A Fun Day...

Today my husband and I took off on an adventure. After running a few errands, we headed to a small town about 40 minutes south of us, near where our son attends college. Mullica Hill is known for its antique shops and farmland...lots of farmland! The attraction for us was a new quilt shop which I had just heard about, that opened at the end of January. The Mullica Hill Quilt Company is the most charming quilt shop I've ever been in, and I've been in a lot of quilt shops! Except for a few necessities, I haven't been just shopping at a quilt shop since my little jaunt last summer for my birthday. I could have spent a fortune in this shop...and pretty near did! Once I made my purchases they were all wrapped so nicely in the bag above. When I opened the bag, the picture below is what greeted me. All of the fabric was wrapped in acid-free paper so that I didn't have to worry about putting it on my shelves and letting it sit.

I did make the one purchase that I intended to...3 yards of red fabric to use as sashing, borders and binding for a t-shirt quilt for my son. That's one of my summer projects.
Then I found this beautiful fabric line from Maywood, which I just couldn't pass up! It's called "He Loves Me" by Jackie Robinson and was just the softest, prettiest fabric I'd seen. Even my DH liked it...and liked it well enough that he held the bolts and didn't blink when I told him I wanted 4 yards of the blue floral and 2 yards of everything else! I did restrain myself, I didn't buy any of the pink colorway! :o)
I chatted with Annette, the owner, and Debbie ( I hope I got your name right!), the wonderful woman who patiently cut and folded all of this fabric. I was thoroughly impressed with the wonderful service and I think this shop will do very well! I know I'll be doing most of my shopping there.

From the shop we headed to the Heritage Vineyard where we had a wine tasting and left with bottles of their blush and peach wines. We also had to take home some apple cider donuts...they're the best!

After hopping down the road to bring our son his Easter basket, we headed home...it's been a fun day! And now I'm off to wash my fabric and find a pattern for a queen size quilt that I can use it in! Any suggestions? I'm thinking stars of some sort....

I hope everyone has a Blessed Easter...

Chinese Coins

The HeartStrings Quilt project is making Chinese Coins for the months of April and May. Mary has written a nice tutorial on the website. Last week at Caps and Laps I was asked if I'd be interested in making a quilt for the basket of goodies they are making for a parishioner who is having a little girl. It seemed like a great opportunity to make a Chinese Coin quilt! So, this is what I've put together in the past two evenings. It measures about 46 inches square, which will be a great size to lay on the floor for the baby to play on, cover her in her crib, or for her to snuggle with as she grows older. I've got enough of the pink leftover for the backing and binding, and I've used all but a few strips of the white baby print, so that is more fabric out of my stash!

It's been rainy and chilly here today. After a trip to the chocolate store to pick up a few treats for Easter, I've spent most of the afternoon doing paperwork, invoices, balancing checking and savings accounts, paying state sales tax, filing...all those fun jobs that are associated with running a small business. Now that's over, so I plan to relax tonight...either in front of my sewing machine or with my knitting. Hmmm...decisions, decisions! :o)

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments on my challenge quilt and the prayer shawl. It's so nice to have this forum and all of the support that quilters give each other so readily. You are the best!

Caps and Laps and other ministries

For a long time I've been looking for a place to donate my quilts, quilting and other (and I use the term loosely!) talents. For a few years I quilted for Camp Reach for the Sky which is a camp in California for children with cancer. It made me feel good to do this, but as time passed I wanted to find a way to make a difference closer to home.

At the beginning of the year, Mary started the Heartstrings Quilt Project. I signed up, hoping to find the time to make blocks and send them off. So far I've sent a total of 30 blocks to the project. Then I realized that I could donate quilts in the name of Heartstrings locally, so that's what I've decided to do.

Last week I stopped in at the meeting of my church's Caps and Laps program. They make hats and blankets for babies, lap robes for for those in wheelchairs and the elderly and they donate to many different organizations. I brought them two quilts which I had made in the last year and the two baby hats I'd knitted. The women were so sweet! First off, they could not understand why I would be giving away these quilts until I reminded them that they were there, making these beautiful baby layettes and blankets and were giving them away because it was the right thing to do. I couldn't stay because I had a meeting to go to, so they insisted that I come back next month and spend some time with them. I hope to be able to make a Chinese Coins quilt for them in the next month as a response to the challenge on the Heartstrings website.

While there, they told me about a Prayer Shawl Ministry that they hoped to start between them and the Daughters of the King chapter at our church, which I belong to. I decided to start a Prayer Shawl for a lady at church who was instrumental in my becoming a charter member of our chapter. I found the pattern on the internet, although the ladies did give me a book of patterns that I could choose from. I'm enjoying knitting it and praying for this lovely lady as I go. I'm sure it will take me forever to finish it, I'm not a very fast knitter! :o)

I did manage to quilt half a quilt on my machine today, but my back was protesting and I had to stop. Apparently I'm going to have to live with some back pain until it gets bad enough for medical intervention beyond muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories. I also removed sleeves and hemmed the armholes from an old dress that my daughter wanted made into a sundress, and fixed another dress that I had made years ago which my youngest will wear in her school play. I still have a shop sample to make by April 25, several quilts to quilt for customers...the list never ends, does it? We've all been there, done that!!! It's a good thing we love it!

Done!!!

My Challenge quilt for the Machine Quilter's Exposition is finally done! I sewed on my little flowers and ruched flowers today, sewed on the sleeve and label, and at the last minute made a mad dash for some Swarovski Crystals to put in the centers of the little blue flowers. That's it...I've done enough. Tomorrow it will leave my hands and I won't see it again until after the judges do. I'm not even sure I want to see the judges remarks...I'm finding that quilting for show takes the joy out of quilting. I'm not sure I'll intentionally make a quilt for show again. The next picture is the trapunto border and the last picture is the applique (with the crystals!) My back is feeling better, so now, once I get over my bronchitis, I can get back to customer quilts!

Challenge Quilt

I just took my MQX Challenge quilt off of the longarm. I know the judges will have a grand time with this one! I've never done trapunto before, never done a challenge quilt for a show and have never entered a quilt in a show, so I call this quilt "Courage". My big mistake was using a thread in the border that was too dark, so in many areas there is the appearance of "thread build up" where I've overlapped the quilting design too much. This quilt is rather stiff...not a good snuggle quilt!

Next comes blocking, binding, rinsing in cold water to remove the blue marks, warm water to remove the water soluble thread, adding three dimensional flowers and maybe a few beads. Of course, I've also never blocked a quilt and have no idea whether to bind first or block first, or how to go about blocking it! This is definitely a quilt of firsts! And it has to be in New Hampshire by April 3rd. I think I can, I think I can...

New Quilt Started...

A few weeks ago when my husband was in Copenhagen, he and I were IMing and he was telling me about the fabulous dinners he was having, how beautiful the city was...and I got to feeling sorry for myself because I wasn't there with him! What to do to cheer myself up? Start a new quilt! So, this is the quilt I started that night. It's called "Underground Railroad" and is from the Elm Creek Quilts book by Jennifer Chiaverini. I have all of the four patch blocks done and about half of the half square triangle blocks. I just wanted to get some up on the design wall and see what it would look like. I used fabrics that I got for my birthday last June and so far I like what it looks like. What do you think?
Today in the mail I received these two Pot Holder kits from a dear friend who lives in Texas. They are paper pieced...I'm looking forward to making them!

Craziness...

Apparently things around here are not going to settle down. It was a crazy week. I went to the doctor on Monday and was cleared to go back to work. The kids were so happy to see me and it was good to be back! On Wednesday my daughter had a follow up doctor appointment for some bloodwork. That was good because it turned out that on Tuesday a girl in her high school was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. The girl is hospitalized and will recover. The doctor recommended we take my daughter back to the school where the county had set up a health clinic to dispense antibiotics to the students who may have had contact with the sick girl. So off we went to the clinic where she was given Cipro.

On Thursday I took her to the chiropractor for her appointment. My daughter's chiropractor (I see a different doctor in the practice) arranged for me to have a free massage with the in house massage therapist! It was wonderful, if you've never had a massage, I highly recommend it! Afterwards I was telling him about my back going out and he sent me home with exercises, an icy hot cream and a TENS unit to use at home. I felt totally spoiled! Thursday was also my husband's birthday, so he and I had an exciting evening. We went to a 50's style diner for dinner and then went to the radiology place so I could have an MRI. Do we know how to celebrate???

Friday dawned with rain, which turned to ice by noon. We wound up with about 4 inches of ice by this morning. The roads were a mess, but we didn't have to go anywhere last night, so I sat and read by the fire.

So, no quilting done this week, except for some machine quilting on my challenge quilt for MQX. I can only stand at the machine for about 15 minutes before my back begins to complain, so it's slow going. I hope to get more time than that in tomorrow...the deadline is on the 31st! The quilt in this post is an oldie. It was made from signature exchange blocks that I got from an AOL group I was with in 1997. This group was composed of about 30 women across the country. We actually were able to get together for retreats twice back then, but after awhile the group fell apart. However, my 4 best friends were part of that group and we still talk almost every day now, even though we are scattered from New Jersey to Arizona to Minnesota to Florida to Texas. Quilting friends are the best!

Quilting...

I have completed Judy's February challenge...only a few days late! I finished quilting my nine patch today...I waited to take my pain meds until I had finished. And I needed them by the time I was done! The backing fabric is now gone from my stash, as well as the border fabric. Two large chunks of fabric gone to a good cause!
Yesterday I knitted another little hat...a pink one to go with the blue. Both the quilt and the hats will be going to the Caps and Laps program at our church...if they want them!

The good news is that I can stand and walk relatively normally today...as long as I take the muscle relaxants and the pain killers. I'm still hunched without them. I also noticed that if you enlarge the bottom picture, I overlapped the Baptist Fans a little bit. That will teach me to try to quilt on the longarm under the influence of happy pills! :o)

Forced Vacation

I was having a pretty nice weekend. On Friday night I saw the high school play with my daughter and her friend. On Saturday I did some quilting. I loaded my blue and white nine patch on the machine and got it mostly quilted. I was accomplishing things. On Sunday morning, the girls and I went to church. We stopped at the store on the way home. I had a full day of quilting planned...I was going to finish quilting the nine patch and get the binding on. Was going to run the vacuum so I wouldn't have to do it on Monday. The best laid plans...

After church I decided to get comfy...flannel pants, a turtleneck and a sweatshirt. I went into my closet, bent over to get my pants off the shelf, and I heard it. Two very loud pops in my lower back. And I felt it...the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life. I dropped to my knees, made it over to the bed and stayed on the floor for a lifetime...or about 20 minutes. I couldn't move. I was lightheaded. It was awful. I managed to change my clothes while I was on the floor, then I crawled down the hallway and scooted down the stairs on my bottom. The pain was tremendous. Holding onto walls, railings and furniture I made it to the sofa and tried to get comfortable, all the while trying not to cry. My daughter wanted to take me to the emergency room, but I was afraid they'd admit me. Since my husband is in Frankfurt for the rest of the week, I didn't want to have to call him and tell him I was in the hospital!

I called the doctor and he told me to take two of the 500mg Naproxen tablets that I have for my migraines. If that didn't help, he said I should go to the ER. It did help some, along with the heating pad, although I still couldn't stand or walk. I found my Vicodin and managed to get through the night.

Yesterday morning I called the doctor. The recording said the office opened at noon. I managed to make it until noon and called again. The recording said they were out to lunch until 1. I called again and managed to get an appointment. The results? One was that the recording was wrong and they were really open at 8:30! Second was I most likely have herniated two disks in my back. I am out of work at least until next Tuesday. I am on lots of happy drugs. :o) I can walk again, albeit painfully. But I will survive. And I have to stay on the sofa with my heating pad as much as possible. So that means...

I've had time to knit the adorable little baby hat you see here. I saw these on Suze's blog, The Thread and I and she was kind enough to share the pattern with me. They work up quickly and are so cute! I plan to make a few and donate them to our church's "Caps and Laps" group which makes baby hats for the local hospital and lap robes for senior citizens. When I finished the hat, I started working on my newest pair of socks.

This morning I started cutting away the batting on my trapunto. It is a tedious job. I worked on it until the Percoset kicked in...then I stopped. I didn't want to cut the quilt top! Although I can't work at the longarm right now, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to stand up straighter by the end of the week and I can finish the nine patch. The good news is that one of the most comfortable chairs in the house is my sewing chair...it's cushy with lots of support. On Saturday night I cut out a new quilt, so I should be able to get some piecing done too. I'm doing my best to turn this into an opportunity to get something accomplished. I'll keep you posted!

Saturday Afternoon...

It's a beautiful Saturday here in South Jersey...sunny, temperatures in the 60's, but far too wet to work out in the yard! Besides, with it dipping back into the 30's this week, I don't think I want to get anything started out there!

So, instead of playing outside, I've been playing inside! I've finished the first layer of quilting for my MQX challenge quilt. What you see in the picture is the first layer of batting on the back. It's a thick batting and I've done the quilting in water soluble thread. I will trim away all the areas that I don't want to be trapuntoed, then will put it back on the longarm with another, thinner batting and backing, then quilt it again. I've named this quilt "Courage". It's the first time I've ever entered a quilt into a show to be judged. It's also the first time I've ever done trapunto. It's taken a great deal of courage for me to get it this far...now I can't wait to get it done!

In the meantime, I think I'll load a quilt onto the machine that I can get finished quickly and will require a minimum amount of "thinking" to get it done. Sounds like my blue nine patch and some Baptist Fans will be the perfect thing to start!

Swimming Upstream

That's how I've been feeling lately, like I'm swimming upstream. The more I do, the more is left to do! As a result, very little has gotten done. I started marking my MQX challenge quilt, then had to stop to "erase" an area that didn't quite lay out right. Now that it's dry, I'll have to remark it. I plan to get that on the machine so I can start the trapunto on it next week. I've sent in the entry form, so I have to get it done! :o)

I should have lots of time for quilting in the next few weeks, my DH will be in Europe. Now that my older daughter has passed her driver's test, she takes herself where she needs to go, so now I'm down to playing chauffeur for one child...that frees up a huge amount of time!

Last week when I gave my friend her journal, I wound up with orders for several more! Today I ran and picked up the fabric for those, so will have to make a pattern and get started. I'm thinking of making a load of journal covers and a few other items (eyeglass cases, notebook covers...any other suggestions?) and getting a table at a few of the local fall craft fairs to see if I can make a little money with them. Once school ends in June, I'd have the summer to stock up on them. If they don't sell I can always give them as Christmas gifts!

Journal Cover

I found a journal cover over on Covered Porches and Wooden Screen Doors blog and fell in love with it. I have a party to go to tonight and decided it would make a perfect gift. So I dug out some fabrics and had fun figuring out how to make it. My favorite part is the fabric covered button I made to close it...haven't seen those in years! Thanks for the inspiration, Mel!

Still Sewing...

I should get a day off more often, I get a lot accomplished! After finishing the Heartstrings blocks, I noticed my blue nine patch quilt hanging on the rocking chair. Since it hasn't turned out to be quite what I envisioned, I've decided to call it done...and use the quilt as an opportunity to continue with Judy's February Challenge. Three yards of blue fabric was pulled from my stash and it became the borders and binding for the quilt. I even have the binding made and ready to go on! Then I pulled this incredibly soft flannel from my stash...5 yards worth and plenty for the back! So, that will be my third piece of fabric pulled from the stash for the challenge. Now I have to get this quilt and my sunflower quilt done by the end of the month so they will count!

I have Monday off for President's Day...wonder what I can do then???

Icy Day...

I've spent most of my day indoors...just heading out long enough to clear about a half inch of ice off of my car and my daughter's car. The rest of the day has been spent at one sewing machine or another. I loaded a customer quilt and quilted about half of it. Then I made a cup of tea and headed up to my sewing room. I finished the Heartstrings quilt blocks that I had cut foundations for, so they are ready to send off to become quilts. I love how the blocks look when they are put together. I didn't realize that I had made one block that was all pastels, it looks odd in with the others!
Mr. UPS man stopped by this morning and dropped off my Checkers order. These three books were in it. The Clever Quarters books have a lot of great scrap quilts in them, all made from Fat Quarters. I'm thinking the Lone Star quilt book will be an inspiration book...I can't see myself making one of these any time soon! The quilts in this book are stunning.

I love having a day off! I hope all of you who are affected by the winter weather are safe, warm, dry and spending this Valentine's Day with the ones you love!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone has a very happy Valentine's Day! My day was made happy by a phone call at 4:30am telling me that we have a SNOW DAY!!! We got a few inches of snow yesterday, but it all turned to ice and freezing rain overnight. It's a mess out there! It's more of a rain/sleet mix now, but should continue most of the day.

Since I cleaned and did the laundry after work yesterday, that leaves my day free to sew! I have 3 or 4 more foundations cut out for Heartstrings blocks so I hope to make those today and send off the blocks I've been working on later in the week. I'll be loading a customer quilt and working on that today as well.

Enjoy your day!

Finally!

I feel like I've been working on these socks forever! The first sock was done before Christmas and I had hopes of having them done to wear on Christmas day. I'm happy to say they are finally done...in time for Valentine's Day! I'll wear them to school on Monday, we're having pajama day in Kindergarten, so it will be a fun day to wear them.

I did make it to the quilt show today and it's made me think. I was definitely underwhelmed by the quilts I saw there. It was a local show, but it seemed that many quilts were just large chunks of fabric thrown together and the machine quilting paid little attention to the style of the quilt. There was one beautiful basket quilt in 30s fabrics that was hanging upside down and the quilting on it was almost jarring to look at. There were, of course, many beautiful quilts as well and I enjoyed seeing them. It was almost impossible to take pictures because the rows of quilts were very close together. My DH and I were there for less than an hour. This show has made me consider the quilts I make and whether I'm just making quilts to use up stash or if I'm actually putting thought into the pattern. I love intricate quilts but they take a lot of time to make. Do I want to put that effort in? I know that I do, but often compromise for the sake of time. Maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on quantity over quality. I'll have to take all of this into consideration when I choose the next quilt I want to make! I still love the classics, which are simple blocks. I also love the string quilts we're making for Heartstrings. But I wonder if I really want to make more quilts that have you slice fabric, then put it back together with no matching seams and intersections. This could take me in a whole new direction...

Friday

Not much quilty is happening here. I've managed to finish 5 log cabin blocks and that's it! I do like how they're turning out, although I need to give a little more consideration to what I'm using as lights and darks. Some are very medium and could go either way! A busy weekend is ahead...tomorrow is the Love Apples Quilt Guild show and I'm hoping to be able to get there, but the weekend is full already and I'm not sure I'll have time. If not, I'll definitely spend some time in my sewing room! Have a great weekend...

Stripping...

I've been wanting to start a new project, knew I wanted to make it scrappy, but I'm so tired of working with the Thimbleberries strips that I cut last summer. After all, I've made two quilts out of them and have been using them in my Heartstrings blocks. But the colors are so boring....

Yesterday it occurred to me that Judy said we should pull a fabric from our stash and make something out of it for February...so why couldn't I pull a whole bunch and make my scrappy quilt more interesting and...fun! So, I spent last night and this afternoon ironing lots of old (very old!) fat quarters and cutting them into strips. I've decided to make a log cabin quilt for my bed for the summer. I don't expect it to be done at the end of February, but since I'm pulling lots of fabrics from my stash I figure I can take a little longer. The centers will be red and the logs will be all sorts of colors. While I'm cutting, I'm also cutting some strips larger than the 1.5" strips I need so that I can add them to the strips for my Heartstrings blocks to make those sing a little too!

So my bins are filling up...can't wait to get started!

New Blogger!

Just wanted to let you know that there's a new blogger out there! Judy and I met online many years ago when we were both making the "Grandma's Country Album Quilt" by Robert Callaham that was published in McCall's Quilting magazine. We had a little support group going and cheered each other along as we worked on these blocks. My quilt has been in the flimsy stage for several years now (yes, like the cobbler whose children had no shoes, the machine quilter rarely gets to quilt her own tops!) but Judy's has been finished for a long time. If you have a minute, head over and meet her at Irishlakequilter. Tell her I sent you! :o)

Judy's Challenge

Over on Judy's Blog she has issued a Stash Busting Challenge. I've decided to take her up on it! This fabric is something I purchased about 6 years ago, shortly after moving back to New Jersey. I got 3 yards of it when I went to the Love Apples Quilt Show. There show is coming up again in 2 weeks! I just fell in love with it and purchased another 3 yards shortly after the show, in a quilt shop. Whenever I would start a new project, I would pull this out, pair it up with my other fabrics and be disappointed...nothing quite matched. It just didn't play well with others!

Of course, this was the first fabric I thought of when I read Judy's Challenge. I pulled it off the shelf and finally had one of those light bulb moments! If it wouldn't play nicely, I could put it on the BACK of a quilt!!! Ironically, I've been searching online to find a backing fabric for my Sunflower quilt that I made over the summer. It was already washed, so this afternoon I sewed the 2 pieces together, trimmed the selvages, ironed it and now it's all ready to become the back of my quilt. This quilt is for ME so I can enjoy the backing fabric too. :o)

Now I have the month of February to get this quilt finished...and I'll have busted 6 yards of stash! I think I may have to pull another favorite to make a quilt top with as well. I love this challenge, Judy...thanks!

Productive Headache

I was in Kindergarten this morning and got a nasty headache. And it wasn't even from the kids! :o) I went to the gym after work, but cut my workout short because my head was pounding. When I got home, I took some Motrin, but didn't want to sit down. I loaded a customer quilt, took my daughter to wrestling (she's the team manager) and was going to start quilting. But...when I leaned over the machine, my head would pound! I just couldn't do nothing, knew I couldn't focus on knitting or applique, so started making Heartstrings blocks. So...my head still hurts, but at least I have something to show for it!

I haven't sat down at the machine for over a week and felt like I was going through withdrawal. I had done lots of applique, a little knitting and had quilted 2 or 3 quilts, but there's nothing like piecing blocks and having something wonderful when you've finished.

Update on my Women of the Bible Quilt I haven't had time to make the blocks, many of them are very involved and intricate. I still plan to do them, but have set them aside for now to finish up customer quilts and my challenge. I am keeping up with the Bible Study though...I figure that is the important part!

Customer Service

This morning I decided to pull out my new Featherz template for my Circle Lord. I couldn't quite figure out how to use it, so I sent an email to Michael at Loricles Quilting. Within about 15 minutes, ON A SUNDAY, my phone rings and it's Michael! After realizing that I hadn't received the instruction book that should have come with my template, he gave me instructions on how to use it, then emailed the instruction booklet to me. I am so impressed with their customer service! Whenever I have had a question, concern or wanted to place an order, I have had a response within a very short period of time.

After downloading the manual, I marked my template as he suggested. It looks like this now...


Before I had the instructions, I made this feather wreath which I wasn't thrilled with...I was backtracking far too often because I didn't know which way to go, and with the high contrast thread it just looked awful!
And here are the after pictures. I'm sorry they're hard to see, but you get can get the idea! It was so much easier knowing what to do. The instructions were simple to follow and I'm so pleased with the Featherz template! I can see I'll use this a lot. Thanks Michael, for you help and your amazing customer service!

applique question

I know that many of you do applique and I have a quick question. I've been working on my challenge quilt, which has to be machine quilted. (It IS going to a machine quilting show, after all!) My plan is to add applique leaves to my vine, but I'd like to make 3-dimensional flowers to add. So, as a longarmer, I plan to do the quilting before I add the flowers so that they don't interfere with the machine. Is there any sort of problem doing this? It just seems to make the most sense to me!

Thanks for your advice!

It's Monday

and I feel like I should be getting a lot more done than I am! I did find some time over the weekend to spend in my sewing room. As I was sitting in front of the window (feeling like I was on display!), the heat was coming up from the baseboards and I felt like I was having an enormous hot flash. Well, I get enough hot flashes without creating them while I quilt, so my husband and I moved my sewing table to the corner AWAY from the sunny window and FAR AWAY from the baseboards. So now maybe I won't overheat while I'm quilting and I'll spend more time in my sewing room! Here is my table, back where it started.



I have been working on something...my challenge for the MQX show in April. I can't show you all of it here, but I will show you the stashbusting part! I made this bias strip years ago for a round robin. I had about 6 feet left, so rather than make new bias strip, I pulled this out and busted it from my stash! That's got to be what, an eighth of a yard busted?? :o) Now to make some flowers and leaves to applique on!

Quilts and Scones...

Last night I finished a beautiful customer quilt. This was made by the friend of mine who came to visit me in August. She does beautiful work, I've shown her quilts before in my blog. This is her latest masterpiece!



I quilted freehand feathers all over...it was such fun!


And this afternoon, I whipped up a batch of cinnamon scones using my new mini scone pan which I bought with my gift card to Sur La Table. They turned out good, but would probably be much better if I added some cinnamon chips to them. I'll have to check the grocery store and see if I can get them. If not, they sell them in the King Arthur Flour Baker's Catalog.


My next project is working on the borders for my Challenge Quilt for MQX. They will be appliqued...once I design them! I don't think I'll work as quickly as Ann did on her borders though...nor will they look as beautiful!

Nancy, watch the mail!

These blocks will be heading to Nancy on Tuesday, in honor of her birthday. Once I clear up a few commitments, I'll be making more blocks to send for the Heartstrings project. These blocks are such fun to make!

Delilah Block

And here is my Delilah block for my Women of the Bible Quilt, completed. Paperpiecing all those little triangles was tedious, but I love how the block turned out!

HeartStrings Blocks

Happy Birthday Nancy! Here are two blocks to celebrate your birthday. Let me know where to send these.

I'm thinking these blocks can be very addicting...

Sunday Evening

and life is good! The Philadelphia Eagles just beat the New York Giants and will move on in the playoffs. My DH was at the game, I'm sure he's soaked, but I know he's happy!

This afternoon I loaded the first customer quilt of the year onto my longarm. Then I headed into my sewing room and worked on the blue and muslin 9 patch quilt I've been creating. It's very simple, just nine patches with sashing and cornerstones.



Then I began paper piecing the next block for my Women of the Bible Quilt. This is the center of it...the star is 3 inches across. It will have lots of little half square triangles around the edges. I love how it's turning out.





I've also taken Nancy up on her birthday wish and I've joined the Heartstrings group and will be making some string pieced blocks for Nancy's birthday. For the past few years I've quilted for Rosie's Calico Cupboard's Camp Reach for the Sky for children with cancer. I've quilted my last quilt for them and was looking for a new way to contribute. I've decided that Mary's Heartstrings group will be my charity project for this year. Thanks Mary for getting this started!

UFO's

I've been thinking a lot about UFO's. I said a few weeks ago that I don't really have any UFO's. I do have a few tops that need to be quilted, some blocks that need to be pieced into quilts, some fabrics for quilts that are planned. But...I've never considered these UFO's. For me, if it's labeled a UFO, then it's NEVER going to get finished! My one true UFO is no longer a UFO...it was repurposed and became several tablerunners and what's left will be a tabletopper.

So what do I call these projects that are just not done but are waiting for the next step? They are my Projects That Aren't Quite Finished. Most are just "seasoning", taking a well deserved break while they wait for their turn to become Projects That are Nearly Finished. Then they will continue on (after more seasoning, I'm sure!) to become Projects That Really Are Finished. I've started a list of these projects over on my sidebar, now that it's so easy to do it in blogger!

In the meantime, one of my Projects That Really Are Finished has gone to a new home. This quilt which I made over the summer languished on top of my sewing closet, waiting for a home. I just couldn't decide what to do with it, but was sure it was meant for someone special. Last week, my DH mentioned that a friend who he visits often and felt very close to had just been diagnosed with cancer. She had her first chemo treatment yesterday and from what I've been told, when you have chemo you tend to get very cold. As soon as he told me, I said, "That's where the quilt has to go!" and we boxed it up and shipped it. Yesterday she received it and called him. She was so appreciative! I'm thinking it would be good to have a few quilts on hand which have no purpose, yet would be appreciated in difficult times. Quilts that are ready to go at a moment's notice. So this is what I would like to work on this year as my stashbusting project.

First Finish

On January 1st I had my first finish for the new year, it just took me a few days to post it! This quilt has been in the works for about 4 years...an awfully long time for such a simple quilt! Once I finally had quilted it, I couldn't decide what to do about the binding. I didn't have any of the red left, didn't want to use white to bind it, so finally settled on the navy blue. I love how it turned out. I'm not sure where it will wind up but I may send it through Quilts of Valor.

Other than that, it's just good to be back to normal here! The decorations have all been packed for the year, we're all back to school (although almost everyone in the house is sick!) and we're eager to see what the new year brings. For me, I'm hoping it will bring lots of time for quilting, knitting, reading and all the things I enjoy. I have 2 or 3 quilts which I'm considering entering into the Machine Quilter's Exposition (MQX)show up in Manchester, NH...I have until March 1st to enter them, if I can get up the nerve! Of course, only one top is made and needs to be quilted, one small one is almost a finished top and the Whitework quilt I'd like to do is still living in my mind! If I'm going to be brave and enter them, I should get to work, I guess! :o)

Happy New Year!

Advent Calendar

Throughout the Christmas season, many of you have shared your Advent Calendars. I decided to wait until ours had all of the bears on it. I made this about 15 years ago and it is a much loved tradition in our house. Now our youngest places a bear on the tree every day in December, leading up to Christmas. The tree is needlepoint on plastic canvas and the bears are counted cross stitch on perforated paper. I did a lot of counted cross stitch...a long time ago!

Our Christmas was wonderful, although quite different for us! Our son worked on Christmas Eve until 8:30pm, arriving home from school about 10:00. We went to Midnight Mass at 11. The service was beautiful, and my favorite part is always when we all light candles, the lights are dimmed and we sing Silent Night. It truly brings home the spirit of the season.

We arrived home from church at about 12:30 and we decided to open presents. I popped some cinnamon rolls in the oven and we opened gifts while they baked. The kids all seemed pleased with their gifts, my husband was delighted with the Sizzlers Race Track and GameBoy that I gave him and I loved all of my gifts. Nothing quilty to share, but I did receive a beautiful leather bound (Large Print!) Bible, some gift cards, including one to Sur La Table and a beautiful silver chain for the cross I wear every day.

The best gift of the evening was the one my son gave to my husband. When he was little and we lived on Long Island, we were New York Islanders fans. Every season my DH would take Andrew to a few games. They were the source of many fond memories. Andrew texted me a few days before Christmas and told me he was getting his father tickets to an Islanders game, only this time, he would drive up to NY (about 2.5-3 hours from here) and he would pay for everything so he could give his father what his father gave him all those years. He said he didn't know who this gift would be more meaningful for...him or his dad. Well, from the expression on my DH's face, I know it will be very meaningful for his dad! He wrapped the tickets in a note that said, "Just like old times". It had to be the most thoughtful gift he could have given. The kid did good! :o)

While the kids slept in on Christmas morning, DH and I headed to 9am mass (after going to bed at 2:30am!). My parents, sister and nephew stopped by in the afternoon, then we all headed to my brother's for a little while. We came home, as is our tradition, and had a big Italian meal...2 kinds of lasagna, chicken parmagiana, Caesar Salad, bread and an ice cream cake for dessert. After dinner DH and the two older children headed to the movies to see "Eragon". The younger one didn't want to see it, so I stayed home with her.

I enjoyed Christmas so much this year...even with the changes to our traditions! This was the first year we haven't had a "believer" in the house, so it was different, but very nice. I've started taking down the decorations and getting the house back together. And now I'm off to take my daughter and her friend to Blockbuster so they can rent movies for the sleepover they're having tonight!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your family a joyous Christmas!

Tree Topper

On the first day of school in my second year of teaching, a little third grader came into my classroom and promptly made a beeline for the space under my desk. Once there he sniffled and cried for most of the morning. I let him be...I figured when he was ready to come out, he would. Richie did come out eventually and he and I became fast friends.

When Christmas came, Richie gave me a special gift...a Christmas mug (which I still have) and an adorable little teddy bear. Right before Christmas that year, I met my husband to be. As we were decorating our first Christmas tree, we were looking for something to put on top of the tree. It was late and we didn't want to go out shopping for a star or an angel. As a temporary solution, we took Richie's little bear and tied him on top of the tree. We never did find another tree topper that year, and in the years that followed we couldn't bring ourselves to put anything else up on the tree. So, here it is, 22 Christmases later and Richie's bear is still on the top of the tree!

I wish I knew what happened to Richie!