Creating Snowflake Postcards On TimTex

Creating Snowflake Postcards On TimTex | Quilts By Jen Hey Everyone, welcome back to Coffee Talk Saturday.

Crazy Quilter on a Bike!

Crazy Quilter on a Bike! OK - so something has happened to me. Aliens have taken over my body or something. I had another long day in front of the sewing machine. While I try to sew a bit every day - I am never this focused. A "friend" (and I am using that word loosely now that I have made this pattern) made a beautiful bag. The pattern is called The Weekender by Amy Butler. The Weekender travel bag by Amy Butler Maria and I were admiring the bag and decided that we wanted to make the bag.  Our mutual "friend" who shall remain nameless (right Claudette!!!) had in fact made several of the bags. Yes - she had said that it was a challenge to make but NEVER said that it was a REAL CHALLENGE to make.

Apliquick is Here!

Kathy K. Wylie Quilts – Apliquick is Here! Many of you have heard me singing the praises of Apliquick ever since I discovered them in Houston over a year ago. It has taken a while, but I am pleased and excited to announce that Apliquick products are now available for sale right here on my website! Better yet, Apliquick orders over $25 ship free within Canada. Simply enter the coupon code mapleleaf to activate the free shipping option.

Sewing the binding and making a hanging sleeve with DecoBob

Happy Boxing Day!

Since we were all spoiled yesterday and I’m officially sick of shopping, I’m not going anywhere near the Boxing Day sales today. Instead, I'll spend some of the day in my quilting studio finishing my peony quilt. Today, I’ll be trimming the quilt, sewing the binding and making a hanging sleeve with DecoBob thread. 

Trimming the edges of the quilt

Making the binding

Usually when I’m making binding for my quilts, I try to use a thread that matches the fabric, so when I press the binding seams open, I won’t notice the stitches.Today, I’m going to use my DecoBob thread to sew the binding strips together. I talked about how to make quilt binding in previous posts, such as those that I did in October. As you can see from the photo, the stitches that I did using the DecoBob are invisible! The only thing you have to watch when using this thread is that you need to backstitch at the beginning and end of the seam.

Binding seams sewn with DecoBob

Making the hanging sleeve

Many of the quilts I make are intended to be used as wallhangings, so I’ve got a pretty good system that I always use when making the hanging sleeves for these quilts. Here is my step-by-step visual guide to making hanging sleeves:

Step #1 - Measure the width of the quilt

Step #2 - Cut fabric strip 6" x the width of the quilt

Step #3 - Fold over the short ends of the strip twice and press

Step #4 - sew the ends of the hanging sleeve using DecoBob

Step #5 - fold the hanging sleeve in half lengthwise and press

Step #6 - Center the hanging sleeve on the top back of the wallhanging with the raw edges aligned and pin in place

Now to sew on the binding

Now that the sleeve is pinned onto the back of the quilt and our binding is made, we can sew it onto the quilt. Working from the front, align all of the raw edges of the quilt and binding and sew the binding to all four edges of the quilt. I explained all of this back in my October posts.

For most of my previous projects, I stitched the binding to the back of the quilts using a decorative machine stitch.This is an easy and fast way to get a binding sewn on, and is especially good for quilts that will be washed a lot (such as baby quilts). But, this quilt will only be hung on the wall and I want to stitch the back of the binding by hand. In the past I have always used cotton thread that I’ve matched to the color of the binding. But, today, I’m going to try using DecoBob for the hand stitching. I try to use a double strand of thread when stitching down binding, just to make it that much stronger, so I’m going to cut off a long piece of DecoBob and knot the two ends together after threading my needle.

Time to watch a movie

Lots of people hate sewing on bindings, but I also know many people who absolutely love it – I have to say I’m somewhere in the middle on this topic. It's a nice, thoughtless activity to do while watching a good show on TV. So, I put on a good Christmas movie to watch with my family and got my hand stitching done. After finishing the binding, I also stitched down the folded edge of the hanging sleeve.

Hand stitching the back of the binding

The finished product

Well, I’m happy to say that my second UFO is now finished! Thanks to WonderFil, I was able to finish my peony quilt using all of the threads left over from previous projects. Sewing the binding and making a hanging sleeve with DecoBob gave me great results and I think that I'll use my DecoBob threads for these jobs over and over again. Thanks for joining me this week and I hope you have a happy and healthy New Year!!

Finished peony wall hanging

Machine quilting with DecoBob Thread

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas day at our house is a fairly low key event. Now that our boys are both teenagers, we no longer get up before dawn to see what Santa brought. All of the grandparents come over for our traditional breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls and to open presents. Later on, we get together again to have our turkey dinner. But, usually, the afternoon is spent reading our new magazines, playing new video games or having a nap. So, while everyone else is enjoying their new presents, I’m going to head to my sewing room to do some machine quilting with DecoBob thread on my next UFO – my painted peony.

Squaring up the fabric

The first job is to square up the fabric the peony is painted on. When squaring up fabric and quilts, I like to use two rulers. My large 16” square and my 6” x 25” long ruler. By butting them up together, you can cut a multiple of sizes making sure that the corners are a 90º angle.

Squaring up the peony using two rulers

Adding the borders

The stitching that I’m going to do on the peony is much less dense than what I did on my tulip, and I want to have it serve as quilting stitches too, so I’m going to add the borders and layer the quilt before stitching. I want the emphasis to be on the flower, so I’m going to use pink tone on tone fabrics for the inner and outer borders. The inner border is cut 1½" to finish at 1” and the outer border is cut at 4” to finish at 3½". Since Lucy mentioned how well DecoBob works for precision piecing, I've decided to try using it in the top and bobbin to sew on my borders. 

Using DecoBob to sew on the borders

Layering the quilt

Once all of the borders have been added, it's time to layer the quilt with the batting and backing. I talked about this process in my QUILTsocial posts back in June. Whenever I am basting a small project like this, I always use 505™ adhesive spray.

Quilt basted with 505 spray

Picking the threads

I have some Tutti and Fruitti threads that match my peony beautifully, so I'm going to use them to do the machine stitching and embellishing on the flower petals and leaves. I'll use the DecoBob in the bobbin to make sure there isn't a lot of thread build up on the back of the quilt.

Picking threads for the peony

Embellishing the peony with machine quilting

To do the stitching, I put on my free motion quilting foot and dropped my feed dogs. On the first stitch, I bring up the bobbin thread from the back and do a few stitches in place to lock the threads in place. Then, I follow the contours of the petals and stitch the veins with the medium-colored threads first. Next, I re-thread the machine with the darkest thread and then the lightest thread. Finally, I change to the green threads and stitch the leaves and stems. I really love the effect that the green variegated thread has on the stems.

One thing to watch when changing thread colors often is to make sure that you always have your machine foot up to make sure the thread passes between the tension discs. This ensures your upper thread tension is consistant. 

Closeup of machine stitching on the peony petals

Closeup of machine stitching on the leaves

Machine quilting with DecoBob

Since I want the focus to be on the flower, I want the quilting in the background to blend in with the fabric. DecoBob, because it is so fine, will work wonderfully for this! So, I thread the machine with DecoBob on the top and in the bobbin and start quilting the background.

As I quilted, I noticed the top thread looks like it's tighter and tighter. All of a sudden, there's a huge crash and my needle looked like this:

The bent needle

Practice what you preach

I realized that I hadn't followed my own advice and, in my haste to get quilting, forgot to put the top DecoBob on the thread holder instead of leaving it on the top thread pin. Since I also forgot to put a WonderGuard on the spool, the slippery threads slid off the spool and wrapped around the thread pin. Once I got the WonderGuard thread guard on the spool and put it on my thread holder off the machine, things worked much better!

DecoBob on the thread holder

Time for turkey!

I used DecoBob to to do the quilting in both the white background and in the outer pink border. As you can see the thread blended in well with both! I used one of my variegated pink Fruitti threads to quilt the skinny inner border. Now that my machine quilting with DecoBob thread is all done, it's time to head back to the Christmas festivities! Tomorrow, we'll trim the quilt and add binding and I'll show you how to make a hanging sleeve.

The completed machine quilting on the wall hanging

Finish up some quilting projects

Time to finish some UFOs

Like many other quilters, I've a “few” unfinished objects (UFOs) kicking around my quilting studio. Some are big projects and some are small, and some will never be finished! But, the ones I really wanted to work on were the samples that I made in Elaine Quehl’s Surface Design course last month. For three Fridays in a row, my friend Nellie and I traveled to Ottawa to spend the day learning how to use many different surface design products. My class samples were just begging to be finished with thread painting and quilting. I figured what better way to highlight the many uses of DecoBob thread from WonderFil than to finish up some quilting projects?

Tons of surface design techniques

Each day in our class we learned two different techniques and got to play with different products. The first class had us working with Shiva Paintstiks and foils. The second class we used Prismacolor Artist Pencils and Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 Water Soluble Wax Pastels (yes, that sure is a mouthful!). The third class, was my absolute favorite and Elaine taught us the ins and outs of using Tsukineko Inks and Inktense Pencils.

Although I had a set of the Tsukineko Inks that I’d bought over a year ago, none of the little bottles had even been opened! Elaine showed us how to dilute the ink with aloe vera gel to get different shades of one color in order to paint a flower on fabric.

Then, we got to try out the Inktense pencils to shade in a free-motion thread painted sketch. These amazing pencils look and feel like pencil crayons, but when you spray the fabric with water the colors pop and get brighter and more intense! Immediately after the class, Nellie and I headed to the closest art supply store to buy our own sets of Inktense pencils!

 

What is an Inktense pencil? Derwent!! - YouTube

I absolutely love these inktense pencils, they're exactly like paint and colored pencils in one!

via: www.youtube.com

Here are pictures of some of my class samples.

Leaves made with Shiva Paintsticks and a freezer paper stencil

Paintsticks and foils

Flower shaded with Prismacolor artists pencils

Coneflowers made with freehand stitching and Inktense pencils

Peony painted with Tsukineko Inks

A class of high achievers

Everyone in our class was so creative; it was amazing to see what everyone did with the same products. Elaine has pictures of all of the class samples up on her blog. Her website also lists her future classes and lectures. I encourage you to check out everything that she has to offer!

What to stitch first?

After looking through all my samples again, I decided the tulip I made using the d’Ache Neocolor 2 Water Soluble Wax Pastels was my first order of business. Once I got out the WonderFil threads that I had on hand, I couldn’t believe how well they matched my tulip – it's like it was meant to be!! 

Tutti, Fruitti and Spagetti threads to match the tulip

Thread painting or quilting?

I’m not sure yet if I want to try quilting or thread painting my tulip, but I think I'll sleep on it and tomorrow I’m sure that I'll have made a decision! Now that I’ve seen how well my threads match my tulip, I can’t wait to get started! I just love that I'm already finishing these class samples. I just hate to take a class and have yet another unfinished project added to my pile of UFOs. So, tomorrow I'll start to finish up some quilting projects using my WonderFil threads!

The many uses of DecoBob thread

Not just for the bobbin!

Throughout many of my previous posts I’ve used DecoBob in the bobbin when I’ve been testing out the different types of WonderFil threads that were sent to me. Lucy Garvin from WonderFil recently sent me a chart that highlighted the many uses of DecoBob thread, so this week I’m going to show them to you!

Getting the details

In case you missed my previous posts that mentioned DecoBob, it’s an 80 wt cottonized polyester. DecoBob creates high definition for any quilt stitch and it's great as a bobbin thread for machine embroidery. It can also be used as the top and bottom thread for quilting, quilt construction and all purpose sewing, including button holes. Since it’s so fine, it’s also excellent for hidden stitching. 

DecoBob Available in 36 colors in 2187yd (2000m) spools and 6500yd (6000m) cones.

Pre-wound bobbins! One less step for you!

DecoBob comes on spools and also in prewound bobbins. The thread is tightly wound on high quality AS bobbins, which are re-usable. Unlike most other prewound bobbins, DecoBob prewound is free of any chemical adhesive to ensure unhindered delivery of the thread. This also avoids the build up of undesired residue (dried adhesive) in both the bobbin case and machine. Since the tension in the bobbin is so consistent, it makes stitches regular and even and minimal bobbin tension adjustment is required. The thread is so fine, it reduces build up of bobbin thread to enhance sewing results. Because of its high tenacity, it works well even with heavy top thread. The matte finish also blends well with most fabrics.

Pre-filled bobbins of DecoBob from WonderFil

So many ways to use this thread

Here's the chart that Lucy Garvin sent me. As you can see, it gives lots of great tips, such as what size of needle to use and what stitch length will work best.

DecoBob chart

What we’ve done so far

In my previous posts I used DecoBob in the bobbin when I couched threads and machine quilted using Mirage thread from WonderFil, and I used it for thread painting with Tutti and Konfetti. Lucy tells me that she loves to use it as the top and bottom threads for machine quilting and also for hand stitching the back of her bindings. With all this research, I'm starting to get some ideas of what I can work on this week and ways to show off the many uses of DecoBob thread!

My Top 10 Features Of The Pfaff Ambition 1.0

After working with the Pfaff Ambition 1.0 for a few months now and creating a few quilting projects along the way, I've discovered a few features that make this a great quilting machine. So, here goes with my top 10 features of the Pfaff Ambition 1.0! They are in no particular order.

Extension table and accessory box 

Being able to extend the workspace out to the left of the machine is always a bonus. The table that is made for the Ambition 1.0 provides 10 inches of extra work space from the needle to the edge of the table. Plus, it's easy to take on and off and has folding feet for easy storage.

Extension table attached to machine

The accessory box is perfect and has a spot for everything: bobbins, feet, and other tools used less often. Because it fits onto the machine, the tools are always accessible and there is no hunting around to find what you need. It's removable so the extension table can be slid in place.

Accessory box attached to machine

Triple lights

A well-lit work area is a must for me. The Ambition 1.0 definitely provides that with the triple light system to light up the work area.

Well-lit workspace

Display screen

The display screen on the front of the machine where everything you need to know is displayed. Whether about the stitch or function being used, it's easy to read and clearly laid out. 

Display screen

Clear bobbin case

Since there is no "low bobbin" warning system on this machine, the clear bobbin case and clear bobbin makes it easy to see when the bobbin is getting low. There's nothing worse than sewing on and on totally unaware that the bobbin has run out.

Clear bobbin case

IDT system

The built-in dual feed system is a fantastic feature when it comes to quilting and sewing. You can have even feed for all fabrics from cotton to linen to stretch to multiple layers. 

IDT system engaged

Throat size

The 8 inches of throat space makes it easy to manoeuver quilt projects when quilting. This creates less pulling and prodding on the fabrics and projects. Not to mention reduced strain on neck, shoulders and back!

Spacious throat

Stitch #94

Hands down my favorite stitch on the machine -- a jagged edged zigzag stitch. In total, there are 136 different stitches this machine can do along with a couple different alphabets. Here is #94 on the edge of my maple leaf.

Jagged zigzag stitch

Free motion stitching

I love how well this machine does free motion with great tension and even stitches.

Free motion stars

Tie off option

Love the tie off option on this machine as it doesn't leave a big knot or hole. Too bad it doesn't have built in scissors!

Needle down position

A total must for any quilter. With the push of a button, the needle is in the down position. Definitely a must when doing echo quilting and applique with lots of starting and stopping.

Buttons for needle down and tie off

All in all, this is a great little machine with many wonderful features for any avid quilter or sewer. It's been fun playing with this machine and getting to know what it can do. I've listed my top 10 features of the Pfaff Ambition 1.0 and am sure there are more. But, I know you don't want to be here until Christmas, which, by the way, is just around the corner! I wish you and your loved ones a very happy holiday season and I'll see you next year with some new and exciting projects. 

Happy Quilting

Thread painting with DecoBob

Finishing up my Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 Water Soluble Wax Pastels Tulip

To paint my tulip, I traced the photo onto PFD (prepared for dying) white cotton fabric and then used the wax pastels to shade in the different colors. Once finished, I used a paintbrush to paint water onto the fabric, which caused the wax pastels to bleed into each other causing a watercolor effect. It was so fun! Now that the tulip is dry, I’m going to use my Tutti, Fruitti and Spaghetti threads to do some thread painting with DecoBob in the bobbin.

Thread painting and free motion embroidery basics

There are lots of videos online that show how to do free motion stitching, thread paint, and embroider. In my posts back in September, I talked about some videos that I found on YouTube, but here's one more that's very good.

Free Motion Machine Embroidery - Part 1 - with Christopher Nejman - YouTube

Learn the secrets to free motion machine embroidery using metallic threads and more. This is part one of a video series.

via: www.youtube.com

Starting with the background

Since the lines of stitching in the background would be fairly straight forward, I decided to use my green threads to do that stitching first and then work my way to the more complicated shading of the tulip. I dropped the feed dogs and put on my free motion quilting foot.

I did some sample stitches on a scrap piece of fabric to get my tension just right and then started to stitch on my tulip background. Since my fabric had been treated with polymer medium (to prevent the wax pastels from rubbing off on my fingers), it's fairly stiff and I don’t need to have a stabilizer on the back.

Picking threads for the background of the tulip

Stitching the background

Start with the medium tones of threads

For my tulip, I stitched with the medium tones of threads first and then added the darkest and lightest threads at the end. 

Close up of stitching on the tulip

Finished thread painting on front of tulip

Make sure to raise your foot!

One thing to keep in mind when you're changing thread colors often is to make sure you always raise the foot of your machine before threading. This ensures that the tension discs are open when you pass the thread between then and will ensure that your tension is always correct. If you find that your tension is suddenly not right, the best thing to do is to re-thread your machine.

DecoBob thread to the rescue

Since the DecoBob is such a fine thread, even lots of stitching on the front of the piece did not cause a great build up of bobbin thread on the back of the piece. 

DecoBob on the back of the tulip

Even though the DecoBob in the bobbin prevented a build up of threads on the back of the piece, once all the stitching was done, the fabric was a bit rippled just from all of the threads on the front. A quick press with the iron, a pressing cloth and steam made the fabric lay nice and flat!

Pressing using a pressing sheet

Artwork worthy of a frame

Now that my thread painting with DecoBob is complete, my tulip's finished. I quite like it and decided to frame it. I found a nice frame with a mat included, popped it in and voila! one of my UFOs is finished!

 

Tulip in the frame

WEEKLY GIVEAWAY! PFAFF® Yarn Couching Foot Set

Enter now for your chance to win a PFAFF® Yarn Couching Foot Set!

With the PFAFF® Yarn Couching Foot Set you can easily create decorative yarn embellishments both when sewing free-motion and embroidering. Two different feet will suit a variety of yarn. See more at: http://new.pfaff.com/Accessories/Yarn-Couching-Foot-Set

Contest ends Tuesday December 24th at 5pm. Get your entries in now!

Congratulations to Linda S., winner of the Clover™ Flower Making Tools from our giveaway contest last week!

PFAFF® Yarn Couching Foot Set

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sewing A Snowflake Mug Rug

As I sat in my studio the other day thinking about my projects for this week, I kept looking at the winter wonderland outside.So, I grabbed my camera and went for a walk down my driveway. I live in the forest which provides ample photo ops no matter the season. Growing up on the prairies I saw many snow storms, but nothing like the sudden squalls of the eastern snow belt that leave everything looking fresh and white. I decided that I should be sewing a snowflake mug rug in a winter palette!

The wintery grey scene at the end of my driveway

What is a mug rug?

It's a small quilt ranging in size from 4" x 7" to 8" x 12" inches. It can be square or rectangle. The purpose of a mug rug is to hold your cup of cofffee/tea, but also a plate with a little tasty treat. Speaking of treats, Christmas is just around the corner and my first project this week was finishing up a holiday table runner.

Winter hues

To begin, I gathered up a few pieces of fabric that coordinated - these hues are very cool looking - the steel blues of winter. They also have a gray look to them which means they have had a tone added. Toning a fabric is when gray has been added to the pure hue.

For the background, I chose a lighter valued fabric so the applique will stand out. This fabric has had a tint added to the pure hue, which means white has been added to create a lighter value of the pure hue.

The darkest fabric is a shade. A shade is when black is added to the pure hue to create a darker valued fabric.

 

Winter hues

Sewing the pieces together

The best way to build a checkerboard design is to sew strips together. Then, cut those strips into strips and then sew them into one piece of fabric. 

From the 3 darker print fabrics, I cut 8 strips, each 1½″ x 10". Then, I cut the same sized strips from the other fabrics -- 2 from the dark blue stripe, 2 from the swirls and 4 from the fabric that looks like the cracks in frozen ice.

I started sewing the strips into pairs on the Pfaff Ambition 1.0. Then, I sewed the pairs into sets of 4. This is what is called a strip set, which speeds up the piecing process when small squares are needed. Not to mention it makes everything a lot more accurate!

Fabric strips sewn into pairs

Once the strip sets were made, I cut them into 1½″ x 4½″ rectangles. Eight are required in total for my project as it is going to be 8" x 12" when finished.

 

Strip set cut into smaller pieces

Sewing the pieces together and achieving perfect seams is a breeze when the IDT system is engaged. Prior to sewing, make sure that the seams have been pressed in opposite directions on the two pieces being sewn together. This will ensure that the seams butt up against each other when sewing. 

The IDT system allows for an even feed of the pieces over the feed dogs and under the quarter inch foot. The IDT system also prevents shifting of pieces when sewing because, with the even feed, perfectly matched seams are achieved. 

Which quarter inch foot should you use? With or without the guide? Either will work just fine for this job as they are both compatible with the IDT system. 

Perfectly matched seams

With the checkerboard now made, I cut an 8½″ square of the light background fabric to sew to the checkerboard to create the full mug rug. The size of the mug rug is approximately 8" x 12". Perfect for holding a mug and a plate of yummy treats!

Checkerboard sewn to background fabric

The snowflake motif

I collected snowflakes in various sizes and shapes for my mug rug. I even made one from paper like I did when I was a kid -- it didn't turn out so well! There are many places to collect snowflake designs. Try: coloring books, cookie cutters, gift bags, and the glyphs in your office software on your computer. 

It would be really cool if we could use the actual snowflakes that fall from the sky. I am sure their designs are fantastic, but, possibly, a bit too intricate. It's hard to find out without a high powered microscope! I love the big, huge flakes that fall, especially at Christmas, because they make everything look so magical. 

The snowflake design I chose is one I used in my Santa Sac designs. I enlarged it for this project. 

Collection of snowflakes

My favorite form of applique uses fusible web with the stitching done by machine. No hand stitching for me; the machine does a far better job! I drew the outline of the snowflake onto a piece of fusible web with a paper backing and fused it to the fabric for my snowflake. 

I fused the snowflake design to the background square making sure to cover everything with a Teflon applique sheet to prevent getting glue in unwanted places. If you don't have a Teflon sheet, parchment paper is a good substitute.

Snowflake fused to light hued background fabric

Thread and stitch selection 

I chose a couple Sulky rayon threads to outline the snowflake and quilt my little mug rug. I wasn't 100% sure of the thread I chose for the applique, as I thought it might be too gray. But, I figured I'd give it a go to see what it looked like. I do love how the rayon threads shine!

Blue & grey Sulky rayon threads

I sandwiched the layers of the quilt together with curved safety pins before stitching down the applique piece. Doing it this way, I don't need a stabilizer and the stitching acts as part of the quilting. 

I wanted the thread to form a nice smooth and uniform edge around the snowflake. To achieve this, I used a zigzag stitch which is stitch #4 on the Ambition 1.0. I changed the stitch width to 3.0 and the length to 0.8 to get a nice thick satin stitch. It's very easy to change the stitch and width on the Pfaff Ambition 1.0 by pushing a button to the right of the LCD screen. 

I changed the foot to the sewing stars foot, which has a large open toe area and made for great viewing of the edge of the snowflake. It's perfect for wide decorative stitches and wide satin stitching.

Alternatively, the open toed decorative foot can be used with it's large open viewing area to accommodate wide stitching and viewing of the area being stitched. Both of these feet accommodate the Pfaff IDT system.

 

Sewing stars foot with large open toe area

As well, I made sure that the needle was in the needle down position so, when I had to stop stitching, I didn't lose my spot on the snowflake. The needle down position also makes it easy to pivot and turn your work under the foot as you lift the presser foot slightly. Unfortunately, this machine doesn't have the built in hover option. 

The needle down button is found just to the right of the threading area on the front of the machine. It's the top button of the three and the green light to the left is on when the needle down position is engaged. 

The bottom button in that row of buttons is for the tie off option, which is a great option when doing applique with lots of starts and stops and changing thread. It sure beats manually tying off each of those threads! The tie off isn't even noticeable and doesn't leave a bump, knot or hole of any kind. I am impressed. 

 

Needle down position engaged

The thread and stitch are absolutely perfect. I really do love how the rayon threads shine!

Satin stitch in gray

Sewing a snowflake mug rug has been a lot of fun, but the quilting will have to wait until tomorrow. It's time to curl up with my book in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa on this wintery day.

Happy Quilting