New Years Eve Quilting

I spent the afternoon making Depression Blocks -- I had 4 done previously and made 10 more today. That leaves 16 to do 15 minutes at a time during the next few weeks. I'm in no hurry-- just enjoying the process.

Our NYE celebration tonight will consist of Beef Kabobs for dinner and watching the Bears beat the Packers on TV tonight! I've been going through quilt magazines in the evenings, tearing out the patterns/info I want to keep and tossing the rest. It's a good job to do while watching tv, especially football. I have some from the past two nights that are waiting to be filed into sleeves and added to a notebook. It's taken me years to come up with a good system for these and I think this is it -- so much easier to page through a notebook or two or three than the hundreds of magazines. And, I'm trying to be very selective -- I don't want to save something I know I will never make. Some I save will just be a jumping off point of an idea, but the rest will be real possibilities. I have some printouts from the 'net that I have saved also. I'm being very selective there too.

Happy New Year everyone. Be safe.

Gratitudes:
A phone call from a friend.
A nice relaxing quilty day.
Quietly seeing the year out, looking forward to the new one coming in.

Getting Ready for the New Year

I put up Tulip Farm and took down my Christmas Quilt today.

Then I spent the afternoon working on one of my resolutions: to finish one of the leaders/enders quilts I have started. So I finished making hst's for one of the Depression Block quilts I started and then sorted the rest for the second Depression Block quilt! The first will be with lights and will be 30 blocks, the second will be with the tans as backgrounds and there will be 22 blocks (so probably only use 20 of them and put the hst's back into the scrap basket. Tomorrow I hope to start putting some of the blocks together.

We got a new digital camera from our kids for Christmas this year -- a tiny, Nikon Coolpix P2 -- with 1 gigabyte card in it. It is even WiFi capable (which means if I had the capability, I could just unload the camera onto the laptop wirelessly - but I don't have a wireless network set up or broadband internet service, for that matter!). But the picture above was taken with the new camera -- and so was the last picture of the Baby Rails quilt. I like it -- pretty cool, but I still need to learn everything about it!

Dinner tonight was from a soup mix my niece sent from Harry & David's. It was Tomato, Basil with White Beans. And, it was excellent. I think Bill liked it -- he had two bowls full. And, we have enough left over for another meal later next week.

Gratitudes:

I was able to pull all the hst's for the Depression Block quilts easily from fabric baskets on the sewing tables and start right in on it. That is so much nicer than having to do a search and destroy mission!

Keith Urban's new cd kept me company while I sewed today -- it's a good cd.

The new camera is fun to use and so tiny!

Nice dinner tonight again -- because I planned it ahead of time.

Ringing in the New Year

This quilt is called "Baby Rails with Attitude". It was a pattern from Quilter magazine, I believe. I used almost every scrap of the 30's fabrics I bought at our guild show in October. I finished the top on Christmas Eve -- it went together really easy and I really like the quilt. It's about 45 x 49, and it will be for our new Grandchild due in August.

I spent an hour at the doctor's office this morning only to find that the problem with my "underneath quilting" finger is just more arthritis and probably a high degree of inflammation. All I know for sure is that it hurts and I can't hand quilt with it! So, tomorrow I start on some new high-dose prednisone type stuff for a week -- hopefully that will take care of the problem. I can live with stiff fingers -- all my other ones are anyway but they don't really hurt, this one does!

I've been thinking about my New Year's Resolutions for at least the last month. I try to make realistic ones -- yeah, I'd like to finish every ufo I have, but that's not going to happen in one year even if I worked on nothing but ufo's! I posted them on the right (hopefully!). I can combine a couple -- like learning everything I can on the longarm with finishing the 12 tops -- I think I probably have close to 12 finished tops, but if not, I will! I'm looking forward to doing more of Judy's Hour a Day quilts -- it's nice to use up stash and fun to work along with others in Blogland. I want to actually do a couple of Bonnie's scrap quilts with my already cut scrap strips -- I love most of the ones on her site, but have only done the Pineapple Blossom. I have a few different leaders/enders projects started (because I get bored doing the same ones), so I want to finish at least one of those. And I want to do at least 15 minutes a day of quilt related things -- getting organized enough that I just need to go in and sit down and sew or quilt. I'll be counting getting everything organized in the 15 minutes a day -- sometimes you just need to clean everything off to get something new started.

I'm not dieting anymore -- I spent months losing 10 pounds, gained it all back plus some when Bill was sick. I'm only going to work on exercising every day -- when I stop exercising, I start gaining, so the key for me is getting on that treadmill everyday, or lifting weights.

I'm trying to plan my menus at least a week in advance -- it is so much nicer to know what I'm fixing for dinner in the morning instead of throwing something together at the last minute. Tonight I'm trying a new to me recipe -- Winter Beef Stew from the 2007 Kraft Foods Calendar for January.

So, those are my ideas for the new year. I need to go up and spend my 15 minutes today counting and recording my ufo's -- I've accepted the UFO Challenge for 2007 on Dusting Your Stash on Yahoo, so I need to have a baseline!

Hope everyone has a Happy, Healthy New Year.

Gratitudes:
1. Having a good relationship with my doctor -- he knows he can tease me and we can both laugh about it. (And I can tease him also!)
2. Looking forward to 2007 with anticipation and not dread.
3. Stopping at the local pharmacy for the first time and being pleasantly surprised by the caring attitude of the pharmacists.
4. Having a menu planned.

Merry Christmas

My collection of Father Christmases on top of my Hoosier cabinets in the kitchen.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday no matter what you celebrate. We'll be going to Stephanie's to play with the grandkids tomorrow. Then I'll be going back up on Tuesday to babysit, so see ya all next week!

Snowmen

My collection of snowmen sitting in the corner of the kitchen. We have no snow left outside, so had to have them inside. vbg

IMHO, Beta Blogger is getting to be a bigger PITA than it ever was. I'm sure they thought they were improving things, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it! (Uploading this picture took two tries).

Anyway -- am as ready for Christmas as I'll ever be -- all sewing projects done and wrapped. So, I've been sewing for fun the past couple of days. Put together the blocks for a top today, just need to do the borders. It's called "Baby Rails with Attitude" from the November 2006 issue of Quilter magazine. I used the 30's fat quarters I bought at our guild quilt show and so far really like the quilt. I'll try to post a picture after I get the borders on.

I'll be babysitting AJ the day after Christmas, so won't be around much. Just want to wish my blogger friends a Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year (I'll be back with my New Year's resolutions next week!)

Gratitudes:

Peace and quiet at home this week

Christmas cards with yearly updates on friends

Cool, clear forecast for driving on Christmas

Cookie Day

My beautiful grandchildren on cookie day -- in their new, monogrammed aprons, courtesy of grandma, of course!
We had a lot of fun, and grandma came home totally worn out! vbg
Grandpa, however, managed to wire two new overhead lights in the suspended ceiling in the basement to give me more light over the area that will be filled with my new longarm soon. He also put a new outlet in another wall so I can actually use the treadmill again (and boy do I need to get back on it soon).

I did manage to get the binding sewn on Gratitude, but not yet stitched down. I only did the ditch quilting so far on it, but decided to bind it and pin the label on so I can wrap it and give it to Bill for Christmas. After I get some practice under my belt on the Gammill, I'll finish the rest of the quilting on it. So, sewing the binding down will be the project this week.
BTW -- girlfriend loved the needlepunch Santa picture!

Gratitudes:
Bill is feeling better every day.
It was his idea to add more light to the basement area and he didn't waste time getting the job done.
Spending the day with Steph, Aaron and the kids.
The Bears managed to pull one out of their hat today, after almost giving it away!
Light traffic on the drive up and back to WI today.

My Christmas Gift

Bill's been ill for the past few weeks -- since the night before Thanksgiving. So, we've been going back and forth to doctors and having tests, etc. Last Friday night he had to have a ct scan and they were specifically looking at his pancreas. It has been a long weekend. Results came back Monday and there is no mass - thank God. So, now they're going to do an endoscopy, etc -- but it isn't scheduled til January 18. In the meantime, he's starting to feel better (and one of the guesses by the Gastroenterologist was a virus that has been going around -- a type of stomach flu - so possibly that is what is the problem and it just needs to run its course.)

Anyway -- in the meantime we've been discussing a longarm purchase, but I didn't want to talk about it while he's been sick -- I surely wouldn't be able to concentrate on quilting if he were seriously ill. I have been in touch with the Gammill dealer in Janesville, WI -- which is just over an hour from us, and they have called and sent brochures, sales lit, etc. The latest was a sales flyer for an additional $500 in merchandise with the purchase of a machine, with an end date of Dec. 20. So... yesterday after getting the good news on the ct scan, and the fact that Bill felt fairly well yesterday, he asked if I was going to order the machine online or go up there. I said go up there, sometime before the 20th. He said how about this afternoon. We did. My new Gammill Classic Plus longarm machine will be delivered January 11! I'm so excited I can't stop smiling -- and Bill feels better today, too!

Gratitudes:
1. I think Bill is on the mend.
2. I have started quilting Gratitudes and will have it done for Christmas. Now you know why I want to give it to Bill. He is the best husband.
3. I have an incentive to get the basement area cleared out and cleaned up for the new machine!
4. This really is a dream come true.

Another Christmas gift finished

The punchneedle was fun -- can't say the same for framing it! But, it's done and that leaves one more gift to finish. I have my Gratitudes quilt pin basted -- hope to get it quilted soon, although I'm going to be doing it on my Bernina, so it's going to be a pain to quilt. But, the sooner I get it done, the sooner I can move on! vbg

Look at this Beautiful Baby!

This beautiful baby's name is Ava, she was born last Friday, December 1 to my son Steve's best friend, Lyle and his wife Laura. Oh yeah, that's a quilt I made that she's sleeping on. Isn't she just precious -- don't ya just want to pick her up and cuddle her?! Congrats Lyle and Laura!

Gratitudes:
New babies.
Doctors who seem to know we need answers.
Bill had a much better day today.
The electric heater in the computer room -- boy the basement is cold!

Finally, a finish

Quilted it on Friday and yesterday got the binding stitched down and the hanging sleeve on -- it is a finished Christmas gift!

Today I worked entirely on the needlepunch project I have going -- it too is a Christmas gift -- still need to get one more floss color and finish the background.

And, yesterday I also cleaned up the sewing tables, sorted another shelf of fabric in the cabinet and refolded a whole bunch of it, leaving me with a new pile for scraps that needs to be cut and put into the various drawers. And, I pressed "Gratitudes" and cut the batting, but decided to buy a fabric for the background for 50% off at the lqs next Saturday instead of piecing one. I want to finish it to give to Bill for Christmas and that will make 5 quilts I finished for Christmas gifts this year! 4 for sure!

Gratitudes:

1. The birds have found the seed and the Juncos are back.

2. The fireplace in the kitchen -- I spent all afternoon sitting at the table watching the Bears game and needlepunching and it was warm and toasty.

3. Creamed chicken and biscuits for dinner tonight -- something easy because I'm feeling lazy!

4. The roads are cleared of snow, and most of the driveway ice has melted off in the sun.