Happy New Year!

More pictures from the Christmas Bingo game I played online..............

Favorite Christmas ornament..........

Make a paper snowflake (it was a slow day at work!)...........

Christmas stockings...........new ones this year made for us by Carole Morton, my sister's mother-in-law!

 Favorite Christmas recipe..............Aunt Judy's spritz cookies!  Made them twice!

I can't believe it's been another month since I did a blog.  December was busy!  Here are the highlights!

New longarm quilting machine arrive Dec. 11th!  This is Barney, the install guy!  

Test driving............

First project was a baby quilt!  Quilted a daisy pantograph.

Then I quilted my Bonnie Hunter Unity quilt, a bigger quilt.  It took me awhile to get the binding sewn down because of all the extra help.

And I did this little leader/ender quilt with custom designs.

I need to get the finished photos of these 3 taken for the next blog post!

Some piecing was done............these were finished after Christmas and are now on my quilting dance card.

This one is called Free as a Breeze and was a free pattern from Hen & Chicks Studio.

And this is the panel my mom gave me to represent Willow's First Christmas.  She was already so much bigger at Christmas than these puppies!

She did like gazing at her quilt though........

And Sarah was home for 2 weeks.  She had to work (from home) a few days, but found time to decorate a gingerbread house for a virtual contest at work.

Her high school bestie, Kari came over to help!

More later............Christmas present and family photos to come!

Christi

Quilt Clues Galore!

 

A wonderful surprise arrived in the mail this week!  My mom sent me these 2 panels for my birthday.  

I think she was concerned that I had some bare spots on my walls that needed Christmas wall hangings.  Sarah took several tubs of Christmas decorations to her apartment and after she did a video call with Grandma showing off her decorated apartment, my mom realized how many things had traveled to St. Lou.  

I'm sure I won't get these finished for this Christmas as I am still working on the puppy Christmas wall hanging.

I have all the tree blocks finished for it and need to work on the snowflake blocks.  This block is from Lori Holt's Vintage Christmas book.

I did all the cutting for the next Grassy Creek clue yesterday.  Cici was on hand to help for awhile.

She was thrilled we were using the honeycomb color that matches her lovely fur again, but was SHOCKED to realize that when I said "parakeet", I meant the color, not an actual bird.  What a disappointment!

She vacated the cutting counter in protest.

I also spent time in the afternoon pulling finished tops out of the closet and working on finding backings, battings, and bindings for them.  I'm almost (not quite, but almost) embarrassed to say how many there are.  I did make a list of 10 things (but a couple of them are really small) to work on getting ready to quilt.  That is not all there is though (ok, so I am embarrassed to tell you how many there are).  

I will continue the project today and hopefully start sewing the components for the mystery quilts I cut for.

Christi

Sewing catch up!

 

Flock Together - I finished this top in record time!  Sew Sweet Quilt Shop in Brunswick was doing another quilt along over Thanksgiving week that had to have a completed top by today (December 3rd) in order to be entered into a drawing.  I have seen sew many different Flock Together quilts posted on their facebook page......each one different and I just can't decide which I like the best.  

I chose to use these bright batiks because............

My batik tub runneth over........the lid no longer came close to fitting!

I didn't follow the pattern instructions (imagine that!).  I used my easy angle and companion angle rulers to cut 144 flying geese!

The pattern didn't actually call for that many, but I was enjoying these fabrics so much I got carried away.......so I just made my top bigger than the pattern (and still got it done by the deadline!).

A gross of flying geese!

These were interspersed with the half square triangles for the new Bonnie Hunter Grassy Creek Mystery.  

I completed those last night as well...........good thing cuz the next clue releases tomorrow (Friday)!

Cici was a great help with this project.  She loves the honeycomb fabrics because they match her beautiful fur.  She looked at me pointedly as if to say that my hair is starting to match the other color.

While I was rooting around in the batik tub, I pulled the scraps to make this.  It was a pattern I drafted myself.  The strips are only 1" wide, so this is very small.  I'm debating how to finish it now.

There is not a lot to be said for the next 3 photos except that they are part of a bingo game I am playing with Hen & Chicks Studio.

Looks like there might be a new project getting started!  I really said that I wasn't going to keep doing these quilt-a-longs, and I definitely said I wasn't doing Bonnie Hunter's mystery this year.  But, I liked Bonnie's colors, and I had enough scraps to do it, and the Bingo game sounded like so much fun, and because of the Flock Together quilt, I can get the lid on the batik tub, so what's a few more projects started!  I have NO willpower and am very good at justifying my sewing habits.  Let's just say it keeps me out of trouble.

Well, the next clue for the Morewood Mystery quilt was released today, so I better get back to it!

Christi

See How She Grows!

 This post is all about Willow and her amazing growth spurt.  In the 3 weeks in November between her vet appointments, she gained 19 pounds.  

She needed assistance at the beginning of November to get into the window seat, recliners, or couch.

She loves to sit in the recliner with someone...........my Dad seems to be a favorite of the pets.

She is definitely a "gift", and can get into whatever recliner or couch she wants now.  There's hardly room for me with her anymore!

We still give it our best shot though.  She's starting to be a little calmer.  She gets to sleep on the deck with Kenzie at night (much to Kenzie's dismay).  Her favorite activity is bringing her "treasures" up on the deck.  Sometimes you can't even make it in the back door for all the sticks, limbs, and roots she has collected.  

If she grows into her ears and paws, she's going to be a BIG DOG!

Christi

One Month Later............

One month later..........where did the time go?  I can't believe it's been a whole month since I blogged!  Well, some sewing did happen.

Here is the handstitching......... another block for the Appalachian Memories quilt done!

And, we did have a guild retreat!  This was the mystery project we did at retreat.  I've decided to add another border of the cream background material and then use the peachy petal color for binding.  It will make a nice spring/summer wall hanging.

And I did get my Star Junction quilt top pieced.  While I didn't enjoy all those star blocks, I am pleased with how it turned out.  I'm still pondering adding borders.  I have plenty of the fabric left, so we'll see how it turns out.  I like the appearance now, but would also like it to maybe be a little larger, so borders would help that.  (Also notice that it is laid out on the new flooring in the sewing room!)  

 We visited Sarah in St. Louis one weekend (ok, it was really Oct. 31-Nov.1).  We went to the science center which is her favorite place and on Sunday, we went with her to try a new church.  It is really hard to find a church when most of them are closed and doing online only services.  We found that Memorial Presbyterian was open with social distancing and masks, so we tried it out.  It is a beautiful old building.

Everyone seemed very welcoming even though it was hard with masks and social distancing.  She has been back a couple of more times.

The church is located in a very nice residential area.  There is only street parking, but it's a nice tree-lined street with really neat houses to look at.  We enjoyed driving through the neighborhood.

The hubs went north to attend an antique tractor auction with my dad one Saturday.  Of course, Dad had to make a purchase.  It's a pretty cute little tractor.  I think he'll have fun fixing it up.

We also went to Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving.  I cooked the turkey, made noodles, and pies, and mom made sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberries, stuffing, and rolls.  It was delicious.

We made Aunt Harriett's recipe for homemade caramels which turned out wonderfully.  Mom and I also worked on a table runner called Flying Dutchman that I had brought a new ruler for.  When we left, it was all on her display wall ready for her to sew together.  

We had some little leftover triangle cutoffs that I thought about saving for Aunt Judy because I know how much she likes them...........NOT!

So, I hopefully will do better at posting in December.

Christi