Happy New Year

Where did 2010 go?  It seems like just yesterday that we were starting 2010. All in all this has been a good year, no major personal disasters.  I did think that my birthday would be a low point of the year, I was not looking forward to turning 50, however it was the best birthday ever. I have come to the conclusion that age is just a number and you are only as old as you feel.  I definitely don't feel 50, at least most days.   I was able to spend a lot of time with both family and friends this year and hope to spend more time with family int he coming year. 

This year my two resolutions were to finish some of my UFO's and to live each day to the fullest.  I finished some UFO"S although not as many as I had hoped.  (will definitely work on that one again next year).  I think that for the most part I have lived each day to the fullest at least I have tried on most days. One other resolution for the new year is to be more consistent with my blogging, I have really good intentions but sometimes life just gets in the way, either in a good way or a bad way.   My wish for the New Year is that everyone have a safe and happy year. 

One Bright Christmas spot!!

For years I have wanted a red KitchenAid mixer and had just put off buying one.  Hubby surprised me with the exact one that I had been looking at.  Can't wait to use it!!!  Will be a while since we had to leave all of our presents up at the cabin.

I'm back!!

Did you ever have one of those Christmas's that you just wanted to be over.  I have to admit that this was the first year that has ever happened to to me.  I love Christmas and it takes a lot to dampen my holiday cheer.  This year if it could go wrong it did.  The Sunday before Christmas my hubby's last and favorite uncle died in Virginia.   Bill was 92 and had been sick for several years so in many ways his death was a blessing.  This meant an unexpected trip to Virginia for the funeral.  While there hubby wasn't feeling well, which called for a trip to the doc in the box in Blue Ridge on Christmas Eve; he had a severe ear infection, sinus infection and an upper respiratory infection.  Needless to say he didn't have a lot of Christmas cheer.   One bright spot was on Christmas morning when we got up it was snowing, and it was beautiful.  The bad thing was it snowed all day, we ended up with 8 inches of snow before it was all over with.  I have never seen that much snow here in Georgia before, it was our first white Christmas since the 1800's. 



This is one of the snowmen that I built.  It was great snow for snowmen.

 I had all of these wonderful ideas for pre-Christmas blog postings, now I am just glad that it is over with.

Evening with friends

 There is nothing better than getting together with good friends at this time of year, or at any time of year.  Earlier in the year I tried really hard to have friends over once a month for a sewing evening, somehow during the summer things got away from me and this is the first time in months that I have had everyone over.  Karen, Becky, Pat, and Cindy came over to sew, laugh, and drink.  Karen was showing off her new toy, a Kindle.  She has even made a cover for it.  Looks good.

Pat spent most of the evening looking at magazines and enjoying a glass of wine. ( She did bring sewing but no thread)

 Becky is making a scarf, for her son. 

Cindy was working on the binding for this gorgeous quilt.  Cindy looks great, congratulations on the weight loss.

Christmas Reading

 Two of my favorite things are reading and quilting.  Some days I would put quilting first, other days I would list reading first.  Today is one of those reading days.  I read a variety of books and at this time I year I just can't help but read sentimental holiday books.  I love Debbie Macomber's books and enjoy her holiday books.  The latest one, Call Me Mrs. Miracle, is a heartwarming story of the true meaning of Christmas.  It also reminds us that unfortunately not everyone has wonderful childhood Christmas memories.  Would definitely recommend this one, it is a very quick read.

Mary Kay Andrews is a local Atlanta author and writes extremely amusing books.  Blue Christmas is no exception.  Weezie is up to her neck in decorating for Christmas and at the same time trying to instill a little bit of Christmas cheer in her boyfriend.  Things don't turn out so well when she invites his family over for Christmas Eve dinner. 

 

This is only the second in the Domestic Diva series by Krista Davis that I have read.  They are basic mysteries with recipe and organizational tips.  This one, The Diva Cooked a Goose involves a Boxing Day murder of a wanna be Domestic Diva.  Sophie is called on to prove that her sister-in-law's sister didn't commit murder.  The characters are believable and it is a quick amusing holiday read. 
I am always looking for good holiday books, so if you have some suggestions leave them for me. 

Ta Da

Here is is, a finished Christmas Pie Pincushion.  I love the way it turned out.  Might have to make some more of these.

My new thing

 Who knew that pincushions could be so much fun.  I saw this pattern on the web a few weeks ago and thought I just had to have one of those.  It has two of my favorite things, quilting and stitchery.













After doing the piecing and the stitchery you make a pincushion sandwich.

Then you  turn and stuff with walnut shells or fiberfill.  I still need to do the holly leaves and the the ribbon.  Have to finish that tonight,





All Aboard

Each year I try to do something special for the holidays at school.  After my gypsy wagon earlier this year, I  knew that I had to step it up a little.  I decided to go all out and create a train for the Polar Express.  I had done this a few years ago, but all I did was line up a few chairs and put our some fake snow.  This year I used the same dividers that I used for the wagon, covered them in black paper and created my cowcatcher, along with the headlight and the lights around the top of the train.

One of our teachers even volunteered to create some windows to go on the inside of the train.  They are beautiful.  They kids are so excited about it.  I dress like one of Santa's elves and as I finish the story I get a special delivery from the North Pole, a box of bells.  I keep it in the freezer so it will be really cold when I had them out to the kids.  I even had all of our cafeteria workers and custodians come down on Friday for a reading.  I love my job.

Just in time

I have gotten so behind on the new Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.  I did the first two steps and still havent' done the third step.  That is why I was so excited to see that we had a new phone book in the mail yesterday.  We never use our phone books, so I knew that this would be perfect to use for the string blocks.  Hopefully, my  I will be able to answer the call of my sewing room this weekend.

Secret Santa Time

A  while ago I signed up for the Secret Santa Swap.  I love Christmas and thought this would be fhte perfect opportunity to make something for a fellow blogger.  I decided to make a table rummer and a pillow for my Secret Santa.  I got so carried away that I forgot to take a picture before I sent it to my Secret Santa, Margaret in Arizona.  I was really excited yesterday to get home and find that  I had recived my pacakage from my Secret Santa.  It was so exciting to open the package.  I loved the way it was wrapped.

I quickly tore open the package and found two hand made knit dishclothes and two hand towels that were decorated with lovely Christmas material.  Thank you so much Margaret.  I am already using them.

It called, but I didn't answer

Yes, over the weekend my sewing room called my name, very loudly.  But I didn't answer.  Not because I didn't want to, I wasn't able.  Last Monday I had a root canal, this was my second and the first one did not bother me at all, this one decided to wait until the weekend to kick in.  I thought I was going to die, luckily I didn't.  It did mean that there was no sewing at my house over the weekend.  Bummer.

Folk Art Tribute # 4

Just finished block four for the Folk Art Tribute BOM.  I love doing this, probably because the pieces are so big, they are easy to do.  I just noticed that one leg is a little off, but it is folk art.

Design Wall

Yes, that is a blank design wall.  There is absolutely nothing on it except a few threads from an old project.  I finished by Secret Santa Swap gift and that is the last thing that I have worked on.  Thanksgiving really wiped me out, and what Thanksgiving didn't wipe out having a root canal on Monday did.  Now I have to start decorating for Christmas.  One thing that I am very proud of is the fact that all, yes all of my Christmas shopping is done and most of it is wrapped.  Yeah!!!!  I hear my sewing room calling my name this weekend.

And the Winners are (a day late)

 I had really intended to announce the winners of my 300th posting giveaway yesterday but was exhausted when I got home.  Sometimes holiday with the family can be just a little too much. I left on Wednesday for Nashville to spend Thanksgiving with my niece, left there on Friday for Mississippi to take my mom home, and came back to Atlanta on Sunday.  Lots of driving!!!

The winners are:

Lisa M, won the six patterns.

Magirite won the two Fig tree books.

LeKa Quilt won the 40 Fabulous Quilts books

Ladies send me your addresses and the prizes will go out in the mail.  Thanks for all of the wonderful comments.

Over the river and through the woods

Not to grandmother's house, but to my niece's house in Nashville.  I don't know why but for some reason she had to have Thanksgiving at her house this year.  It should be interesting.  I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.  Don't for get to check out my giveaway, the winners will be announced on Sunday. 

Too each his own

I sew, my husband hunts.  Hobbies are a wonderful thing and I am blessed with having one that I can participate in year around.  My poor husband is cursed with one that he can only enjoy a few months out of the year.  However, this has been a very good year for him.  Yesterday while working on my Bonnie Hunter mystery pieces, he was out shooting an 11 point buck.  This is the largest one that he has ever killed.  There will be plenty of meat in the freezer and a new head on the wall. 

Bonnie Hunter Mystery

 I did it again, I started another quilt.  I wasn't going to, but I did.  When I read that Bonnie Hunter was doing another mystery quilt I thought oh, that is nice, but I am not doing it.  I have two of her mystery quilts that I still haven't finished. But of course I changed my mind when I saw the colors she suggested using.  I don't have to buy a thing, I have tons of pink, green, brown, and cream in my stash.  The first clue came out on Friday.  I have almost completed it.  I had to dig through my stash and find a few more pinks.  I had a lot of greens already pulled, but definitely needed more pinks.  Here are some of my two inch strips, along with some of the strips that I have started to sew together and cut into 2 inch pieces.

Stips cut into two inch pieces awaiting the next clue.

Thimbles Weekend

It's that time again.  I so look forward each month to getting together with all of my quilting buddies.  Friday night was pretty quite at Thimbles, not surprising since it was the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Kristie and Becky were there along with Gretchen and Sarah.  It was great to see Gretchen.   She had two great quilts to show, one was Bonnie Hunter's Christmas lights from last year, and a beautiful Halloween quilt.  Krisite was working on an applique project, Becky was knitting, Sarah was sewing on binding, and I was finishing up a Schnibbles.  Sarah has been super busy, she had four quilts for show and tell, unfortunately I only got photos of two of them.  The one below is from the pattern Sassy Sixteen.

The Long Road Home from Bonnie Blue Quilts.  ( I am definitely making this one)

# 300

I can't believe this is my 300th blog post.  It seems like just a few months ago that I joined the blogging world.  I really had never thought about starting a blog until my friend Becky, over at the Quilting Booklady started talking a bout all of the fun she was having blogging.  It took me a week just to figure out what I wanted to call my blog!  Then there was the struggle to find a background that I liked.  Then I thought what if nobody reads it, or thinks it is awful.  After my first few postings, I didn't think about that anymore.  I was doing it just for the fun of doing it.  I do love getting comments from people and reading the blogs of those who have become followers.  It could easily become an addiction.  In honor of my 300th post I am doing not one, but three giveaways.  The first give away is six patterns, four are from Moda and the other two are from a different company. 

The second giveaway is two books from Fig Tree Quilts, Fresh Vintage Sewing and The Pastry Shop.

                                                            

Give away number three is my all time favorite quilt book, 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts.  I have made 2 quilts from this book, with plans for another in the works.

To enter leave me a comment of any kind, to be entered twice become a follower.  The winners will be announced on Sunday.  Good luck.

Hawaiian quilting

 Ever since I read The Aloha Quilt I have wanted to try Hawaiian applique. I knew that one of our local teachers taught a class in it a couple of times a year I just had to wait until it was offered again. Much to my dismay, the teacher had some health problems and wasn't doing any teaching for a while. I knew that if she could she would go back to teaching. I was very excited a few weeks ago when I saw that she was back at work and offering a beginning Hawaiian applique class. I called that day to sign up. Last Friday night I started packing my supplies and decided that I didn't like the two fabrics I had chosen, I got to the class early on Saturday to look around and see if I could find something that I liked better. I found exactly what I was looking for, I wanted a cream background with turquoise applique. There were several patterns that we could choose from, I selected one called ginger.  After tracing around all of the layers of fabric I was afraid to cut into it, but I finally did and loved the way that it looked.

Getting ready to cut.

The applique is now pinned on, with about a 100 pins.

Basting the applique down.

I have the entire applique piece basted down and have started doing the applique, but don't know when I will get back to it.  Thanksgiving plans are getting in the way of my sewing time.

Thanksgiving Tablerunner

 I know that I am running out of time to finish this project, but all I have left to do is the quilting.  I plan on quilting in the ditch around the stitchery squares and doing some simple crosshatches on the gold part in the middle.  This has been really easy to do, I just kept getting sidetracked with other non-sewing projects.

Folk Art Tribute #3

I am really getting into this applique thing.  This is the third of the folk art applique blocks from Dawn at Linen Closet Quilts.  I think the reason I like these blocks so well is that the pieces are really big.  I am fairly new to the world of applique and the big pieces are much easier for me to do at this point.  I spent more time trying to select my fabrics that I do on the actual applique.  I am always second guessing myself.  I usually wish that I had selected other fabrics after I start working on a block, but so far I have been pleased with the outcome of the blocks.  I am taking a Hawaiian applique class on Saturday and am really looking forward to that.

Thanks to all of our Veteran's

Don't forget to thank a vet today.



Yes, I am a Nerd

Yesterday when I came to work several people wanted to know what I did over the weekend, when I told them I  was told I was a nerd.  That did not bother me in the least.  I am a nerd and proud of it.  On Saturday I went to the Atlanta History Center to see the Abraham Lincoln exhibit, With Malice Toward None.  It was wonderful, if you are a history buff. I even got to meet Mr.  and Mrs. Lincoln.  I don't know where they found Mr. Lincoln but he  was perfect for the part.  I found out a lot that I never knew about him.  I also picked up some great ideas to use at school next year when our fifth grade classes study the civil war.  I participated in a penny election, to show the candidates from 1860.  It was very interesting, you voted based on the candidates beliefs, without knowing their names.  Maybe that is something that we should try today.

November already

Table Runner by Bird Brain Designs

What Thanksgiving is almost here, what happened to October?  I still have some Halloween decorations out.  The calendar can't be right, but I am afraid that it is.  I need to start thinking about Christmas, but can't forget about Thanksgiving.  I always feel like  Thanksgiving is the stepchild of fall holidays.  Everyone goes all out for Halloween and Christmas, but Thanksgiving often gets overlooked.  I am guilty of it as well.  I realized that I have no Thanksgiving decorations.  This year I decided to change that.  I found a new table runner pattern fro Bird Brain designs,( it even comes with a Halloween stitchery pattern also).  I dug through my stash and found some fall fabrics to use for it.  I have almost completed one of the stitchery panels. 

Mitford Heaven



Jan talking with an admirer.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet one of my all time favorite authors, Jan Karon. Becky,   her neighbor Kathy and myself  headed to the Decatur First Baptist Church to hear Jan Karon talk about her new novel, In the Company of Others. We had a great time.  Becky and Kathy had heard her before and had met her sister, Brenda.  Becky happened to  see Brenda ( who was scoping out the empty seats next to us) and invited her to come and join us.  I can't remember the last time that I had so much fun and laughed so much.  I felt like I was talking to an old friend, with Brenda and when Jan started talking I felt "at home". 

I remember the first time I ever heard her name, I had just become a media specialist, and I was visiting with a friend who was  giving me pointers on being a my new job; while at lunch we were talking about adult novels that we liked and she mentioned Jan Karon and the Mitford series.  I thought they sounded nice and would maybe someday read them.  A few weeks later while at the public library I just happened to see the first one and checked it out.  I was totally hooked.  I couldn't believe that I had not read them before.  The only good thing about discovering them late was the fact that most of the books were out and I didn't have to wait with baited breathe for each one to be published.  I hated for each one to end.  I feel like the people in Mitford are my friends and neighbors.  I have convinced several people to read the series and have never met anyone who didn't like them.  Can't recommend them enough.

Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival

I can't believe that it is already time for the Fall Quilt Bloggers Festival.  This is one blogging event that I always look forward to.  I am showing one of  my all time favorite quilts.  This is the first neutral quilt that I ever made.  (to me red is a neutral).  I found the pattern in one of the McCall's quilting magazines several years ago and started collecting neutrals.  The one shown in the magazine had brown stars and accent squares, but I knew that I wanted mine to be a shade of red.  This was a really, really easy quilt to make.  I am thinking about making another one and using black for the stars and accent squares.

I love my job!!!!

 I  have the best job in the entire world, where else could I work that I get to dress up like a gypsy and entertain children.  A couple of weeks ago my clerk and I decided to go all out in our media center for Halloween and story time.  We decided to create a gypsy story tellers wagon.  It took us a week to get it together, but I think it turned out pretty good.  The kids are impressed and I guess that is what is important.



I've got my gypsy on!!!





 I have a special story for each grade level that visits the wagon.  I know that it probably seems kind of hokey, but the kids are having the best time.  I even do some fortune telling at the end.