Binding Marathon at My House!

 I made this giant pillow for my nephew Ben a few weeks ago and I finally hand sewed the opening closed today.  I also finished up several Tribbles that I had knitted the past week.  I have suddenly been making one every other day at work between calls!  Building up my Christmas stockpile.

 Kathy and I had a little binding marathon today.  We got six quilts back from Joanne and I bound Jordan's NYE Mystery quilt.

 Our Lil' Twister Christmas tree wallhanging got bound too.

 Also bound was this quilt for Aunt Jenny.  You may recall I got this with all of it cut and some of it sewn from a fabric thrift sale.  I also cut lots of the extra fabric into strips (leftover from the backings of the six I got back) and loaded them into the right colored drawers.

 Kathy bound her sister Kelly's quilt which was her Easy Street quilt as well as Jonathon's NYE Mystery quilt (which is the same pattern at his twin Jordan's) too.  We then made labels for all of them and my cousin Kai's quilt and ironed them on.  So far I have sewn two labels...tomorrow we will take pictures outside in the AZ sun and then they can be mailed off to their new homes!  Oh, I have the binding on the Halloween quilt (label too) but didn't finish attaching it yet.

I did get in a tiny bit of piecing too...sewed up the yellow spools so I can link up to Angela's Rainbow BOM!  Oh and I made my sister another Crown Royal tissue holder because she lost her purse and lost the last one!
Oh I almost forgot, lost 8 pounds in the first week of my 90 day challenge.  Seems like it has been way longer!

More Quilted Quilts and a 90 Day Challenge!

 JoAnne sent me pictures of the quilts that are winging their way to us and they should be arriving next week.  This first pair of pictures is Kathy's Easy Street Mystery Quilt.  This is for her sister and hubby.

 Kind of cool how you can see the blocks through that light strip!

 These next pictures are Jordan's (Kathy's niece) and was the new year's eve day mystery quilt we did six months ago.  This one is mine, no pics yet of Jonathan's matching (but for the fabrics) quilt.

 Now I am already looking forward to next year's mystery.  I saw today that a summer mystery is getting started on that same group but I don't think I will be fitting that in my sewing schedule!

I spent about six hours yesterday in the quarterly board meeting for our modern quilt guild.  Then after that I came home and typed up the lengthy minutes and worked on various things I was assigned to do.  There was no sewing at all in my day!  Today I have time to get in there but I am not feeling terribly motivated right now.  

Yesterday Kathy and I started a 90 day challenge of healthier eating and getting more exercise.  First day was a breeze we will see what today brings.  We have set some goals (both hoping to lose thirty pounds in the 90 days) and have made some charts, weekly menus, etc.  My biggest eating issue is my nightly ice cream habit.  It is harder to give up than crack (not that I would know, but seriously it is hard!) and so I substituted Yoplait greek yogurt and did my best to pretend it was what I wanted.  Sometimes I wish I drank...seriously!  So I will be posting updates as we go among my quilty stuff...if you aren't interested, just skip over it.  I am sure if we are successful I will say more and if not less.  It is time and at the end of 90 days we will be reassessing and figuring out what is next, but we both know we need to make changes that will be permanent for all our days...90 days just seems a bit more doable at this time!  We are using myfitnesspal if any of you do and want to friend us!

NYE 2012 A Mystery in Pictures!

NYE 2012 for Jordan

Kathy's NYE 2012 for Jonathan

Kathy and I both finished our entire tops with a bit of unsewing (shhh, we aren't mentioning that!) and resewing.  We think the six year old twins Jordan and Jonathan are going to love these quilts when they get them!  These were designed by Sherrie Wohlgemuth of QTMystery quilts.  We had a ton of hst presewing but it made for a nicely paced day of sewing and a completed quilt top!  This is our 7th annual New Year's Eve Day Mystery Quilt and is one of our favorite ways to end the year!

 This year we got on Skype with BJ who hadn't had a chance to do any presewing..BJ made really good progress once she got her hst's done!  I can't wait to see it when it is done!

Jacki made the larger size blocks so she could showcase the larger motorcycle print.  Hers is really colorful and I think it is going to be dynamite!

Ros had a fabulous rainbow like fabric for the center of her blocks that I really liked too.  This will be nice when all done too!  The gals had other evening plans and closed up shop around 5 pm, but Kathy and I sewed on til we were done!  

Ros and BJ are also working on Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery which another clue came out today.  I snuck in a little sewing and am a little more than half way on it.  The final clue comes tomorrow!  I can't wait for the big reveal!  Barb also joined via Skype for a bit though she isn't doing the NYE, she is working on Bonnie's mystery.  So much fun to have so many mystery quilt lovers!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.  May this year be easier on my heart than the last one was.  I am ready for a fabulous, less stressful year!  Bring it on!

Merry Christmas--Spiders and Talkin' Turkeys!

 Had to show you a few of my favorite Christmas gifts!  Kathy gave me this "prescription" coffee cup since I am not a morning person.  Drank out of it this morning, just what the doctor ordered!

 Spiders!  This may well be my favorite gift this year--let me tell you why.  My mom and I did two craft shows prior to Christmas and at one of them there was a corner booth full of spiders on Christmas trees.  Apparently there is a "Legend of the Christmas Spider"

A long time ago , a mother prepared for Christmas Eve. She cleaned and scrubbed her home, chasing the spiders from the living room with her broom. The spiders fled to the attic and listened to the excitement below as the Christmas tree was put up and decorated. When all was quiet again, the little spiders crept back downstairs to see the beautiful tree. They were filled with happiness as they crawled along every branch, admiring the glittering beauty of each ornament. But alas, by the time they had finished climbing through the tree, it was completely draped with their dusty, gray cobwebs.  When the Christ child came, He smiled as He looked upon the happy little spiders, however, He knew the mother would be heartbroken when she saw the shrouded tree. So He reached out and touched the webs and, blessing them, turned them into silver and gold. Now the Christmas tree sparkled and shimmered and was even more beautiful than before. Thus the custom to have tinsel of silver and gold and a spider ornament amongst the other decorations on the Christmas tree was born.  Author Unknown.

Right off the bat I spotted a purple spider similar to the one above and was going to get it for my sister.  She is deathly afraid of spiders and is ALWAYS posting pictures of the spiders in her house (she lives in the mountain wild, lol) that she needs someone to come kill.  She actually has anxiety attacks trying to get them out of her house.  Some of them are downright huge and some of them are poisonous.  Anyway we spent lots of time this year talking about spiders and commenting on her facebook spider pictures.  Every year since my kids were born I have bought each of them an ornament that represents something from the year.  It is my favorite item to buy them each year and when each of them moved out their ornaments went with them and they had a good starter amount!  So I saw the spider, thought of my sister and was going to get it for her.  Then I started walking around and saw spiders like the one below.

 Suddenly I knew I wanted these to be my kids' ornaments this year.  I bought three and I can tell you it is absolutely the most money I have ever spent on a few Christmas ornaments.  In the end I didn't get one for my sister or me.  My mom had bought one for my almost sister in law and then when she found out I didn't get one for Tina or me she secretly bought one for each of us and one for herself! So it was the year of the spider!  Everyone loved them and I think mine will stay out all year long!

 My other favorite gift is this rainbow leaf wall art.  We saw it at a craft show and I told mom how much I loved it and I am not sure when she got it but she made arrangements to get it for me.  I couldn't bear to put it outside on the brick wall that surrounds our back yard because the Arizona sun will fade it...so for now it is in my quilting studio and I love it!
Well if you have read this far now we get to the turkey part!  I really have been wanting to make this block since I saw it and decided that I would reward myself (for all the hst cutting, trimming and ironing) by sewing this up!

Talkin' Turkey!

 And at last all my HST's are done and bagged for the NYE Mystery!  Kathy has hers all sewn and it working on the rest.  Merry Christmas!

Sewing at Becky's House!

This morning Becky and I met up at "Market on the Move" and got lost of veges for cheap.  Then we got to sewing!

 Borrowed Becky's pictures to show you what she was up to today while I sewed at her house.  Lots of Christmas present making ticked off her list!  Love the skirt for her daughter, pillowcases for both kids and a gift for a friend....

 and best of all, she is making these little stars with leftover bits and pieces of fabric from any clothes she makes for her kids.  Eventually she will have a whole quilt full of memories.  I love this idea and wish I would have done something like this when my kids were young...maybe for the grandkids one day when I have them!

 Meanwhile, I did clue 5 of Easy Street.  These went together so well for me!  I trimmed just the inner part like Bonnie showed and they all line up so nicely.  These are just fingerpressed so they didn't behave for the picture, but loving them.  Becky had to give me one turquoise square because I was one short at last count (unless I miscounted when I barretted them in tens).  I am linking up with Bonnie at Quiltville if you want to see how everyone else is coming along on Easy Street!

 Kathy is caught up on clue four and has her clue 5 cut, but didn't sew at all today.  Maybe tomorrow!

 I also sewed ALL my hst's for the NYE Mystery!  I trimmed the pages and cut four of them but have lost of cutting left to go...I am using triangulations paper which I find to be really easy and accurate for me.  I want all the "presewing" done so this quilt zips together on NYE.  I also made about five spools at Beckys' and here is my stack so far.  I need to take a picture of them on the design wall soon!

In other news, Hannah got her box of Christmas gifts today and Mac got a slip that his was in!  YAY they arrived in time!  Here is Hannah with her cat GreyBear posing with her Anita's Arrowhead Christmas Quilt.  It matches her Christmas tree skirt and now she has an official Christmas quilt!

Picnic Blocks on the Wall!

 Kathy and I finally committed to the mystery for NYE and my fabrics are above and Kathy's below.  We decided that these will be for her nieces' twins who are now about six.  We made them baby quilts way back when but on Kathy's recent trip to Mass. she was reminded that they need bigger quilts.  Jordan will get the one above and her brother will get the one below.  We spent this evening cutting up the fabric, labeling the clues and getting ready for the pre-sewing.  Barb was on Skype with us most of the time we were working on the mystery.  She was sewing a customer quilt and pillow.

 We made minestrone soup for dinner, it was delicious!

 I finished up the blocks for Picnic from Scrap Basket Sensations and spent some time rearranging them.  Not sure which of these was first or which is last but here are a few of the options.  I will be sewing them up tomorrow!