Christmas Lights, A Pile of Rocks and Halloween

Kathy's niece and nephew stopped by for some early trick or treating tonight...they were so cute and excited to be meeting friends and going out! The pile of rock you see behind them in our driveway will be replacing the never growing or green grass in our yard tomorrow! Arizona and grass don't mix and we are so happy to be finally putting in rock. We will also upgrade the grass in the back yard to a sturdier variety on Tuesday...will be more before and after pictures on that soon!

After sitting outside for a few hours and only getting about twenty cute little trick or treaters we came in and Kathy pinned and ironed and I sewed the blocks into rows for Christmas Lights. Soon will get the rows together and the borders on it...still undecided who will wind up with this one! Usually I know who things are for while I make them, but other times it doesn't come right to me...lol. It is shaping up alright!

I am absolutely dying to see the Parade of Schnibbles and have been obsessively checking my google reader all day but so far no post...maybe tomorrow? I can't wait for that and to know what the new pattern is for November...I sent my first two Schnibbles off to be quilted and am really looking forward to getting them back too! If you decide to join in I have to warn you, these little quilts are addicting!

Going to watch the Packers beat Favre tomorrow--I hope!

I Finally Won a Prize!

Marianne over at http://disfordovey.blogspot.com picked my name to win this little Japanese fabric quilt. I stole her picture since I haven't downloaded the one I took yet, but so very cute...even better in person than as a pic...and she three in a few gorgeous fat quarters that go with the Japanese theme. Thanks so much Marianne.

Tablerunner, Placemats and Lunch with the Online Gals

Last week I went to my first Make It and Take It class at The Cutting Edge Quiltshop. We made these cute santa placemats...didn't quite finish in the two hours alotted, but got them done this weekend. They will be a Christmas gift.

Last Saturday went to lunch with three gals from my online Quilt-Talk group. Nancy in back in the Halloween shirt, June in the green, BJ behind me and I am in the darker pink. We went shopping to a fabric store and had lunch like last year when Nancy was in town. Different store and different restaurant, it was great fun!

You may remember way back when I had done this Running Amok tablerunner mystery...I finally quilted it on my machine myself and was happy with it! Went around the stars the way I would draw stars simply and it looks fine.

Also sewed down the binding while watching some TV. This too will be a Christmas gift though no idea to who...the colors limit me a bit--not everyone is going to like this one, but at the time I thought they looked great...the back has the fruit ladies on it and I almost like it better than the front now!

Also bought backing and borders for Christmas Lights. Kathy helped me cut up another quilt top for camp from Atkinson Designs--the name of it escapes me right now. And I sewed up some more coasters and potholders. So things are getting done around here!

A Donation Quilt to Downy Quilts for Kids

I requested a kit from Downy Quilts for Kids and got it a few days ago. The fabric was already cut (the four patches into strips which made it go fast) and I was able to whip this up yesterday and add borders today. If you are interested in a free kit (you mail it back after you quilt it) for a good cause go to http://www.quiltsforkids.org/volunteer/ and request a kit. Oh that is our oldest dog Otto who immidetely found the quilt on the floor despite being blind! They send the backing and cool label too...the only thing I had to supply was time, thread and batting. And of course postage to send it back...the whole time I was sewing I was thinking about how I hope this quilt comforts a young sick person and gets loved to pieces.

There has been a big plea for people to volunteer and so this is the way I choose to volunteer! I need to do another quilt of valor quilt too! Anyway this one is bright and happy and was a joy to piece!

Pillowcases, Coasters and Such

Went by Zoe's Trunk today and discovered it was closed--I need to read my emails better! I missed a really good sale, but Mary was there and kindly let me in and I went a little nuts! I haven't done that in so long--it felt great. One of the items I got was the brown and white fabric above that I turned into pillowcases (the red fabric is left over backing for the Double Delight quilt) so I happily have some pillowcases. Still need to decide on curtains, valances, etc. and make those to match.

Kathy picked out some cowboy fabric as well, and we whipped up fifteen coasters for her craft sale...plan is if they don't sell we have two or three people we know who can use them so they will get them for Christmas presents...not sure if I am hopeful they will sell or not! The ones on the right on the chair are made from leftover fabric from Cindy Lou Who...they are cute too!

Here is a full bag of coasters all ready for the craft show...they have gone together suprisingly quickly because Kathy helped alot! We work well together on this kind of stuff. She also helped me cut some borders and triangles for Christmas Lights today too, and we managed to find the new Quiltmaker today! YIPEE...so I can finish that one anytime too. I need to find one more Christmassy border fabric for that quilt and decide on a backing too. No idea who is getting that one yet either!

Worked on some other stuff today too, but will save that for another post when it is done. It was a great weekend here at our house!

Star Quilt Backing Done Too!

Remember the front? Well here is the back!

I used all of the star blocks except the one that had pretty much no contrast so you could barely tell it was a star. I will throw that in one of my dog quilts or something. So happy to have this WIP from last year all done! I am down to two WIPS and that is a good feeling. I have more in progress, but those two are just sitting and I hate that...will get to them soon too! One of them some of you voted for me to finish before next July...so I really need to get on that one! Meanwhile I need to see if one of my favorite longarmers has time to do this one for Maggie Lou...Stephanie are you busy? SMILE....I have four baby quilts, this one and two Schnibbles quilts that need quilting...I am getting ahead of myself!

Double Delight is Quilted and Bound!

A WIP Top is Together!

Some of you may recall that many moons ago (ok

all of last year) I was doing a star block or two a month with one of my online groups...I finally found some celestial looking fabric (it isn't solid black like it appears here) today and put these together semi haphazardly to make a lap size quilt for my cousin's daughter Maggie Lou. While I was in Wisconsin this last time I got to spend time with my cousin Carla and she told me that of her three children, the youngest has been requesting her mom make her a quilt for years. Carla is crafty but she is a full time mom, dentist and volunteers at the kids' school and church and all that and just hasn't fit learning to quilt in yet. So since I had a special request it occurred to me that I could get these blocks together and viola it would not take forever! I am thinking I will throw the rest of the star blocks together with more of the black fabric and call it the back too! That way this WIP will be off my list, and I will be down to two! Anyway, I know all this hard work will be loved by a fabulous little girl!

Cindy Lou Who!

Late last night I sewed the blocks together and first thing this morning I sewed the borders on. I really like this one too! Schnibbles really are cute little patterns! I have the binding all made and just need to get some backing for this one! Does anyone have suggestions for what to do with this size quilt? I will use a few over my loft railing since they are a great size for that, maybe as a table topper, but not sure I would use them as baby quilts (at least in these colors) but since I am making one for each month of the year I better come up with some more ideas! Great fun, I would like to make another one with Halloween fabric too! This one is Moda's Harmony line of fabric.

Blogger's Qult Festival!

I wanted to jump in the Blogger's Quilt Festival and post my favorite quilt! It is really hard to choose one and I suspect when I get back my Double Delight from my longarmer that will be my new favorite, but since I don't have that one back yet I had to go with my Outside the Box quilts...yes there are two (same pattern from my favorite quilting book "The Modern Quilt Workshop") and the colors are a little different and the second one is a little larger than the first one. My daughter and my honorary daughter each own these quilts and one day I will make another one since I love the fact that is isn't a difficult quilt to make and that it looks like the squares float like a shadow or something above the full squares. If I really had to pick one of these for a favorite I would go with the first since it was my introduction to these modern quilts and led me to other awesome patterns along the same line!

Quilt History Arizona Block

This is actually last month's quilt history block (well August's) which I didn't do so well with...first off I had to miss the meeting and so I didn't see the block sample and the directions I was given were color coded NOT to match the actual fabric given! To top that off I mistook some of the directions and I had one heck of a mess--I spared you the picture of that. So this past month I bought a second kit and started almost completely over. The store owner was nice enough to let me take her block home so I could get it right (you gotta love that) and viola here is the block. It was hard to match some points and all that and I can tell you I would never do a full quilt out of these blocks, but it is pretty.
I wish I had been at the meeting because they talked about quilt history in Arizona in the 1930's and such. This included information on Emma Andres who was a quilter from Prescott at the time. I read Grand Endeavors: Vintage Arizona Quilts and Their Makers by Pam Knight Stevenson not that long ago and so I did learn some on the topic, but I am sure it was a great meeting.
So I am caught up on the quilt history blocks which is a good feeling. I also stitched quite a bit tonight on my Cindy Lou Who quilt...I have all the blocks done and borders cut. I have a work party and mini golf tomorrow but hopefully I will fit in some sewing and get that put together this weekend. It looks good though I had to unsew yesterday because I had used the wrong fabric in some of the squares and it just wouldn't have looked right if I didn't change it out. After some deliberation, I fixed it and am happy with it. I like making nine patches much more than snowball blocks!
I can't believe my dad has been gone a month. Time keeps on moving but still hard to believe...I started watching "The Young and the Restless" again after spending time with my sister and mom (my grandma and great grandma used to watch it as well) and I got all interested in it again...they killed off one of the characters and have been having memorial services and all that and it brought me back--crazy to tear up at soaps, I can't be alone in that though!

Sneak Peak at Cindy Lou Who!

My kit came in the mail a few days ago...isn't that fabric nice? I decided to cut strips to make the nine patches (instead of lots of little squares) so these came together quite quickly when I had a few minutes here and there!

I laid it out and now I need to figure out the snowball blocks. I am excited this one will be done before the end of October since the last one didn't get done til the start of it! Enjoying the Year of Schnibbles! Almost wishing I had bought Halloween fabric to do this one in...may have to make two!

NOBODY KNOWS IT BUT ME by Patrick O'Leary

My dad picked the poem below for his service and I think it really fit him--my sister and I heard it for the first time while planning his service. Strangly enough I had sent him a similar poem (The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost) the night before he died...and even stranger...I was reading "Await Your Reply" on the plane to see my Dad just a few hours before he passed and the author mentioned the poem iI had just sent him in the book...then I found out he had picked this poem which has some similarities, and then I was reading an article for work (about Deaf culture being similar to Harry Potter's world) and it too mentioned the one I had picked....comfort from Dad I guess....there are no coincidences some say...so here is Dad's pick:

There’s a place that I travel
when I want to roam
and nobody knows it but me.
The roads don’t go there
and the signs stay home
and nobody knows it but me.
It’s far far away and way way afar.
It’s over the moon and the sea.
And wherever you’re going
that’s wherever you are
and nobody knows it but me.

And the one I picked to comfort him (and us) because when I skimmed through my small selection of poetry books only this one and one other stood out to me:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The other poem I sent him was called "To One Shortly to Die" and though that seemed kind of morbid, it fit too. My dad's girlfriend read the two poems I sent him to him all that day and into the night and had me read them to him after my sister and I arrived--in that precious hour that we had with him before he left this earth. We miss him everyday...

Christmas Gifts, Craft Show Stuff and Christmas Light Clue Two Done!

Kathy wanted some coasters for the craft show so we have been slowly piecing some from scraps and today we finished about thirty total though some are one block. They are cute--nice to use those leftover Glace scraps up!

Here is what my Christmas Lights blocks look like, they are all done and ready for the layout!

Some Packer decorative potholders for Christmas gifts.

Oh, I put together the leftovers from that last quilt top a little bit differently for another baby girl quilt top. Zoe felt the need to jump on it before I could grab a photo.

My mom and sister drove down here and we all went to Bingo last night. My sister won 340 bucks so she was quite happy and it made the night happy for us all. Mom had never played bingo and she was a riot trying to keep up and figure out the patterns and stuff.

Winter White Schnibbles in Glace Top Complete!

After working a few hours this morning, I came home and got right to sewing! After just a few hours my "Winter White" quilt top was complete. It looks great and I have already ordered the "Cindy Lou Who" and some fabric for next month's Schnibbles fun. I really enjoyed looking at all of the different versions of "Winter White" that were posted and wish I had time to comment on everyone's. If you made one, WOW they all look fabulous! My son's cat, Jade, could not resist getting into some of the photos three seconds after I laid out the quilt so it is kitty approved!

Next I need to get to the second block in Bonnie Hunter's "Christmas Lights" Mystery. The last clue is out (but I don't have it yet, snuck a peak at the pic though--I am so bad!) and I need to get on that so it gets done. I have an all day workshop tomorrow and then my mom and sister are driving my way (first time for everything!) and we are all going to play Bingo at the casino. It has been ages and it will be fun so off to clean then maybe to sew some more!