Thursday, December 29, 2011

Our Christmas was busy, fun, and crazy as usual!  Lots of family and food.  We added a new decoration outside.  Electric Sex from A Christmas Story!!!
I finished another green paper-pieced block today!
Now to go work on a hand-pieced block!!!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

I've had a productive weekend.  In addition to housework and laundry and getting the decorations up outside, I got some quilting done!
I got the last two napkins done for my Christmas set and I got another one made to send to my aunt as an example.
I made some mini trees as decorations to give to my quilting friends.
I got the next Green Paper-Pieced block done!

And I got two more of the hand pieced Quilted Diamonds blocks done.  They're so easy and fun!




Friday, December 2, 2011

I dug out the Christmas Tree Skirt I started a few years ago and got it finished. 
I also made another Quilted Diamonds Block.  #3 was a challenge, somehow I got some of the pieces cut backwards and had to re-cut them.  The little blackbirds in the center look like eyes!

I've started the next block in the Green Paper-pieced quilt, but I need to get the Christmas Tree up first.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Got two more blocks done and a few more cut and ready to sew.  First the paper-pieced block.  It's really different and the picture doesn't do it justice!
Now the hand pieced diamond.  The smallest pieces are
 3/4" x 5/16" finished.  The diamond is 4" x 7 3/4" finished.  I thought it would be hard but it's not. 

So much fun!!!
Unfortunately the holidays will interfer with my sewing but not too much.  I have a lot of greens but I can already see I need a lot more!  Now I have to clean and  get ready for Thanksgiving!


Saturday, November 12, 2011

I've been busy since my last post!  I finished my paper pieced owl wall hanging.

I created this snowman table runner/wall hanging for the quilt retreat and made a quilt top at the retreat! 



I also learned how to make these napkins at the retreat so now I have new ones for Christmas.  I just need one more color for another set so that I'll have 12.

Now I've started a paper pieced quilt in greens for my daughter.
These are the first two blocks.




And I've also started a hand pieced Quilted Diamonds quilt.  This is the first block.  Both quilts are really fun!

I've also read several books.  I listened to Another Man's Moccasins and The Kitchen House and I just finished Nora Robert's New York to Dallas.  I'm now reading Laura Child's Skeleton Letters.
Now I'm off to do my weekly shopping so I can get back to quilting!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Sadly we had to leave Vegas today.  We're in Flagstaff now and will be home tomorrow.  We got to Vegas on Sunday evening and were disappointed that the Sherwood Forest Cafe was gone and MacDonald's was closed for remodeling. 
Monday we headed over to Monte Carlo and had a yummy cupcake at Cupcakery.  We rode the tram over to Bellagio and saw the new cakes.





Then we went to the conservatory and saw the talking tree.  Amazing!!!







Next we went to the Cosmopolitan.  There was lots of sparkle!







It's been great fun but it'll be good to be back home!

Monday, September 12, 2011

My allergies have been so bad I lost my voice!  It didn't stop me from getting my granddaughter's quilt finished though!  Finally! 

Hand quilting is not my favorite thing but it's done and she's happy!  I also made a pillowcase for each of my three grandkids.  Now I need to make a quilt for her mom and finish some others I have started.  
I am soooo ready for vacation.  We're going to Vegas again.  New things to see and I love to people watch!  We're going to miss the dogs though.  They've become a big part of our life.



Aren't they cute?!?
I'm reading Tess Gerritsen's book The Apprentice and listening to Craig Johnson's Another Man's Moccasins and M.R. Hall's The Coroner.  They're all good!  We'll be listening to Janet Evanovich's Smokin' Seventeen on the way to Vegas.  Too many good books and never enough time to read them all!!!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Wow!  I've had a busy year so far!  We got an iPad 2 and it sure is awesome!  I love playing the games and reading books.  I've downloaded a few interactive books to share with the kids at storytimes.  I've found a lot of cool websites with stumbleupon.
I finished the snowman for my class at the retreat.  He came out cute if I do say so myself!  He's my own original creation!
I'm hoping to finish my granddaughter's quilt this week.  I only have two more rows to quilt!  There's a Halloween quilt on the cover of Quilts and more that I would like to make so I can use some of the Halloween fabric I've been collecting.  It looks like fun!
My daughter and I have gotten back into scrapbooking.  It's been at least 2 years since we've done any so it's time to get busy.  I'm making scrapbook pages of the quilts I've made.
Some friends and needed and adventure so we took a trip to Cottonwood, Jerome and Sedona.  It was lots of fun.  We ate at The Asylum in Jerome.  Here  are a few pictures.





I've also been trying out some cupcake recipes. Yum!!!  I make some of my own creations but I find a lot of them on cupcakestakethecake.com.  It's an awesome site!  One of my favorites so far is the Butterbeer cupcake.  I have some peach cupcakes waiting to be frosted right now.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Woohoo!  I'm past the halfway mark on my granddaughter's quilt!  I'm so anxious to work on something else, but I know if I do I won't get it finished so I'm quilting away slowly but surely.
I have been reading so many good books lately.  I really liked Little Princes by Conor Grennan.  I usually don't like to read nonfiction but this one was written really well and it was a great story! 
J.D. Robb is still going strong in Treachery In Death.  I love her characters!  J.A. Jance's Fatal Error is good and I just listened to Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley and read by Jayne Entwhistle.  She makes Flavia deLuce the most awesome character!
There are some books that are just made to be listened to!  Especially Harry Potter, Diana Gabaldone, Alan Bradley and Janet Evanovich.  My imagination just couldn't give the characters those great voices. 
We just got the iPad 2.  I love reading books on the iPad!  It has great bookmarks, I love the way the pages turn (with sound effects!), the lighting is good (I like to read in the car and you don't need an extra light to read at night), and it's not big and bulky so I can carry it in my purse.  I like the Kindle because it's smaller and lighter weight, but I keep turning the pages as I hold it, you need an extra light, it's not as user friendly as the iPad and I like the iPad's color and, of course, all the other features!  I love to play games and I like to be able to get on the Internet and the maps are cool too!  I have the Kindle app on the iPad so I can have both!  Oh! and I can also download an audiobook to listen to while I surf or play games!!!  Life is great!!!
A friend has the Nook Color and it's nice with some of the same features as the iPad but I am a big fan of Amazon so that wouldn't work for me.
I'm very happy with the iPad 2 and now I'm off to play!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Here are a few pictures of quilts that haven't made it on here yet. The Labyrinth quilt was so much fun to make!  I want to make another one but I have so many that I need to finish before I start another one.  This picture doesn't really do it justice but it's the best I can get.
 My Santa and the Trees quilt is paper pieced and was a lot of fun to make!  I just love paper piecing trees! 
I made a few extra blocks just for fun!
I'm hoping to get my granddaughter's quilt finished by St. Patrick's Day.  It would be perfect since she looves green!  Hand quilting is not my favorite thing to do so it's moving along slowly!
Here are some pictures from  our trip to Vegas in September.
These are tornado tubes and ice sculptures at Arias.


Can you believe these are cakes?!?

Bellagio's atrium was awesome as usual!  This little greenhouse was filled with orchids.



Don't you just love the tree man?!?