SURPRISE AND FAMILY QUILT

Thirty-some years ago, while living in Germany with my active duty hubby, I designed this wall hanging to represent our family. The house is the family home in Utah of my husband's grandparents. He spent many happy times there and I was privileged to spend a few myself...including in the VERY cold upstairs bedroom. My very talented sister in law, Dianne, did a block print of it as part of her studies at BYU and is the inspiration for the house.

The orchard, mountains, and lake represent my side of the family. My mother's family was and some still are orchardists, my father's was and some still are farmers. We've always loved the mountains and lakes and ocean with their fishing possibilities of Washington state. The people are myself, hubby, our girl and boy and my brother. At the time of this, my parents lived on a 5 acre orchard, and we now live in the home, but on just one acre without orchard but lots of greenery mostly planted by mom and brother John.

I entered this in a contest sponsored by a military publication and won honorable mention, so was very pleased that others enjoyed it, too. All the sewing was done on my then new Pfaff machine and free hand. Had a lot of fun making it and still love looking at it now.

This above is the surprise. It's part of a very rough drawing of a quilt in progress for a special couple. I LOVE the colors and layout so may have to someday make me one!

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!

On top are the parts for one of the blocks that will go in the Snowbound snowman applique quilt. It's a different block than came with the directions and definitely in different colors, but I like it a lot. The next picture shows how I ended up sewing the two parts to make the pinwheels...kept having trouble with the seam allowances underneath bunching up, so remembered Mom used to use paper under finer materials sometimes and it worked well. Just tear away the paper carefully and easily! Just used computer paper. I'm not so sure I ever want to make more pinwheel blocks but sure think they're cute! I got the directions for this block from the 301 Country Christmas Quilt Blocks book.

It's the same book that most of the blocks I'm using for what I call my Christmas Quilt--creative name, eh!! These are the three sections for it. Most of the fabric is Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas fabric. It's not the most artful arrangement, I know, but I'm hoping by the time I get all the borders on, it will look better. Whatever, though, it'll be a fun quilt to snuggle under with the girlie girls and boyly boys--hopefully this Christmas! So many different blocks and techniques to chat about and maybe make up stories about.

Surely know I'm not the only one in the midst of lots of projects! Have been working on Christmas for quite some time and having lots of fun doing it. Except for a few things I've bought, (some to go with projects) everything is homemade this year and no one is getting unfinished gifts. That's a biggie in my family as for years I would wrap up unfinished things and give them. (I know! Crazy, but that was me) Now, if it's not finished for Christmas, hopefully it eventually gets finished and given for another holiday or birthday. At least I've gained some wisdom in my old age! At this point, almost every present is finished or very close to it...needing a couple buttonholes, a bit of extra hand sewing, etc. There is one project that's not been started, but hopefully will be soon. It needs a bit more input from the recipients, though.
These are adorable "grab" bags made for the twinnies. Aren't they the cutest? Pattern was on All People Quilt with a bunch of darling bag patterns http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/projects-ideas/bags-pillows/free-bag-patterns_ss11.html I made three regular sized ones and three half size for girlie girls. These bags could probably be reversible if you carefully sewed the lining shut. These particular ones are the reverse of each other. Fabrics are adorable, so thought twinnies needed them both.

In the middle of all this, someone needs a quilt just for them Thankfully, I have this lap quilt top done, so it's just a matter of sandwiching it, quilting and binding. The blocks are from Amy's Creative Side blog : http://amyscreativeside.com/2010/06/14/simple-sampler-quilt-along-details/ Of course, being me, I changed things around a lot. Think I explained before that I wanted blocks to be half size, but didn't know how to do them properly until DL told me how, so there are a lot of different sized blocks. Like how they float, though. It's a priority so expect to get that into major production tomorrow. The top is one I was sure would stay at my house, but somehow it needs to go to hers and I'm okay with that. I'm sure a large part of my being able to do that is reading all the inspirational things others have posted about giving for one reason or another. I love quilters--they're super cool, giving people. Aspire to be that sort of person...not always easy for me to do!

The last picture is a bit fuzzy, but of a fun thing my dear friend Shirley, gave us the other day...a baggie full of pretzels dipped in melted white chocolate and then in what's called firecracker glitter--HOT and sweet at same time. Super fun idea that would love to replicate for Christmas. Sailor Girl Gourmet in Washington State sells the glitter.