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