Christmas Video Tour

Please take a look at Bobby Socks website for a wonderful Christmas House video tour! You'll have to copy and paste to get there but is so worth it!

http://bsqc.sasktelwebsite.net/

P.S.- The new free redwork pattern is up too!

Quilter's Night Before Christmas

Quilter's Night Before
by Brenda Groelz, Kathy Rockbugs, Marilyn Root, Cindy Swafford

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
The only one sleeping was Quilter's dear spouse.
The Log Cabin stockings were almost completed,
"Just a few stitches left," our sweet quilter repeated,

"Then I can hang them and head to off to finish
the pillows I'm making, fulfilling Mom's wish
For something 'quilty' to put on her couch",
as she pricked her poor finger, our quilter yelled, "Ouch!"

When from out in the kitchen there arose such a crashing,
she sprang from her work, and she dropped all her sashing.
Away to the doorway she flew like a plane,
wondering just what was happening and who she could blame.

When what to her wondering eyes should appear,
but Old Mrs Claus and her bag of quilt-gear....
With her elves bearing gifts, through the kitchen she came,
she directed and pointed and called them by name.

"Now Elna, now Pfaff, now Bernina and Viking,
the Hoffman and Mumm should be just to her liking.
To the sewing room - there, it's just back of the hall,
now dash away, dash away, dash away all!"

"My Dear," said The Claus (as she liked to be called),
"There really is no need to worry at all.
Your projects will all be completed this night,
I'm terribly sorry we gave you a fright.

Sit down. Have some tea. It's relaxing, you'll see.
My friends and I've come a long way to help Thee."
She thought she was dreaming, our Dear Quilter did,
In fact she quite feared that she'd near flipped her lid!

But the flash of the needles and twist of the thread
soon gave her to know she had nothing to dread.
They spoke no more words, but went straight to their sewing.
How the work went so quickly she had no way of knowing.

The stitches, how tiny! The corners, how straight!
This Claus-woman's talent was awfully great.
They finished the pillows, then started a quilt.
Before they all knew it, the whole thing was built!..

Now old Mrs. Claus, she knew quilters real well,
and she knew they'd need help on this night most of all
So she said to our quilter, "Just move over, dear,
I've brought my own needle. We'll get done, never fear.

I told dear old Santa about what quilters do.
How they plan all these projects but have other work too.
So he taught me his magic for doing things fast.
There, that pillow's done. Now this is the last."

They tidied their thread snips, and picked up the scraps
and chased our dear quilters six cats from their laps.
They left behind gingerbread (just to be nice)
and the whole house smelled sweetly of Christmas and spice.

As they scurried away with their thimbles still gleaming
dear Mrs. Claus paused, her cap ribbons streaming.
"Merry Christmas, my dear, now just have a ball!
Relax and enjoy. Happy Quilting to all!"

A lazy day.

Yesterday I stayed in my pjs ALL day! I was stitching on my second Vintage Valentine block. I finished it last night. Besides needleturning with the freezer paper underneath I also glued some of the pieces together before adding them to the background. Another time saver! I started on the next block and got two pieces appliqued before I went to bed. This quilt is turning out very pretty. I'm enjoying working on it despite the tiny pieces.

Edit: I hate our new digital camera. Most of my pictures turn out blurry! I'll try to take this one over and see if I do better...

Christmas goodies!

I've been busy this week! I made two Christmas aprons. One for me and one for my daughter. I used homespun towels and fused the pieces to them. I buttonhole stitched around the pieces and used purchased quilt binding for the straps. They turned out real cute!

I bought a kit for the Santa's Midnight Runner (Mount ReDoubt) last weekend. I already had the pattern. I sewed the background squares together and fused all the pieces onto it. I haven't decided if I am going to buttonhole stitch the edges or just straight stitch around all the pieces while quilting the whole thing. I'll have to add some beads or crystals to the piece after it's quilted.

The house is decorated, the shopping done and the stockings stuffed! No real baking this year year since we are all watching what we eat. I'm ready for Christmas!

PS-I finished all 50 of my 6" Churn Dash blocks! They are all ready to swap!

Retreat Weekend

I've been to my friend Michelle's house for the weekend with my small group of quilting friends. We had such a wonderful time and ate so much good food! (Mich is really a gourmet cook!) We were mostly working on our 6" churn dash blocks for a group swap. All of us but Gloria procrastinated so that we still don't have them all done even after working on them all weekend.
I guess it didn't help that we took the afternoon off on Saturday to go to the quilt shop in Granbury! Oh, boy, I was so bad there! Well, I couldn't help it. A beautiful stack of the entire line of Chocolat from Three Sisters by Moda just practically jumped in to my arms! Plus, I had to get a kit for a pattern (Santa's Midnight Runner) that I loved! Of course, I needed a pattern, some applique needles and sewing machine needles.

That other blurry picture is my mess of Churn Dash blocks. I set everything back up in my sewing room when I got home and started working on them again. I have to finish them before I do anything else!

Quilting Santa

I made this Santa a few years ago. He has a batting coat with a shawl collar. He is holding a little tree and a piece of an old quilt. In his bag are gifts for quilters. A little sewing machine and thimble are on the base.

Oh, Christmas Tree...

I got both of my trees up this weekend. The one in the living room is all gold ornaments with white lights and a star on top. It is so beautiful. I've been adding ornaments for probably ten years so there are a lot. My daughter and husband helped me decorate. They snuck out to the store to get egg nog and a cheese ball with crackers! The cheese ball had horseradish in it so I only had a taste. They loved it and almost ate the whole thing!

The tree in the den has LOTS of Santa ornaments with colored lights and bubble lights plus a little Santa hat on top. The tree skirt is an old quilt I found once when I was antiquing in LA.I made the Santa picket fence around the base of the tree when we lived in Panama City, FL.

I'd love to see your tree...

It's snowing!

OK, I know what you Northerners are thinking! I'm excited to see it! Good thing it will only last a day or two though because I need to go to the quilt shop for some 30's repros for a swap (of blocks, I still have to make). My little group is swaping 6" churn dash blocks. I have to do 50! But wait there is more...I have to do my daughter's 50 too! Talk about waiting until the last minute!

I'll leave you with these beautiful pictures I took from my back door.

WIP Wednesday

This is the quilt from the last post. I have finished the blocks and have it together with two borders. Right now I'm adding the circles. I think when I'm done I'll add another border. When I was squaring up the blocks I cut one side of one block 1/2" to small. So, I had to cut the rest of them down and that has caused a problem with spacing for the circles. You might be able to see on the border area where I couldn't put a dot because the applique got in the way! I don't know whether to not put a dot in those spots (I don't really like this option), put a partial dot there or remodel some of the pieces that are in the way. Any opinions? I'd love to hear them.

It's in the 70's right now. Warm and muggy. Tonight a cold front is coming through and will lower the temps to freezing! We'll probably have ice in the morning. The roads and the ground will be warm enough to melt whatever comes down. Oh, how I love a Texas ice storm! NOT!

I'll tell you a little tale about my first ice storm in Texas...you have to remember that I had been living in Florida for 12 years before we moved here. There was definitely ice on the ground especially the pool deck. I let the dogs out to do their business first thing in the morning. They were little old Shih-Tsus. As soon as the oldest one jumped up on the deck of the pool to get to the yard he slipped and slid right into the pool! I go running after him and slipped myself (causing me to land on my knees). So, I crawled to the edge of the pool (in my pj's no less) and started calling him to come to the edge. He was going around in circles and was going under. I had to jump into the pool to retrieve him! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! We got inside and dried off to the best of our abilities and called the vet. She said to come in so she could check his lungs and ears. So we did. It took me several hours to warm up after my swim! We bought a pool cover the next week and had it installed!

We've had several ice events since 2000 but since that experience I just don't go outside! Looks like we are in for another one...I'll be quilting, nice and warm and dry!

One more thing about the dogs...Max lived to be 18 and died in 2001, Dillon lived to be 15 and he passed away earlier this year. We had some good times in all those years!

This is my spot!

If I'm not in my quilt room upstairs I'm usually here (or at Walmart!). This spot is in my great room. I do my applique and bindings right in that chair. I can keep an eye on whatever I'm cooking and watch TV at the same time. The table next to my chair is usually a mess. I tried to get organized with that turntable thing but it's not working!

I know some of you will want to know what that quilt is. It's Cinnamon Stitches from Piece o Cake. I have it all put together and now I am appliqueing 150 circles between the blocks and some on the edge of the border. I'm going to hand quilt it.

We've had a heck of a long weekend going on around here. Lots of company and eating and drinking! Yesterday we put the tree up in the den. I tried to get my DH to put up the tree in the entryway but he is watching football. Today, all of the company is going down to Ft. Worth to Joe T. Garcia's, a Mexican restaurant famous in this area. I'm not going...I'm too tired. I'll be sitting in my chair most of the night sewing down little circles!

A little bit of everything.

My DD's in-laws, Kurt and Rita, brought this with them yesterday when they came over for dinner. It is so beautiful and smells so good. The lilies don't really smell but the apples in the water do. Every time I walk by it I get a whiff of apple. Just delicious!




The pictures of the quilt are what I promised I would show you a few posts ago. When we got back from our trip to NC I drug this out and finished it. I had taken a picture of it earlier but somehow I clicked on the ceiling! (I don't even want to know how that happened.) This quilt was a kit I bought at Houston Street Mercantile in Granbury, TX. I love that little shop. It is cram packed with everything I love. I can't get out of there without spending big bucks! The quilt shop has a little house used for retreats. We went there last year for our retreat. We had so much fun! Teresa and Mary came from SC to visit with us. They got stuck here a couple of extra days because of a hurricane!


Anyway, back to the quilt...I named it The Heart Garden. I fused everything and buttonhole stitched around all the raw edges. Of course, it was a UFO. Now it's off to Ty next week to machine quilt. I have collected a bunch of tiny buttons shaped like hearts and stars to add after the quilting has been done. I can hardly wait to get it done and hang it up.

My first Work In Progress Wednesday!

This is Vintage Valentine. I did the first one last week and then took a break and cut all the pieces for the WHOLE quilt from freezer paper. I just started the second block a couple of days ago.

I've been busy cleaning my house! We're having company for Thanksgiving. My daughter's in-laws and sister-in-law are coming over with my daughter and her husband. My son is still in NC and won't be home until early January. I've gotten some cooking done today. I made a pecan pie, sweet potato casserole, a cheese ball and the dressing.

I'm wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much!

Character quilts and some applique.

I finally got the roll of film developed that had my nephew's and my sister's quilts on it. Those are the quilts packaged and ready to go. You can read about these quilts earlier in my blog.





I've been busy cutting out freezer paper templates for Vintage Valentine. I collected this BOM last year from Cotton Patch. Last week I finsihed appliqueing the first block. Then, I decided to trace (onto freezer paper) and cut out all the pieces for the quilt. Normally I baste each piece of freezer paper to the fabric before adding it to the applique piece but this time I just put the freezer paper backed piece of fabric right on the background and started needle turning. It worked like a charm! I think now I can eliminate the basting part and start right in with the applique. That is going to save time!

Lori Smith BOM

This is the first installment of a BOM by Lori Smith. I am getting the blocks from Cotton Patch.

I received the 2nd block the other day. So, I've still got to put it together.

This is not the picture I promised in my last post. I'll try to get around to that tomorrow!

And finally...

On our trip to NC we drove three days there and three days back. Since my husband enjoys driving he drove all the way. So, I had some time on my hands. First, I made the mini yo-yo quilt. I had a kit of 100 squares of 30's reproduction fabric. I can't remember what the pattern was but I wanted a little yo-yo quilt. Next I did some stitcherys. One of them is The Pledge of Allegience and the other two are Texas related. The last one is called Ripping 101. I hope you can read it because it is really cute. I don't like the white thread I used I might have to redo those. I did one more than those shown but my picture didn't turn out so I'll have to retake it and show you later.

Tomorrow I will take a picture of what I've been working on since I got home. It's too cute! Tonight I made 4 bindings and 1 label. I've got a stack of quilts ready to be quilted all I need to do is call Ty. Maybe this weekend...

A little bit more.

While we were in NC I visited two quilt shops, Cotton Patch and All About Quilting. I found a few patterns, a little bottle of Roxanne's glue baste and some tatoos!

I had to have the jacket pattern. When I saw a model of it in the store it looked so good (and easy...it's made on a sweatshirt). Another patritic stitchery and a baseball saying for my son-in-law who loves baseball. Also a Cheri Saffiote pattern called The Widows Garden, very prim.

In the next picture there are two Santa patterns, an old dress pattern, a Jan Patek pumpkin pattern and a Country Threads pattern called Liberty Basket. One of the patterns has a Santa with buttons for his beard. Really cute!

He's home!!!

The day I'd been waiting for was here! We were told 1/9 would arrive around 4:00-4:30 so we were there waiting at about 3:45. Well, they didn't come in until about 7:30! I had struck up a conversation with another family that was waiting and the wife turned out to be a quilter! That really helped to pass the time! There were hundreds of people waiting for their Marine to come home. Lots of little babies waiting to see their fathers for the first time and plenty of young wives ready to hug their husbands.

First the big trucks came in with all the guys stuff and unloaded hundreds of packs and tons of gear. Then the Marines came marching in! The crowd was cheering and the music was playing real loud. The song was Welcome To The Jungle by Guns and Roses. The guys loved it. You can see me giving a big hug (one of many)to my Marine.

After he gathered up his things and took them to his barracks room we ran to Taco Bell and then to the room where we were staying to talk for half the night.

The last picture is of the guys outside of Outback where we all had dinner the following night. It was so nice to meet them and put faces to names. We had a great time laughing and listening to stories. Bobby even joined them for two shots of Tequila!

I have a few more photos to share with you but I'll save them for tomorrow.

From North Carolina

After 3 days on the road we arrived here at Camp Lejune late yesterday afternoon. We traveled from Ft. Worth to Memphis on the first day. We stayed at the Navy Lodge on Millington. It is just north of Memphis. We had a really nice room with two beds, a kitchen and bath. We went out to dinner at a quaint little restaurant called Oldtimers in old town Millington. We had the best food! I had chicken and dumplings and Bobby had chicken fried steak. We couldn't pass up the dessert. We took it back to the room and ate it there. We got a huge piece of carrot cake and another huge piece of double chocolate cake. Before the night was over both pieces were gone!

The next day we were on our way to Ashville. We had a pretty stressful day since it was raining buckets and Bobby was fighting for road space with big trucks. It rained all day except when we went through the Smokey Mountains. That was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen! The fall colors were so amazing. Every twist and turn of the road had another view of gorgeous colors! We finally made it to our hotel and got our room. We changed clothes real quick since Bobby was in shorts and I had spilled my orange drink all over the front of me. Then we went out to dinner at a restaurant called Stone Ridge Tavern. The food was great but we had too much of it. We were starving so we ordered an appetizer. The Stone Ridge nachos was what it was called. When they brought the plate it was huge and piled with everything nacho! Then our salads came and shortly there after came our dinners. We took the nachos and Bobby's spagetti back to the hotel and put it in the refridgerator with plans to put it in the cooler before we left the next morning. When we tried to put it in the cooler it was too big. I think that is the first time I've ever seen Bobby deserting spagetti! He almost cried! LOL


The next morning we took off for Gastonia. You know what is there don't you? Mary Jo's!!! I was told I had an hour and that was it. Can you imagine...one hour in one of the biggest fabric shops on the planet! I found four backings, some border fabric for my bullseye top and a 20 1/2" ruler for squaring up my applique blocks. The backings I got were perfect for quilts for Annie(cats), Bo (skeletons for his camaflauge quilt), Brian (baseball, of course)and Bobby(an Airforce print).

We drove all the backroads to Jacksonville. I have seen enough cotton fields, manufactured homes and farm equipment to last me awhile. It was beautiful country though. We got to the Camp and got settled into our room in the TLQ (temporary living quarters). We went to a buffet for supper which wasn't all that great but Bobby did find the spagetti and had a big plate. The second night we went to Ruby Tuesday.


Today Bobby went to the skeet range and had a good time. I basically just rested all day. We did go out in the afternoon to the Beruit Memorial. It is in the piney woods and is so peaceful and calm. The memorial is a curved wall with the names of the deceased and a bronze statue of a marine. Someone had put their dogtags around his neck. There were alot of flowers laying around since the ceremony for the 23rd year since the attack had just been days ago. On one of the paths we found a tribute to the WTC attack. One of the steel I beams was displayed. It was very moving.

Tomorrow is the big day! Bo will be back on American soil. He comes in about 4pm on a bus with the 1/9 Battalion. They have been in Iraq for 7 months. Right now he should be on a plane from Kuwait headed for Ireland where they will make a stop and then it is on to Maine and then to North Carolina. They have to take a bus from the airport which is several hours away. A lot of families will be there to welcome them home. I'm going to be the Momma with tears in her eyes and pride in her heart holding my arms open for the son returning from war.

Almost Home

On Thursday we leave for North Carolina! Our son is coming home from Iraq! We are going to meet him when he gets back to his base. We are driving from Texas so it will take a couple of days to get there. I've been checking out the quilt shops along the way. Of course we are going to stop at a few! I'd also like to go to Gastonia and see Mary Jo's!

Got cheese?

As Roseann Roseanna Danna used to say, "Nevermind...".

Yes? That's good because you are about to get a bit of "whine"! I'm totally frustrated with trying to post pictures on blogger. I've tried and tried. My first blog was on blogger and I moved it to My Quilt Blog simply because I couldn't master photo posting. It was easy on My Quilt Blog but I really wanted the exposure of Blogger so I came back. Ugh!!! Now I'm having second thoughts or maybe it's third thoughts. I have some great quilt pictures to show and lots of info to post! Ok, I'm done for now. I'll be back later...

My new toys.

Alright!!! I did it. THERE IS THE PICTURE!!!

Ok, there is no picture...yet. If there was a picture you would see my new Easy Cut Circle ruler by Sharen Hultgren that I found at Walmart! Also in the picture is a pair of Cutter Bee scissors found at Walmart too! There is a pile of Bullseye blocks made from 30's repros. That is what I have been having fun playing around with the past few days.

The ruler is so handy for drawing circles. The directions tell you what size square to cut for the size circle you need. Then simply fold the square in half (give it a little press)and place the ruler along the folded edge. Run the rotary cutter in the appropriate slot and you've created a perfect circle! Of course, my little rotary cutter has a dull blade since the last thing I cut with it was NOT fabric (think home repair) so I drew a line with a pencil and cut the circle out with my new scissors. Wow, they are sharp! I found them in the scrapbooking isle. They are so cute with thier black and yellow handles. The packaging notes how sharp they are in several places so I had to see for myself!

I've been wanting to try a Bullseye quilt for a long time. Actually on my list of quilts to do I have a few Bullseye quilts...thirties, patriotic, halloween, christmas to name a few. I was cleaning up my fabric drawers last weekend and happened to be folding a whole bunch of fat quarters to neaten up the 30's drawer and things just clicked! Before I knew it, I was cutting circles! Needless to say, the 30's drawer is looking bare.

Do any of you quilt bloggers out there have Bullseye quilts? I'd love to see them.

A few posts from a past blog.

Thank goodness for happy little wallhangings!

[ 05:13 PM ] [ Saturday, February 25, 2006 ]

I am having trouble posting my pictures with my entries. This is one of the quilts I sent to the longarm quilter.

[ 10:12 PM ] [ Tuesday, March 7, 2006 ] [ 0 Com