And to all a good night!

Last years Rock Band was still the hit this year. It's so much fun to see the kids of all ages play together.

The littlest elf is now 5 weeks old.


Singing his first Christmas carol.


The vinyl children enjoyed the day too.
Tasha - a sweet little girl.


And a couple pics from last year:

Deidre - named after a kindergarten friend.


Kids peeking.


Now off to bed. I'm pooped and I'll need energy to hit the fabric sale.

Hasta manana.

Happy Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve. How are you feeling? A little relief along with anticipation? I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing Christmas and lot's of fun and merriment too.

My daughter will get her quilt tomorrow. It will have two sides with the binding stitched down and I'll finish the other two tomorrow. Just in case I can get it done before she wakes up it will be put in a gift bag. I can't wait to see her face.

Here's a pic of the front, a close up, and the back. I had the quilter do a popcorn pattern in turquoise thread and it came out so nice even on the dark border. Even the back is fun. When I went to make the binding I couldn't find the fabric that matched the border and had to run to the quilt shop. Well, when I got it back from the quilter I found the extra fabric I had bought for the binding - it was on the back. Geesh. Insanity.



I'm so proud to have used almost all scraps for the front and back except the border/binding fabric.

Now I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging, the fabric sales at the quilt shops on Friday, new projects, a new year, and a fresh start.

Contemplation

This post is from the 19th but I forgot to post it. Not a surprise. I'm sticking it in here anyway along with an update.

Well this has been an interesting couple of days. My internet was out, the camera I used to take pics that I was going to post a couple days ago is acting up and they have to be retaken, I went to the quilt store to buy binding but forgot a piece of the border fabric, went to the grocery store and forgot to buy lunch stuff for dh and had to make a second trip back, etc., etc.

haha I'm just going to laugh at it all and chalk it up to trying to get too much done in a short period of time. Bet you know what I mean. What happened to the organized and together person I used to be? The person who had shopping/making done by mid-November; who planned little parties for the kids and trips to see the lights; who decorated right after Thanksgiving? She's in there somewhere and I wish she would come back. Next year maybe...

One thing I did decide was to name my granddaughter's quilt "Contemplation". Why? I contemplated throwing it in the UFO pile. I contemplated throwing it in the trash. I contemplated how happy I was when dgd was born, how much we disagree on things now that she is 20, how much money I'd have if I had a dollar for every stitch I've ripped out of the thing or put into it (which is about equal), if the piece of fabric from her new baby brothers quilt looks right in it, and contemplated whether or not she'll like it. (Which I told her she could not like it and that would be okay. She will get something different in a few months.

On a very bright side, my daughter's quilt is quilted and ready to be picked up. I know she'll like it because she asked me if she could have it but I told her I had sold it. The binding fabric is ready to go. It might make it to the finish line.

Oh, and they had 40% off Christmas fabrics yesterday and I bought fat quarters of Merry and Bright. They were out of the reds so I'm on the hunt for some or all of them.

And, I bought three purses for gifts plus some slippers and gloves as stocking stuffers and it was only $20.41. One purse alone was regularly $68. A deal like that can't be beat! And the purses are cute.

Woo hoo! Woo hoo!

Do a little cabbage patch dance. I got a quilt to the quilter's! And she said it will probably be ready Thursday or Friday. It's dd's square in square. I meant to take a pic of the back before I took it over but forgot. The back is all pieced from leftovers. Kind of fun. She's using turquoise thread. Eeeek! Hope it looks good on the dark outer border. (DD won't care. She'll just love having her very own first-big-quilt-made-by-mom-especially-for-her quilt.

I'll have pics of projects I've been working on tomorrow. Been getting all kinds of things finished up. Well, it seems like it. Or maybe I'm just happy to have a quilt being quilted.

Til tomorrow...

Check out Freda's Hive

Wow! A one year blogaversary with a week of give-a-ways. And at such a busy time of year! You'll enjoy reading her blog so give it a peek.

http://www.fredashive.blogspot.com/

A new UFO almost

Quilting, Christmas decorating, furniture rearranging, shopping. Who has time for blogging? Time to stop and get a grip. Time to breathe and let December ease on through. Assume lotus position - ahh-ohm, ahh-ohm. Doesn't that feel better?

Instead of blogging I've been working furiously to get my granddaughter's quilt finished in time to go to the quilter. But - ICK. No, major ICK. I just don't like it. The pattern put together just totally turns me off.

It really was going to be stuffed into a drawer but my sister talked me through the stuff it stage. This will get done one way or the other. Too much money and time has gone into it and I just don't want another UFO.

So I've spent today disassembling the darn thing. Some of the blocks can't be used because I had added the corner units and cut the background off. I'm putting it on the wall to try to salvage as much as I can - 19 blocks out of 30. I'll have to make one more block for the quilt. There is a plain square substituting for it in the pic. The others will be used as a purse or something - who knows.

The colors in the top photo are the true colors. My camera batteries were low and I could only get the funky color in the bottom pic.

This is where it was going. I had almost changed my mind about the pattern but had kept changing my mind on everything so "forced" myself to go with it. What happened? It's way too busy. Feels choppy. Bad mix of fabrics. Was going to use just one fabric throughout for the corners that make up the square but went with the mix and it was a mistake. Maybe I should have gone with my intuition from the beginning and used a different pattern. Really, I dislike it so much that I'm pretty embarrassed to show it. But maybe someone else will learn from my error.


Here is one of the new options. Took the corners off of the ones that hadn't been cut so it's no longer an octagon. The squares make it calmer. It won't make it to the quilter on time and it might not go to my dgd.


Why the heck is this thing giving me such a problem?

Checklist

X Turkey almost done.
X Stuffing warming.
X Potatoes ready to mash.
X Rolls rising and ready for oven.
X Cranberry sauce cold.
X Martinellis chilled.
X Pies ready to eat.
X Tables set.

Now where the heck are the grandkids who insisted they wanted to eat at 11 or 12? They better be thankful grandma loves them.

Have a Happy Turkey Day!

Basic math

Sally is making a quilt for her granddaughter. It is a quilt from a recent magazine. The block is simple but you have to piece it in the correct order. Sally makes 2 blocks on Tuesday night and screws them up. Sally makes two more blocks Tuesday night and they come out right. Sally makes 2 more blocks on Wednesday morning and again screws them up. How many blocks does Sally have completed? How many minutes has Sally wasted? How many pins is Sally going to use to pin everything together to make sure she does not screw up again?

a) Sally should pay more attention
b) too much info
c) 2
d) all the above

Bonus points: If Sally needs 30 blocks for her quilt and makes 6 blocks each day but screws 4 of them up each time how many days will it take for Sally to have 30 blocks.

a) 15 days
b) who cares because Sally will just throw it all in the UFO pile and give her granddaughter a gift certificate
c) Sally should go to the fabric store for retail therapy
d) all the above

Mooommmm! They're laughing at me.

I'm telling, if you don't quit laughing at me. I can too get everything done before Christmas! I mean it! Quit laughing.

Just because I STILL don't have the baby quilt quilted, just because I STILL don't have the backing pieced for the square in square and have it ready to be quilted, just because I'm STILL cutting out my granddaughters full/queen top doesn't mean I can't get it done. Plus an exchange gift, plus a runner for mom, plus cookies, plus shopping, plus, plus, plus...

I hear you! Quit it. Stop laughing. I mean it!

Mooooommmm!

The tester block without final corners put on to make outer circle.


The stack - 30 blocks in all - they're pretty big. Oh, my gosh I just remembered that I haven't planned the borders!


A happy girl because she has clothes on and so many don't. Note to self: finish dressing vinyl children for the holidays.

One track mind

Baby no name Maximillian aka Max just a couple hours old - 8.5#, 21.5". Look at the head of hair!


Kisses, hugs, and squeezes from grandma little one.