Just Elf'ing Around

Lucy, Laura, Bonnie and I just love Christmas! Mostly we LOVE being Santa's little Elves. Go see us in our wonderful Elf Glee!

Oak Goblinshimmer

Well who knew! I'm Oak Goblinshimmer!!!!

Your fairy is called Oak Goblinshimmer

She is a bringer of riches and wealth.

She lives in forests of oak and lime trees.

She is only seen when the first flowers begin to blossom.

She decorates herself with leaves and berries. She has gentle green wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here!

Follow the Drinking Gourd...

A friend of mine in my Monday night sewing group starting making the pattern "Follow the Drinking Gourd" by Barbara Brackman a few weeks ago. She emailed me to see if I had any dark blues and butternut colored reproduction like fabrics she could have to give her quilt more variety. It made me realize how many browns I have and how few dark blues! But I fell in LOVE with the picture of her quilt in progress and picked up a few blues to share and she in return shared some of her blues so I could make my own version! The pattern is 15" blocks, but she sized them down to 12". She also figured out the sizes for an 8" version. Well I decided I was going to do the 8" version. So above are my 6 blocks so far. Not too bad considering I really didn't sew to much this week with the girls home.

We had a great Thanksgiving and had a lot of fun. Of course we did some shopping, mostly for stuff for them! And we went out to eat and to a movie "Dan in Real Life" with Mark's sisters. That was a great time. Now I"m sitting home just kind of sad and lonely. I always have this big let-down when they are gone. I miss them already.

I found out that Gypsy Quilter gave me the Community Blogger Award! Now how nice is that! Picture from The Sadie Peterson Delaney African Roots Library.

"The Community Blog Award celebrates people who reach out and makes the blogger community a better one."

In turn, I get to pass this on to 3 folks - this is always the really tough part for me. There are so very many blogs I could choose! So don't feel bad if I didn't choose you this time, because there is no way I could list everyone!

Lucy at Quilting with the Past - Lucy is so very talented and sweet. And this week I received a special envelope with some vintage dutch mourning fabric for a secret project I'm working on right now. It is so perfect and I would be so lost without her friendship and support.

Laura from Pine Ridge Quilter - Laura is another of those friends you can't do without. I"m lucky enough to know Laura in person and she is always there for me when I need a shoulder to cry on and a sounding board for my quilting. My trips to go visit her are my highlights throughout the year.

Nancy at Tom Miner Folk Art - I"ve been online with Nancy since it seems the beginning of time. Nancy does wonderful folk art quilting and live in the middle of nowhere Montana. Oh I envy her house and area! She always has some great story about her husband Jim and his follies! It keeps me laughing!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

As you've noticed I've been a bit quiet lately - doing lots of "secret projects" for Christmas, and the kids started arriving home last night! So it will be at least a week before I'm back with anything to show.

So - until then - Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Star Garden

I enjoyed Sarah's Quilt so much that I had to get the next book - "The Star Garden" by Nancy E. Turner. I"m only about 20 pages in and already I love it!

And since what I"m working on lately I can't share because it is a surprise Christmas present - I thought this was the perfect time to do the meme on Jeanne's blog.

Open up the book you’re currently reading to page 161 and read the sixth sentence on the page, then think of 5 bloggers to tag.

I"m just going to let you volunteer to do this. I"m totally bummed at my result though:

"Why, she didn't know who he was."

Now how is that going to draw you in!

YES!!!!

I finished quilting all 4 of the Nativity quilts this weekend! Put on the bindings and sleeves this morning! All I need to do is sew them down by hand now in front of the TV! Cross one more "have to do" off my list!

2009 NLCQG Raffle Quilt!

We had voting Wed night at my quilt guild for the quilt we are going to make for our 2009 Quilt Show Raffle. A member who is as big a Bonnie fan as me had asked Bonnie if we could vote/use her Cathedral Stars pattern. Bonnie in her wonderful giving fashion said yes.

Well the votes are in - our raffle quilt for the 2009 show is her Cathedral Stars! A few of us made up demo blocks for the voting to help members see what it would look like. Aren't they great, even with us just doing them with not a lot of planning!

Another Christmas gift almost ready!

Above is another Christmas gift almost ready! All I need to do is sew down the binding on the back! This was the mystery quilt Laura organized at camp this fall. I have until Christmas to get that done so it shouldn't be a problem.

I"m currently reading "Sarah's Quilt" by Nancy E. Turner. It took me a bit to get "into character" but once I was - I was hooked! I'm really enjoying it! Of course I have no idea what Sarah's Quilt has to do with the story YET! And I see there is a follow-up book out this month to it, I can't wait to get it! That one is called "The Star Garden". (Hmm, looks like there was a book that comes before Sarah's Quilt too).

Anyway, as I was reading I came across a passage that I really loved. (By the way - is that not just the cutest picture above!)

Pulling down a quilt is like opening a package. All you see is the white

underneath, and then as soon as you get it down, there are all the colors.

Just think of all the images, designs and feelings those words bring to you! And all the thoughts of quilts made by hand in small houses by lamp light. Making quilts for warmth and comfort. Quilting out of scaps for necessity, and quilting bees as social gatherings. Can you imagine HAVING to make a quilt and finding time to do it in order to stay warm. Its probably why I love antique utilitarian quilts so much!

What more is there to say!

Busy, busy, busy

Yup, I"m around - just busy, busy, busy! DO NOT mention the words Server, Crash, Backups, Reload, Security to me right now! Yeah, I"ve been busy - but not with quilting. It has been all work, all the time!

But my friend did help me out and quilted my 3 braid table runners I made for me! I was just going to stipple them, but the way things are going, I decided to let her play with her new statler stitcher and do them for me! I"m glad I had her do them! I"m that much closer to being done with them for xmas presents!!!

I got the binding on, just have to hand sew them down now!

More later this week.

Happy Halloween!

Of scraps and crumbs.....

So - you all want to know what I did with my scraps from the table runners? I made this awesome 8-pointed star! Doesn't it look great! Now I didn't take the time to do Bonnie's lovely string 8-pointed star with no seams. Like I said I wasn't feeling well, so I just plain did not want to think or mess with that. But I still like the result. It is 16" square so I"m going to make it a table topper for my friend for xmas.

But then I had these crumbs from the star. Oh no - the process starts again!



So I made this sawtooth star out of those! This one finishes at about 8" square, so I may just put this block in my block bag for now. And NO - I did not have any teeny tiny crumbs left from this one!

BUT - I did get my AWESOME Hawaiian tool caddy from Sharon! All because I named her purse ricki-ricki-timbo-aw-so-rimbo-oo-ma-goochi-gamma-gamma-goochi. And where did I get that name you might say. I have no idea why this popped in my head, but when I saw the hawaiian stuff I thought of a childhood record we had (and I think it was a Disney record actually) that had this story of Nikki Nikki Timbo Aw So Rembo Oo Ma Goochi Gamma Gamma Goochi on it. So that was the name I gave it! Well then I got thinking about this record and did some searching on the web for it. And I found a free mp3 download of it - the version we had on the record as children!

Click here to get the mp3 download.

Now this story IS NOT politically correct at all these days - so no nasty comments about that. Remember this story was back in the 60's - I have no idea when the record came out. Can you believe this was on a disney record! So as a thank you I sent Sharon the story. But you can listen too. Just take it for what it is, a funny chinese story. Or you can see what Wikipedia has to say about the old folktale here. And just a written version of the story if you can't download the mp3 is on this site - but it is much better with the music on the mp3 version.

2 more table runners done!

I was a bit under the weather this weekend so didn't get any quilting on the nativity wall hangings done, but I did manage to get the 2 other tabler runners sewn! I love how they all turned out!

Well then I decided that I had to do something with my scraps from trimming the braids. Geez, Tonya and Bonnie have gotten to me! YIKES! So first I sewed the scraps into "new fabric" pieces.

I"ll show you what I did with those tomorrow!

Really cute table mat!

Look at the really cute table mat I made this last weekend at Sossy's house! I got the idea from Tazzie, who used Bonnie's braid instructions. I took those and tweaked them and got this cute table runner! I have 2 more to make for xmas gifts. I really like how it turned out!

And look what I got in the mail! 3 of my favorite patterns from Marcie! Now to find time to make them! Oh I need more hours in the day!

I was lax in telling you about Laura's

Yes, I was lax in telling you about my wonderful visit to Laura's house before I went to Sossy's. I must make that up right now! Any of you who read Laura's blog have heard numerous stories from her about her cooking delights! Yes, she is a gourmet chef! Who could forget the hamburger episode this summer. Or how much her family loves Jeno's Pizza Rolls.

Well Laura calls me on my way down to her house. "Don't eat lunch, I'm cooking you something. That should give you something to think about on your drive down". Hmmm - Now Laura hasn't been shy about sharing her cooking stories. I've heard how she is wonderful at snack type foods, but meals - not so much. So Laura is cooking me lunch - and she is sharing that tidbit of knowledge with me. It's got me thinking all right. As I near her house I look for smoke, and hope the farmhouse is still standing. I debate - should I really stop at McD's before I go there?! I turn onto her road - no smoke, no flames. Well, maybe I'm so late she trashed the meal and got it cleaned up. Or she chickened out on me!

But NO! She cooked me this delicious pasta dish in her pressure cooker! It was wonderful! And she said it cooks in like 15 mins or something like that. I've never had a pressure cooker so had no idea! She thought it was a bit mushy - but I loved it! I even liked the garlic bread she made, that she wasn't so fond of and fed the dog!

Anyway, I"m so sorry Laura. I should have remembered to tell everyone of your cooking success! And here I am living to tell about it!

As for the quilt above to tie in quilts. I got all 4 of my Nativity quilt tops done on our weekend! Now to get them quilted!

We had a great time!

It was a wonderful weekend! We had so much fun! Above is Sossy, Heather and Laura working away... it was pretty late by the time I snapped this, so it is blurry. (Oh and I had the stupid setting set on my camera that makes it really hard to get a clear picture). And below is Lanna working on a really cute punchneedle project she drew!

Below is a sneak peek at what I worked on. Here is the manger for my nativity...

And I made another pincushion! (OK, I haven't sewn the wool shut yet. But I did get the sand in and the liner sewn shut)!

Last but not least look at this adorable wool felt green pumpkin Laura made for us! It was filled with candy! She made a ton of green, orange and gold ones. She posted about them not too long ago on her blog. They were so adorable! I spent a lot of time just visiting and having a great time. I did finish a few things and I'll share those later this week. Just wanted to pop in and say hi! (Ahhhh, yes I need to dust - so ignore that!)

Remember Slumber Parties!

Remember the days of giggling all night long, pizza, pop, singing and dancing all night long? Well Laura, Sossy and I are having a slumber party this weekend with our friend Lanna and maybe her sister-in-law. I can't wait. I leave in the morning! I have some projects packed and am bringing the pizza! (Those girls in central Indiana are so deprived in the pizza area - I had to bring some real Chicago pizza down for them!) And I know there will be lots of giggling and pop, but we also have graduated to wine! Dancing - I doubt it! But there will be lots of sewing!

I"ve picked up my strippy coin quilt again to finish quilting it. It got too hot over the summer to hand quilt it. The center is done and I"ve got all the one direction of the diamonds done in the outer border. I"m working on the lines in the other direction now. I"m debating whether I should do a single line inbetween the double lines to make smaller diamonds? What do you think?

Pincushion Crazy

I was so inspired by Marcie's (Patchalot More) wool pincushions I finally hauled out my kit I bought this summer from my FAVORITE quilt shop JJ Stitches and made one of them! It's cute but looks kind of plain compared to Marcie's wonderful turkey and chicken. I LOVE her chicken so much! There are 3 others in the kit so now that I have them started I think I"ll keep working on them one by one!

Oh and one other thing - don't look at my stitches too closely. They are not by any means as perfect as Marcie's. How does she do it?

Away in the Manger

Didn't get too much done this weekend. Jenna is home from college for the first time and of course "NEEDED to go SHOPPING". So we shopped the weekend away. She got some really cute dress clothes for their dress days and some warmer things now that weather is finally getting cooler.

Anyway, Joseph and Mary did get completed! Next step will be the baby!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

REVISED 10-15-07

in my sewing room anyway! Above the roof of the stable and the top of the star. Below Mary and Joseph take shape.

Mary and Josephs hands and the bottom of the star.

Since these are paper pieced and I'm not the best at this technique I have lots of scraps. All but the smallest are going into liberated log cabin blocks - they are looking good! Not sure what I"ll do with them yet, if I'll combine them with other fabrics or just make a mini quilt with just scraps from the nativity scenes. As you can see, not much waste left! And I have no idea how I'll set them or what size/layout they will be.

If you want to see my other Liberated Log Cabin quilt I made from my class with Gwen Marston you can see it here, and here, and here. Ok - and here and here.