November and December

Lots of customer quilting went on

I spent the day with my granddaughter and she pieced her first quilt top!!

I made three "Jingle Pillows" 

One for me...

two were gifted!

We celebrated Jo's first birthday!

And Paul was home for his Candidacy Mass.

He will be ordained a Deacon in May.

and the quilting continued 

helped Meghan make a snowman tree!!

-I made the nose out of felt

 and painted the 3 button ornaments while she was as work-

she did the rest!

It is so cute.

 Finally the hair grew long enough to donate.

10 1/2 inches--that was a bit scary.

The new me...my neck was cold for days ha ha!

Jo is walking now though she still crawls when she really wants to get somewhere fast!

**notice the chair blocking the hallway...we now have a gate**

We spent Christmas morning with the grands and had brunch at their house too.

Oh where did October go?

At the beginning of the month My CW Dresden was BOUND, LABELED and ON THE BED!!

I do believe this is the first quilt I've ever made that actually fits my bed perfectly.  

I'm not kidding.

woot-woot!

***

Meg and I traveled to The Mount (Mount St. Mary's Seminary & University) for the seminary's family weekend.  

The weather was perfect-warmer than we expected---I packed wrong!!

****

I put this top together, it's from all the blocks I collected from the members of  The Mod Squad group from guild.  

I demo'd the blocks last spring at one of our meetings and asked if anyone was interested in making a block or two, I would make a quilt from them  and we could donate it to our community outreach committee. The only guideline was white background fabric.

The row of small blocks in the center were pieced from the hst cut offs from the larger blocks-love it!

 ****

I agreed to be the chairperson for our guild's next raffle quilt.

I don't, ehem, play well with others; so I am a committee of one.

Well, I do hope I'll be able to get someone to sew that dang binding on for me-haha!

The last raffle quilt was made with CW repro fabrics so I wanted to go in a different direction with this one.

After much deliberation with myself, I kid you not; I decided to make Swoon!  It's been hovering on my want/need to make list anyway right??

Then I spent a good week deciding on fabrics and then waffling on the "committee's" pattern choice!

geeze-Louise

I finally picked Somerset by Fig Tree and then spent another couple days waffling over that!  

Could you just imagine if I actually had to discuss these options with others and deal with their opinions?!

me either -- M.I.G.R.A.I.N.E.

The blocks are 24 inches big.  

Each block takes 2 fat quarters, with no room for error!  

Here are the first 3, I have 7 made now but can't seem to find a picture-perhaps I forgot to take one.

The plan is to make 12 blocks, which will make an 80 x 106 quilt.

I've been trolling wasting time on Pinterest and have found a few alternate layouts which I may play with a bit after the blocks are done.  

****

I've cut back my days at the card shop and the last two weeks I'm starting to feel like I'm not spinning quite so fast. 

Always trying to find that elusive balance-- 

aren't we all? 

fun times, fun times.

Life is good!

busy busy

I do have this circle sewn together but can't find the picture.

I got a new phone; my first smart phone and I'm s-l-o-w-l-y learning how to use it.

I just finally got the pictures I've been taking all month uploaded onto the computer, now to find them and edit them.  I'm thinking the one of this circle sewn is in that bunch somewhere.

(I can only do new technical stuff for so long then I get either frustrated or bored...)

4th of July bike ride to Ohiopyle state park.  A little chilly weather wise but beautiful scenery.

A patriotic quilt for a customer.  Stars and loops-can't go wrong with that.

I've also been trying, with little success, to relax and enjoy as the summer flies by.

(The dogs have it down to a science.)

 A panel baby quilt, I got the kit on Shop Hop this year and just needed something quick to make me feel like I'm being productive. Although as you can see, the binding isn't quite done yet!!

I quilted tiny loops all over with white thread. 

I'm real happy to say that the 1st CW sampler is quilted and just need to sew down the binding on this one too. 

I like the pieced backing almost as much as the front and that it was all from stash is a bonus too.

The 2nd CW sampler is loaded on HQ and halfway done. 

And that, I think, will mean the end of the Block-a-day blocks.  

woot-woot.

********

I've developed some kind of "older age" thing in my left thumb.  All my co-workers have diagnosed me (!HA!) as having carpel tunnel, arthritis, tendinitis, and I forget what else.  Also with admonishments of "welcome to your 50's...it's just going to get worse".  

if I weren't such an upbeat person, I'd be truly depressed!!

 :)

So I have an appointment with the orthopedic doc next week and get the real scoop on this pain in the hand.  

I did buy a generic brace at Target and it's seems to help.

OK enough whining.

 ****

In grand baby news, little miss Jo is 7 months old and just got her first two teeth...and she's very near to crawling!!!

Amazing. 

Oh and she really knows me now and LIKES me and reaches for me and I almost die of happiness every time.

****

fun times, fun times ... life is good.

Fresh look

Change is good.

precious blessing

Joanna

 our granddaughter

Everyone told us...but now we know....

there is nothing like this feeling...

"my cup runneth over"

Life is Good!

Well one side of the family has left the 'burgh

 and this week my sister and family are in town! 

My niece walking Annie

and trying on all of Meg's and my high heels.
We painted our nails too!

 It's a whirlwind.

I get a little cranky and overwhelmed to be walking past my quilt room day after day and not having time to sew a seam.

So between Tuesday and yesterday I got in a pretty good 'sewing fix'.

The signature quilt is as together as I can get it-still need 2 blocks signed.  I took it down so I would just have the medallion blocks up. The fabrics of the 2 quilts beside each other on the DW clashed so badly it was distracting to me hurt my eyes.

The medallion blocks are pieced and arranged and now I am going back to add the corner triangles to form diamonds when sewn together. You can see a diamond down on the lower right. I'm using the same fabric for all the diamonds.

I finally finished this pillow from my Metro Rings sample block.

20' x 20"

Oh and I forgot to show Happy Jack!  He's all sewn together and now hanging in the closet.  I will have to have a free day to 'twister him up'.  

Another picnic weekend coming up and a couple long bike rides planned; if the weather cooperates.  

Lotsa quilting coming in too-so Aster Manor, which has been loaded since the 17th needs to have some major attention. I'm going to do that today, before work at 3 and after I take the car in for inspection...

fun times, fun times...

life is good!

A Biker post

This past weekend was the (3rd) annual Erie Roar on the Shore bike trip.  The weather wasn't the best this year: 90's and humid on Friday with an occasional downpour, then cloudy and chilly on Saturday but it was perfect on Sunday for the trip home. 

We rode up on the Harley but the exhaust gave us trouble.  Well it gave Paul trouble, I am no help with such things.  Thank goodness Paul is! 

This was the first fix 

and then the 2nd fix, there was a hardware store about a hundred feet from this place so he fixed it good!

There was a quilt shop right up the road too, but it was so darn hot we just waited in the little shade there was. 

 When Meg saw this picture she said, "mom you look all gangsta" 

ha-ha

Oh yea, I am definitely tough wearing my yellow bandana!

After another delay, this time for rain, which lasted about 45 minutes-- Wayyy to long of a time to be stuck at a Dollar General store, but thank goodness it was there!

A trip that should've been 3 hours turned into 6 1/2 but we finally arrived and still have smiles on our faces. 

The standing joke has been will the Victory trailer be there?  Paul and I have taken demo rides the last 2 years and have been planning on getting one next spring. So we head over to check 'em out.

**Notice I'm wearing my Potato chip bag? It was the perfect size! I do need to make one in a neutral color-I can't stand when my purse clashes with my clothes.**

Anyhoo, a little talking with these nice people and a very good trade in deal and we were heading to the dealer.

Goodbye harley (I never liked you anyway). Hello Victory Vision!

Brand new, more comfortable than the Goldwing-hard to believe but true

and I don't have to wear earplugs--that's a big 'woot-woot'!!

 I'm actually excited about riding again, 

Quilter's really are the best-est people!

I had the pleasure of spending a day with one of them. Amanda Jean Nyberg from Crazymomquilts was in Pittsburgh to speak at our guild. 

One of the other guild members showed her around Pittsburgh on Sunday and I continued the fun on Monday.

 I picked her up in the morning and we went to The Strip District.  Amanda got to see a cool area of the 'burgh, me too because although I've lived here all my life, I've never shopped in the strip.

She also got proof of my being directionally challenged--what can I say; I think I only almost turned left instead of right, two or three times.... or was it right instead of left?

We came back to my house and had lunch on the deck and relaxed.  Amanda asked to see my quilts. 

I'd hold one up give a little story and fold it on the couch....

 then on the chair...

Sometimes you just need to sit back, put your feet up and look at some quilts!

  

The day flew!  

We talked about quilts, our kids, quilts, family, blogging oh and quilts.  

Her trunk show was excellent.

We saw and heard the stories behind the quilts; the making of them and how her book came about.  If you get the chance to see her, go! You will not be disappointed.

Today was an all day workshop where we learned her slab technique.

I had to first separate my scraps into colors before I could even begin piecing.

(I see a long overdue fabric re-organization in my future.)

Here are the three I made.

  The pink one and the red one pretty much used all the scraps I had in those colors.  I have tons of blue and greens too, the amount of greens was a surprise to me.
fun, fun!

******
and finally
This is a terrible picture of a stunning quilt.


the 'crapola photographer' (that would be me) strikes again!

It's the raffle quilt for our fall quilt show.  I'll get a better picture in the future.
It is just gorgeous.

I hope I win it.  I have plenty of room.

as long as I don't put that last pile of quilts away.