Carolina Christmas....

To border this is not........ We are off to Des Moines! Gwen is there!

Christmas Day fun....

we didn't need to go anywhere for Christmas Day. We stayed home due to winter weather.

This worked out well.

I loved it!

I ended up scrapbooking for a 3x3 mini-book.

I spread out all over the living room floor....

going through scraps of papers....

cutting letters for words....

punching squares and shapes The blue arrow is on the actual book....so small and sweet. I love that HO HO HO.

I added the blue lines to seperate all the different elements for pages....

from here I carried it to the kitchen table and started glueing it all down.

I can only work on the floor so long.

This is a gift....the person, who shall remain nameless for now, will only need to add pictures to all the blank pages I left.
....and WA-LA a small memento from this Christmas!

This book would never have happened if it weren't for the unexpected day at home. Things really worked out well.
Makes me want to scrapbook some more!!!

Christmas Eve finish.....

Two big quilts are ready to be wrapped.

We must have been in the eye of the storm this morning.

There was hardly any wind...this made hanging them

outside for pictures so much easier.

The top one is actually a birthday present for my sister who turned

50 this December.

The bottom one is for my mom, she helped lay it out one day while

she was here, a long time ago.

And then it sat in the closet waiting for it's finish.

I have never given her a big quilt... just little ones.

This seemed like the perfect year to

get it done and give it to her.

It is from the Certifiably Crazy Book by the Buggy Barn and is called...

Crazy Goose Chase

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

another snowday....

These Santas get to be in the blog today just because I think they are cute. I made the one with the white hair (the tallest one) He was in a magazine years and years ago....his hair seems to be thinning out....I still have plenty of it to add to him....someday....today I am working on binding for one last Christmas gift. ....and since I don't relish the binding process...I am stalling....doing important things....like blogging.

See the little penguin guy below??
....here's the link so you know what I am talking about.....
http://mrsmoenhowtos.blogspot.com/

I was cruising in the bloglands again.....

accused of spending to much time on the computer by tractor joe...

....but I find so many ideas that way...

anyway I thought this penguin would be so sweet done up the way she did her picture in the blog. No I haven't tried it yet. Sometimes just thinking about it is enough.

I better get busy.

the snowmen

Crispy joined some secret Santa thing at school.

He wanted to make little snowmen out of socks like we did many years ago....and give them away.....okay, he can do that.....

Except.....

He left me to finish after he stuffed them and wrapped the wire for the arms.....

....all that was left....attaching the face and the buttons and the hat and the mittens with the hot glue gun.

How long can that take???

I am not sure....but I was at it for quite some time.

I thought they turned out pretty cute!!!

Christmas gifts

We went shopping yesterday....
after years of making only a few pancakes or french toast or grilled cheese sandwiches at a time.....
We bought ourselves a great big griddle.
When we arrived home we wasted no time....it was opened and put to use.
What a treat, all these pancakes done at the same time!!!
We love it!!

In the mailbox was a package from Virginia.....
One of the things in it was this massive, big, coffee table sized book from my niece!



I spent some time this morning going through it.

I took some pictures of the ones that caught my fancy...

Tons and tons of inspiration...



I see a pattern in the pictures of I took.....

There are no curved or appliqued quilts in the ones I was drawn to....even though the book is full of those too....(and are really cool to look at)....for now I will stick to straight sewing lines

I will need to spend some time studying this book. Everytime I look I see something different and wonder...how did they do that???

on the kitchen table.....

http://quiltville.com/carolinachristmas.shtml

Bonnie Hunter has a new mystery...it is about done. I didn't participate this time.

But when I saw it.....I wished I had....

I love the lay out of it...

When I saw the image on the button....just a small section of the whole quilt....

I thought....hey, that would make a really nice little quilt for Christmas.

I have no printer right now...so I colored my graph paper....

Oh so slowly I am also working on my stitched WELCOME.

Christmas....

There! I am done

decorating outside

for Christmas!!

Isn't that lovely???

blizzards mean binding.....

Karen did the binding on one quilt yesterday,

it is for Haley, her favorite daughter in law,

well...

her only daughter in law.

anyway....she can use it as a table cloth or lay it gracefully over the back of a chair or the couch...
Karen is also working on a ton of small wall quilts for gifts.

I have two quilts that now have binding. I thought about hanging the star quilt outside for a picture, but decided it was to windy. Besides I want to wash it and give it that krinkly look first.

It is laying over the arms of a chair, making Nikki's napping spot a little more cozy.

It is so nice having these blocks out of the box and put to use after all those years.

jenny's give away

Jenny is having a give away at her blog. She makes little cross-stitch patterns.

http://countryrusticprimitives.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-first-giveaway.html#comment-form

I didn't pay attention very well....it is the actual Christmas filler ornies that she is giving away
not the pattern,
so when I said to her....
I would make a small wall hanging with them....her face was horrified...
"But they are stuffed!"

...then I understood......ohhh.....

it is the real items that are laying under her tree right now,
not the pattern.
Nevermind....

you're insane.....

I bundled myself up and was heading outside.

"What are you doing?"

it was tractor joe....

he was looking at me kinda funny.

"I want to take pictures of the weather outside."

that is when he said "you're insane"

It was cold, my finger tips were chilled trying to get the pictures....

But I was able to get some!

.....and this is what insane looks like...

standing in the blowing cold snow.....

No school...

hmmmm.....underlined text

I am not sure why it does that....

it quit. Good.

We are trapped here today. I am waiting for

daylight to get some outside pictures.

I made a pile of the small and one big red backed quilt that are waiting for binding.

Some are very important to finish...some aren't...

An unexpected free day leads to lots of extra time for sewing.

No dog no.....

Don't sit on that!

geez Ozzy, I am just trying to get a picture of a done quilt!





Not to bad of a picture. The colors are even darn close to
real life.
It isn't up on any wall though.
Right now it is just hanging cock-eyed over the back of chair. It looks nice
there....maybe that is as far as it will get this year.

my nativity set...

I bought these last year while out shopping with Karen in Forest City. I fell in love with them and used my birthday money to get them.

I was talking about them on Thanksgiving morning. "Remember my nativity set I bought last year?"

No one did.

"....its so cute, should I go get it out?!"

that idea was shot down......I was asked....

"Can't that wait until we are done eating the turkey?"

oh yah....the turkey....okay.

So far this is all I have brought down from the closet.

more old stuff...

I am in the middle of another project.....

I know my cousin will remember these blocks......
The snowman, tree and deer are supposed to be on the edge of a place mats.
Mine never made it that far.
While Gwen made several sets for relatives and friends,
as in.....
she actually finished them!

mine sat in a box for many years....

waiting....

waiting for me to find wonky letters.
and cut up 2 1/2 in squares that were left over.

I love it so far!!!

old old thing......

This quilt has to be over 10 years old....I don't remember working on it in this house and we have lived here that long.

I'm not even that crazy about it....but I always thought I had worked on it when my cousin was visiting, so it was sorta special that way....could be wrong....she can correct me.

Anyway, I had tried machine quilting it many moons ago....and it
looked HORRIBLE...really,it did, I was disgusted by it
...but I would hang it up anyway.

I always thought that someday I would take out the machine quilting and redo it better.
Today was that someday!!
....I didn't remove the binding, just the quilting.
Then I went over it with the wavy stitch, it went pretty well,
and I like it a whole lot better now. It is hanging outside the backdoor in the breezeway.
(it's on the dog kennel for it's picture)

I asked the Big Guy, when he arrived home from work, what he thought of the quilt on the back door and he said...
"what quilt?"
oh well, I see it going in and out.

Cornelius is home for awhile. He took down my old dinosaur of a computer...we bought in 2001!!!!

....and put up his!!!!

I was so excited.

"WOW, it's like a new computer!!", I exclaimed

as I sat down at it...

Mr. Calm Cool and Collected (Crispy) says...."thats cuz it is"

Thanksgiving is coming...

Karen called me on her way home from work. We were discussing plans and food for Thanksgiving. She will be going away for the day. I'll be staying home and cooking for me and the boys. Tractor joe will be in Wisconsin deer hunting.

I told her I had the turkey thawing....I'll use my roaster for that Thursday morning.

I have bought a pie, I only need to throw it in the oven, along with my "brown and serve" rolls...

I bought mashed potatoes in a bag, they are so good and easy....squeeze them out of the bag and microwave them.

Easy Peazy stuff.

Then she asked what kind of gravy I bought...packets or jars....

Neither....."I would use the pan drippings from the turkey to make the gravy".

With ahhh and wonder in her voice she says,

"wow, you're ambitious!!!! You can do that? How is it done??"

I thought this an odd comment and question........coming from someone who....

*has run a tea house and cooked all the food served there...

*runs a catering business with her husband and helps with the cooking...

*has gone to the Pillsbury Bake-Off to be a contestant....

*and watches the Food Network a bunch.

I explained how I made it, she thought it seemed simple enough and she was going to try it sometime.

So even though my meal is almost all heat and serve stuff, I get to think of myself as ambitious....'cause I'll be making the gravy from scratch!!!

3rd times a charm....

Crispy is 16 and old enough to get a drivers license.

This is easier said than done.....

It only took three different cities on three different days to get it done.

Attempt one found us in Mason City. Crispy had a eye doctor appointment, so he wanted to test for his license.

....unfortunately he ran over the curb right out of the gate (among other things) and didn't get a license.
I was able to console myself by continuing to shop in the fabric store....as luck would have it, they are right next to each other.

Attempt two found us in Algona.
...we arrived in the afternoon....and there were two others in line for testing.

.....unfortunately they wouldn't have time for his drive test. He was crushed.
I said let's go to the fabric store as long as were here....it seemed like the right thing to do.

Attempt three found us in Forest City. We even had an appointment...it would happen....no matter what!

Crispy came walking in behind the tester and gave me the thumbs up....I wish I a picture of how happy he was at that moment.....he had passed the test....he would get his license!!!!

...unfortunately the state computers had gone down and it might be a bit before they were back up and running.
Was there something we could go do and then come back???

...hey, let's walk down to the quilt shop!!!! Crispy was in such a good mood that he didn't even protest.

45 minutes later we were back......the computers were up and Crispy was getting his license.

Now he can drop me off at school....and he continues on to the high school.

He kept saying God didn't want him to have a license.....maybe.....or maybe God just thought it would be nice for me to go to 3 different fabric stores in about a weeks time!!!

harvest continues....

If tractor joe isn't out working his trucking job....he is out at the farm helping his brother......
the weather in NOVEMBER has been SO MUCH better than October's...
this was taken while working on the last of the beans. They are hauling in the corn now and much closer to having that all in before the snow really starts to fly.

oh oh......

We planted this tree last summer.
It is my bro-in-law's...it came from the funeral of his father.
He has a postage stamp sized yard, while ours is more postcard sized.....
since he hunts here in the fall, it was decided to plant it here.

WELL.....
a nasty buck has come along and made mince meat out of the little tree.....
This has really upset tractor joe........
he got real mad...
he plans on getting this buck when deer season opens and turning him into.....

CANNED MEAT !!!!

I better start locating jars and the pressure cooker.....

Christmas nap quilt...

the center is finished...

I cut my "I believe" panel apart.....

I cut a ton of 2 1/2 inch squares.....

and then I sewed it all back together.

Now I just need the borders put on and get it quilted.

The perfect couch quilt...
to take naps under during the holidays.

two things

One of the gals in Karen's office is having a baby in early December........
She made her this baby quilt...

a rag quilt to be exact.....at least that is what Karen kept calling it...

"I'm working on my rag quilt"
"I have started clipping all the edges on my rag quilt now"
"I am still clipping edges on the rag quilt"
"I am almost done clipping everything on my rag quilt"

It took about 3 nights of watching TV to get the clipping done.

She washed it and then stuck it in the dryer....(giving it that nice unraveled look at all the seams)


It is so cute.....it measures about 40 x48 inches....

I took a scrap of muslin and traced an angel and the word believe

(from my "believe" book)

then I colored it and
then I stitched. It is not sealed with anything. It is more like an experiment.....
It took all day yesterday to finish it....working on and off....not every minute,
I was in and out and even fell asleep watching Fons and Porter.

Poor little thing will have to sit and wait for awhile while I decide what to do with it......

Saturday morning.....

It is another beautiful day in the neighborhood......

The sun is out and it is warm for a change!!
Tractor joe has left for "the farm" to help his brother with harvest. Everything is so behind.
Beans are usually done by now.....
not this year.....
October was so rainy and cold.......not much was happening in the fields.
The unofficial day to be done with everything is....
"Mom's birthday"
that is tomorrow.
They aren't even close.
I finished a small quilt....right down to having the binding sewn on completely.....
I am giving it to tractor joe's mom for her birthday.......

I started my Merry Christmas quilt (from the I Believe book, purchased at the quilt show)

I traced all the letters.....

and then.....
and then.....

I ran out of the iron-on-fusible stuff.

There is supposed to be holly leaves and branch between the C and the M.

Thats okay....I have plenty of other things to work on.....

Gail Pan's Christmas Words

It is done...

(except for sewing the binding on the back,

.....a minor detail....

the pins do a nice job of holding it in place)

Before my Mom left on Sunday.....I laid this out and

it was decided that the gold border didn't look right....

We picked out a green that looked just right.

....and a darker green for the binding.

I am happy with it...