Happy New year to everyone! I never make New Year resolutions but my goal this year is to finish quilting all my quilts I have in my basket of "to do's"! I started on this quilt. It is a baby quilt done in the 40's fabric ( I guess you call it that). 1 done, 21 more to do!!

The close up picture shows the colors on the quilt the best.

finished...

Finally finished up the December Friday night quilt. Too many other things to do before Christmas and just now had the time. I also wanted to wait till I got my "cheater foot" for my sewing machine. LOVE it!! Makes the perfect 1/4" seam ALL the time. Did I tell you I LOVE IT!!

This is called "Chain Reaction" and is a pattern by Fourth and Sixth Designs. I changed it up a bit. It asked for like 6 different shades of blue and 6 different reds and a white. I used only 3, and am very happy with the way it turned out. I also added borders which made the final size 64x82. Nice size!

Cookies...Yum!

For those of you who love to bake. If you click on the link below, a list of cookies will pop up. Then click on your favorite type of cookie and the recipe will come up.

http://www.susanbranch.com/newsletters/2009-12/

Found this on another blog and thought it was the cutest thing for next year!

Button Ornament by Martha Stewart
Isn't this button ornament charming? This would be fun to make with kids. (I'd have to find some kids, though.) I'm thinking year-round ornaments, not just for Christmas. Very nice. Visit http://www.marthastewart.com/article/button-wreath-ornament for directions.

Is this appropriate for you as it is for me....?
I just received this from a friend and wanted to share it with you. Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree. I'm wondering what Santa brought just for me.. Could it be fat quarters or a pattern or lace? Or a quilt kit, I said, with a smile on my face.And that's when I heard him, "Hi Santa," I said "You know....good little girls should be in their beds ". "I know I should Santa, and now I've been caught. But I was just so excited to see what you brought." "Well, let's take a look in this room where you work." He shook his head quickly, And left with a jerk. I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear. "You've got enough stuff, I'll see you next year!"
author unknown

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my new blogging friends who visit my little ol' blog! I am so excited to read all the comments that you leave me every day. I will try to post more often in the New Year then I have been doing in the past. Have a wonderful and safe Holiday.
Donna

Virtual Christmas Quilt Show

I know I have showed you these pictures before... this time I am posting so that I can enter Sewcalgal's virtual Christmas Quilt Show. http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/ . If you enter you have the chance of winning a prize and everyone LOVES to win! Plus you can see all the other great entries that come in.

The first picture is a quilt I made from a Palomar class that I am taking. It is called "Jungle Twist", it measures 56x68. I created in in Christmas fabric so that I could put my redwork in the middle squares. Don't go getting all "wowed" ... I used my Bernina to create the squares. you can click on the picture to see the redwork a little better.

The second picture is a snowman wall hanging. It measures 25x36. My bestest friend made me this. Marian (thanks Mare). She told me how to make the hat, nose, buttons and how to attach the scarf. I found some old buttons and used them for the eyes and also found 5 fabric buttons all connected together that I used for the mouth. I just love it.

Have a good week everyone!

5 more days of work!! yahoo!!!

Quilting weekend..

We had a quilting weekend in Idyllwild this past weekend. Woke up to snow Sunday morning with a crisp 19 degrees outside. We took the picture about noon time, so ALOT of the snow was melted already on the porch. But everything was covered, it looked so pretty. There were 8 of us this time. We all did different stuff, sewed, scrapped, knitted, painted. We had "sew" much fun! hahaha. Within the last 2 weeks I think I have quilted at least 6 small quilts, a couple of table toppers or wall hangings and 2 bigger quilts. I think there are still more people need long arm quilting done. I have Friday night quilt at the Cottage tomorrow night, Sunday I have a tea in Fallbrook ( I get my friendship quilt) I am soo excited, I can't wait to see it. So... Christmas... I am soo not ready. I haven't done Christmas cards... Mark did outside lights... I haven't done anything inside... he brought the tree in... put it up... still not decorated... I have 1 more week of work... 5 work days..whoo-hooo, BUT... Kelly comes in next Saturday... I have the girls (Lolli and Mia) next Saturday also, soo I don't think much will get done, especially if I am given more quilts to work on this weekend. The snowman wall hanging, Marian made for me, I quilted it and added the embelishments. Isn't he adorable!!!

bathroom ceiling

Before...and after...Wednesday night, I had an idea! Mark hates when I get those! Since I have the "spa tub" in our bathroom I thought that it should look like a real "spa". So Kelly and I painted the ceiling to look like clouds. I wanted the effect like you get when you are in a real spa so that when I'm sitting in the jacuzzi tub I can lookup and see the clouds. It took us maybe 3 hours total to tape, paint and put the clouds in. It looks really good, I just have to get used to the blue.

Happy Thanksgiving

May your stuffing be tasty, May your turkey be plump, May your potatoes and gravy never a lump. May your yams be delicious And your pies take the prize, And may your Thanksgiving dinner Stay off your thighs! Happy Thanksgiving!

Vacation...yes!

As of 1:30 yesterday, Friday, I am officially on vacation for 10 days!! Kelly my daughter is flying in tonight for Thanksgiving. First time in 10 years she says. Doesn't seem that long to me. Tomorrow I have the girls for a week, Steven and Ronna are going to Hawaii. Hmmm. tough decision there...I would have picked Hawaii also! Marian and I are hosting a tea at her house for our Friendship group next month. I am making these adorable little stockings for everyone. A while ago we started our group. We all submitted "a middle" part of a quilt, every4 weeks we pass the quilt onto the next person and you add something to it. So when we have our tea, we are going to see our quilts for the first time since we made the middle. They will all be gorgeous I'm sure.

This red quilt is this months Friday night quilt at the cottage. The pattern is called "Balsam Fir". It came in a package of 4 patterns and I love them all. "quick as a wink" is the package name.

This brown one is Octobers Friday night that I never posted. It is called "Delectable Cakes" .

I have just finished quilting a quilt last night for a friend, have another loaded and am picking up 3 more at Monday's night class. Busy, busy. Plus Mark will be home the ENTIRE week with us all. Ahhh... I hope I get everyting done! I have 2 house projects I want to do also. Oh boy, maybe I can have Mark do those to keep him busy while I am doing all my stuff! hehehehe

On my day off I did this... I stayed up till the wee hours of the morning sewing, woke up at 5:30, said good-bye to Mark, he went fishing, went back to bed for 2 hrs and finished this quilt I think by noon. The full picture is not a good picture but you can see the twisted patchwork part. But what I love is the redwork that I put in the centers. Love my little Deco machine.. Finished up my quilt from the last Friday night but I forgot to take a picture. Darn! This Friday is the next one, so I hope I have time to post it tomorrow.

Went to a wedding last night in Temecula at Falkner Vineyard.... perfect couple, perfect sunset, perfect cake...Congratulation's Ian and Mel!!

Today is, well...busy. Mark and Steven are in Oceanside helping a friend on his house. I am on my 3rd load of laundry, 2 more to go. Dishwashers going, working on my quilt from last night at Quilters Cottage. (Not the one shown). Changed the sheets, flipped the mattress (haven't done that in a while) I still have to get outside and do my yard work. (next door's also!) It's a rental and I keep it up for the owner. And then I decided to post on my blog. Whew! Finished the quilt up in the picture about a week ago. Got the idea from a little, little picture I saw in a magazine. Found the block directions and made my own quilt up. LOVE IT! It looks so old fashioned. The blue green material is from American Jane. Bought some, not enough, the Cottage ran out and it took me like 4 months to find more to finish the quilt.

Off to do yards now!

Saturday drive....

Started the day with the hubby going to the Ramona Quilt Show. Small show, but it was hoppin' with peoples.. Lots of ideas. Cute quilts.

Then we went on ahead to Julian. (The one picture is the little Julian jail.)It was apple pickin' season, we didn't stop for those we parked and went shopping. TONS of people had the same idea! The line to get a fresh pie was unbeleivable. Like a block long. If I liked pies, I would have waited.















All I wanted to do was pick out a pumpkin! I figured since it was the time of year, surely someone would have some. Nope! had to go ALL the way back to Ramona. Stopped at the one place we passed earlier in the day and got one. They also had a GIANT corn maze.I didn't do it, I'm too cheap! Kids were having fun though.

Fall...

Here are a couple of new things I just finished. My girlfriend Marian created this idea for a table runner. She did the middle part of the pumpkins and I did the borders and the stitching on it. Cute, cute, cute!



The quilt was one I had did on our weekend retreat from the cottage last month. Just finished quilting it last week or so.

give aways,....

Go visit Rue's blog http://ruespeanutbutterandjellylife.blogspot.com and take a look at her new kitchen! It's A-DOR-A-ABLE!!!!
then go to visit Cathy at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ she's has a list of friends who are doing more giveaways.

I'm in the paper!!

Just had to share. Check out this article in the local newspaper.. Whoo-hoo...

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/menifee/article_97ba1f42-3e32-5123-8ff7-458552e26b6e.html


They did an article on all my quilt displays that have I hanging in my library.
I don't know why, but it looks like you have to copy and paste the web address. Grrr...

FREEE!!!!!!

Everybody loves free stuff!


First....There is a new online quilting magazine and you can get it if you like.


http://www.quiltposium.com/


Second.... If you go to http://www.bhg.com/holidays/halloween/pumpkin-carving/pumpkin-carving-stencils-of-favorite-dogs/ and vote for your favorite breed of dog then you can download a stencil so you can make your Halloween pumpkin.

quilt show

Well, started off with going to the San Diego Quilt Show. small but nice. I'm used to Long Beach or Road. Wanted to spend money, but only 1 vendor was lucky. The Quilted Rose. Started talking and then we ended up driving to her store in downtown. Bought 2 pantographs and thread. The Quilted Rose was next door to Rosie's, so we had to stop in and see if there was anything I just couldn't live without. Couldn't find anything, well yes there was stuff, but I had no idea what to buy. All my projects were in my car, which we didn't take or at home. I wasn't gonna buy just anything.

Only took a picture of 1 quilt, none just said "WOW" to me. Took this because Michele I know is a Peanuts fan.

more displays...

So here are a couple more ways to put your quilts around the house. You can put them anywhere and everywhere. New ones and old ones!.

How do you display your quilts??

Here are just some of the ways my quilts are displayed in my house. I have many more, but I could only upload 5 pictures for some reason.

I know I dissapeared for a while, back to work, a funeral, company from out of state, projects, my back yard is getting renovated, and then of course FACEBOOK! I find myself on there quite a bit playing games trying to catch up to Kelly and then my sister's scores. Then I have my quilts, quilt guild, friendship group, etc. the list goes on.

Just finished a quilt last night called Fairfax County. LOVE IT!! Civil War materials. I wasn't so fond of it half way through, so many dang 2 1/2 " pieces, AHHHH! I'm glad it's done and can't wait to do the quilting on it.

Give away....

Give Away
Mosey on over to American Quilter's Society to find out about a huge giveaway.http://www.americanquilter.com/shows_contests/desmoines/2009/giveaway/Contest runs July 15th thru September 1st.
Not tempted? Just another giveaway?
Well How about this Prize Gallery?Grand PrizeOne (1) winner will receive theUltimate Quilting Studio package from HandiQuilter®, Tracey’s Tables and Moda to include:One (1) HandiQuilter® Machine Quilting System to include:HQ Sixteen™ with Table and Frame ARV including shipping $9,000.00 (US)Training retreat provided by HandiQuilter® ARV $750.00 (US)Estimated ARV $9,750.00 (US)Quilting and cutting tables from Tracey's Tables:Estimated ARV with shipping $3,071.00 (US)One (1) trip to the American Quilter’s Society 2009 Quilt Expo-Des Moines, October 28 to 31, 2009,Estimated ARV $1,000.00 (US)See their site for exact details of the trip.Fabric collection from a variety of Moda designers Estimated ARV $3,000.00 (US)

cupcakes anyone?????

Pin cushions that is. Or how about a pincushion bag to sit next to your computer that you can put your scissors and seam ripper in and throw your threads in it also??

They come in small, medium and large. $10.00. $15.00, $20.00. you pick your favorite colors. Anyone interested, just email me.

Have a great rest of the week.