Happy New Year's Eve!

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!

I hope you have a WONDERFUL and SAFE

NEW YEAR'S EVE celebration!!!

My celebration is

my daughter and her fiancee are coming to visit!

WHOOHOO!!!

YIPPIIEEE!!!!

We didn't get to have them for Christmas this year,

So this will be our Christmas and New Year's time!

I'm SO SO EXCITED to see them tonight!!!

It's wonderful to see your children doing well as adults,

but it sure is hard when one lives 5 hours away!

We ALL miss her!

Her brother is SO SO EXCITED his sissy is coming home!

They both work full time jobs.

So, it's hard for either of them to visit the other.

It DOES happen, with great planning!

Here are my sweet children!

All grown up!

My son, on the left, will be 21 next month.

My daughter, middle, is 23.

(I'm on the right.)

And here's a confession from me...

I now have curly hair!

About 7 years ago it just went super curly,

like Shirley Temple curly!

I have continued to blow it dry and have the same straight hair I've always had.

BUT,

curly hair is demanding!

It got to the point it didn't matter if I blew it dry,

it curled anyway!

UGH!

So about 6 months ago, I decided to let it go curly!

It's a VERY different thing for me!

And I'm trying to get used to it!

AND,

learn how to manage it!

One day,

when my I have make up on,

I'll take another picture and update my photo!

Let me get used to these curls a little first..

LOL!

Have a WONDERFUL New Year's Eve 

and SAFE travels!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL YOU!!!

Nina 

Elements Challenge

 These few days between Christmas and New Year's

is my time to play!

Yesterday

I showed a free motion quilting play piece I'm working on...

Today,

let me show you a challenge I'm working on.

This challenge is 

The Elements.

Earth,

Air,

Fire,

Water.

Each is a separate challenge,

and each is to finish at 12x12.

FUN sized!

The Earth and Air challenges should have already  been done...

But I just didn't have the inspiration 

of what to do.

My husband and I went on vacation to 

St. George Island, Florida last month!

YEP!

I got my inspiration!

Earth - beach

Water - ocean

Fire - sun

Air - sky

AND...

Here's the BEST part!

They will hang in order to create a beach scene!

So, the Air will hang on top,

then Fire underneath it,

then Water under that,

and Earth on the bottom.

I can't wait!

While we took our daily walks on the beach

we would pick up shells...

we found some beautiful ones!

Once I had my inspiration, 

I started picking up the small and tiny little shells!

Here's all we gathered...

 And these are the tiny ones for my Earth!

All bleached and washed and ready to sew!

The beach is darker at the water area,

this is the fabric for that.

(It's a scrap of linen from an alteration...

you can see the seam!  LOL!)

The sandy part of the beach has ridges on it from the wind,

I tried to create some of that...

The sand also has a shiny element to it,

and I was trying to give that illusion.

I don't like the shells inside this mesh because you can't see them.

Here's a close up.

You simply can't see the shells!

So,

I did what you would have done...

I took it all out!

YEP!

UGH!

BUT...

it was worth it!

Here it is ready to quilt!

I found a beige tulle to put the shells under so they stay in place.

Cool, huh!?

It's really not upside down...

it will hang this way because the water will be coming 

up to the beach on top of it!

How do you like the beach?

This is FUN playtime!!!

Go play!

It's good for your creativity!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL quilt!

Nina

Purple flower play

I've had SEW much fun playing for the last 2 days!!!

I've been sewing most ALL my life!

I can't even think of going more than a day without sewing!

I LOVE IT!!!

It's fun to play around and make little quilts,

or gradated color quilts,

or any other kind of piecing!

GREAT FUN!

Since I've been quilting,

my PASSION is the free motion quilting!!!

I can only go for so long without free motion quilting...

then I start to go through with drawl,

twitching,

drooling,

the WORKS!

So today I just HAD to quilt!

This is just a play piece...

there was NO plan,

No stress,

JUST play!

This is a fat quarter with cotton batting

I just made the center,

then feathers all around...

looks like a flower! 

Added and echo around it...

I like the way it adds importance to it!

Let's see what a 2nd echo looks like...

GREAT!

While adding the 2nd echo,

I made a little mistake.

BUT,

Mistakes are only creative opportunities, right?

So,

the curls and leaves were added all around.

If I had given it ANY thought,

I would have given some thought to the leaf directions!

DUH!

LOL!

This is practice!

This is practice!

This is practice!

I've liked the look of several different designs in the background

others have been doing,

let's try it! 

There's a little of everything...

It's pretty cool!

That's as far as I got.

I was also trying a new thread,

Wonderfil 100wt.

(It's the background grey thread.)

I LOVE IT!!!

Practice is SO worth it!!!

Practice will make you better!!!

Practice is an investment!!!

Practice is investing in YOU!!!

Practice makes is SEW worth it!!!

So cut up some fat quarters,

Make them into sandwiches,

And practice everyday!

(Or as close to that as you can.)

You DON'T have to quilt the entire fat quarter each day!

Just a small section.

I often draw a line down the middle,

then draw that into 4 sections so I have 8 sections total.

This is a small enough area I can quilt in a day.

And, even if I only quilt half of that section...

I'm good!

Free Motion quilting takes 

PRACTICE!!!

PRACTICE!!!

PRACTICE!!!

Have fun practicing!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL quilt!!!

Nina

Quilting Mini Hexagon Quilt 1

I pray each of you have had a
BLESSED Christmas today!!!!

****************

Now,

How do I quilt this thing?

Here's where many of us get stuck!

Let's walk through this together...

You learn some tricks!

Then you'll realize those of us who come up with designs

are NOT magic!

Totally disappointing...

I KNOW!

(I'm sorry to burst your bubble!)

Since this quilt is small I can use a page protector...

Just a regular old page protector!

Cool, huh?

Nothing fancy...

just something most of us have on hand!

What for?

to cover most of my quilt and draw on it to confirm

a quilting idea...or not!
(Watch!)

So,

you cut the page protector open down the closed side

(not the folded side)

Then cut the bottom open

Now you can open it, unfold it, 

and you'll have a good sized area to draw on.

(If you need to cut 2 open and tape them together, you can.)

This won't cover my entire 

Mini Hexagon.

BUT, it will give me space to decide!

Now you pin it onto the quilt.

See, it doesn't cover 

ALL of the quilt,

but it'll work!

These are the markers I use

You can also use Dry Erase Markers.

They just have to be erasable markers.

Now...

let's start drawing ideas out!

This can be stressful...

PLEASE...

remember you are only drawing out ideas and they can ALL be erased!

NOTHING is permanent here!

And sometimes you just have to look at the quilt for a while

before ideas come to you...

Let's draw!

I started around the yellow/pink first and I like it!

So, I drew more around the teal. 

I don't quite know what to do on the inside of the Hexagons!

Drawing several ideas gives me a great visual!

And another idea...

I've decided I don't like what I drew around the top star

So,

we're ignoring that for now!

LOL!

My goal is to make the yellow/pink star different from all the others!

I KNOW you knew that!

Blahahaha!

I like what I did inside the yellow/pink start!

The stitching would be in pink, I think.

The grey diamonds around it would be in a yellow?

The rest of the grey in the quilt will be quilted in a matching 50wt or thinner...I think.

It's taking shape!

OOPS!

I drew on the lavender in black!

My damp paper towel is my handy eraser!

SEE!

Nothing is permanent!

YET! 

Oh,

I LIKE the purple on the lavender/teal!

Maybe the lavender/teal stars will be stitched in a purple?

I'm going to rest for today.

I like to come back and look at it fresh.

I'll see how I like it tomorrow!

I may decide I don't like it

The WHOLE thing could get erased...

A fresh look does wonders!

We'll just have to see what tomorrow brings!

Have a VERY BLESSED Christmas!

And a SPECIAL time with those 

SPECIAL family members who have come to visit you!

Our daughter and her fiance will be arriving on the 30th!

We'll have a full house on New Year's!

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL quilt!

Nina

Merry Christmas!

Today is a day of preparation

for the day we show our loved ones how much they

TRULY

mean to us!

Tomorrow is 

ALL about

the 

LOVE God gave us as he gave us 

HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON!

He loved us SO MUCH

He let His Son die a 

Blessed HORRIFIC 

death for our sins!

This is a love we can

NEVER

match!

Tomorrow,

as we 

CELEBRATE 

the birth of His precious Son,

Our Lord and Savior,

Remember Him!

SING HIM HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We usually make a birthday cake!

It's so much fun!!!

When my kids were little

the birthday cake really helped them understand what the

CHRIST-MAS day is all about!

NOT gifts!

 BUT LOVE!!!

We've always giving our kids 3 gifts

on Christmas.

If 3 gifts were enough for Jesus...

that's enough for me!

Some years have been really tough financially...

we all experience this!

But, 

THOSE have been my most treasured years.

Those are the years I had to get REALLY creative!

One year, our kids were small, 

I went to Goodwill and bought all kinds of dance costumes, and

a wedding dress I cut short so my 4-5 year old daughter could wear it.

I packaged them all in a BIG box!

That gift gave SO much pleasure to BOTH our children

for MANY years!

(YES!  Our daughter would dress up her little brother!

I have pictures!

Muahahaha!)

Use the creativity God gave you!

It's SO MUCH FUN!!! 

So,

Enjoy your families,

both near and far!

Share your hearts full of LOVE for everyone!

And,

Be the blessing God intended!

Ho!

Ho!

Ho!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL quilt!

Nina

Mini Hexagon Quilt 6

Boarders...

Boarders...

Boarders...

Which one to go with?

I was really torn!

Then a friend suggested the teal for the boarder.

So here's a picture of it...

I thought it was TOO heavy!

Too much teal!

So...

What about a small teal boarder,

Then a lavender boarder?

(I was leaning towards the lavender!)

This is what it might look like...

THAT'S IT!

I LIKE IT!!!

Let's DO this thing!

And...

here it is!

What do you think?

I LOVE the way the tiny (1/4") teal boarder

frames the quilt,

BUT,

it's NOT

overpowering!

What is the finished size?

16" wide

x

17" long

SMALL!

Don't you LOVE it?

Now...

how do you quilt this tiny thing?

Well...

Since it's a MINI quilt,

EVERYTHING

has to be MINI on it!

Mini boarders!

So...

the quilting has to be MINI as well!

That's what's coming next!

SANTA IS COMING SOON!!!!

Are you ready yet?

Sew the pieces of life together!

It makes a BEAUTIFUL quilt!

Nina

Christmas Lights!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

 driving around looking at 

Christmas lights!

Most are just like my house...

simple & pretty.

Every now and then you drive by a house

and there's only one reaction....

WOW!

This is a little house...

But the lights are on EVERY inch of it!!!!

All the work that went into this!

What a great surprise!

The lights are even on the sides of the house!

AMAZING!!!

I hope you're ready for Christmas!

You only have a few more days!

Go do something AMAZING!

Be a BLESSING!!!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL quilt!!!

Nina

Mini Hexagon Quilt 5

Here it is!

The size is 13.5" wide by 15" long

MINI!

I decided I didn't like the look of the extra on the top and bottom of the quilt.  

Once it was trimmed, the extra row would look weird.

Now...

Here's the question...

Do I add a boarder?

If so, which color?

Grey background boarder?

or

Lavender boarder?

And the boarder would be about 1.5" wide.

Or...

No boarder?

I need your opinion

PLEASE!

Thanks everyone!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL quilt!

Nina

Mini Hexagon Quilt 4

Let's see if we can finish this thing!

WOOHOO!!!

There are 

ONLY

3 rows left!

Let's DO THIS!

Here's the next row

And again...

Here's the back.

Notice the split seams again...

 

Here it is attached.

It's coming along!!!

Next row,

LAST big row! 

 And sewn together

One more row...

Here it is

 And the back of the row

(I just like seeing the backs)

 AND...

Drum roll PLEASE...

The completed quilt top!

WOOHOO!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

It's so cute!!!!

 As I got to looking at the quilt,

it seems like there is more background on the sides 

than on the top and bottom

So...

I've sewn one more row together of 

just the background triangles

to see if I want to put an additional row 

on the top and bottom

Let's see how this looks... 

Hmmm...

Maybe it's too much?

What do you think?

I might need to trim up the sides first.

Maybe the edges will be about even then.

I'll give it a 

GOOD final pressing,

then trim the edges even...

then we'll see where we are.

But that's for tomorrow...

HA!

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL quilt!!!

Nina