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!