Happy New Year 2009!

Happy New Year 2009 everyone! I wish you all much good health and happiness and also lots of productive quilting/stitching time.
Until next time .......

Finn's Challenge Completed

Yay! I did it! I said I'd finish 4 by New Year's Eve (Finn's Challenge) and I've done it!

First finish is the Purple Scrappy Coins quiltSecond finish is the Christmas Ornament wallhangingThird finish is the Convergence quiltFourth finish is the Bargello quiltI'm doing my happy dance.......
Until next time.......

Presents and More

The past few days has been busy with out of town relatives visiting, opening presents on the 25th and lots (and I mean lots) of eating. My favorite 2 gifts are these, flannel pyjamas (don't you just love the button fabric on the cuff?) and these incredibly warm slippers. My feet are always freezing!

Tonight I made Minestrone soup for dinner; see my post here for the recipe. The thought of eating a large meal was ugh! too much!

I hope to have some news in a day or 2 regarding Finn's New Year's Eve challenge that I signed up for so stay tuned! Until next time .......

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!
Until next time....

Tree Skirt

Time for another pic of a gift I made for my mum a few years ago; this time a Christmas Tree Skirt. I remembered to bring my camera to her house yesterday so I could take the pics! LOL Click on each pic for a closer look. Here's a closeup of one of the stars...And here's a view of the backing fabric, which I chose to coordinate with the front and also so it could be reversible. Smart, eh?Until next time .......

Happy Happy

I want to wish all the Jewish bloggers out there a Happy Hanukkah :^) which started tonight at sundown and lasts for 8 days. Read more about it here.   Until next time .......

Avoidance

I confess I've been doing a lot of avoiding lately. I haven't finished my shopping, or done my cards or cleaned up the house or get ready for my oldest teen's 18th birthday which is also on the 25th. I also haven't finished the embroidery and binding on a gift either. I haven't been posting much too.
This is what I've been doing...I found this old UFO (circa 1997) in the cupboard all wadded up. It's flannel, front and back. I had pin basted it and had machine quilted (not very well) stitch in the ditch most of the vertical (up and down seams). I didn't like my machine quilting then so I got mad at it and into the cupboard it went not to see the light of day until this week. I yanked it out and proceeded to rip out all the stitching. Wow-wee it was a slooooooooooooow process. My stitch length was small. That meant ripping out small stitches out of flannel. Not fun. My fingers still hurt from pulling out the loose threads. So anyhow the ripping out is all done. It needs to be pressed as does the backing and then it can be loaded onto my frame for quilting. Could be a good project to do when I want to escape the insanity of the holidays, right?? Until next time.......

Log Cabin

I thought I'd take a moment to share with you one of the first quilts I ever made; a king-sized log cabin, in 1995. The blocks were pieced by hand ( I didn't own a sewing machine yet) but when it came time to sew the rows together I was able to do it by machine (yay! I had finally got a sewing machine). A long arm quilter quilted it for me with an all over puzzle piece pantograph in navy blue thread. We use it in the winter time on our bed as an extra layer (necessary when it's -30 C out and the wind chill brings it to -40 C/F like it has been lately). I am sentimental about this quilt but it's interesting for me to look at it now and what changes I would make if I were to make it today. I've learned a lot about colour, value and it's placement in a quilt over the years. It's fun to look back!

I almost have a second quilt finished for Finn's NYE challenge, it's a Christmas gift so I better get going on that and finish the embroidery and binding on it.
Until next time .......

Lego

When I was a little girl I loved playing with Lego that I got passed on to me from my older brothers. I would create all kinds of things and never got tired of it. A great toy! While blog reading a fellow quilter (sorry can't remember who) posted a link to this fascinating site.
Have a look at this great pic, this Lego sculpture is called 'Think'
Reminds me of how a lot of us feel this time of year busy with so many deadlines to meet and not enough time in the day to get everything done.......
Until next time.......

Busy

Yes, I've been busy lately and not blogging as much. But here's a pic of the first 'real' quilt that I quilted on my NG frame with my Pfaff Grand Quilter that I got done today! Tonight I'll sew down the binding and this will be my first finish for Finn's NYE Challenge. I talked about this quilt here last. It'll be donated to the local Children's hospital through our guild's ABC quilts project. I'll post a pic of it once the binding is completed. Until next time .......

Giveaway and Pics from ISQSC

First up I want to mention Oh Sew Busy's giveaway on her blog. Go visit Bec here and check it out.
I forgot to show the remaining pics from ISQSC held in Fargo in September! So here they are.....and remember to click on each pic for a closer look.

I just love the effect that off-setting the 2 halves of the circles does for the movement of the quilt.
I just love New York Beauty, don't you? I gotta make one of these, maybe next year? This was the centre medallion of a very large quilt. This is the first time I'd seen a Mariner's Compass type of block that was oval instead of round. That's all the pics for today! Until next time .......

Teddy Bears

How many of you are familiar with Sonnja, a quilt-blogger from the Netherlands? She has 2 blogs; one is her own blog: http://sonnja.blogspot.com/ and her other blog is for the Beertje Zonns. What's a Beertje Zonn you ask? Wonderful teddies that Sonnja makes to go to Aids and Orphan children in 3rd world countries. The link to the Beertje Zonn blog is here. All she needs is a square of fabric 12 inches by 24 inches to make 1 bear. So go have a look in your sewing room for fabric that size, email Sonnja for her snail mail address and send them off to her. Here's some of the fabric that I'm sending to Sonnja......Until next time .......