Blast from the Past: December 2012

I’m doing a little series of posts that feature old blog posts.  I have been going back and looking at them.  It’s been fun.  I started blogging in June 2009…WOW.  Over ten years.  I’m so glad I’ve kept the blog as a diary of sorts…today I’m telling you about things I was working on in December 2012.

I was a busy girl…I finished my Scrappy Mountain Majesties Quilt.  You can read more about it HERE.

This is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern.  I made mine with upcycled shirts.

I made a backing for… Hip to be Square.  This quilt was later finished.  It’s a free pattern on the blog.  You can find it HERE.

I put the borders on my Blue Ridge Beauty quilt and I made a backing for it.  I later went on and finished it.  You can read about it HERE.  You can find it in Adventures with Leaders & Enders: Make More Quilts in Less Time! by Bonnie Hunter.  Kelli also made this quilt and gifted it as a wedding present.  You can see her version here.

I made some bag…one for me, one for Kelli and one as a gift.  If you are looking for the pattern it’s a This & That pattern.  You can read the details about the bags HERE.

AND the Perkiomen Daydreams quilt top finished.  Kelli and I made four of these tops.  One still isn’t finished.  Kelli hasn’t pieced together the backing yet.

I had to add this picture from back then.  We were living in the farm house at the time and this is where I sewed…on the dining room table.  I know many of you sew on a dining table.  Just thought I’d show you this picture to let you know, you aren’t the only one!!

I was working on the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt for the year.  Like a crazy fool, I made two mystery quilts that year.  It was Easy Street.  I did go on and finish them.

I had just gotten my Nine in the Middle quilt into a top.  This is still one of my favorite quilts.  I later went on and finished it.  You can see it HERE.

I was working at the long arm.  Here is what was under my needle.

Many of these were made with bonus triangles.  Tackling a project like this is no big deal if I already have the triangles made.

It was my last month to host the quilt square quilt along.

I was making these triangles and a project with Bonnie Hunter. 

I later went on and used them in these quilts.  You can read about them HERE.

I started a baby quilt…

I got a few more blocks of Criss Cross Applesauce finished.

I made some doll quilt tops and sent them off or Mississippi Valley quilters.   This was one of four that I made.  I really enjoy making these.  It’s a great way to use orphan blocks too.

My husband along with the help of my son Karl rigged up some lights for over my longarm.  They are the same lights I have to this day.  I love them and they’ve worked so well.  You can read all about them HERE.  I added pictures so you can see how he did it knowing that one of you will likely want them for your machine.

I finished a wool applique piece called Alphabet Soup.  You can read about it HERE.  I miss wool applique but if I did that, I’d have to give up cross stitch time.  UGH.  Not enough hours in a day!!

For Christmas, I got a big dry-erase board and dry-erase markers.  I wanted it so I could practice a quilting motif on the dry-erase board before I long-armed it on the actual quilt.  I still have the board and still regularly use it.

In the food department:

Kalissa graduated early and we had a party for her.  One of the things I made is “Garbage Can Mix”.  You can find the recipe HERE.  It’s a GREAT snacky mix but it makes a HUGE batch.  You need a combo of 13 bags/boxes/packages of snacky things.  You do actually mix it all in a garbage bag.  It all can be frozen so that’s helpful.  I made this for snacks during happy hour for all of our kids’ weddings.

Soft Gingersnap Cookies was the newest cookie I was trying.  You can find the recipe HERE.  These are so good.

Rosie was just a puppy and doing all sorts of puppy things.  Here she is one of the sewing baskets I had scraps in.


Before long, she was fast asleep.

My daughter Kelli was sewing doll clothes and tried an apron on Rosie.  She was so tolerant of people.

She was quickly bell-trained.  This is actually easy training to do.  Rosie is a bell-trained dog too.   They go to the door and ring the bell when they want to go out.  I have always gotten my bells from Amazon.  I start any foster pups on that when they come.  You can find the bells HERE on Amazon.

That’s the news from December of 2012.  We’re closing out the year 2012 and are moving into 2013.  I really do love doing these posts.  I love seeing what our family was up to and how we’ve grown and changed since those times.  I make and gift so many quilts that I don’t remember and this is a great way to visit them again.  I hope you enjoy these posts as well.

Before I go…here’s a reminder:

I will be doing a Facebook/Youtube live on Wednesday the 28th at 7pm CENTRAL time.   I sent out an event notice on Facebook.  If you have questions that you want me to ask, feel free to leave them in the comments or email me.  If you leave a comment please say:  “Live Question” and then ask it.  That way those can easily be flagged so I can answer them.  This will be recorded and you’ll be able to watch it later.