We woke up to a white Thanksgiving here in Albuquerque this morning. Not much snow, just enough to cover everything in a little blanket of white. This cold front is suppose to pass in a few days and our temps will be back into the 50's again.
We are spending a quiet Thanksgiving alone this year so we went to a local restaurant for dinner, it was nice, not too expensive, no leftovers and no clean-up. We returned from our trip on Tuesday, just ahead of the reports for cold weather. Got everything unpacked and laundry done by Wednesday. We had a great visit with my family, Mom and Dad are doing well. Actually they both look much better since entering the nursing home. Dad is ready to go home, but I think it will be spring if that happens. My sister, brother and his wife, and Mom went out to dinner while we were there. Dad was feeling a little under the weather the first day, but was fine the rest of our visit. We did some cleaning at my folks house and made arrangements for a veterans plaque to be added to my FIL's headstone. So we checked off all the things we wanted to get done plus had time for some nice visits with my folks. Then we were off to Arkansas to visit SIL's and their husbands. While there, we got to eat at our favorite restaurants with them, had Thanksgiving dinner early and found a dresser at the resale shop to bring home for the guest bedroom. Plus we put in a bid on a roll top desk that was old but in pretty good shape and had a phone call on our way home that it was accepted. Our SIL's and hubby's picked it up for us, so now we have to plan a trip back to get it. That will be in the spring with a trip to Florida to my step daughter to drop off our old desk to her, then swing through Arkansas to pick up the new desk.
Other good news is my step daughter and her husband in Washington are expecting their second child around the end of May, so there is another baby quilt to plan. They will find out in a few weeks if it needs to be pink or blue. I'm hoping for pink, it is such fun to make little pink quilts! Then we have to plan a visit to the northwest to visit after the new grand baby arrives. It's not even the end of this year and we have two trips planned for next year already, whew!
Everyone liked the table toppers I made, I was happy to hear that. Today I cut out a new project, a table runner for me. I get to practice on my new machine, it will be a lot different sewing on it. We found a sturdy 2' X 4' table to put it on, so now the height is better for sewing. My old machine was in a cabinet so it has now become a night table in the guest bedroom. That way, I can use it if I need to but it is out of the way. Tomorrow is my class to learn more about my new sewing machine. I have read a lot in the manual but putting it into practice is much better. This first class is a general get to know your new machine, then after it I can sign up for a model specific class to learn all the features.
I still need to baste the red, cream and blue quilt, Two Piece Puzzle, so I can start hand quilting it. I plan to borrow a large table from my neighbor to work on. I will probably talk to her next week after all of the holiday activity settles down. I have some ideas for the Swap block quilt but it will be a little while before I am ready to work on it. I can hardly wait to work on it, I know it will be a favorite one. I am ready for the last Snowbound block to come out in a couple of weeks. Don't know when I will get that one finished, it will probably not be ready for this Christmas season. I use to be so good and only have one project going at a time but I have caught the quilting bug and have several projects going at once plus so many new ideas!
I hope you all enjoyed some good family time and great food today! Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Getting ready for Christmas . . .
How are you doing with your handmade gifts? Here are the ones I've been working on:
These are the table mats I made using the Farmer's Daughter block. They finished up at 14" square, perfect for an end table. I was struggling to come up with an idea for gifts for family this year when I found The Farmer's Dotter blog. She talked about the quilt block on one of her blogs and offered to email it to anyone who wanted a copy. I also did several internet searches and ended up using this pattern for my table mats. I decided since my father and my husband's father were farmers, these are quite appropriate, both to give and receive. The best part is, everything came from my scraps and stash. I really like the way they turned out, now I have to make some for myself!
I finally have the top all together for Two Piece Puzzle and I have the backing fabric and batting. Now I just have to get it basted! I have been working on it for about 8 months, wonder how long it will take me to hand quilt a queen size quilt! I'm planning to borrow a couple of long tables from my neighbor to do the basting. I'm hoping that works out. I don't have any bare floors to use. I usually do the basting on the island in my kitchen, but this may take a couple of days so I don't want to tie up the kitchen that long. Well, I guess we could eat out until I finish it but I don't think that will be a popular idea for long.
I was so excited to hear that Katie is getting the long arm machine she wanted and . . . drum roll, I have a new machine, too. It's not a long arm, I'm no where near ready to try that but it sure sounds like fun. My husband went on a motorcycle ride with the guys last weekend and left me home. I've been wanting a new machine for a couple of years, so I wandered over to the sewing store nearby. I had talked to them a couple of months ago about an embroidery machine but decided that really wasn't what I wanted. This time I checked out the sewing/quilting machines. It just so happened they were having a big sale and I found the one I wanted. It is a Brother that does lots of "stuff"! It will take me a while to learn all of the functions but the shop has classes for new machine owners, so that will help. I'm signed up to go to the first class the day after Thanksgiving. I've been reading the manual and trying some things out. It's fun, but so different than my old sewing machine. And when I say "old" I mean that. I bought my first sewing machine 41 years ago, I still have the sales receipt. My friends were dreaming of buying their first car, all I wanted was the sewing machine! This will count as my Christmas present for this year and that's OK because I love my new machine.
Right now I am working on the November Snowbound block, I think it will be finished tonight. Guess I should go have some fun sewing.
These are the table mats I made using the Farmer's Daughter block. They finished up at 14" square, perfect for an end table. I was struggling to come up with an idea for gifts for family this year when I found The Farmer's Dotter blog. She talked about the quilt block on one of her blogs and offered to email it to anyone who wanted a copy. I also did several internet searches and ended up using this pattern for my table mats. I decided since my father and my husband's father were farmers, these are quite appropriate, both to give and receive. The best part is, everything came from my scraps and stash. I really like the way they turned out, now I have to make some for myself!
I finally have the top all together for Two Piece Puzzle and I have the backing fabric and batting. Now I just have to get it basted! I have been working on it for about 8 months, wonder how long it will take me to hand quilt a queen size quilt! I'm planning to borrow a couple of long tables from my neighbor to do the basting. I'm hoping that works out. I don't have any bare floors to use. I usually do the basting on the island in my kitchen, but this may take a couple of days so I don't want to tie up the kitchen that long. Well, I guess we could eat out until I finish it but I don't think that will be a popular idea for long.
I was so excited to hear that Katie is getting the long arm machine she wanted and . . . drum roll, I have a new machine, too. It's not a long arm, I'm no where near ready to try that but it sure sounds like fun. My husband went on a motorcycle ride with the guys last weekend and left me home. I've been wanting a new machine for a couple of years, so I wandered over to the sewing store nearby. I had talked to them a couple of months ago about an embroidery machine but decided that really wasn't what I wanted. This time I checked out the sewing/quilting machines. It just so happened they were having a big sale and I found the one I wanted. It is a Brother that does lots of "stuff"! It will take me a while to learn all of the functions but the shop has classes for new machine owners, so that will help. I'm signed up to go to the first class the day after Thanksgiving. I've been reading the manual and trying some things out. It's fun, but so different than my old sewing machine. And when I say "old" I mean that. I bought my first sewing machine 41 years ago, I still have the sales receipt. My friends were dreaming of buying their first car, all I wanted was the sewing machine! This will count as my Christmas present for this year and that's OK because I love my new machine.
Right now I am working on the November Snowbound block, I think it will be finished tonight. Guess I should go have some fun sewing.
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