Halloween Weekend Happening!

 Kathy and Tom carved up and painted me a G for our pumpkin contest at work.  Here are Christian (my brother's new girlfriend's son) and Ben and Colton trick or treating.

 And her is Ben with his brother Ollie (his mama's little boy a month or so younger than Colton).  Was not able to get all the kids together to take pics...we had a huge group and the older kids were hard for the younger ones to keep up with!

 Colton's birth mom is having a little girl and so I made her this.  Will miss her shower since I will be back in Wisconsin visiting my Papa that weekend.  This pattern is Simple Gifts on Weeks Ringles' blog.

 My cousin Ashley just had a baby, she and her hubby and little girl live in Milwaukee.  The new baby, Kace, will be a Bears fan since his Daddy is so that is what I went with for his quilt.  Just finished the top today!  This pattern is called "My Favorite Quick Donation Quilt" by Mary Johnson from 2007.

 Finally got Grand Illusion picked up from Ros!  I got it bound today and now it is ready for show and tell at the Third Annual Quiltville Mystery Kickoff Party this month.  Kathy has her inner border on and just needs to make the final bordere to at least have a top done for pictures!

 Bonnie released the color info for Allietore! the next winter mystery.  I picked up the paint cards but that is as far as I am on that.

Neff Family History

Here is Tara (and Koi in her belly) getting the Simple Quilt Eye Spy that I made for him! She likes it, and the last stitch went in the binding less than an hour before the shower!

We are in Wisconsin on vacation at the moment. We arrived on Friday and my Uncle Jim picked us up and we spent the first night in Winsted, Minnesota with him and his wife Mary. This is Jim sharing family pictures with me. Jim is my Dad's brother. He has three suitcases of Neff family history and he shared some of it with me. I wish I had had more time because it was fascinating! Here are a bunch of letters...the oldest on is from the late 1800's but most of them are from 1943. The picture you see is my Grandmother Florence Lottridge Neff and my grandfather Leonard Harry Neff. She died when my father was six. The condolence letter from Len's father to Flo's mother and father was among these letters. It was really interesting to read about life for my family during the war. I wish I had access to these letters during my quilt history class. Florence mentions knitting several times, including knitting for the Red Cross! She also mentions a Mrs. Jones (her hubby worked at Lockheed with my grandfather--they were engineers) who did quilting while they were together!

I learned quite a few intersting facts about my family from talking to Uncle Jim and speedreading these letters (DJ put them into time order as I read). My great aunt was a silent film actress and she once got my other great aunt Eck a part as an extra. The actress aunt whose name I already forgot (need the family tree to jog my memory) was married nine times! One day she got a ride across the set from some guy---who turned out to be Cary Grant I think it was! Flo's letters mention seeing various movie stars because they lived in CA during 1943. One of them was Mickey Rooney. Found out another relative was in a film with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. I can't remember the film or the name of the relative already but maybe it was "Swing Time" with Victor Moore. I will have to double check!

Another relative, who was married but had no children, had the largest bell collection in some state. I got to see pictures of the bells (like the liberty bell but different sizes) and they left the collection to his sister I think it was and when the house they were in was rented out the collection was stolen!

I wish I could remember more details or had written things down, but I thought I would remember better.

Tomorrow I plan to finish up Mac's scrapbook!

More Odds and Ends...

We leave for Wisconsin and my youngest son's graduation from high school on Friday morning...I have a crazy busy work week and more than I need on my plate this week! We did double time tonight trying to get our ducks in a row. DJ helped me pin Koi's quilt and I will be stitching in the ditch on it tomorrow afternoon between my morning job and evening job. (I got two classes at MCC so I am back to working both of my jobs for June!) DJ cleaned our female Beta's bowl. We bought her to go with our male, but they hate each other. Turns out they have to be the same kind of Beta to even have a shot at getting along. So she has her own bowl!

These goodies were a little suprise for me in the mail over the weekend. I love the middle one and like the one on the right but am not sold on the one on the left. I may have to gift it. June if you are reading this do you like any of them?

We spent the weekend helping my sister and parents move...it was a nightmare, but we made a good time of it and I rewarded myself with three yards of this fabric at the quilt shoppe near my sister's house. It was all on the clearance wall anyway!

DJ and I finished tying this little Eye Spy quilt which I think my cousin Crystal will get for her new second son. I think his name is Finn.

I finally broke down and bought myself a scissor fob! I have been eyeing these on Etsy for quite awhile. I bought one for me and one for a certain good sewing friend whose birthday is coming up. She may be reading this, so if she is I will say that the colors are different!

Hopefully you will be seeing Koi's quilt all quilted before Friday!

A Simple Quilt is Coming Along

My daughter Hannah is a junior in college majoring in accounting and is currently taking a summer class in China. She is the beautiful blonde in the center back row in white. This is the only picture I have seen so far as they don't always have the bandwith to post photos but they are blogging and it has been fun to follow along!

Got crazy at JoAnn's. I wanted a gnome so bad and he was 50 percent off so he is now snoozing out my front door!

I also managed to find another Densyse Schmidt fabric that I didn't already have! I pulled up the picture on my blog to see if I had it and it didn't look like it, and voila I didn't have it already! This pic doesn't have my green dots in in, but I have that one too.

I bought these two fabrics for backing...the dog paws will go on Seth's quilt that Kathy made last NYE day and the fish will go on the back of Koi's "Simple Quilt".
And here is the Simple Quilt. I didn't make it as big as the pattern but I have more blocks done. It just was getting too big for a baby quilt! I need to either quilt or tie it this week too. And the bonus is I have enough cut to make two more this size!

My parents are moving down to New River this weekend....into my sister's house actually. My sister is moving into two of the bedrooms that are joined (office and bedroom for her) and staying for the summer. Partly for financial reasons and partly to help mom through the radiation. My mom found out she has stage three ductile breast cancer. She opted not to do the chemo. So nothing like trying to help the family pack, clean, move and unpack. DJ and I came up a few weekends ago to help and again today. We haven't stopped moving! I just showered and wanted to blog and check my email. So tomorrow is another big day.

But....Sunday afternoon I am sewing with June!

Simple Quilt Coming Along

I did some sewing again today before work. I mangaged to get the green and blue triangles on all forty of the blocks and these six I snuck the other two colors on so I could sew what they would look like. Easy Peasy as one of the blog gals I read always says.

I also did a bit of sewing on the first step of the stars for my Designer Mystery BOM borders. Making bonus half square triangles while I am at it, and ironing them as I go this time! Hoping to get more sewing in tomorrow morning too.

More Mysteries, History Block and a Few Finishes...

I haven't had time to make any progress on the Carolina Christmas quilt and I feel way behind on step three when clue five is out! I will work on it tomorrow with any luck since I am not working for the next three days there should be progress. Meanwhile I picked fabrics for Ann B. Smith's NYE day mystery quilt. It is tradition that Kathy and I each do one. It is the one day a year she will sew with me...otherwise I can get her to cut but she would rather cheer me on than join me. She hasn't picked her fabrics, but I fell in love with this floral and then found some fabrics to match it in patriotic colors. I was thinking I might donate it to Quilts of Valor when it is done, but if I grow too attached to it, I have three different military people in my life who may wind up with it instead! Then of course as all good timing goes....Dorothy Young announced her next quilt mystery. I wasn't going to join but I will have way more time to sew for the next month with Christmas break so I plan to do a baby size quilt of her mystery. A gal at work just had a baby and her colors are aqua and brown (it is a girl) and I am thinking these fabrics would work for that and making the small one should help me keep up. We will see.

My Ho, Ho, Ho wallhanging is all done except I need to go around his nose....it is going to fall off it I don't. He is okay, not sure where he is going but someone will get him for Christmas.

Tonight I whipped up my quilt history block (class is next week already and I always get the block done before the next meeting...do you sense I hate to get behind? Maybe there is medication that will help me chill???) Anyway, this one is from the Kansas City Star way back when called "Economy" and is Barbara Brackman Block 1873. It went together okay compared to some of the others.

I also quilted this baby quilt for Randy's daughter's FIFTH grandbaby. This one is for Cara (Kara?) Marie. I quilted it myself with my new machine...not bad for my first attempt without following lines. I pinned down the edges and zig zagged around it for binding just to get it done so it can be mailed to Georgia where they are stationed at the moment. I have made quilts for each of those babies, and am hoping this is the last one! Smile. This is the Simple Quilt pattern from funquilts too.

Other than that feeling kind of down lately. Trying to get over it as it ruins no one's day but my own. I wish people were nicer or my heart was harder. I just take things way too hard, I let people hurt me when I should have long forgotten them. Life should not be so difficult.

Visit with a Friend and CC Clue Two Done!

Here is a picture of my Carolina Christmas Clue Two all done. Yippee, it took quite awhile, but I am happy with how they came together. Kathy helped me cut the stuff for the next two clues and started three, but didn't get too far.

I had Gelato with Janelle and her new baby Caroline (adorable little tiny thing who slept for almost two hours while we gabbed) and gave they a baby quilt. Finished the binding last night..don't like that under the wire feeling! I am working on the binding for my Glace Shnibbles becuase it was easy to drag along and work on when I had time to kill in my car. In case you don't know freelancing seems to sometimes give you an hour or a half hour here or there to kill. Usually I read or run an errand, but working on a quilt is nice too! Now I am enjoying a glass of wine and watching my recorded shows. Real exciting Friday night at my house--which by the way must be 60 degrees since we never turn on the heat (but are reconsidering that with this cold).

Kathy works all weekend so I am going to be sewing and hopefully hanging out with friends to pass the time. Whoot, whoot.

CC Clue Two in Progress, A Santa and Six Tops Quilted!

Clue two is a little more than half way done for Carolina Christmas....gotta work til ten tonight so that is as far as it is making it and Bonnie might post clue three tonight!

I finished the binding on my Santa and now all he needs is eyes!

Here is a Simple Quilt Two(pattern at FunQuilts) leftovers so it is a little different than the first one that followed the pattern (not yet quilted).

Here is the front and back of Maggie Lou's Star Quilt which she will get for Christmas. Thanks goes out to my fabulous longarmer--Steph in Kingman! She got these done is amazing time and they are in the mail on the back to me for binding (along with my first two Schnibbles).

Ann Smith's NYE Mystery last year used this design. I helped Kathy make thse two from the pattern (two baby quilts instead of a lap quilt) and they are made from Circus fabrics and are really cute! Can't wait to get them bound too!

I feel like so much has been acomplished already today! Thanks again Steph!