HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

I'm just a little off in posting. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We did here.

I finished the Rose Arbor wall hanging in time to give to my neighbor by Friday. (Forgot to take a photo before I gave it to her) I was disappointed in the binding, and told her I needed to borrow the quilt back in January for the quilt show. When I get it back, I am going to redo some of the binding. I miss judged it somehow and I'm betting it was in rushing to get it done. If you can ever avoid being rushed, the work will be 100% better!

Yesterday I started quilting on the Frog wall hanging for another friend. This one is not rushed, and it should work out fine. It has been a while since I have done bindings and I would truly not do them if I didn't have to. lol There is a really good book out there for bindings, which I have, and didn't use! - ugh, anyway, it helps to look that over before you get started.

Christmas was at our house. It went really well. And I know my husband loves me when he gives me a Rowena iron! My other iron would shut off as I ironed and I would constantly have to turn it back on as I'm working.

I will be posting photos, as I go this time.

My mother is working on the Baltimore Christmas quilt that I bought as a block of the month. I have it all - or should I say my mother has all the patterns at her place. Anyway, as she worked on it on Friday, more members of the group want to make that one as well.....so, my project just because not only mine, but 5 others as well! Can't win. lol  Decided the next one I do, I'm going to do on my own and won't let them see it till after it is done. If I work on it in front of them, they will just have to wait till I finish mine before they can work on theirs. lol -Ain't gonna happen!

Best wishes, Lynn

Getting closer

Last week set me back a LOT! I got the wonderful cold/flu that is going around. To think I was doing great this year. Thanks to my parents for bringing it back with them from Las Vegas, visiting family. UGH

I'm getting closer to finishing the Rose wall hanging. I am quilting around the edge of the pattern. I need to decide if I want to quilt a stem or leaf in the upper area that has too much open spaces. I will decide when I get the edge done. It will depend on the time. I'll take photos when I'm done.

My son arrives tomorrow, so time is running out. It will be great seeing him. Thursday is the TAS groups Christmas Party and I'm looking forward to it. Haven't figured out what I'm going to make yet, but I will get working on that. Bowling Christmas Party tomorrow night. So, at this rate it's getting busier than I thought it would. I was thinking I was ahead of the game - till I was sick for a week.

If I don't post before Christmas - may you all have a Wonderful Merry Christmas!

Good Morning!

Today will be a busy and boring day. I am going with my mother to take my father up to the doctors to have his foot operated on. He got a needle stuck between two toes and thought he had pulled it out. Apparently the needle broke. So, he's foot is swollen and needs to be operated on to get the small piece that broke off out. They went in on Thursday (when this happened on Monday) and the doctor didn't have the right equipment, so we are head to Tumwater today. I had planned on doing other things, but this came up.

Our Monday appointment at mom's to baste my quilts was changed to Wednesday. So, by Wednesday I had both wall hangings ready to be basted. I think the hardest part of getting it ready was trimming the quilt size to what I wanted. Since there are no "straight seams" it was harder to square off. But we did it. "We" is my mother, two other quilters, and myself. We all got them basted in about a half hour. It's interesting when you have four women basting on a quilt that is about 24" by 32". We talked about what one of the quilters was going to do with one of her Two Fabric Applique patterns.

Thursday I woke at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep, so I started quilting on the Rose pattern. Then I took it to our TAS meeting (have permission to post their information, so look on the side for that). Funny how my quilting stitches aren't really that big, but three people asked if I was basting the pattern down. Told them, no, that was quilting stitches. Guess they were not used to someone going around the pattern from the inside and the outside when quilting it. And trust me, my stitches are big but not that big. I'm working on getting them closer together and smaller, but as long as they are pretty close to being equal, they are good. I'll try and remember to get a close up of the quilt when I'm done so you can see what I'm talking about.

Friday was our TAS meeting where we exchanged quilt gifts through a White Elephant gift exchange. 11 of us were prepared. So, my gift was picked first and that poor gift was the one everyone seemed to want. So, it went around 3 times, and in the end the gal that picked it first got it back. Told her I wanted a copy of the pattern, because it was so pretty. A well done pattern. Since bowling was last night, I haven't touched the quilt since yesterday.

So, today I need to get a few applique things together, and I'm debating on taking my wall hanging to quilt on. It isn't big, but I don't know how it will look at the doctors. But then again, I'm waiting on my father and I'm not having to move around or go in the office, so I may just take the hoop, quilt and go for it! I'll let you know what I did. In the mean time, have a great day! Wish me luck at getting home before 6 pm tonight....It will be a long day....

Time is Flying By!!

Hard to believe it's the 5th of December already. Talk about time flying! They say the older you get the quicker the time goes. I do believe that is true!

This weekend we got a tree from a local grow, who is also a friend of mine. So, we put the tree up and decorated the house. I went pretty quick! My husband decorated the tree, since it was his year.

I made the tree skirt last year. I had to pull out my Santa's though, as I collect them each year.

This one I won in an exchange.

These are the ones I love to collect. They are "crafty" but well done.

Okay, so after doing Christmas decorations - and keeping Charlie outside for the day, I was able to finish up the Rose wall hanging. I will take it to mom's on Wednesday and get it basted to quilt. I have two I need to get done, and the other is a frog. That one is for a friend, and it's been in the works for two years. I finally took the time and started it on my trip to see my son in NC. I finished it the week after we got back. That was in July. So, I seriously need to get moving and get it done to give to her.

Finished appliqueing this Rose wall hanging on Saturday.

This is the frog I did for my friend.  Both will be basted and ready to quilt by Wednesday. I have two weeks to get them both done! Keep your fingers crossed. As you can see they are quick and easy to do. Fun to work on, and very additive when you get started.

Gave my daughter an idea for a quilt. She's going to try and do me a pattern for it. Can't wait, but need to since I have enough stuff to do right now.

I did get more quilting in on the Hawaiian quilt last night. I was happy to be able to sit under a warm quilt to quilt. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get the border to work with the center when doing the echoing. I'll figure it out, but I'm working on the center right now, so it will be a little bit before I have to work on the issue.

As you can see, the frog is done is colors that are out of my comfort zone. I found I do like the end result. I am thinking of doing another one that is in fall colors as well.

I'll tell you how it goes on Wednesday.

NEVER as planned.

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Have you ever had one of those days where you plan on doing something, and that something never gets done?! Well that was my day yesterday and today.

Yesterday, I did my usual walking in the morning. Changed it from 6 am to 7 am, so that works out. Just makes the day go that much faster. Then I did the usual laundry, games, and cleaning. Afternoon came and I find myself on the computer, again. This time because I bought myself the updated version of World Family Tree. So, genealogy came into play. I spent most of yesterday checking out information in boxes and putting it in the computer. I decided to join Fold3.com for documents they have for the war vets. As I have said before, my family is war vets. All the way back to the beginning of the US.

So, today, I actually tried harder to get applique work done. I got a few of the petals done on the bigger rose at the bottom of my pattern.

So, I'll tell you in the order of my photos as not to confuse you. This is what I had done by Thanksgiving weekend. You can see where I cut as I go.

At this point the colors are changing and it's really starting to come together. So, on Monday and Tuesday I sat and watched TV with my husband and got to this point - where I am today.

So, you can see, I didn't make my deadline as planned, but then I would have if I hadn't spend yesterday and today on the computer doing genealogy. I will set up another page so I can tell you stories of the family members I'm learning about. Most of the information is my finding out and not given to me. My grandmothers (2) kept everything you can think of that talks about family.

Okay, back to quilting, or applique.  So, I'm close to having this done. I hope to have it done this weekend so I can take this and the frog one to mom's to get basted. I'm hoping to quilt them both by Christmas.

My other project - so to speak - is looking for gifts for quilters. Should be easy - Right?!  NOPE!  I found a really pretty applique pattern that I got on eBay. Brand new, so since it didn't cost much, I can add some fabric or notions with it. Trying to find all that at under $15 is hard. I haven't been quilt shopping in awhile, but BOY has prices gone up! I'm finding I can buy the same thing (zipper bags) at the cosmetic counter than I can in the quilting supplies. (May do that yet!!) Oh, well. I'm still checking out patterns and things I may have in my stash I haven't touched or even done. What a pain. But I want to doing something nice....I'm not one to give stuff that is used. Nothing ticks me off more then getting something used for a gift. Ask me first, then maybe I'll take it. But if I'm giving you new stuff, you better do the same.

Okay, two days late on the photos, but I finally got them done. Hope you like the project. If your interested in the other patterns Nancy Chong has, just go to the side panel and click on Pacific Rim. Happy Quilting.