Socks

 

I just downloaded Picasa and thought I'd try posting a picture...we'll see if it works! These are the socks that I finished the other night. They didn't turn out too bad for my first pair, hopefully each pair after this will get better! I didn't do too badly with matching the stripes, although they're not perfect. But as they say, done is better than perfect!

I've been getting ready for Christmas here...my youngest and I put the lights on the house yesterday and did most of the indoor decorating, except for the tree. That won't go up for another week or so. My Christmas cards are ready, just waiting for the stamps. Most of the gifts are bought, I'll be having a big wrapping session sometime next week. I love being ready for the holidays early...I seem to enjoy them so much more without the last minute rush! And yes, I always had my assignments for school done early too...I don't handle pressure well! :o)

Not much quilting going on, although I am quilting a customer's log cabin quilt. It's done in purples and oranges and is one of the prettiest I've ever seen! I'll post pictures when it's finished.

We've been unseasonably warm here in NJ...our temps were in the 70's today and will be the same tomorrow...at least until a storm blows through and drops them down into the 40's. Maybe THEN it will feel like Christmas! 

My accent

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Northeast
The Midland
The Inland North
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have?

I found this to be so funny because I grew up in South Jersey, right out side of Philadelphia. Isn't it amazing how accurate these tests can be? Almost scary...

Holiday Shopping

Here it is, the day after Thanksgiving and I think I've got this holiday shopping thing worked out. My DH and daughter left a little while ago to spend the morning shopping...they left with their list of gifts we need. While they shop, I've been sitting at the computer, finding gifts to send to friends and family, far and wide.

I've already purchased all the toys for the little nephews and have gotten gifts for my parents and MIL. I've made table runners and a quilt for the girls in the office.

And of course, while I've been shopping, I did manage to find a little bit for myself. Today only (11/24) Carodan Farm is having a 25% off of everything sale. You have to spend a minimum of $35, but if you spend over $50 you get free shipping. Easier done than said! Looks like Santa will be bringing me some new sock yarn for Christmas.

And if you're interested, here are a few other places where I'm shopping for special gifts, tailored to the receiver.

Kitchen Kettle Village Located in Lancaster County, PA, they make the most amazing jellies, jams, salsas, apple butter...Delicious and reasonably priced!

Boudin Bakery - For real San Francisco sourdough bread, shop here! This is the best sourdough I've ever had. My DH sent me some when he was in San Francisco last month and it was incredible. I think I'm ordering the bread bowls with chili for myself!

Wine Country Gift Baskets Beautiful baskets filled with scrumptious things...my favorites are the Ghirardelli chocolate baskets. I've found the same baskets online at other places, but at Wine Country Gift Baskets they run $10 - $15 cheaper than on other sites. They also have spa baskets, food baskets, etc...and, of course, baskets with wine!

Hope this helps with your shopping too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

More finished...

The tablerunners are all bound and ready for gift giving! I'm so glad to cross another project off of my list. The first picture is of all 5 tablerunners. The second is of the quilting on one of them. I custom quilted 2 of them, then decided to get them done quickly and did swirls on the other 3. I almost like the swirly ones better! I just hope the girls who are receiving them like them.

Back to Quilting

No knitting today. I decided I should spend a little time catching up on my Women of the Bible Quilt blocks. This is last week's block, for the Mother of Moses. I love how this one turned out...it was fun to paper piece.

Terrible storm here tonight, we're hoping we don't blow away! Fortunately, they've dropped the tornado watch and the storm should be through in a few hours. It was so bad this afternoon they wouldn't let our children ride their bikes home from school. Almost all of the kids ride their bikes to school, so this is a big thing...those of us who drive little cars had to leave the bikes there overnight. Normally the police would pick up the bikes that were left, check to see who they were registered to and drop them off at the owner's house. But with so many bikes today, I'm thinking we won't get personalized service!

One Warm Foot...

I did it...I made a sock! It was much easier than I thought it would be, although I did make a few mistakes here and there. Hopefully I can correct them in the next sock. I have the cuff folded down, because that's the way I like to wear them.

I found the pattern I used and an excellent tutorial at this site. It was amazing...very simple to follow. The yarn I used was Regia Sock Yarn in color 5047. Besides the sock, I've also bound 4 of the 5 tablerunners for Christmas and quilted a baby quilt.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so today I gave her the gift I made for her...Judy's first One Hour a Day quilt. She seemed very pleased with it...loved the colors and fabrics as well as the design and said she'll use it in her family room. So...thanks to Judy I have made my mother happy...and I have one warm foot! :o)

Cathedral Windows - finished!

I have a few days off of school this week and I'm trying to take full advantage of them! Today was my first day off. I was up by 6:30 and by 7 was watching the election results and working on the last few blocks of my cathedral windows project. I finished the center and then did a few other things, including loading one of my quilts on the longarm...one which I believe is destined to go to Quilts of Valor.

This afternoon I came to my sewing room and started auditioning fabric for a narrow binding. It only took about 45 minutes to decide on this...not that you can really see it! :o) The binding is now complete and I'm so happy to say this project is finished. I enjoyed making the blocks, but just can't imagine doing an entire cathedral windows quilt by hand! This will go on the little table in my foyer. My goal was to have it done by Christmas so I could use it after the holidays...guess that won't be a problem!

I have to thank Judy for her sock pictures. I haven't knitted in about 20 years, but now I NEED to make socks. Don't want to, but need to! I went to Michael's and AC Moore looking for sock yarn, but since I had no clue what I was looking for I came away empty handed. So I went to the Carodan Farm website which Judy recommended and managed to buy a few skeins of yarn and needles to start with. I wish they'd get here! Of course, as soon as I was done ordering I realized I could have gone about a mile from my house to the little yarn store and had some instant gratification! Oh well, I wouldn't have gotten anything else done if I had done that!

Now on to my next project...this week I quilted the tablerunners that I made in September, so binding them tomorrow's work...

Tonight I'm off to guild...haven't been there in several months!

Quilting Meme

Thought I'd give this one a try...

Have You Ever?

1. Taken a quilting class
2. Paper pieced
3. Hand quilted
4. Hand pieced
5. Created your own pattern
6. Published a pattern in a magazine or book
7. Gone on a quilting retreat
8. Gone to a quilting convention
9. Met someone who wrote a quilting book - Ami Simms
10 combined your quilting with some other craft
11. Done any three dimensional quilting - like fabric origami
12. Made something using Thimbleberries fabric
13. Made something using batiks
14. Dyed your own fabric
15. Made a landscape hanging
16 Made a New York Beauty quilt
17 Made a baby quilt
18 Made a wall hanging
19 Made a journal quilt
20 Submitted your journal quilt for viewing
21 Made a fabric postcard
22 Made a artistic trading card (ATC)
23 Exchanged artistic trading cards
24. Mailed your own postcard
25. Made a lap quilt
26 Made a twin size quilt
27 Made a full size quilt
28 Made a queen size quilt
29 Made a king size quilt
30 Donated a quilt to charity
31 Sent a quilt out to a quilter - I AM the quilter! :o)
32 Thrown away a UFO
33 Given away a UFO
34 Cut up a UFO and made something else with it
35 Ripped fabric instead of cutting it
36 Made a quilt exactly like the pattern, with no changes whatsoever
37 Done any Sashiko
38 Quilted your own quilt
39 Did free motion quilting
40 Put any embroidery or beads on your quilt
41 Given away your quilt to a stranger
42 Swapped fabric
43 swapped blocks
44 participated in a round robin
45 participated in an ostritch round robin
46 kept a journal about your quilting
47 written a letter to someone who made an antique quilt
49 kept a blog about your quilting
50 participated in a gift exchange
51 sent a quilting random act of kindness
52 joined a newsgroup about quilting
53 made a quilt using a pattern from quilterscache
54 joined an online block of the month
55 made a block of the month quilt
56 subscribed to a fabric of the month club
57 bought fabric at an online store
58 bought fabric from ebay
59 own more than one sewing machine
60 have a room dedicated solely to sewing - I have 2 rooms!
61 hide a fabric purchase
62 finished making a holiday gift before July
63 spent more than $200 in one quilt shopping trip
64 made a quilt using a book from the library
65 worked with someone else to make a quilt
66. joined a quilt guild
67 become president of a quilt guild
68 taught a quilting class
69 helped someone else get the quilting bug
70 taught a child to sew
71 made a Dear Jane block
72 Made a miniature quilt
73 watch QNN - quilters news network
73 subscribe to a quilting magazine from your own country
74 subscribe to a quilting magazine from another country
75 buy fabric from another country
76 swapped completed quilts with someone else
77 asked for quilting help online
78 gone to a quilt shop to ask for quilting help
79 bought fabric at a local quilt shop
80 traveled more than 100 miles to go to a quilt shop
81 used nontraditional fabric for a quilt - something other than cotton or flannel
82 made a quilt using instructions given to you on a blog
83 make comments on someone's quilting blog
84 meet a quilter in person after only having talked online - met my best friends that way!
85 had a quilting retreat in your home
86 own quilting software
87 made a quilt you designed on your quilting software
88 done any quilt research - history, interviewing quilters, etc.
89 had any quilt related subject published anywhere
90 donated a quilt to a museum
91 bought a quilt from a thrift store
92 made a quilt using fabric from a thrift store
93 made a quilt using photos
94 made a pastel quilt
95 made a quilt using brights
96 made a quilt using ethnic fabric from another country - African, Asian, etc.
97 made a quilt using leftover blocks from other quilts
98 had your quilt in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, TV, etc. - one that I quilted
99. submitted your quilt to a quilt show
100. won any ribbons with your quilts
101 had more finished quilts than UFOs
102 made a quilt using reproduction fabrics
103 took a break from quilting that was longer than a year
104 made money with your quilting
105 had a job in the fabric / quilting industry

Two More Blocks Finished

These are the next two blocks for the "Women of the Bible Quilt" that I'm working on through Yahoo. I'm enjoying these so much. They use a variety of different techniques and it's fun to practice some of my long rusty skills! I especially love this applique block. The melons don't quite meet up the way they should and the points aren't terribly pointy, but it was challenging and fun to do!

My husband is off to California until Friday, and I have several days off this week, so I intend to put them to good use! Hopefully I'll have a few finishes to show by the end of the week. Right now I'm working on more Care Bags. I cut out and sewed up the sides of 8 more last night, bringing my total to 15. Once I have sewn the casings and put the drawstrings through, I'll pack them up and send them off.
I'd been planning on doing the Hour A Day quilt, but when looking at the yardages required, I realized that I don't have enough yardage of anything to make the quilt. I don't want to go shopping for more fabric, so I'll print out the directions and plan to do it at a later date. I've enjoyed seeing everyone's progress so far and can't wait to see the results!

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend...cool temps and clear skies here in NJ today, my favorite kind of weather!

Giving Thanks!

Today was the follow up appointment for my daughter's biopsy and it came back normal...what a weight lifted off of our shoulders! Thank you for all of your prayers, now she can go back to being a normal 16 year old again!

To make the day even better, while we were at the doctor's, I got a text from my son, asking what was for dinner because he wanted to come home from college to eat. Of course I hadn't planned on cooking, but when I realized the entire family would be home tonight if we ate a little late, I made one of our favorites...roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh green beans and bread. He was here when I got home from running errands and we all had a great time at dinner, catching up, laughing...it was such fun having him here. He's heading back to school now to go to the movies with his friends.

And now I'm heading to my favorite spot...on the comfy couch by the fireplace. I have my project basket, my applique, a mug of something warm and a puppy by my feet. Thank you again for your prayers and good wishes...I have so much to be thankful for!