December 2017

I hope you all had a wonderful November and that December brings you all great joy!

I knew November was going to be a crazy month, so I am not at all surprised none of my goals last month were fully achieved. 

There are a few announcements at the end of this post about events you may find of interest.

Click on any photo for a larger view.

Progress with November Goals:

The list of November goals may be found here.

I added one seam to the crazy quilt stocking I am making for my eldest son.

However, I also worked on my first polymer clay snowman charms (pictured above) so I may add one to this piece. The stocking will be finished before Christmas!

I also embroidered snowflakes on these two pieces I plan to make mug rugs with. (I love this "Snowman" stamp from The Paper Shelter so much! I used it to create personalized Christmas cards for a gift exchange last weekend. The cards were a huge hit. The digital stamp is here.)

More buttonhole stitches were added to Block 8 "Beach Boy Freddie" from the Sun, Sand, and Sea BOM. 

The block was designed by Carol at Just Let Me Quilt, and I absolutely love it! The next 2 blocks have been released. You may find the November block here and the December block here. (The December block is free this month.)

December Goals:

1. Add my initials and the date to the (retired) Heaven and Earth Designs Santa and the Mouse Ornament based on the artwork of Scott Gustafson. Wash the piece and have it framed. (This is #9 on the APQ Resolution UFO List and was the project for November.)

2. Finish the crazy quilted Christmas stocking pictured earlier in this post.

3. Add a label and a hanging sleeve to "Sealed with a Kiss" based off a pattern in the book Hearts Aplenty by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith.

4. Quilt and bind the 2 snowman mug rugs shared earlier in this post.

5. Add at least 3,595 stitches to my cross-stitch projects. My current rotation plan is:
HAED Twilight Duel - December 1-14 and 25-31
HAED QS Red Hearts - December 15-17
Charting Creations Fractal White Tiger - December 18-24

Top 5 Viewed Posts in November:
1. November 2017 - here 
2. TAST Stitch 75 - here 
3. HAED SK Effects of Caffeine Day 19 - here
4. QS Red Hearts Update - November 2017 - here
5. IHSW November 17 - here

Current & Upcoming Events You May Be Interested In:

1. Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2018 Sign-Ups are open through December 31, 2017. It is a challenge to create 1 crazy quilted block measuring at least 8 x 8-inches each month of 2018. 

You may find the rules/details here and learn how to sign-up here. (Note that the right sidebar on the CQJP 2018 blog includes links to past years so you may see what others have created.)

2. The Fancy Seam Designs Stitch-Along began on November 1st. The Modern Crazy Quilt Seams Facebook Group has been set up for this SAL. Kathy Shaw and Katie Bock are working together to introduce a new crazy quilt seam each day from Kathy's book Crazy Quilting - Volume 3 Fancy Seam Designs. There are 500 seams in the book and the samples shared in the Facebook group are amazing. You may find more details here on Kathy's blog. You may also follow the seams being introduced through Kathy and Katie's blogs.

3. Through Katie's blog, I just learned about the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge. It is a challenge to write a blog post every day in December of 2017 and is hosted by muppin.com - you may learn more about it here. Sounds like fun!

4. Take a Stitch Tuesday will be resuming in January! Sharon will be running a regular TAST Challenge and a new Beyond TAST Challenge. If you might be interested, Sharon shared a great post about supplies for the challenges here.

5. The American Patchwork and Quilting UFO Challenge 2017 is coming to an end. Information about the 2018 Challenge will be discussed live on the Facebook Group on December 12th at 3:30 p.m. Central Time.

6. International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (IHSW) is hosted by Joyce at Random Ramblings. This event occurs the 3rd full weekend of every month from Friday-Sunday. You may find more details here. Following everyone's progress on the new Facebook group has been great fun! (I am devoting my IHSW weekends to my Heaven and Earth Designs QS Red Hearts project.)

7. After reading Babs' blog post here, I discovered The Ultimate Cross Stitch Group on Facebook. The groups events sounded like fun, so I joined. If you are wondering what kind of events, here is an example: there is a monthly Every Member Counts event, where a stitching goal is set that is equivalent to the number of group members. In December, the goal is to complete 3,595 stitches - one for each of the 3,595 members. Talk about motivation to make progress! (Now you know where my 5th goal of the month came from.)

8. If you live in the USA, there is still time to participate in the Artist Trading Cards Swap the Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine is hosting! You may read more about it here. (My tutorial begins in this post.) Entries must be received by Pamela Kellogg by January 31, 2018. (I have set myself a mailing deadline of January 15th to be sure mine are received in time.)

9. Please note: My Hand Stitched Treasure Etsy Shop will be closed December 11th - 25th. (Items shipped by December 10th should arrive by Christmas.) I have some fun ideas brewing for items to add to the inventory in January.


Yikes! What a long post...

Thank you so much for stopping by!
-Renee

Please note: I am not affiliated with any of the products, books, patterns, etc. mentioned in this blog post.