Christmas

I hope you have all had a wonderful day full of family time, good food, friends and nice gifts.  It has just been DH and myself today, but it has been a nice restful day.  I thought I would get some sewing done today, but so far, not a stitch. 

I have been working on a Christmas quilt for next year!  The pattern is Christmas 101 from Jan Patek.  Here are the blocks I have so far.  The pictures are a little blurry but I will take more when the quilt is finished:

 

 

 

I have just a little more to stitch on Mary, then two more blocks.  One is shepherds, the other the Wise Men.  It should look like this when it is done:

I will be back with more to share, but for now, I think I will go try to finish Mary!

Merry Christmas!

Snow and Reindeer

It won't be a whole month since my last post, so two posts within a month is good for me!  Here's what has been keeping me busy.

In August we went to Oregon and Washington to visit DH kids and grand kids.  While we were there, I traced everyone's hand and shoe prints with an idea for a Christmas project for each family.

Here they are:

Each one is about 24 inches by 34 inches.  If you look close, you can see the difference in hand and shoe sizes, hands make the antlers and shoes, the faces.  I glued googlie eyes and pom-poms noses to each reindeer.  I think the little ones will get a kick out of the reindeer made for them.  They will always be able to look back and see how small their hands and shoes were in 2013.  Each one can be hung on the wall or used as a table mat.  I think they turned out really cute, hope they do, too.  When the rest of the kids have little ones, I will make some for them, too.

We had the last of winter storms come through NM over the weekend.  We woke up to 2 inches of snow on the ground today.  The last several days it has been gray and rainy.

Here is proof we do get snow here.  Tomorrow it is suppose to be in the low 40's and Thanksgiving day low 50's are in the forecast.  I am looking forward to sunshine again!

With the cold wet weather I found a great soup recipe to share.  We sometimes go out to Mimi's Café for lunch with friends.  My favorite there is the corn chowder.  I googled for a recipe that might come close to theirs and found they have the recipe on the Mimi's web site.  It is so good, I just have to share it with you:

 

Cafe Corn Chowder

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 - 1.5 hours

 

Ingredients

¼-cup butter, (½-stick)

6 tablespoons chopped onion

¾-cup diced celery

2-½ cups water

2 cups cubed peeled red or russet potatoes, (½-inch)

2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed   (I think next time, I will add an extra 1/4 to 1/2 cup corn)

1 can creamed corn (14 oz)

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 dash of white pepper   (Regular pepper works fine)

3 tablespoons flour

3 cups half and half cream   (I used a pint, 2 cups, of heavy cream and 1 cup of 1% milk)

 

Instructions

1. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.

2. Add in the flour and whisk until smooth and a roux forms (2 minutes).

3. Add onions and celery and saute 5 minutes until soft but not brown.

4. Add water, potatoes, corn kernels, creamed corn, sugar, salt and pepper.  Using a wire whisk, whisk until smooth.  (I just used a wooden spoon in my non-stick pan)

5. Cover and simmer until potatoes are barely tender, about 30 minutes.

6. Add half and half and simmer uncovered until soup has thickened to a creamy

consistency, about 15 minutes.

7. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper if needed

 

 

This is a great recipe if you enjoy creamy soups.  I had mine with a little bacon crumbled on top.  I think it would be great with ham or maybe even shrimp added.  DH is not a big fan of cream soups, but he added some green chilies and chicken to his.  It is a great base for almost anything you think sounds good added to it.  By itself, it is great, too.

 

 

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

It has been a busy three weeks!

The last three weeks have been sooooooo busy, but so fun!  It started with a three day trip to visit my DD in Mesa, AZ.  We started out really early, about 5:00 AM because the weather report forecast high winds.  We hit those just after we headed south out of Holbrook, AZ.  The wind lasted until we reached Mesa and the sky was dark with lots of sand in the air.  We got into town a little early, so we did a little shopping, then went to DD's to deliver her Great-Great-Grandmothers rocking chair and went out to dinner.  The next day we all went to the botanical gardens in Mesa and checked out all kinds of desert plants.  I made note of a few for my garden next summer.  We had lunch and did a little more shopping, no quilt shops though.  It was back to her apartment to chat and visit a while, then out to dinner.  There was lots of eating out, but it was fun.  The next morning we met her for breakfast, then we were on our way home.  It was fun seeing her and her new apartment.  I like knowing she is in a safe area.

Next was getting the house picked up and ready for some high school friends to arrive.  We spent two days with them, driving about 425 miles and showing off some of our favorite sites.  We spent one day in Santa Fe starting off with a visit to the Loretto Chapel to see the staircase.

 

The beautiful altar

 

 

and the stained glass windows.

 

 

 

  We all walked around the plaza seeing what the vendors had on display and stepped inside the cathedral to view it.  There was a wedding about to begin, so we could not get any pictures inside but it is also very beautiful.  This was followed by lunch at a wonderful restaurant close by.  We had shrimp tacos that were to die for, YUM!  After lunch we headed back to Albuquerque via the "back road".  It is a wonderful drive through lots of beautiful scenery with a stop by "Maggies Diner" from the movie Wild Hogs.  On our way home, we drove up to the crest to look down on Albuquerque from 10,000 feet.  That night, we took the tram to the top of the crest just before sun down.  It is one of our favorite things to do when we have guests from out of town.  We had dinner in the restaurant at the top and watched the sun go down and the city light up.  It was a great day.  The next day, we started out with breakfast then headed downtown to walk and shop in Old Town.  They enjoyed the shops and a stop at the Candy Lady for some treats.  Nest was a stop to view buffalo and authentic native pottery and jewelry.  That was just a stop to look and dream.  After that we headed out of town and up into the Jemez mountains.  There we stopped at the Gilman tunnels, the soda dam, traveled on to the Valle Grande caldera, then back to the Los Ojos for dinner and home.  We crammed a lot into two days but we had a great time showing off a little of our state.

It took a few days to rest up and get back to normal, but it was worth it.  I finally got back to some sewing.  Right before our guests arrived I finished the last of the wedding signatures into a wall hanging for DS and DIL.  Last year at their wedding some of the guests signed strips of fabric for a quilt.  There were some of the strips where they wrote too close to the edges to get them into the quilt without losing some of the sentiments.  I appliqued them onto a wall hanging and decorated the border with more applique.  I like the way it turned out, I hope they do, too:

I am also working on a baby quilt for Henry who is due to arrive in January, here is a sneak peek:

It is all sandwiched and ready to quilt but I'm not sure how I want to do that.  I have a few months before it has to be finished, so there is time to think about it.

I have two other projects I want to finish as Christmas gifts, I really need to get started on those this week.  They are small and I hope won't take too long but we will see.  While I was making the backing for the owl quilt this afternoon I also made these:

We had a bread and soup dinner and the bread was yummy!  I think we both ate way more bread than soup.

That's it for now, I think I will go put my feet up and do some stitching!

Guess who found me . . .Meet Maggie

We have a friend of DH who has retired and is moving to Boise, ID.  DH is helping him pack things and last week they brought an old sewing machine here for me to research it's value.  I spent two days searching the internet for any information on it.  I called Husqvarna with the serial number and they were able to tell me what year it was manufactured.  With all the information I could find I let our friend know she is only worth about $25 in top shape and she does not have any of her accessories or case so I offered him $10-$15.  Since she is not worth too much and I had tracked down the information on her, he said I could just keep her, no charge.  That's a good thing because I fell in love when I first saw her.  She was pretty dirty inside and out so I spent two more days cleaning and oiling her and DH did a little electrical work on the foot pedal.  She runs pretty good, I think she will run better after the oil has had time to seep into all her old joints. 

Here she is all clean and pretty:

She is a White Rotary sewing machine produced in Cleveland, OH in 1954.  The White company sold out to  Husqvarna in the 1960's.  Parts are no longer made, so if anything breaks she may turn into a pretty little door stop but I love her, she is just too cute.  I think she is a 3/4 size and she is a straight stitch machine.  I don't think she saw a lot of use over the years because there are no wear marks on the sewing surface. There were a few scratches on the wooden base, but a little Old English scratch cover fixed them up.   I decided to name her Maggie after my Great Grandmother. 

This has been a busy couple of weeks.  DH daughter who was visiting with us for two weeks went home early last Monday morning.  Workers arrived a couple hours later to install a sun shade cover over our patio.  They finished that up on Tuesday and ever since we have been cleaning house and trying to get rested up!  I love company, but it wears me out.

The patio cover was a planned expense because we had the elm hedge removed from the back yard last Spring.  It is the one we had to trim every year and it was such a job.  This is the west side of our house so it heats up during the afternoon.  With the extra shade from the cover, our utility bills will be a lot lower and the house will stay cooler during the summer. 

We had a big surprise last week ago though.  Our air conditioning quit working.  After some checking by our furnace/A/C guy we found out it was going to be expensive to repair.  And since the unit is about 25 years old anyway, we decided to just have the whole system replaced.  Not what we want to do right now, but some things won't wait.  Fortunately the temperatures have cooled off during the day for now, so it is not unbearable without the air on.  In a couple of weeks the new one will be installed and the little issues we have had with the system over the last few years should be all fixed. 

We still have a few busy weeks ahead.  We are going to visit my DD in Mesa for a few days, then we have some friends we went to school with who are coming to NM for a visit.  Both events will be fun, but I am looking forward to a little down time before the holidays get into full swing next month. 

I can't believe time is flying by . .

 

This summer has been a busy one!  I can hardly believe it has been so long since I posted anything, August completely got away and September is almost done. 

Our trip to Oregon and Washington to see kids and grand kids was lots of fun.  We went to two county fairs, spent time at the beach, ate lunch at Mo's at the coast and went to a farmers market.  Lots of fun with the little ones.  The shirts fit great with a little growing room. 

 

 



After we got home, we rested for a few days, got the camper cleaned up and lots of laundry done.  My DH youngest daughter is visiting us now and in a couple of weeks some high school friends are coming in for a visit.  Lots of company and visiting this summer!

Here is an updated picture of the Medallion quilt.  I'm still working away at hand quilting it.

I am almost to the half way point in the border.  If you click on the picture you can enlarge it to see more detail.  Slowly I will get it finished. 

I am also working on a grand baby quilt for the little guy expected in January.  I have the background ready, next is some applique on it.  Since it is not needed for a few months, I am also working on a wall hanging for my son and DIL.  There were some strips of fabric signed at their wedding that the writing was too close to the edge to put into their quilt.  I stitched them to a larger piece of fabric but didn't know what to do next.  After some thought I decided to add some applique to make it pretty.  I am hand quilting it now and will have pictures of it soon.

There are a couple of Christmas projects on my list, too.  I better get those started soon!

Here are a few items I got when I visited family in Illinois in June.  My parents are living in a nursing home now and they have sold their house.  My sister and brother had boxes of things for me to bring home.  In among the pictures and things were some old quilting projects my Mom had started.

This first one is a pretty flimsy:

These are huge blocks, all different colors on the white background.  The main block is 23 inches square with 2 inch sashings between the blocks.  They are set three across and four down.  I think it will fit a single size bed, maybe.  I'm not sure whether to try to make a few more blocks and make it larger or just quilt it as is.  It seems long and narrow now but to try to add more blocks might be difficult to match the white background fabric.  The fabrics are not all cotton, I think they are a cotton/poly blend.   I don't know for sure what to do with it. 

Next is another unique design:

There are a bunch of blocks and part of the flimsy put together.  I need to figure the best way to finish it, this is a complicated one!  I have a paper pattern for the shape that makes up the block and some very sketchy instructions.  This one will be really fun when it is finished if I can figure it out!

Another interesting item is a baby quilt that we think belonged to my uncle, my mom's older brother.

A close up of some of the embroidery.   My uncle would be 93 if he were still living.  I don't know any of the history for this.  My guess is my great-grandmother probably made this one for him or maybe my grand mother.  It has some discoloration and some of the embroidery has broken down but it still a cute little thing.  Someone stitched a lot of love into it.

Oh, and one more little project.  I almost forgot it!

  I bought a twister tool last year and finally decided to try it out.  I used a charm square pack I won at a shop hop last summer and made this.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  I have no idea how I will quilt it though.  It will have to wait a while to be quilted so I have time to think about it.  Any ideas or suggestions?

Guess that is all for now.  Thanks for staying with me on all the things to catch up on!

Before July gets away. . . I've been busy

It's been over a month since I posted anything, but I have been working on lots of things.

First of all, here is the progress on my Medallion quilt from Lori and Randi's sew along:

The final appliqued border is on and I have started hand quilting it.  The center medallion is quilted and I am working on the first border.  This will be a slow process over the next few months.  I still need to embroider some eyes for the birds in the border.  I have enjoyed working on this one.  I am linking up with Lori's blog Humble Quilts to show my progress.  You can click on the picture to enlarge it to see more detail.

I have lots of other projects to show off, too.  After we got home from our visit in IL, MO, AR and TX earlier in the month, I got busy on these:

New shirts for the two grandson's who don't have shirts made by Grandma yet.  They both turned out really cute, hope the little ones like them.

Next, I have been working on pillowcases to donate.  Last summer when my friend was moving into her new home, she gave me tons of fabric she didn't think she would use.  Most of it doesn't fit with my taste for quilts and some of it was all cotton and some was a blend.  I used some of the cottons for quilt backings on little quilts, some for sundresses for DGD and shirts for my other DGS but a lot just sat on the shelf staring back at me.  I decided pillowcases would work!

The two piles on the left are finished, the stack on the sewing machine are waiting to be finished.  Just have side and bottom seams to sew yet on those.  When I am finished I will have 26 pillowcases to deliver to the LQS to pass on to whoever needs them. 

Also finished are these four placemats:

I've had the fabric and pattern for these for a couple of years but never got around to making them.  Now I have some pretty southwest style placemats for the kitchen.  One more project that won't bug me anymore.  The pattern is Trading Post by Elizabeth Anne Quilt Designs.  The designer is Elizabeth Dawson.  The pattern also has instructions for a wall hanging and a table runner.  Maybe I will do the table runner one of these days since the placemats turned out so nice.

Our trip to IL was really nice.  We got to visit lots of family.  Next we are off in a few days to visit DH's kids and grands in OR and WA.  We still have a few things to get ready for the trip.  Oh, we have had some rain!  I was wishing for that and we have had a couple of weeks of light rain occasionally and then this:

One good storm with about an inch and a half of rain, hail, flash flooding and some wind.  We are not close to being out of a drought, but this sure helped a bit!  The hail really chewed up the leaves on the little apple tree but the tree protected my flowers from too much damage.  Along that block wall we used to have those elm hedge trees that we had to trim every year.  We had them all taken out in the spring and put up the green strips to help with a little privacy in the back yard.  The grass has been growing since it got some rain. 

Well that should catch things up.  I am back to pillowcases and quilting the medallion quilt. 

Happy stitching!

Progress and a finish

First progress on the Medallion quilt, it has a second border:

 

The blocks were fun to make, at first I was concerned with some of the scrappy combinations I put together but once I had the blocks together, I really liked the fabric choices.  Next is another narrow blue border and on the 11th the appliqued border instructions will be posted on Lori's blog.  You can go check out the other quilts in her Linky Party. 

 

I also finished my DS and DDIL's wedding quilt. 

 

 

This is a Pam Buda design, "Scattered Leaves", that appeared in the October 2009 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  In the log cabin part of the blocks, I used strips of fabric signed by the wedding guests and I think it turned out nicely.  They were married last fall so the theme fits.  Here is a peek at the back:

 

 

 

The back is the color of the Aspen leaves in the fall and I put on two labels.  One with the quilt information and the other with their favorite picture from the wedding.  I also added a few extra inches to the outside border so it just fits a queen size bed with a small drop on the sides.  It is machine pieced and hand quilted.  It was lots of work, but it kept me busy after my foot surgery and made the recovery time fly by.  It will be delivered to them next weekend.  I sure hope they like it.

 

 

That's about it for now.  The weather in NM is getting hot, so not much time is spent outside.  I go out for about ten minutes to water some plants in the back yard and that is it.  I sure wish we could get some rain, but it is not in the forecast for long time.  There are several fires burning around the state, three new ones just popped up yesterday.  We are soooooooooo dry.

 

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and you all have lots of sewing time!

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I made myself sit down and post

It has been a long time!  My surgery went well and I am trying to get back on my feet as much as possible.  I see my surgeon tomorrow for my 10 week post op follow up.  I am hoping he releases me to drive and do pretty much what I want from now on.  I didn't think this foot surgery would be as bad as the previous one but I was wrong.  This one was worse.  It is all behind me now and I hope it has fixed the problem with foot pain I was having before. 

Since I have been back to some sewing in the last couple of weeks, here is a progress report.  I am trying to do the Medallion sew along with Lori of Humble Quilts and Randy of Barrister's Block .  Here are the first two parts of mine:

 

I used mostly Civil War reproduction fabrics.  I think it is kinda cute so far.  Tomorrow Randy will post the next pieced border section on her blog.  This went pretty fast, it is about 24 inches square right now.  If you want to join the fun it is not too late.  Lori and Randy leave lots of time between releasing the next section so you can catch up.    Lori has a linky party going on if you want to visit and see more that are posted.  

 

You have all seen the picture of Ruth and me on her blog as she came through Albuquerque.  Here is the one DH took of us.

 

It was so much fun to meet her and her DH and see all of her beautiful quilts in person.  Her Going to Texas quilt travels on her bed in the camper.  It is more beautiful in person than the pictures she posted on her blog a while back.  Her Swap quilt is gorgeous, too. 

 

 

I have a few more finishes to show off.  I have all three of the little quilts I showed in one of my last few posts all finished now.  Here they are:

 

 

This is the November 2012 Small Quilt of the Month for the Small Quilt Talk group I am in.  I loved using all the tiny scraps to make it.  Those are 1 inch pieces in the 16 patches.  The whole quilt is about 16 inches square. 

 

Next is:

 

 

The December 2012 Small Quilt of the Month.  It is 19 inches square.  The red and green makes it a Christmas quilt. 

 

I did not do the January, February, April or May small quilts for 2013 yet, maybe I will get caught up eventually.  They are all really cute patterns.  I did do the one for March:

 

 

I love the colors in this one.  We were challenged to use some uglies in it.  I did, but they turned into some cute little HST's in the end.  This one measures about 16 by 19 inches. 

 

I also got really ambitious and made a doll quilt for my friend who loaned me the walker to use after my surgery.  She has acquired an American Girl doll to sit in the love seat in her living room and the doll needs a quilt.  The idea for this one came out of the Little Quilts All Through the House book by Alice Berg, Mary Ellen Von Holt and Sylvia Johnson.  The book is one I ordered from Amazon while I was bored with sitting.  It has some cute little quilts in it.  Here is

 

   

Candy Hearts!  It still has chalk markings in the picture but I cleaned them off and put a label on it yesterday.  I think I will have to make another of these for my grand daughter before we visit her in the late summer. 

 

With all these weeks where the most I could do in a day was sit in my recliner I did a lot of hand stitching.  I finished the wedding quilt for my DS and DDIL.  It still needs a label and I am working on that.  It has to be something special, I think.  I also have to make a wall hanging with the signature strips that were left over from the quilt.  There were some that people wrote too close to the edge to put them into the quilt.  I think I will fuse them to a background and zigzag around them so not too much is lost and make a wall hanging to go with the quilt.  I was planning to start on that today but we decided to get out of the house for the afternoon.  We walked around a couple of stores to get me some exercise.  I have still been favoring my right foot so I need to practice walking correctly again.  We tried to go for a walk last Friday but I didn't get too far before I started having pain in my hip, back and foot.  I was trying to walk too fast I think, slowing down helps a lot.  Today was much better so maybe in a week or two I will try around the neighborhood again.

 

 That pretty much catches you all up with what I've been up to.  Hope everyone has had a nice weekend.  Thank you to everyone who has served our country, especially everyone who gave their lives to protect our freedom.  You are all much appreciated!

It's March ???!!!

Time flies so quickly when you are busy!  I have spent most of my time quilting my DS and DIL's wedding quilt.  I am about half done with the center blocks I think.  It will take a while yet, I am quilting it by hand, so far just stitch in the ditch following the pattern of the blocks.  No new pictures of it yet.

Here is something I had fun with:

 

I found a tutorial for this Sunflower Pincushion on Kaaren's blog, The Painted Quilt .  It didn't take too long and it was lots of fun.  Next one I will try to center the leaves and petals better, but all in all, I like it. 

 

I have also finished two little flimsy's.  With the kitchen remodel, I got behind with the Small Quilt Challenge last year.  I just finished the November and December quilt tops.  Here they are:

 

 

Here's November, it is about 16 inches square and

 

 

 here's December, measuring about 19 inches square. 

 

I have started pulling fabrics for the March challenge but have not worked on the ones for January or February yet.  I will try to catch up on those later. 

 

I have had some fun shopping, too.  Here are some of the goodies I got:

 

 

These 30's fat quarters were purchased at a quilt shop in Durango, CO back in November when I was house sitting for my DS and DIL while they were on their honeymoon.  I love the Sunbonnet Sue patterns and want to make my own little quilt someday.  This is a start at collecting some 30'S fabrics for that. 

These are some CW reproduction scraps that I purchased from Homestead Hearth.  They sell grab bags of  1 pound of fabric scraps.  This is two grab bags worth and there are some great fabrics in here.  Some are pretty good size pieces, too. 

 

And these little goodies, a LQS on the east side of the mountain had a $2.00 fat quarter sale, so I stocked up!  I don't have any specific plans for these, but they are pretty and I'm sure inspiration will come. 

 

 I want to get several small projects prepped and ready to work on.  In a couple of weeks I am going to have foot surgery, so I will have time for some handwork while I heal.  About eight years ago I had bunion surgery and over time that has caused a secondary issue.  For the bunion surgery, the metatarsal bone is shortened a little to line the big toe up properly.  Now the metatarsal in the second toe is a little too long and doesn't line up with the toes on either side of it.  That is causing a pressure point that over time has gotten more painful when I stand or walk to much.  It is finally time to do something about it, I have put it off long enough.   

 

I think that is all the news for now!  Hope you are all having a quilty good time!

I've been absent . . .

You know how one thing leads to another?  That's the story of the last couple of months!  Remember in October when my DD and GD were here for a visit after my son's wedding?  Well the microwave broke while they were here and we replaced that.  Then a couple of weeks later the refrigerator started acting up.  This wasn't the first time, it was about 15 years old and had been worked on at least five times during it's life.  We decided that before it completely gave out, it needed to be replaced.  A new one was ordered and we waited.  It was scheduled to arrive right after we returned from house/ dog sitting for my DS and new DIL.  We had a nice time "vacationing" at their house while they were away.  The fridge arrived a couple of days after we got home.  Unfortunately, it took the delivery guys about thirty minutes to destroy it while they were trying to reverse the door opening.  Back it went and a new one was ordered.  Then we wait another three weeks.  Well, DH decided to go ahead and remodel the kitchen while we waited.  We pulled up the carpet from the kitchen floor and found two layers of tile underneath.  We got that scraped up and had to get all the glue off the cement before a new ceramic tiles could go down.  We worked on that for a little over a month, a small section at a time.  What a job!  Here's a pic of the floor in progress:

The grey area is the clean cement, the dark brown patch is old glue that has to come up and there is a small patch of the old carpet to the left of it covering the last of the sticky glue to be removed.  Here the counter top has been removed, too.  That was the other big destruction job.  The old counter top matched the light tiles on the backsplash and under the cabinets.  Right at the sink area, the three layers of the particle board are still visible.  There were the three layers of particle board, all glued and screwed down with the small ceramic tiles on top.  We had to locate were the right screws were to detach it from the cabinets.  We worked and worked and worked to get it all torn apart and ready for the new countertops and floor to be installed.  In mid-January, the countertops and floor went in, then we worked and worked to get everything back into place.  The new fridge waited in the family room until it could be set in place.  Since the old dishwasher didn't work, that was replaced and DH decided to order a new range so everything would match.  OH, the laundry room is attached to the kitchen, so a new floor went in there, too.  And shortly before that was finished, the washer started leaking, so since the dryer was 15 years old, a new washer and dryer were ordered, too!

Everything is finally in place and it looks so nice!

We kept the cabinets, just used a rejuvenating oil on them and they look like new.  New counter tops and new tile floor with new appliances.  Now I have to get back to cooking!

I did manage a little stitching, but not much! 

 

 

These are some of the embroidery for the Wish Quilt from Red Brolly.  There is one more, then I can start on the piecing.

I also got the center for my DS and new DIL's wedding quilt together:

Now I have to add the border and get it quilted. 

I have essentially gotten all my Spring housecleaning done since everything in the house was covered in construction dust, so now I should have time to get back to sewing and blogging!  I have been keeping up with everyone's blog but I didn't always comment.  I hope now I will get rested up and back to normal!