Christmas Baking and Quilting!

QC asked what the cookies are. I call them Peanut Butter Blossoms and here's a bunch of recipes for them at THIS LINK.

Hi everyone, I have been bizzzzeeee lately working on upcoming projects and doing all the usual holiday stuff. The photo below shows what my kitchen has been looking like 90% of the time lately. A mess!! The countertops are piled with baking goods and freshly made cookies, waiting to cool and be frozen for holiday cookie trays. I think I've made 9 batches of cookies and candies so far in the last week. I had them all stacked neatly in containers in the deep freezer....that is til Eric got his 10 point buck. He decides he wants to get the deer head/rack mounted....so guess what's in my deep freezer now? Yep, a deer head with antlers poking out of a black trash bag. Niiiiiice. I took everything out that I could and dispersed the items between two other freezers. I'm a little grossed out that my freezer is now a frozen cemetery. I'm sure that if you're not a hunter's wife,you're totally gagging right now. And I'm definitely sure that if you ARE a hunter's wife, you can totally relate to my story. Okay, onto the quilting. My sewing machine has now taken over the dining room table because there's no room for it yet in my craft room. I think I'll make the girls share a bed and I'll just take over one of their bedrooms for a sewing room. They would LOVE that.......not! Below is Jordan's little Christmas fabric stash that my mom gave her. I told her no more fabric than what would fit in a shoe box. My mom used to be a crafter and has TONS of fabric. I knew she'd try to send the entire stash home so I set the shoe box limit. Jordy came marching in with a Mudd shoebox packed full of Christmas fabric!!

Then Jordy and I went to a local quilt shop and she learned all about fat quarters. Of course, I have known about fat quarters for an entire 3 months since I'm a seasoned quilter now. Jordan had a stack of 7 or 8 fat quarters that she purchased with her OWN money. Below, she's holding her very first fat quarter, a little paw print fabric. She hopes to collect enough black and white(our school colors)fabrics to make a quilt to take to football games.

The kid is spoiled, I tell ya. She's done more quilting than I have! Here we have some blocks cut, ready to be sewn together for a little dolly quilt for her American Girl bed. She got the top all sewn together and now we're stuck. I need my mom to come over to tell us what to do next with the back and binding.

And here's my stash that I purchased on our little quilting mission. I love these 30's reproduction fabrics. I bought enough to make a cute, quilted purse. I have it all pieced together but cannot find the interfacing I need, every store is out! I'll show you pictures when I'm done though.

And......drum roll please.......I am proud to show you my first two pieced quilt blocks. This was fairly easy. I learned to use my rotary cutter and make straight cuts. The sewing was pretty easy too.

Then I made this block last week. It's got flying geese! Oh boy, I had to rip out just one time but it was a challenge still.

I just love to see the blocks coming together. Next time we're making a log cabin block. I might practice first and make a pot holder with some scraps. Nowwwww, zoom in on the photo below and look at my points. They match pretty good, eh??? (I won't show you the other points that don't match up so good).

Now, onto some storage. I'm so new to the world of fabrics and quilting. I can tell you anything you need to know about stamping and scrapping and what's out on the market, but quilting is a whole new ballgame to me. I needed some storage for my ever growing stash of fabrics. I happened upon these white cardboard boxes at Wal-Mart one day. They measure about 13 x 14-3/4" x 4 or something like that. I thought they would be great to store separate projects in.

And then I found these sticky backed felt at Wal-Mart too. I just peel off the backing and adhere it to the bottom of the box. It makes a great place to put cut pieces of blocks. You can piece them together like a puzzle and the felt helps them stay in place. Then I just place the rest of my fabrics and supplies on top. Works for me!

And for now I'm storing my boxes in my old cupboard I bought a while back. I think I need an antique venture to find a cabinet just for my quilting goodies, don't ya think?

Okay, that's all I have for today. I must get back to some photo editing and baking and find time to take a shower in there somewhere. Josey has a basketball game and I am psyched up for it. Love the basketball.

Note: If you have any quilting storage tips, I'd love to hear them! Especially for those long rules, I've already nicked two corners on one because I dropped it in the parking lot at the quilt shop. Dang.