Pincushion and Sunday Ditherings

It has been a lazy Sunday around here today. It has been chilly and rainy all day here in Western NC!

I hung out with Bonnie Hunter on her Quilt Cam from 2-4 this afternoon. I have just recently started watching her this week, and I am hooked! Love her and her way of doing things. She has a mystery going on right now called Easy Street. If you are interested in checking her out here is where you can find her : Quiltville's Quilts & Snips . She doesn't do Quilt Cam everyday, but several times a week. She encourages you to bring a project and sew along with her :)

While watching Bonnie, I worked on a cross stitch Christmas ornament. I will try and to remember to snap a few pics of my work in progress.

After watching Bonnie, I sent hubby to the grocery store to pick up a few things for me, and I made homemade (not from a can) sloppy joes, with the trimmings, including homemade coleslaw, along with tater tots. If you like sloppy joes, and use the can mix, once you make them homemade you will NEVER use the can stuff again. So delish! If anyone wants the recipe let me know. They are really easy to make!

After supper, the time had been set-up to open up our Secret Santa over on the Quilting Board, that I had mention in some earlier posts. It was so much fun opening up the box and seeing what your SS sent you. It's always fun to see what another quilter will send you, but you will at least get something you want ;) I will post pics tomorrow of all my goodies. I loved everything, and a special thank you goes out to Deborah/hearthhush!

I received this lovely pincushion from Sara/saraaev from the Quilting Board this week, and wanted to share a pic of it. I forgot to take a pic of the pincushion and goodies that I sent her :( I usually am pretty good about remembering to take pics before sending... I guess I just had a "duh" moment..lol! I love it, and she set the pins you see with it. I love the two decorative pins. I use to make them, but haven't in awhile.

Well tomorrow is Design Wall Monday, and I hope to post then :) Hope everyone had a great weekend! :)

 

Design Wall Monday - Nascar Style!

Today I got the borders put on the Dale Earnhardt Jr #88 Nascar quilt. Alot people hate doing binding, but I hate doing borders!! I don't mind binding at all...lol. But if we are to ever get a quilt done it MUST have it's borders ;)

This quilt is going to be for my DH for Christmas. I have had the fabric for this for about :blushing: 4-5 years! I will openly admit that I haven't quite enjoyed doing this one, as it's not my type of fabric. Isn't it funny how you enjoy a project more if you like it...lol!

Also, the checker blocks is NOT printed fabric, but striped pieced squares. The backing fabric is in the washer as I type. It is a Dale Earnhardt Sr #3 black soft flannel. DH was a huge fan of Sr before is tragic accident on the track.

I will be quilting it this week, and pretty much have figured out how I will be quilting it. Nothing elaborate but something nice all the same.

Here is some pics of the top all done:

 

 

 

Christmas 2012 Pictures

Our family has worked hard over the last 2 weekends to get the inside and outside ready for Christmas!Whew, is all I can say. I was so tired last Mon. that I missed Design Wall Monday, and I didn't sew a stitch :(

Me and the girls put up two trees, and today we added some more outside lights. I just love Christmas time!

But here is our efforts:

 

This is our real tree

This is our artifical tree

Sunday Ditherings...

Yesterday we went and got our fresh live Christmas tree, and got it placed into the stand. After that I was still a little exhausted and tired from our dinner on Friday. We had our Thanksgiving on Fri. as that was what worked best for everyone's schedule. Today though me and my girls have been busy all day with putting up our huge artificial 9 foot tree, then getting lights on both trees, and got them decorated quite a bit. I still have some more to do on them! Not to mention I have to put out my table top decorations, and I haven't even started on the outside. My boys will have to help me with those. My hubby has alot of medical issues and cannot climb anymore, so therefore I am relying on their help.

Not much sewing going on, but I need to be cranking out some more Christmas gifts! Tomorrow I am going to divide my day between sewing and doing more on the holiday stuff. I also plan on getting Design Wall Monday on time :) I do need to make a pincushion and get it out soon. I am in a swap for holiday pincushions. Friday I received my swap blocks back from 2 different swaps - Funky Valentine Swap and Winter/Holidays Swap. I cannot wait to get those into tops, but until the holidays are over I am afraid they are going to have to wait. I will try and snap a pic of them and post of all the beautiful blocks I got back.

Until tomorrow....

Design Wall Monday?? Lil Late :)

I came across Judy Laquidara's ( http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/11/19/design-wall-november-19-2012/ ) blog, and she hosts a Design Wall Monday. Well, today is Weds., and I just got a chance to snap a few pics of what I was working on Monday. A day late and a dollar short, but hey I made it :-). I plan on getting it in on Mon. on Mon.!

This is what I was working on Monday :

 

 

 

 

This is for a Doll Quilt Swap that I am participating in, and this is the one I made for my partner. I love the way it turned out, and have pieces cut out for me one :)

 

 

 

 

Saturday Ramblings

Well, I thought I would blog before going down to the woman cave (my sewing room) :) I have to get done this weekend the Doll Quilt for the swap I mentioned in the earlier post. I pretty much have the top done, and just need to quilt it. I am also making me one, so I can display my turkey at Thanksgiving this week!

I did receive my Secret Santa box, and man-oh-man the temptation not to open it until we are suppose to is hard! I mean realllllly hard!!! I guess I will need to distract myself with all of those Christmas gifts I need to finish. I checked on the delivery status of the SS package I sent and it should be delivered today. It's always a little worrisome when you send something like that, wondering if it's going to be well received. Everyone has different likes and dislikes. Our opening date is Dec.9th, so we will see if I can make it that long!

I sent in recently some Valentine swap blocks and wanted to share pics of the blocks I made and sent. They should be swapped out soon and hopefully they will be headed back home this week. I can't wait to see what all I get back.

 

Venetian Dream Quilt Top

Last week I needed more room on my wall for new projects, so I took this top down that I completed about a month ago. It's called Venetian Dreams, and I love it!! It's perfect for those large scale prints. Here is some pics, and any waviness is due to it laying in the grass! LOL, I promise it is very straight (for the quilt police).

I also joined in October a monthly Doll Quilt Swap that is hosted on the quiltingboard.com . Here is what I came up with:

Here is the one I received from my swap partner:

She was also so kind enough to send me a handmade doll, which I love.

This month's theme for Nov. is "What are you Thankful for?", and I am already working on my partner's DQ for this month. She informed me yesterday that she has mailed mine! Yeah!!

I am also participating in a Secret Santa Swap on that same board, and today was the deadline to mail out that package. I mailed mine, and waiting to hopefully get my package in the mail soon! I am stalking the mailman daily until they arrive >:)

I have a list of 5 quilts that I am working on for Christmas for my hubby, 2 sons and 2 daughters! I already have hubby's top most of the way finished, and hope to get it loaded on the frame and quilted this weekend. Then onto the next!! I better get a move on it.

I celebrated my 35th birthday this past Sat., and it was a really nice b-day. Nothing over the top or special, but it was just really nice :) Now if I can only STOP at 35!!! LOL!

I would like to touch note briefly on my months of leave of absence from my blog. I am usually a really,really private person, but I had some complicated health issues I was dealing with for a while. After going through some tests, and getting things for the most part figured out, and going on some new medications I am mostly back to my old self. Other than that I will leave it at that, and say that I must stay on top of my health as I am a cancer survivor.