XL HotPad with a simple twist.

I said simple LOL.

Basically I just used 2 solid pieces of fabric.

Quilted with diaganol lines and added binding.

I used Origins by Basic Grey for Moda.

I happened to have some scraps from my Quiltmaker tablerunner.

Find the original XL hotpad Pdf  HERE or original blog post HERE.

I whipped this one up in no time. If I wasn't already 'set' for Christmas handmade gifts this year..I'd really be making a bunch. I think they will be for my sisters next year though.

My sisters are not sewers...at least not yet!

Anyhow, I do have handmade Christmas gifts this year for my staff. They read my blog, so I need to wait until after our Christmas get together to show you what I made.

Please remember to enter for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway on this post!!!

 Giveaway ends on 12/20/10.

SMS Giveaway Day

I am not so prepared for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day as I thought I would be.

I did manage to find some extra charm packs of Portugal by April Cornell that could use a good home.

To sweeten the pot, I added some bath balls, cherry washcloth and a 9-Patch n pins pincushion.

To enter:

Become a follower and leave a comment that you did. 

Or

Leave a comment if you already are a follower of my blog.

I will randomly select a winner on 12/18/10.

My apologies, however, this is open to U.S. only.

Holly Days

I really only finished a couple of items this weekend.

I thought I'd share this lil pillow with blog land.

It's from the Seasonal Days Little Pillows pattern by Kalico Kreations.

I have made 4 of them now. 

Be sure to stop by tomorrow 12/13/10 for the Sew MaMa Sew Giveaway Day!!

open season

This isn't my quilt.

Just in case you were wondering.

It was pieced by my mother in law from a bunch of her scraps.

She used the pattern Open Season in the book Schnibbles Times Two.

She had it machine quilted by a local quilter and while she was visiting we picked it up.

I spent this afternoon sewing the binding on by machine for her.

She also pieced this little table runner from some of my Fig Tree scraps.

Didn't quite get the binding on.

So that's part of where my week went.

My mother in law visited.

We shopped.

We sewed.

In between, I worked.

I'm exhausted.

1931 really?

Yes 1931. They had the basic quilt designs already 'drawn' out for us. "They" being Ruby Short McKim and others. Have you heard of her? There is a new to me site listing all the blocks that she published in the 1930's.

101 Blocks to be exact. As I started browsing them, I thought of all of you in blog land. Have you seen her designs and so forth. 

 I find them fascinatingly similar to the designs we see today.

The way she uses a solid for the "peel" of  a Lafayette Orange Peel .

Or how she did a Zig Zag pattern!

They used solids because it was easier to find. Many of the prints were on feedsacks. Imagine if we had to wait to buy grain to collect our fabrics vs. shopping online!

And the Beggar block looks an aweful lot like some 'butterfly' blocks I have seen being pieced recently.

But I have to say....

the next block I'd like to try..

is this "V" block, for obvious reasons.