The Last NewFO At Cat Patches

Now this is my kind of blog event. Many thanks to Barbara over at Cat Patches for hosting this great event. Learn all about it here.  Barbara will be hosting this same even in 2014 and the new button is on my side bar, so check it out and join in the fun, because who doesn't like to start new projects!
 I LOVE to start new projects.  So let me see if I can remember my December projects.  Actually I didn't  get much started but I did start and finish these jammies for my hubby for Christmas.

And a friend of mine came over and showed me this project she found on YouTube.  I asked her the name and she can't remember and she can't find it again.  She said she started out looking at Grandmother Flower Gardens and found this table topper.
I have searched and searched but all I came up with was this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AlS1bxSe24 for a denim quilt but the technique is very similar.  We used two circles and cut them with my GO die on the Studio Cutter so cutting was really quick.  Then traced a square in the center on each top square and this is the results.

Not finished yet but it is getting close.  I stitched down the petals with the blanket stitch.  Next time I will use a larger circle and square as not much of the center showed up.  But it was a fun quick project to try.  And finish is in sight.  3 more rows to stitch down and then turn up and stitch the outside edges.
I also decided I could keep up with Bonnie Hunter's latest Mystery Celtic Solstice. OH silly, silly me.  We have been given Clue 5.  Well, I have Clue 1 complete and have started cutting Clue 2 so I am really playing catch up.

 It is quickly turning into a UFO but I will get back to it.  It's not a race, right?
That's all I got started this month, but trying to get myself more organized so hopefully I will accomplish more in the new year.
And many thanks to Barbara for hosting NEWFO's and the neat giveaway.
May you be blessed in your journey in the new year.

Christmas Musings

The festivities are over, the family has gone home and the house is quiet.  The kitchen is mostly cleaned and the dishwasher is doing it's job.  Hubby and I are in our pj's and plan on a a quiet evening with our computers.  Even though I would like to quilt my recliner won out.

Hubby wanted me to show "Hey, Santa Please Stop Here" since  it is hung on the wall, so here it is.....

We have a vaulted ceiling so I was very pleased with the way it displayed.  The piece was done for the HO HO HO Blog Hop and you can read about my entry here.

I am anxious to get back to quilting, seems like forever since I have done any but it really hasn't been that long.  The Friday and Saturday before Christmas I played Santa and made hubby a new pair of PJ's.

Since only he and I see them, (til now) I generally make them fun.  The pair he retired had drive in movie theater symbols on the shirt.  He really enjoys planes so this pair has fighter planes with flannnel pants.  He likes the  shirt to be cotton and the pants flannel and you just can't buy them that way.  So I change from quilter to seamstress briefly to make his jammies.

I have two really wonderful Santas in my life, dear hubby gave me the Joyce Meyer "Everyday Life Bible" for Christmas (my favorite gift).  We had been in a Mardel Christian Store and I had seen them in hardback and softback and a wonderful pink leather and hubby wrote it down because he told me today he would never have remembered it til Christmas and ordered it from Mardel and look which one he gave me.  Isn't it lovely?

My second Santa is son and he always asks his dad and I for a list of our wishes and I always put that I want a gift certificate to the local quilt shop.  Well, this year he stepped it up with a little help from the lovely owner of the local quilt shop.  I had been wanting this kit called Serenity by Coach House Designs so it was gifted to me by son.

He is not at all intimidated with going into the quilt shop since he and the owner when to high school together.  I was so excited to receive the kit I had been wanting.  I am sure this will be a NewFO for the blog event Cat Patches sponsors monthly, you can find her button on my side bar to read all about it. 

I have been using Electric Quilt for a few years now and often design quilts with my students when they want something special and had mentioned that EQ7 had a lot of new features, hubby was listening and he and son went together and gifted me this....

They both gave me other gifts but these were my favorites, well maybe I should show you one more gift....

Will men ever learn not to give their wives things to work with for Christmas....actually I was very pleased with my new skillet.  Had been needing it for quite a while and just hadn't gotten around to getting it and hubby remembered that too.

Well that is it for me,  hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Wishing Everyone a Very Merry Christmas

Just finished the last of the preparations for this evening festivities so decided to sit and rest at the computer for a while before I set out the food for our buffet.  I wanted to wish everyone a very joyous Merry Christmas.

I was thinking back to my childhood tree and found an image of my favorite decorations on the tree....


We had a number of these angel paper ornaments without the background star and also Santas,  Why they were my favorite with all the other glittery shiny ornaments on the tree  is beyond me.  I remember crying if one would be torn beyond repair and mother would decide to dispose of it.  Funny what we remember and what we enjoyed as a child isn't it.  I've really dated myself too haven't I?

Well, on that note Merry Christmas everyone.  Hope your journey is MERRY!

It's Seems Like a Mighty Long Time

Time flys when you are having fun.  My problem is I like to have too much fun and do every project I see.  I follow so many wonderful blogs that I got inspiration overload and decided to take a break from all the inspiration and try to decide just what I wanted to concentrate on in my quilt making adventures.  I want to do it ALL....Teach my students, longarm quilt, make quilts for myself and family, design patterns, participate in online Quilt Alongs, Mystery Quilts and Blog Hops to name a few.  Oh what to do.... After my long absence I still want to do it ALL.  I fear I have a quilting addiction that is incureable!
I started my blog to document my Cancer Quilt progression.  I have been waiting for my hand dyed sky and it arrived a short time ago......Isn't it beautiful?  This isn't all of it but I couldn't fit it all in the photo since it is 60" long.  I also have another piece she made to chop up for confetti quilting of "rays" in the sky.

It was done by Kathy, of kathyinozarks who does beautiful hand dyed fabrics and makes soaps and other wonderful products that she sells in her ETSY shop.  Please check out her blog here and visit her ETSY shop.  In return for my beautiful fabric I quilted a quilt for her, the quilt top was pieced by her mother and aunt several years back.  It was great fun quilting these fabrics that brought back memories of my early quilting years.  I am going to let Kathy post the photo in her blog so be sure to follow her to see the quilting results.
As for my Cancer Quilt......after receiving my sky fabric I was dismayed that the work I had done on some of the elements for the quilt are not going to work now.  The colors are just wrong.  If you have followed my blog you might remember my barn

You can read about it here.  So it is back to the drawing board.  All of my trees are in the scrap bin too and I am starting over.  I am hoping to be able to salvage my barn quilt from this barn but time will tell.
But it will soon be time for my blog anniversary and I do love to blog too so I will be posting more often.
Have you been having fun on your life's journey?  Let me know what you have been up to.........