I would like wish all of my blogging friends a blessed and happy New Year! I have been thinking about what I have accomplished this past year. One thing that I have done the past year has been of course starting my own blog. I have new blogging friends who have not only taught me things but have inspired me too! Such fun!



Lea recently asked my about the quilt on my header. Yes, I made it, but it is still in the flimsy stage. Non quilters - this means it is just in quilt top form, it has not been quilted yet. I had made a Buggy Barn Log Cabin Crazies quilt for a class I was going to teach. Because of the technique used to make this quilt I had sooo many little scraps left over. I had seen a photo of an antique quilt on Bonnie Hunter's blog and it so intrigued me that I wanted to recreate it. I used a foundation paper piecing method to easily piece all of the little strips of fabric together. I had so much fun making this wall hanging. I'm sorry the quality of this photo isn't the best, but laying it on a brown surface was the best I could do this morning. Once it is actually quilted I will post a better picture of it. Now to get it quilted!

I had said that I would keep you posted on my closet clean-out progress. I can see more floor space and have gone through and sorted more boxes. One box I ran across surprised me. Inside were these kitchen towels (18), dish cloths (5) and pot holders (3). Many years ago, actually a little over twenty, we were given a wedding shower. Our friends and family were very generous. It seemed that one of the most popular things to give us was bath towels and kitchen towels. We received so many kitchen towels that I had boxed up half of them to be used later when the first sets had worn out. I guess that time is now! I was very happy to find a bunch of new towels ready to be used. I had recently thought some of my current towels were ready for the rag bin. Now I have the replacements! Do you remember how the duck motifs were sooo popular in the late 80's? What about blue and mauve (some referred to it as rose) color schemes? The very first quilt I made was blue/mauve. I'm glad we are over that fad!

Blogger Awards

Bren gave this award to all of her blog readers who are quilters. I truly think Bren's blog is a treasure! She is a wonderful quilter and an inspiration in many ways. Thanks Bren!

I would like to pass this award along to a blogger that I recently found. Her name is Lea. She posts in Japanese and English. I have been enjoying her blog and her quilting skills are wonderful! Your blog is a treasure Lea, take this award and proudly post it! I would also like to give this award to my friend Charlene. She may not be a quilter, (I have tried to influence her but so far it hasn't worked) but she and her blog are a treasure!

My friend Charlene gave me the Bodacious Blog award.
Wow Char, thanks for thinking that my blog is: Extremely cool, most excellent. This is bodacious in itself!

Closet update: I have gone through five boxes of baby clothes and found a few things to keep. Blankets, baby shoes and a sweater set that I had knitted. I think that might have been the last thing I ever knitted. hmmmmm I also found a box that I had long forgotten about, but that is another post!

Tackle it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.....

A blogger friend, Bren has what she calls a Tackle It Tuesday project. It is something that needs to be "tackled" back into organization or put back into shape. When I started to clean out a big closet yesterday I thought of her. Boy, this is more of a tackle it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday job. The closet is a very large one as it is along a hallway. It has served as a major storage space for clothes, suitcases, baby clothes etc. Yep, I said baby clothes. Do I have children? No. When my nephew was a baby I thought I needed to keep just about all of his baby clothes. He might want them for his children some day. Dear hubby tried to talk me out of it. Nothing doing. I started going through the clothes yesterday. I just had to laugh. Who would put their child in baby clothes that were twenty three years old? A lot of the elastic was no longer elastic. Stains that were thought washed out were not. I love vintage things, but decided that vintage polyester and corduroy just wouldn't cut it. At least I will have some buttons that I will be cutting off before tossing the clothes to add to my button collection. I still have at least three more baby clothes boxes to go through. I have bagged up two big bags of clothes of mine to take to the Bible Thrift Center. There is so much left in the closet to go through. Ugh! I hate the job of cleaning out closets. I must focus on my end goal. At one time I was a Longaberger Consultant. I have storage tubs of baskets etc. that are taking up valuable space in my fabric stash area. I need to get those storage tubs upstairs in the closet so I can get to my stash easier. I will also be able to get to the Longaberger stuff easier too. If I work on it a little each day it will get done...eventually! I am posting a before photo of the closet so that it will encourage me to get it done so I can post an after photo. I was afraid if I waited to post a before and after photo together I wouldn't get that closet finished. If you don't see an after photo in the next two weeks please give me a nudge to get it done!


To reward myself for getting started on my "Tackle It" project I pulled a UFO out. It is my Scrappy Lattice Quilt. Two of my quilting friends are also making the same quilt. I wanted to do some mindless sewing, so I pieced the scrappy strips together. I love working with reproduction fabrics. I was able to pull from my stash for this project and use scraps. The only thing I think I made a dent in is the background fabrics. I am beginning to run low on them. You know what that means!

Merry Christmas To All!

Merry Christmas to all! For unto us a child is born! May God bless and keep you in His loving care now and throughout the new year!

Our family celebration was held on Saturday night. Of course a good time was had by all. We enjoyed spending time together laughing, exchanging gifts, and eating way too much! I had mentioned that I was going toward a blue theme this year with my Christmas decorating. I thought I would post a photo of my hutch decked out in it's Christmas goodies.

My Mother just happened to give me some blue things that were perfect to add to my decorations. She hand quilted the snowmen potholders that I hung from the door handles that were snowmen and blue. Cute!

I can now show you the gift I was making but couldn't tell who it was for.

This snowman wall hanging was made for my Mother. She loved it, and I had fun making it. The pattern is from Country Lore Designs. It is called Let It Snow #22 Winter. It is a small wall hanging, 8" x 14" so it was quick to make. The hardest part was just picking the fabrics to use. It was fun going through my stash to find the perfect choices. I ran across some "lost" fabrics and enjoyed auditioning one fabric against another. Now to put back into the stash the rejected fabrics and what is left of the yardage not used up!

Another quilt related gift I gave to my Mother was a quilt kit. She is going to be snowbirding for the next couple of months and was planning on doing some quilting. She picked out the pattern and I cut up fabrics from my stash for her quilt. What a great way to use some of my stash! I hope she will allow me to post a photo of her quilt later on down the line. Have fun Mom!

My parents left to return to their home this morning. Hubby and myself are spending a quiet day at home today. We watched a Christmas movie this morning, and have plans to watch another one before the day is up. It is nice to spend a relaxing day together. They seem few and far between!

May I Introduce...

I would like to introduce my friend Sammy! Sammy came to live at my house a couple of years ago. He was a gift from my Mother. He is comfortable hanging around just about everywhere, so he is nice to have around. I keep him out and around at least until March. He always makes me smile when I see him.

I went to my Guild's Christmas party yesterday and I won the centerpiece. The photo isn't the best, but it is a vase with silver ornaments, silver tinsel, and a blue ornament on the top. My Mother gave me a beautiful blue table cloth with snow flakes woven in it, so I started to think about a blue/silver theme for this year, at least in the dining room. When I won the centerpiece I knew it was blue and silver this year. More photos to follow! I am hosting our families Christmas celebration on Saturday evening. We are having homemade egg rolls, fried rice, and not sure what else yet. Yum! Egg rolls seem kind of funny to some to have for a Christmas dinner, but we don't make them very often. When ever I mentioned it to a family member they were always pleased with the idea. So egg rolls it is!

Me? A Cookie Monster?

You Are Cookie Monster

Misunderstood as a primal monster, you're a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth. You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you'll eat anything if cookies aren't around. You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking How you life your life: In the moment. "Me want COOKIE!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

I have taken some of the so called personality quizzes in the past, but many times it just didn't see like the results were accurate. Well, this one is! I have such a sweet tooth! I spent yesterday afternoon/evening making Christmas cookies. Luckily most will be eaten by others who share in my love of desserts! What Sesame Street character are you?

Another One?

Another UFO? I have told myself no more UFOs until I finish at least one I already have waiting around. For those who are not quilters, a UFO is an unfinished project that is sitting around just waiting to be finished someday. I have heard some use the term PIGS (projects in grocery bags) but for some reason, I don't care for that tag. It makes me laugh, but I don't want to use that term, it doesn't fit. I usually have mine stored in zip lock bags, storage containers, baskets...you get the idea. I have decided that a goal for 2008 is that I am going to organize my sewing area a little more and actually count the UFOs I have. I have read some blogs that actually list their UFOs on their sidebar and cross them off as they finish them. I haven't decided if I will go that far yet, but I have promised myself no more UFOs (at least until I have finished some). I have a very good friend, Charlene who is not a quilter and does not understand my UFOs. We have talked about UFOs and she just doesn't get it. How could you start a project and then not see it through to the end? I say easy! There are so many designs I want to do, techniques to try, the list goes on. When I am working on one project I am thinking about what I want to do next. Am I the only one like this....I think not. I have found that this year I have accumulated more UFOs then usual. I have had to put projects aside to work on class samples. After the class sample do I go back to what I was working on before? Not always. I get together with quilting friends and we decide to do a project "together". That is all fine and fun, but has the project gotten finished while I was with my friends - nope. Therefore, UFOs are born.

You might have asked yourself, what about the photo of the Broken Star Log Cabin project? I guess it really isn't a new UFO. I had seen this pattern by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts at Shipshewana, IN at least a year ago. I thought, I can make that quilt without buying that pattern. (Quilters, I know you have done this too!) My dh said he could remember the layout and would draw it out for me when we got home. Well, I of course couldn't remember the layout when I got home, and dh couldn't either even though he wouldn't admit it. He did design a layout for me, but I rejected it because it wasn't the same as what I had seen. The last time I went back to Shipshewana I saw the pattern again, need I say more? The pattern calls for cutting the little rectangle shapes to size and piece them one by one to obtain the finished block. The blocks are small. They finish out to be 4 1/2" square. I didn't want to cut all of the 1 1/2" fabric strips to length so I decided to paper foundation piece the block. (I know non quilters have no idea what I am talking about here. You might not even care. I will have to post about the paper piecing another time). I found a similar block in my Block Base program but had to print out the block without the sequence numbers since Edyta's pattern differed in the color placement. I sewed a sample block and liked it. I decided to print out all of the blocks (64) another day when I had the time. I had the time yesterday. I had oral surgery done on one of my teeth. I had broken off a tooth at the gum level and there wasn't enough visible tooth left to put a crown over it. The gum level had to be raised some which required stitches etc. Fun! Since I had to take it easy yesterday afternoon I worked on getting the paper foundations ready. So, it really isn't a new UFO, but an old UFO that was taken out of retirement and worked on yesterday. I'm sorry to say it will have to go back into retirement as there is another project that must be finished first, but that is another post!

Want to know what I learned yesterday? As the stitches were being placed in my mouth and the thread (or what ever you call it) was being drawn through and through (the length of thread was at least 3 feet long) I thought, I now know what it feels like to be a quilt! Enough of my ramblings for today!

Christmas Greetings

My Mother informed me that she received the Christmas card I sent out to my family and friends. That meant I could blog about it now. I enjoyed making the cards. The inside sentiment is:

May the Miracle of Christmas

Find you safe in the Peace of God,

Warm in the Light of Christ.

This is my Christmas wish for my blog friends too!

Today I taught two classes, a free motion machine quilting class and a BB Bag class. We had a good time. I love seeing the different fabric choices the gals who take the classes use for their bags. I am almost finished with the wall hanging that I am making for a Christmas present. It is soooo hard not to post a photo of it, but I need to wait until after Christmas. I sure don't want to spoil the surprise!

I have a question for my fellow bloggers. Does anyone know what type of fabric is used in costumes that allow you to see out, but not let the person inside the costume be seen? It is usually black, but that is all I know. Can you buy it at Joann's? I have a friend who has a costume that needs help and I told him I would ask my fellow bloggers for help. Help please?

Christmas Movies

It is a Christmas tradition here to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" during the Christmas season. Of course there are other favorite Christmas movies, but I think this one is at the top of the list. What is your favorite Christmas movie? I am going to go up to the kitchen as soon as I hit the publish post button to make popcorn so we can munch away as the movie plays. Yum!

Today I worked away on the surprise gift I am making that I mentioned in an earlier post. I made some great progress. It is time to put on the borders and the machine quilt it. It is a small wall hanging for which at this time of the year I am very grateful!

I better hit that publish post button - I hear the popcorn and movie calling my name!

Snow!

We have had a lot of snow here lately! This photo of a squirrel was actually taken yesterday. The photo is poor because the sun was hiding behind clouds and I took the photo through the window. I tried to lighten it etc. and what I have posted is better then the original one at least. I love to look out my back window and watch the squirrels scamper around and go for the sunflower seeds. The object behind the squirrel with the round opening is a squirrel feeder. I think it was pretty empty so the squirrels had to resort to stealing seeds from the bird feeder.

Today I spent most of the day and evening working on Christmas cards. I made 42 of them! I don't want to post a photo of them tonight as I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise of this year's cards for my family and friends. I will post photos of them in a few days after they have a chance to get to their destinations. I guess tomorrow I will spend a chunk of time addressing them. At least I already have the Christmas postage stamps. I told myself that this year I would have all of my cards made before Thanksgiving - ha! Maybe next year.

Can't Tell!

I pulled this fabric from my stash this afternoon. As it is Christmas time, I can't tell you what I am making from it or who it is for. You see, the person this is intended for reads my blog from time to time. Last year I decided to make some last minute gifts for Christmas and I did not intend to put the added pressure on myself again this year. Well......plans change. I do seem to do some of my best work when I have a deadline. The fun begins tonight, but the photo of the finished project won't be posted until after Christmas!

Monster In The Living Room Update

Well, it is time for an update on the Monster In The Living Room. If you don't know what I am taking about, I have linked the name to the first post I wrote about it. In fact, it was post #2. My attempt at this Marie Webster design has been very trying at times. For instance, when I was squaring up the blocks after appliqueing them (that means I had a big square ruler and I needed them all to be the same size) I made a mistake and cut one block (out of 16) 1 1/2" too small. That totally frustrated me. I put the blocks away for at least two months before I could look at them again. I had to make the block all over. Boy was I careful when it came time to square it up! As stated in my post #2 the only place to put this big quilt while it is in the hand quilting process is in the middle of my living room. I had hoped to get this Monster out of my living room by Christmas. Dear Hubby said if I didn't make that goal we could just put tinsel around the legs of the frame and put the presents under it. He seemed to like the idea because then he didn't have to haul the tree out of the garage and put it up. Well, if you look at the photo you will see the Monster was still in the frame and still in the living room. The Christmas decorations were sitting in boxes on the couch behind it. The frame is designed to make it possible to fold it up and move it out of the way without disturbing the quilt on it. That is what I did. The Monster is now in the basement stored behind the couch in the family room area. The Monster will go back to the living room after the Christmas tree comes down. Since my family gathers here for Christmas dinner I just couldn't leave the Monster in residence in the living room. I worked very hard the past couple of days to hand quilt enough of the quilt that I could move the quilt down in the frame. I wanted to have a fresh new area to quilt on when I put it back in the living room in January. When I was turning the quilt down on the frame last night I realized I wasn't as far along as I had thought even in post #2. I am just now about 50% finished with the cross hatching (straight lines quilted on the diagonal). Who put the extra blocks in when I wasn't looking? I was so disappointed when I realized my actual progress I almost cried. After Christmas I am going to get that Monster out of the living room, and out of the frame before June rolls around - at least that is my second goal for the Monster! Time will tell, and I promise to give you more updates as I go along. Maybe that will motivate me all the more! My fingers are crossed anyway!