Surprise package delivery! :0)

This beautiful "Log Cabin" ornament was in a surprise package delivery! I wasn't expecting any packages to arrive and yet there was one on my doorstep. As soon as I saw who it was from I had a great big grin from ear to ear. It was for me! And it was from someone I recognized right away as a special blog buddy! I think this ornament is wonderful! I've never seen ornaments shaped in a quilting block design before. I just love it!! As you can see it was the first ornament I put onto the tree this year! :0)

Here is the box I found on my doorstep. There were lots of other goodies inside besides the beautiful ornament.
These were also inside the box. A snowman statue, a wooden plate, a sign which reads "Love. Where there is love there is life" a special very delicate Christmas card as well as a candy cane!
Look where I put them! I think they look so perfect all together here on a shelf in my "Keeping Room"! I love everything! Thank-you Sue!! I was very surprised and I'm very thankful you are my friend.

Merry Christmas, to all my special friends!!

Karen

One Thing Leads To Another

These scrappy triangles were something that I picked up that someone else was discarding. They have been on my design wall since summer. I finally decided it was time to do something with them or put them away. Since I already had them up on the board, I went ahead and did something with them. Besides, I needed the room on my design board for the Barbara Brackman Civil war block of the week that I have been trying to catch up on.
This is what I have been doing with the triangles. I got the idea from a book by Tara Lynn Darr.
The book is called Simply Charming...Small Scrap Quilts of Yesteryear.
Naughty blogger, that's 2 pictures in a row that are turned. Sorry. The pattern in the book is called Stars Over The Mountain.
Here is my version. As you can see I have done something different with the borders, and I'm not finished yet. I have something else in mind. This little quick project that was supposed to free up my design wall is growing on me! :0) In more ways then one! :o) The leftover fabric from the triangle project is going into a scrappy leader ender box that I started in order to start moving some of my scraps into wonderful cozy warm cuddle quilts. Since I forgot to take a picture of the blocks I've started I will have to show you next time.
Here are the Civil War blocks that I have been hand piecing. I think I have about 14 or 15 more to go in order to catch up to the current week.
This my friends is what I am working on when the little girl I am watching is napping. I finally started hand quilting "Michael's Victory"!!!! I just love how this one is turning out! This might be my next all time favorite quilt. I want to hurry up and finish it. But hand quilting a project almost always takes me about a year to finish for some reason.

Something Different

Hi everyone! I just finished putting the last stitch in the binding of this table runner. It is a more primitive type project then I normally do. So, "Something Different!" This is a pattern by Primitive Pieces by Lynda called Primitive Sketches. I hand quilted this one. I wanted to try out some new thread I bought called Aurifil. I love it! It works beautifully in the machine as well as by hand! Finally an everything thread! :0)
Well, on the home front, I have recently gone back to work. I started in May actually. I was asked by a nice local family to be a "Nanny" to there daughter. She is 8 months old now. The Mom wanted to go back to work, but did not want her daughter in a daycare. I am enjoying it but I also really miss sewing and sharing with my blogging friends. It has been some what of an adjustment for me. I've been a stay-at-home Mom for 21 years. I am still trying to balance my time to get housework, shopping and some sewing in. I feel that I am finally starting to get better at this juggle act! I hope to be able to fit in visits to my blogging friends to! :0)

Long Over Due Update

Hi Everyone! I have been (trying to) working on my daughter's "College" quilt. As you see I have a helper, named Emma, today and haven't gotten very far. My daughter wanted me to do some sort of butterfly motif quilting. I don't know if you can see it in this photo yet or not. When I finish quilting it I'll show you.
I've also been working on the "Civil War" blocks being put out once a week by Barbara Brackman. I have caught up on all of them except the last one which is about half done. I think I might have mentioned before, that I am hand piecing these blocks just as our ancestors would have done. I'm not using Civil War specific fabrics, but I am trying to use only reproduction fabrics for these blocks. :0)
Next up are a couple of quilts made by some of the women in my quilt "Bee" . We had a meeting this past Wednesday. The one above is done all in batiks. The one below was a mystery quilt one of our members participated in while she was in California visiting family and friends. ( It looks like yummy chocolates and blueberries to me! ;0)

You might have heard that our state of North Carolina has been bombarded with unusually strong and mighty tornados. The one came within about 5 miles of us. We had extremely heavy rain, and very strong winds as well as dime and nickel sized hail, but were untouched by the storms. I have been finding bits of house insulation in our yard from the surrounding homes that had been damaged. Every time I pick the stuff up I am saddened by the devastation it has caused for so many in our area. You may have heard about "Serendipity Drive"on the News as being hit pretty hard. My daughter has a teacher whose home was on that street. Her house was demolished. She has a son and a daughter between the ages of 8 and 10 years, I believe. My daughter wanted very badly to do something for her.
We ransacked my closet of quilts and came up with this one. It was something I had designed and made quite a while ago, but it seemed the most appropriate to give to this particular family. It made my daughter happy to be able to do "something " for her.
This is a set of basket bins that I store my scrappier fabrics in. My Kitty has claimed it as hers. If she isn't helping me quilt she's taking a nap in one of the baskets. Her nest! I think maybe Emma is trying to tell me something! "You have enough purple and pink scraps now to make a special quilt just for me!" Or maybe she is just a happy cat in a basket full of scraps!! LOL!! :0)

Prom, Table Runner and Find the Kitty?

Saturday was my daughter's Senior Prom night! Eight girls and one lucky guy! LOL! At least that's what we told him. It seems to me there are a lot of shy Senior male students in High School. They missed taking these beautiful young ladies to the Prom!! That's O.K. This group of girls including my daughter took matters into there own hands. They decided they didn't want to miss out on not being able to go to Prom and went as a group!! All I can say is good for them! They had a grand time according to my daughter! :0) (My daughter has the biggest smile and is on the far left.)
I did get some sewing done. This is the "Table Runner" that I made from the fabric that was in a brown bag. My "Bee" had each member put some fabric in a bag. We then brought the bags into the next meeting, shuffled them up and took one bag home that was not ours. We were then to make a table runner from the fabric in the bag. Sometime in the month of May we will bring in the Table runners that we made. We will then probably guess whose fabric we had, and hand over the newly made runner to them. I already think I know whose fabric this was. :0)
(I'm not sure if she reads my blog or not)

Here is a close-up of each block I made. (Well poo. The picture turned!) If you tilt your head to the right you will hopefully see a four inch center block which is a sewing machine. The main theme fabric in the paper bag I picked had sewing "Do-dads" and words related to sewing on it!
So I implemented sewing things into the blocks. This one is a spool of thread. The large over all block is called "Odd Fellows Chain".
And if you once again tilt your head, you will see a blue heart, spool of thread and red pincushion. We had to use only the fabric which was in the bag as well as a small amount of our own fabric to make the table runners. Fun Fun! But I'm glad I'm done!! LOL!

A big Thank-you to all who left ideas of what sort of "Table runner" I could possibly make with the fabric in the bag!! They were all fantastic. Thank-you!!
Can you find the Kitty?

This is the top of a corner fireplace mantel in our keeping room. Hmmm! There is a new ornament which placed itself in the side basket!!! I actually think our Emma kitty looks like she belongs up there!! LOL (Naughty girl) I'll bet it was a nice, warm, toasty spot above the fireplace.

Happy Quilting!! :0)

Picture Day!!

Yesterday was VERY breezy!! LOL Makes for a challenging picture day!! :0)

I have finished my daughters College quilt top and wanted to post it here for you to see. But, as you might have noticed, my helper was having some issues holding it without the wind pushing it around her feet. She is so happy with it! She has already posted a picture of it on Facebook!
Hahaha! I love this picture! My daughter was amused that her Dad was trying to stay out of the picture! But you know I just had to get him in the photo for you to see how funny he is sometimes! My sweet husband must have seen us struggling with the wind! He actually came out on his own to help hold the quilt still. LOLOLOLOL!
After many pictures were taken struggling with the wind I thought it might be best to take one more with the quilt laying on the floor.

I've already got a back picked out and just need to go get some purple thread! Because that is what daughter would prefer.

I have one more thing to tell you. You might have noticed that the star blocks and triangle border make this quilt look a little more formal. Then comes the last couple of borders. Well, I found this particular pattern to be very wasteful with cutting the pieces out. The quilt ended up being smaller then my daughter wanted it to be. After which my daughter started playing around with all of the extra pieces. The two of us put our heads together and came up with the final borders. Not quite as formal as the first one, but we were both happy with it! And that's what really counts. As well as the fact that we used up a lot of the wasted fabric which made me feel better. :0)

Pondering

Our quilt bee is currently doing a new project. Not everyone participated, but I happened to do so. Those of us who are doing the project had to place some fabric in a bag and bring it in on Wednesday. The fabric was to be enough to make a small table topper or runner. The bags were all mixed up and then each person was to take one bag which was not theirs. The fabric you see above is what I found in the bag I picked out. Thus I am currently pondering about what to do with it!! Anyone got any ideas??? My thinking cap is on and I do have some things spinning around but nothing concrete as of yet. So if any one has a suggestion as to what to do with the fabric I have, please let me know! I can add only a small amount of my own fabric, but must use what was in the bag. Is your thinking cap on!! LOL Pondering!!!
This is as far as I have gotten with daughter #2's quilt. I have laid out the next border, but don't have it sewn together yet. I'm getting there slowly.
I did however get 3 more of the Civil War blocks done!!! I decided to throw some pink into the mix. #6 Richmond, #7 Log Cabin and #8 Cotton Boll are now finished!!! My goal for this week is to get totally caught up before Saturdays block comes out. Always and ever hopeful. :0)

Where does the time go!!!

It's already March! As if you all didn't already know this!! LOL

This past week has been full of doing things to get my youngest daughter ready for college as well as my quilt meeting and other necessary things to do... You know, haircut, groceries...etc... The necessary stuff! I don't know about you but, I tend to put off the necessary stuff until it can't wait any longer. Then there is a heap of it to do all at once.

Today my oldest daughter will be coming home for a week of Spring break from college. Needless to say not much sewing got done. Nor will it probably get done this coming week.

I am way behind in the Barbara Brackman Civil War blocks but I am working on them. #5 is shown above.
Here they all are together so far. Looks like I'm doing browns, reds, and blues with a touch of cheddar. So far I've just been pulling fabrics that say "use me" for this block! I will have to start paying more attention now. :0)
Some show and tell from my Wednesday bee meeting.
"Orphan blocks" quilt and rows.
Ooops! Sorry the picture turned. This is a sweet embroidery block.
Double Hour Glass! Very pretty!
Beggars Block. Pieced by hand.
"T" blocks. Pieced by hand.
Ships...Come Sail away.
A Recipe exchange quilt! The maker calls this one "Cooking With the Stars"!! How fun!

I miss not visiting my friends in blogland! I will visit when I can. Until then...

Happy Quilting!! :0)

Fire in our neighborhood

One of the benefits of living on a golf course is seeing some awesome sunrises. I took this picture on Friday morning. We had some fog rolling around as the sun was coming up. The picture doesn't really do it justice. As I watched, it became more awesome by the minute as it rose in all its glory!

Yesterday, we had a grass fire in our neighborhood on the golf course. Thankfully it was not near enough to us to cause us to leave our home. We live on "Hole #5". The fire was near hole #14. We are in a drought here in NC. Normally this is our rainy season. The fire was started by someone carelessly tossing a cigarette out. The grass here is very dry right now and it was windy yesterday. It didn't take much to start the fire. I don't have any pictures of the actual fire, as you can well imagine, it was blocked off so the fire crew could put it out. They actually asked some people to leave there homes. 3 houses had siding damage. All totaled there were between 25 and 35 acres burned before they were able to get it under control! That's quite a bit!

Well, on a much happier note, I have started my college bound daughter's quilt! Here are 12 of the blocks so far. I have 7 more to go. ( I finished one more while I was uploading all these pictures!) There are 20 blocks total I need to do. My goal is to get all the rest of the blocks done today so my daughter can place them where she likes before I sew them together. Gotta get her involved in her quilt somehow! :0)
I have not gotten to go to IKEA yet. :( My books are still on the floor in boxes. One of these days I will get there so I can finally have a place to store my books! I think I told you that it takes 2 hours to get there from here. By the time you drive there, do your shopping and drive back. Its a full day.
The next pictures are from my quilt bee's show and tell. I hosted the meeting this past Wednesday. Above you see some cute little triangle bags or pouches. Perfect size for lots of things!
Here is a bright table topper.
A table runner.
A Cheerful little quilt!
This is kinda fun! I've never seen this pattern before. It is a four patch turned into a gingerbread man! It's appliqued onto the background or blanket stitched.
This is a raffle quilt.
There are three of us in the group doing the Civil War quilt along from Barbara Brackman's blog.
I'll try to remember to show you mine next time I post.
This is another fun quilt! Something that is dear to my heart. Recycling! This quilt is made all from Men's 100% cotton shirts purchased from "GoodWill"! The maker added a couple of fun bright scraps which adds just the perfect punch. Wonderful! I think she said she spent only $6.oo for all the shirts she bought. I'm not sure how many she got. ( It might have been 6 shirts at a $1.00 a piece?)
Oh darn! I thought I had a picture of the back also. Sorry. Let me tell you this though. The blocks on the front were the sleeves of the shirts. The back was made totally from the larger pieces of the back of the shirts!! What a bargain!!!
Last but not least, is a baby quilt made from all left over scraps from other quilts. Who would have thought that you could put pink and orange together??? Not me... But I really love it!! :0)