Happy New Year

First of all, I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year with lots of time for quilting!

Oh what a year this has been, lots of ups and downs but all in all it was a pretty good year.  I am looking forward to 2017.

I have some finishes to show off, the last of 2016.  I finally finished the big quilt for my bed,  it was quite a job, but I love it.

 

This pattern is from the Jan/Dec 2012 issue of Quilt magazine, it is Dazzling Scraps on page 15.
The designer is Paula Barnes.  The original design is for a 64" square quilt, but I wanted it much larger so I sat down with graph paper and drew it out to make it a 96" square quilt.  It is all squares and half-square triangles.  It was a bit challenging to get it to the larger size, but it was worth the work.

And Let It Snow is complete!  

This was a BOM by Buttermilk Basin for 2016.  I love snowmen so when I saw the first block, I knew I had to make it.  The BB version is done in wool on cotton but I don't have much wool to work with so I made mine in all cotton.  I had fun with all the embroidery and embellishments.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to start cleaning up the stash.  I had a lot of panel prints that are going to my oldest daughter.  There were way more than I could ever finish, so she can have some fun with them.  I pulled out four projects to try to finish.  I had taken a machine quilting class at my LQS years ago.  One of the pieces we worked on was a small panel print that sat unfinished for ages.  I finished it up, bound it and am using it as a large hot pad.

It is nothing fancy but it is pretty and works in the kitchen.  I also had two panels to make aprons out of.  Here is one of them.  The other I gave to a friend who further embellished it with some embroidery.  I don't have a photo of hers.

The fourth project was also from an old panel.  I stitched it together, stuffed it and have a cute Santa doll.

Once I had those finished, I felt pretty good getting four old projects done!  Next, I decided to make some doll clothes for my DGD's doll that I gave her for her birthday a few months ago.

I used some scraps from my current quilt project for the dress and I think it is adorable and it fits!
I will make a few more clothes for her, now that I know the fit is correct.  The doll dress was fun but so much work with the tiny seams.  I found my old White machine that is in the heading of my blog worked best for sewing the tiny seams and tight spaces.

Here is Maggie, the 1952 White Rotary machine all dressed up for Christmas.

My current project:

It is another panel I had.  I finally found a web site that had the coordinating fabrics for the two borders I wanted.  I have started quilting it.  The panel is very cute and it will make a nice wall hanging for Spring.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and hope 2017 will prove to be a great new year!

Busy again!

I can't believe how fast time flies.  So many things have happened over the last two months.

DH's daughter and GS Henry came to visit in September.  We were so busy going to the zoo and aquarium; picnicking on the mountain and lots of other things. 

He has grown so much and is talking up a storm.  We had so much fun.

Then we were off to visit my DD in Montana.  There we played with my GS who will soon be 1 year old.

We bundled up and visited Glacier National Park with baby, Mom and big sister,

and drove to a lookout above Kalispell to check out the city.  We had a great time there, too.

We had received word my Dad was not doing well and the day after we got home from Montana, he passed away.  We quickly unpacked, did laundry, repacked and were off to Illionois.  Dad was 95 years old and had several health issues but it was still hard losing him.  He farmed all his life, so it was nice seeing his final resting place is right next to a corn field.  It was a beautiful day and the wind was rustling the leaves of the corn almost ready for harvest.

When we left Illinois, we went to visit family in Arkansas.  My BIL was having surgery and my SIL needed some moral support.  Since he has Alzheimer's there was concern that the anesthesia would create more memory issues for him, but he is doing pretty well.

That was all of September and the start of October, so time passed quickly.  Once we got home we had dentist and doctor appointments to reschedule, just annual check-up stuff but necessary.  October was so busy.  I did get to work on the big quilt for my bed, it is all quilted and the binding is being sewn down now.   It should be finished in a few days and I will post pictures then.

I also finished a baby quilt for Henry's little brother who is due in about a week.  It turned out so cute.

It is Bobo Baby Elephant Quilt, designed by Carolyn S. Vagts for Annie's Quilt Designs.  It finishes at about 44" X 54".  The elephant part is from a panel designed for a stuffed animal.  I would never have thought to use a panel that way, but it was easy and very cute.  The ears and tail are 3D and stand out from the quilt.  His room will be decorated with elephants, so this will be perfect.

On the Let It Snow BOM, I finished stitching the letter S and have letters N, O, and W prepped and ready to stitch.  The last block pattern has been released, but I will work on it once I have caught up with the N,O,&W.  Next month the finishing instructions will be released.  I am anxious to see how the blocks all go together.  I don't think it will be finished before the holidays, but soon after, I hope.

Our weather here is finally feeling like Fall, nights are cold and days cooler than before.  Last Saturday we had a whopper of a hail storm pass through.  It lasted about 20 minutes and shredded the tree and my flowers in the back yard.  No major damage to the truck or house, though.

The front yard looked like it had snowed and the water was deep running downhill!

This is what one of my flowers looked like before the storm, now it just has a few pink petals and is pretty sad looking.  It will come back next year though!


Life has settled down quite a bit now and hopefully the holidays will not be too crazy.  Thanks for visiting and sticking around for all the photos.  Once I have more quilting things finished, I will post more photos!

Absent again!

I have been busy again.  This has turned out to be a very busy year and unfortunately, blogging has taken a back seat to life.  So where have I been?  WARNING:  LOT'S OF PHOTOS! ! !

DH and I were on a three week motorcycle trip with some friends from Illinois.  They left from there and we left from Albuquerque, meeting in Custer, SD near Mt. Rushmore.

  From there we continued west with stops at Custer battleground

Then we followed Lewis and Clark on their journey west.  There is a wonderful museum in Great Falls, MT that was well worth the visit.

There was a beautifully painted buffalo in the lobby, great for a photo op.

Just outside Great Falls is a giant spring right along the river.  It was beautiful and so amazing.  There is so much beautiful clear water bubbling up to the surface.

Next stop was at Pompey's Pillar, just east of Great Falls.  It is the only place along the trail where Wm. Clark carved his name into the rock.  Journals recorded several places where he carved into trees, but they are all gone.  This is the only record of Clark along the trail.

Journeying on we stopped at Traveler's Rest where Louis and Clark stopped during their trip.

 DH took a rest in the parking lot under the umbrella while Bob, Connie and I took a short hike. 

Then an exciting ride over Lolo Pass, from the top 99 miles of curves and winding mountain road.  This was a beautiful ride and it was my birthday!  I couldn't have asked for a better day.

Our friends headed north toward Seattle to visit friends we had graduated high school with while we headed toward Vancouver, WA for a visit with DH grandsons for a few days.  Then we were off to the Salem, OR area but on the way, we stopped to visit with:

Ruth!  We wandered through a quilt shop, had lunch at a nice little restaurant, then she invited us to her house.  I was privileged to see her sewing room and some of her quilts.  I got to see the beautiful blue basket quilt that won her the blue ribbon and best of show at the quilt show.  Photos of the quilt are beautiful, but seeing it in person was really a treat!

Next stop was a few days with DH's grandkids near Salem.  It was lots of fun spending time with all of the grands, they have grown so much.  We went to the coast with them one day and were lucky enough to see eight whales off the coast!

The journey continued as we made our way to Redding, CA to meet up with our friends again.  They had spent their week visiting in Seattle, made a couple stops as they traveled along the Oregon coast to visit other family and friends, then a side trip to see the redwoods in northern CA before meeting us in Redding.  Our next destination was Lasson Volcanic National Park near Redding.

Beautiful mountains reflected in the lake.

Snow in August on some of the peaks.

Mud pots boiling up from underground.  There were so many things to see at Lasson.  If you are ever near there, it is worth the visit!

Then we headed east across Nevada on US 50, The Loneliest Highway in America.  Again, some beautiful country to explore.

We stopped at a little diner for lunch and I had to have a picture with this rock.  It has copper in it.  The colors were so pretty.

The next day our friends went to Zion for the day but DH had a sinus infection so we just took it easy and rode on to our next motel.  From there, our next stop was near Moab, UT.

Instead of stopping to see Arches National Park, because in the summer there are so many other tourists there, we took our friends to see Dead Horse Canyon State Park.  It is also a beautiful place to see.  That is the Colorado river 2000 feet below the look out.

From here, we headed toward Ouray, CO.

We rode the Million Dollar Highway from Ouray to Durango.  Not for the faint of heart, around Ouray and Silverton, the drop off at the side of the highway was a loooooooong way down!

We had dinner with my son that evening and stopped to see the train depart Durango for Silverton the next morning.  Next stop Mesa Verde.

Mesa Verde is west of Durango, CO.  It is the site of Cliff dwellings, this is the largest of them.  Again, amazing!  This was another day of curving mountain roads, so much fun.  From Mesa Verde, we were on our way home.  Our friends stayed overnight with us, then headed back to Illinois the next morning.

We rode a little over 4,600 miles on the yellow Goldwing and our friends rode just under 6,500 miles on the Harley with the side car with the extra side trips they did while we were visiting grand kids.

It was the trip of a lifetime with good friends to share it!

Now a little quilty stuff since the last post.

 I haven't got much done on this BOM since last post.  There are four more blocks I have saved the patterns for, but it will be a while before I work on them again.

 I have six of the Let It Snow BOM finished so far.

 The S is prepped and I have stitched part of it.

 This is a little dolly quilt I made for my DGD's 2nd birthday.  It was a top I made several years ago with a twister tool.  I didn't know what I would do with it, so it sat until I decided to make this little quilt.

 Here is DGD's new doll and stroller with the quilt.  I can't wait to give it to her, I think she will love it.

 New project, DH's daughter in Ohio is expecting a new baby boy in November, so here is the start of his baby quilt.  I love the pattern and can't wait to see it finished.  I'll show more of this one later.

I have my scrappy quilt almost quilted.  Just two or three rows left on each end to do.

So, that's what I have been doing since my last post!  Thanks for sitting through all the pictures!