Double Delight

Happy New Year's Eve everyone. I have decided to do Bonnie's Double Delight, the latest Quiltville Mystery, even though I have plenty of other projects to work on. One thing for sure is that I decided to use fabrics from my stash, so at least I don't have to feel guilty about making any new purchases.

I still have not decided whether or not to take Judy's Stashbusting Pledge. She has a great though provoking post about stashbusting here. But, I am weak and there are so many great sales right now, with more to come I am sure! So I decided to take the coward's way out and start a new quilt with stash fabrics.

This is what I chose below. The red, black, blue and whites are all from a coordinating bundle designed by Alex Anderson that I purchase about 4 years ago. I think it is called Remembrance. The yellow I bought some time ago, just because I liked it. I am going to use the yellow where Bonnie uses the double pinks, so I will have only one print here instead of a variety. I don't know if it will work but we will give it a try.

I made a few blocks this morning. So far so good. It will take a lot of trimming time, but hopefully it will be worth it when it comes to matching seams and not cutting off points. I don't have the ruler Bonnie recommended, but this little Omnigrid works pretty well.

Back to the sewing room.

Donna

Thank you Kate!

Well it was sure fun on Christmas morning to open my SCSS gift. There were so many lovely surprises inside. Thank you so much Kate! First there was this darling Christmas hanging. There are red bells at the bottom, but I cut them off when I rotated the picture. It will hang in my family room on my quilt rack.

Then there was this magazine and a postcard from where Kate lives. Oh those beaches look so lovely. I adore all of the Australian magazines and I am looking forward to enjoying this issue. One of the things I have been wanting to learn to do is stitching.
Kate sent me the goodies below which should put me on to a great start. Little does she know she may have to get me started with email instructions! There was also a yummy bag of cookies that I think my son already ate before I could get a picture. Finally not to be outdone this is the bundle of fat quarters my hubby got for me, along with lots of other gifts. He is well known at the quilt store. He always buys fat quarters, two of each pattern at a time. It is great for stash building and since I love to make scrap quilts, these always fill in for missing colors or patterns to add that extra touch. They are special too since I know he picked them out when I look at the finished quilt.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. It was wonderful at our house.

I am pondering whether or not to continue my blog. I started out with great intentions, but always seem to have a long time between posts lately. I do love to see all the other blogs out there though, and it doesn't seem right to lurk but not participate. We shall see.

I hope you all enjoyed the SCSS exchange. Thanks so much to Donna for organizing this. It must have been a lot of work for her.

Happy Holidays,
Donna

My SSCS gift arrived this week. I was out of town on business, so it was a nice surprise to come home and find this waiting for me. I will wait patiently until Christmas to open this parcel. Thank you Santa.

I have only done the minimum on Christmas decorating so far. My tree is up, sadly without any ornaments. My teenagers do not have time to help and I have not been home. Maybe we will just have twinkly lights this year. It seems like I only just put those ornaments away a few days ago!
I have hung a few of my Christmas quilts. At least I have a little bit of decorating done.

Donna

A Happy Stack

Last January I started on Christmas quilts for my sister's 5 kids. I thought I was giving myself plenty of time. Well I came down to the wire, but here is the stack of finished quilts. I love the backings on all of them. It is the only fabric I had to buy for five quilts since I had so much Christmas fabric in my stash.

Here are the fronts. This one is for my oldest niece. She is a college student.

Next niece number 2 a high school senior.

Next niece number 3, 8th grade.

Then niece number 4, 3rd grade.

Then finally my nephew, 6th grade.

It was fun to make each one. They will go in the mail by the end of this week. Each one needs to still be washed.

And I get to buy new Christmas fabric to replenish my stash!

Donna

Not Working on Christmas

So I should be working on Christmas gifts, but somehow I can't get in the mood for that, so I am working with these pretty florals. They are from the Hoffman Flower of the Month Series from a couple of years ago. The pattern is from a Christmas Magazine, so at least I was looking at Christmas projects.

I have worked on my Secret Santa Christmas Swap gift, but I don't think we are supposed to show more that a sneak peak from that, so here is a sneak peek of that also.What is everyone else working on?

Donna

Orange Crush Finally Finished

Boy it was a long haul on this one! I really didn't feel the love for this quilt while working on it, but my family loves it. My husband says it is his favorite quilt so far! Go figure. It is going to my dear friend Ceil, and I am excited to give it to her.

Thanks to Bonnie at Quiltville for the pattern. If you haven't checked out her website and blog, be sure to do so. It is full of ideas, one better than the next.

So here is the quilt. I have one more OC to finish that I will keep for me. It may be a few months before that one gets done. Lots of Christmas projects in line ahead of it.



The quilting is kind of a spiral meandering. The quilt is so busy I did not think much would show up anyway.

I used pink Aurafil thread. This is the first time I used Aurafil, and I found it a little challenging. I don't think I had the proper needle size for the thread weight however. I do like the look of the finished quilting however.

My dear daughter left this little project for me. Her Invisible Children club at school worked here last weekend and dyed t-shirts for a fund raiser. Now someone, (guess who) has to wash all the excess dye out of the t-shirts so they can put their logo on them Sunday. Oh and by the way, each color has to be washed separately. Well I am off to the Rit dye website for some instructions. Hope I find them there.

Happy quilting,

Donna

I'm Back!

Well I kind of took an unplanned break from blogging. Things have been hectic here to say the least, some good some bad, but all the normal stuff of family life.

Last week my daughter turned 18, my son turned 16 and I turn the big 50 on Friday! How is that for a few milestones?

We have been to about 20 baseball games and four football games since my last post. I also had some dental surgery that didn't go quite right the first time, but all is fixed now.

I did manage to get a few quilty things done and have a few pictures to post. I do have a goal to return to blogging on a more regular basis. Here is what I have been up to.

Lots of these little baskets from the Pink Penguin blog have been spotted in blogland. They are certainly fun to make.

I made a little cosmetic bag. I may make a few more for Christmas gifts. These are easy to make also.I'm finishing the hand stitching on the binding of one of my Orange Crush quilts (finally). I love the backing.

I have also managed to finish 3 UFO tops. I won't show these until they are quilted.

I have this little stack of finished tops to quilt before Christmas. We will see how that goes.

Finally I bought this book a month or so ago. I just love all the quilts in this book. As soon as that little stack above is finished I will be starting to work on a few things in here.

Happy quilting,

Donna

Thanks Tanner

This is the lovely quilt I received from Tanner in the Doll Quilt Swap. He also sent a couple of cute patterns. Thanks Tanner. I have to decide where to hang my quilt now.

Donna

Good Help is Hard to Find

Now that school and baseball and football and cheerleading, etc. are back in full swing I have lost all of my quilt helper holding uppers, so I have to resort to making do for the camera.

This quilt is for my sister and I really want to get it off in the mail to her, so I am posting the best pictures I can get. This is made from some Robyn Pandolph fabric from about 6 or 7 years ago. This was a UFO for a very long time. I started it as all stars, but I quickly grew bored with that so kind of made it a hodge podge. I like how it turned out and think that my sister will too.

I am still trying to finish up some UFOs. I am waiting for some batting to be delivered and then I am finally going to quilt the two Orange Crush quilts I made. I decided not to do Bonnie's latest mystery called Old Tobacco Roads right now since I still have 2 OCs in progress. It looks like it might be fun to do later though.

I am still working on the Patches and Pinwheels and almost have it ready for borders. I am loving how this one is turning out.

It is time to start giving some thought to the Secret Santa exchange. I have some ideas, but need to do a detailed search of the recipients blog for some clues as to what is liked. It will be fun!

We had a busy weekend but did manage to barbeque with my aunt, uncle and cousin on Monday. My aunt made this yummy black forest cake. I forgot to take a picture before she cut it but the inside looks pretty too. It tastes just as good as it looks.

Happy quilting,

Donna

Long Time No Blog

Well it has been busy here with school in full swing again. Lots of meetings for school and sports. My daughter has finally at long last gotten into planning what college I will go to mode, so that has involved lots of talks and plans and website looksees.

I haven't been in the mood to blog either. Don't know why. I think I still get separation anxiety from my kids after summer break, and I keep thinking about my daughter going off to college next year. It makes me sad. Here are my little (used to be at least) babies.

I finished these blocks for Kids Quilts. Check out Alison's blog here. She is assembling quilts for the siblings of children who are chronically ill.

This quilt's theme is bug jars. You have probably seen a few others bug jar blocks around blogland.

I finished another UFO, a king sized one. I need help from the kiddos to hold it up for pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime even though there are quite a few UFOs still waiting to be quilted, I really felt like doing some piecing. I am working on a scrap quilt called Patches and Pinwheels from Bonnie's wonderful Quiltville site.

These are the patches. They are finished and I am working on the Pinwheels. Should be colorful anyway!

Oh and I almost forgot, I am participating in the Secret Santa Christmas Swap that Chookyblue is running. She has a great blog, check it out.

I also finished piecing the quilt from my header. Not quilted yet, so I will wait to post a photo once it is all completed.

Now off to pick up my son from school.

Happy quilting,

Donna

Two Finishes

I have finished two more quilts this week. One was started last weekend and finished this week. It is a quilt for my neighbor who is going away to college in a week. I have known him since he was 3, I watched him in the mornings before school for 6 years. He played with my kids all the time when they were all little. He is now a wonderful young man. I will try to get a picture of him with his quilt when I give it to him.


This next one has been a UFO for longer than I care to admit. I love it now that it is finally done. It is all Christmas fabrics and is king size. It will go on hubby's and my bed right after Thanksgiving.

It is almost time to watch the Olympics. It has been fun watching Michael Phelps every night.
Happy quilting,
Donna

Thank You Peggy

I received this award from Peggy! Somehow I overlooked it until today. Check out her blog here.

I will post the award but not pass it on to anyone specific. All of the lovely blogs I have found have received so many awards they probably have this one a few times already. Thanks again Peggy for the award and your kind words.

Happy quilting. I actually hope to post another finish soon!

Donna

Paige's Quilt

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. It does feel good to have some UFOs complete. I am going to try to finish a few more before I start something new, even though I am really ready to open a new pack of fat quarters! I have two darned Orange Crush quilts to be completed. They are kind of hanging over my head right not. Maybe soon.

This is the quilt I just finished for my daughter's friend Paige. She will be taking it to college this fall.

I really struggled to get a good picture. I think it is because the colors are pastels and I did not shoot it outside. It is the same pattern I used in this quilt back in May.It is such an easy pattern and makes a really nice display for the fabric.

The back is pieced which I usually don't do, but my daughter really liked the idea. This fabric was a fat quarter stack I had on my shelf for a long time. It is from Nancy Halverson. I think it is called Friends.

Here is a close up of some of the quilting. You can see how pretty the fabric is in the close up shots as well. The funny thing is that this fabric sat on my shelf forever as an unopened stack because I really was not drawn to it and had received it as a gift. After working with it, I think it is one of the prettiest quilts I have ever made. Very feminine. Let's hope Paige likes it!Have fun quilting girls!

Donna

Peg's Finish Five Challenge

Today is the last day for Peg's Finish Five Challenge. I am happy to say that I completed 8 projects. The best part is that I got all my projects organized, finished some oldies but goodies, and have three additional UFOs quilted and only needing binding to be completed. Peg did a great job organizing and running this challenge, while completing some gorgeous quilts of her own. Check out her blog.

Peg asked each of us to post a summary on our blogs. Here is mine.

One

Two
Three

Four

Five

SixSevenAnd last but not least ... Eight

Here is the sister quilt to number 8 above that was finished quite a few years ago.

It was a great challenge and I am anxious to finish a few more, and then start some new ones "guilt free"

Happy quilting,

Donna