Peppermint Pig

Hi everyone! I'm a little under the weather right now so I missed Design Wall Monday, although I did do a tiny bit of quilty stuff.

Our  family has a new holiday tradition. The Saratoga Sweets Peppermint Pig . http://www.saratogasweets.com/peppermint-pig.cfm . The cute pig comes with it's own bag and a little hammer. The idea is to place the pig in the bag, tell everyone something you are grateful for this past year and whack the bag with the hammer. You then pass the pig around so everyone can take a turn. It was a lot of fun and the pig tastes delicious, just enough peppermint flavor.
The grandkids loved whacking the pig! Definitely on the list for next year.

Design Wall Monday December what!!!!!!

Hello quilting friends! No quilty stuff on the design wall today, since they are being machine quilted and bound.

David's quilt was the last thing on my wall.

Just a few more squares and the border and I can put the binding on.

My Uncle David had his annual family Christmas party where I was able to have a five generation picture done. I need to figure out how to lose the background.LOL
From left to right is me, my mom, my grandpa who is holding baby Lilian, my daughter Caitlin who's holding Lorelai.Grandpa is 96!
We garden together and are waiting for the seed catalogs to come! He is amazing and I am glad for everyday we have together.

Baby Lilian.

Saturday we went looking for our tree. The guys led the way complaining that they needed to take a nap and would like to hurry up the process. I was thinking about my todo list amd just let them have at it. Here they have decided this one looks pretty good.



And before I could even say a word.....

the tree is cut, hoisted, and hauled home. Pat sticks the tree in the stand and drags it in the house. Job done! They congratulate each other and flop on the couch. But wait.... did you take a good look at the tree? Its a little on the skinny side. How am I supposed to work with that?

Obviously they don't care. Tree trimming is my job.

Good enough I say.

Since this is primarly a quilting blog I will share my only (so far) Christmas quilt. Machine pieced and hand quilted so long ago the tree block fabrics and the binding are starting to fade.

Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by. And if you don't get back here till next week have a very merry Christmas!

Be sure and visit Judy's blog too!

Design Wall Monday December 13th

Nothing on the design wall today. I am machine quilting Shayla's quilt. All my projects will be finished this week or they become IOUs.
The knitting is on the back burner since my carpal tunnel decided to bother me again. It was the dumb hat (which is for me!) that did me in. Its a little better after 4 days off of knitting so I may have a little bit of sock knitting but no marathon sessions.
 I thank my lucky stars that any kind of quilting doesn't bother my hands. I don't know what I would do.
Check back later in the week on my progress!
And don't forget to visit Judy's blog and see what everyone elso is up to this week.

I Won!

Did any of you participate in the Henry Glass Blog Hop last week? I discovered it while catching up on my Google Reader posts and decided to play along. For seven days two or three designers were featured and gave out a free pattern plus a secret word. You needed to collect all the words and on the last day post in the comments section of their blog.
Each designer also had prizes of fabric or patterns and I happened to win a pattern from Linda Lum DeBono
This is her website http://www.lindalumdebono.com/.  This is the pattern I won!
 The deadline is tonight at 8PM and you still have time to get your name in for the big prize from Henry Glass Fabrics just go to the link at the top of my post, visit the designers blogs and collect the words and post them with your name and email. I hope I win the BIG prize! I need some new fabric... LOL

Wednesday Quilting Status Report

Hello! I thought I would take a quick minute to show what I've gotten done since Monday (not as much as I had hoped).

Top is finished and pressed. Backing was purchased yesterday and washed, pressed, seamed, and pressed.

Tonight I have everything layered together to pin baste. I'll do that tomorrow morning. Evenings I have set aside for some knitting.

 I am working on two pair of socks and a hat. It's going to be a bit of a push but I don't want to be working on anything after December 19th. Luckily Christmas is at my mom's house so I don't have to worry about that!

We have had quite a bit of snow this past week but the sun came out today and made huge icicles. Check out this one on my back deck.





Feeding frenzy





Let me in!



Design Wall Monday December 6

Holy moly this month is getting away from me. I think its time to do a spreadsheet to keep from losing my mind on track with my handmade gifts. On the wall today is Shayla's quilt. All the blocks are pieced and sewn into rows. Only the bottom two rows aren't sewn on. I will finish the rows and add the two borders today .

I stopped downtown at Nancy's Sew and Sew (Waterloo, NY), Friday. It's a tiny little quilt shop, which is perfect for me because it keeps me out of trouble, if you know what I mean. Anyway she had the cutest fabric for kids, so I bought some yardage for a tote bag for my friend's daughter (the smiling daises fabric) and I picked up the farm animal fabric for my grandson Bo. I was going to make a primary color double nine patch here (scroll down), but I love the little farm fabric. EQ here I come.

I wish I had flannel fabric in my stash because the men around here just love the flannel quilts and I  can't get anywhere near them!
The sock knitting is moving right along. I have one pair finished and two pair are half done.
I sure wish I could get motivated to start holiday gift making sooner. I would love to give everyone something I made but I can't even stand to think about it before late October or November.
 How about you? Do you like to make gifts for people and do you give yourself plenty of time to finish?

Tomorrow is my one year blogiversary! I have had a lot of fun and "met" some great fellow quilters. Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Projects

Today I finished Lorelai's quilt top! It went together super fast.




Two down (David's quilt),three to go. I played with EQ for some ideas for Shayla, who is ten and Bo, who is 3. I wanted the lap quilts to be simple and quick. I know they will get worn out in a couple of years, so I didn't spend too much energy on originality. The pink and black I think Shayla will love.

I pulled a pile of pinks and a black from my stash. The color is a little off in the picture.

.











Bo loves bright colors and with the navy background the reds, greens and blues just pop. A variation of this quilt is in EQ7's quick quilt projects tab: Amish Double Nine Patch project file.
I will try to get the four quilts done for Christmas and if I have time I'll make something for baby Lillie.

The weather was windy and rainy all day; a good day for sewing and hot tea.

Design Wall Monday November 29

 

Wow this week went by in a blur. On my wall today is Lorelai's little quilt. She is 16 months old and just became a big sister last Monday. I am sewing the strips together today. The sun is shining on the fourth strip from the left, which is OK because this time of year we don't see a lot of blue sky or sunshine.

I also managed some sock knitting. Thanksgiving day my husband had to work so I said I would ride along and keep him company. Its kind of hard to knit a pattern when you are bouncing along in a tractor trailer, so I started the sock on the right when we left.

I still have to pick quilt designs for two grandchildren, machine quilt all five quilts and bind.... before Christmas. LOL

If you came by way of Judy"s blog, welcome and thanks for stopping by, if you found me by chance click over to Patchwork Times and check out Judy's awesome blog!

Thats all the quilt stuff for today, if you want to see some off topic pics scroll on down.

This is Lorelai and her new baby sister Lilian.

 

Delivering a load of beans to the Bronx. Great view, don't you think? See my sock on the dash to the right? Not bad progress for having started it a few hours earlier.

Getting ready to cross the George Washington bridge in NYC on our way back home.

I thought I could get a picture of NYC skyline from the bridge but instead just a nice pic of husband's handsome mug.

Lilian is here!

Thank you to everyone for all the good wishes yesterday! Baby finally came at 8:30 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 21 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great! Her name is Lilian
Here is a pic of mom, dad, and Lilian.
Grandma better get busy sewing!

Design Wall Monday

I finished all the log cabin blocks for David's quilt and have them sewn into rows
Lorelai's quilt is cut out and ready to sew. But Shayla's quilt just doesn't make me happy. The top was in my UFO box and I thought because it had pink it would work but it just doesn't look like something for a sweet ten year old. Back to the EQ drawing board. Finished another applique block.

My beautiful daughter Caitlin is going to the hospital to be induced today. Hopefully my newest granddaughter will arrive early in the day! As soon as I can I will post a picture.

Progress of a sort

I have been spending a lot of time sewing or machine qulting this week and I have made some progress on my projects. Twenty out of thirty log cabin blocks are done.

I finished quilting all the pink on Shayla's quilt and have started quilting the rest of the blocks. That will involve thread color change so it will take a little longer.
Notice my worn out gloves? There is actually a hole in the thumb and I have been going to buy some Machingers gloves but these are fine for now.

Do you listen to music while you quilt? I have a stereo in my sewing room too but I love listening to music on my Ipod. Usually its classical or new age like Enya or new jazz like Norah Jones. I try to keep my machine quilting music on the calming side so I stay relaxed.

Yesterday I cut out the pieces for a simple strippy quilt for granddaughter Lorelai. I should be able to get that done this weekend unless my daughter goes into labor. Actually, I hope she does because the Doctor wants to induce her on Monday if baby doesn't arrive!

I still have one more grandson who needs a little nap quilt... so some Electric Quilt time will be happening this weekend too.

Tuesday Update

Didn't get too much done today. Some machine quilting and six blocks out of thirty for little log cabin. I may sew some more blocks tonight but I'll probably work on sock knitting. Five or six more rows and I get to start the heel. I just love knitting socks because just about the time you start getting a little bored its time to do something new!

Design Wall Monday

I put my applique blocks on my wall to keep me motivated to finish them. They are from Sue Garman's Bouquets for a New Day pattern. The pattern was a free block of the month for The Quilt Show members. I am still plugging away.
The star blocks are from Kim Diehl's book Simple Traditions. The pattern is Feathered Stars.

Yesterday I cut the pieces for a simple log cabin lap quilt for my grandson. I am sewing that on the featherweight. Granddaughters quilt is being machine quilted on the Singer. I must be feeling real ambitious today!
If you want to see what some other fantastic quilters are doing head over to Judy's blog Patchwork Times ! If you have something interesting on your design wall put your name there too. We all love to see what everyone is working on.

There is also some sock knitting going on in the evening. The pattern is a simple twisted cable. K2,P2 for 3 rows then K2tog don't drop the stitches, K the first stitch then drop both. Just interesting enough without having to pay real close attention.
Now I am off to the dumb tire store to order a tire for my truck. Is there a reason the Mr couldn't have gone himself. Darn him cutting into my sewing time! Just kidding, he works very hard trucking down the road all week.

Pin Basting

The little quilt got pin basted Thursday night and yesterday I was able to stitch in the ditch around the blocks. Hopefully when all my errands are done for today, I can start the freemotion work. My old Singer has been behaving so far!
If you have been following along you might notice I rearranged my studio again. I set up the featherweight so that if I got tired of machine quilting I could slide my chair over and do some sewing.

Thank You To All Our Veterans

Hope everyone took a moment today to think about the sacrifice our Veterans made for our country. I am very proud to be the daughter of a veteran. Thank you dad!

 My dad served during the Korean War and though he told us many stories about his time there I know there were a lot of stories that he never told to anyone. 

 So today, while thinking about our soldiers and my dad, I designed this quilt. If anyone wants the EQ7 file send me an email or leave a comment and I will send you the project file.

Weekend Projects

I finally finished my small autumn wallhanging. I didn't know about Steam A Seam and used something that was really stiff, but I made lemonade out of lemons by using a pigma pen and drawing lines on the pumpkin.
The pattern is Fall Memories by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts

I am also working on a small quilt for my granddaughter Shayla for Christmas. I have one more border to add and then some quick quilting. My grandkids wear out their quilts faster than I can make them.



Getting Organized

Go see this post at Stash Manicure. I'll wait...... OK, how is that for being organized ? My sewing room might be neat. Things are in boxes and on shelves but if I had to find a quilting design I saved from a magazine I would be looking for a little while. I do rip out the pages of designs or projects I like in magazines but I tend to put them in one big folder. Teresa has some great ideas and great pictures of her "quilt cave".

Quilt Whispering

Wow I am just finishing up my QuiltWhisperer Class with Carla Barrett of Feathered Fibers and I am so excited! I have been quilting for 30 plus years but I was still stuck in the hand quilting frame of mind, where you either stitch in the ditch or a quarter inch away and save your fancy stencils for large open spaces and the borders.Well now I am learning how to break the quilt down into different areas and  finding and enhancing the focal point. I am finding designs all around me to use as quilting motifs and I am keeping them in a journal.
I am so glad I took this class. If you get the chance stop by the QW forum or Carla's blog and look at what she does. She really can teach you how to do it too! I won't post my homework yet because I plan to make the quilt but from now on if I post a new EQ design I'll try and show how it would look quilted.

What Shall I Do?

I have some blocks that I made from patterns I drafted out of Jinny Beyer's Patchwork Portfolio. Some of these blocks I made a long, long time ago but I also made a couple more last year from bits and pieces of leftover fabric and some new fabric. I love eight pointed star blocks!
 I'm thinking that nine blocks and some borders will make a nice wall hanging but I could make a beautiful bed quilt if I make a bunch more blocks. My problem is I am pretty sure that I won't have enough fabric to tie in the new blocks. The two blocks I made last year used old and new fabric. If I make the quilt with 30 blocks I could match the value but I would have to use new fabric.
Any suggestions?

I have enough border fabric to do 30 blocks but its all holey from cutting out exact match pieces. There is not enough to use for borders and I can't get any more.