Challenge Quilt Week 4 - Finished Quilt - Christmas

This past week was just not very productive for me. Not only did my computer network go down, and it is still not up, I had some problems when I started sewing the rows together on my challenge quilt. So, I don't have much to show in the way of progress. I hope this week will be better. But there are bowl games on and I have company coming in Thursday, so I bet I don't get a lot more done on it.

EDIT: This is what happens when I am half asleep. I forgot to remind you to check out Nicole, Lisa, Cindy and see where they are on our challenge. I am sure they are further along than I am.



I did get my Vintage Holiday quilt bound finally and it will be on my bed come January 1st. I enlarged the pattern so it will even hang down on the sides .

I have one more Christmas decoration to share with you. This was a Christmas present. Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen? Reindeer ornaments and a Santa hanging from a sleigh. I just love, love, love it. I am afraid I have found something else I am going to have to collect, lol.

Aud and Annie and new Snowglobes

It's amazing how much a computer can become a part of your life. It is insidious, and that happens before you realize it. I feel like I have lost an integral part of myself, and that is just sick! I am having withdrawal pains, so I finally gave up and set up a network I can use with a land line. That is the pits! Supposedly a new modem/router will be here at the latest on Monday and I can go back to my easy wireless. I have a new IPodTouch I want to start loading up and I NEED the DSL speed and wireless ability. Would this be whining? lol

This is a picture of Aud and her Annie. I got each of the granddaughters one of them and she liked them so well when I showed them to her that I decided she needed one too.

Here is a picture of the Neiman Marcus' musical snowglobe celebrating their 100 years of being in business. I can't tell what it plays of course. Aud said I "needed" this one for some reason.

And this is the newest Radko musical snowglobe. It is really pretty and rotates as it plays. Pretty snazzy. Oh, and it plays Santa is Coming to Town.

Computer Problems and New Banner

Hello, all.

I have lots of things I wanted to say, and some pictures I wanted to show, and my computer is acting like a prima donna, so it "aint" happening. Have lost my network and can't get it going. Will try again tomorrow to see if I can solve the problem. Have spent way too much time talking to the "internet gurus" attached to Link Sys and AT&T. I think my blood pressure has gone up 10 degrees!

I did manage to change my banner. This is a piece of canvas that my 4 year old granddaughter's school class painted and then drew on. They drew their "portraits" and "signed" their names on it. Katy's name and picture are on the right hand side about 2/3's of the way up. This particular piece was then auctioned off during the Cystic Fibrosis fundraiser last year.

We found out Katy has CF a little over a year ago. For those of you familiar with this disease you know it is terminal. Lots of research is being done on it and hopefully, there will be a cure someday. As of now, the mean age is 38.

As to Katy, she is as healthy as she can be under the circumstances due to the careful and vigilant management of her health by my daughter and her husband. We expect to have her around us for many years.

Not sure why I chose to mention this at this time, other than I am thankful that she is as healthy as she is under the circumstances. But when you say your prayers, please include a cure for CF. There are lots of families out there that need one.

Challenge Quilt Week 3 & Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I hope it is the best one yet for each and everyone of you.

I am very pleased with the way my challenge quilt is turning out. Sometimes when I see a quilt in my mind and buy fabric accordingly, I am not real sure I am going to like the outcome. But this one is looking like I thought it would and that is wonderful.

I think I am going to add another small border between the black one and the large red one, but I have to sew all of the blocks together first and determine if I have enough scraps to do that. I would like it to be a little larger and I think a small pieced border between the two might look good. Anyone have an opinion?

I am in this challenge with Nicole, Lisa, and Cindy so you might want to check their blogs to see their progress. I think we are about where we should be for now, but who knows, lol.

Snowglobes

I finally got the remainder of my snowglobes photographed. This was the one I got last year. They seem to get bigger every year.

These are the small ones I have. One of my grandsons gave me the one on the right.

Of course we had to have a snowman in there too.

Another snowman The king of Christmas
All of the nutcrackers. This one is really beautiful and so detailed. I don't know what any of them play because I can't remember, lol, and they are too heavy to pick up, and when I played them I can't remember what they played, lol.

Challenge Update Week #2 and Snowglobes

I have finally made some progress on my blended quilt challenge. This is the center of the quilt. There are 8 blocks in it and they are surrounded by setting triangles. This is going to be a dark quilt and right now you can't tell much about it. I am having to make these blocks a little at a time so I can get the colors right in it.

This challenge is with Nicole, Lisa, and Cindy to finish this by the end of January. I believe they are much further along that I am, so be sure you check out their progress for this week. Hopefully I will make better progress soon, lol.

This was the fourth snowglobe I received. This one is so crazy I just love it.

This quilt is made from a pattern called Christmas Lanterns. It is in a book called Successful Scrap Quilts by Judy Turner and Margaret Rolfe. I used Hollywood and Vine fabric by Moda. I used this one to photograph the remaining snowglobes I have. I will try to get them posted this week.

In the window is a stained glass picture I made a long time ago. I just loved to work with stained glass but my hands and wrists just hurt too much to continue doing it.

Christmas Decorations

First of all, I want to thank everyone for checking on Aud and I this week. We were only out of power on that first day, and since then have faired fairly well. I am so thankful we have not had the problems so many people in Oklahoma and Kansas and Missouri have had. There are still a lot of poeple in OKC without power, and some without water. Both of us have ended up sick however. My cold has turned into bronchitis so I have been coughing like an idiot all week, and Aud is sneezing. Today we ventured out and did some errands, because, tomorrow is supposed to bring snow. I can hardly wait! lol

We finally got the rest of the Christmas Decorating done. It is pretty sparse but both of us were just too tired to do anymore on it.
These are the snowmen I have picked up along the way. The Santa plate is wood. I painted it in the 80's.

Naivity set I made from "scratch". I poured the greenware, cleaned it, fired it, painted it, and decorated it with gold. The Santa was also a piece I made, as are the two vases.

Dining Room centerpiece and candles

Living room decorated.

The Christmas tree is surrounded with all of the stuffed animals Aud has had forever and some of my painted santas.

Tomorrow I will try to post some more of my snowglobes.

AND, I have made one whole block on my quilt challenge!!! Yea for me!

Monday Post #2 - Roman Stripes Quilt

This is the quilt that I had on the table when I was taking pictures of my snowglobes. The pattern is Roman Stripes. The fabric is the first Folk Art Christmas from Robyn Pandolph. I think it came out in 1999 or 2000. It was one of the first quilts I did, and I was playing with the blocks and it came out like this. Had I known what I was after at that time, it probably would have looked better, :>)

The book the original pattern is in. The author is M'lss Ray Hawley

And this is the picture that inspired me.

Ice Storm December 2007

Aud asleep in her chair in front of the fireplace trying to stay warm.
Perry talking on the phone with her daughter, who had called to check on us.

Picture taken about dusk from the front door. The icycles have been dripping all day and they are still really long.

I have done nothing today. We woke up to no power around 8 am, and it didn't come back on until 3 this afternoon. Spent the day trying to stay warm. Thank heavens for fireplaces.

Did get the rest of what little decorating we intend to do done. Will post those pictures tomorrow.

I don't have anything to post on my quilt challenge with Nicole, Lisa or Cindy . Hopefully I can remedy that this week. I am still having problems with my ears and I guess I will have to go back to the doctor again, but I really don't have time, lol.

To everyone out there having bad weather I hope it stops soon.

Santas and More Musical Snowglobes

Aud and I have finally started decorating for Christmas. It will probably take us 3 days to do what little we intend to do since neither one of us is up to par yet. I think she has something of what I have.

This is the tree topper we use now. I painted this in the 1980s. The piece is tin and painted with acrylics.

This little burlap tree has clothespin ornaments on it that I hand painted in the '80s. My husband cut the clothespins out of wood and originally I intended to string them on a garland, but he cut the holes wrong, lol. Anyway I decided to use them in a tree. Originally I had 14 but one of them was lost in moving. That is Petunia the dog lurking under the table. She is housebroken and requires very little maintenance and never barks.

My larger santas are sitting on the hearth right now. Have not exactly decided where I am going to put them, but I had to get them out, lol. I tried to paint one a year when I was painting.

Closeup of my small santas. I made the majority of them. The cone shaped one is made from watercolor paper. The three in the front are done on driftewood. The hohoho is wood, as are the rest of the small ones. The larger one on the right I painted on a rock.

And here is today's musical snowglobe. For some reason the liquid inside has turned murky over the years. I think the dancing reindeer have stirred up too much dust and that is why. The song in this one is "Dashing through the Snow".

I haven't gotten around to making quilty things for Christmas to set things on so I will have to do that this coming year hopefully. I'll try to post some more tomorrow.

Santa Showed Up & Musical Snowglobe #2

So I am sleeping, taking a nap, right? Because I don't feel good, right? And the meds I am taking are making me drowsy. and "who should appear" in my foyer but Skinny Santa and his trusty Lion with a Hat.

And he is not happy with me. "Where are my Santas?" he asked. "How come you haven't gotten them out yet?" "Christmas will be here before you know it".

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah"! Bah humbug!

To appease the skinny long-legged red dressed tyrant I have at least gotten them out and now I have to figure out where they are going to reside until the end of the year. It has been three years since we have decorated and we don't have the same surfaces to decorate and the same areas, so it is going to be "fun" to figure that out.

And more on that saga in the coming days. At least it is started. He looks pretty proud of himself sitting there, doesn't he?

This is the second musical snowglobe I received. I don't remember what he plays but it is an unusual Christmas tune also.

And, thanks to all who posted, I believe I am going to be better. I am just wrung out at the moment. Hope to hit my stride in the next day or so.

Gloomy Wednesday and Musical Snowglobes

The weather here is gloomy, just like my health. I am running some fever now so maybe tomorrow I will feel like going to the doctor. I think that is called an oxymoron, lol. And I appreciate the posts you'll have written in sympathy.

So, since I don't feel like doing anything, I thought I would post a picture of the snowglobe that was the beginning of my collection of same. Aud decided a few years ago to buy me snowglobes for Christmas since I am "so hard to buy for". I just love them and always look forward to receiving them.

This one was the first and I think it is still my favorite. Aud thinks that Christopher Radko is the designer of this one, but I don't agree because it doesn't look like his Christmas work to me. It plays a tune, but I have never been able to figure out what it is.

If I was really good, I would have done a little presentation of it I guess and you could hear the music. Maybe when I grow up and learn how to use a computer I will do that, lol.

Bukhara - A Blended Quilt

This was my quilt of the month for November. It is in the Blended Quilts book which is no longer available. I believe however, it has been republished in the book Blended Quilts by In The Beginning. I call it Bukhara because I made it from the Maywood collection of the same name.

I have been know to do something different to an occasional backing for one of my quilts. This was one of them. I liked this fabric so much that I wanted to see more of some of the other fabric pieces than the little strips, so this was what I did to the back.
And here is a closeup. If I had not been so very tired of this quilt by the time I got to the border stage, I would have mitered them, and really should have. I just didn't want to go to the trouble at that point.

And where is this quilt now you ask? Well, the 17 year old grandson, Jackson, conned me out of it because he "needed" a quilt. So it lives with my grandson and I believe he does like it a lot. I get to visit it once in a while, lol.

PS...I am not posting anything new quilty-wise because I don't have anything new to show. I am working on some Christmas things and they shall remain secret. We have not decorated the house, and at the rate things are going we probably won't. And I have had an earache from Hades all week, caused by allergies I think, and I really don't feel good enough to kick up my heels, so to speak. So everybody pick up the pace to cover me, please. :>)

Hannah Montana Mania

Do these sweet young girls look like concert goers to you? Well, they are now. They were part of the 15000 strong at the Cox Center last night to see the hottest ticket in town, Hannah Montana.

This was the content of the email I received from their mother this morning, lol.

We have reached the apex of our Hannah Montana mania in our household and it was perfect timing that the Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana concert was tonight. So the girls and I went with some friends and I submit the following:

Tickets including facility fees, handling charges, etc: $ Expensive
Disposable Camera: $6
Parking: $10
Cotton Candy: $5
Glow sticks: $20
Sodas and Popcorn: $16
Bathroom Break: free
More Cotton Candy: $10
Two Bottles of Water: $6
Another Bathroom Break: still free
Souvenir Program: $ lots
Concert T-Shirts: $ even more

Getting to take your girls to their first concert, Finding your oldest daughter among 15,000 people after she became lost from the group, AND Recovering a lost jacket from security............. ...............................PRICE-LESS!!

She is braver than I am.

A Little More Gray Hair

Well, the Patriots won their game against Baltimore. I hope the gray hair that I got watching this game is what helped them win. Talk about sitting on the edge of my seat. Whoa!! So, my Sooners are going to the Fiesta Bowl and the Patriots escaped a bullet. All is still well in Oklahoma Blogland!

BOOMER SOONER!!!!!!

We did it!!!!! We won the Big 12 Championship!!!! There is joy in Oklahoma blogland!!!

Blended Quilt Challenge

Once upon a time in Blogland 4 quilty women decided that they needed a little excitement in their lives so the gauntlet was thrown and the weapons were drawn and a battle was declared. These fearless women are myself, Nicole, Lisa, and Cindy.

The rules of this challenge are as follows: Choose a quilt from one of the Blended Quilt books written by Marsha McCloskey and Sharon Evans Yenter of In The Beginning. Any quilt may be chosen and any fabric may be used. The challenge will run from December 1 through the last Monday in January. We four fine quilty ladies are supposed to have our quilts done by then. Not sure if there is a prize for finishing on time, but you never know in the land of blog.

This is the book I have chosen my quilt from. It is no longer in print, but some of the best designs have been republished in The Best of Blended Quilts.

And what is a blended quilt, you ask? Here is an excerpt from a page in the Blended Quilts book that explains it very well.


This is the pattern I have chosen to do.

Here is the fabric I am using for the stars. This collection is from Sentimental Studios and it is called Windsor. I found it about a year or so ago and fell in love with it.

The large pieces are for the backgrounds, borders, backing and binding.
Now I have to get busy and get it cut out and get started. I certainly don't want to be left in the dust, so to speak.