Saturday, December 31, 2016

A Homemade Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  We were able to see all of our kids, parents, and some siblings at various times over the holidays.
My friend Kim gave us this awesome ornament that I put our current family picture in - what a keepsake!
We received some lovely gifts and I'm so thankful to everyone for thinking of us.  It is also fun to receive Christmas cards this time of year and catch up with far away friends.

For the purpose of my quilting blog, I'm going to share a few hand made gifts - even though only two of them are quilt related.

By now you all know I LOVE the color orange - I talk about it a LOT on this blog.  My oldest daughter picked up on that and gave me some "orange" gifts for Christmas!  She made a word cloud, using words that describe a person who likes the color orange and framed it. (I will share a close up of this one later).  She also framed a quote  by Frank Sinatra that says "Orange is the happiest color"!  I love these! And you can see an orange journal, which I think I will use as a quilt journal, and orange lotion :)
If you're interested in making a word cloud picture go check out:
https://worditout.com/word-cloud/create




I can finally show the wool table mat I made for my daughter Michelle.  I shared some close up photos of the stitching on the flowers before.  I'll share a better photo of the whole mat tomorrow.


My son-in-law made our granddaughter a bear chair! It looks like she will have plenty of fun with this!

And my daughter Megan made her husband a t-shirt quilt using some of his old favorite t-shirts!  It turned out fantastic!

We also received a hand made gift from our granddaughter but I don't have a picture of it yet, so I will share that and some close-ups of these other gifts tomorrow.

Have a terrific New Year's Eve!!

Friday, December 23, 2016

The Gift That Keeps on Giving!


These pictures loaded out of order again!  Oh well... Here are the last three gifts of my Countdown to Christmas package from My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe.  This has been a fun treat this holiday season!

Number 11 - Celebrate the Season (Spring) - patterns for three little quilts.
Number 10 - pictured below - patterns for seven simple projects and some pretty ribbon!

And Number12 - the gift that keeps on giving - a 6 month mystery quilt project!  Apparently I'll be receiving and pattern and a kit every month for six months to make a mystery quilt!  I haven't made a mystery quilt in a long time - this is going to be FUN!

My blog posts will be sporadic the next week, while celebrating Christmas with my family.  I hope you and your family have a truly Merry Christmas!  We will look forward to more Quilty projects in the New Year!

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Show and Tell

Here are some lovely show and tell quilts from some members of the CO West Quilt Guild!  Enjoy!

I am also going to share another family favorite recipe that we especially enjoy around the holidays - Pretzel Jello Salad.

 Pretzel Jello Salad
Crust:
2 2/3 cups pretzels, crushed
3 T. sugar
3/4 cup margarine, melted
Mix, put in 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes - cool.
Filling:
1 - 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup Cool Whip
Mix together with mixer and spread over cooled crust.
Jello:
1 - 6 oz. pkg. strawberry Jello
2 cups hot water
1 pint frozen (or fresh) strawberries
Mix together, then add 1 cup of cold water.  Let this partially set in the mixing bowl (for about 30 minutes), then pour over the cream cheese filling.  Refrigerate until completely set and the top with the remainder of the Cool Whip. Yummy!!





Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Finished in Time!


Gift number 8 is a cute lime green bag, with three fat quarters and a lime green lip balm!  Lime green is my second favorite color - next to orange :)  Gotta love this happy green!

Big news!  I finished quilting this quilt for my good friend, just in time to give it to her for Christmas.  I hope she likes it!



It ended up being really fun to quilt!  I was channeling my inner Angela Walters - who is my quilting hero.  You can check out her new "Midnight Quilt Show" at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RALAoECvKPA

And no.... you don't have to watch it at midnight :)


I did a little ruler work in the center star, but most of it is free motion feathers, swirl-hook, ribbon candy and even some stippling (I haven't stippled on a quilt for a very long time!)

I am continuing to enjoy my mini bread maker.  Last nights loaf looked and tasted DELICIOUS.  Just ask my husband!








And today I opened gift number 9 - two pink, flowery scissors!  How fun is that?
I hope you're having a wonderful day!


Monday, December 19, 2016

The Countdown Continues


Well, these pictures are all out of order but I'm still operating without the full use of my computer so this will have to do.

The bottom picture shows gift number six - Clover Flower Frill Templates!  And number seven - Mary Ellen's Best Press!  It is fun opening a little quilty gift every day :)



And just for more fun - look at the adorable bag a little girl in my Sunday School class was carrying yesterday.  SO cute :)

Hope you're having a wonderful day!


Saturday, December 17, 2016

CWQG Ornament Exchange


Wednesday night was the Colorado West Quilt Guild's Christmas party.  We had a potluck dinner and an ornament exchange.  The ornaments were all handmade and I was so impressed with the variety!  I snapped pictures of a few that I could get my hands on :)





The cute little snowman ornament pictured below is made from a small battery operated tea light!  How clever is that!  That is the one I received, but I ended up trading with Betty for the little cowgirl ornament pictured right so I could give it to my daughter, who likes all things "country" :)


Here is gift #5 on my Countdown to Christmas!  It is a nice notepad and in the upper right hand corner it says, "A friend is worth a thousand stitches."  So true!

The first thing I am going to write on this notepad is a list of all the projects I want to work on in 2017.  Then perhaps I'll break it down by month.

Have a great day!  I was out early this morning walking (for exercise) at the mall and the stores were all opening up at 8:00 and people were out shopping already!

Friday, December 16, 2016

Countdown to Christmas!



I decided to participate in My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe's Countdown to Christmas this year.  http://www.mygirlfriendsquiltshoppe.com

I received a bag full of goodies earlier this week and I get to open one a day for 12 days.  It's kind of fun to see what a new day will bring!  This was a little gift to myself as I'm participating in the hustle and bustle of getting ready for Christmas.

So far I've received a new rotary cutter, a kit for a fat quarter pop-up container, some Wonder Clips and a Strip it, Tube it ruler.

I hope you're treating yourself to a little fun this holiday season :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Sewing With Baby!


My daughter is trying to make a t-shirt quilt for her husband for Christmas.  Yesterday she had a little helper who wanted to be involved in every step of the process!


Finally the baby just took over the chair and all! Mother's little helper - too cute :)

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Show and Tell


Here are the rest of the Show and Tell pictures I took at the Hi Fashion party yesterday!







This is the Western Slope Row by Row quilt.  I picked up all the kits, but haven't put mine together yet!  This one turned out great!