Another Try

I am excited about posting this new post because I have made some changes in my settings and am eager to see if it has worked.  I created a g-mail account and have heard from several people that they are now receiving my blog comments.  I hope that means that I will also be receiving blog comments.  Fingers crossed here.

My sister who lives in Alaska and I have been working on a secret project for our other sister's special birthday.  It was given to her last evening so I can now show what we have done.  We made her a Temperature quilt using the temperatures, year and location of her birth.  My sister sewed the first six months and I did the last six.  Amazingly, when she sent me her section to add to mine, they fit together perfectly.

The back of the quilt is an incredible wine bottle print and so much fun to read.  The back includes the label and the temperature key.  

The past week found us in the Sierras for our annual fishing trip.  The lakes and streams were so full this year after all of the rains.  Of course, with all of the snow this year, spring blooms are just now happening.  Ski season is still open in Mammoth.  It really was gorgeous.

Our daughter's family has been watching a cocoon for the last few weeks and today their wait paid off.  The little ones were able to watch the whole process.  She sent me the video and I am amazed at how quickly it happened.  Nature is incredible!

My last post was December 13th!  I can't believe that so much has happened since then.  I won't even try to catch up with all that has happened, but we had a fabulous Christmas.  There was lots of entertaining, cooking, cleaning and all that goes along with the joyful time of the year.

We also did a lot of germ sharing which easily spread through all of us.  They do say that holidays are for sharing!

Winter has settled in here with unseasonally cold temperatures.  I'm ready for some of those warm temperatures we had last year.  As you can tell by looking at my temperature quilt from 2018, it was a warm one.

The colors are not really true in the photo.  A truer color is below, but the winds were blowing too hard to get an outside photo shoot.

It's nice to have the new year with a clean slate for some stitching.  I am not one to make lists, but I hope to get some of my UFOs finished up this year.  In between I will be participating in a few blog hops - the first one will be the Black and White blog hop starting on January 21st.

Once again, I will be a member of two bees this year - the Gridster Bee (IG #gridsterbee) and my Sewing With Friends swap group. Our January Gridster Bee block is for colorful trees.

 

In our Sewing With Friends group we are finishing up swapping table runners this month.  Ida's request was for a Christmas themed topper.

I have slowly been stitching the Good Fortune Mystery quilt clues together.  It will be fun to see the blocks come together.

My hope is to do a better job with my blogging this year.  I wish you all a wonderful 2019.  

Goodbye November

Wow....where did November go?  What a month it was!  The weather has definitely changed over to winter for many this month.  We are thankful to have the warm winds flaming the fires finally gone, but today we had cold winds and rain which, in turn, left us without power most of the day.  We go from one extreme to the other.

Of course, the end of November also means the start of the newest Quiltville Mystery.  I made myself promise to finish last year's On Ringo Lake before I started the newest one.  Quilting and binding were all that remained.

I decided to do the piped binding so I could finish it quickly on the machine and I am pleased with the way it turned out.

So...on to this year's Good Fortune.  As you can see, I am switching up the colors a bit, but they are done and ready for tomorrow's clue.

The last few weeks have been busy with Thanksgiving and enjoying the grandchildren home from college.  We always celebrate our Thanksgiving on the Saturday afterwards so the kids can go to in-laws or do their own Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Why is the timing of cooking a turkey always such am unknown?  DH smokes turkey breasts outside (as that is the favorite here) while I do one turkey in the oven inside.  Seems like the inside turkey is always done too early or too late.  Anyway, the food and the company were both great.  The house was wall to wall tables.  I wish I had photographed it, but the day got away from me.  We did manage to get most of us in for a drone photo, compliments of our grandson.

This is the time of the year when I'm ready to get back in the kitchen for some serious baking.  The smell of homemade bread is intoxicating.  My grandmother's egg bread is my favorite, hands down.

I also tried a new recipe from the Cooking Light magazine.  It was incredible and I am sure there are very few calories since it came from Cooking Light.  It has always been one of my favorite magazines, and unfortunately, it is stopping production.

It's time to add my final month marker to my Temperature Quilt.  I will post a picture of it on my next post as the day has been too dark to get a decent picture.

We have another large dinner party next week so it is back to cooking and decorating this week. 

October Days

Blogger is still misbehaving even after I have reset it several times.  If I do not reply to you, it is because I am not seeing your comments.  I tried comment moderation, but no comments came through so I have reverted back.  We will see how it goes.

Some old business first....I have drawn two names for my Words to Live By blog hop giveaway and have not received a reply to e-mails that I have sent.  Today I drew again and it is Pat from Life in the Scrapatch blog.  I have sent her an e-mail and I hope I finally have a winner.

It has been rather chaotic around the house as we have had painters working on all of the baseboards.  Nothing like having a washer and dryer in the middle of your living room.  Every room has had all the furniture pulled to the middle of the room.  It's an interesting way to live!

But....it has allowed extra time in my creative space.  I needed to keep Toby confined in the room with me so we had some good bonding time.

Fort Worth Fabric Studios had a Boo to You QAL that I joined.  I made a few changes, but really like the way it finally came out.  Of course, Toby had to inspect it too.

The Seeing Stars QAL is also culminating this month.  I was hoping to get it quilted before the reveal day on October 16th, but I don't think that will happen.  I do have the top all pieced.

I was one of the lucky winners in the weekly giveaways during the QAL.  This beautiful Portsmouth layer cake was a donation from https://www.greenfairyquilts.com/.  

My sister is the queen in our Gridster Bee this month and I love her idea for her blocks - black and white NYBeauty blocks with a splash of color.  Won't a quilt of all these blocks look fabulous?

October means another monthly marker for my square in a square (SIS) Temperature quilt.  Our September did not see the exceptionally high temps that we can normally expect, but the nights are cooling off a bit.  Only two more months to go.

  

October is a busy birthday month in our family.  We have ten birthdays, including my own.  There's no time for stale birthday cake!!!

We had one of our sons and his family for dinner Sunday night and we were treated to this night sky display during dessert.  A rocket was launched from Vandenberg AFB.  It created two sonic booms before returning to Vandenberg and landing as planned - a great accomplishment.  

Just to end with some super cuteness, I'll share this picture.  Our daughter's family got a new puppy and their older pooch loves the new companion.  

Minis and More

Coming September 3rd in Blogland and IG is the Minis and More Parade, hosted by Michele and Sherri.  This month was a block that I have wanted to make for sometime.  What better opportunity than to make it for the parade?  The pattern this month was Trip Around The World Mini Quilt from Samantha of Aqua Paisley Studio.

After making the mini, I am thinking that I may need to make the Scrappy Trip quilt that was going around Blogland several years ago.   Be sure to pop over to Michele and Sherri's blogs to see the other versions of this pattern.

This weeks blocks for the Seeing Stars QAL was called Curvy Star.  The curves were gentle curves so went together quickly.

August is quickly coming to a close so thought I'd post a photo of an up to date Temperature Quilt.  The August row is hanging to the right of the quilt as it is not quilt long enough to add to the bottom yet.  It's definitely been a warmer few months, but you can see that the nights are starting to cool down a bit.

While watering the pots this weekend, I noticed this cute little guy tucked into a plumeria plant.  He was well camouflaged. 

 While we are on plumerias, these are two more that are blooming.  The smell is so heavenly.

 We had a lovely evening out this week at the Hollywood Bowl for a Chopin concert.  The Bowl is such a magnificent place to visit.  We arrive early, enjoy dinner there and then hear great music. 

As the garden starts to slow down a bit, we have been harvesting peaches, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers daily.  Marjorie shared a recipe for mustard pickles with me so I put some up this week.  They are very good. 

The days are definitely shortening.  Fall is coming quickly.  There is a lot of talk about eliminating Daylight Savings Time.  What are your thoughts on it? 

Just Like That

…… July is in the past.  Where has the summer gone?  It's hard to imagine that the grandchildren all head back to colleges next week.  It has been so nice having them home all summer.

There really has not been a lot of sewing going on here the past month.  I just sort of "piddled around", as my mom used to say.  I have tried to stay up on my Temperature Quilt 2018.  The past week has been quite toasty.  Yesterday was 103* so the reds are definitely adding some color to the quilt.  The colors are not really true in these photos, but you can see the reds appearing more frequently.

Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts posted a cute little free pelican pattern last week.  When I saw it, I immediately thought of Connie from Freemotion By the River blog.  I played around a bit with it and sent it off to Connie.  Many of you will remember her little pelican, Pelly.  Photo is taken from Connie's blog since I forgot to get a picture before mailing it off.  ;-(

I had a couple of little ones wanting to stitch when they were here one day.  I always enjoy their creativity and look forward to the years ahead of stitching with them.

They enjoy covering Toby while he spends his time in the sewing area with us.  I'll link this photo up with Pets on Quilts.

My BIL saves his old shirts for me for quilting scraps.  Before cutting them up, I like to cut the sleeves off and make wine bottle covers to use as gift wraps.  They are easy to make so thought I would do a quick tutorial to share.

I cut the sleeves at 8.5" below the cuff, but that can be adjusted depending on bottle height.

Turn inside out and stitch a 1/4" seam across the cut edge.

Turn back to right side out.  Cut a 28" piece of ribbon and attach it to the center of the back side of the sleeve - right below the cuff.

Insert wine bottle, fold cuff down and tie ribbon into attractive bow.  This sleeve also has a decorative beaded strand added to dress it up a bit.  The options are endless.

I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite plumeria in bloom.

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts, Freemotion by the River,  and Pets on Quilts.