Still Here

Yep, I am still around despite the fact that my good intentions to be a better blogger seemed to have flown away as quickly as February.   

The weather has been so nice and that tends to take me outside more than staying inside and stitching.  It has been the calm before the storm as I hear we are in for another big series of storms starting tomorrow.  What is it that they say, "Make hay while the sun shines"???

I managed to finally get my Allietare quilt finished.  I put the binding on and them remembered that it was suppose to have a scalloped edge.  Dang!  I may eventually take the binding off and redo it with the scallops as I love the look of scallops on quilt edgings.  Of course, that means that I will need to redo the binding with a biased binding too. 

Before I do that I need to get Scrap Dance Waltz and En Provence quilted.

As those of you who have followed my blog for awhile, it is the time of the year for the grandchildren's school auction.  That means it is time to get my 18" doll uniform made.  Have I ever told you how much I love sewing doll clothing????  ;-)

See those perfectly matched plaids?  TOTAL accident, but don't you love it when that happens?

As I mentioned, we've had some really nice temperatures lately and my Temperature Quilt is "heating up" nicely. 

I'm part of a couple of bees/swaps this year.  The first is our Gridster Bee.  The block this month was a pineapple block for Sherri.  I really enjoyed this block and can see a pineapple quilt at some point in my future. 

Using the same design I made a little garden flag for Jeanna. 

The second bit of fun was a mug rug swap with a group of gals who have sewn together for several years.  This is the block that I made for my partner's request for a Halloween mug rug. 

Ida made me this darling Valentine's mug rug.  I really like the scrappiness of it.  I love swapping out my mug rugs throughout the year and keep a little quilted box of them on my table.

We went to our eldest son's for their Super Bowl party.  What a game!  Taco Man came again this year.  I am fascinated by how this is done.  It is thinly slicked meat skewered with pineapple.  It is then cooked from the back while rotating.  As it cooks, they continually slice off the cooked part into nice little shreds for the tacos.  Can I tell you that it is delicious?

Several of my orchids have started blooming with lots more to follow.  They must know spring is quickly approaching.

As well, the Christmas cactus is finishing up with its blooming.  They stay outside all year so their bloom depends on the weather each year.  This is a special plant as it is an offspring of one that belonged to my grandmother.  I have started so many new ones from the initial piece she gave me. 

I'll see if I can do a better job of blogging.  No promises!

Good Bye, January

Holy cow....how can January be gone already?  They say time flies when you are having fun so I guess I must be having a LOT of fun.  My month has zipped past at a crazy speed.

Other than a lot of mending, my sewing has been relegated to finishing up some of the projects that I have in the works.  I have managed to complete all of the blocks for the Scrap Dance Waltz.  I have concentrated on doing it in two colors - blue and light gray - but of course my blues are all scrappy.  I just couldn't make a two color quilt with just two fabrics.  Now I need to consider what I will do for  borders on it.

We've had some summerlike weather this week.  I love the heat so it makes me really happy, but I am most excited about the high temps because that means I get to dip into some of my oranges in my Temperature Quilt (link on sidebar). 

The temps ranged from 32 - 86 degrees this month.  See that nice bright orange that go added? 

My sister who lives in Alaska is doing the Temperature Quilt as well.  It will be fun to compare them at the end of the year.  She, very cleverly, is including upside down geese on the days when the temperatures are below freezing.  She had ONE right side up goose for the month of January!!!  Although she has no blog, she can be found on IG under alaskanquilter. 

The temperatures have really confused my iris this year.  It is unusual that we should get blooms at this time of the year, but hey have been blooming since late October.  Guess they are just a bit mixed up. 

Time marches on.....enjoy the short month of February.

Linking up this week with Midweek Makers and Tuesday Linky Party at Freemotion by the River.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

As the weeks quickly tick away here, I am feeling as though Christmas will be here before I can blink my eyes. 

As with most stitchers at this time of the year, a lot of what we create is secretive until after Christmas.  There has been a bit of sewing that can be shown.

Using a snowflake embroidery design, I created a small candle mat.  Hopefully, it will be able to be used past the Christmas season.

Like so many others, I have been trying to keep up with Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Mystery.  I managed to finish Step 3 and finally finished Step 1 too.

Although I probably won't have a lot of time to work on these blocks, I did start on Scrap Dance Waltz - hosted by Carole at From My Carolina Home.  I loved this pattern.

We had a few little helpers to help get the Christmas tree up yesterday.  Of course the ornaments ended up rather clustered and low!  ;-)  It is always fun to have the little ones here for the Christmas traditions. 

Before the train goes under the tree, the children like to set it up and play with it - building bridges with the blocks and running it faster than it can go on the smaller track under the tree.

While we are enjoying the last of the roses before they get pruned back, the poinsettia now has bright red flowers all over it. 

 You can see how big these flowers are when you see my hand in the next photo.

I was recently a winner on Soma's blog and received these gorgeous batik fabrics along with a few of her beautiful patterns.  The photo does not do the colors any justice.  As I told Soma, I have been wanting to make a blue quilt for awhile now and these should be perfect.   

Just to add to the Christmas eating, they have recently opened a Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop fairly close to us.  Oh.my.goodness!  I loved seeing the doughnuts make their way down the processing line only to get placed in your box at the end - still warm.  They absolutely melt in your mouth.....so, how bad can they really be for you? 

Two more weeks from today is Christmas.  Relax and enjoy the beautiful season.