My Occupy Day

It's not too late to join us! 

   Watch for the Link Up and Giveaway on December 11th!
Today was a big "Occupy" day for me.  Tomorrow I have to go into town, and so I tried to get as much done today as possible.  Thursday, we're putting up the tree, so the next chance I'll have to Occupy my sewing room will probably not be until Friday.  I hope you're all getting a lot accomplished.  Many of you have written the most delightful comments about how much fun you're having and how much you're accomplishing.  I can't wait to see your projects when you link up next week!

After winning in The Quilt Pattern Magazine Kitty Contest, Gracie is pretty excited about starting on her own quilt.  She spent most of the day occupying the sewing room with me today.  We talked about fabrics, cutting mats, rotary cutters for south paws, and a multitude of other sewing-related stuff.  We also sang along on some of her favorite Christmas carols.

Gracie is a soprano, in case you were wondering.

Yesterday I finished the applique for the October block of Home is Where the Heart Is.  I still need to do the top-stitching, and then I'll move on to the November block.  I'm hoping to finish the remaining three months of this quilt (October, November, and December) by the end of next week.

Nearly all of my miscellaneous projects are finished now, as well as all of my Christmas gifts!

 The rest of this post is not for Mae's eyes! 

Is she gone now?  Okay.

Well, first, just to be sure she's not listening in around the corner, I finished up the last two little Christmas stocking ornaments.  These were such fun to make.  I picked up the pattern when I was at the Northwest Quilt Show in September.  It came with everything I needed to make all six designs.  I was thrifty with the fabric, however, and I have enough to make at least one more stocking.

While it doesn't show up well in this image, there is quite a bit of beading on these.  I've really grown to appreciate the effectiveness of beading.  It really adds a lot of sparkle to a design.

Then, I made this footwarmer for Mae, my daughter-in-law.  Last year I made pocket hand warmers for everyone in the family, and Mae commented that what she really needed was a footwarmer.  Fortunately, I found a tutorial on Simply Jenna.  This was a well-written tutorial, and everything went together quickly and easily. 

I filled this one with long-grain rice.  Mae just needs to warm it up in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and then, Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.  (I might need to make one of these for myself!)  I had some leftover Oregon State fleece, which makes it soft and cozy inside.

Won't that be nice on a cold winter evening?

And that was the last of my Christmas sewing.

So then I turned my attention to a swap block I'm working on.  My partner asked for a block appropriate for Quilts of Valor.  I found a paper-pieced block called "Patriots" that I liked very much, and now I'm about half finished with it.  I'm hoping I'll get home early enough tomorrow to complete it.

So I'm pretty happy with what I was able to accomplish today.  I hope you're Occupy time is productive as well.  My sewing room is getting tidied up as I finish all these projects, and I'm having fun to boot!  How about you?