Hansel and Gretel panel

Santa's workshop is in full swing at my house :)

I bought a Stacy Iset Hsu panel on Etsy and made this adorable little Hansel and Gretel set.

It comes with the dolls, the little teddy bear, the bunny,

pillow and quilt.

Some of my grandchildren just love these, 

they're so much fun to play with.

They come on a panel, you simply cut along the dotted lines, sew, turn right side out, press, stuff and stitch closed.

(oh, is that all, you say!!!)

While I was in my sewing room, 

you can see that the little girls were very curious.

I also ordered this James Marshall book on Amazon.

The story is a little much though, because their mother makes the father take them to the woods so that they can get lost, 

or eaten by a witch!

There's a happy ending though, the children live happily ever after with their father... even though he was rather weak...

This is what the panel looks like, 

with very easy to follow instructions.

I always make a lined drawstring back to hold everything in.

You can see my previous posts on Goldilocks, 

Little Red Riding Hood, and the Coral, Queen of the Sea.

Lori Holt quilt retreat

My friend Natalie flew in from Sacramento, California, and we went to a Lori Holt retreat in Phoenix!

My friend Pam was there too, she used to be a member of our 

Farm Girl Chicks.

Lori showed us her beautiful "crazy quilt" table runner.

She had the best crazy quilt paper to make the table runner too.

You can find all of her fabric and notions at fat quarter shop.

I was able to share my grandson's Eagle quilt which I'll have ready to give to him at Christmas :)

Funny story!

My 12 year old grand daughter Kennedy texted me that she looked at my blog and saw Bridger's quilt.

She loved it and promised she wouldn't tell anyone :)

Isn't that the sweetest?

Lori always designs a block for her retreats, 

and a quilt to go with the block.

She designed an egg block to go with 

our mama hen, roosting roosters and baby chicks.

This is the quilt she designed for us,

Farm Fresh Eggs.

It's so cute, can hardly wait to make it!!!

I have a lot of Christmas sewing, 

so it will have to wait until the new year.

Here is Lori's lovely "peep" Rosana, showing the back.

I really want to get some of this fabric!

No, I NEED to get some of this fabric...

Lori had an apron exchange too, and posed with all of us.

Lori and her peeps wrote down names in duplicate of the Farm Girl blocks, enough to have double of everyone exchanging aprons.

Someone would call a block name and the corresponding block would raise their hand, and they would exchange aprons.

My apron went to Julie, and hers to me.

I received a beautiful vintage apron, with organza.

Lori told the quit shop owner that she only likes a group of 25.

The greedy quilt shop owner (loooooong story....) 

packed 63 of us in the room.

We were like a chicken coop! (Ha ha!)

 I only sewed this little 3 l/2" strawberry and cut out 3 blocks.

We did a lot of visiting :)

 It was great to see my Instagram friend Anette at the retreat.

Natalie and I had to have our photo taken with Lori!

Lori and I go way back, I took 3 quilt classes from her, when I made Thanksgiving Dinner, 

Comforts of Home and Paperdoll appliqué quilts.

Lori is so talented, we had the best time learning from her and getting tips.

Lori is also nice, generous and so much more!

I took this photo to show you all the gifts she gave us.

I'm so excited to try them all out.

 We had the best time visiting and learning from Lori.

One Yard Apron

Lori Holt has the cutest apron pattern, it's called  "one yard apron."

Lori's daughter Kassidy is featured on the pattern cover.

Here is the apron I made, when the pattern first came out.

Not the best photo, sorry about that.

I love the extra large pom pom trim!

It's such a flattering apron, with its wide waistband, too.
I wrote a post about it over six years ago, you can see it here.

This is another one yard apron, I received it at Christmas one year from a dear friend.

I'm going to a Lori Holt retreat this week, I am so excited!

My friend Natalie is flying in from California to go with me.

Lori requested that we all make a one yard apron

 for an apron exchange.

I made this one from Lori's line, "Gracie Girl".

It's hard to notice, but I added the cutest ruffled ric rac trim.

Well wish me luck, I'm in for a week of fun and inspiration.

I'll post photos next week of my retreat adventures :)

Teaching grandchildren to sew

I had been so blessed to have one of our sons and his family 

move close to us :)

We both just had new homes built and we are literally two blocks away from each other, along a trail and through the park.

My three little grand daughters can walk to our house!

I have been working with Neo for months now, but she wanted to finish this quilt during fall break.

I didn't let her cut any of the fabric with the rotary cutter, I cut the pieces for her courthouse blocks myself!

Neo's 8 years old, she will be 9 in 6 days!!!

 Neo came over to my house last week 

and spent the whole day sewing.

She worked really hard and got five rows sewn together.

She came over the next day with her sisters 

and sewed the next five rows together.

She knew what to do, so I left her in the sewing room and helped her sisters with their own projects.

 She finished sewing all 60 blocks together!!!

Now she just has to sew a 6" border, that will be easy :)

Neo has come to know how useful a seam ripper is too, lol!

A seam ripper is a seamstress' best friend.

While Neo was sewing, I got an embroidery project ready for Kylie, who is 6 years old.

I helped her choose the colors and showed her how to stitch.

To my amazement, she sewed perfect little stitches.

She is a natural!

I think it takes talent to be able to use your fine motor skills, especially at age 6!

Then there's Izzy, she's 4 years old!

She loves putting puzzles together and did that for a while when I was helping Kylie.

She quickly became bored so I let her watch a little TV,

When I finished showing Kylie how to take the little stitches and tie a knot in the thread ( which she's already an expert at), 

I helped Izzy make a batch of Snickerdoodle cookies.

The girls had never tasted them before!

It's become a tradition that when we make cookies, we get a scoop of cookie dough while we're waiting for the cookies to bake.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!

I am very blessed to have such cute little grand daughters 

who live so close!

Now I just wish the other 11 grandchildren could move closer!

Eagle Scout quilt

My grandson has earned his Eagle Scout, 

the highest award a Boy Scout can receive.

I saw the cutest Boy Scout fabric by Riley Blake a few years ago.
It's called Modern Scouting.

I bought it, knowing that I would make Bridger a quilt.

This quilt is for Christmas, but he doesn't look at my blog so it's ok!

The center fleur de lis square is a printed panel, 

I decided to design the quilt around it.

There are two merit badge panels and four ranks 

that were included in the panel.

All of the letters and the blocks come from Lori Holt's books :)

All the blocks are symbolic, let me explain.

This block is for encouragement.

I chose uplifting quotes, Bridger is my sunshine!

This is Old Glory, the Boy Scouts are very patriotic.

(Excuse the random threads)

The typewriter symbolizes college.

The globe symbolizes Bridger's two year church mission.

Where in the world will he go?

The car symbolizes Bridger getting his driver's license.

He'll be getting his driver's permit in 6 months!!!

Also, this neon green is one of his favorite colors.

The camera symbolizes taking a snapshot of your life...

it's beside KNOWLEDGE.

I love sawtooth stars and had to throw some in.

The mason jar with the blooming flower represents Bridger's 
3 younger sisters.

He's a very patient young man 

and has withstood many "girly" things. 

I guess it also represents patience :)

The beehive represents the state that Bridger was born and raised.

Utah is the beehive state.

You can't have a beehive without a bee!

Love at home :)

I snuck a little panda bear on the sidewalk, 

Bridger knows that his sister Charlotte loves pandas!

Another Old Glory, and that's a wrap!

I'm going to purchase some green or blue minky for the back.

I don't know if I'm going to machine quilt it myself, it's big and it will be a bear!

I'll show you the quilt when it's all quilted.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Vintage Block Along, Peony

This is a bright and bold red "peony" block.

I've always loved peonies, they have the most glorious scent.

I walked by endless bushes of them, 

in my Elementary school years.

My favorite color is the pale pink.

To take a photo of this block, I laid it on top of my grand daughter's block tub!

Thanks for following along, I should have an update on my new sewing room soon :)

Vintage Block Along, Leftover

This is my Leftovers block, and all the little squares you see really are little!

They're each l l/2" square, and are leftover from other blocks.

All the fabrics are from various lines of Lori Holt's creativity.

I love all the bright, happy colors!