Today's Happenings

To help reduce the stress of holidays, for the past few years, we have had our celebrations on days other than the actual holiday. Earlier today we had our Thanksgiving Brunch and while Nikki, Lynn, Zach and Ty cooked, Jack and I entertained the kids. Actually, the kids entertained us and we had a great time.

Sadie gave Avery a manicure,

while Quinn and Sadie painted their own nails. (The polish is made for kids and kind of peels off the fingers. It wipes up well and doesn't leave a mess.)

It was my turn to get a manicure. Avery used the blue and orange polish and did a great job considering she is two years old and this was her first time. Sadie finished off the manicure with painting a couple of nails pink. I was a proud grandma and didn't even remove the polish until AFTER my hair appointment.  

Ronan and Avery worked together to complete a puzzle. 

And then the four oldest kids drew pictures on the chalk placemats that my sister Ann made them. 

I love days like this and am thankful to have them. It is loud when everyone is here, but it is a wonderful LOUD.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm Here!

I've had a number of people e-mail me to see if I'm ok, since I haven't posted anything in almost a month. Rest assured, I am fine. I've just been crazy busy and something had to give.

I promise to be back in the swing of posting regularly soon.

Thanks for the worries and concerns.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Design Wall Monday

I didn't meet my weekend goals, but I'm happy with what did get done. (In all honesty, I think my goals were pretty lofty so what did get done was actually pretty good, and I'm ok with it.)

The Midnight Blue Star quilt is ready for the binding to be hand stitched. 

I did a fair amount of quilting on this 48" x 48" quilt, but it was nothing special. I decided that since I was using my domestic machine, I didn't want to go crazy and try to do anything fancy. My goal was to just get it done! Here's one of the corners where you can see a bit more of the quilting.

And here is a picture of the back of the quilt. I purposely used a thread that is a bit darker than the backing fabric because I wanted the quilting to show.

And here's the back of the corner that I showed earlier. I'm glad I checked the back because there is a messy area that I didn't notice before. Do you see it? I've got to fix that!

I also started on my Live, Laugh, Love quilt.

Here's a picture of the pattern cover. I know I'm going to change the positioning of the "g" in the word laugh, but I don't know if I'll be changing anything else. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. :-)

What's on your design wall?

Check out Judy L's Patchwork Times

and 

Monday Makings

Is It a Sign?

I quit drinking soda a while back and haven't had one since very early summer. I'm happy to have done it and know it was a healthy choice to make. I didn't have much trouble stopping and rarely have a craving for it, and I was happy about that. (Jack did not have such an easy time when he quit drinking Pepsi way back in March. He craved it for a almost a whole month.) 

Yesterday was a different story for me. I was craving Diet Coke all day and knew that there were some bottles of it here because Paula left some after Sisters' Weekend. Even though it's been here (I have that and Pepsi for visitors.), it hasn't been a temptation - until yesterday.

I don't know why yesterday was different, but it was and nothing seemed to work to take my mind off of it. So I grabbed one from the refrigerator and happened to look at it before I opened it. Imagine my surprise when I saw this.

Yep! It was my name on the bottle and it's even spelled the same way that I spell mine! I thought a little bit and wondered if this was a sign that the Coca-Cola company misses me and that I should start consuming Diet Coke again on a regular basis. Wouldn't that be amazing that such a large company knows me and misses me so much that they planted this particular bottle of Diet Coke in my refrigerator? They were just waiting for me to come back to them. (Actually, that would be kind of creepy!)

Alas, I decided that it was pure luck and that I am not really a big deal for the company. I mean, the chances that they know me and read my blog are pretty slim; and I'm pretty sure no one from the company has taken a quilting class from me. :-)  hehehehe

What I did decide is that I was going to open this bottle and drink some Diet Coke! 

I didn't drink all of it, just enough to satisfy my craving. (I know that was wasteful, but I'm ok with that.) I also decided that the "sign" involved here is that it's ok for me to give into cravings and enjoy a little of this every so often. I don't see myself drinking it regularly again, just every once in a while. 

Because I was in a "deep thinking" mode yesterday, I thought about how this "sign" or lesson could spread to other parts of my life, more specifically, quilting.   

I haven't bought fabric "just because" for quite a long time. I have a substantial stash and have been using it quite regularly. Anymore, I generally only buy fabric when I need it for a specific project or I know that my stash is running low in something - like neutrals. Now don't get me wrong; even though I may be buying for specific projects, that doesn't mean that I get to them right away. Oh, life would be grand if that was the case. :-)

Anyway, back to my "sign." I think the quilting lesson that can be learned from the Diet Coke experience is that it's ok if I give in to my fabric cravings every so often. Not all of the time, but every once in a while. 

Now, I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that I'll be traveling soon and have the opportunity to shop at an amazing quilt shop and buy fabric at a reduced price? 

Nah, that can't be it. :-)    

Halloween Haunts Blog Hop and a Giveaway!

It's Time for Halloween 

and 

Halloween Haunts Blog Hop

Thanks to Marian over at Seams to Be Sew for organizing this awesome blog hop and to The Fat Quarter Shop for their DAILY giveaway! 

And of course, thanks to all the wonderful bloggers out there who have created some tremendous eye candy for us all.  

Be sure to make your way over to all of today's participants and be prepared to be amazed at their creativity and talent.

Featured Haunts On Thursday October 22

Quilt Shop Gal

Jane’s Quilting

U Can Quilt 2

RMS Handcrafted

Everyone Deserves A Quilt (that's me!)

Life In The Scrapatch

***********************

So what does one do when it Halloween time?

She decorates!

And she makes a Halloween quilt, of course!

Here's a not-so-great picture of the entire quilt, as the wind was not cooperating with me!

I love all these pumpkins!

Why not throw in a witch's hat for good measure?

This fabric is all quite old. 

When I decided to join the hop, I took a quick look at my stash and saw the pumpkin fabric. I didn't have very much of it, but knew that I wanted to use it for this project, and there was enough for a wall hanging. After a little more extensive search, I found all the coordinating fabrics and got right to work. 

I've always preferred to decorate with pumpkins for Halloween instead of ghoulish things (like the first picture, which is actually at my daughter's house) and here are some of my favorites from years past.

This pumpkin wall hanging was made using an Eleanor Burns pattern and is a family favorite. 

The pattern includes instructions for making some placemats, which I made, but I changed it up to better fit our needs. 

I made the basic pumpkin the same, but made the face parts separately and backed them with timtex.

The placemats are now an interactive game and the face changes constantly, depending on who's here.

With the changes I made, the placemats have become one of our family's favorite Halloween decorations and traditions!. :-)

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time!

Sadie, Lynn, and Mom had such a good time playing while I was fixing dinner that night. 

I look at this picture often because it makes me smile. As a matter of fact, I just showed it to Sadie last week and was so pleased that she still recognized Mom, who passed away 12/1/12.

These placemats are getting pretty worn out and I had thought about making a new set for this hop, but alas, time got away from me. Maybe next year. :-)

I mentioned a giveaway, didn't I?

The Fat Quarter Shop 
is giving away a 
$25 gift certificate 
each day of the hop. 

Enter below for your chance to win, and I'd love to have you comment about your favorite Halloween traditions.

October 22 expires October 23 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Design Wall Monday

I have two things on the wall today and both of them are so very near completion that I think I may be able to finish them this week. At the risk of jinxing myself, finishing includes the  quilting and binding. WooHoo!!

First up is the new version of the Star Parade table runner. I finished piecing this Saturday afternoon and now it's ready for the quilting. I'm going to trim the corners and bind this one like the patterns. I should finish it tonight and I'll post pictures. 

Here's the original one that I made, before it was quilted. It's quilted and bound but I don't have any pictures of that yet. I will do that today and post both pictures. I did not trim this one, so you'll be able to see how each version looks.  

And I only have two more borders to add to this - Midnight Blue Star by Karen Combs.

I was asked to make this for someone and I like how it's turned out. It's pretty small, 48" x 48" so quilting it shouldn't take too long and I'll just do it on my domestic. (Well, that's also because my HQ16 is at the "spa" getting some rehab work done.  :-(

What are you working on today?

Check out what others are up to today

I'll be hooking up to these two sites later today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times

and

Monday Makings

Fall

It's definitely Fall 

and a perfect weekend for soup!

I don't know about you, but I usually like soup better the second day so today's lunch was awesome.