We have had two sunny days in a row! The temperatures have been bitterly cold since our last snow storm, but the sun has been shining which makes those cold temperatures easier to take.
My mother took advantage of the sunny weather to take a picture of her new quilt. I couldn’t resist showing this picture here as it shows off the quilting so nicely.
This quilt was quilted using Circle Lord’s Baptist Fan templates. The curves definitely compliment the straight line piecing in the blocks.
This year, I was able to continue the feeling of Christmas beyond packing away the decorations by working on my my Christmas Gratitude quilt. My quilt is now finished to the flimsy stage. My version is different from Judy L.’s version in that I have left off the last two borders. I ran out of the red and green fabric so this quilt is slightly smaller than Judy’s version. At 60″ x 73″ this quilt is plenty big enough for a lap quilt–even without the last two borders.
I worked on my Gratitude quilt tonight. This is the progress so far. I am now to the point where I can add borders.
I also added my 12 top UFOs to my sidebar. My Gratitude quilt is one of my goals so I am going to keep going on this one so that I can take it off my list.
Linda J.: I started my January blue work snowman block. I can see where working on those blocks will be addictive! I now understand why you finished January, February, and March already!
When I was cleaning up the cuttings on the flor of my studio after the making of my Christmas projects, I cut up the scrap pieces into nickels ans strips. I used the leftover bits that were not suitable for either of these two categories to make Christmas crumb blocks. When I was looking for a setting for these blocks I came across a piture of Jeanne’s quilt that was pasted into my inspiration notebook. My crumb blocks were 8″ square–the perfect size for the center of the blocks in Jeanne’s gratitute quilt. So, the second project I started was inspired by Jeanne’s quilt. This quilt was later featured on Judy L.’s blog as her gift to us in the November Hour-A-Day Quilt project. This is the progress that I have made on my Gratitude quilt so far.
I attended a sale at our local quilt shop during Boxing week. There were so many fabulous Christmas quilting fabrics on half price. I exercised discipline and did not purchase any–not even a single fat quarter! When I came home and took a look at the Christmas fabrics in my stash, I decided I was no longer going to save them. I am going to use them up so that next year when the new Christmas fabrics come out, I will be able to purchase them with a clear conscience knowing that I don’t have any Christmas fabric in my stash! In order to totally bust my Christmas fabric stash, I am going to be piecing the backs for the two quilts shown above out of 10 1/2″ squares of stash Christmas fabric.
Although 2006 has been a year of adding more UFO’s to my every growing list of projects to complete, it has also been a year of new friendships. The friends I have made in the world of quilt blogging have been both inspirational and supportive to me and demonstrate just how small a world we really live in!
Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. ~Oprah Winfrey
We had our big New Year’s feast last night–New Year’s Eve rather than on New Year’s Day. This gives everyone New Year’s Day to relax and rest up so that they are ready to go back to work and a regular schedule tomorrow!
These are pictures taken at dinner last night–we had the four immediate members of my family, the girlfriend and boyfriend of my son and daughter, and my parents. Our meal was simple–ham, mashed potatoes, peas, broccoli, salad and baking for desert–simple but delicious!
After dinner discussion was lively–the pros and cons of various large screen TV formats, computer technology, etc. This is my husband studying the research on TVs that he got off the Internet.
This is my husband and mother….
…and my son.
Later we spent the evening playing board games—Wizard, Sequence, and Scrabble.
The youngest finished up the evening with a movie while the oldest headed to bed–even if it wasn’t quite midnight in the Pacific! After all, it was 2007 somewhere in the world already!
This morning, those younger members of the family are still asleep and my husband headed off to work. I have the house to myself and I am enjoying the quiet.
I will leave you with a picture of Joey that sums up how I feel right now–too pooped to do much of anything after a great holiday season!
Happy New Year everyone!
