Hot Chocolate Club

I was so thrilled to complete this project in 2011.  It was a block of the month that I got several years ago.  I had completed some of the blocks, and finally got in gear and completed the rest and put it together.  Then it was several more months before I settled down to quilt it.  The pattern is Pearl Louise's "Hot Chocolate Club."  I love snowmen, and she creates adorable snowmen patterns.

Merry Christmas to all!  Have a wonderful day wherever you are.  Our family had an early Christmas on December 11 since our younger son and family were going to be in San Diego with our DIL's family.  Today we will have a lovely time across the street with Kevin and his family.  First though, I'm off to the kitchen to make a couple pies.

DH and I with our four DGC

 Older son Kevin and his family

 Younger son Kurt and his family

Pepper Dish quilt top in progress

Now I will readily admit that this picture leaves a lot to be desired.  Early this year at our quilt group meeting, I issued a paper piecing challenge, and for myself I chose the Judy Niemeyer Pepper Dish quilt pattern.  When I took this picture, I had not completed the piecing, and had not done the applique.  The random green partial star is one of the ones I made to check if I liked the fabrics.  It ended up being used in the center.  My fabric choices are vastly different from what is shown on the face of the printed pattern.

After all that rambling, I will tell you that I am now machine quilting the quilt, and the reveal for the paper piecing challenge is at our holiday party on January 8.  I am so anxious to get it completed, and will post a picture or two when it is all done.

By the way, I will tell you that the instructions were specific and very, very clear.  I had no problem following them at all.

Gotta love Yellowstone National Park!

In August DH and I made a road trip to Yellowstone.  It had been a very long time since we had been there.    What a national treasure the park is!  We had such a marvelous time and marvelled again at the geysers, wildlife and gorgeous scenery.  If you haven't gone and can - go!

 Old Faithful strutting her stuff

There were quite a few bison, one of which was ambling slowly down the road, stopping traffic in both directions.  We also saw quite a few elk.  There was one bear, but it was at a distance and we didn't get a photo.

 Didn't I say it was scenic?

 Grand Tetons - they just take your breath away!

It has been forever since I have posted.  I have occasionally  looked at other blogs, but that's about the extent of anything blog-related that I have done.

We had  a wonderful summer, but as always, it went too fast.

I completed the two wildlife quilts for our two sons, and presented those to them.  They were both very pleased.

I can't really attempt to cover the last 8 or 9 months in one post, so I'll just maybe gradually come up to date.

Completed quilt top

This one of two identical quilt tops that I have been working on.  I used some of two June Jaeger patterns:  Gone Fishin' and From the Wild, and then did my own thing with the rest.  I am very pleased with how this looks.  I have to complete the flying geese to finish up the outside border of the second one.  We are headed to CA later this week, and when we come back, then will be the major job of sandwiching and quilting them.

This and that

I love nine patches - can you tell?  I had made what I thought were quite a few scrappy nine patch blocks and thought I would just quickly make the snowball blocks and put it together.  It turned out that I only had 15 nine patches and needed 16 more, I think it was, plus the snowball blocks.  At any rate, it wasn't as quick to get it put together as I had thought.  I did enjoy the process though, and will make more nine patches and see what I can do.  I would confess that the scraps used in this quilt didn't even make a dent in my scraps. 

I haven't blogged since the quilt retreat, and it was absolutely awesome!  I got so much done.  I should take a  picture of what I worked on most of the time.  I completed a quilt top that I had gotten as a BOM in 2006, I think it was. 

I will report that our dear daughter-in-law had a CT scan and MRI at the end of February and both came back clear.  To say that was a huge relief is a massive understatement.  She is doing well, and we are so very grateful.

And now I want to go check out some of the blogs that I have neglected getting to. 

Project Linus

Some time ago I posted about a basket of quilting fabrics and patterns that our son had won for me at a raffle.  This Connecting Threads flannel quilt kit was in the basket.  It was a joy to make and the fabrics were such good quality.  I have a lot of fabric left from it, so I'm sure I can come up with something else for Project Linus with the leftovers.

Next Friday two friends and I are headed to a quilt retreat.  I have had it on my mind a lot, and I'm making lists and trying to figure out just what among my several options that I want to take to work on.  I have precut the first two blocks in the free Bunny Hill Designs BOM and I am taking them to start with.  The blocks are so cute, and I'm excited to get going on them.  I'll keep watching for the March block.

I pulled out my Farmer's Wife quilt blocks the other day, and cut the setting blocks and corners.  I did a little bit of putting it together and I'm thrilled with the way it looks. 

I've been trying to be careful about what I eat, and then friends invited us to go to a German restaurant tonight, so that's definitely not going to help the cause.  Hopefully I will get back on the "careful" wagon tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weeked, and hopefully you will have some quality time doing whatever floats your boat.

Little of this and little of that

Every time I tell myself to write on my blog more often, I fall down on the job once again.

We took three of the DGC to the beach last Thursday. We had a lovely time, but Friday was so windy, rainy and cold, so we found things to do indoors. We'll have to try another time when we can spend more time outside.

I looked back at my blog and find I didn't post anything about our trip to Florida in December. We were gone for 12 days and had a fantastic time. DH and I spent the first 7 days traveling around by ourselves. We went across alligator alley (and yes, there were LOTS of alligators), visiting the Everglades, going down through the Keys to Key West, walking on the Atlantic beach, going to Kennedy Space Center, etc. On December 19, we joined up with our son and his family and our DIL's parents and spent several days at Disney World. What a fantastic time that was!

This guy was big!!

Our son, DIL and grandchildren

Hubby and I in Key West

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse-beautiful!

Little bit of progress

I don't seem to make a lot of progress on my projects, but I guess a little here and there is better than nothing. I don't have anything finished, so I'll show a picture of what has been my main focus.

I posted a bit about this project earlier, and I have worked on it a bit more. I had a hard time deciding what border to put under the eagle block, but I'm happy with what I finally worked out. That same light fern fabric will appear on both sides of the deer (after that block is trimmed down) and a similar arrow border will go on the bottom of the deer.

Charity quilt and San Francisco

I finished tacking down the binding on this quilt last night, and it is my first completion of 2011. I am in a local on-line quilting group, and we have a challenge to complete at least one UFO each month. This is my January project. It will go to a charity group I occasionally work with.

DH and I got back from CA yesterday. We had gone down to spend a few days visiting his mother. On Sunday DH and I and my SIL and her husband went to San Francisco for the day. It had been a long time since we had been there. We went to Fisherman's Wharf, took a cable car ride, walked in Chinatown, and walked most of the way across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a sunny day and we enjoyed every minute of it. At the Wharf, we had clam chowder in sour dough bread bowls, which is a requirement for us whenever we visit San Francisco. It's so yummy.

This pic is DH and I with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Belated pictures and GO DUCKS!!!

Well, better late than never, I hope.  At any rate, I wanted to share a few pictures from Christmas Day.  We had such a wonderful day together.

Our younger son and his family above, and older (not old) son and his family. 

 Here are DGDs with the nightgowns I made for them.  I don't particularly enjoy making them (I'm a quilter, after all), but their pleasure with them makes it worthwhile.

And today is the big day - Oregon Ducks play Auburn Tigers for the NCAA football championship.  We got this shirt for this DGD and I'm betting she's wearing it today.  GO DUCKS!  Most folks probably don't care, but we sure do!

Happy New Year

It's been a while since I've been on here, so I want to first wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year.

We got good news after Christmas that our DDIL's CAT scan showed no cancer.  It has made for a very happy beginning of the year for our family.

I showed a picture before of some of what I have been working on from time to time.  I have completed more of it, and the picture is not great, but I have made some progress.  I have more machine applique to do and more piecing, but bit by bit, it is coming along.  The churn dash blocks have fish in the center.



Tomorrow I am going to a charity sew event where we will work on quilts for Project Linus.  I have one in the works and hope to maybe get that top put together tomorrow.