christmas poinsettias construction Step 3

Christmas Ponsettias Construction

Red felt squares 6" green felt 3" X 5" Yellow square 1"
Make 3 poinsettias for the Seasonal Irish Chain Quilt. Remove all Nov. attachments. Place poinsettias where you wish. More attachments will be forthcoming.

Simple Irish Chain Turkey construction

I can't get used to the fact that the blog doesn't put things in numerical order. I must try to remember to show the finished product after the steps of construction. Forgive me. This turkey is sooooooooooo cute. He is "full of himself" as most turkeys are...........tee hee.....I don't think I said that...........ha
Since I don't know any turkeys personally, I have no idea how that comes about. Mr. Whoozy is perfect in every way, and so I don't have to worry about his being egotistical...........is that a word? ha
I am soooooo looking forward to Thanksgiving. I have 11 people coming to my table for dinner. I haven't cooked for that many people in several years, so it should be a real red letter day for me. Thank goodness most of the people are bringing things to supplement THE TURKEY and dressing.......so that is a blessing.
Some of you readers don't know that I had "African violets in my oven" when I met Mr. Whoozy nearly 20 years ago. He couldn't believe that I had them in there, but I didn't want to get my new oven dirty. The violets loved the light, and therefore, they thrived in there. I'll never forget the first time he came to my house.............he walked through the kitchen to put a bottle of vino in the fridge, and that was when he noticed the violets...........He said, "My, why do you have flowers in your oven?" I said, right up front, "I DON"T COOK!" Now, you see, I didn't fool him into thinking I was a cook deluxe!
He laughingly tells people that his future bride had "violets in her oven and the only thing in her fridge was tulip bulbs and suppositories." Now, that is the gospel truth!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and keep checking my blog........I'm really getting the hang of this thing..................ha
Love all of you, dearly, Quiltlady

Simple Irish Chain Turkey Step 3

Simple Irish Chain Turkey construction Step 2

Simple Irish Chain Attachment: Turkey

Simple Irish Chain attachment: finished Cornucopia

Notice the stitching on the finished cornucopia

November attachments: Cornucopia

Oh, wow, November is flying by. I haven't bought my turkey yet for Thanksgiving, but I know I shall go shopping about this time next week. I like to wait until closer to "the day" so I shall get a fresher turkey. I'm sure they must sell last year's turkey's first, and I want one who was walking around this time last year........poor dear..........If I get to thinking about that I'd become a vegetarian! But, I do love roasted turkey!
The cornucopia is pretty and easy to make. I have to tell you that I have found a great fabric glue, called "Fabri-Tac" and I used a few drops of it to glue my grapes to the felt. I have found that making these attachments out of felt is the way to go. Fast and easy. I glue, and then zigzag stitch around the other things with invisible thread. I love the way my cornucopia looks on the quilt. I'll share that with you at the end of the month when we have all of the attachments on it for November!
Happy days!

Folded fabric project- musings

Mondays are always great days for me. I feel like I have a whole week to get a lot done. There is a closet calling to me right now saying, "CLEAN ME OUT! THROW AWAY A LOT OF OLD THINGS" but, you know what, I'd rather sit at the sewing machine or at the computer than to do anything so mundane as that!
Seems like my project for the Christmas ornaments is a real keeper. Hope the stores have plenty of styrofoam balls (spheres) right now. Having been a teacher for a "million years," I love to teach new words to students, thus, the word SPHERES." I think that sounds more intellectual. ha. Some people love words. SCRABBLE is one of my favorite games, however, I am a terrible speller now, as I've seen so many misspelled words in my lifetime that I don't know which is right and which is wrong. Thank heavens for "spell check!" on the computer.
I am having a great time making the attachments for our Simple Irish Chain Seasonal Quilt. Wait until you see the cornucopia, coming Wednesday! And, then the "turkey" is coming next week. He's a real doozey!
Keep checking the blog often as I have some real surprises in store for you.
Happy Days! B.

Step #14

VOILA! IT IS FINISHED!

Folded Fabric Spheres for Christmas

FOLLOW DIRECTIONS BELOW TO MAKE A BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS DECORATION! THEY LOOK LIKE THEY CAME OUT OF A FANCY BOUTIQUE AND COST A FORTUNE>>>>>>>>>>>NOT SO>>>>>I USED LEFT OVER CHRISTMAS FABRIC FROM PROJECTS OF THE PAST AND ONLY HAD TO BUY THE FANCY PINS WITH PEARL TOPS OR GOLD OR SILVER HEADS> THEY MAKE BEAUTIFUL PINS RIGHT NOW! ONLY NEED 33 of them for one SPHERE! HAVE FUN WITH THIS!
REMEMBER THERE ARE 14 pictures for you to use so be sure to check on the right hand side of the blog for the other steps. Every step for doing this project is on this blog! YEHHHHHHHHHHH

Supply list for Folded Fabric project

I like to use the 4" spheres for my project. I plan on making about 5 of them and placing them in a pretty bowl for a centerpiece on my Christmas table. They may be hung on the front door with little bells attached, and there are a million uses that you will find for these beautiful "works of art" that are sooooo simple to make. Once you get the hang of it, you will be doing it in your sleep. I love doing it when I am taking a break from quilting.
Supplies: 4" styrofoam ball (sphere) I like that word as we shall be thinking of this as a world globe with East North south and West on it.
1/3 yd. focus fabric cut into 3 1/2" squares. You'll need 26 squares
1/4 yd. contrasting color fabric cut into 3 1/2" squares- need 16 sqs.
200 straight pins. (use applique pins if you have them, they are tiny
33 larger and longer pins about 1 1/2" long with pretty heads on them.
1 extra long pin such as a hat pin to hold the hanging loop
Ribbon: 1 pkg. of at least 1" wide Christmas ribbon or veleteen, etc. pretty pretty ribbon for sure!
Press fabric well before starting to cut. I keep a spray bottle of half water/ half vinegar to spray the center fold that is creased so well on most fabric. Spray and iron with a hot dry iron. DON"T USE STEAM!

Folded Fabric Project Sphere

I placed the 4" sphere on a cutting mat to see that it was 4" and found the 2" center points of it on either side. I ran a piece of stiff florist's wire straight through the ball to come out exactly on the 2" line on the other side. THis is a good way to find the center of the sphere. Another way is to use a measuring tape and measure from the top point to 6 1/4" around to the other side and hopefully find the center of the sphere that way. I am not good doing it that way.
Once the center has been found, I take a black Sharpie pen and mark the styrofoam on the top center and the bottom center and remove the wire piece.

Steps 1-6

This project is done on a ball, called a sphere to make it more like a world globe. Thinking of it like that will make it easier for you to understand where to start with what, when, etc. You have cut 26, 3 1/2" squares of your focus print, and 16,3 1/2" squares of your contrasting fabric. Be exact in your cutting to make this work out very nicely. Some of you are quilters and know exactly how to make what we call, "Prairie points" and that is exactly what we are going to do with each of these squares. I don't make them ahead, I make them as I am ready to pin them onto the sphere. Take one square of focus fabric fold it into half, and then into half again. Crease it very well. open it up and stick a pin into it at the center point that we marked at first. Do this again and pin another square EXACTLY centered underneath the top square at the bottom of the sphere. They should line up when you look down at them!
For ones of you who do not know how to make prairie points, follow me through the steps 1-6.
Step 1: Fold a focus square into half
Step 2: Fold the square into half again. FINGER PRESS THE CREASES VERY HARD!
Step 3: Open up the square and see that I have marked the creases with a white pencil. This is just to find the center point for Step #6.
Step 4: With the square folded as in Step 2, fold the right corner into the center line and crease it.
Step 5: Fold the other side of the fabric to the center. Make sure that the top points are together and the folds in the center are lined up nicely!
Step 6: Go back to Step 3, and put a pin into the center point and pin the OPENED SQUARE to the top center of the sphere on top and bottom of the ball. These open squares keep the styrofoam from showing through on the first pinning of the prairie points.

Step #7

This step shows the North and South prairie points in place, and pinned using 5 pins on each point! That is most necessary. Pin the top of fold in place first, and then pin the two loose edges at the center bottom and then each of the outer points. After the two are in place, next pin the East and West points into place. This is the way to pin all of the points into place. There will be 8 points pinned on this row at this time. After North, South, East, and West, you'll go back and pin a point into every fold such as North-east, Southeast, etc. Be exact!

Step #8

This step shows all 8 prairie points in line and pinned on using the Focus fabric. Notice the loose square is still pinned to the bottom of the sphere. It will stay there until you have finished the entire top half of the sphere.

Step #9

Step #9 Shows that you must use a marker to know where to place all points using the contrasting fabric. The marker is made to measure 3/4" from the "fancy pin" to the point. EVERY POINT IS APPLIED LIKE THIS FROM THIS POINT ON! DON"T GUESS! IT JUST WON"T WORK! Remember that you must try to keep the lines of the folds in straight lines if at all possible. This is very important. However, when you get to the last row of the sphere, you might have to "fudge and oooch a little to make the lines match up. Not to worry, that is very common. The ribbon will hide the problem.

Step #10

Step #10 shows how the contrasting fabric looks after north, south, east, and west points are pinned onto the sphere.

Step #11

Step 11 shows where to begin the last row of "focus fabric points." Always begin in the center of a FOLD, and go from south to north to east to west. ALWAYS MEASURE using your marker! Don't guess where the points will go! It just won't work!

Step #12

This step shows the finished row of prairie points that were done exactly as on the other side. The raw edges will be covered by the ribbon and will hide a multitude of "sins." Not to worry!

Step #13 Sphere with ribbon attached

The Ribbon is wrapped around the ball and pinned carefully. The bow is made separately and the hanger loop is pinned into the center of the ball with a longer pearl pin. It might be glued in if necessary.