I knew all those dance classes would eventually pay off!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Facebook

One of the things that has had me distracted lately is Facebook. I've been chatting with a lot of friends from elementary school, high school and college that I haven't heard from in years, and I also have found my host families from when I was an exchange student back in high school. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I've been wondering if any of my fellow quilting bloggers are on Facebook? If you are, I'd love to add you to my friends list. Come check me out on my facebook page if you are there!

Merry Christmas Project from Gail

Last week, Gail Pan posted an adorable Christmas Stitchery pattern on her blog. I decided to immediately set my other projects aside and start working on her little project. It stitched up very quickly over the weekend while I sat watching Christmas movies with the kids. I didn't notice until I was binding it today that I forgot the little running stitches around the edge. Oh well. Maybe I'll make another one and do the running stitches. Even if you aren't big into stitchery, you should definitely check out this pattern...it is quick and easy and would be a good project to try a new technique.

This little quilt will go to my Mom. Yesterday was her birthday and I didn't finish the project I've been working on for her (probably because I keep getting sidetracked by other things, like this!)

More WIP

Today I got some fun mail...the newest issue of Australian Homespun Magazine. Hmm... notice that this is "The Stash-busting Issue". Are they trying to tell me something? I can't wait to finish all my errands and chores for today so I can sit down with a cup of coffee and read this new magazine.


One of the projects that I have been working on recently is some embroidered Christmas Ornaments. Years ago I got a cute redwork kitty ornament in a swap and I've wanted to make some similar ones ever since. Last year when I was in Minnesota I found a cute embroidered ornament pattern and bought it with those kitty ornaments in mind. This pattern had the embroideries in a square with log cabin-ish borders on them and I wasn't thrilled with them, but I decided to just cut out around the ornament shape and sew the backing on and stuff like my kitty ornament was made. So far I have three completed ornaments, and I've embroidered 9 more already. I've still go about 5 more traced and waiting to be stitched. I wonder how many I'll actually finish before Christmas??? LOL. My goal is 18, but we'll see. I need to pop a few in the mail in the next few days, so I better get to work!


At least all my Christmas shopping is done (except for the stockign stuffers) and it is all wrapped. The Christmas tree is up and we have simplified our holiday schedules as much as possible so that I won't get stressed too much in the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll have more time to post and SEW.

More stuff

I have been doing some stitching and sewing lately. I mailed my SCSS gift last week, but I can't post that yet (but I really want to share!). I made an armchair pincushion caddy for my aunt Mia for her birthday (I will try to get a picture of that when I see her, I forgot to take one before I wrapped it). I'm working on a tote bag for my Mom's birthday (next week, I better hurry up).

Thing One and I have been working on challenge quilts for one of the quilting groups. Mom is also working on it. None of us have finised, but we made progress. This is the Quilters Cruise Challenge that came from Fons & Porter magazine a while back. We were to buy 5 half yards of fabric. Cut each into 4 4 1/2" stirps. Put one strip of each fabrc aside for later. Cut one strip of each fabric into 4 1/2" squares, one strip of each into Easy Angle Tringles, One strip of each into Companion angle triangles, then design your own quilt with those pieces. Use the extra strips as you wish/need to.

Here is how far we've gotten as of now. This one is Thing Ones project:



And this one is mine:


Mom didn't get very far with hers because the night we were working on them, she had a little bit too much help from my 5 year old, my 6 year old neice and my three cats.


I've also been working on my quilt for Tanya's Home, House and Pantry Quilt along. This is wonky and design as you go. So far I'm very pleased with it, but I need to add a little more somethign to it because it is too square right now. Of course if I PLANNED it to be square that would never happen. LOL.

Updates

Why aren't there more hours in the day? I really need about 3 or 4 more hours each day to get stuff done.

Does anyone else use Google Chrome as browser now? I switched a little while ago and it is pretty good (less crashes than IE!) but it just doesn't seem to play nicely with Blogger. I'm fine until I try to upload pictures to Blogger, then I have all kinds of problems. Is it just me?

Okay, so I sent my Stitchers Angels goodies to Sabine. She emailed me and told me that she started a blog called Stitching Sewing and More. Click on over there to see what she is doing. You can also see the picture of the goodies I sent to her by looking at this post on her blog. Somehow, I never took a picture of the things in her package.

The Stitchers Angel package that I received came from Susana in Spain. You can visit
her here to see what is going on in Spain.

All my goodies (great colors of ric rac!) They are all wonderful!


The Little Blue Wren bag from Natalie at Cinderberry Stitches:


Helen's Armchair Caddy:

Leanne's Scissors case:

MayBritt's Bag:

A carrycase for a small notebook and pen (so handy, and it has an adorable bead on the end!)

A Thimbleholder that you squeeze to open, and there is a thimble inside:

Thank you so much, Susan!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
I am just posting a quick note to let you all know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth...I have been SUPER busy here with the kids, the big Nutcracker performance (thankfully it was last Sunday and now it is over!), homeschooling, etc.
I have done some sewing projects, which I will share next week.

I have been remiss in posting pictures of the fabulous gifts I got in the Stitchers Angel Swap (Sorry about that, Susan!), but I'll do it next week. I will also show what I sent to my partner in the Stitchers Angel Swap.

My package went out in the mail today to my SSCS swap hosted by Donna. My package is on its long journey now, but I can't post pictures of that just yet.

So much to report on, but right now I need to go bake pies for tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Off to guild

On my way to quilt guild tonight. Karen Eckmeier is the speaker tonight, and I am bringing my Happy Village quilt to share at show and tell.

Today my package arrived from my Stitcher's Angel, Susana in Spain. I had been wondering when I'd go to the mailbox and find my gifts, and boy it was worth the wait! Today is a rainy and grey day, so no good for photos...tomorrow I will share pictures of all my goodies!!! Thanks Susana!

And to make you all envious, today I went out and did about 75% of my Christmas shopping!!!! It sounds more impressive than it really is. The only shopping I do is for my kids, one niece and one nephew, plus 4 gifts for a family grab bag and gift certificates for dance teachers. I've ordered some things for the kids online over the last few weeks and today I hit Toys R Us and Walmart. All I need to do now is the gift certificate, the stocking stuffers and a handful of things for the kids that I didn't find today.

Quilting Progress

I've been working on my Home Sweet Home quilt for Tonya's House Home and Pantry Quiltalong. So far is is about 30" square. Needs another row of something and a border or two or three. Maybe later this weekend :-)

I guess that winter is on the way

Yesterday, DH was at his favorite hangout in our favorite place, and he was talking to one of the guys he knows that works at the Ski area. We heard unbeliveable news: THE SKI AREA IS OPEN. Yup. October 18th. There is one tiny slope and it is open for free skiing. They put in a ton of new snowmaking guns this summer, and they are testing them out. This morning it was 23 degrees F (thats -5 celceius, for those of you outside the US). I see today on the Mount Snow website this announcement:

"Yeah, we're open. No big deal.
Snowmakers showed up for their second night of winter-mode work last night, firing up the fan guns on Launch Pad to resurface the jib yard. Gaitor and the Park Crew are out shoveling as we speak, shaping transitions and landings. The setup is the same as yesterday: a rail, two boxes and two culvert jibs.
Launch Pad is open to the public today. See a Ranger out on the hill and make sure you grab a "lift" ticket – they’re F-R-E-E, that spells free.
So let’s think about this. Yesterday marked the last downhill race of our summer-long SoBe Energy mountain bike series. It was also the last day to play a round of golf at the Mount Snow Golf Club. Plus, skaters were hanging out in the Carinthia skate park. Historical: on October 19, 2008, a person could golf, skate, mountain bike, ski and ride, all in the same day at Mount Snow. We’re multitaskers.
It looks like tonight will be above the freezing mark, with some light showers and possibly some flurries in store. By Wednesday, another round of nighttime temps in the 20s are forecast, so rest assured we’ll be blowing snow. We’ll keep Launch Pad open to the public as long as there’s enough snow to slide on, so keep a close eye on the snow report for updates.
It’s on."

I guess its time to dig out the winter coats. Winter is a perfect time for quilting, so thats fine. Time to start sewing!

Quilting projects

First of all, I owe a HUGE apology to Dawn for not having posted this on my blog earlier...I'm sorry for not sharing the picture of this great bag sooner! This wonderful bag is the one I received from Dawn for the bag/bucket swap. I am using it now, and I just LOVE it. It is huge and has nice long handles and great inside pockets. It is just gorgeous! Thanks a million, Dawn!

And in my absence, I have been super-busy with real life (not fun stuff, but just junk I had to deal with). However, I did do some sewing. I made the armchair caddy for my partner in the Stitcher's Angel Swap. This is going in the mail to her tomorrow.


I made these blocks from a 'kit' that I had precut for myself. This pattern in Snapshots by Terry Atkinson. These blocks aren't that exciting, but in the end it will be a pretty baby quilt. Maybe I'll find a way to spice it up a bit, or maybe I won't bother. We'll see...


I also have been working on a little quilt for the Priority Hope Challenge. I'm planning to add some sort of a flower, perhaps something dimensional, to this. I'm trying to figure out my best approach, since I'm already at the size limit (I need to trim extra off the top).



I also made two blocks for a community quilt project. Sorry, no pictures. I was given strips of home dec type samples and I was asked to make string blocks for the community quilt. In December it will be given to a family in Southern Vermont living with AIDS/HIV.

So far behind

Wow, two weeks since I've posted. Things have been very busy around here. Lets see, the basement flooded with the heavy rains that we got here recently. Then I had to deal with WAY too much of this for the first time ever. And that of course resulted in huge piles of laundry. Sigh.

I received my gorgeous bag from Linda's Bag Swap in the mail yesterday. I will post a picture tomorrow, I still need to get that taken. Many many thanks to the Dawn in Australia for her wonderful package!! (More details tomorrow!)

Luckily, I did manage to do a little bit of sewing. I finished this project from the Stitchers Angel's patterns

I worked on my BQL Bag Challenge bag for September. I almost finished it on time, but didnt' manage to get the handles done and the photo uploaded in time. I still need to finish it up. That means I'll miss out on the October pattern, but things at home just had to take priority this time. Hopefully I'll finish it this weekend.

We went to the BigE on Thursday last week. Those of you who live in states where there is a big state fair would probably laugh at the Big E, but it is a big thing here in the NorthEast. Basically, the six New England states put on one state fair together, in Springfield MA. We had a good time, though it was changeover day in the big barns so we didn't get to see very many of the farm animals. I'll have to plan that better for next year.

On Saturday in Vermont, there was a big wine festival in town. Unfortunately it poured almost all day Saturday, and it was quite muddy, which kept a lot of people home. Nine of Vermont's 14 wineries were there selling their wines and doing wine tastings. There were some bands, lots of local food and handicraft makers vending their wares, etc. We had a nice time, and perhaps a bit too much wine for me.

We did get to enjoy a bit of fall foliage last weekend in Vermont. Generally it poured most of the time, but finally on Sunday afternoon, the rain stopped and the sky began to clear. The foliage was certainly not at peak, but it was lovely anyway. I imagine that this weekend and next will be even better, though I might not prefer to leave the house because I know that traffic will be horrendous with all the leaf peepers visiting the area.

A busy weekend

On Saturday, Thing One and I went to Bennington, Vermont to the Bennington QuiltFest, put on by the local guild in that area (Quiet Valley Quilters, I think).
This is a nice local show with a good number of vendors. It makes for a very enjoyable day. It seems that someone in that guild must teach scrap quilt workshops for the guild members on a regular basis because every year there are always lots of scrappy quilts made from the Nickel Quilts books. I have both of these books, but haven't made any projects from them yet. Again, I left the show saying "I really need to work on a couple of those designs". We'll see if it actually happens this year!

I only took a few pictures at the show, and maybe I'll share a few later in the week, but today, pictures of projects I have been working on myself!

A couple of Friday nights ago, Thing One and I went to the Gallery Walk in downtown Brattleboro Vermont. This is a monthly event held on the first Friday of the month. Finally we made it to this, I only wish we had been before. Almost all of the shops in the downtown area stay open late on Friday night ('till 8:30 or 9) and there are all sorts of art related things going on: most of the shops have some sort of artwork on display (photos, sculpture, paintings, etc). There are also lots of live bands, street performers, the local circus arts school puts on performances in the little park. It is a very festive, fun atmosphere and there are tons of people around. Thing One and I enjoyed many of the sculptures and creations made from found objects. It was a very inspiring evening, both Thing One and I came home inspired to work on several new projects.

One of the thing I bought that night was this book. It came from the Indian store and is a tree of life applique on the outside of a handmade book. According to the information in the store, the fabrics are old Saris. Isn't it pretty? There were lots of other textile things like pillows, curtains, quilts etc made from the old Saris, and on some of them the beadwork was amazing. If I had more money, I sure could have spent a lot of it there!

I've been stitching up a storm lately, mostly because I can sit and watch movies with Hubby while I stitch, using the sewing machine is too distracting during the movies!
I'm working on the armchair pincushion pattern that was provided for the Stitcher's Angel Swap (the pattern is here). I've got the stitching done and the pieces cut out. Now I've just got to assemble it.


I finished the August block for Bea's block of the month. I was ready to Septembers, but I ran out of the right color of floss. In the next few days I will get going on Septembers block.


I completed the bag from May Britt's pattern for the Stitcher's Angel Swap. The pattern is here


Finally, I decided to make myself a bucket. These have been popping up all over blogland. I found the patternhere. There are definitely going to be more of these in my future, perhaps in different sizes, this is quite small, but oh so adorable!

My bag is in the mail

I'm just back from the post office, and my bag is in the mail beginning its long journey to its new home. I sure hope that its new owner likes it as much as I do!
I was a bit surprised when I started putting it together, it is much larger than I pictured it in my mind. But a big bag can hold lots of stuff for the quilter on the go, so that is a good thing! The pattern is from Bareroots, if anyone is interested. I did change the handles a bit (I used webbing inside them, made them longer and omitted the stitchery on the handles).

Now onto the Stitcher's Angel projects (the first one is almost done).

Bag Sneak Peek

All of my stitching on my bag for Linda's Bag and Bucket Swap is finally finished. Now I just need to finish assembling the bag I am making. I plan to finish during the day tomorrow and get it in the mail by days end.



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Bullseyes

Great.
Thing Two was complaining that his arm hurt. He had a couple of bug bites (I assumed) and a big lump on his arm below his elbow. He told me that he fell of the kitchen counter stool a couple of days ago, so we thought maybe he broke his arm or something (he screamed when we touched his arm). So we went off to the ER (I would have gone to the pediatrican, but we were in Vermont at the time).
While we were sitting in the waiting room (for hours), I noticed that his arm looked like this

Hmmm...those look like bullseye rashes. Uh oh, any one who lives in New England knows that likely means Lyme Disease.
We've done a blood test, but waiting for results until tomorrow night. Thursday we go to the pediatrician here at home for a follow up, and we assume that he'll be on antibiotics.
In the meantime I'm educating myself about Lyme Disease, and hoping that the doctor will give us some
answer. IfI'm not here for a few days its because I'm trying to get Thing Two to take an antibiotic. I know that isn't going to be fun.

Four Seasons Summer Quilt Swap

Over the weekend, I received my long anticipated package from Ana A. containing my Four Seasons Summer Doll Quilt Swap. It was definitely worth the wait! She used (I assume) the 9 degree wedge ruler to make this gorgeous round quilt! According to the description on her Flickr page, it has 880 pieces! I'm glad she mentioned that because I certainly wouldn't have counted them!!
It is just beautiful, Thank you so much, Ana!! I love it.
She also included a pack of Moda Marbles charm squares, a spool of gold metallic thread and machine needles for using with metallic threads. Wonderful stuff that I will definitely be using.

MayBritt's Pincushion

For a long time, I've wanted to make May Britt's pincushion (the pattern is on her bloghere) Last week I found a cute 30s fabric printed in running eighths, with 4 different prints across the width of the fabric. The combination of the red, pink and turquoise really caught my eye, and I decided that it was time to make the pincushion.

In her pattern, May Britt says to be careful how you put the pieces together, because if you shift things the wrong way, you'll get a pincushion, but it won't look anything like hers. I can vouch for that. I read the pattern many times and I was positive that I was putting it together the right way. Then I turned it right sides out, and realized that I messed up! LOL. Instead of the design I was expecting, I got this:


Now I knew for sure what I did wrong and how it was really supposed to be. So I cut out more squares and tried again. All the work was worthwhile because now I have this adorable pincushion. Unfortunately, I don't get to keep it...this is going in the mail later this week to my swap partner. I hope that she likes it as much as I do!


Thanks May Britt, for a beautiful pattern!