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.

whoa!

two posts in one week...

just a little follow up on my quilting progress (not much)

I got a little more of the SiD and the inside border done

 see told you not much.

However, I did get all the rest of the 2.5 inch strip sets sewn together and the curved piece cut out-96 total.  It took a good long while to do.

and then I cut the background curved pieces.  So now I'm all ready to piece the blocks.  

I work this weekend so not much more will get done until next week.

The plan was to get all these prepped yesterday but we had a surprise visit from this little one.  A very happy break for both Meg and I.

(yep-that's a made by Mimi burper!!-vintage Amy Butler perhaps...)

Metro Hoops

is my first flimsy of 2014!

For about 3 minutes I pondered adding a border or two.  Instead I sewed a basting stitch all around the outside edge to secure any loose seams and it is officially done.  whoop-whoop.

now to decide on backing do I piece some fabric I have or buy new?  

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Yesterday, I completely forgot to go to my guild's Mod Squad group!!  I thought about it around 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  It runs from 1 to 4.  I was doing some sewing cabinet re arranging and forgot about the time.  I was bummed to miss the meeting but real happy with the sewing room changes.

I moved my one sewing cabinet over to the corner of the room and pushed the white one (that I use) closer to my ironing board and I also spun it around so while I'm sewing I can see my design wall.  I never liked having it behind me, but I thought the lighting was better that way.  

After sewing with the new setup, I can't tell any difference-go figure.

The room feels so much bigger.

Facing the design wall and HQ I can now think about what I'm going to quilt on the next flimsy.

My lovely Jonquils & Stars top from my first ever QAL.  I do need to get backing for this it's 80 x80.  If I remember correctly, I did have a backing for it and then used it on another quilt!! oh well.

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Today after church and breakfast at a local diner my mom and I stopped in to visit this little cutie-patootie 

She's five weeks old and she smiled for us! Real smiles, not those reflex ones.  

I can't wait for the cooing to start.  

Life is Good!

January 6th...my but the year is flying!

I un-decorated the house yesterday.  yea me.
And as I was un-decorating I was also purging! yea me again. 

I spent several days helping the oldest son get his papers in order and organized-filing, shredding 10+ years of stuff.  It was overwhelming to him and right up my OCD alley!!  Of course, it put me into an organizing mood that I need to ride for as long as it lasts.  I bought this book  (50% off coupon at JoAnn's-woot)

and read through it mostly to be sure I was going about Paul-m's re-organization the best way but I also learned some new things for our house.  

So that's what's going on here.   

I finally loaded the first customer quilt for 2014 and started working on it.  It felt good.
I also pieced a few more of these blocks together.

I was bummed when I didn't get all my 2013 goals finished.  It wasn't that big of a list and I only made and finished 28 new projects in '13.  

(as opposed to the 53 in '12).
(I know, if I stopped making new things, I'd get the UFO's done.)
It's really hard to to that though, as you all know!! And even as I write this I'm thinking about how I can't wait to make another one of these.
(somebody smack me!)

I did make a goal list for 2014; just a continuation of the '13 stuff. But of course that's not all...so although these aren't on the official goal list:

~I really enjoyed making fabrics from scraps "slabs" or "made fabric" (depending on who's book your reading) and hope to do a lot more of that this year. I did get all my scraps sorted and in bags and all the bags are inside one big bag.
Neat and tidy.
So making some of my own fabric slabs and then see what becomes of them is definitely a goal for me.

 ~I seriously need to let go of some more quilts this year.  I do have a few ideas about how to go about this but to make them work will require a couple big chunks of time, which after my house is re-organized should be easy-peasy.
(hah-ha that was funny.)

*******

Oh and my granddaughter is a month old already.
And she is still so perfect and precious and well, you know it's just amazing and um...all you gramma/grandma's/mimi's (that's me) understand!

life is good.

stay warm.

  

Well, the 4th of July is over.  I'm still up to my eye balls with 'things to do'.

Blogging has been hit or miss, mostly I'm lurking leaving a comment occasionally but mostly lurking. 

Meghan graduated from nursing school last Thursday evening.

You can't tell in this picture but she's bawling.  The picture is bad for two reasons:

1. I'm a crappola photographer 

2.  I'm bawling too.

This picture is Meg and 3 of her classmates, they have all been hired in the CV/ICU unit at Mercy hospital.

Then on Saturday we partied. 

  

The 4th of July was quiet.  Just my mom and dad. 

Today was my day off so I finally finished the binding on 

Scrappy Happy.

still not 'thrilled' with this one.  Oh well, it's done.

And I started and finished the binding on OBW #3

60 x 51

I'm also nearly finished quilting Fire Escape. I'm doing 'water ripples' on it and have 1 full pass and then another 5 inches to finish it.  It will be done tonight.
She says hopefully.

And then the binding....can't seem to get away from that lately.


Is it hot where you are?
It's in the high 90's here, humid.  I remember when we moved here.  
No A/C for the first couple years.  


So spoiled now it's embarrassing.

An announcement....

My wonderful daughter, Meghan took and passed her FINAL final today in nursing school!

I'M SO PROUD OF HER I COULD SCREAM!

seriously, scream!  

But instead I just cry a little joy filled cry.  

She starts her internship next week in a CV/ICU (that's cardo ICU).  

It is where she hopes to get a job after graduation in June.

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And now back to  regularly scheduled programming, which is quilting.

Not much to show.  The work is beginning again on the basement, tonight I pack everything up and cover it and hopefully in a few weeks (eternal optimist).  I will be back in business. sigh. that will be nice.

Tomorrow is my Bday-the big 4 - 9!  oooh

Libby and I are going to get our VIQ "very important quilter" passports for the upcoming Shop Hop in June.  And then lunch somewhere. I need a day out birthday or not.

*****

So much to look forward to.

So many blessings.

Have a great day my blogging friends. 

******

Fun times, fun times....Life is Good.

Just a little pillow



I guess I need to sew a button on for an eye for this little doggie....Just sewed him together yesterday. Another Block-a-Day block used.  yea.

Block-a Day Pillow 12 x 16



Here's what "Oh My Gosh I passed this rotation in nursing school" looks like. 
Otis was just trying to help keep Meg's back warm!

(mental exhaustion)

Design Wall Monday (week 30)

Here is my design wall.

On the left side are my Tisket Tasket blocks. 

The right side of the wall are 5 block-a-days.

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We had a whirlwind of a weekend. Saturday was a lovely wedding & reception.  It was 93 degrees with 99% humidity.

And today we (my husband and his brother and 3 sisters and all our kids- that's 13 grandkids) had a surprise 60th Anniversery party for their parents.  They were completely surprised and for a split second I feared we had given his mom a heart attack. (a little scary). But she was fine and they were thrilled to spend the evening with all of us together.

 This was the most fun...trying to get 26 people in one photo using timers on 3 camera's at one time so everyone could be in the shot.  I'm hoping one of them got us all. I obviously didn't!

Stop on over at  Judy's to see some other design walls!