Blessings

Another Christmas has come and gone, and I am blessed to have gotten to spend it with my hubby in our snug little home.

No one can make me more CRAZY, but I am thankful to still have him with me.  He goes back for a CT scan on Wednesday, the 28th, and if all checks out well, he should get his 4th 2-day session of chemotherapy.  This month has been up and down as far as how well he's felt, but we keep moving forward with our faith in our HEALER, Christ Jesus.

On Christmas Eve, we had several interesting visitors.  First, with a light rain coming down around midday, I glanced out the back window and spied a long line of wild turkeys waddling their way out of or side woods and making their way into my lower back yard.  I had never seen even ONE on our land, so this was a jaw-dropping moment.  I counted an even dozen of them, including 2 large Tom turkeys.  They made their way up to the Oak tree above, near the garden, and feasted on the many acorns  in the grass, until the rain got heavy enough to run them back into the woods.

Later, after dark, I went outside to get some Christmas decorations from our shed, and heard a noise to the left of the back porch where I was standing.  Shining my flashlight in that direction, I found 4 deer heading toward the woods.  They had been eating the acorns that had fallen from another Oak up closer to the porch.  When I went out a second time an hour later, they were back up there again.   I just thanked my LORD Jesus for my Christmas Eve guests.

Hubby and I then spent Christmas Day alone, with a wonderfully excited call from our daughter and her household.  We have everything we need, and peace on top of that, so what more can we ask.

A New Commission--Wilbur

Yesterday I started a new commission for JoAnn, my friend in Oklahoma.

She sent me this kit from Moda , Wilbur, the horse, made from Erin Michael's Purebred line of fabric.

I'm making the quilt from the pattern right now, and then she wants me to use the extra pieces to come up with a smaller version of Wilbur for her granddaughter.  That will take some designing and imagination, so, for now, I'm going to enjoy the ease of simple needle-turn applique (we don't like fusibles).

Today I pieced the two big pieces of fabric for the background, and basted Wilbur onto that background, ready for the handwork.

Star Trails---finished quilt

I basted this quilt a few months ago, and put it back, to have something to quilt on when the Winter blahs moved in.  Well, I got caught up on smaller things, and couldn't stand it taking up room in my bedroom/sewing room, so I decided to go ahead and machine-quilt it.  This is my own original layout design for these popular stars.  I like them because you don't have to worry about your star points getting cut off.

I used my Melody machine, from BabyLock, because I have it set up (in the OTHER sewing room ) on a large table.  I set my ironing board beside me to handle the weight of the quilt while I feed it through, and the big table catches the weight of it after it passes through.  That works out much better than having the quilt fall off the edge of my sewing cabinet.

Rolling the excess and pinning it really helped manage the bulk.

I decided to do simple 1-inch vertical rows with my walking foot.  I quickly found that I had NOT basted closely enough, and even the walking foot was pushing the top toward the basting lines, causing tucks.  I slowed down and eased as well as I could, and I think that it will look just fine when it is washed and crinkly.

I had my brother, Jeff, in mind when I pieced this one, but since I have already given John a quilt, I think that I will continue in chronological order, and send this one to Jim.  That leaves Jeff, and then Ted to make future quilts for.  This one, like John's, is what i consider a generous nap-sized quilt.  It finished at 54 inches by 75 inches......a bit smaller than John's, but Jim is shorter, so I think it will be fine for him.

I pieced the backing for this quilt, and I really like how it looks.
Hopefully, I'll get it wrapped and sent sometime in the next week.

Strings in the Dark

Today I put the last stitches into the binding  of my small string quilt.

It finished at 44 1/2 inches square, and is totally reversible.

One side is composed of my dark and bright scrappy strings,

and the reverse side is made up of black, white, grey, and red prints/polka dots.

These photos were taken prior to laundering.  It washed up  beautifully, with the full crinkly effect, but the sun was too far gone for an 'after' photo.  Maybe I can update with one at a later date.