Last Christmas Gathering and a Sewing Bee Prize

These gorgeous pieces of fabric are from Mary in AZ on my stashbuilders group. They are really pretty and will find their way into a quilt soon!

This is Kathy's neice Megan holding up her Orange Crush quilt we gave her tonight. She seemed to like it, but didn't even open it up and ooh and ahh. Which I would have if I had gotten a quilt...but this is likely her last quilt anyway--she has two now and this one is huge!

Her oldest son Mikey was FAR MORE EXCITED to get his quilt. Of the four kids getting an ABC quilt with their initial on it his reaction was the best. Megan was thrilled that the kids would have new quilts since they have been loving their old ones to pieces. So that was good. Next quilt for these kids might be graduation..again they each have two now!
Came home and watched a movie with my sweetie and it was nice to just be at home. Tomorrow I am going to get sewing and pick out fabric for my Bonnie NYE Mystery. My sweetie gave me a gift certificate to my favorite quilt shop so I can buy whatever my heart desires...which will be nice!

ABC QUILT PROGRESS!

Tonight Kathy and I tied these quilts while watching "Planet Earth" so three out of four Christmas gift ABC quilts are done, done, done! A for Ayla.

S for Seth, Randy's slippers poking out there since he is holding them all up in turn (couldn't talk him into doing the tying though) and Daisy is on the couch there on the right.

Here is Kathy hard at work. I deleted the pic of me as it was not one of my best, lol.

C is for Critter/Christopher!

I also forgot to mention that about a week ago I finished the binding on Rachel's Outside the Box quilt. I will be SAD to send that one off to Norway. I am already grieving it...lol the pile of Christmas quilts is now 5 high with 6 soon to follow! Hooray for some Christmas stuff done, because I have lots to go...

I was pretty down earlier tonight, but getting my hands on some fabric seemed to help my mood and after about an hour I realized I was not so crabby. I hate that feeling and it just takes time to shake it off...or chocolate, or both!

Progress on ABC Quilts, Mystery Focus Fabric and New Friends!

Last night I pieced the batting and put two of these four quilts together. I need to whip stitch the openings closed and tie them and of course do the other two. This is Seth's. And the second one is Ayla's.

This morning I went out to Zoe's Trunk Quilt Shop and met two ladies from my online Quilt Talk Yahoo group! I found this focus fabric and then they helped me pick out the darker red fabric to go in my NYE Mystery quilt. So I pulled out the pink fabrics I had and here is what I have for the mystery:

I hope it turns out decently!

After shopping around we went to Macayo's for mexican food for lunch. It was REALLY good! We got our waiter to take a few photos. Nancy from New Mexico is on the left, I am in the middle and B.J. from Glendale is on the right. We ate outside and behind us is the view. The weather was perfect and all of us were chatty so we had a really nice time.

So these are my first quilty friends I have met in AZ....hope they are the first of many!

ABC Quilts for Three Nephews and a Niece

I have three and a half quilt tops done for Kathy's three nephews and niece. We plan to tie them and give them to the little ones for Christmas. I used my four ABC swaps (mixed up sort of randomly) and just put blue fabric between the rows and on the edges. They aren't anything fabulous, but it was so nice to sew for a few hours last night and get the second and third ones done. The fourth one just needs the blue added and it will be done. We haven't yet decided who will get which one but when they are all done we will study them and decide. I took a picture of the third one and can't figure out where it saved on my computer...interesting!

Fourth one in progress..
I need to pick up some patches to fix my Weaver Fever quilt since Otto (our blind dog) sometimes chews in his sleep and apparently the quilt was hanging off the bed and after three years he got it. He ruined one of my other quilts and I had to patch it (Strawberry quilt) and now I am really sad he got this one. He is old though and doesn't destroy anything while awake so we just have to take care that the quilt isn't hanging over him!
I am on fall break for the next week and am excited to do some sewing and lesson planning and sleeping in! The first quarter is over and other than getting hit in the ear by a plastic duck (one of my students threw HARD at me while I wasn't looking) it has gone alright. Some of these kids really are not respectful and the job has been more about maintaining classroom control than about teaching ASL--at least for two out of my five hours. I take my hats off to you long time teachers, because WOW! I may go back to interpreting full time next year. The jury is still out on that.

Now to leave you on a more positive note, my nephew Ben (who I just met in July) is a smart little guy. I taught him several signs in a few hours and he signs like crazy now! He even signs my name. Here is a our first picture together...

I have a feeling he will be as dear to my as my sister's son who just joined the Navy and who is

my only other nephew...I have no nieces yet (unless you count the ex's and unfortunately the divorce kind of made them no longer mine).