A New Year with the Promise of New Sister!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! You've all heard that one, right? It is a new year and I can see great things on the Horizon to come!!

I stayed up with my daughter and youngest son Eliah.The 2 farmers for the day, Mike and Matthias had already strolled off to bed and slept in the new year. Celia was on Facebook scoping out her friends when all of a sudden she started screaming saying NO WAY and saying I just want to run around!! Well, the wonderful surprise was my brother Daniel, who has had a special lady, Lainey in his life for a good 2 years,  popped the question at midnight and there was a post 2 minutes after midnight announding: 2013...She said YES!!  We were all soo excited we called all the rest of the family to have them scan the post!! I am so happy for them. You can tell they just love and adore each other so much and they are both committed to each other and their walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I can't wait to watch this all happen!

I have not had alot of time for sewing/quilting the last few weeks with the Christmas season, but by golly, I pulled out the machine and grabbed the fabric for some bees I am in. Some of my bees ended with the end of the year, and I signed up for a few new ones ; Simply Solid Bee which I am really excited about and a bee based on a book "Sunday Morning Quilts". It is a book based on using up scraps from the dreaded scrap bin. I have 1 BIG  bin full, others have shared they have as many as 7 bins full!! I am hoping to post buttons to these bees, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet! 

These flying geese are for Shawn from the Sew Blues Bee. There are 6 rows of 4, but I need to fix these I think as she wanted 4 rows of 6 geese a piece. Oh well, I am known for transposing numbers!

This is for Anita also from the Sew Blues Bee for January. She is making a qult for her daugher she calls a "not so girly girl". She doesn't like all those pinks and such. This piece was foundation paper pieced and I just love this technique. I also like her block, I may have to try this for another purpose.

I hope this year is full of good things, a renewal, a new start for a year full of blessings!

I

Secret Santa Surprise and Let it Snow!!

As you know, I signed up for a the Secret Santa Soiree hosted by the Coloradolady. It was my first year participating, and again, I had so much fun planning, however, I am so excited at what came in my mailbox for me!! My precious Secret Santa, unknown to me at this time, send me some goodies that just blew me out of the snow bank!! She hit me right on! I love it all!!

                                       This is how pretty everything was wrapped when it came.

She sent me some Chai Tea Mix. Now, how did she know I love that stuff? Also some wonderful popcorn. There is a beautiful garland I am hanging in the doorway between the family and living room. It needed some holiday cheer. My husband stuck my garlands outside! :) There is also a wonderful sleeve to keep my fingers from getting charred with my coffee travel mug, but I have to say, the hat, I am completely crazy about!! I LOVE wearing it!! I feel like I have never been able to find a style that compliments me in it, but this hat did the trick!! Even my daughter loved it on me!! I even wore it today to work in the cold snow! Thank you Secret Pal!!!

Got to love the gummie bears!! These are the best!! Every year we add a new ornament to our tree, as you can see, my SS sent me a precious heart. Thank You for the new addition, I hadn't gotten our annual addition yet, but you filled that spot and will always be a memory for me! Being the quilting addict I am, there are some lovely fat quarters from Mama said Sew from Moda . I love this line and the wonderful colors and patterns. Thank you again. You made this Christmas so special. The thought you put into it touches me.

We had the biggest snow fall we have had in 2 years!! At first they told us an inch or so, then 2 to 5 inches, well, we ended up with 14 inches out here!! The snow got really heavy and it got real dark and I can't believe it! Celia was supposed to be in a few UWEC Choir Concerts yesterday, she came home after working in Durand Saturday. Saturday night we had clear skies, bright stars and Christmas lights were set up outside by my DH and myself. It was such a nice crisp night, we had such fun!  Well in the morning, we woke up to snow and how fun it is! No fun to drive in though, Celia just left today.  

These are the views outside my back door. These pics were taken before the real heavy stuff kicked in, there was about 7 inches at this point. Today the roads remain very slippery, but it does feel like Christmas! I am truly in the Christmas spirit. Now, to tackle some of that shopping!

Secret Santa Deadline today and some creativity!

    Today is the POST by date for the Secret Santa Soiree that I signed up for last month. I won't say what day I posted my package out to my Secret Pal, but I will say that I did make the deadline! I will also say I was a bit of a sneak, but I can't let that cat out of the bag yet, or it may reveal my identity, but I will reveal what I did at a later date. I also will say that I had fun shopping for her, thinking about her life as she has shared on her blog site, and she did cross my mind often. Getting her goodies and thinking, I think she would like this and that and realizing we actually had alot of similarities when it came to our likes. I can say someone else has me, it is fun, because none of us know who has us, only who we have. Anyway, I am excited to see everyone's blogs and to share in their excitement!  Speaking about not letting the "cat out of the bag" I came into the living room tonight to find my Molly cat sitting in a box of my fat quarters. I just had to take a picture!

In the Piece Bee With You Bee I belong, it is the last month for us. I was actually behind, but I owed one last block to Katy in my beloved Scotland. I spent a semester studying there when I was in University. I was there 6 months and I fell in love with the people. I had an awesome boyfriend there that was hard to leave as well as met some awesome people, May and Dod who were like my adopted grandparents. They never had a daughter and always said I was the daughter they never had. They even came to Canada to visit relatives and we had them visit us for a few days and spend time with us. I loved them dearly, truely as family and I know they are both gone now, but what treasured, valued memories I have of them. They will always be a part of me, in making me the person that I am. She taught me alot of good lessons including knitting. Isn't it funny how something can bring back such a strong memory? I was talking about Katy and ended up with May and Dod. :)

Katy's View Master Block. The Disc is paper pieced and then I had to place the disk into the fabric. I found a technique called the 6 minute circle technique that worked really well. I hope she loves it!!

I also have made a dear precious friend online over the last year. Her name is Teri and I love her like a sister. I feel like we truely connect and relate to each other. I just love her. She recently was diagosed with Breast Cancer and had surgery and is recovering and Moni in the Sew Blues Bee wrote up a striped Heart tutorial that we all used to create her a block to let her know she is precious to us. I made a green one as it is a color of calm, new life and is known to be a soothing color. I just sent that out to her today with some goodies in it. I hope she has a speedy recovery.

They are all home!!

Well, here it is Thanksgiving morning and for thie first time since the middle of August, everyone is home. Celia made it this morning at 2:21am. She works at the McDonald's on Truax Blvd in Eau Claire and she had to close so after work, she came down. She also came with a HUGE basket full of laundry to do. I will let her tackle it this time. Last time I did it for her.

The turkey is already in the oven, Mike and I always have the tradition that I get up early and make the stuffing and he comes in and gets the turkey ready and stuffs it. That is one thing we do together! :) The boys will go out deer hunting today. Matthias got a nice sized doe opening day. I made Venison Geschnatzles monday night for dinner. It was the best!!

 It has been about 60 degrees the last few days, Today is also supposed to be 60, but tomorrow, winter comes back with an expected high of 29 degrees. I thought I would mention it as we forget all these fulkes in our weather. Usually we are in the 30's maybe 20's for a high.

I made a few more bee blocks, I am wanting to do a mystery quilt, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/10/find-yourself-on-easy-street.html  This one sounds great, It tells the fabric requirements and the first clue comes out tomorrow!! I really want to do this one!! I am going to try to get it done!! I have made a few mystery quilts and I have so enjoyed what I came out with. The joy of it is you follow instructions for pieces of this and make that and when you get done you have something amazing! Usually something you would not of thought to make for yourself!

Here are the Design Camp Bee group #2 blocks for Jody.

They are both at least 13 + inches and I LOVE how they turned out.

I continue to try to tidy my sewing area. Hopefully I can sneak some sewing in today!! I know the kids like the Macy's day parade, grown up or not!! Football I am sure will be sneaking in somewhere today too!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November Bee Blocks and Opening Day of Deer Hunting!

This is the November block for the Fat Stash Bee

       This is the November block for Leslie for the Sew Blues Bee. Leslie is one of our mamas for this Bee. I was with her in the Orange You Glad Bee and we had so much fun. Such precious people in these two bees. The OYGB is now finished.

 This is the September Block (yes I was slacking here, but I am quickly catching up) for Lawton and Lotti, aka Charlotte. She is from Austrailia and requested a children's toy block, one that was an antiquey type toy, so I decided to make her an airplane. I could just see a little boy running through the house holding on to his airplane pretending to fly around the house. I think I saw that in "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart. One of my favorite Christmas Movies. I love the old movies!! Anyway, she wanted primary colors and I think she will be happy with this.

This is the Around the Bend and Across the Pond  Row by Row group I am in. This is Moni's quilt top. She made the lower four rows, and then sent it to me. I added the upper four rows and now my part is done and I will send it on to Nannette so she can continue to build this quilt top. I absolutely love it!! I never realized how much could be done with 1/2 square triangle blocks!! Love it!! I am going to try this someday. We add a row to someone elses row each month and when it comes back it has several rows added. I will have to show my row-by-row from the first round. I just love it!!

I have to say I have truely been enjoying sewing my Bee blocks this month!! Sometimes I make one and I think to myself, I am glad this person likes it, but I am truely enjoying each and every one!! I have four items made this month with I think just one more to go. I am also behind on one project, but plan on tackling that one very very soon!! I just have to make sure the template printed out correctly. Actually, I think our Piece Bee With You hive is on hold as several of us were having troubles just trying to print out the templates for the paper foundations we needed, but I did manage to get them to print on Thursday, it sounds like they may not be printed out the right size so I am waiting for confirmation before I proceed. Before that I couldn't get it to print. It is a Viewmaster wheel with fussy cut little pictures. I will show it to you when I am finished with it.

Matthias made it back from Ohio this morning. My husband headed out to go to work at 4:00am and my son pulled in the driveway. I was so thankful he made it home safe. He said the fog was so thick from Chicago until Black River Falls, WI, about an hour away from here toward Madison and that is what took him so long getting home. He was supposed to get up at 6:30am to go Deer Hunting this morning, but we let him sleep in, He went out at 9:30ish and I heard through the grapevine he got a deer!! Will see if he lets me take a picture!! Deer Hunting is always a big deal here and so are the Deer Hunting Widow Festivities while the men hunt, the women shop and attend open houses for food, wine, holiday affairs. Anyway, it is alot of fun!! Happy Hunting!

SSS Secret Santa Soire

Well, I had so much fun with the Colorado Lady with the ugly fabric swap which I learned about on her blog, I saw she had a Secret Santa Soiree for the upcoming holiday season and I just had to join! I used to work at a few places where we had these fun activities and I really miss not participating, so I thought it would be so much fun for me!! I love thinking about people and what they may like and then trying to sneak it to them until the final reveal, so I am hoping Suzanne will accept me into her fold to further participate in the fun adventures she has come up with. She has some wonderfully creative ideas I must say and I love her Vintage Thursdays. So, we will see how it goes!!

On another note, a wonderfully awesome woman, named Teri, that I met a year ago during an online  fabric swap, has honestly become one of my best buds. My online bud, though I wish we lived near each other. We have tentative plans to meet in Ohio in the spring for the International Quilt Festival and I am hoping all goes well. The reason I mention her is she had major surgery yesterday and she has been in my Prayers and on my mind constantly. I know she will be just fine when all is done, but I can imagine the discomfort she must be going through and my heart goes out to her, so continue to Pray I will.

I have gotten some great things completed this past weekend for other Bees. I belong to the Sew Blues Bee with a great group of Ladies. Some of us are in our secound round with the First round being called Orange You Glad Bee. The orange is gone, but the blues carry on! Hey I'm a poet and didn't even know it! Hahaha.
Enough of that!! I really love these bees. They are so much fun to be a part of, connecting with others. Living in Rural Wisconsin sure doesn't leave may opportunities to mingle with fellow quilters as an urban area would, lots more options, but I keep hoping new things will come along. So, that's it for now!

A Saturday Morning!!

You know, I so love to quilt, but I get so distracted by other things in life it is hard to find the time sometimes. I also find being online is a time hog. I am guessing that we all feel that way. So this beautiful Saturday morning I am cleaning away, not as good as I would like to, but I'm working on it. I am constantly distracted by a project on my sewing table or just thinking about my next inspiration.

On Saturday mornings I like to watch the sewing/quilting shows on PBS and sometimes, they don't intrigue me so I just do my cleaning and peek in for very brief periods of time, however, they had Tula Pink on this morning and I was glued to the TV. I absolutely loved the designs she was showing, not to mention her fabric lines, and then she also had a booklet that could be ordered through Sewing With Nancy. Tula was a guest on there today showing a few of her designs, LOVED THEM!!! I may just have to cave in and get the booklet. I liked everything she shared. I also liked that several of them were improv, no fussy cutting or precison needed on some of them. I had never seen her before either and what a creative sort she presents herself as by the way she looks. I think she would be alot of fun to take a class with! :)

So my hopes today are to really make some sewing/quilting fun here, but I best get my tushie back to chores so I feel halfway decent with how my home is for myself and my family. Saturday mornings are my most cleaning time of the week, but I have a good start! Dishes are all done, floor swept, laundry in the wash...you get the picture!

One last thing, yesterday morning my husband called me at work and said Brrrr, "it's cold out there, the hot coffee is great that you made", and just so you know Melita and Aldi's German roast coffees are the smoothest, yummiest coffees. Well anyway, With the cold coming I always do a count down till spring, it makes winter go faster and gives me something to look forward to so my reply was "Only 4 months till spring! " He thought that was a great way to look at it. :) So, you may see me write or say "Only X months till spring" as the count down continues.