It's been busy (edited for formatting)

 Hello, everyone. I had intended to post earlier, but got distracted and forgot. We did make a small family trip, to a wedding on St. Thomas.

From the plane en route

The day before the wedding gatherings commenced, we visited the famous mountain top viewing spot. The water there is so amazingly blue! And everything was so, so green. It rained once or twice in each of the days we were there.

We had gone across to Mexico to find clothes for the wedding before leaving, as the bride had chosen a patio wedding in the afternoon. This little blue dress is cotton, very comfortable, and with a cascade of necklaces worked out great. (The long one is jades, some from my grandmother, and aventurine. The short one, a gift from a relative, is cultured pearls. The middle one, like the long one, is from my stringing, but it's just a pretty color combination I had seen in a magazine.) 

I learned that all of the beaches there are artificial, which explains why the sand is the exact same stuff as we see at South Padre Island. Ours comes from the Mississippi River outflow, I don't know where the landscapers at St. Thomas got theirs. The natural shore there looks a bit more like this:

Pretty! And just chock-full of lovely oxygen for the fish. Not really a place to wade, though. Looks really turbulent.

Also for the first time in my life, I saw sargasso weed. DSIL1 tells me that the sargassum patches are popular with bait fish, and if he sees them while boating on the open water, he will dive in and hunt for the predator fish that come to eat the bait fish hiding in the weeds.  

Another little bowl filler

 Hello,  everyone. I have learned that making house blocks isn't as easy as it looks!

This was crumb piecing with an emerging plan.

The back side, an orphan 6 inch block.

Sitting on the side table with its friends. 

Making these little things is just relaxing!

Little embroidery stocking stuffers

 Hello, everyone.  By stocking stuffers, I  mean small gifts that would be suitable for younger children. If y'all are inclined to seek it out, there is a least one old post about little minky-type animals and angels.

Well, Christmas  giving approaches, and it's coming at quite a clip. Also I happened to be looking at the various fleece like fabrics in the stash and encountered some polyester baby flannel, left over from making gifts for babies. 

I decided to see how the baby-garment brushed poly works with the angel and animal patterns.

I also wanted to sew more than one at a time, cutting down on stabilizer usage, fabric usage, and time consumed in hooping.

The angels used pink fabric. I had figured out that the angel is an applique pattern, so I used some gold left over from the Camino Trails project and a lace sample that was also in the stash.

The stitching time according to the embroidery machine for a pair of angels was 61 minutes. This doesn't include thread changes, fabric preparation for the back side (it needs a turning opening), turning and stuffing, and stitching the opening by hand. The texturing on the wings takes quite a while to stitch out.

The fish, on the other hand, have fewer color changes and no texturing on the fins, so they take about a fourth as long to complete a pair. I used mint green brushed poly for them.

In the picture,  for an idea of scale, I included the small trimming scissors that is usually used for cutting out projects and trimming off excess fabric from the in-the-hoop appliqués. 

The fish are from an OESD pattern set. The angel is from the Janome blog some while back.

These little things are fun to make and fun to tuck into a stocking, pouch, child's purse, or to use as party favors.

The Camino and Embroidery combine!

 Hello, everyone. 

For some time this last summer there had been a personally significant embroidery project in the works. It recaps (to date) all of our Camino walks.

 

Our Camino journey

There are two years listed for Camino del Norte, along the northern coast of Spain, because we needed two trips to complete the walk. 

Noticing sorts of people will see that the little road signs are connected to each other by carabiners. And of course the bottom sign just cried out for a quote from Bilbo's poem in Tolkien's Middle Earth books. (The Hobbit, a sort of prequel, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the King)

I used two pieces from the nature themed Layer Cake bought from Missouri Star Quilt Company and the low volume wood grain print was perfect for the top and bottom pieces of the set. 

The road signs template was modified from a wall hanging embroiderypattern I bought from Sew It Begins online. She has a bunch of cute wall hangings sets.  

Quilt Festival trip

 Hello, everyone. Last week our sewing club--those who could find the time--visited the quilt show in Houston.  We were so busy taking it all in, and shopping, that I hardly took any pictures.

There was one booth, though...representatives from LSU were there to promote the uses of alligator leather in sewing projects. 

The nice young lady had done a project. This is the rest of the skin after she cut pieces out for her item.

Alligator leather corset

This is a boned corset she made from the leather and a kind-of khaki green fabric. She has placed eyelets for a laced back...this garment will absolutely require an assistant to get dressed!

The stuffed toy gator at the bottom was cute, made of fabric, and had a mouth that can be opened during play.

Another of the little things

 Hello, everyone.  Today, I finished another of the little pinnies...started it yesterday I think. It's made from a pile of half square triangles, left over from piecing a couple of months ago.

This is the top of the pinnie. It's made from a lot of small half-square triangles. 

This is the bottom of the pinnie. It's made from various honeybun size strips.

I am still inspired by the book about pincushions,  but have been making them from fabric bits on hand.

It's a calming thing to do when there is a lot going on.