Final Finishes of 2008

Like the pineapple blossom quilt that these blocks were made from the spare hsts, everyone loves/wants this wall hanging.Granted it is striking as was the quilt. Which I actually got a phone call from the bf telling me how "awesome" it was and he couldn't thank me enough. Yeah!





A birthday present for my sil who's turning 40 on Thursday. All done and in the gift bag already :)



Yesterday I ventured out to the retail part of town to get some black kona for the fall mystery binding. I happened along the clearence section of Joann's. I orginally picked up the gold and red ones only. Golds for background and reds for the yoyo's I need a million of for a quilt.ANd thought they were a bargain at 50¢. When they rang up at 25¢ I ran back and got the blues and greens.
So I got a total of 26 fqs for a quarter each *VBS*



Tomorrow hubby and I are driving to Buffalo to look for houses/apartments to rent, go to dinner with the new board of directors etc. I found one quilt shop a few blocks from our hotel and I'm going :)
We'll be back on Tuesday late. Then Wednesday is Ann's mystery and I hear from the testers it's another great one. I'm using Buffalo Bills fabric to make it for my son. Get this, he asked today since I stay up most of the night on New Years, did I think i could get it quilted for New Years Day.....**rolling eyes**

Look What Santa Brought!

I know I'm so upset that Moose retired this year but Santa Aka Hubby got me his jersey this year for Christmas and a new camera I need to learn. Oh and guitar hero Aerosmith addition for Wii *VBG*


We really didn't get much more of anything other than some memorabilia . Baseball cards, baseballs - stuff like that. We're baseball nuts what can I say? I need to find a Kranepool jersey online before his birthday :)

Tracking Santa

* Photo borrowed from Craig Jewels on Photobucket*


Looks like the Jolly one has made it to Australia :)That means all our swap friends will be opening their gifts today!
We're using this link to follow along with the nieces

2 Days to Go

Well this pic was taken last winter but the yard looks the same.
We may or may not have a white Christmas, we may have mud season early.
I'm embroidering the last of the denim shirts for Christmas presents. I have a bag of ornaments , some doll clothes for those American Girl dolls and assorted goodies for the nieces and cousins. Few more things to pick up for hubby's stocking and we're good to go.
I finished the candy and baking this afternoon. Tomorrow is bake muffins etc and make baskets for the neighbors. Tomorrow night is church. One of my favorite parts of Christmas. Sitting in a pew as a family Christmas Eve. Brings back memories of silly late teen years/ early twenties. No matter where were that night we all met up at St Anthony's for midnight mass. The Lutheran's don't do midnight mass :(

Off I go to wrap, I hope to blog tomrrow but if for some reason I don't, I want to wish you all the Merriest of Christmases. Take a moment and say a prayer for our service people serving around the globe. Stay warm and safe.

more animals

Chookyblue's Secret Santa Swap

Frist, I'd like to thank Odette for being my Santa. She sent so many lovely and fun goodies it's going to take a few pictures to show them all off. First we have a lovely appliqued towel. The cutest scissor holder and pincushion. She made them all.



Marshmellows !! Chile marshmellows are not as sweet as the ones here in the US a very nice change. Those I shared with the family. I just adore this little oragami box. SO interesting and fun. Odette you should do a tutorial on them for blogland :) Also in this pic is a hot pad shaped like an ornament.




And there's still more, lovely bath flakes, a heavenly smelling sachet- chocolate ( i hid that ) and a stitchery kit.



I know we were supposed to wait till Christmas but starting today with my daughter's 19th bday, everyone being off of work and school starting Tuesday. I wanted this box to be for me. Some Christmas carols playing, relaxing with a glass of wine and not rushing.

I'd like to thank Odette again for such a wonderful package and a big thank you to Chookyblue for organizing a Christmas swap for over 150 with way less drama than we did on a little group. Please remember me next year when you do it again. This was defiantly alot of fun.

Baking and more ornaments

The men of the house are Mets fans and we ladies are Yankee fans. Leads to some interesting rivalries...almost as good as Yanks vs Paula's Red Sox. I find it quite funny that season has been tied twice with the Sox and Yanks the last 2 years.



The Chrysler Building in NYC is one of my favorite buildings. When I was in the city a couple years ago with a friend, we found this ornaments at the Museum of Natural History and of course I NEEDED it. Not I wanted, I NEEDED it.....



First you raid the pantry and gather the cookbooks for holiday baking.....



and after a few hours, you get these. Now try and hide them till Christmas so there's some for Santa.....




The teens and hubby have been looking and looking for the candy and cookies already made. Silly people, they're hidden in plain view.

It's begining to look alot like Christmas

The best part about sewing bindings on quilts imho is that you need to clean off the sewing area so the quilt can lay on the table. And since yesterday was spent baking, it's still clean :) What a concept!!



The other night I finished the bindings on the pineapple blossom quilts. The blue one was given to my friend and she was speachless. I love that when you give a quilt they had no idea they were getting they can't speak.LOL and I finished this one for DD's BF. I figured she'd put it in the nice gift bag we have for it, but no. She and her kitty had to "test it out". Both approve *VBG*



On one of my yahoo groups we did a secret santa exchange.
Lookie at all the goodies. A new quilt book, thangles, Marti Mitchel stripper templates ( perfect for jelly rolls ) patterns, fabric, a hot pad in my fav color blue a tin that shows all the GS uniforms, a yummy 3 scent candle. And for those that read my 360 blog- a PEEP Puzzle-roflmao! Peeps Wars rock! My secret santa spoiled me rotten. Thanks Judy




The ornament went right on the tree:)


The drama of one person not getting their box has kinda put a damper on the whole thing. I hope none of that happens on Chookyblue's swap. Who's swap box I'm opening tomorrow (Sat) I was going to do it today but the teens are off of school- they're calling for snow...yeah ! They can bake some cookies and make themselves useful :)

What's on your Christmas Tree?

Aren't these wonderful?


This is one of those "I can make that " ornaments. It's one of my favs too.



DS's baseball guys. My sister buy him these ornaments every year.


This was the first ornament hubby and I bought as a couple the year we were engaged.



Hubby started putting Opus in the tree the year DD was born. Can that be 19 years ago??



and my fav Snoopy :)


I have more but blogger is being weird :(

Kansas Troubles are here to stay

This was today's project :)
Like it says, 16 are shown but more than 20 are done. Actually 20 are sewn into pinwheels. Making the blocks 20% done . YIPPEE!



For every one of these finished, that means 2 of the lazy/shooting star blocks are done also :) Good thing I only need 520 of them. Maybe it's time to think of big borders.
I probably have 80 of those done too. Need to cut more 6" squares tomorrow.

I have the black/red and white pineapple blossom quilted and the binding sewn on. Tomorrow when I come back from my mom's I hope to quilt the blue one. Those are the only 2 gifts that need to be quilted by the holiday. I have 4 more shirts to embroider but that's another project. My laptop lost internet and I'm going nuts trying to connect it so in the meantime hubby bought a 8gb memory stick that I'm transferring from my pc to the laptop a million or so embroidery designs. Some are unzipped, most are not. Which is a major PITA on the laptop :(

My mom is having major sight issues. She's become legally blind in a week :( and losing her zest for life. She was an advid crocheter and she could read a book in a day or two. No more.

Who's ready for the fat man in the red suit????

Christmas Craziness

This country is getting sadder and sadder every single day.
The other day I was reading Patty's Morning Ramble and came across this post Please read that before you look at the blog article I saw at Crossroads.com

No Recession (So Far) for U.S. Video Game Makers
U.S. sales of video game hardware and software rose 10 percent in November from a year earlier, market researcher NPD said recently, as Nintendo Co Ltd reported its Wii console and DS hand-held system both set U.S. sales records in the month.
NPD said the U.S. video game industry is set to top $22 billion in 2008, and Nintendo, Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp said their strong sales in November showed that consumers are still spending despite the global economic crisis.
Rising unemployment and tighter credit have dented U.S. consumers' purchasing power, and most retailers have posted dismal sales results in recent months.
But the U.S. video game industry "continues to set a blistering sales pace," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said, with hardware and software sales strong even though this November had seven fewer shopping days than last year's.
Nintendo's Wii console sold over 2 million units in November, up from over 800,000 in the previous month, setting a record for console unit sales in a non-December month, Nintendo said. Nintendo's Wii console has sold over 15 million units since its release in November 2006 and holds the title as the country's best-selling video game console

Kansas Troubles revisited

When I got home last night, there were a few comments that I made my blocks wrong. THANK YOU! I can't imagine if I made 80 blocks wrong :( Well they just would have been renamed ( like hubby told me to do) So around 6ish this morning, I started reconstruction and had my book that the pattern is from the book, SCRAP QUILTS. I love this book and have made a few patterns from it.



All better, plus I made my 4 blocks for today :)



See the base of the triangles against the blue? I had it backwards yesterday....

Challanging to Say the Least

I thought Ocean Waves was a challenge. This block had me about crazy trying to figure out where the darks go.



But first thing this morning, I trimmed some more of the Stashbusters prize up for the lazy star blocks and a cut a few so I could try the Kansas Troubles block. BEFORE i commited to making 80 or so of them. I think I can do this *WINK*

Oh I guess I can do them - I made 4 before I put that project away:)

arggggg one of the 4 blocks are wrong :( tomorrow that's the first order of business. I just checked the book of the pattern I'm using

New tops and new projects :)

I finished Dave's top tonight before hubby and I watched the newest Batman movie. See it's kitty approved already :) It's added to the tops in que to be quilted. Probably after New Years though.





I started making 3, yep 3 lazy or shooting star quilts with the winnings from Stashbusters no buy winnings for Robin's daughters.






All those 3 inch squares leave bonus 2 1/2" squares when trimmed to make : Kansas Troubles

Waiting for NYE

Remember these fabrics?




All the clues are cut out- a couple HUNDRED 2 1/2" hsts are made, now we wait till New Years Eve :(
I'm not very good at the waiting part. Like 2 different Secret Santa boxes tempting me somewhere in the house - or possibly the garage. One never knows where hubby hid them :(

The whirl wind of the hoidays starts here tomorrow with my parents wedding anniversary 47 years! And it won't end will hubby's birthday on January 20th - with 4 more besides his in between *sigh*

I have almost 3 of 4 rows done on Scrappy mountains ( you know the quilt Moose thinks is for him-lol) Pulling lavendars, pinks and yellows for the girls's quilts to start next. Once the hsts are trimmed and cut into parts the blocks make WONDERFUL leader/ ender blocks *VBG*

Tuesday Musings

It was so cold yesterday that the pond's little fountain froze. We had to chip it and put the heater in so Cliff and other animals have drinking water for the winter :)





Why is it that cats will sit or lay on quilts even in the flimsy stage? This is half of the quilt I'm making for my friend Robin's husband.


I wanted to make 4 of these in different colors for Dave and the girls but there's alot of seams...

A blue Christmas Quilt Top

Look what new top I have to quilt *VBG*. I got this fabric years ago when I worked at Joann's. They came in some goofy snowman cookie jar. Problem was most of the jars were broken so we were "supposed to" mark them down an throw the fqs away. What a waste. One day my friend gave me a bunch of the fqs *SHHHHH* and I've always wanted to make her a quilt of them. Well last week I bit the bullet and started the blocks.I think I threw in 2 extra blue Christmas FQS. And like potato chips, you can't make just one and before you knew it I had 30 blocks made and a bunch of strips leftover I can mix with other blues for a scrappy binding



4 blocks for a blossom




Of course you can't waste the bonus hsts and I made a wall hanging for one of the doors in the house. and FINALLY all the fall ones have been replaced by winter/Christmas ones :)

Christmas Stuff and Nanette's Giveaways

Yesterday was St Nicholas Day and the historic house down the street always has Cinter Claus come. I caught him without the big bishop looking hat. He gives gold coins to the children if they were good....he claimsdd was a good girl this year.






Tonya was talking about the black decorations and tree in Paris on her blog. DD has this small Nightmare Before Christmas one on her night stand. Sorry Tonya no Oggie Boogie ornament.




Every year hubby buys some totally off the wall decoration. We have a singing Homer Simpson, The lamp from a Christmas Story, I could go on and on. Today we started decorating and this is what he puts up....lol. Gotta love him, it's in the contract.





A few years ago I won this tree all decorated at the big fund raiser ay hubby's work. They auction off fully decorated tree of all sorts- usually 50-100 different ones of all kinds of themes. This one has been gracing the kitchen since. Though we got a bigger microwave this year and I still need to "fluff" the branches.




Aren't the ornaments great?



As for traditions, this plate and cup have been brought every year since 1990. Someone bought it for DD for her second Christmas. She was born a few days before Christmas before her due date so we didn't have it the first Christmas.


Lastly, Nanette , of my favorite patterns fame and a newly published pattern writer in the news Fons and Porter Baby Quilt issue ( pg 80) is having an anniversary giveaway. You have 7 days to comment and win one of 7 prizes...hows that for odds?

Saturday stuff

I'm having a battle of wills with DD :( But here she is cutting Daddy's hair



This actually got quilted this week too and someone is getting it for a Christmas present. It was mailed this week so it's on it's way.



I just delivered the present for the family next door. A gingerbread house kit,Christmas mugs, coffee, hot chocolate, the makings for cookies and kitchen towels, oven mitts etc. Of course a PEZ thrown in for good measure :) These are the kinds of gifts that need to be given early so they can enjoy up to Christmas and beyond. And now I can pick up cute cookie cutters for the little girl when I see them.




Isn't this the cutest thing ever? Barb made it for me for Christmas :) I just love it, and it's BLUE my favorite color.Thanks so much Barb.

I finished part of the presewing for the mystery ....and got a few more Pineapple blossoms blocks done for a last minute present. Only 15 more blocks to go or 9 and a big border ....

A new blog in town

I'm so excited ! One of my friends started a blog of her great patterns. Some of have been mysteries on yahoo groups in the past couple of years.
Here's my version of her spring mystery.






The most recent pattern for mystery...going to be a great gift for my sister in law on New Years Day :)



Go vist my friend, Cindy's blog hereand welcome her to the blog world. If you like scrappy patterns, you're going to love hers.