New Years Eve in the garden

here in southeast Texas, we never know what fall and winter weather will bring
this is our garden on 12/31/2010
the only pumpkin that has made it so far tomatoes

more tomaotes

a few more tomatoes

cherry tomatoes

more cherry tomatoes

the broccoli has bloomed, the bees love it

my mother-in-law thinks it's the prettiest flower she has ever seen

distracted!

I guess it's always busy like this in December. I haven't been able to keep up with my Christmas decorating. I hope to have pictures to post in a few days!

December 2nd

Today, I put out the 2nd Christmas quilt. This is a twin sizes quilt that I made for our oldest grandsons bed here. This quilt was made with the kids Christmas prints I had collected over the years. I made 3 smaller baby/child sized Christmas quilts with the leftover squares.

December 1st-Christmas decorating begins

I had this quilt top quilted a few years ago (by Monta Horner) and I recently found the label for it in my sewing room. It's a reminder to me that I need to get labels on all my quilts.

rice mitts

This is a pair of rice mitts without rice bags in them. The mitt on the right was folded so you can see the 2 pockets. The picture below is of 1 finished mitt and the saucer I used to make the curved edge end of the mitt.

This is one mitt unit after being stitched, turned and the opening top stitched. The opening is marked by 2 red butterfly pins in the picture. It's in the lower right hand corner of the picture. Pockets are on the upper end of the mitt unit.

These mitts are made with flannel woven fabric. Each side of the mitt is one piece with the lining. There are 2 pockets, 1 on each side of the mitt.

1 mitt (sized for ladies)

From flannel

cut 2 pieces 7" by 25" (mitt & lining)

cut 2 pieces 7" by 9" ( pockets)

turn under 3/8" of 1 pocket edge on each pocket and sew that 3/8" down with a zig-zag stitch

use a saucer to mark a curves for the mitt and pockets

lay 1 mitt & lining piece of flannel right side up on the table (each end should have a curved end)

lay 1 pocket right side up and curved edges matching on left end of mitt & lining piece

lay 1 pocket right side down and on top of other pocket on left end of mitt & lining piece

lay last mitt & lining piece right side down on the other 3 pieces

pin all layers together

sew a 3/8" seam starting at the lining end of the mitt (no pockets on that end)

leave an opening (about 3") for turning

clip curves

turn mitt (1 pocket should be on each side of the mitt)

top stitch opening closed

slip hand in lining end and work the lining into the mitt

next make rice bags for pocket(s)

if you want to have 1 rice bag in the center of the mitt and slip your hands in the pockets

make 1 rice bage about the size of the finished pocket with about 1 1/2 cups of rice in it

if you want to have a mitt for each hand and you want heat on both sides of the hand

you will need to make 2 rice bags for the outside pockets of the mitt

we put 3/4 cup of rice in each of those bags

those bags are also made about the size of the finished pocket

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!

be very careful with the rice bags

do not over heat

some microwaves have different heat settings

for our tests we heated them 1 minute (2 small or 1 large)

DO NOT HEAT THE MITTS

ONLY HEAT THE RICE BAGS

where has the time gone?

I don't know where the time has gone. I got out of the habit of blogging and I miss it. There have been a lot of distractions here this summer. Fall is on it's way and I'm looking forward to being busy with sewing, piecing and quilting again!
Caleb (our newest grandson) has a jungle theme and I made 2 sheets for the play pen that we have for him here. They were really easy to make and the fabric is really cute!

Progress!

I made some progress on the quilt top this afternoon and evening. I'm also working on the blocks for the bonus quilt (the quilt that will be made from the leftover fabric from the first quilt).