Settling In and Gearing Up

We haven't had much in the way of snowfall since early December, though until recently there has been snow on the ground. A couple of warmish days and the grass was peeking through again, but no more. We didn't get as much as predicted, but probably got about 8 inches. I loved it. It's the first good snow that came down during the daylight hours in a long time. One of my favorite things is to sit with some handwork and watch the snow fall. All this snow got me even more in the mood for the winter Olympics. We've been practically counting the days since the new year began and they are finally here. I will be watching as much as possible during the 17 days of Olympic coverage, starting with the opening ceremonies tonight. Our Olympic tradition includes popcorn. We call them the running bowls of popcorn because they always have something in them. Yesterday, I made the caramel corn as it will keep without getting stale. The picture doesn't do it justice.
I also make plain, cinnamon sugar, and parmesan pepper and at least two flavors will be out each evening. I'm hoping my plan to quilt through them keeps me from eating TOO much because I'll need to keep my fingers clean!

The main project for during the Olympics is to finish quilting the shade. I'm getting close to only the outer blocks needing to be quilted, still a lot of work, but quite doable. Each square of strips is a four block unit (with the attached background pieces, which have a motif in them) and I can quilt a 4 block unit in an afternoon (or evening) if I'm mostly quilting. The binding for this one is made, so I should easily be able to do the machine sewing part during an Olympic break should I get that far.

Next Friday night, I'll be participating in the Friday Night Sew-In over at "Handmade by Heidi" . I have a committment Saturday morning, so can't stay up as late as I'd like, but I like those kinds of evenings for machine work. Part of my Over the Tops challenge is to learn to use my curved piecing foot and making a baby quilt top with Drunkard's Path blocks. I'll have the pieces cut before then and hope to finish the night with the top well under way. I would SO love to stay up until the wee hours that night, but can't this time. To join in the fun, click the link and sign up!

Also during the course of the next week or so I plan to mark the Oriental Roads quilt. I ordered some red thread for the quilting and plan to pick up the batting next week so this one will be ready to quilt as soon as the shade is done. I've realized that my challenge probably is more than I can really do, but I'm going to give it a good go!

Ruthie can still be found sleeping in the afternoon on occasion.

More often, the picture below is what we find. She's rarely upset or angry and when she is, it's pretty short lived. She usually looks a little disheveled, but is almost always sporting a smile.

Her speech continues to improve both in clarity and functionality. She's stringing words more often and can most definitely let you know what she wants! We're hoping she gets into the Olympics. I watched some tapes of the 2008 summer games this week, to get in the mood (and there was NOTHING else on TV that I wanted to see) and she would come running when she heard the theme.

I still have a few things to do before the "big night" tonight. We're meeting with friends tomorrow so I have a couple of cakes to make along with a few odds and ends to finish today so I can park myself tonight to quilt...and watch the world come together.

While the athletes are competing at sports, I hope to get an Olympic amount of quilting done in the next 16 days!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Over the Tops - First Finish!

The flying geese quilt is done! The first on my challenge list to be completed all the way to the binding. I'm so excited to see this long term project finished. I started this about 10 years ago with an internet friend. I don't know that she ever finished hers, but we spent hours and hours talking about them and planning them, trading fabrics and she designed and printed the foundation paper pattern we made them on. This is a close up picture of the some of the quilting. Here is a view of the whole thing. It's funny, this was one that I thought I would love, but along the way I thought "eh, it's ok" but I absolutely love how it came out and am so glad that it's finished and didn't remain a UFO forever.

My plan was to have something in the quilting stage all of the time, with so many big projects to quilt, I needed to keep the hand quilting train on the tracks. Since the cornice box cover top was done, I quickly basted it and put it in the hoop. This one quilted up so quickly, I couldn't believe it. Here is a closeup view.

Here is a picture of a little more of it, this is just over half, there are 7 full diamond shapes across this cornice cover. The bottom is bound with the same fabric as the background, but the other 3 sides are bound with a print. The reason for this is so that a colored bottom binding doesn't "draw a line" across the shade when the shade is down.

With that one quilting up so quickly, I was again left with nothing in the hoop. A 10% off coupon for the grocery store in addition to some careful planning meant I could buy a package of batting today. I already had the backing, so the shade is now on the table for basting. I'm nearly done and it should be ready quilt in less than an hour. I'll spend the rest of the evening hand quilting.

My plan for the next few days is to applique during the day and hand quilt at night. I'm really anxious to be done with the celtic and posies top and it's getting close now.

We're also counting down the days until the start of the winter Olympics. I should be able to get a huge amount of hand work done during that 16 days. My girls and I will be total couch potatoes as much of that time as possible. I'm not sure which project(s) will get a lot of attention during those days, but I'm gearing up for many happy hours of handwork.

Until next time,

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Unexpected Blessing

It's been a busy few days! I've made some progress on the flying geese quilt though I doubt it will really be done by the end of the weekend. I plan to spend this evening quilting on it, as well as a good part of the next several days.

A couple of my kids were gone for the weekend and met up with an email friend of mine, who said she had fabric for me if the kids would swing by her way. They did, and I received 2 shopping bags full of fabric that already have my mind a-whirling. Thanks, Kimberly! Among the pieces was 9 yards of 60" wide home fashions fabric.

My little couch has been in dire need of re-covering for a long time. It's been well used and just wouldn't come clean anymore. Some of the fabric was even tearing (in it's defense, it really wasn't made to be upholstery fabric!)

Part of me SO wanted to do it right away last night, but that meant moving a lot of stuff around, making a huge mess and needing to finish because we had friends coming in the morning to meet up with us for breakfast out. But that little couch kept calling to me. So at about 8:00, I decided to go for it and get it done.

I'm so glad I did! Really, I should probably pull some of it off, when I did the bottom part some things didn't really line up right and I just stapled the heck out of it, but, for now, it's done and looks ok. It will mostly be covered with a sheet or blanket, at least for a while, to keep it as nice as possible for as long as possible. The covers will come off when we have friends come over.

I finally finished around midnight and it took a while to clean up and wind down, but it was very worth it.

Our friends came today and we had a lovely visit. Tonight I'll be quilting and cleaning up the bit of kitchen mess still left to care for.

I got the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Christmas and I'm having a ball with it. I've actually made a few things from it already and have plans to try many more. A lot of them are a bit pricey for my budget, but I will collect the ingredients that are not perishable and those that I can freeze and will buy the perishables when I plan to cook.

I made a chocolate cake from the book that was fabulous. My friend, who LOVES chocolate, said she thinks it is the best chocolate dessert I've made for her, which is high praise because I've made a lot of them and many were really, really good.

Hopefully I'll be spending the rest of the winter doing a lot of quilting...and cooking!

Keep Warm!

Sue

Over the Tops - This is the Year

My biggest quilting year ever has begun. What I'm hoping is that this is the beginning of a few more years like it. I really want to get some old projects done and looking through my storage compartment I saw how many tops there are under there to quilt. The plan will be to quilt most of them simply but often once I get them out and start to really look at them the quilting plan gets bigger.

I'm excited to have made quite a bit of progress on the flying geese quilt. It's over half quilted now, and I have one more double row of geese like the one below, a sashing piece (not too wide, it's the size of the border shown at the left in the photo), a single row of geese and then the outer border. The binding is already made and ready to sew on to the quilt. I really hope to be binding by next weekend.
This morning I basted the cornice cover for the roman shade in my sewing room. It will go into the hoop as soon as the geese are done, and buys me a bit of time to get the batting for the shade. I had planned to quilt Oriental Roads next, but I'm on a roll with this shade so that one will get bumped. The plan is to get the batting and backing for that one as soon as possible so that I can have it marked and ready to quilt as soon as the shade is finished.

I finished the top for the shade last night and am really happy with how it came out. Rebekah and I played with it several weeks back to find the best way to place the blocks. I will be making another strip block quilt for the couch by the window, that one will have smaller blocks, but it probably won't get any attention until next year.

Ruthie continues to do very well. When she's tired she'll settle herself wherever she is and nod off. The older kids laugh at how little space she still takes up a lot of the time (though when she snuggles down with us at night for a bit before moving to her own bed, she sure can manage to take a lot of space in our queen sized bed!)

Below she is showing off her Christmas pajamas. She LOVES pajamas and I brought these out for her on Christmas Eve, she was thrilled.

I have big quilting plans for today, hoping to make a serious dent in what is left on the flying geese quilt. It's quiet here today, two of the older kids are out of town, the other two have plans starting about 4:00 and I've been keeping up around here so a quick run of the vacuum and putting away some dishes leaves the house in pretty good stead. That leaves this afternoon and evening wide open for quilting, I plan to take advantage of it!

Happy Quilting, keep warm!

Sue

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Has it really been nearly a month? It has flown by. I have been so busy that many days I didn't know if I was coming or going.

The stockings are hung. No mantle here, this has been their home every Christmas since our oldest was born in 1987. They are kind of a mishmash, now. A family friend made beautiful embroidered ones for our first four kids, but then stopped doing them after she retired and moved away. I made new ones out of fabric that fit each child's personality, but some of those have gone AWOL. A friend made stockings for all the kids one year and their gift from them was in it. This year a couple of each adorn our railing.
The decorations are on display. I love this little fiber optic tree. The penguin I bought a few years ago, it sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (I love that song) and there is an echo that is sung by a baby penguin that pops up. The snowmen were given to me by a friend last year. Ruthie loves these and one space or the other is often empty as she takes them down to play with them.

The cookies are all baked. 8 kinds this year (2-4 batches of each), plus homemade marshmallows for hot chocolate. I'm often scrambling at the end to finish them, but this year I started late Thursday morning and finished Saturday by dinner time. I still don't know how I got them done in that amount of time.

The tree has been bought and decorated. We get a real tree each year. Sometimes we cut them down, but lately it has been more economical, both in time and money, to get an already cut tree. The kids have all bought their gifts for one another (and for us) and have them wrapped and waiting under the tree.

Our gifts to them are still hidden in our closet. Though we don't have any Santa believers anymore, the gifts still won't go under the tree until they are all in bed Christmas Eve night.

I was in charge of the Christmas Eve program at church this year and it turned out to be quite a task. It is a 3 part play (which I wrote) with Christmas carols sung between acts by all in attendance (led by a team) while the scenery changes behind a curtain. All is in place for this and I'm surprisingly calm about it all.

Yesterday I made my lists of things that need to be done each day. Today I had a sheet of directions to type up for my curtain guys, who will be raising and lowing a curtain in front of the platform. My goal today was to do as little as possible having a family of 8 and I succeeded nicely, LOL. A load of laundry, my curtain guy directions, a couple of sink loads of dishes and some general picking up. Mostly, I quilted :)

The flying geese have come out of hiding and got all of my attention today. I want to also get back to the posies and celtic, but that will wait until Christmas is over and I can give it my full attention. Hand quilting is perfect relaxing work and that is what I did today. I'm looking forward to getting back to my quilting challenge.

And, Miss Ruth. We occasionally find her sitting or laying on the back of the couch, this time it was on the arm. She got off before I could get back with the camera, but happily climbed back on when I said I wanted to take her picture. Last year she was rather out of sorts on Christmas, perhaps just overwhelmed. I don't think she really gets it, but loves all the "pretty" around the house and she knows what to do with presents, I'm sure she'll have a wonderful time.

I don't know who is more excited for the day to come and for what reasons. The kids are more excited about what they picked out for each other, I think, than opening their own gifts. We are all looking forward to Christmas dinner, which we get to have twice, because our oldest daughter and her boyfriend will be with his family on Christmas. We'll do a repeat of Christmas dinner on Sunday and exchange our gifts with them.

I look forward to each of the next several days, and hate for it all to go too quickly, though I will surely enjoy next week, with NOTHING that needs to be done!

For now, I don't want to wish away all the fun and excitement of the next 6 days and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Prosperous, Blessed New Year!

Sue

Hunting Weekend Wrap Up 2009

Well, it wasn't the weekend I had planned earlier in the year, but it turned out to be a good one. Friday my husband emptied our small walk in closet, fixed all the shelves, we each went through our things and tossed a lot of junk and we again have a usable closet. He also put some shelving over his dresser to more easily store some things.

In cleaning it out, I found this. A nice bag of yarn, all rolled and ready to use. That gave me an idea. I had a couple of small gifts I needed to make and hadn't yet decided what to do. I pulled out some knitting needles and have been knitting like crazy.

The pictures don't really capture the color just right, it's a bit deeper pink and has a sparkly pink thread running through it. I decided scarves would be quick and easy. I'm making at least 3, maybe 4. One is done and will be given away this weekend. The next two have to be done by the 11th and then I have until Christmas to make the 4th. These knit up really quickly and are a nice diversion, though I really want to get them finished and get back to my quilting.

This next picture was taken in our backyard, but it shows so well Jonathan's dedication and ingenuity when he decides to do something. This is a big chunk of a tree trunk someone brought to us for our firepit, only we didn't have a great way to cut it up. He decided he wanted to use it as a firepit, chipped out an area in the middle it so wasn't flat on top and would contain the fire, drilled holes for air and so that it would burn into the trunk some and placed the wood around the bottom for extra safety as far as sparks.

Though he got it started easily, he had more trouble than usual keeping it going and restarted the fire several times. He spent a few hours out there and really enjoyed it. He and our oldest, Joshua, really like camping and spend a lot of time just sitting by the fire when they do.

And of course, Ruthie. She loves blankets of any kind and will often bring one to be wrapped up in. She is talking so much these days and comes out with things that really surprise us sometimes.

Here she is with her little Cubbie Bear. She loves this little couch and settles there for at least a little while a couple of times a day. Usually covered up with a quilt and often accompanied by a dolly or stuffed animal.

Our hunter's (Joshua and Jonathan) did well, each getting a deer. This group they went with party hunts (shares what they get) so they came home with 3 leg quarters and a backstrap (to cut into steaks) so they were pretty pleased. They hunt again in two weeks here in Illinois and my husband will be able to hunt then, also. They generally do well here and are counting on at least two, but hoping for 4 or 5.

They've processed what they brought home and it's in the freezer. It's a big help to the grocery budget when they fill the freezer each fall!

Today I baked 3 pumpkin pies, a pecan pie and a pan of bakery style apple slices. Tomorrow I'll be prepping from the time I get up, though once all the chopping and prepping is done, there should be some time to relax before I really have to start cooking and getting it all together.

We have a really busy 4 days coming up, with Thanksgiving tomorrow, friends coming on Friday (her dishwasher broke and flooded her house, there is major repair work going on at the moment and Friday is her birthday), Saturday some of the kids' friends are coming for my annual making of turkey soup and we have other friends coming on Sunday for dinner and football. Is it Monday, yet?? LOL.

I hope you all have a Happy, Healthy Thanksgiving!

Sue

Hunting Weekend....sort of. And a Challenge Update

My husband and two older sons are on their way to where they meet up with a few other guys for their 6 hour drive north.

Unfortunately, my husband isn't able to go with them and is dropping off our sons and coming home. He decided quite some time ago that going this year is probably not going to be possible (not enough money, nor enough people to cover his work while he's gone) and, though he's disappointed and I'm sure wishes he was going with them, he is excited about the list of projects he has in mind to do because, you see, though he is unable to make the trip, he took the usual days off his second job anyway. His last evening (he works second shift) was last night and he doesn't go back until the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Which means *I* don't get hunting weekend either. I think I'm taking it worse than he is, LOL.

Hunting weekend for me means as little cooking, dishes, and cleaning as possible, combined with as much sewing time as possible. It means stretching out in our big bed instead of being scrunched on one side (my husband is tall and restless when he sleeps) and it usually means staying up until all hours of the night sewing and watching movies.

This year, it means projects that my husband decided to do that he will inevitably need me to help out with, cooking regular meals, and not really getting a break. I told him that, while I'm really sorry for him that he can't go, I'm a little bit sorry for me, too. He told me I should sew as much as I want to :) So we'll see how the weekend goes. I'm glad to have him home more for the next week and a half, that's for sure, but launching into the holiday season without my little 5 day respite makes me sad.

BUT, I'm a cup half full kind of girl, the emotional adjustments have been made and I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time (except when he's frustrated when a project isn't going just as he planned *snort*) We're going out to breakfast tomorrow morning with Ruthie and Lucas so that should be a good start to our day.

Amvets is coming tomorrow so we cleaned out a bunch of closets and drawers. The big project of the weekend is redoing our closet. The organizer is falling apart (it's 25 years old) and he's basically pulling everything out, repairing or replacing what he needs to and then putting it all back together again. I actually went through a lot of my stuff already and hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll have a more functional closet (I've barely been using it for some time now.)

I did try to plan easy-ish meals which will buy me some quilting time and I don't sing this weekend which means no practice Saturday and not getting up extra early (I'm NOT a morning person) on Sunday.

As for quilting, Debbie's quilt is done. It's actually been done for a couple of weeks already and, though it wasn't really fun to work on, I do love how it came out. I'm thrilled to have all the big Christmas projects done before Thankgiving!

Here is a closeup of the quilting.

With Debbie's quilt done, the Flying Geese quilt is in the hoop. This one is really enjoyable to quilt on and I love how it's coming out. So far a single geese strip is quilted, as is a double and the connecting border strips. I'm on another double geese strip now. This one will go quite quickly, it seems.

Usually I plan a special project or two for hunting weekend, so decided to abandon quilting on the flying geese quilt for a few days and to focus on the posy and celtic quilt. I may spend a little time on other challenge quilts, too, but I don't multitask with my quilting as well as I used to and do better working on one thing for at least several days at a time.

After sewing some of the posies onto the border vine several weeks back, I decided to match up the rest to make sure I didn't end up stuck with too many of the same color at the end.

Here is the posy basket, holding all the matches, some of the leaves (there are still more to be cut), and the threads needed for sewing.

I've finished sewing on a posy set and now am on a set of leaves and hope to settle in after dinner for an evening of hand applique.

Here are Rachel and Ruthie, camped out watching a TV show. See the grin? She knows the camera is out, the little ham. She loves this little couch, and often settles on it later in the evening when she's getting tired. She also goes running to it whenever Say Yes to the Dress or So You Think You Can Dance are on the TV.

Ruthie turned 5 this past Monday. We had her family dinner on Sunday (though some of the family had previous plans, they gave her due attention on Monday) and we decided on ice cream instead of a birthday cake as she's not a big cake eater. At first she was hiding her face until we said we wanted a picture, then the smile came out.

All in all, life is good. Everyone is happy and healthy, we're headed into this holiday season much less stressed than the last couple of years and for that I'm very thankful!

And now it's time to run, my sewing is calling me and I need to take advantage of every minute I can find.

Happy Quilting!

Sue