Table Runner

Work on my table runner is progressing. I added the mitered borders, finished the backing and its now on the longarm. I'm about 1/3 finished with the quilting.

The front.....


The backing.....






The quilting motifs are random, interlocking circles. It's similar to what I did on my mother's star quilt.


The thread colors I'm using are Java brown (3rd from left) and pigskin (5th from left).


I hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve!

WIP Wednesday!

I've spent my entire day working on my quilt guild's monthly newsletter. I've got about 20 more minutes and it will be ready to go the printers tomorrow. Yea!!!

What I really wanted to be working on today was my table runner. Which is my WIP for today. The stripe is the outer border. In the picture it is running the wrong way. There will also be a black sashing. I'll need to prepare the backing and then it will be ready to quilt.



Am I the only one tired of Christmas music? I bet not! I'm changing my music du jour on the right hand side of my blog. This week I want to share a few of my favorite David Bowie tunes. I enjoy quilting to Bowie.

Golden Years (1975)
Fashion (1980)
Under Pressure (1981) with Queen

BTW, the very first full-sized album I purchased was David Bowie's "Tonight" (1984). Just a bit of Nicky trivia that most don't know....nor care about probably. Know what the second album I bought was? Ah....I think Shawn is the only one I've told that to.

Christmas Day

These were pictures taken Christmas Day.





Denny, Nic and Steve.

A Happy Holiday.....

was had by all!

For Christmas Eve we had fried turkey. Doesn't look too pretty, but it was probably the best tasting turkey I've ever had.


My Dad carved it. I'm surprised he had room for dinner with as much "tasting" as he did between slices.


Garrison got in a partial game of Candy Land with Grandma.....


before helping to set the table for dinner.


The kids waited patiently after dinner to open gifts.


I received a wonderful afghan from my Grandmother. She made it and I love the colors.


The kids were thrilled with the gifts they received from their Great-Aunt Juanita. We hope Aunt Juanita had a fabulous birthday which was on December 24th!


Shawn received a turkey fryer from my parents. Guess who will be making the fried turkey next year?


One of our gifts to my parents was a life casting of the kid's hands. We'd been working on it for over a month and I was very excited about finally getting to give it to them.

The stockings were hung by the chimney......

with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;......

Life is great! The shopping is all done. The wrapping is all done. It's only the 23rd!!

Shawn made chili tonight! I'm blessed with a husband that likes to cook.


Lauren helped with browning the beef.


Garrison did somersaults in the living room.






Ollie got in some wrestling time.


Garrison and Ollie posing in front of the tree.


It was a good day!!

A Christmas Meme!

Nic Bridges of Wollongong, New South Wales, AU had this meme posted on her blog. Thought I would play along.

1. Apple cider, Eggnog, or Hot Chocolate? Hot mulled apple cider, yum!!

2. Turkey or Ham? Ham

3. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Santa wraps all presents and each child has a different wrapping paper. That Santa is good!

4. Colored lights or white on the tree? If I have to pick, colored. Our new tree has both with a remote. You can choose colored, white or both. We choose to use both. The more the better no matter what color!

5. Do you get a fake or real-you-cut-it-yourself Christmas tree? Fake.....I'm too paranoid to have a real tree in the house. I like my sap free/bug free/flame retardant tree.

6. Favorite Christmas song? Anything by Ella Fitzgerald.

7. How do you feel about Christmas movies? I'm indifferent. Who has time to sit and watch a movie?

8. What is your favorite holiday dish? Green Goop....it has pineapple, cream cheese, lime jello and other good stuff in it.

9. When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music? According to my husband Thanksgiving is too early, but I think he's crazy!

10. What is your favorite holiday smell? Fresh rolls/bread.

11. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Too traumatic....I've blocked it out.

12. What kind of decorations are on your Christmas Tree? A whole lot of Hallmark, but I'd say it's eclectic, because there are a lot of things on there I love.

13. Do you open a present or presents on Christmas Eve, or wait until Christmas Day? Most on Christmas Eve. We are all about Santa on Christmas.

14. Go to someone else’s house or they come to you? This year we are going to someone else's house.

15. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving is always the best.

Should you decide to play too.....drop me a line (comment) so I can check out your answers.

No One Gets Left Behind!! No One Gets Left Behind!!

Little Miss Sunshine has got to be one of the best movies for quotes!!

WIP Wednesday!

Nothing quilt related to report today. Bummer. I should be showing a picture of laundry, because that's what I've been doing all day. I probably have another 4 loads to go! It's never-ending.

Today, my little white Singer featherweight came home from being repaired. Perhaps I'll get a chance to try it out tomorrow.


For those of you that need a quilt picture fix.....here's one I don't think I've shown previously. It's a convergence quilt that includes a couple Jane Sassaman fabrics from her first fabric line, Exotic Garden (2002).

It took me a couple years to finish this quilt. I love to do the convergence part, but never know what to do with the borders. I guess I know what to do with the borders, I just don't like to do the borders. Anyways, the convergence center part was done with two fat quarters of the Jane Sassaman prints and half yard of the hand-dyed lookalike. That's all I had of the two Sassaman prints as they were a gift from a friend. I originally thought I could just use whatever for the borders, but no, in the end it had to be the Jane Sassaman prints. Thankfully, I did eventually track some down on-line. By then even Jane was out of it, so I was lucky!
This quilt hangs in the studio.

Be sure to check out Jane's website. Her book is one of my favorites!

Christmas Is Just Around......

the corner, so it seems.

Today, I finished my final customer quilt for the year. Now, I'm focused on getting my Christmas cards sent out. I have them all addressed, but that's as far as I've gotten. A Christmas newsletter is in the works. I'm not getting much assistance on that, even though I've asked.

This weekend we took pictures and video of the kids. Shawn has plans to put together a video to send out to his family. Video is not my thing, so he's on his own with that. I'd rather stick to the still camera. I did capture some video on my digital camera while Shawn was videotaping the kids playing their instruments.



Keep in mind, Lauren has only been playing the flute for a month and has been learning on her own. She doesn't join the school band until after the holidays. I think she is a bit nervous about keeping up, because she has been practicing a lot!

Nathan started playing the saxophone in August of this year.

Sorry about the sound on the videos. For some strange reason it's way off.

Ho Hum!

Not much for me to report. I finished the boat quilt today and have one more small customer quilt to do this weekend. Which is good because it's the last day of school for the kids. They'll be out for 3 weeks! Garrison is happy because he has no homework.

Since I don't have anything quilt related going on here's a few pictures of some of the ornaments on our Christmas tree.


The shells are probably from 15+ years ago. Most years, but not all, my parents make ornaments to give to friends and family. These were made when we were all still living in San Diego.




I love blown glass ornaments. These are a couple of my candy ones.


This is my mermaid. My mom gave these to everyone in our quilting group one year.


This is one of my favorite 2 piece Hallmark ornaments.


Another blown glass piece. This is the one ornament the kids are not allowed to touch. I put it on the tree and hope nothing happens to it.


This one I got at an ornament exchange at guild one year. It's made with a light bulb. I think my friend Suzie who now lives in Arkansas made it.


I also got this one at a guild ornament exchange. My kids hate it, but I love it. They try hiding it in the tree, but I always find it and pull it out front. Sometimes you just gotta torment them.

WIP Wednesday!

Happy WIP Wednesday!! Here are my projects for this week.

This first one is a table runner I'm working on. I still have a black sashing and stripe border to add.


I'm also continuing to work on my log cabin blocks. I have several more strips to add to each block. I have not decided on the setting, but this probably isn't it.

My Top 5 Christmas Songs

Lately, many of my fellow bloggers have been posting their Top 5 favorite Christmas songs......so I thought I would play along. I couldn't pick just 5. I've got about 15 Christmas albums on my mp3 player, so picking was tough! My Top 7 are listed in no particular order.

• Baby, It's Cold Outside, by Leon Redbone & Zooey Deschanel
• O Come All Ye Faithful, by Nat King Cole
• Jingle Bells, by Frank Sinatra (I love the chorus on this version)
• Winter Wonderland, by Louis Armstrong
• Noel, by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles
• Let There Be Peace On Earth, by Vince Gill and his daughter Jenny.
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, by Judy Garland

If I manage to get everything uploaded correctly you should be able to listen to each of them by clicking on the play buttons on the right hand side of of my blog. Merry Christmas!!

Now, what are your favorite Christmas songs?

The Countdown Begins!

The kids only have three more days until they are out for Christmas break! Two of those days are early release. I've got at least two more customer quilts to finish, so it looks like I may be quilting while they are out of school if I don't get busy.

This is the customer quilt I'm working on this week. I spent today doing all the stitch-in-ditch (SID). Tomorrow I'll design the border motifs, quilt the side borders and then turn the quilt. I don't normally like to turn quilts, but for this quilt I think it's best. I should have most if not all of the quilting done tomorrow should the choosing of the designs go quick. Designing the custom motifs will be the most time consuming part of this quilt. Now that all the SID is done all I have to do is go back and fill in.





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Retreats Are Good For The Soul

This past weekend I attended another fantastic retreat! There was lots of good food, great friends and hysterical laughing. Not much sewing was accomplished by me, but I did work on a few things.

This was a quilt Connie was working on. The blocks came from a block swap she participated in.


This is Kim's Lewis & Clark quilt.


This is Sue's quilt. When she got to retreat she started with just a finished top and by the end of the retreat she had it completely quilted and bound. I wish I was as productive at retreat!


This is Jan B's quilt top she finished. It was started at a workshop we took with Robbie Joy Eklow. I love how it turned out and it came home with me to be quilted.


This is the backing for Judy's Lewis & Clark quilt that I quilted for her. Judy had the binding finished by the end of the retreat. Another productive retreater!


I came home to find that the decorating for Christmas had been finished. Yeah!


Ollie also got a much needed haircut while I was away!

Off To Retreat

I'm headed to a quilt retreat this morning. 4 days and 3 nights of quilting with my buddies! I'm all packed except for my clothes and toilettries. Lauren has an Ortho appointment first thing this morning, so I'll be getting a late start.


Here's all my quilting stuff waiting to go. It's more than I'll possibly need, but I just know I've forgotten something! Not pictured is my suitcase and several bags of groceries. I've got a car load!

Here's one of the two quilts I finished this week. The second quilt was a Lewis & Clark Sampler.
It's the 3rd Lewis & Clark quilt I've quilted over the last few months. I think I have a couple more to go.


Here's Ollie hanging out under the longarm table while I quilt. He's suppose to get a desperatly needed haircut this weekend. If he would stop trying to bite the groomers he wouldn't have to wait so long for us to get around to it. I keep telling him Shih Tzu are not suppose to bite! His reply..... no stranger's gonna touch me.



Everyone have a fantastic weekend! I'll be checking in on Monday.

Where Oh Where......

did the weekend go? I can't believe it's already Monday!

This week, for me, will be spent preparing for a quilting retreat that starts on Thursday and goes until Sunday. I've got two customer quilts I've got to finish by Thursday. Plus, I've got to plan what to work on while at retreat and then pack up all my supplies. I never plan well enough when I go for a retreat.

A friend who is attending the retreat this weekend has asked me to teach my technique for doing fabric weaving. I've got to get something organized for that, so that I sorta look like I know what I'm doing.

Here are some of my examples:








Garrison had his first basketball game this weekend. He made 4 baskets!

That's Garrison with the ball.