Merry Christmas to All !!

It's Christmas Eve and I am tucked warmly into my sister in law's home ... my eldest niece has just left for church services with her boyfriend and his family, my DH and his mom have just left to go pick up the younger niece from a friend's house. Adding the teens back in to the house this evening will bring more holiday excitement aka noise into the house - which is so wonderful! Christmas is more funs with kids and of course my house is usually just boys so this year with my niece's will be special!

We have shopped and shopped and not because it is the season for spending but because we have searched out what we hope will make our loved ones most happy. I can't wait to see people's faces tomorrow morning. Tonight we will have an incredible dinner prepared by my SIL and then open just one gift before bed. Tomorrow will be presents and more food and family and fun.

#1 niece and I did a run to Hobby Lobby and picked up fabric and tools for her sewing machine that I sent down last year when they moved. The old Kenmore is probably from the 60's - but solid metal - no computers on board and is one of those machines that will never die! So later we will have the walk through of care and maintenance and sewing lessons. We picked out some really cool fabric and I think she wants to make a tote for me, but I got more of it and am going to make a quilt for her. She will be surprised.

#2 niece is interested 'maybe' in crocheting, so I have picked up a learning kit with hooks and some great purple yarn for her to try and see if she likes it. If not that's okay, she likes crafting so sooner or later something will 'stick'.

It's been a great trip -although I dread the long drive home. I drove right by MaryJo's fabrics in Gastonia and will probably go right by it on the way out also - only because I know in April I will be back with a gaggle of girls from the retreat and we will be going to MaryJo's at that time.

Well - signing of now - going to call my baby who is home alone this holiday - well he's with Merlin but mostly alone - and make sure he got his pizzas from Lou Malnati's and is safely home for the night. This is the first Christmas apart for us and although my brain tells me it's a natural part of letting them grow up and be independent.... my heart still misses him.

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, give thanks and love - Toby

Another quilt done and gone...

This is the twin sized quilt I made and sent to a friend in NC that was celebrating her big 5-0 birthday with a quilt donation. She challenged her BB friends to donate a quilt hoping to get 50 (the same as her age to be) which would then be donated to an orphanage in North Carolina.

This is actually made from a charm pack (5" squares - one from each print of a collection) and a lovely background fabric in a soft white with blue swirls. Much better in person than as seen here. Anyway - I bought the charm pack and the background on our trip to Texas almost 2 years ago. The pattern was something I just made up as I went along and resulted in staggered framed boxes of the focal fabrics set vertically with sashing. More of the strips are in the border surrounding the center. I really enjoyed making it and hope some young person will love it also!

I have been home just a week from a busines strip to Calgary AB where I did some Christmas shopping, and some crafting on some small needlework I brought from home. It was very cold and the ground was snowladen, so we stayed in a lot! This trip we decided to stay in a downtown B&B (at a fraction of the cost of a hotel) and it was really nice. We met several people at breakfast and then saw them each day of the stay and it was like visting with friends for that hour every morning! I think we'll look at doing this again when it makes sense.

I am just one week from going on vacation for the year end and cannot wait. It's been a very busy fall and there's still so much to get done... I am looking forward to the long quiet drive...okay maybe not so quiet I am going to have Mark make us a USB stick of sing a long christmas carols... and I am excited to see the girls (my nieces) and shop with them and cook with them and just enjoy being with the family. I will miss my own family but maybe next year we can be with them somewhere.

That's it for today - I'll try to get back soon with more quilt pictures!!

The wall to be

Well - darn if Blogger doesn't want to upload another picture - let me try another post!!!


This is the wall I started building this past weekend - you can see from halfway back the driveway (yes my front yard is about 100 feet deep (and the back is twice as long!!)

You can see here how it curves from the driveway in then out around the giant old blue spruce then in then out to go around a new to be planted Norway Spruce and then it will sweep back up to the house. I still need to get the back border of the wall in, and the top layer of brick on the right - and then I am also replacing the gray block that is in the raised bed on the other side of the sidewalk. This new block matches our paver sidewalk and will bring more color to the front of the house. It will be planted with evergreens, and red barberry rockets and crimson barberry shrubs (to be moved in the spring) and hostas and purple and red and yellow perennials. Also little butterfly corner....

This weekend Stephen and Tony amended my garden area to plant my 2 blue berries and two blackberries - hoping for some fruit next summer. That's in the back yard!! Our neighbor had to have his big shady honey locust taken down last week -so now I will get more sun in my back yard. Love the sun but I will miss his beautiful tree.

Finally getting my groove back.....

It's been a while since I blogged - but life has just been whizzing right on bye!! Let's back up - trip to DC in August for work - then home for two weeks and back on the road for some R&R in Seattle with Fred and Family - made some new friends, met lots of new people at a great party in the city and celebrated labor day (or the lack thereof) with some new and old friends. Then up to Vancouver for two days of work, then home again and back to work! whew - I need vacation from my vacation! Stephen stayed home and cared for Merlin all was well. He is busy with school and just enjoying it so much more this year!

I signed up for the COF quilt retreat next April in Charlotte NC so I am already working on a round robin challenge (which I cannot share with you until it's over!) and I had a queen quilt - Daisies for Kristen - which I just popped in the mail today to Kristen in TN. Kristen is Mormon and has been on her mission rip the past two years - she comes home this week and her mom is my BFF from UT Brenda. SO when Brenda started re-doing Kristen's room for her arrival I was solicited and quickly jumped on board to make Kristen's new room daisy-licious! Shown above - the colors are much brighter than it shows - weird light early in the morning!

I have been really fighting the asthma this year - all year and realized two weeks ago that I needed more help. So back to my favorite pulmonologist I went and after a week on Prednisone and two other steroids I can breathe again - and I can be active again - and I felt like superwoman last weekend - so of course I got in over my head and ordered two skids of landscape block to be delivered so I could re-scape the front of the house! Well - now the block is here and my dosage is lower and not quite as SuperMom but I went at it for 6 hours on Saturday - digging, trenching, graveling, leveling and laid in a whole skid and boy am I sore!! I am not even half way done but all of the bottom layer is in and so fdar I am very happy with what I think it will look like. Making a lot of work for myself for the spring - but what the heck it was time for a big change and Mark still won't let me demolish the front porch....hmmmmmmm

Getting back into it!

So - when last I wrote I was trying to get back to sewing... well I still have trouble tearing myself away from the big screen TV each night - having shows on the DVR makes it so easy to watch back to back episodes of may favorites and before I know it the night is gone!

Anyway - I have started on my nine patches - and the first batch of 17 sewn late one night had some serious measurement problems and ripping out nine-patches is a horrible waste of time for 1/8 inch overall shortage - so I have just cut new strips and am paying more attention to those seam allowances and making sure they are truly 'scant'. I got a set of 17 more cut last night and pressed and if I do a little every night I will make the deadline - no problem. I may slow down a bit when I get to the ones cut from FQs but once I do the math and have a cutting plan I think it'll be okay. The shorties - I can use in some other project of my own or maybe in a pieced backing.

Did I tell you I signed up to go to a quilt retreat? Well I did!!!! I am so excited. Next year, spring, Charlotte NC, 100 quilters that I have been sharing with on the HGTV BBS for more years than I can recall. I am also in a Round Robin with a group of them which is kind of a cool thing - here's how that works.

We are each in a group of 5-6 quilters that signed up, we each make a center block of our choice, pieced, applique, crazy, whatever. We send to the next person and they add a border on all sides that must be pieced, appliqued, or whatever and they send it on. We have a long time between mailings which is an advantage for me. At the end - when we finish the last round we send it to one person who is going to take them all to the retreat and there will be a show and tell and delivery at the retreat. So we live in anticipation of what the finished piece will be. The center block can be no more than 9.5 inches and each border no more than 5.5 inches - so it will finish wall hanging size but one could always add extra borders and make it a throw or larger. I think it will be great fun. Once I get my center block done. I am torn on what to do - I started a Cross Sticth that I was going to put borders on - but now I am afraid I may not finish it on time. Forgot that I had not done cross sticth in 20 years and this one has like 5 shades of gold in it! I do have a back-up block in case I don't get it done!


We also have small groups for the retreat overall and mine is a combo of old and new friends so I am really looking forward to growing relationships over the next 9 months and then meeting in Charlotte.

This past week Mark and I got our reservations made for Labor day also! We will be in Seattle from Friday night until Wed and then up to Vancouver for me to work for 2 days and Mark to sightsee. Should be fun - can't wait to see the family. Stephen is starting school again on Monday, so he will be home with Merlin, enjoying the single life again! We always come home from being away and they are like best buds, which is nice to see. The rest of the time Mark and I dote on the dog so much I think he neglects Stephen. Are we giving that dumb dog too much credit? He is awfully dumb - though we love him to pieces!!

Here's my baby - when he was a baby......now he's 6 and has gray coming in around the muzzle...
He went to the vet last week for his annual visist and he is down 3 pounds. Not a lot to you and me, but it's 10% of his body weight, so we need to get a couple back on him. He should be around 34 pounds. Small enough to snuggle and big enough to be a 'real dog'. I think the weight loss is from restricting his human food.... we also put him back on Omega-3's for a shiny coat and allergy protection.



That's all for now - Toby

Where has my quilting gone?

I have been asking myself that same question for a while now. Other than alterations to Caroline's dress I haven't been near the machine in too long. I did sew some binding down last week - on a runner I made over 7 months ago!! so - something is wrong!!

I decided one sure fire way to kick start myslef againwas to goget some more fabric - so I signed up for a 9 patch exchange on line and it is in Civil War Reproduction fabrics (which I do NOT own) so off I went last night. Fortunately we have a quilt shop near me that I know specializes in these fabrics so I went down after work and spent a good two hours stroking and matching fabrics. I walked out a whole lot lighter in the wallet but I love the fabrics I chose and I got most of it on sale. I also hit the FQ sale and so I got some variety for the future also. Now I am excited to get my 9 patches done and mailed in - though the swap doesn't complete until Sept. I will use this as a way to get back into my room!

I actually had started clearing the room to prepare it for Stephen but we have decided to see how he does his first semester back at school and if he gets good grades he will move down then - so I get to keep my room for 4 more months. I don't mind giving it to him, I hope it is part of his motivation to do well. I'll have lots of time to sew in it after he graduates and gets a job and leaves for his new life in 3 more years! (fingers crossed!)

So it is in a bit of upheaval right now and I hope to spend some time down there this weekend fixing it back up so I can use it!

Fallen off ?

Well - I fell off the blog for a bit - so the last day of vacation - nothing really spectacular -

We headed out early from Mineral Point, going north til we could catch the road east that would take us to "Little Norway' . Mark and I are big fans of the old Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 so this was a must see. Little Norway is a property just SW of Madison (still part of the drift) anyway this area was setttled by Norwegian immigrants. For the exposition (previosuly mentioned) Norway had a rendition of a traditional StaveKirche (church) built in Norway then dis-assembled and shipped to chicago and re-assembled. This was the Norway display at the exposition. After the exposition the Stavekirche was sold at auction to a Norwegian man who had it moved to a vacation property near Geneva WI. This property was later sold to WIlliam Wrigley (gum anyone?) There it stayed until the mid 1930's when Bill decided to sell it to a Norwegian friend of his who once again had it dismantled and moved to the farm (it's present location). The farm had originally been settled by a young couple who lived in a dug-out (literally a small room dug into the wall of a hill) for several years. When their second daughter was born they built a small cabin outside the dugout and had yet another daughter (or was it 2?) anyway - today there are little buildings dating back to the turn of the previous century ringing a lovely green space. So the Stavekirche moved there and the buildings were restored and inhabited by family and used as a summer getaway place for over 70 years. Today the property is still in family hands and is open to the public. It houses the largest collection of Norwegian artifacts held by an individual and is a wonderful example of how the Norwegians settled and lived. You can picnic at the park and there is a small gift shop. Tours are given by local girls in traditional garb and they are very informative - highly recommend.

Well it rained on us while we finished our tour of Little Norway, so by heading south we could drive out of the rain. Several rolling hillsides later we arrived in New Glarus. This town was settled by immigrants from Switzerland. We arrived in time for lunch and queued up at the traditional Swiss New Glarus Hotel for a yummy soup and sandwich combo. But first........ as we pulled into town we espied a resale shop on a major corner and there on the front step was a fine set of kissing dutch children lawn ornaments. Mark has always wanted a set, so after parking and despite my grumbling tummy we went there first and purchased the set. They have their original paint job which includes tulips in assorted colors and were just wonderful. They also weigh a ton being made out of cast concrete, so we had lunch then drove back around the block, and lovingly secured them in several blankets in the trunk. I'll have to post a picture. They are pretty darn cute.

Well that was the end of our sightseeing, we had a deadline to get home so we set off crossing into Illinois near Rockford and then caught the highway (and heavy traffic) back to Roselle. The kissers are in the front of the house under our big spruce tree. Far from the road so they won't go 'missing' and close enough that I can see them and smile every day. Mark wants to now plant and build a whole vignette around them - more on that later!!