Anyone else thinking back on the year we just had and thinking ahead to the year to come? I can't help myself. I find myself thinking about all the things accomplished this past year, the friends I made and the time spent with family. I also can't help but think about all the things that I want to do in the new year. It is like a clean slate. One that I can write anything I want on it. This time of year seems surreal for me. I am so blessed with my family and friends and I feel like anything can be accomplished. I hope everyone else is having a good last day of the year.



Quilt til your arm falls off...

Christmas Pics...

Here is a picture that was taken on Christmas Eve at my sister's house of my husband and me. We had a great time that night, lots of family and good food.

This one is to show you what I got for Christmas. I can't wait to start learning how to use it to design my own quilts.

My son in law on the left on Christmas Eve showing us his gift card. He also got one to the music store and it is already spent. He is learning how to play the guitar and needed some music books.

My oldest daughter and son on Christmas day. They look like they are having a good time. We all had such a good time. It is good that we were able to all be together on Christmas. My son has moved out and I miss him. My daughter lives next door and I get to see her more often but the house is much quieter with only one child at home. The day went pretty smooth (considering all the food prep and lots of family coming over). The company left around 3:00pm and we were able to settle down to watch a movie (Mr. Bean's Holiday, my son got it for Christmas).

My youngest son. See that grin. He got a DS lite for Christmas and a couple of games. He is very happy.

That is all I have for today. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday and remembered the reason for the season.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Saturday we decorated cookies with my nieces and nephews. They will go home with the ones they decorate. They look forward to it every year but this year they tired of it only after about a dozen cookies. My husband and I had to decorate the rest. I had baked a lot of them this year.

Here is my niece decorating her cookies. She is concentrating very hard to get it just right. Her cookies look wonderful!

This is her brother with the sprinkles. Can you tell he loved them? He did a great job on his cookies and was even trying to tell the others how to do it like him. So funny!

This is another nephew. He liked drawing faces on his cookies. I told him is cookies would not be as sweet because they didn't have a lot of icing on them. He didn't seem to mind. He also did a great job!

Even hubby got in on the act. He did most of the gingerbread men. And that is my son(on the right) trying to keep up with him.

He has a way with the knife to get it just right. I tried but could not do it as well as him.

These are some of the cookies after they were done.

These are of the ones that I did. I used a toothpick to spread the icing in the center.

The counters were full. They were all over the place. The table also had a bunch on it. I had to let them dry out so I could put them stacked in there tins.

That is all for today. I have several things to do this morning. We are going next door to my sister's later today.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Baking...

Yesterday I baked Gingerbread men and Sugar Cookies. Every year my niece and nephews look forward to decorating the cookies for Christmas. It started with my own children when they were younger and they still like doing it if they are around. They make a mess and it is a lot of work for me (easier is I would just do it myself) but they are making memories. And they remember every year and ask about it. This is the first year that I make the cookies ahead of time. I usually do it all in one day, the baking and they decorate, but this year I thought I would get a head start. That way I can sit with them and help them out. Usually I'm cleaning the kitchen after all the baking to make room for the decorating.

I didn't get any photos of the sugar cookies. I will take some pics on Saturday after they are done. Today I have an MRI scheduled for 11:45am. They are looking at my head/brain and pituitary to see if they can find out why I still have a full feeling in my ear. The fluid is all drained out because of the tube that was put in. The doctor has done a couple of hearing test on me and my hearing is 100%. He is not sure why I still have a full feeling in my ear. So I have to have an MRI to look inside. Pray that all will be fine and everything is in it's place and there is nothing in there that is not supposed to be there. I will probably not get the results until after Christmas. I'm not a very patient person but in this case I have no choice. I will trust God will take care of everything. Hope everyone is having a non-stressed holiday.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Gifts and good friends...

This is a Christmas gift from my best friend. Isn't it lovely? She worked hard on this. The poinsettia in the middle and the leaves and berries around the outside edge and raw edge appliqué, which she loves to do. I love that the colors are not necessarily Christmas colors. I probably will leave this on year round. I just love it V. thanks again.

We had a Christmas get together, my friend and I, on Monday to exchange our gifts. We ate lunch, visited, ate chocolate pie, sewed binding on another quilt, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We don't get together often enough anymore. Our lives are very busy. It is a shame because we love to be together and to be able to quilt together is the best. It is just great to have a best friend that shares a love for quilting. We have lots to talk about always.

This is a close up of the star. The quilting in the dark green looks like reindeer antlers to me. She did a wonderful job on them. Need to go and clean the kitchen now. I baked cookies all day today for my nieces and nephews to decorate on Saturday. I will show pics of the cookies tomorrow.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

It's been a bit crazy around here...

I finished the Christmas quilt after much fighting with the quilting. I made a label which came out very good (not an easy task for me, my handwriting is awful). I sewed it on and then threw it in the washer (I always wash the quilts I give away, just in case something bad happens to it) and when I took it out it had bled. I think it was the binding fabric but was not sure. I tried several things to remove it, stain remover, bleach, but nothing worked. As you can see from the pictures below, it was pretty bad. All over the quilt. I called my husband on his way home from work to stop at Wal-mart and pick up some Rit Color Remover (if you are not familiar with this product, it removes color from white fabrics that have bled). The package said for a large load to use 2 packages so I followed the instructions. The quilt is a large one. It removed all the bleeding but it also removed some of the red color in the other fabrics. The red centers are now orange and several other red fabrics in the quilt are now brown or orangey. It doesn't look bad (a lot better than with the bleeding on it) so I dried it and wrapped it up last night.

You can see the pictures below are of the quilt after it was washed with the color remover. If you compare it with my last post you will see the difference in colors. Oh well, still a lovely quilt.

I also finished knitting my Step Mom's scarf/wrap but didn't get a picture of it before I wrapped it up. I will try to get a picture of her wearing it to show you how it came out. I wrapped all my gifts yesterday and they are under the tree. Now maybe I will have a couple of down time days before I have to start my baking. I have all my nieces and nephews coming over on Saturday to decorate cookies. A tradition started several years ago. It is a lot of work for me (they make a mess!) but they love it and ask every year "when will we be decorating cookies?" So I have to do it. Hope everyone is having an enjoyable Holiday Season. Bye now!

Quilt til your arm falls off...

I'm working on finishing some Christmas gifts today. I will be quilting on the log cabin quilt for my Sister in law. I was afraid it would not get done in time for Christmas. I had quilted it on my frame and there was something wrong with the tension. I found out only after I had about 3/4 of it done. I had to rip out all of it. So now I am quilting it on my regular sewing machine. It will take longer but I know the tension is good. I like the way it is coming out. The picture below is a close up of the quilting. Hope you can see it. It is simple and fast. I did a row yesterday now I only have 7 more to go. Hope to make a big dent in it today.

The picture below is of a scarf/wrap I am knitting for my Step Mom. I think she will like it. The yarn is Bernat Boa. I have not knitted in a long time. I am more of a crocheter. This yarn is like eyelash yarn, it is hard to see your stitches, but I love the way it is coming out. I could have crocheted on but I think that knitting is softer and more stretchy than crochet and I wanted it to have that soft feel to it. I just might have to make me one when I am done with this one.

Well gotta go get busy! Have a good day everyone. Only 12 days til Christmas. Anyone singing the 12 days of Christmas today?

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Fun Party...

I had a really good time at the party last night. Good friends, good food, great gifts. This is a picture of all the things I received last night. We are 13 people in the "woolie" group. We make (or buy) a small gift for each member and give them out at the party. I made felted soap for everyone and they seemed to like it and wanted to know how to make them. I told them I would give a demonstration later on after the holidays.

There is a lanyard with a little wool sheep on it, and a checkbook cover with bees and a beehive (everyones cover had something different on it), There is a small bag with a wool flag on it and it has my name embroidered on the back of it. The bag in the back has a wool sheep appliquéd on it. One of the members made us calendars and note cards with our sheep logo on it. Can you tell we love sheep? Everything was so beautiful and creative. You can click on the pictures to make them larger.

Here is a close up of some of the items. There is a measuring tape covered in wool made by my best friend, isn't it adorable. The sheep next to it is also a tape measure, you pull on the arm and the tape comes out. You can see the lanyard here and a pin with a appliquéd cardinal on it.

This is a close up of the checkbook cover and wool pincushion made out of scraps of wool roving. The pillow has the sheep and a star on top. She also put a label on the back with her name and the year. So cute. It is a lot of fun to exchange gifts and to see all of the creative flow that people have. It inspires!

The picture below is the last ornament I have to show you. My daughter made it in elementary school and has a picture of her in the center (can you tell it was the '80's). She has several ornaments made in school with her picture. These are very special to me. I can always remember what she was like when she was young. Those times pass so fast. Wish they lasted longer. Merry Christmas and I hope everyone is almost finished their shopping.

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More ornaments...

I have a busy day today. I have another Christmas party tonight. It is with my "Woolie" group. I have to make bread to bring and I need to get to it. I wanted to share some more ornaments with you. The one above was given to me last year by a "Woolie" friend. She collects old tins. She uses them to make plaster molds and sometimes fills them with cholocate. I love the look of this old santa.

This one is fairly new. I got it in an ornament exchange a few years ago. To me it stands for all things old. The teddy bear, rocky horse and bicycle wheels all things of the past.

This one was given to me by my best friend a few years ago for Christmas. I just love it. It represents the love of quilting we share.

This is one I bought. It is supposed to be left out for santa to use to get in through the front door. I thought it was very old looking and liked the thought behind it. I don't have small children here at home any more to share the story with but still it is fun to think about. We don't have a fireplace for santa to come through so it was appropriate.

Well gotta go...

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Promised Pics...

This is the panel Christmas quilt that I won at the auction. I (my husband) hung it on the wall last night. It looks very festive.

This is the pics of the teapots I won in the Christmas auction the other night. The white one in the front was made in England. The one in the back is Cloisonnes. My favorite is the yellow and blue one to the left. It is metal. I love looking at them. (Looks like I have a sheep collection growing also.)

Here are two more favorite ornaments:

The one above I made about 3 years ago. I love redwork and found this pattern in a magazine. You can't really see it in the picture but the outline of the bird is trapunto. I had never done this technique before and thought this was a small project I could give it a try on. I have three of them on my tree. They all have a different red border fabric.

This is about 10 or 12 years old. It is Noah's Ark in the whale. It is heavy and I love it. I am real careful with it every year.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Late Start...

Getting a late start today. My husband and I had a dentist apointment this morning for a cleaning. It throws me for a loop when things happen out of the ordinary. I just caught up on the blog reading and I still have about a million things left to do today. I'm sure it is the same for everyone. So I think I need to get to it. But first, I had a great time at the Christmas Party/Auction Tuesday night. I bought a Christmas panel quilt (which I will take a picture of later after I hang it up in the livingroom). I also bought a basket of small teapots. I have an unexpected collection that is growing (you know the kind I'm talking about, the kind that you don't plan on but someone buys you a teapot then someone else buys you one, then they see you have two and assume you love them so it becomes a collection because after that people buy you more, then you think you have a collection because you do and you start looking for them to add more) anyway, they are small and I think so cute. Again I will post a picture later. For now I will post some pics of more ornaments for my tree. I hope you are not sick of them because I kind of like to look at them.

This one I got in an ornament exchange at one of the Christmas guild parties about 3 or 4 years ago. I love the embroidery work on it. She is sweet looking.

This one I made last year. It is made of felt and it was a set of 6. It is a little bag and I put money or gift cards in them last year. I like the colors and simpleness of this one.

This one is about 6 or 7 years old. The snowman is blown glass and the long swirl bottom is molded. It has already broken (one of his arms) and been glued back on. It is very delicate. I try to buy a glass ornament every year. My hope is that one year I will be able to put up the tree with just glass ornaments but for now I have alot of other ornaments I like. Maybe a smaller second tree somewhere will have to do later. Hope you enjoyed looking at my ornaments. Time to go.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Christmas Party/Auction...

Our guild's Christmas Party/Auction is tonight. It is our only fund raiser for the year. All year long our members donate items for the auction (or sale table, we take anything). We have a dinner then an auction to sell our things. The only problem with it is, it is only open to members. That's right, we donate the items and we buy the items back. How crazy is that! It started when the guild was small and I can understand why they started it this way but, we are a larger guild now and it would be wonderful if we opened it to our family and friends and others to buy our items. I also think we would earn more money, but we have members that have been with the guild a long time and they want to keep it the old way. You know the saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks"? Well that is abundant in our guild. We have members that are set in their old ways and want to keep things going the way they have always been. Good thing I just want to quilt and don't take all of these things personally. But it does stop progress. I for one am tired of fighting (I use this word loosely, we really just don't see eye to eye is all) with them so I have decided to stop volunteering for things. I can spend my time at home quilting. After saying all of that, I am looking forward to our Party tonight. These ladies are a funny breed and good entertainment.

I have some more ornaments to show you, if you want to see.

This one my sone made. It is a beaded crawfish. If you live in South Louisiana you usually love crawfish. I think he is real cute! It looks like he has shades on but it is really his black beady eyes. I know they don't look appetizing but I have already had some boiled crawfish and the season has really just begun. They are small in size and sometimes hard to peel early in the season.

This is a new one this year. We went on a field trip to a Christmas Tree farm and syrup mill early in November and they had these ornaments in their gift shop. I love blue and white and fell in love with this little beauty. It has holes in it, through the Christmas trees. I just love it.
Hope you enjoyed the ornaments. I have plenty to do today before the party (one of which is to decide what to wear) does anyone else do this? Wait til the last minute to decide what to wear to a party. I always do.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Manual Fix...

I checked on the photo problem that Blogger is having. They said they are working on it but in the mean time there is a manual fix you can do to make the pictures enlarge like they used to. You have to change some things in the Edit HTML. You can find this fix listed under Known issues under the help center.(Just in case any one wanted to know that) I fixed the pictures in past postings and they enlarge now. Just thought I would let you know about it.

Our tree is finally has ornaments. We did it Saturday night. I thought about going with a smaller tree this year but, I tell you, after putting the ornaments, I don't see that I could. We have a lot of them. I'm thinking about packing up the ones that are each of my children's in a separate box for them to have when they want them for their tree. The children still want them on my tree but something has got to give. I could not even put them all on the tree this year. It was too full.

Here is a couple of my favorite ornaments on my tree. I am thinking of posting a couple everyday until Christmas. This one my older son made in elementary school. They used paper and paint. Isn't she cute. There are several of these in other shapes. He hangs this on our tree every year.

This one below is one I purchased from our guild Christmas auction a couple of years ago. I had one similar to it already (painted differently) and I love the way it was painted. Isn't it beautiful? (I could not get the full picture of it. It has another dog on the right of the lady.)

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Quilt til your arm falls off...

AHH...Friday

I love Fridays. The end of the work week (for some) and the beginning of the weekend (for some). I don't have anything on the agenda today except ripping out some quilting stitches. On Monday I was machine quilting on the frame and the freemotion foot broke. I didn't realize til later that is was acting up for a couple of rows back. I have a new foot but I can't continue until I rip out a row or two. It is hard work standing up. The stitches are too loose. The tension was off because of the foot (at least I hope it was because of the foot). If I rip out and start to quilt again and the stitches are still not right I will have to start trouble shooting. ARGH!

How about some pictures of some quillows that I made for my niece and nephews a few years back. They are so quick and easy. I tried to match the fabric with what they were interested in.

This one was for my niece. She was into Clifford the dog so I found the fabric and this is it. She uses it a lot.


This one is for my godchild. He likes to fish and I thought he would like this fabric. He uses it on his bed and to lay around on the floor.

This one is for another nephew. He is very much into cars and trucks (at least at the time, now he is into dirt bikes). I'm not sure where he keeps his but I know he uses it.

I love making things for people. I enjoy the moment when they open it or receive it. The look of surprise on their faces and then the satisfaction I get when I know they like it is like nothing else. That is why I give away so many of my quilts (that and the fact that I would have had to move out to make room for all the quilts I've made if I would have kept them). Another reason why I love Christmas so much is all the gift giving. There is no other time of year when people are so giving. I just absolutely love it.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Yesterday was a long day. Our mini group met with the Christmas committee in our guild to organize all the things that were donated to our Christmas auction/party which is next week. There was a lot of stuff to sort through. Lots of boxes to load and unload out of our cars. I was so tired when I got home at 2:00pm. Then last night we were putting up the tree with our kids. I had to arrange it on a day when my son would be here and he was here washing his clothes. We had supper and we put the tree up but we had so much trouble with the lights that didn't have time to put the ornaments on. We will schedule another day for that. After every one left I fell asleep on my chair while trying to watch a movie with my husband. Oh well, can't watch 'em all. HA. This is our Christmas tree with just lights (there are lights on it but I used my flash and they don't show) The picture below is without a flash and you can see my husband and daughter working on the lights.

I really enjoy the holiday season and I love having a tree. This tree was given to our family by my husband's aunt. She bought it and realized it was too big for her house so she gave it to us about 14 years ago. (Wow, I had not realized it was that long ago) I sheds just like a real tree and to me it looks real. It fools people all the time. The only problem is because it is large I have to move furniture around to make room for it. This is the first year I have it in this area. It will take some getting used to.

I have a doctor's appointment this morning so it is time to go.

Quilt til your arm falls off...