Gap-tastic Cowl

Last week I took a break from my snowman stitchery blocks to make this Gaptastic Cowl.  My friend Pat ( that is Pat's neck that you see in the photo)  told me about it, and being so cold natured I decided I had to have one.  It is really easy to make, knit and purl in the round.  Now that I have finished it and want to wear it, we are having a heat wave, it was 71 degrees and beautiful yesterday.  Three weeks ago we were covered in snow.  I have dug throuh my stash and found yarn to make two more of them, for Chrismtas presents for this year.  I like to plan ahead!

Hawiian applique part II

 After reading one of Jennifer Chiaverine's quilting novels last year, I was determined to learn how to do Hawaiian applique.  Last fall I took a beginning class, which I really enjoyed.  On Saturday I took an intermediate class.  The  class was to make a wall hanging like the one to the right. I selected a cream background with a batik for the actual applique, the batik was a turquoise and red print. I was able to prepare the background and get the applique cut out. Unfortunately, I had to leave the class early.  I had to attend a memorial service for a fellow teacher who had died on Christmas Eve.  It was really sad, she found out in August that she had cancer and died on in December. 


Tracing the applique.



Cutting out the applique.

Thimbes Weekend

 After being snowed in for a week, and having a really busy week at school, I was more than ready for an evening of sewing with my buddies at Thimbles.  It was so much fun!  Faye was there, the first time I have seen her in ages.  (Faye was my boss at our county office until she retired in May).  Becky, Cindy, Sarah and Kristie were there sewing. Karmen was working on some stitchery projects, Pat was playing with her new IPad and  Karin came by to say hello.  Show and Tell was outstanding, Kristie finished Roll Roll Cotton Boll.  I love the colors that she used in her quilt.  Makes me want to get mine back out. 

Becky finished Scrappy Nines.  Love it in Black and White.

Sandra with her Valentine Table runner.  (I know she is sideways, sorry)

Kristie's swap quilt. 

Seven Sisters

It took all week but I finally finished not one but two Seven Sister's blocks.  The first one, looked totally different, the background was brown with cream stars.  All the time I was appliqueing I kept thinking I didn't really like the fabric and I would probably redo it.  Well, I redid it much sooner than anticipated.  I had accidentally cut the background square and inch too big and had appliqued the stars too far apart.  There was no way that I could cut in down without cutting the points off of some of the stars.  The stars aren't perfect on this one, but I am please with it.

Two great new reads for the new year

 Most books that I read come from the public library, however there are a few authors that I enjoy reading so much that I want to own their books.  Fannie Flagg is one of those authors, the first book of hers that I read was Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and I loved it.  I have read everyone of her books since then.  Most of them are roll in the floor hilarious, this one, I Still Dream About You, definitely had its funny moments but was a more serious book.  It takes place in the early 2000's in Birmingham, Alabama.  The main character Maggie has decided to commit suicide at the beginning of the book and is putting her affairs in order.  The remainder of the book is what is involved in putting her affairs in order.  I won't give away the ending, but it is definitely worth reading.

In addition to sewing this last week, I read one of my Christmas books, the new Ken Follett:  Fall of Giants, the fist in the Century Trilogy.  One of my favorite books ever is Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, and I had been looking forward to reading this one.  At almost 1,000 pages I knew it would take a while, and it did take most of the week.  I enjoy reading any kind of historical fiction and this book covered WWI which I don't know that much about.  ( I am more of a WWII girl).  Fall of Giants, is the story of two Welsh families, one lower class, the other upper class, two Russian brothers, an American who works for the President, and a German family.  It took a while to get straight in my head who belonged to what family, but once I did I really enjoyed the book.  Now I will have to wait on the next installment.  Don't let the size put you off!!!

No more cabin fever

In the last week we have gone from snow and ice covered trees and streets to temperatures in the 50's.
I have actually enjoyed being at home the last week, other than the fact that I will have to give up having days off later in the year.  I managed to get a lot of things done in my sewing room.  Hubby, on the other hand, had a really ad case of cabin fever.  He was definitely ready to get out yesterday, I even managed to talk him into going to a movie.  I can usually only get him to one or maybe two movies a year, I guess we got this year's in early.   I had been wanting to see the new version of True Grit.  I remember seeing the original with my dad when I was younger and didn't know how they could remake it.  I was pleasantly surprised, it was really good.  I love Jeff Bridges movies and this was no exception, the entire cast did a wonderful job.  It was worth the 11:  a ticket we paid to see it. 

 I still have one more day off before heading back to work, tomorrow is the MLK holiday.  I guess it will be back to the sewing room.

Two more snowmen blocks marked off

Snowflakes and mittens, the latest two blocks for Snowmen A-Z.  I am not doing the blocks in order as you can tell. I finished the mitten block last night, it was the last one that I had traced off so  I decided that the  snowflake block would be the perfect one to do next.  I know that I should trace all of them at one time, but I only do a few at a time.   This brings my block count up to 13, slowly getting there.

I'm doing the happy dance

It  has only taken me almost two years to get this Buckeye Beauty top finished. I really like it, and it will go on our bed, but for some reason I just couldn't make myself work on it.    It was on my UFO list last year and I kept putting it aside, it is on my UFO list again this year. With all of the snow and ice that we have had this week, and four snow days, I told myself I was going to finish it no matter what.  You probably hear a shout out about an hour ago, I put the top on the bed to see how it was going to look and to show hubby.  Can't wait to get it quilted and on the bed.

North Star

Yesterday I did some organizing in my sewing room and am ready for the new year.  I made block number 2 for the Civil War BOW, North Star.  I hope they are all this easy.  I have also been working on RRCB.  I am thinking that I will spend the rest of the day trying to finish a project that is almost compete.  I need to feel like I have accomplished something. 

One little project finished, pillowcases for my great niece and nephews for Valentine's Day.  I found this  fabric in my stash, I had completely forgotten that I had it.  Will have to get them in the  mail soon.

Snow Day!!!

 Over the last few years it seems that the meteorologists have gotten much better at predicting the weather.  The last few days they were predicting snow, sleet, and freezing rain for the Atlanta area.  I was watching for it all day yesterday, finally at about 9:00 last night I told my hubby, "It's not going to snow", less than an hour later I looked out the window and it was pouring down.  It was beautiful!!  I love snow and for this to be the second big snow that I have seen in less than a month was wonderful.  Not wonderful that we will have to make today and tomorrow up later, but I have enjoyed playing in the snow.  These are some of the trees in our backyard. 

Bird feeder that my dad made for me.

After walking in the snow and helping some of our neighbors shovel their driveways I worked on organizing my sewing room.  School closings have already been announced for tomorrow and I plan on getting a lot of sewing done tomorrow.

UFO's for 2011

My goal this year is to finish some projects, I have way too many projects in varying stages of completion.  Buckeye Beauty to the right is almost ready to go to the quilter.  I have to finish sewing the blocks together and put the border on.  I have only been working on this for two years.

Turning Twenty that is ready to go to the quilters.

I started the blocks for Snowmen A-Z last year on New Year's Day.  I have 10 of them completed. This is one that will definitely be finished for Christmas this year. 










Pinwheels and Patches, or maybe it is the other way, this was a swap that several of the Timbles participated in early last year.  I had all of the blocks finished but wasn't paying enough attention, and some of them were sewn the wrong way.  I could have gone ahead and sewn them together, but something about it bothered me.I have taken them apart and now just have to put them back together.

Some of my other UFO's for the year are:

5.  Grandpa's Best:  I bought the fabric for the borders, have to do those then get it quilter.
6.  Carrie Hall:  This was on my list last year, maybe this year.
7.  Wrapped in Comfort:  This is a large pillow cover designed by Pat over at Silver Thimble.
8.  Neighbor's Fence:  Not one but two of these are at exactly the same stage.  I made these from my flannel stash, just have to add borders and get it quilted.
9.  Scrappy Nines:  Long way to go on this one.
10.  Stargazing:  Another long way to go.
There are no photos of 5-10 because I can't get to them in my sewing room.
Wish me luck.

Folk Art Tribute #5

Just finished block # 5 for the Folk Art Tribute over at Linen Closet Quilts.  So far these blocks have been really, really easy, I keep waiting for something really hard to come along.  I think that working on these has made my applique skills a little better.  The pieces are so large that it is easy to make very small stitches.

Meet Stanley

This is Stanley, the salt pig, one of my Christmas presents.  I had no idea that such a thing even existed, but while in Virginia, for a funeral before Christmas I saw these and thought they were so cute.  My sister-in-law had not finished her shopping so she got  me one. We were actually staying in Marion, Virginia, however the funeral was in Saltville, the Salt Capital of the Confederacy.  What a perfect place to find a salt pig.  You pour the salt in the hole in the top and it pours out of his snout.  I don't know that I will ever actually use Stanley for salt but he is really cute.

My first BOW

Yes, I was tempted.  After reading about the new Block of the Week from Barbara Brackman to celebrate the anniversary of the Civil War I had to do it.  I am a huge history buff and love anything about the Civil War.  I just finished the fist block.  My goal is to make all of the blocks using my stash., lets see how long that will last.

Southern Tradition

 I have lived in the South all of my life, I grew up in Mississippi, lived in Louisiana for a short time and have been in Georgia for 26 years now.  I am a true southern girl.  I know that each part of the country has different food traditions, one of the big food traditions in the south is the traditional New Year's Day menu, black-eyed peas, with ham, and collard greens. Hubby cooked up a big pot of black-eyed peas with ham.

I made a huge pan of cornbread.

Here are the collards, this is my first attempt at cooking fresh collards out of our garden.  It is actually the first time we have ever planted collards.  They were pretty good.  Happy New Year to everyone.

Last Field Trip of the Year

Yesterday Becky, Kristie and I  made our last field trip of the year.  We left Becky's around 9:30 and headed to Sweet Home.  It was a party.  We saw Sharon H., along with Sharon B.A., here they are with Becky and Krisite.  We were all doing our best to help out Melissa with her end of year sale.  An added incentive was if you bought all that was on a bolt you wrote your name on the bold and put it in a bin, there is going to be a drawing for a gift certificate from the empty bolts.  If Kristie doesn't win it isn't because she didn't try.  I lost track of the number of bolts Kristie wrote her name on.  Becky and I each have one in there. Before leaving we also ran into Gretchen and Steve.

Our next stop was Patrick's.  Krisitie was looking for some floral fat quarters for a project she has in mind.  I found a piece of neutral for an applique background and a piece of red, you can never have too much red fabric.  Becky bought a bag of oranges, no fabric.  They sure did look good.

Kristie was showing off her finished top from the latest swap that we did.  I am feeling really guilty, mine is still in pieces.

My last stop of the day was to pick up some floss at Hobby Lobby, while there I found the looked for the trim that Kristie and I fell in love with on our last field trip.  I had no idea that they would have it.  Krisite was showing off the trim she found there so I looked and luckily it was still on sale.  I bought two years, I have no idea what I am going to do with it, but I will find something fun.