Happy New Year !

Hubby and I have been married 36 years tonight, and hoping for many more good ones ! 

Christmas Eve

I am lonesome tonight .  Yet I am so very blessed.  Kelley and Tim are home in Lawton, Ok, with their three beautiful, healthy, God-loving children.  They are going to bed, looking forward to surprises and laughter tomorrow morning.   They have become such good parents, providing a loving home and guidance, encouragement and discipline, comfort and security.  God lives in that home. 

Hubby is asleep here, in the recliner, and I am up.  We are well, we are warm, well fed, free, and saved by the grace of God.  If I have tears in my eyes, it is only natural to miss my babies.  But I am so very thankful to God for ALL of our blessings. 

As I get ready to turn in for MY long winter's nap, I just wanted to take a moment to wish you all a most blessed and aware Christmas day.  Love the one(s) you're with...........(a leftover from my 70's upbringing).

"Christmas Roses" table runner quilt

 Miss Lottie Dah decided that I couldn't put up a tree this year, as she was going to EAT it, and pull off all of the ornaments !   So back into the box it went.

I got her a furry electronically-squeaking mouse that I let her try to find.  She had her whole head in the gift bag at one point, and eventually managed to get the toy out.  I haven't taken it off of the card yet, but I think that she's going to be quite happy on Christmas morning.  Whether Piper will let her stay that way for long is another question entirely !

 
Tonight I finished my favorite Christmas gift that I've made this year.   It is for my brother, John, and his wife, Deb.  I hope they like it.. My biggest test for a gift is whether or not I'd rather keep it for myself..............I SO would love to keep this one !

 I took the block that I shared with you last week, and pieced 2 more to go with it.

This one's center blended into the petal coloration, so I embroidered around it. for definition.

JodieAnn sent me more fabric for my birthday last month, and I used some of the pieces in the blocks, and I found that a bigger green print from her package was just perfect for a Christmas gift border.

I quilted in the ditch with my walking=foot.

I think that this runner will be appropriate for most any time of year, especially Spring and Summer, but I feel that the ribbony look of the border fabric is all the more fitting as the finishing touch for a present !  Thank you so much for these fabrics, JoAnn.........it's so nice to use something new and fresh. 

 And a quick shot of the back........I've since added a label.  The quilt finished at approximately 19 1/2 inches by 43 1/2 inches.

Kelley had a reduction surgery today, and is back at Grammy's for some TLC.  She came through the surgery very well, praise God.

We had a huge windstorm today as a cold front blew through........it pulled a piece of the finishing work off of the new porch roof, and blew several shingle pieces off, too.   Hubby actually felt our little home shake ! 

And tomorrow evening I'm going with a few people from our church to sing Christmas carols at the nursing home and at the homes of a few shut-ins.   I volunteered because I adored caroling with a friend when I was in highschool, and I sing ALL THE TIME, even though I don't have a singing voice !  But last night we had practice, and there were only 6 of us, with no music, and I was very AWARE of hearing my own voice.  I hope it goes well, and is a blessing ..............and more people show up to join us and help partially drown me out !

Goldie is home !

Praise God, back in September, in this post and this post I told you about a dear friend and sort -of family member who had been diagnosed with Cancer.  Well, she underwent radiation treatments, which shrunk the tumor, and has now been released to come home.  I got to go over to her house and spend some time with her on Friday, and she is in good spirits, able to get around in a wheel chair or a walker.  God is so good !........I just can't say it enough.

Quilting-wise, I haven't done much in the last few days.  I did attempt to piece a block tonight that I found drafted in an old graph-pad notebook that I've kept for many, many years.  I wanted to make a couple of these and turn them into hotpads, but I'm not sure now what I'll do.  It looks a lot better in the photograph than I could see in the poor light of my living room.   I might just have to try a yellow one or a pink one to go with it. 

Wow, seeing it here on the monitor, I think that it is quite beautiful !

Happy belated birthday wishes to my best pal, JodieAnn !  Your card is on it's way !

Polkadot Potholders

This batch of potholders is part of my Christmas gift for Rose's household.  I made them to match the three kitchen towels that I picked up for her.  If you're thinking that the monetary outlay for these gifts is minimal, you're right.......it's a tight year.  But I hope that the hand-crafted element lifts the gifts out of the cheapo/mundane !

I backed each one with the same fabric for unity.

Scrapping out the bindings was lots of fun !

When I make these, I use leftover pieces of my cotton batting. 
Here is my layering process........

• Bottom layer-- fabric for back of potholder
• square of cotton batting
• square of denim pantleg square
• strips of cotton batting
• pieced or appliqued front of potholder

This makes for a very good heat-resistant potholder.  The others that I made were 9 inches square.  I made these three to measure 7 inches square. 

I'm thinking of making myself a square measuring maybe 20 inches or so, to put in the middle of the table to set hot dishes on, instead of using individual potholders under each dish/pan.

Also, here are a few shots of the finished front porch roof.   The 4 x 4 beams will wait until Spring to be painted, as they are pressure-treated.  Hopefully, I, or someone else, will be able to paint them white then.



































Today is sunny and in the mid 50's I'd say, so I'm able to use my clothesline once again.  God is SO GOOD !

Potholders....2nd Christmas gift set

After making paper-pieced cup and bowl potholders for one niece, I was told that the other niece had an
apple-themed border going around the top of her kitchen; so, I set out to design a foundation-pieced apple block.   But not liking my design, I drew up an apple to hand-applique instead.

Here's what I came up with......

 

I hand-drew this apple, and reversed the side that the leaf is on for each apple.

Then I hand-appliqued the apples, using needle-turn applique.

I found some  green kitchen towels to go with these, and amazingly, without having the potholders with me while shopping, the color of the towels is the same shade of green as this green fabric print.

Our weather has finally turned cold, so I got groceries a day early to avoid going out tomorrow.  Today started out around 55 degrees, but the temperature went down all day, and a fierce cold wind made it feel much colder.  Tonight is supposed  to reach 27, I think.  It's high time it was this cold, so I'm not complaining, praise the LORD.  We are warm and snuggly and the pantry is full.  My God supplies all of my needs as promised in His Word !

Oh, I almost forgot.......the crew came back this past weekend and finished out the front porch's roof.  Yay, praise GOD !.....but I keep forgetting to get photos.  Oh, well, the sun WILL shine again, and I'll snap a few photos.

I'm still living without a dryer, not because I can't afford a new one, but because I CAN live without one right now.  As I may have mentioned before, it was the washer that I was expecting to quit working, not the dryer; so, I'm giving the washer a little time, incase I need to buy a set instead of one odd appliance.   I dried a load inside today, and a load on the clothesline yesterday before the weather changed.

Daybreak quilt top finished ! Semi-tutorial

  I wanted to clarify how I pieced my blocks for this quilt top (Pattern I'm referring to is in this post).

Starting with the 10 inch blocks that were supplied with the kit, I stacked the four coordinating prints of each color range, and then I cut 3 1/2 inches in from each side, vertically, leaving a 3 inch piece in the middle

Having cut 1 inch wide strips of white, I left the strips whole, and chain-pieced the left 3 1/2 inch wide pieces to one strip, and the middle 3 inch wide pieces to a second strip.  After piecing these, I pressed the seams toward the print fabric, and cut the pieces apart, trimming the white strip even with the print fabric.

Placing these pieces back in the order that they were cut apart, I then joined all three print pieces back together (with the white pieces now in-between).

Now, I turned the blocks one time, so that the white strips ran horizontally, and cut these blocks in just the same manner that I had originally cut the 10 inch squares......3 1/2---3---3 1/2 .

These pieces were then chain-pieced to white one-inch strips just exactly the same way as the first time around,  pressed toward the print, cut apart, and reseamed to make the finished block.

The square in the upper right hand corner was lined up with the 2 3/4 lines along the white strips, horizontally and vertically.

At this point the block was oversized, so, realizing that the block is supposed to be 9 inches square  before assembling the quilt top, I found the centerpoint of the center square, and trimmed the block to be a perfect 9 inch square.  I would never have gotten that nice of a block if I had cut the block down to begin with as the pattern suggested.  I'm not disparaging the pattern creator,........I'm just saying that this is the method that works more precisely for me, and I thought maybe it would help someone else to try this method.

After making the blocks, I then chain-pieced each block to the 1 1/2 inch sashing strip that goes between the blocks in a vertical row, trimmed the strips even with the blocks, and finished piecing each vertical row. 

The rest of the assembly was just made up of adding the 3 inch wide sashes between the vertical rows, and around the outside edge of the quilt top.

I ADORED working with these fabrics, so crisp and clean and pure of color.......even hubby kept commenting on how pretty it was.    Thanks JodieAnn for the fun commission !  I'll try to get it mailed off to you tomorrow, Lord willing.

Ask and ye shall receive !

I emailed JoAnn one day last week to let her know that I was ready to do another commission for her, and I mean, not more than 3 days later, a package was on my doorstep !

This time she sent a fun kit for a quilt top designed by "Me & My Sister" Designs, put together by Moda.  This is just RIGHT up my alley........I am thrilled to get to work with these fabrics and this design. 

But there is NO WAY that I would put the quilt top together in the manner that they describe in their instructions !  It would be asking for trouble, and, for me, there is no way that the blocks would be pretty and neat.  The way I'm doing it, making the blocks oversized, will allow me to trim the blocks up nice and square when I'm finished.  I just do NOT cut strips to the size of the pieces I'm sewing them to and try to make them come out even with my machine.  I sew the pieces to a strip, and then trim to fit.

Anyway, this project is already well underway, and I got 12 out of 20 blocks pieced after starting at noon today and working until 6:30 p.m.  Of course, I had to stop occasionally to fix, and then eat, dinner.

Mandy says that she fell on the steps of her trailer Friday night, and wound up in the emergency room with a cut to her face.  The weekend was awkward and lessons were learned, hopefully.  

Note:  KMart refunded the money they charged me for the order that they cancelled, and I found a much better gift, although a little bit more expensive, at Walmart.com.  Kelley will presumably be picking it up out there at her local WalMart tomorrow.