The snow continues...

Each day a little more falls. We all piled into the Suburban or 'Burb' as my husband calls his beast and headed out for a little shopping yesterday. We didn't really buy much but it was nice to get out.

We are enjoying spending time as a family all together for the first time in 2 years. The grandkids are a lot of fun. The 5 1/2 month old has found her voice and gives you her opinion of things every once in a while. I think she might be an early talker like her mom. The 3 year old is a busy guy. Keeps all of us busy! He got a kid sized snow shovel yesterday so we will let him burn off some of his energy today shoveling the snow that has come done over night! We need to do some work in the back yard so our little poodle can find a place to do her business! She is not so fond of snow touching her belly as she walks!

I have gotten some hand sewing done while here. I order some more of the "Recipe for Friendship" after my birthday and it arrived a day or two before we left. In the package with my order was a little pack of ten 1.5" squares of a fabric line (can't remember the name of it). They were so cute but not enough for something on their own so I added 6 more squares of some fabrics I had in the scrap bin and added some sashing and borders of another fabric from the scrap bin and made a mini quilt - all by hand. I will share pictures when I get back home to my camera.

I also have some Christmas-y grandmother's flower garden 'flowers' that I am appliqueing onto Christmas fabric squares that I will put into a quilt sometime soon. I was going to use the 'flowers' as my Christmas ornaments one year but didn't like how they were going together so I aborted that project and made something else. Now they will be repurposed into a quilt. I am hoping to get the hand sewing done on this trip and then I can get the quilt together when I get home.

We are possibly going to be bringing our grandson home with us to give his parents a little break since they are tentatively planning a trip over in a few days to visit some friends. The weather will be the determining factor I am sure.

Merry Christmas!

We are having a white Christmas over here in Eastern Washington! Each day a little more snow. Since our daughter lives at the top of a dead end hill the road is a bit dicey, even with 4-wheel drive but we don't have a lot of driving we need to do. We opened our presents last night as our SIL is already off to work this morning at the hospital.

Our 3 yr. old grandson got a little practice opening presents the night before for his birthday so he was doing a great job last night - even helping others open theirs. Our 5 month old granddaughter liked all the excitement too and thought the wrapping paper was pretty tasty!

Today will be pretty low key around here. Lots of playing with toys and visiting. Probably some eating will be added in there too!

Hope you and yours are enjoying a beautiful and fun holiday season!

Alicia

Still cold! More snow!

In fact, enough snow came down yesterday that we decided to delay our departure for an extra day. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and let us get across the pass and Grammy, Papa and Aunt Rebecca will be able to celebrate the grandson's 3rd birthday a day late. He won't know what hit him - celebrating his birthday one day and the next is Christmas Eve and we will be opening more presents!

This first picture is of our old footed bathtub that someday will be a fun water feature, now nestled in its little alcove and full of snow. We got about 10-11" total I think. It is quite beautiful but with all the hills and trees around here things can get a bit messy!
This second picture is the setting sun shining on our Monkey Puzzle Tree. It is the same age as our son (well, we have had it that long but it was a tiny little tree (about 1" tall) when my parents gave it to him for a birth gift almost 19 years ago. It has been planted in this spot for 16 years and is now at least 20 feet tall I would guess. I looked out my sewing room window as I was doing my ironing and saw the snow sparkling in the setting sun so I had to go out and get a few more pictures. If you like snow pictures, you can see more here.

Merry Christmas!

It's a little early but I might not have a great snow picture on Christmas Day!

Time on my hands?

Not exactly! I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off, that is, until yesterday when the snow just kept a-comin'! We ended up with about 3-4" which I know doesn't sound like a lot to those of you who live in places that get snow all the time. But, you have to remember that we live in an area with lots of hills and lots of trees on those hills and we don't get a lot of snow so we don't have a lot of snow plows so the roads don't always get cleared. So, all in all, it can get pretty ugly, pretty fast!

My week started with a busy Sunday including church, a Christmas party and a trip to the airport to pick up our daughter and her cat. They arrived around 11 pm so we didn't get to bed until about 1. We were all up before 7 and after a quick breakfast of oatmeal the father/daughter appliance repair team was on the road.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I helped with the Christmas program rehearsals at the small private school at our church. The program was supposed to be last night but was cancelled due to the snow. And the kids were just getting good! I am not sure if they will end up doing it after the new year or not.

Tuesday night was craft night so I made a German Chocolate Cake (my absolute favorite) to take over to celebrate my birthday one day early. The daughter came along and worked on knitting her second slipper. I received this lovely gifts. I already have a plan for the charm pack and yesterday I put together the puzzle.

These two fabrics were my birthday gift from my daughter. She got them up in Alaska and I love the colors and the salmon design. The ideas are also circling my brain for this fabric. There are two yards of each so I think I will make a new quilt for our bed. The jar is Sitka Rose Jelly from, you guessed it, Sitka AK. It is pretty tasty - we cracked it open last night at dinner.

Yesterday, as I said, I got to hang out in the sewing room and watch the snow fall. The results of my day there is 5 minis ready to have their bindings hand sewn on. The minis are my Triptych, Plain Jane and Favorite Things swaps for December. I hope to do the hand sewing today and maybe even get them to the post office if the roads aren't too bad.

Finished another

I managed to get another top finished today. These are the fabrics I received from my friends for my birthday last December. I have had them sitting in my sewing room awaiting inspiration. I tried one Disappearing 9-Patch for a doll quilt swap and was inspired to try a more planned out one so a few weeks ago I starting cutting and then got delayed in the sewing process. Then I realized I was sewing the 9-patch blocks together wrong so I had to do some ripping. Usually having to rip things out makes me want to put the project aside for some other time but this time I got right back up on the old horse, so to speak, and got the blocks together and then cut them and last night I laid them out and today I got them together. I am somewhat satisfied with the result but I think I will reserve further disappearing 9-patch projects to doll quilt size!

My next project is going to be sewing together my Road to Jericho blocks - I think I will make two smaller quilts instead of one larger one. I have to figure out how to split up the 141 blocks though!

One top done...

and I am pretty pleased with the results. It is about 69"X78" but I haven't decided if I want to add a border or not and then what the border would be if I did.

Last night when we got home from work the power was out so I figured I could at least lay out a quilt. I actually did two layouts and then I got started putting this one together since the power came back on fairly quickly. I had it into rows before I was done for the night. This morning I got the rows put together. I really love how it turned out! I am hoping that I will get the other top together today so I will have more pictures to show.

20 yards

This week I managed to get the rest of that gifted fabric washed and pressed and there were about 15 yards! So that makes a total of about 20! There were lots of 'double' pinks and pink and red fabrics so I think someone was going to make a Valentine's quilt. I don't think I will go that far but I think I will add either some brown or tan and put something together as I do not need that much red and pink in my stash!

Yesterday evening as I was working on sewing some more blocks made from my birthday fabric from last year I realized I was putting them together wrong so now I have to rip out what I had done so far and re-sew. Luckily I was not all done with the blocks and I don't have to rip them completely to put them together right. That will be one of my projects for today since I am not going to work with my husband as his finger is doing quite well.

I need a moment to catch my breath!

I have been going pretty steady for the last week or so, especially over the weekend. Thursday I drove across the state to help out when our grandson had oral surgery. I am glad I went since I think he appreciated having his grammy there for comfort. Why is it that when you give a kid a day to just watch as many movies as he wants he is contrary and wants to be up and going? Normally he begs to watch something!

As he was getting back to normal Friday evening I got a call from his Papa to let me know that he had managed to cut his right index finger badly enough to require stitches so I headed back home first thing Saturday morning. We went back to Urgent Care to have it checked that afternoon and then spent the evening doing most of our Christmas shopping for the grandkids. Man, was I tired!

Sunday I was able to have brunch with a friend and then watched her daughter's soccer game before heading home.

While I was traveling I got some birthday presents - three fat quarters of sock monkey fabric from my niece and three pieces of Northcutt's Flower of the Month Carnation fabrics from my sister. So that gives me two more quilts to make. My grandson was quite impressed with all the fabrics and thought the sock monkey fabric should be his so I will probably make a lap quilt for the grandkids to use when visiting here out of those. I am thinking that the carnation fabric might be used for a block exchange I am doing. I need to come up with a block or colors or something soon!

This last picture is the fabrics I received in the Mini Quilt In A Bag Swap on Flickr. They came from Bronwyn in Australia and I need to use them to make a little quilt for her. These just arrived today so I don't really have a plan yet.

So this week I am back to work with the hubby because of his finger. Today he was able to do all the work but we only worked a half day. Tomorrow we have a full day scheduled already so I may have to get my hands dirty!

Isn't this the cutest?

After picking up packages at the post office recently for my husband and daughter, finally I got one for me! This little darling came from Trisha from less than 50 miles away! Wrapped in the handmade dishcloth is a bar of handmade soap too! I still have several swap packages that should arrive soon so I anxiously check the post office each day!

Last week I got two boxes of fabric from a friend who doesn't sew. A lot of the fabric was scraps from a scrubs factory (not sure that is what it would be called but couldn't come up with another name), some was fabric I will use for LWR quilts but there was quite a bit of 'good' quilting fabric also. When I prewashed the white I bought yesterday I also prewashed the lighter fabrics in this group. There were a lot of 1/2 yd pieces and some fat quarters or fat eighths in the pile for a total of about 5 1/2 yards!!! After I get back from my little trip this weekend I will have to get the rest washed up to see how much I got all together!

A little sewing, a lot of other

I thought having an empty nest would make my life less hectic but no, I just keep getting more involved! I have always been active at church but now I am doing some math tutoring for the small private school we have at the church. For the next two weeks I am also helping with their Christmas program and during one of those weeks I will help out in the office while the principal/director is on vacation.

I also need to get the trailer cleaned out for its new occupant who will be arriving on the 14th. I just need to wipe it all down and get the cushion covers back on and get them in there and I will probably get one bed made since she arrives at 10 pm at the airport.

I also need to get my Christmas ornaments made - I know what I am doing I just need to do it! Meanwhile, I need to get the 72 log cabin blocks put together into a quilt top and I have started working on a quilt using the fabrics I got last December from my quilting/crafting friends for my birthday. I hope to have the top done by my birthday in two weeks. I have had the fabrics waiting for me where I could see them frequently and I finally came up with a pattern I wanted to use that wouldn't require cutting the fabrics into really small pieces as they are larger prints. More pictures to come as I get more done. The funny thing is I bought brown Dimples and white Kona to use with the prints and have had them waiting also but I have used some of the white for some other projects that needed white so now I didn't have enough and had to go buy some more to be able to finish it off as I want it! Aaaaarrrrrggghhhh!

Tomorrow I head over to visit the grandbabies. The oldest one has to go to the dentist for quite a bit of dental work (poor enamel) so I am going over to try to be helpful. On the way I will meet my sister for lunch and give her a couple of boxes of holly for holiday decorating. She just happens to be crossing the state at the same time I am so we will meet in the middle. I need to cut that holly today while it isn't raining and also prune the grapes some as my daughter is going to make a grapevine garland around her living room for ornaments instead of fighting with kids knocking over a Christmas tree! Not a bad plan I think except for the part where I am cutting the grapevines!