A Reason to Celebrate

What a wonderful week it has been around our house!!  We have been blessed once more with a beautiful little grandson.  All are doing well and he was welcomed home today by his big brother and sister.  The week can't be much better than that.

It also started off in a fabulous manner.  For Christmas our children gifted us a dinner prepared by a chef (and friend of our SIL) for all of us at our home.  The menu was amazing and consisted of seven courses.  We had so much fun and it was such a thrill to watch all of this happening in our kitchen.  Sadly, we were missing one DIL who was ill and one son who was away skiing.  Guess that just meant more food for all of us.  ;-)

A few of the courses.....

Seared Nantucket Scallops with avocado risotto,  mango lime coulis, chipolte oil and crispy plantains.

Merlot poached pears stuffed with gorgonzola dolce and served with peppered balsamic syrup, arugula sprouts and honey port aioli.

Mascarpone and apricot Napoleon - pistachio and thyme twill, Mascarpone Mouse, Muscatel soaked apricots and basil honey.

Does anyone know how to deal with Blogger's problems in commenting?  Several of the blogs I follow are not allowing the page for comments.  Instead it simply comes up as a blank page.  I have read where others are having the same issues, but have not heard how to resolve them yet.

The sewing studio has been a little quiet as we have been busy with little ones and houseguests, but I did have to finish up a quilt for the newest baby.  Our children absolutely loved the book Goodnight Moon.  I was so thrilled to see the line of fabrics with the same title.  In wanting to highlight the fabric prints, I chose the wave pattern.  I also put Minky fabric on the back of it so it is super soft.  I was a bit apprehensive about the stretch of the backing, but it quilted BEAUTIFULLY.  If you haven't tried it on the back of a quilt, I highly recommend giving it a go.  I'll be linking this quilt up as a January finish with A Stitch in Time.

I also decided to join in the It Takes 2 quilt along.  You can check out the link on my sidebar.  Instead of the red and white, I have chosen a chocolate brown and a light aqua.  The first blocks are done and the patterns are now out for the second series. 

There seem to be many Dresden Plate quilt designs showing up on blogs this year.  I am thinking that one may be in my future as I have always loved them.  I may have to use the line of fabric,  Montecito,  from Connecting Threads that I won a few weeks ago from Stephanie's giveaway.    Stephanie always has such an inspiring blog and I love the wonderful, bright colors that she uses.  If you are not familiar with her, please be sure to check her out her blog, Loft Creations.

We are waiting for the arrival of our first storm of the new year.  I doubt that it will give us much rain, but we are hoping for at least some snow in the mountains.  Our winter has been so warm lately that my sweet peas have started to bloom already.  They smell as heavenly as they look.

I think that areas like Portland and Seattle should run a nice pipeline down our way and give us all of their excess.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a way to do that?  Anyway....I am hoping to get into some good sewing projects while I watch the rain come down this weekend.  I hope it is a great weekend for all of you too.

New Year....Old Project

Oh my goodness!  Have you seen all of the wonderful Quiltalongs, challenges, swaps and projects that are out in blogland for 2012?  How does one ever decide which projects they want to start first?  If I could only work it so that I didn't ever sleep I might be able to do a few.  LOL

I always start out the year with the best of intentions to finish up some of the UFOs sitting in my closet.  The new year seems like such a fresh slate to start working on them.  Then someone comes out with an amazing quilt that I can't wait to start.  Then there are the quiltalongs where it is so much fun to see what fabrics and colors others are using.  Oh....did I mention all the swaps too?  Oh my!!!!  One could really be in over their head - quickly.

Several years ago Melissa had a signature swap.  I was new to the blogging world and thought it would be fun.  It really was, but my wonderful blocks have sat in a box for all this time.  2012 was my year to get those out and put them together.  Ta da......

To this....

I added a little of this.....

to create these........

Quilted the sandwich and

Even added a label!  Yeah, a UFO finished!!!!

It was fun reading the names and seeing how many of these quilters I now follow.  I'll be linking this finish up with Thearica and A Stitch in Time.

From there I went to my yellow and blue blocks that Emily and I swapped last year.  I added a few more blocks to make it a little larger and will add a scrappy border on it to finish it off.

Each year we attend a Valentine's dinner dance with an auction.  I have started a heart quilt to donate for the auction.  This is an easy Moda Bake Shop pattern. 

I managed to finish up the last of my Civil War blocks.  The year is now finished and I can start to put those together.  I think this will be a really nice finish.  I love the colors.

A lesson that I learned while sewing this week......NEVER leave your camera on your cutting table!!!!  Live and learn, as they say.

I received a wonderful package of hand dyed fabrics from Deborah in the UK.  This was a win from the Sew Mama Sew giveaway.  The fabrics are absolutely gorgeous and are so soft.  They will be so much fun to sew and I know they will work up beautifully.  Deborah does some amazing work and you should check it out. 

Like many of you, we have been having some gorgeous weather lately.  I had a yellow cymbidium orchid that was blooming in the yard and brought it inside to enjoy it even more.   There are six stalks of flowers on this plant and these are the first two to bloom.

That was my first week in 2012.  I hope that I can continue to finish off some of the other UFOs I have sitting around AND work on some new ones.