Christmas Quilting Fun!

We had our quilt guild Christmas party last week.  It was so much fun.  We had an amazing carry-in supper including these cookies.........

Definitely too pretty to eat!

Happy Birthday!!!

Well, yesterday was my birthday!  Look what I got for my birthday...........

Note the bow on the step...........truly makes it a gift, don't you think????

Adventures in the Wizarding World and Beyond!

We had a great trip to Florida's Universal Studios.  We are all big Harry Potter fans, have read the books multiple times, seen the movies and even been to Universal 8 years ago when the first Harry Potter park opened.  

We took this photo to remember where we parked our car at KCI!

We stayed on the property at the Portafino Bay.  We got to take a water taxi to the parks, or we could walk through a beautiful path to get there if the boat was full.  Sarah had her smart watch on and we broke the step record each day we were there.

We spent lots of time in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley and rode the Hogwarts Express train between them 5 times.  We also enjoyed watching the dragon breathe fire down on the crowds several times throughout the day.  He was guarding Gringotts, the wizard bank!

We were also attacked by a dinosaur in Jurassic Park. DD spent a great deal of time in this part of the park which gave the hubs and I a chance to sit and rest.  

We rode the Minion ride 3 times.  This was DD's favorite ride.  The hubs liked the Jimmy Falon Race through New York ride best.........did this one 3 times too.  We also did the Hogwarts castle ride and the new roller coaster inside Gringotts bank.  The hubs and I did those twice; DD did good to make it on those one time.  We also did the Spiderman, Men in Black, and Dr. Seuss rides that we remembered from our last visit.  You are never too old for Dr. Seuss!  

DD purchased an interactive wand so that she could practice spells in the Wizarding World.  

She made it rain on me.

We also enjoyed the Macy's Holiday Parade...........

And the laser light show at Hogwarts Castle............

It was really amazing seeing everything decorated for Christmas!

It was fun, but tiring.  The hubs and I think this might have been our last theme park vacation.  DD is not so sure.

Christi

Catching Up Again!!!

I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted!  I have been busy with many different projects and just didn't seem to get around to it.  Also, there are so many vacation photos that it was a little overwhelming trying to decide what to share, so I'm still putting it off until another post.

First off, let me say that I have been in the sewing room a little.  I did some straightening and organizing, and looked over my UFO list for 2017.  I'm proud to say that when I show my Civil War quilt at our December meeting I will have completed everything on the list.  My New Year's Resolution for the year was to finish more quilt projects than I start.  With that UFO list being complete, you'd think I had achieved that.  But when I starting finding projects and listing them on my 2018 list, I have almost twice as many UFO's to put on the list as last year!  How did this happen????

Well...........

Here are the blocks I completed as part 1 of Bonnie Hunter's new On Ringo Lake mystery project.  However I'm way behind on the second clue.  I have all of the pieces cut, but have only had time this week to sew one seam!  And the next clue comes out tomorrow!

And here is the Bonnie Hunter leader/ender project I started in July.  I just need to get the blocks sewn together and then add borders.  I need to purchase a little fabric for the first border and then I plan to add a scrappy border.  I had these blocks all laid out nicely, but Cici has had a week or more to romp through them, so it will take some work to get them ready to sew together again.


Speaking of Cici, she is working her way through the varying stages of Christmas..........

Putting up decorations...........

Taking down decorations.............

And then she moved on to simply rolling around on the quilted tree skirt and getting it all wadded up.  (It is quilted, so she just can't pass up any opportunity to get on or under a quilt!)  Then, she started removing decorations from the big tree.  The hubs told me that if I'd just get some packages under the tree, she'd probably leave everything alone!  (ok, great idea, but first I had to SHOP, then make tags, then make fabric bags to wrap stuff in, etc.)  So, last night I handed him several gifts in boxes with the tags made out and said put these in a fabric (reusable!) gift bag, tie it closed, and tie on the tag.  He did.  NOW Cici is entertaining herself by eating the curling ribbon!  (We've experienced this before and know that it takes about a week for ribbon to "pass".)  

We did have 2 wonderful Thanksgiving dinners.  Our neighbors invited us to their house on Thanksgiving night for turkey dinner.  It was great since we had just arrived home from Florida in the early afternoon.    I made pies that afternoon, squash, pecan, cherry and 

Chocolate Meringue!

We needed those pies for dinner for 11 at our house at noon on Friday.

We had a wonderful time sharing a day after Thanksgiving meal with family!

I'm planning to catch up a little on some things this weekend.
Christi