Hey wait up! and I won

Remember yelling that as a kid? Heywait up! This holiday season is totally getting away from me. I have not decorated. I have not shopped for gifts, although I have quite a few made already. I really better kick it into over drive if I want to have a Christmas.  Here are some things that I finished for gift giving:
Tree and lights wallhanging

another wall hanging

Red Christmas panel

silver and white table runner

Just before Thanksgiving I won a give away  from Lori of  Humble quilts. These patterns arrived the day after Thanksgiving. I plan to do them as a block of the month next year. I can hardly wait to get started. Thanks again Lori.

I better get ready foir work now. I will take pictures when I get some decorating done. ;)

Catching up

I remember when I was a kid that it seemed like forever between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now it seems like a fast blur.
I think I told you that my in-laws were coming the day after Thanksgiving. Well....I had a great Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house. Very relaxed day with family. Didn't over eat. The next day I picked up my Mother in law and sister in law from the airport and the party started.  Sunday morning my nephew flew in from Philly. He was attending a medical conference in the city (Chicago) all week.  We called up all the Friend cousins and had a get together at our local pizza place. I also invited some of my side of the family. My aunt, dad, sister and niece all came. It is always fun to see everyone. Sunday night I put DD#2 on the bus back to school. :(

Monday and Tuesday flew by with talking, laughing , and knitting. My S-I-L got some yarn and I was helping her start a sweater for her grandson. On Wed I had to work. While I was at work my nephew's wife and his son flew in to join the party. The baby has grown so much since they were here earlier this year. He was enough entertainment for all of us. My nephew was done at the conference Thurday night so he joined us here.We had one more get together at the local all you can eat ( is there a theme here?) Saturday noon. By 9PM everyone was gone, Mom and sister in law to Oregon and nephew and his family to Philly.

Sunday morning I was up and out early as it was Mom's 80th birthday and my sister and I had a party to get set up. We made trays of deli cuts and cheeses. Had a spinach salad, pasta salad, and fruit. Of course there was cake and some cookies too. There were 23 there to help her celebrate.
  Photo is Mom and Dad and my sister (blond) and me.

Now I am trying to get caught up with UFOs and gifts. I still have two more December birthdays, DH and DD#2. I better get busy!!!
Happy holidays

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all my U.S. blogger friends a wonderful Thanksgiving Day today. I baked pies last night, 2 pumpkin and one apple praline. We are going to my Aunt's house today so all I have to make is sweet potatoes, cranberries, and dressing. Oh, and a Tofurkey for my daughters who are vegetarians.
Tomorrow my Mother in-law and sister-in law are coming from Oregon. Wednesday my neice-in-law and my great nephew will be here for a few days. Looks like it will be a giant slumber party!

All my bloging buddies that are not here in the U.S. I hope you have a wonderful day too!

Time warp

Did that time change make time speed by faster? Or is it just that the day (light) is so short? Anyway time has been just flying by.
I have been doing some quilting on UFOs that were already basted and just waiting to be finished. I completed the quilting on two wall hangings and just need toget the binding and sleeves on. My goal for this week. I have everything pressed and ready to baste another wallhanging and two table runners. And I have to get working on DD quilt that has been residing untouched on the dining room table sincebefore she went back to school in the fall.
I did do my snowman block for the month.

I also have been slowly working on framing some needle punch and cross stitch pieces that were stitched and put in a project box.

Dad finally got of the hospital and is in rehab again. Hopefully he is on the road to recovery this time.

I better get going on some of my UFOs! Happy stitching everyone.

Progress

Thanks to all for the opinions on the border for the pink and black quilt. I really liked that border, but I did not plan on getting border fabric that day. So I did not measure before I left home. Yes, you know what is coming. I did not get enough of the fabric and they did not have any more. I even checked other stores. I found another fabric, I don't like it as well, but if I had never seen the other fabric I would like this one fine, I think. Anyway the top is done, so it goes in the to quilt mountain.

I finished the Hocus Pocusville top, pattern from Crabapple Hill. I love this pattern. I did the embroidery blocks as my own personal BOM last year. I took a close up of my favorite block, the quilt shop. Not sure if I will try to custom quilt it or send it out. Guess I need to think on that for a while.

You might remember this

it is now this. This is from the Teri Atkinson book 'Allegro' also. The blocks are arranged differently. I did this as a leader and ender project. it is so amazing to do a project that way. Almost before you know it you have the blocks done. I need more advise on this one. Border, or no? Any ideas what color(s)? Some of the quilts in the book have borders and some do not.

A couple of little things. This month's Patchabilities for the shop is done. I also finished DD sweater, the one I posted before and then took apart then reknit. Another project done!! Yeah

Happy stitching everyone.

November

Did everyone have a spooky Halloween? I will share a dirty little secret with you. I spent almost every evening last week watching the 'Halloween' movies. I really prefer thrillers but at Halloween you just gotta have a little Mike Meyers. :)
I did try to fit in a bit of crafty/quilty time in between movies. I stitched this piece a while ago and just got around to getting it framed. I have so cross stitch, needlepoint, and needle punch pieces to get framed. I am trying to get one done each month, so maybe I can get them all finished over time instead of just stacking up more UFOs.


This table square has been on my frame for weeks. I finally got it quilted and bound.I even got it done before Halloween. I used it on a table near the front door with a ceramic pumpkin, a candle holder, and the candy bowl.

 

I have been working on a sweater for DD#2 for Christmas. I was so excited when I got it done. I took a picture and then (sigh) noticed that I did not like where the shaping ended up on the sweater body. So I took it apart all the way back to just under the armholes. I will be knitting it again.  I am pretty sure I know how to fix the part I didn't like. She picked this yarn out, but doesn't know that I have been working on it.

I need some advise on this last one. I started this a long time ago. I fused all the 'flowers' and then put it away until I had time to machine blanket stitch it. This year I pulled it out and got it all stitched. I pieced the borders and got the pink dots. I did not have the quilt with me when I picked out the pink and black fabric. It caught my eye and so I brought it home. It is totally different than the pattern, but I think I like it. We are all friends, tell me what you think.

Hopefully I will be finishing some UFOs and showing them soon.
Happy stitching.

Friday agian

Boy, time flies when you are busy doesn't it?  No finishes this week on quilty projects, but I have been sewing. I spent quite a bit of time unearthing all my UFOs for the Pat Sloan UFO busting challenge. Then I had to sort and count them. (See me sweat). Of course her forum 'quilt mashup' was all a buzz with everyone counting and sorting and posting.  It has been fun.

Still visiting Mom and Dad in their separate Assisted Living/Rehab facilities. It is sort of draining. My Dad is doing much better, but still having a lot of pain in his back where the fracture is. He is having a consult next week about having the procedure my Mom had a little over a year ago. The insert 'orthopedic cement' on either side of the bone which stabilizes the bone and decreases the pain. It worked well for Mom so I hope it helps Dad too. My sister is still here so she stays with our niece and runs Dad's household.

I did get my Halloween quilts up so I took pictures.  I'll share a couple.

The witch  is in

Sit a spell

Scrabble Jack

Halloween rail fence

Last night was guild. Lori Allison was the speaker, and she brought a trunk show. I really have to remember to take my camera to guild meetings. I usually don't because the room is so big that I don't think the photos would really show the quilts.  Lori's patterns are mostly big blocks using color to really pop the quilt. She uses a lot of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. It is always fun to be at guild with all those quilters in one room!!!

Happy stitching everyone.

I really have been reading and following all my favorite blogs, but I just haven't posted one. My last post was on 10/4 (also my birthday) and my Dad was still in the hospital. He was released on Tuesday the 5th and I took him home. I got his meds and bought food and settled him in at home. My sister came in from California that same evening. After two nights and 3 falls out of bed Dad went back to the hospital.  Appears that his oxygen level was too low causing him to hallucinate. He was released 2 days ago to rehab for some strengthening. I teased him that it was his yearly pilgrimage to the hospital and rehab. It is the fourth year in a row that he has had an extended hospital stay in the fall and the third year that he has had a rehab stay as well.

I haven't done much stitching this week. I have been having some stomach trouble, hopefully it will be over soon. A couple of weeks ago I did finish stitching this top for the store. The pattern is from Buttermilk  Basin and I love these little snowmen.

I also finished a couple of table toppers from the charm packs I showed you recently. I was going to put another border on the Halloween one. The fabric line has a cute stripe that has spiders on it. I think it needs another border, but I am not sure about the stripes because they are light colors. Tell me what you think.

Last week Bee met at my house. I had to pull on the gloves and clean up my house. Yikes! We had veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, chips and dip. I also had hot spinach puffs (minis), candy, and nuts. When I was shopping for food I spotted cream puffs and I had to get those too. They were about 8 inches high with whipped cream....honest!  When it is your birthday month you get either 2 FQs or a half yard of fabric . This lovely little stack is what I got.

I also got a surprise in the mail. Swap blocks from Karen and this sweet little tote. Thanks Karen. I am going to use my tote for take along hand projects. I have two English paper piecing projects that I want to do. One is stars and the other is pies and tarts. I even have purple handled scissors...they are so going in that bag.

Today I did do a little sewing. I finished my snowbound block for this month.  I also had 10 pillowcases almost done for the 1 million pillowcase challenge and today I finished them up. Felt good to get a few things off my to do list.

I was playing around on my computer and stumbled onto Pat Sloan's blog. Right now she is doing a UFO clean up. Every Tuesday and Thursday between now and Thanksgiving she is giving a tip on getting rid of UFOs. I am not sure I can do the link, but the site is http://www.patsloan.typepad.com. I have started working on tip #1. Anybody else need to clean up some UFOs???
Happy Stitching everyone!

photo op

Just a quick little post. I met one of the editors of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine at the shop last week. They have a new blog, Quincie's Big Adventure (blogspot).  Quincie liked our little shop and we are in her post. (Oh I am in the post too!)  Check it out.
Happy stitching

Big adventure

The pumpkins have appeared at every grocery store and halloween candy is  everywhere you look. Some people look to the weather to tell them fall is here, I can tell by the candy aisle. LOL

I  recently finished a sweater for my youngest and sent it off to her at school. She told me that she wore it twice this week and that she loves it. It is mustard colored, not a color I would have picked out, but she did pick it out and she loves it. I have to admit it grew on me while I was working on it. I  had her older sister try it on before I sent it and she threatened to take the sweater home with her. Maybe I will have to knit another one.

DD#1  let the sweater go when I gave her the pillow I had finished for her. She told me that she loved it and was going to use it all year. Maybe she will change her mind after she has it a while.

I finished my Snowbound block. I still haven't started on the pieced blocks. Oh well, I wouldn't want to be all caught up... what would I do then???

I had a great adventure this week!  To start at the beginning....my niece called me around 11:30pm on Wed. night. My Dad had fallen and could not get up. The paramedics were on the way. I met him at the ER. Now Dad had been to the DR the last week because he was having back pain. He got pain pills and muscle relaxers. It seems he got a little loopy ( my niece's medical term) from the pain pills and he attempted to sit on the end of his bed and he missed and landed on the floor.  After most of the night in the ER the diagnosis: a compression fracture in his lower back and a bladder infection. He was admitted to the hospital.

The adventure continues the next day. My nephew got a dog, and of course he isn't around right now to take care of her. My niece is handicapped and while she can walk with crutches she has poor trunk strength. So walking a big, untrained dog not so good.   As soon as I woke up Thursday I went out to walk the dog. I was playing with her  in the yard when my niece came outside and locked us out of the house.  We checked with the neighbors and no one had a key. My aunt, who does have a key ,had just teed off in a golf outing.  I formulated a plan. My niece looked at me and said, "I don't think that is a good plan". I said, "I know, but we gotta get back in".   So I opened up my Dad's extension ladder and after it fell on me and bruised my shoulder, I managed to get it up against the house. I climbed to the second story outside my Dad's bedroom window. I unscrewed the plexiglass frame that surrounds the window A/C. I tried to lift the A/C and found I couldn't do it while balancing on the ladder. Did I mention that I am a klutz? Well consider it mentioned.
Sooo I stood on the 4" window ledge and stuck my leg into the room over the top of the A/C and lowered myself down. These crazy windows are 4 feet up off the floor. Lucky for me there is a cedar chest under the window. I made it! My muscles were trembling and I was sweating, but I was in. Of course I had to go back up the ladder and replace the plexi- frame and screw it back in.  Then took my niece to her meeting, visited my Mom ( resides in Alzheimers facility), then my Dad in the hospital. I went to sleep really early that night.
Dad is still in the hospital, friends and neighbors are helping walk the dog and I keep my keys with me!!

Happy stitching everyone.

Falling behind

I can not believe that we are in September already. Yikes. Where has the time gone? Hope everyone is
well and enjoying the start of fall (or spring).
It has been a busy week for me. Monday night was the first full meeting for the guild quilt show that will take place next September. Lots of planning to do. The show is a lot of fun to work on, but it is a lot of work. Right now we are just kind of getting the who's doing what in order.

I worked on Wed., it was of course the first Wed and that means Block of the month. It also means that I am behind since I never got last month stitched down. Oh well, hopefully I can catch up this month.  I did finish the top of the wool BOM that I was working on. I even have the black batting. I still need to get a backing. I am not sure what I want yet. I will figure it out son though...I want to get it done.

Thursday evening was Bee. We had a great time as usual. Some great show and tell. Lots of food and lots of talking. What we don't do much of is sewing. LOL  Just about the time we were ready to leave the skies lit up with lightening and it started to pour. So we sat and talked some more. As soon as the rain slowed up we made a mad dash for our cars and headed home.

Saturday one of my quilting friends and I went to a lecture and trunk show on Hobo Quilts. It was really interesting, the history of the marks that hobo's used as they traveled across the country. This is the club/BOM that my friend wanted me to join. You will be proud to learn I held firm and did not join after the presentation. I just have tooooo many projects going .

Happy stitching everyone

old business, new business

First old business: That photo that I am trying to make a quilt out of is of Jorge Luis Borges, a famous Argentine writer.  My daughter is a lit major, and she finds him very interesting and likes his writing. (I am going to practice saying no, she has another year to go). LOL Borges is still at the same stage as the last time you saw him.

Friday was a busy day.In the afternoon started  packing up DD stuff to go back to school. Of course she did not do anything to get organized. We even had to go out in the garage and go through stuff she brought home in the spring. grrrr. Luckily I brought all her bedding and fabric stuff in and washed it right away in the spring and stored it, so all that was ready. We space bagged her clothes and that made them much more compact!  Saturday bright and early we loaded up the car (loaded being the operative word) and headed south.  My daughter and I enjoyed the drive down to school, talking all the way. One of her room-mates was already there and she helped us unload the car. Then we made an expensive trip to Target and the grocery store and then unloaded all that stuff. Then the long drive home for me. I am always excited for her to get back to school because she loves it, but a little hard for me to leave her.

Oh, I remembered to take a picture of the Halloween quilt hanging in the shop.

Thursday was guild night. It was a lot of fun and a chance to see friends that I only see at guild. The speaker was funny and very interesting. It was Anelie Belden, her book is on dresden plates updated. Amazing trunk show. Take a look at her book if you see it.
 Friday morning two of my friends took me to a quilt shop that I have never been to before. It was a lot of fun. First I saw these charm packs (you know how much I love charm packs) and I exerted control by only getting two of them. I also found a couple of reds in the sale section.

Then I saw these patterns and added them to my pile.

These Kaffe fabrics were right inside the door and they called my name. I tried to ignore them, but I just couldn't. At the register there was a bundle of  fat quarters that were all dots! How can you not get dots?
So much for my resolve to  finish some things before buying anything else.

One last little pic, my Snowbound block. I am sewing sewing to get all my BOMs done before another month starts and I fall behind.

The hubby had a tooth pulled today so I am on "Nurse" duty. Better go check on him before he starts thumping on the floor. LOL Just kidding about the thumping.
Happy stitching!

Out of the box?

My daughter (the younger) is an interesting person. When she gets into something, she will look it up on the internet and go to the library and read everything she can find. She has interests that are varied, for example she reads the classics, poetry,and then she will be reading Peanuts.  What does that have to do with quilting you might ask.  Well, let me tell you.

She came home from school and asked me to make a quilt from a book cover. (The book cover was the author's photo).I said "I can't do that". Being persistant she kept bringing up the quilt. I kept making excuses. Summer went on and she continued to pester me. Finally I told her that I would need a much bigger photo than the paperback cover. I figured I would be safe since she usually doesn't follow through when she is supposed to do something. So she brings home a copy of the cover that is only slightly bigger than the original. So I tell her that it is still too small and a few other lame excuses.

Now she usually keeps at me and I usually cave in and do what she wants. First I wished that I was Theri (or at least had a little of her talent). Then I went to Kinkos and blew the copy of the cover up as large as I could. I hung it next to my design wall. When DD came home she started doing a dance and shouting about her quilt being on the work que. I made her crawl around the floor and grid the photo. So this is it:

Next, I selected some fabric and cut it up. Then I got the fusible grid ready and took the pieces up to start laying them out. The pieces were the wrong size. Arrrggg. I could not figure out what was wrong, I used this grid before. Next day I went to the shop to check out the grid and see if I got the wrong stuff. At the shop I measured the grid and it was right. sigh. I went home knowing that I had to recut all those little fabric squares. Still puzzled I measured the grid at home and then the pieces. LIGHT BULB ON. I had cut two different sized pieces and I picked up the wrong ones. (Color my face red). So I retrieve the correct pieces from the cutting table and we start to do the layout.

I tell DD that I just do not know if I can maked this work. She tells me that he is a post-modern impressionistic writer, so it just needs to be an impression, not a realistic photo like image. Ok. Good. 
This is it so far.

Happy stitching.

the computer is back

Boy I hate it when my computer is out of commission. I felt so out of touch. Today I got caught up on the blogs and took a quick pass through facebook. I feel reconnected, ahhhhh.  So what is new around here? Well my girls spent all of last week end at Lalapalooza. That is a three day music fest in Chicago. They started off with Lady Gaga and went on and on .... They had a good time and there was a little bit of a break in the heat wave, not much, but more tolerable for out door activities.

I got this package from Mary, Thanks for the beautiful  blocks and a magazine.

As you know, I teach a beginner class at the LQS. The class covers rotary cutting, 1/4 inch seams, basic stuff. Anywho, I was looking for something in the sewing room (that is the room that looks like a natural disaster occurred there) and I found some fabric that I thought would be great to make the nine patch quilt that we teach in the beginners class. So of course, I started another top ( you do see how I get into trouble?) and this is what it looks like now. I have pieces at every stage for class demo. I am not sure if I will quilt this right away (LOL) because we only do the top in the first set of classes. 

A vendor we use for wool kits, Wooly Lady, sent us this little bell pull kit. I stitched it up and it is hanging in the shop (minus the bell). Wooly Lady uses bright hand dyed wool and the colors are just so pretty. I actually did another bell pull a couple of weeks ago but I forgot to take a photo.  I have a couple of other wooly kits that are mine that I hope to get to soon.(Sorry about the sideways photo).

I did this whole quilt top for the shop too. The pattern is from Buttermilk Basin and it was really fun to do. I have a close up of one block and somehow I lost the photo of the whole top. I must have deleted it accidentally. I will take another photo of the top hanging at the shop.

My DD#1 loves owls. This is a new thing for her, but when this fabric came in I had to make her a pillow just for fun.

Last weekend another LQS had their Quilt show and sign up for fall classes. I am taking primative rug hooking. I will let you see how I do when I take the class. (Like I need another project). You will be proud of me though... my friend wanted to join a BOM  to do the quilt from the book  Hobo Quilts and I said NO!  Really, I said no.  I am going to the lecture by the author next month and that is all. I must control this addiction.

I have my blocks ready for the APQ swap and I am sending them today. 

OH, DD#2 and I did some yarn shopping yesterday. We had so much fun. Then we got some food, and watched the movie "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and did a little knitting. (See ,more projects).

Well happy stitching everyone and try to stay cool if you are in the middle of this heat wave.