A Quilty Christmas 2014

 Here is all the family posing for another Packer Christmas photo.  Only person missing is Christopher (my nephew) who was sleeping hard and would not wake up!  We did all go in the bedroom and pose with him so he wouldn't be left out!

See, here we all are nodding off with him between fits of laughter.  He slept through it all!

 Mac, Hannah and Coleman also each got their Quiltville quilts!  Mac has Scrappy Mountain Majesties, Hannah has My Blue (Purple) Heaven and Coleman has the flimsy for Moth in the Window--I need to add a few more rows and get it quilted, but Coleman didn't mind waiting for it a bit longer.

I have really enjoyed having all three kids here for Christmas this year!  They have turned into such amazing people and it has been fun catching up with them in real time!

 Kathy surprised me with this Go Baby...now to order a few dies so I can use it!  So happy that Terri upgraded and Kathy decided we needed one!

 Yesterday we took a road trip and along with way I wound up at Love it Again in Prescott.  They were having a buy one get one free sale and their prices are great anyway since it is a second hand shop.  I got all of this fabric (over ten yards) for $35.00!  I also got a 5 dollar "coin" to use like cash when I go up for quilt camp!

 Finally came home tonight and was itching to get sewing.  I haven't started clue 5 for Grand Illusion, but my brain is so tired I decided to wait on that.  I put together one of the little "Christmas Past and Presents" mini mystery quilts from Temecula Quilt Company I added sashing all around because I like it better that way.  Love it, one more to go!

A Green Machine, A Repair, and a Few Bindings!

 My friend Barb saw that we bought a vintage machine the other day and offered up this vintage Singer 185J to me for a price I could not pass up.  She came home with me and Kathy is sewing on her until we get hers up and running.  She thinks we should call her Mrs. Hulk, but I am open to better suggestions!
I still don't have my laptop and this old one moves the curser constantly when I type so I will keep the words to a minimum, ugh!

My sister's great dane ate her quilt.  I did not want to repair it.  It has been at my house for a good long time.  I decided to gift her the repair for Christmas.  I am wrapping this one up again!

 I did the best I could--was able to match but my quilting sucks!  From afar it isn't too bad!

 I made and attached binding on both My Purple Heaven for Hannah and Scrappy Mountain Majesties for Mac.  I still need to sew more blocks for Coleman's Moth in the Window.

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I have also worked some on Grand Illusion clue two.  Here are forty done..I have ten more that need one more seam and press, then I will be half way through clue two.  We are off to go hiking shortly and I will be sewing again tonight.  First I have to cut that other half!  Slow and steady!

Scrappy Mountain Majesties!

Ros has quilted Scrappy Mountain Majesties!  Mackenzie is going to love this!  I almost don't want to give it up.  I love the quilting design she chose--she has a great eye for these things.  Thank you Ros!  Linking up with Angela since we are on light blues and there are plenty of those in here!  

 Free pattern for Scrappy Mountain Majesties on Bonnie's blog!

 In other news, Kathy and I went hiking this afternoon.  We went to South Mountain and veered off the trail to the left...went up a good size mountain...looking forward to getting to the top of this one one day!  It was fun!

I am down 69.6 pounds as of last Thursday!  I started back to Pilates too, life is good!

Rally in the Valley Shop Hop 2014

Shop hope 2014!  I was not invited along with my usual crown wearing crowd so I made my own plans this year with Tiffany.  Kathy joined us for part of the day but had to work all afternoon so it was mostly just the two of us.  I wore my Grandma Nan's sewing themed earrings and carried her lime green Vera Bradley purse since it matched my Celtic Solstice T-shirt (which finally fits me!).

First stop was Three Dudes.  Love this store and all their Halloween themed decorations!

I bought this panel and some Triangles on a Roll to make one of these skeletons for Mackenzie.

Three Dudes Shop Sample

Here are Tiffany and I after store number one!

 I guess I took no pictures whatsover at store number two--Quilter's Ranch--didn't even realize I was slacking at the time.  I don't even think we saw the shop sample quilt!

Store number 3 is the one closest to my house.  It is a smaller shop, we didn't have the best experience there.  Pretty sure it was the owner that was a crab--she was rude to several of the employees in front of the customers.  All with a smile on her face, I was not impressed.  It was my first bad experience in this store.

The annual ostrich photo.

After a quick salad we headed out to store number four--A Quilter's Oasis.

 

They were demoing the lazy angle ruler and I was pretty sure I had it already.  It was the first thing I checked when I got home, and sure enough I had it!  I have never used it but this gal gave a great demo of all the things you can do with it and I will eventually be getting some use out of it!

A Quilter's Oasis Shop Sample

I also ran into/met my newest quilty friend Terri!  She and I will be roommates at quilt camp.  We are facebook friends who love Bonnie Hunter and she recently joined Nimble Thimbles and signed up for Quilt Camp.  My usual roomy invited her bestie to come this year so I asked Terri to room with me.  So fun to meet her!
Store number five was our last stop for the day.  Scrapbooks, etc.  and the ETC. is fabric.  Really a fun more modern store.  They have really cute little quilts and displays all over.

So far their shop sample was my favorite since they did it more scrappy.

Scrapbooks, Etc. Shop Sample

They were demoing drunkard's path templates and such.  I just made one awhile back so I didn't buy any of that, but if I make another one I might go with something like this one.

Here is my haul (no picture of the stuff Kathy got).  Almost all the fabric was on sale between 20 and 40 % off.  Love finding a good deal and it doesn't matter to me if it isn't this year's fabric.  I did get a few patterns and the mini hex and more ruler.  We had a lot of fun!

This is Tiffany's haul.  She was picking out fabric for her herringbone quilt (PHXMQG is making it in October--I am going to go since I have not been there in almost a year.)

 I did manage to sneak in my Wild and Goosey block today.

 I also got a scrappy border on Mac's Scrappy Mountain Majesties and a backing made for it too, one more to send over to Ros (I am up to four--sheesh!).

 Made some Favorite Vege Soup for some work lunches this week too!

 Trimmed up my Jack-o-lantern.

 And have a few more lozenges made too.  Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Orange and a Whole Lot More!

 Linking up with Angela over at SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Orange Link Up.  I have been working on my lozenge leaders and enders and am making some real progress!  Cannot wait to get all these lozenges into a quilt top!

 I also made block 7 of Tula Pink's City Sampler.  Really enjoying these little blocks!

 Last night and this morning I finished all the Scrappy Mountain Majesties blocks and got them sewed together!  I still need to add borders but it is time to go into work for several hours, so they will wait (yes, I picked up hours on a Saturday--ugh!).

The vast majority of these blues came from the estate fabric sale I was lucky enough to go to last May.  I have an overabundance of blues (I like them and she did too) but I still found it hard to have lots of variety in this--especially in the lights.  Overall I love it and am hoping my youngest son Mac will love having a bed size quilt for his  double bed.

Lake Front Property Once Again!

 You may have heard that Arizona got a bit of rain overnight and this morning.  I live in a neighborhood that only has this one entrance to our street.  This morning we walked down to see all this water and people wakeboarding/skiing and riding in inner tubes and getting kayaks out!  We met more neighbors today than in the past six years we have been living here.

 Here is Coleman out checking out how far the water goes down the street.  As far as the eye can see in this direction....

 and pretty far in this direction too.

 We walked down about four times today and the water did recede a little bit, but just before sundown this is what it still looked like!

 Our street is not flooded but we live next to the canal and this morning the backyard was flooded and the canal was a few inches from overflowing into our backyard.  Thankfully it has been going down all day (and the rain stopped...so far) so there is almost two feet of canal available to fill again if we get more rain.  Our backyard drained nicely, yay!  Many people were without power, have flooded homes, etc.  Not in our area but not far from us either.  The college I work at called off classes (actually all of Maricopa Community Colleges closed) and we did not even attempt to go out.  Hopefully we can get out in the morning for work though!

 We did enjoy Quiltcam with Bonnie and Kathy made progress on Wanderlust.  Isn't this one gorgeous?  I am so glad she is making it so we will have one and I don't have to make it!  Love how colorful and scrappy it is!

 Meanwhile I worked on Scrappy Mountain Majesties.  Yesterday I was inspired by some other gal's picture on Quiltville's Open Studio and I thought this would be a fairly quick top to make large.  I am happy with my progress today, but I need to make more blocks because I want this to be for my youngest son Mac's double bed.  He doesn't have a HUGE quilt for his bed in Wisconsin and I am hoping he will like this since his favorite color is blue (or red he said).

Goal is to have a quilt for each of my grown up kiddos this year since the plan is for them all to be here at Christmas this year (it will have been three years already!).  Hannah will be getting My Blue/Purple Heaven since Coleman and his fiance broke up right after I got it into a flimsy (and fittingly Hannah's favorite color is purple) and I am thinking I am going to make more Moth in the Window blocks so that I can enlarge that top and give that one to Coleman this year.