Tag: Gifts for Me

I thought mentioned that I had received some tea towels for Christmas. I can’t find the post, so maybe not.

Carrie made the white tea towels and I love how good they look with my other tea towels. The color scheme in our kitchen is red, white and black. All of our small appliances are red except the toaster oven, which is stainless steel so everything goes together. It is the best decorated room in our house!!

I also like how well these tea towels work. Some tea towels are too thin or not absorbent or don’t dry quickly enough or have some other problem. These have none of those issues. I can dry my hands multiple times while cooking and they feel dry the next time I go to use them. They don’t feel thin either.

Great job, Carrie!

This is the Hold Tite Folio that Julie made for me for my birthday. I talked a little about it yesterday, but wanted to show you more of it.

Friend Julie chose a Philip Jacobs chrysanthemum print as my cover, which I like. The binding is also a favorite print. I love that dot circle fabric.

I didn’t really understand how to use the folio until I read Julie’s post. Unlike using the Sew Tites, you put the pieces together, and then stick them to the inside of the Hold Tite Folio. It doesn’t seem intuitive, but it works.

The folio has a piece of felt on the inside to keep the Sew Tites from sticking to each other. As you can see from Julie’s example, you can use the felt for pins and needles.

Julie said she used wool felt, but you can use any kind of felt.

 

Lillyella Stitchery has the tutorial for the Hold-Tite Folio . I think this is a GREAT ideabecause my Sew Tites, which I use a lot, are always clumped up into massive magnet blobs. I wrote about it before, albeit briefly. I still plan, as I mentioned, to make a couple.

My birthday was last week. Since I am a grownup now, I usually organize something fun to do. DH isn’t good at that, though he made a stellar effort this year.

First Friend Julie and I went to Modern Handmade. It is a shop in Scott’s Valley and they have a small, but nice selection of fabric. We went there because the taco place nearby is really good, I had some gift certificates for Christmas and Julie always drives down the hill to meet me. I got a nice selection of fabric. I wanted to get more bag hardware and notions, but they didn’t have much of those. Julie bought a nice selection as well. She has more ideas about how to use her fabrics than I do at the moment.

One thing I am kind of excited about is the Quilter’s Select Ruler. I have been wanting to try one and having a large gift certificate was a great opportunity. My old 12.5 x 12/5 ruler annoyed me the last time I used it. That size was one of the few that Modern Handmade had, so I chose one. The price is pretty high as I mentioned last time I saw the Quilter’s Select products. Of course, I am excited about the fabric.

I am planning to make some pouches with the ruler fabric, probably for the door prize bags.

After we ate tacos, Julie gave me the gifts she assembled for me. One was a Hold-Tite Folio (bottom right in photo), tutorial (and GREAT idea) from Lillyella Stitchery. I talked about it before, albeit briefly, and even bought the pieces of steel LillyElla sells to make a couple. I haven’t made them yet, but Friend Julie did and she made one for me! Hers is great, but mine is better! I love the cover, which I will post about soon. I think I can use more than one, so I’ll probably make at least one for myself.

Also, we are going to do a special project with those Pantone postcards. I can’t wait to start, but we need to work out the details.

She also got me some cool metallic zippers from Sew Hungry Hippie. I want to make something with them right away. I have the color scheme I used for the inside of Gerre’s Retreat Bag on my mind for at least one of them. Not sure what kind of pouch, however.

I wanted to get home before rush hour started (it isn’t quite as horrible as before the pandemic, but people aren’t really taking public transport, so I try to be mindful), so I left Scott’s Valley at about 3. I decided to stop at Golden State Quilting on my way home. They have recently moved to a new, larger location.

I really like that blue dot and want to make some thing with it soon. I am not sure what. Another bag?

One of the reasons I stopped was to get some Shark’s Teeth fabric (bottom left, above photo). I received a copy of Patchwork Quilted Bags** by Reiko Washizawa. I want to make that bag on the front with Shark’s Teeth on the sides and the Brocade Peony fabric in the middle. I wont’ be appliqueing anything to the bag. I just like the shape of it. I need to finish the A Place for Everything v.2 bag first.

DH offered to take me out to dinner at a local restaurant. One whole side overlooks the ocean so we were able to watch the waves we ate. This was our second time at that restaurant and I enjoyed it.

I received calls and texts from various friends. I talked to my Dad for awhile, but mostly about his health. I had a really nice couple of days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I should have known before I posted that I would get more quilty gifts than I showed on Tuesday. I went out to lunch with Julie and she brought me a giant amount of presents. That 20.5 x 20.5 ruler has been on my list for a long time. She found it on sale and bought herself one , too. She also added to my collection of color books. I am really excited about everything – about reading or trying out everything.

Surprisingly, DH got me two quilt books. I had heard about Circular Abstractions a few months ago and just put it on my list on a whim. There are no patterns, so it is all eye candy. Lone Stars 3 has been on my list for a long time. It is also a no-pattern eye candy book and it is thick. There must be a few hundred quilts in that book. I took a look at both the other night, but not enough to review. Look for those soon.

I got a lot of nice quilting gifts for Christmas. I know that seems like a long time ago, but I have been posting like crazy on other topics. I never know what is of the most interest to you. Gifts to me seem trivial compared to what I am making and other quiltmaking thoughts I have. Thus, this is the first chance I have gotten to sit down and show you what great family and friends I have.

Mostly the family gave me books. I have some good ideas for using the Quick Curve Ruler from the two books I received.

I really need more bookshelves. I am working on updating my database so it includes all of my books, but things take time.

The book on the upper right hand corner is a book called Ode to Color and I am hoping to use that for creativity posts on Fridays. I haven’t done anything about it yet.

Due to my crazy travel schedule, Friend Julie and I didn’t get together until almost the New Year to exchange gifts. She bought some of these gifts right under my nose!

I am really appreciative that my friends and family respect and support this crazy passion of mine.

The BAMQG Winter Extravaganza-palooza was the weekend of the 9th. I had a great time.

I also got the most amazing gift. Sue S made me a casserole carrier. In the carrier was a casserole dish with a wine cake in it! This is the most amazingly generous gift I could ever imagine. I was shocked (in a good way) and thrilled. It was just what I wanted.

The spoons act as handles and servers. My DH thought this was hilarious, but I am determined to use it sometime soon and show him how fabulous it is.

The carrier opens up and becomes a hotpad. It is perfect.

I also love the red casserole dish. The colors of the carrier and the dish go well in my kitchen.

The best part of the gift was the card that Sue wrote. She said that I was the first person she met in the guild and that I took her around the first time she came to the meeting. I showed her where everything was: the food, the charity project, the free table and introduced her around. I am ashamed to say that I don’t even remember. I do that so often so automatically. I am thrilled that she remembered that kindness. She is a good member of the guild and I am glad I started her off on the right foot.

As a bonus fire victims in the Wine Country also win, because we wrapped all the gifts in pillowcases, which will be donated to an organization that will distribute them to Wine Country fire victims.

We celebrate Christmas, in case you hadn’t noticed. I received a few quilt related gifts, which was very nice.

I am excited about the Make It, Take It book, because I want to make that tote on the front. It reminds me of a tote that Angela made, which I also like.

The Hack that Tote book will also come in handy, because I can’t seem to stop changing bag patterns I made.

I am particularly pleased with the scissors and lanyard Rhonda gave me. I needed an extra pair of scissors for my Craft Night kit and these are perfect.

The best part is that my Scissor Sheath pattern fits perfectly on these scissors. I need the Sheath so I don’t stab myself when wearing the lanyard. I plan to add other things to the carabiner as I come across useful items.

I got a nice group of quilt/sewing related gifts for Christmas this year. It was also the right amount of stuff.

I really wanted that Scrap Basket Beauties book after seeing one of the quilts made up during a visit to Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove with Friend Julie. The Young Man came through for me. I want to make the quilt I saw, perhaps in turquoise and red? Perhaps 2015 will be year of the turquoise and red? It isn’t as though I have a shortage of those colors of fabrics. 😉

The fabric in the upper left hand corner is some solids from American Made Brands. My mom found those and I am really pleased to have a few pieces with which to play.

DH got me some Kindle books from the Angela Walters machine quilting series. I will never be a serious machine quilter, but I got a glimpse of those books and think they will be really useful in my endeavors. I took over the Young Man’s iPad 2 (upgrade from my iPad 1 after he got an iPad Air for his birthday) and have been slowly reinstalling my apps including the Kindle app.

DH thought the rotary cutter was cool and thought to get some refill blades (always useful!) as well. The nice stiletto was in my stocking and I have been using it instead of my seam ripper, which I always used to push patches through my machine when corners were flipping the wrong way.

Mrs. K had good and interesting results with the Cutting Corners ruler, so I thought I would try it as well. I’ll let you know how that goes.

I feel very fortunate. Thanks, everyone!

I am finally getting around to posting the gifts I received for Christmas. It was actually, comparatively, quite a haul. DH and I didn’t really buy each other very many gifts. We usually buy a big gift for the house instead of individual gifts, but we couldn’t really think of anything we wanted. I want a new bed frame, but DH isn’t enthusiastic, so we are still at an impasse.

 

You can give me batiks any time! Yum!

The above fabric from from a shop in the City to which I have never been. I have heard that they buy up partial bolts from shops that are closing. They also have space that they rent to those who want to have an event. Now that DH has been, I will have to go as well.

I also received 3 quilt books: Quilt Maps, Little Bits Quilting Bee by Kathreen Ricketson and Quilting Happiness. Look for reviews in the not too distant future.