Cookies Cookies Cookies

Finally  finished the last batch of Christmas cookies
yesterday. The Kids are happy that I had time
to make the rosettes this year.
Now I can put away the baking supplies.
...Yummm.. They turned out nice and crisp

Next Project

Started on a new quilt for my Son and Daufgter -in- Law
It's a scrap show case Bear Paw quilt 
Took some time to find all the fabrics I liked .
Wendy liked the look of the pattern done all in pretty  
fall colors. So I found lots of oranges and browns with reds and
a few greens and blues thrown in to offset the rest.
 Been a while since I've done a scrappy so the fun has just begun.
Here's a peek at the first block.........

I like the look of the blended colors.

It's fun to sew the bear paws them pick them randomly

to sew into blocks.

White Christmas

                         

With all the snow we got last night and the rest thats on it's way, I don't think we need to worry about having a

White Christmas



This is the view out my window this morning




                                           

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas........

Winter has finally come to our part of the country..
We have been so spoiled with the warmer weather
that it didn't seem like fall in Northern Michigan.
But now that the North wind is blowing & bringing us some snow
I thought I'd get a little Chrismasy & show some of my snowman
collection & a few other decorations around the house.
So here goes.....

I made this little snow family a few years  ago and so began my collection  of snowmen . They are so soft
and with weighted bottoms they stand up quite well.

The middle one is a fave made with
 fabric  and buttons.
His little pail that reads "Snowman Seeds"
 is filled with little puff balls that look
like real snow balls.

This one stretches to over 2 feet tall .
I had to get him because of the shoes
being so cute.

 The grandkids keep the countdown going

with this one

This is my musical snow globe.

        My Fireplace with the village on top.

Keeps us warm on cold winter
days.
We had to fence it in to keep the little
 ones out.

My tree with the quilted dancing
 snowman
skirt I just finished for it.

This is my newest
addition this year.
It is the kids fave
 of course.

And last but not least..... my favoite little snow people.......

Jewell and Autumn

They just love to play in the snow, and can't wait until we can build our first snowman of the season....



Happy Holidays !!!!

It's Done!

After months of stiching  the Wild Things quilt is finally Done!  It will be off to it's new home at my daughters house.  It has an all over beige stitch  & it came out nice puffy.  Just the way she wanted it.
 This was the first time I have  ever sent out a quilt to be finished on a longarm machine.  King size are much easier done on a longarm.  I'm very happy with the results. I know Heather will enjoy it in these cold winter months
ahead.

The Max Pillow

Been a while since my last post
Guess I've been busy!!!
 Well I have been working on a few things.
 Just  finished the dog pillow for my
daughter in law  Wendy.  This is a boxer like her
Real big guy Max ( short for Maximus) Her B-Day
is on Tuesday. She almost ruined the surprise when
she stopped by while I was finishing it.  Hope she likes
it. 

-Wild Things-

Here are a few of the blocks for my Daughter' quilt.  I'm calling it " Wild Things" she likes her wild animal prints. Her room is also lime green & beige, so the jungle prints should work well .  Have about half the blocks done so far.  It's the 1st time I'm trying out my new Wonder  Cut Ruler, it sure saves time  making the 1/2- square triangles .  It will be a queen size with extra loft for winter( by request.)  Sooo when the top is done it will be off to the shop to be quilted . Don't want to send that thick of  a quilt

through my home machine.

I have to fussy cut the blocks with the animals on from the printed fabric as a few of the pics of the animals are not  quite what she wanted.

Have to try a few combinations until we get it right..  So far so good.,  not sure on the double faces yet though .   I will let her decide when I finish laying out a pattern with all the combinations.

Thread Catcher Bag

 I finally have time to get back into the sewing groove again.

I have a few projects in the works!

 This is a little thread catcher bag I picked up at Suzie's Quilt Shop.

 I really need one of these.  It sure beats  tossing my thread &

 scraps over to the little trash can next to my machine  table as I sew.

 I usually miss & the pile just grows & grows.

It was a quick & easy project too, only 2 FQ's a piece of oxygen tubing & some sand.  Goes together so easy.

I think these would make great little Christmas gifts for my sewing friends.

This one is one of my" Buck a Block " UFO's.

 I have it togather  finally, now it just needs to be quilted.   

                           

Hope to finish it this weekend so I can put more time into the other 2 quilts I started for my DD & DIL.

The Wedding

                                                         Here  are some pics of the wedding.

Getting Ready.....

It's almost time!

 

Jim (daddy) and his girls                                                                              

                                                                                 

It was very emotional at this point.  I cried, but only happy tears.

The new married couple

Heather & Mike

                                                                                                                                           

                                                                 

The Wedding Party

My Family

This is the first time we have all been together in one place

in a long time.

We did It!!

I was so proud of these two little cuties, they did such a good job.

Heather with her best friend Jenny & her sister Tamara

                                        

                          We had Great food & a lot of  fun.  It was a  beautiful wedding.                             

 There was a lot of dancing going on.

Embelishment Mania

   I went to the holiday (Labor Day) tent sale at the craft shop like

                       I always do & I only planned to pick up some buttons for a BOM I'm working on.

   But when I started looking in the bin for the right ones, all these other ones were just begging to be picked.

I could not resist.  In my head I had a use for each & every pack I put in my little basket.

Actually I had about twice this many .... then I started to eliminate, it was hard to do, .but I hadn' hit

the fabric shop yet soooooo I only took these 18 packs home.

Next I went down the road a little ways to the fabric shop.  They had a holiday sale as well.

I found these:

Hope to use a few of these in some new blocks I've started.

The gold one is for a long lost UFO I can now finish.

Also found some cute flannels  to make some

cuddly raggedy quilts.

Picked out a raggedy patterns with diamonds and one with stars

to use with these instead of the usual squares.

Now I can't wait to get started .

                                            

Baby Bear Quilt

                   

                                                   

                                          This is the 3rd & last of the baby quilts. At least for now.

                              It was supposed to be a bears on parade quilt, but changed my mind and made my

                              own scrappy pattern.  Baby Jacob is due to enter the world about Sept.19th so I

                              finished just in time. He is the first boy in the family so I used lots of blues.

                                         Now I can work on those UFO's again Or start something new .....

                                              yah...... that sounds like a plan

Dresses for the Wedding

Just finished the granddaughters dresses for My daughters wedding.

So glad they are finally done. Had a bit of a setback trying to find the right color ribbon to match the other brides maid dresses, but finally settled on a color after several other choices. 

Was that darn OCD of mine kicking in again, lol, had to have it right or keep on trying.

The girls look so cute in them. Can't wait for the wedding, only 25 more days.

Will post more pics after the wedding.

BOM 's From My UFO Pile

Bear in the Wood & Eagle In Flight

These blocks are a few from a BOM I worked on last year. I still have not figured out how I would like to put them in a quilt top. The rest of blocks are also animals or seasonal motifs. I need to find fabric that will flow with all the colors. This is one of the UFO's I have vowed to work on before the end of the year. The pile has gotten a little smaller this summer, I just need to keep the motivation going now that I'll be back to work in a few weeks .

I'm sad to see the summer ending.

My Little Bathing Beauties

I just had to add this pic of my two bathing beauties.

My 2 youngest grand kiddies Jewell & Autumn

They enjoy warming in the sun as much as playing in the pool, not that we have had much of a summer anyway. We have finally had some warm days this week.

School starts back up in about 3 weeks , so of course the weather will be nice again.

Fall will not be to far behind As the leaves are already changing on my Maple tree.

Some of my Favorites

All Ears Cat quilt

I made this cat quilt for my boss as a going away gift when she moved to a new school district. She is a cat lover.
This is actually the second one I made , the first one went to the Relay for Life Auction

Heather's Apple Coar Quilt

I started this one with favorite pieces of clothing from my daughter since she was born.

She now has 2 daughters of her own so I plan to add favorite pieces from her girls too.

With any luck one of them will like to quilt and keep adding on to it.

Just finished this one in the spring for my room.

It is one of my BOM - Buck a Block
Series Quilts

It really Brightens up my room.

This is my daughter Tamara's memory quilt. It has pics from birth to graduation
It was done in purple hues & set in T blocks. She uses it as a wall hanging.

Gordy & Wendy's Quilt

I made this king size quilt for my son & his fiance. The diamonds
were a real challenge to match , but after a few tries they came together. Whew!!! I was happy to see this one done.

I love Snowmen so this my all time favorite .

I love the name too....It's called" All Flakes Welcome"

This was my first attempt at real applique.

It took me almost a year.... I got very picky about it,

The joke was I just finished quilting it in May ...just in time for summer. lol

I can't wait to display it this winter on my hanging quilt frame.

This quilt was one of the first I ever made
& it is still everyones favorite .

Thats All For now.....

More From the Journal

The Grandkids Quilts

Emily's Piggies

Erinn's Kittie's

Brittany's Moo Cows

The girls were so excited when they

opened their their quilts
The twins helped make pillows to

match their quilts. I am so glad the

grandkids like to so, since my daughter had no interest in sewing at all.