Frosty scraps

I had a whole snowflake block and lots of scraps left over from my various border plans on the quilt. (See yesterday's post.) So this afternoon I spent about an hour in my sewing room putting them together in this 24 x 24 inch square.

What do you all think? Should I make it into a big pillow to go with the quilt? Or should I just quilt it and turn it into a table topper?

Snowflakes on the borders

After several changes in design, I finally added borders to my frosty blue quilt top. It only took me a month to finish this.

On the cover of the January/February edition of Quiltmaker I saw a half snowflake applique design. It was just what I've been looking for - especially since I didn't know WHAT I was looking for.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning I hid out in my sewing room working on the appliques and the pieced corner blocks. I ended up putting the snowflakes on just the opposite edges of the top right and bottom left. The pieced blocks went in each corner. I love it.

Now I need to find something for the backing and get it quilted.

Snowed in for Christmas

It has been a quiet, relaxing Christmas Day. We're snowed in and probably will be until sometime tomorrow. Neither of us really minded however. No point in pulling out the snow blower and shovels until the wind goes down tomorrow. I spent a good share of the day in my sewing room working on a couple of WIP. Dave spent most of the day on the couch, reading a book and watching movies. It was definitely an "R & R" day.

Talked to both girls on the phone. Jerilyn is snowed in at her future in-laws and feeling under the weather. Laura and Jamie both had to work. In fact Jamie was not allowed to go home from work last night, in case they had staff not able to get there (residential facility for youth) today. Laura got called in early because they were short handed at the nursing home/assisted living facility she works at part time. Took her quite awhile to dig her way out of the driveway.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from our house to yours! It will be a very quiet Christmas this year - just my husband, myself, and my mother-in-law. We are in the midst of a winter storm with 20" of snow possible over the next couple of days. Luckily we hadn't planned to go anywhere.

Merry Christmas!

A quick wedding post

Just a quick glimpse of Laura's wedding. Here are the girls in the wedding party all together. When I get some other photos, I'll share them too.

A Mental Health Day

The wedding is over and it was lovely! I'll post a couple of pictures in a day or two.

Today I took a "mental health day" for myself and went to Sioux Falls with 3 girlfriends to shop and have lunch. Didn't do too much shopping - bought myself a sweater on sale. Ate lunch at a wonderful Italian place called Spezia. Had coffee at Barnes and Noble late afternoon. Stopped in some fun stores as well as Target and the mall.

It was a lovely, relaxing day - except for the drive home on ice. But Pam did a wonderful job of keeping us on the road safe and sound. It's snowing now and the prediction is snow every day this week, so I'm glad that I have nowhere I have to travel to - or from. If I'm snowed in I can sew and read. HMMMM - what a lovely thought! :-)

Engagement pictures

Both of my girls are getting married. The younger one is getting married this coming weekend! The other daughter is getting married in April. Isn't that exciting?

Congratulations to Laura & Jamie!

I'm taking tomorrow off work and meeting Laura in Sioux Falls to do some wedding "stuff". Should be fun. I'm assuming she has a list already made of things we still need to do.

A good read with a bonus

I "gifted" myself with a new book this week. Being a history nut - and especially early 20th century - this book just spoke to me. It is a collection of letters from farm wives in response to an essay contest about whether they wanted their daughters to become farmer's wives. The bonus is . . . patterns for 111 quilt blocks inspired by the lives these women led!

There is a CD in the back of this little gem with the patterns for every one of the blocks. These are all small blocks kind of in the Dear Jane style. It's a treasure!

Snuggled In

BRRRRR! It's cold outside - but warm inside!

My husband snapped this while Sammy and I were snuggled in last night in front of the fireplace. Guess I could have smiled - especially since I was so comfy and cozy! The Christmas quilt was a Saturday Sampler project from a couple of years ago. I love the colors in it - reds, golds, and greens.

I finally got around to pulling out my Christmas pillow, wallhangings and table runners tonight. I have 3 wallhangings, only 2 of which I made myself. And I have a couple of table runners.

The santa & reindeer wallhanging is something I made about 15 years ago. It is hand appliqued and hand quilted - all done while I was recuperating from some surgery. I needed something to do and decided to try applique. I found out that I love to do this type of handwork. It's very relaxing. I have it hanging above the piano from my quilt shelf/rack.

I'll post some other pictures another day.

Cold weather quilting

Curled up under a quilt doing handwork - with the fireplace warming the room, the cat snuggled close, husband across the room with the remote control in his hand, and Christmas tree lights twinkling. Now that is relaxing on a cold winter evening!

Fall Mini Quilt Swap

A soft little package arrived in the mail from Stacey in Raleigh, NC the other day. It was my fall-themed mini quilt for the swap hosted by http://quiltinggallery.com/quilting-bloggers/ . These swaps are such fun. Stacey had emailed me earlier in the week to let me know that my swap quilt was in the mail, so I had a couple of days to anticipate its arrival.

It is so pretty. Each pumpkin has a lovely quilted motif in the center. Thank you Stacey! I can't seem to get the photo rotated correctly, so the pumpkins are tipped on their sides. Sorry.

Fall is my favorite time of year, and the fabrics for fall are so wonderful. Rich colors! I know I'm going to really enjoy displaying this little quilt in the center of a table during the autumn season.

Not very productive

I need someone to kick me in the rear and get me motivated to do something right now. I go to work, come home, veg out in front of the TV - and then repeat the next day. No sewing getting done since I caught a cold before Thanksgiving.

Here is one project that needs finishing. This is my fall swap mini quilt. The block is one I saw in a magazine. I love these colors. It just needs some quilting done on it so that I can bind it and mail it off to my partner. Hope she's patient.

I did get my Christmas tree decorated and hung the stockings by the fireplace in the living room. And we got some snow last night and today - to go with the cold weather that finally settled in. So - the holiday season is upon us whether I'm ready or not.