It's done, it's done, it's DONE!

I am doing a very happy dance, I finished the winter quilt from the Snowbound book by Gerry Kimmel, Linda Brannock and Jan Patek, copyright 1989.  This is a quilt I saw on the blog of Log Cabin Quilter over the past winter.  Karen encouraged me to give it a try and even offered to help me get the pattern if I could not locate the book.  Thanks Karen, this was a wonderful project.  I did find the book and have been having a blast working on this quilt.  I have lots of pictures, first the whole quilt, then of each block.  Sit back and enjoy the show:

There is a black border along the bottom, too.  I had to fight with a breeze while taking the pictures.

House with the dog, I added a few extra characters to some of the blocks, in this case the dog.

Here I added the kitty with whiskers.

I love the kids in snowsuits!

Cabin with the moon.

Another tree block.

Kids on a sled.

A cabin with a sheep on the front lawn.

And the last snowman.  There are four snowmen but each one is little different.  There are also four cabins but each of them is different, too.  For the cabins, I could not find a striped fabric I liked, so I used the back side of pillow ticking.  I had so much fun with this quilt.  Each block has a bit of character all it's own. 

The only new fabric I bought was the background in the blocks and the black for the border.  Everything else, including the backing, came from my stash and scraps. 

I fused the applique pieces into place and did a blanket stitch by hand on each one.  The original pattern didn't call for it, but I used some buttons and embroidery stitches to embellish some of the blocks.  I then hand quilted it with diagonal lines through each of the homespun blocks in the sashing.  I used perle cotton #8 to outline about a quarter inch inside each block.  The quilt finishes at about 52 X 72 inches.  I am so excited it is finished and I can't wait for winter so I can hang it up. 

One more picture, here is Block 7 of Henrietta Whiskers. 

I probably should have saved Henrietta for another post, but she turned out so cute, I just had to include her here, too.  I am really enjoying working on applique on quilts. 

Thanks for sticking with me through all the photos in this post.  I hope you are all having as much fun with your projects as I am with mine.  Stay cool!

Happy 4th to all!

I hope you are all enjoying your 4th!  We are just taking it easy and going to a party later this evening.  We have a friend who is in town for the week and his parents are having a party for him. 

We just returned from our trip to Oregon and Washington to visit the grand kids.  We did some fun trips with them, went to Mo's for some good seafood and had lots of time to spend with them.  First we were in Vancouver, WA to see our new grandson.

This is Mason, he is about 3 1/2 weeks old here and quite a big boy!

Here is big brother Jack on the back of his I Spy quilt:

He just turned two and is a busy, busy boy!  He wore us out!

Then, on to the Salem, Oregon area to visit the next grand kids.

Here are Dean and Lauren at the playground.  They are 4 and 2 and tons of fun!

On the way up we stopped for the evening at my son's apartment in Durango, CO and I had my picture taken with my grand puppy Sadie.  Please excuse the travel hair style, it just had to do until we got to the motel in Washington.

She is a big girl, too.  We also made a side trip to Arches National Park in Moab, UT on the way.

We had a nice surprise here, when we arrived at the gate ready to pay the entrance fee, we found out it was a free day for all the national parks! 

We arrived home on Thursday night about 10:00 pm and brought a couple of things in from the truck.  The last three days have been unpacking, doing laundry, grocery shopping and resting!  I started working on my winter quilt again a couple of evenings ago.  I only have one applique block to quilt and the top border.  I can see the end in sight for this one!  I can't wait to have it finished and show it off.

Enjoy your holiday and stay safe!