NYE 2009 by Ann B. Smith Top Done!

I was so happy to have this top together I didn't stop to finish ironing after adding the last two rows...After a good press will try to take another picture. I used more of a medium in the dark spot and two darker colors in the medium spot since that is what I was working with. It changes the outcome of it a bit, but it is okay. I don't think I will make this one again due to endless sqaring up of the half square triangles...(good news is that led me to research easier ways to do that!) and all the seam matching at the very end which sucked. I prefer easier stuff that looks tough I guess. Even with that I enjoyed the day of sewing with Kathy and doing another one of Ann's mysteries. It is a great way to end the year and I look forward to doing it as long as Ann is!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE and THANK YOU FOR READING MY BLOG!

NYE Mystery 2009 and the Year in Review!

Clue 1

Clue 2

Clue 3

Missed a picture of Clue 4, but added brown to the bottom of the 3 unit.

Clue 5

Clue 6

More to come.... and here it is coming together...

NYE Presewing Step Done and a Look at the Hexagon Hand Sewn Quilt

I worked on this hexagon hand sewn (paper pieced) quilt at my mom and stepdad's house on Christmas Day. We watched several movies and I relaxingly sewed. It was fun...I will make it a little bigger and add some ends, but it will be a mini type quilt.

I worked for several days, several hours at a time to get all of the NYE Mystery quilt half square triangles sewn, ironed, then worst of all trimmed to size. Kathy is trimming her own (colors in picture are hers) and she is not quite done. I may have to help out with them tomorrow, but I am really tired of hsts! I think next time I am going to try triangles on a roll type thing that I just got from Becky!

Amy at http://skattebo-skattebo.blogspot.com/ is planning a fun BOM for 2010 with several options and I think I am joining in...that may make me in with four BOM's! Think 2010 is the year of the Block of the Month for me! I need to compare all my options and really decide which ones I want to do, but I like the idea of sewing along with Amy! Come join us!

Secret Santa Gifts

My Secret Santa sent me a frog stocking (I used to collect frogs and still have a few) stuffed with loot! I got some thread, some cute fabric, a thread cutter, two chicken hand towels for the kitchen and four fabulous napkins with a snowflake on them! We are having the other side of the family over today for Christmas and I made four Christmas Tree napkins and so I will use these four too and have just about enough for the adults! Thank you Secret Santa!

Tuffet Schnibbles for December and a PIF for Me!

I got a fabulous Pay It Forward gift from Amy in Wisconsin today! I could not believe all the goodies she made and sent me! You can see from these pictures that I got lucky! There is a thread catcher which has a pin cushion on the top, two fat quarters that are very pretty, a marking pencil, a pattern, and you can't see it too well in the picture but this cute wood ornament with a quilty saying on it. I have already put all of these things up and away in my quilting studio! The next picture has a cute little sewing themed quilt and I hung that up already too! Thank you Amy...these gifts were worth the wait and made me feel special today!

Some of you may remember that I signed up for the PIF under Amy...I made two baby quilts (well actually three) that I gave away to some babies in need and I made another little wall hanging for the gal that signed up under me, but I can't seem to get her address to send it to her. Long story, but if she sees this she can email me her address otherwise I give up trying to send it out! (Maybe we will have a little giveaway and send it on if I don't hear from her).

I also finally whipped up this little Tuffets pin cushion for the December Year of Schnibbles! I used little leftover strips of things and like how it turned out. Didn't take too long to make which is good because I am short on time at the moment! I will be using this pattern again and making some more. They are cute!

I spent several hours today sewing at Becky's house which was lots of fun. I got the presewing done for both mine and Kathy's NYE Mystery 2009. All are cut but need ironing and trimming before New Year's Eve Day. Didn't get a picture of that yet, but I will. Becky also made a really good white bean and ham soup which was really good. She motivates me to cook more! I also got some Secret Santa loot that I need to blog about but we are having the family over tomorrow for a belated Christmas and so I should get to bed as there is alot to do tomorrow!

It all comes together...

Threw a few of the blocks from Carolina Christmas on the design wall while they await being sewn together...I like it!

These little hexagons are not sewn yet, but I spent some time glueing the edges to the paper pieces cards so that I can work on it over the holidays while hanging out with my family...the idea came from a tutorial I saw and I am copying the gal right down to the fabrics...I will dig out the info to post with an update of it too in case any of you feel the need to handpiece!

Kathy finally whipped me up a huge top to my ironing board last night! I need to staple batting and such to it, the blue fabric is just laying over the board for now. You can also see I got the binding machine stitched to the edge of the second NYE Circus quilt from last year.

This is a little doggie quilt for Divot the Dog (my Dad's partner's dog). She is in love with flamingos and has a matching quilt so I thought her dog would like a little quilt too. That dog was by my dad's side til the end, and after he passed away Margie gave me a bunch of his clothes for quilting...so I loaded them in my suitcase. When I came home from the service I found Divot the Dog laying on top of the clothes in my suitcase...she had never even gone in the room I was in before that. She could still smell Dad on those cloths and wanted to be near him. She has a special place in my heart now and she is Margie's pride and joy.

Last night I did a quick large tablerunner for my antique table to protect it from the laptops. Today I bound it on the way to get my seventeen year old son Mac from the airport. He flew in from Wisconsin and was amazed at the sunny weather here!

My not so crafty sister made this for our brother who is a HUGE Sun's fan and has a Sun's room. The clothes were his son Ben's so even more special! I can't wait for him to see it!

Kathy and I got everything cut and situated for the NYE Mystery 2009 by Ann B. Smith. These are her fabrics..the crazy purple is the backing and the rest are for the top..but wait, we decided on a different cream at the last minute, but close you get the idea. Merry Christmas Everyone. May this coming year be easier for us than the last. Thanks for reading my blog my friends!

Carolina Christmas Clue Five Done and Step Six Almost Done!

Spent the majority of today at June's house again working on step five and six of Carolina Christmas. I really thought this half would go faster but NO, NOT REALLY! This is what the blocks look like...very cute. I got down to the last few blocks and discovered I had miscounted and needed to make nine more of the large green triangle/with the white and little green triangles. June was nice enough to let me grab some from her stash (all my fabric and even a few "extra" green blocks were at home) so I made up ten for good measure. Then I discovered that I had turned the little block and the green wasn't in the right place...so I wound up REMAKING them! I almost cried at this point seriously. If there is an award for messing up triangles I would have the grand prize.Here are my two blocks together. I haven't laid them all out to get a feel for the whole thing yet, but based on this I think it will really look nice! Here are June's blocks...I love hers too! Her black background fabric is so cute with little colored flowers on it. She is still working these, but isn't far behind me!

And again, here is my whole stack so you can see they are done! I have to tuck this away for at least a few days because I have the NYE Mystery to get cut and presewing done on, and also Dorothy's mystery has two clues out and I haven't started that either! So very soon will get on those and come back to this one!

Thanks June for having me two days in a row and for the delicious pea soup we had for lunch!

Carolina Christmas Clue Five and Six (First Half Done!)

Isn't it gorgeous? This one isn't mine--it's June's! She was working hard on this block today and I am loving how hers is looking!

Last night I finished putting the binding on last year's Ann B. Smith NYE Mystery! We have two of these made from the mystery--Kathy sewed most of these blocks but hates to do the binding. No idea whose baby will wind up with this one yet.
This morning I went to June's and worked on Carolina Christmas Clue 5 and 6. I first had to put the little block together...

Then four of them go together to make this block.

Next four of those go into this HUGE block! Twelve total blocks and doing this took about 6 or 7 hours! I love how they look and hope my daughter Hannah is just at thrilled with them!

And here are all twelve of them so you can see they are done! I can't wait to go back to June's tomorrow and put together the second block and get started on sewing them together! Bonnie put out the pieced border clue tonight and I think I will do that too, but it may just be after Christmas!

Quilt History Block for December and All the Blocks

I made this little fabric bowl at quilt camp and finally got the fringy stuff handsewn on the other night. It is already winging its way to Wisconsin to be my dad's girlfriend Margie's. It is her first Christmas without my dad..I sent her chocolate, a little Packer bag and some homemade dog treats too. I need to finish up a doggie quilt for her, she may just get that in January.

Made the binding from leftover backing and attached it to one of the two NYE Mysteries from last year that Kathy made. Now to hand sew it.

Last night was Quilt History class, I brought cornflake cookies like my great grandma Myrt always made and today I whipped up this propeller block which completes the 12 for 2009! We talked about innovative women from the 30's and one of them was Amelia Earhart so I suspect that is why this block was picked. It whipped up really nicely too!

Here are all twelve of the 2009 blocks...two of them are AWFUL (I am sure you can guess which two!) but overall they are decent. I will make it into a flimsy but not really sure if I will get it quilted at this point..not that crazy for it! I am thinking it needs sashing...anyone have any suggestions for the color or anything? I also have two blocks from 2008 (I joined two months before the year was out that year) and I have one extra umbrella lady block so I could put them in here or on the back just to use them up.
Off to go grocery shopping and run errands...hopefully my next project is Carolina Christmas blocks. I am dying to get back to them!

Carolina Christmas Clue Four Done!

You can see from Jade kitty above that I had some *help* while I was sewing up clue four. I sit on the left, Kathy if with me on the right and Jade finds something soft in the middle to lay on so we have to dig things out from under her to cut or sew! There is a dog under each of our feet and one under the ironing board at all times too--there are five of them ya know. I should really be much thinner from all the dog hurdle jumps I do all day and night, but I digress.

I had sewn these babies up before today, but ironed them out and stacked them up ten to a stack..there were 208 of them. They are not perfect, I only squared a few (shh don't tell, I planned to square, but I just didn't!) and I made them work. All Quiltzilla's need not comment, I do this for fun ya know.

Here is what some of them looked like after I got the little block together. And the last picture is what all of the stuff I have done so far looks like. I have seen the blocks (I have no patience for waiting, it is amazing that I have only opened the two Christmas presents that have been given to me early--usually I am trying to find out what they are!). I am loving how the colors are playing together and I think this one is going to be for my daughter Hannah for her birthday in February. She will be 20, how did that happen? Her favorite color is purple and she has moved up from a twin bed and needs a quilt, so hopefully this one will do.

I hope to get started on clue five tomorrow...so exciting to see actual blocks coming together! On the home front, we got my youngest son, Mac a ticket to come here for Christmas. So should be seeing him next week. Plenty up with him in Wisconsin and I wish he would move here and be near his mom instead of staying there mainly because of a girlfriend that isn't the best influence from what I gather. His dad and I are going to discuss this tomorrow since he is in Iraq and DS is with his grandparents which wasn't really the plan when I left him there with his dad.

I couldn't sleep last night so I didn't even bother going to bed at a decent hour tonight. Least I got the sewing done. Oh and I forgot to tell you I sewed about thirty of the triangles squares to the background squares incorrectly before checking for the eighth time and discovering I had turned the triangles..so unsewing and resewing commenced. I wonder if there is such a thing as triangle dyslexia because I definitely have it! I had flashbacks to when I sewed the Picnic Schnibbles quilt!

Carolina Christmas Clue Four Started

I spent a little time working on step four of the Carolina Christmas mystery today. I have stacks and stacks of half square triangles that need ironing and then joining with some more squares before becoming a little block and having that clue done. The above picture shows the stacks (facedown). In other news we put up our tree, and a wreath outside and decorated a bit for Christmas. I had a good weekend, but it sure went by fast!

Carolina Christmas Clue Three Done!

Not the greatest picture, but after eight more hours of sewing today clue three is done. WOW this took awhile and I have a bag of bonus units that were cut off of these that will eventually become something too. Watching ten most fascinating people (love Adam Lambert) and gonna have a quiet evening at home. I will get back to this and start clue four tomorrow.