Shamelessly Asking for Your Vote!

I entered my Holiday Lights quilt in the Christmas Quilt show at http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2011/12/vote-for-your-favorite-entries.html?showComment=1322976209771#c900000109098973934 so feel free to go and vote for my quilt (#42) in the Christmas category if you want to help me win! THANKS!

Designed by Bonnie K. Hunter for Quiltmaker Magazine. Thanks again Bonnie!
Oh and quilted by the amazing Ros Atwood. Check out my header to see the Christmas Lights she quilted in there! I LOVE THIS QUILT!

Christmas Lights is Finally Done!

Edit*This is my entery for SewCalGal's 2011 Christmas Quilt Show.
The pattern is on Bonnie's Website at quiltville.com for free now that it has been out awhile.

I spent several hours at June's house yesterday and hand stitched this binding while she finished up her Carolina Christmas quilt. I will have to snag one of her pictures to show you her top, it is beautiful. She has worked very hard on it and is thinking about naming it "Patience"! I know it was worth it for her as this one was for me! Ros Atwood did the beautiful Christmas Lights on it and I am very, very pleased with how it turned out, and I am keeping this one as my very own first Christmas Quilt! I will try to get some better pictures later on but just had to get something to post!

**Edit go to http://quiltingbooklady.blogspot.com/ to see Becky's entry of the same quilt and oddly enough we seem to have the same border fabric, though mine is green and hers is red!

Christmas Lights is Quilted!

Ros has finished quilting my Christmas Lights quilt (Bonnie Hunter's mystery in Quiltmaker magazine)! I will get it back from her on Thursday and then can start on the binding. She did a fabulous job on quilting the tangled lights all over this one and if you click to see a closeup you can really see it! I love this quilt and plan to keep it for us for a Christmas Quilt, but not sure I will be able to put it away once I see it! Bonnie's quilts are just so addicting to make...I can harldly wait to start on a small Carolina Crossroads just so I can say made one...I have the first step printed, but that is as far as I have gotten so far. If you haven't seen all her free patterns at Quiltville.com get on over there and check them out. You will not be disappointed!

Christmas Lights Goes to Maine

My Christmas Lights top and the backing shown here (the lights) are on the way to Maine to be quilted! I should have it back before Christmas and I can already see me working on the binding and laying it across the back of the couch! Not ready to part with this one permanently yet.
Last night Kathy helped me cut the Picnic Schnibbles out after a quick trip to the casino for Randy's birthday. No one won which wasn't so fun, but afterwards we went out to Outback for some steak and such. Randy was pleased with his Packer T-shirt and hat and new slippers though today is really his birthday...everyone is working so yesterday we pretended! A few more days til Quilt Camp!

Christmas Lights Top Done!

Hot off the machine, Christmas Lights top is done! It is on top of my new bushes so that is why it is wavy, I will take another picture in full sunlight tomorrow but I had to show someone! I am pleased with it, Bonnie K. Hunter at quiltville.com rocks! If you haven't ever checked out her site please do. I can't wait for her next book to come out. I am really liking scrappy looking quilts because of her, used to be I wanted them all coordinated. I have no idea who will wind up with this quilt, but I almost don't want to part with it!

Christmas Lights Rows are Together

Fabulous progress on both getting the rows together and getting my yard spruced up! Off to watch the Packers beat the Vikings (please!) GO PACK GO!

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.

Christmas Lights Mystery Progress, Cutting some Schnibbles and a Painted Bench

It has been a truly crazy end of summer and start of fall for me. I got a call on the day after Labor Day that my dad had become unresponsive. I had spoken to him the day before and it was hard to understand him and I felt something had changed. To top that off the phone service where he was in Wisconsin (for cells) is awful and we got disconnected. I called back and talked ot Margie (his gf of 30 years) and she said he was really tired, etc. I was worried but after talking to my uncle (who had just been there for several days) heard Dad was doing okay and so my sister and I bought tickets for the two weekends out. The next day I got the call from one of Dad's good friends that we needed to come ASAP...so frantically we packed, switched tickets, arranged things with work and managed to get on a plane. We arrived about midnight their time and my wonderful daughter Hannah picked us up and drove us two and a half hours to little Trego.
My father suddenly opened his eyes as we arrived and seemed to understand we were there. He died with all four of us surrounding him (in about an hour) and telling him he would soon be free from his pain. It was really hard to let him go, but I do believe he is in a better place and can golf, hunt, eat, and drink again. We planned the service and it really meant a lot to all of us that about 300 people turned up to pay their last respects. All of that side of the family came, a few members from my mom's side (despite the divorce 35 years ago) and even my ex in-laws came which touched me too. Two of my three children were able to be there...my sister's son is in Japan with the Navy so he wasn't there and my oldest son Coleman was unable to come too. Both boys called that morning and their hearts were with us.
My sister and I were never so glad to come home last Sunday and have been on the phone everyday since...we are missing our Dad and grieving his short life (59 years) but he did enjoy each day and had a few years after his initial diagnosis with throat cancer....

On to a happier topic, I NEEDED to sew today and so I finally put the twelve stars together for the second clue in Bonnie Hunter's Christmas Lights (that for some reason I thought was Holiday Lights all this time) and also laid out the parts to get some idea of what the other block looks like.

It is a bit messy but you get the idea...

I also got the first Schnibbles pattern ready to go. Here is Glace all cut up.

Cut up the fabric for my Arizona Quilt History Block which I need to get to also.
Saturday we drove up to Prescott and stayed overnight with my mom. She had just finished painting the bench that we gave her for her bday. It looks great and matches her decor.

My sister, brother, his gf and son all came up for the day Saturday and it was nice to be together and mom really enjoyed it. I am so happy I was able to sew....my zen is back to normal!

Holiday Lights Block Layout Corrected!

Thanks to an astute reader I have now changed my block layout to what it should be. I had accidently pulled all four parts with the black from the same pile, but there are two different ones and so my block didn't much look like a star! I like this much better...I had noticed that the few others I had seen looked better but thought it was due to my scrappiness. I am glad I posted it online before I sewed, I usually don't--you can tell my mind is on my dad! Thanks again Ruthie!

Puss in the Corner and a Sneak Peak at Holiday Lights

One of the Holiday Lights blocks laid out on my design wall...next chance I get I plan to sew these babies together. I need twelve of these and twenty of another block which requires more cutting and the buying more red on red fabric.

Quilt History group's Puss in the Corner block was super easy to sew together. It was nice to get an easy one after the challenges of the past few months! At least I sewed a little bit today. I also have all the pictures gathered to scan tomorrow for my dad. Wrote out my thank you list and talked to him today about his plans...they are already looking into hospice. I will be going to see him on the 20th...my sister too.

Holiday Light Step One Complete

I finished sewing up all the step one clues for Bonnie Hunter's Holiday Lights Mystery (in Quiltmaker) tonight. I then spent some time trimming them up.

I am excited to finally have this clue done...it was nice to take my time and enjoy it since I knew there was two months before the next clue came out--but that is right around the corner now so I wanted to get this done. Not sure who this one will be for or if I can part with it. Bonnie has a way of making me fall in love with scrap quilts! My DD is still sitting here though in the box. I need to call my quilter in Wisconsin and see about sending it out to her. I have two baby circus quilts in another box waiting on another quilter who is in the middle of moving but will do them for me when she gets settled.

Found out yesterday my dad (Lenny, I have two dads ;)) in Wisconsin has a new and most likely improved kind of cancer. He had throat cancer almost two years ago and went to the brink of death to get rid of it....now having trouble swallowing and talking again....he will get more tests this next week to find out how far it has spread and such, but they are pretty sure he has it on his lip and in at least the one lymph node. He mentioned survival was about one in six. Please pray that my father doesn't suffer and that if he can't beat this he just goes peacefully. I hate cancer and with all my being want to die just about any other way. My sister happens to be in Wisconsin at the moment on a quick visit so I am happy she will get to see him and hug him and smooch him for the both of us, I dang near bought a ticket to fly out to see him for a few days but I go to PA on Friday night and just got back from CA and I hate to be squished on planes! So I will settle for phone calls and email for now. Thanks for your prayers! Here is a pic from two summers ago when my dad was going through the first round...my sister Tina, Dad and me.

Pincushions!

I think I didn't show a picture of the pincushion I got from the exchange on my NewQuilingClub Yahoo group. It is this little star. There was a mix up and mine was the only one not to arrive by the start date (the gal sent me a quilt meant for someone else and I think that person got my pincushion which was supposed to be a cute little ladybug) but it did happily arrive a few days later. The button fell off in the mail and my dog liked it so now it has that "charm" of being well loved. I put it up on a shelf we hung in the quilting studio so I can display my little pincushion collection. Thanks Ruth!


I went over to June's (and BJ came too) last Sunday for a few hours. I worked on these larger than life pear pincushions and finished them up today. I think if I make more I will do them a bit smaller so they look a bit more real! One is going to my collection, and the other will go to someone for Christmas I think. I used leftover scraps (see the lining and Amy Butler fabric from my hat?) and also used my new lime prize fabric...I think they turned out cute. I added some new leaf pins and they are ready to go!









Also at June's I worked on clue one for Holiday Lights. I have 24 more of the last block to do and then they all need trimming, no picture of those yet.

Bow Tucks Bag Done!

Went back to June's today and she helped me finish this bag. I love it. I ordered some Birds of Norway fabric and think I will be making another of this pattern with that fabric. I love it, thanks again June!
Have started on my four patches for Holiday Lights...here they are as two's.