Sunday, January 10, 2010

Bonnie's Carolina Christmas


I've been working this week on Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Chistmas mystery quilt. Well, I cheated, so it wasn't a mystery to me. I decided that I really didn't want a big bed sized quilt (even though I have plenty of fabric for it). I switched around the green and the gold colors and it isn't as scrappy as the ones that she has done before, but I think I really like it. Let me know what you think. I don't think I'll sew together the blocks for another day or so.
Its been really cold here in Wisconsin this past week. And it snowed twice. I got the snow blower fixed so at least I didn't have to shovel by hand.
Other than the snow, cold, and the quilting, things have been pretty slow around here. We've just been busy getting back into the swing of things with school and work. Its amazing how resistant DD is about doing homework now that we're back from vacation. But grade cards are coming up in a few weeks, so when she doesn't want to do her homework, I remind her about the money she'll get when the good grades come in (and conversely, the lack of money if she doesn't do well).
Oh, yeah, the other thing going on is that we're selling Girl Scout cookies again. DD took the selling sheet to church this morning and did pretty good. But with temperatures in the single digits, we just couldn't find it in us to go door to door today. We've got several weeks, so maybe next weekend.
Hope everyone is keeping warm!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Last Finish for 2009




I finished one last quilt while on vacation in FL. I started this Sisters Choice quilt at a Bonnie Hunter workshop that I took last June in IL. I chose teal and purple as my main colors -- not totally scrappy as Bonnie's work typically is, but some of my favorite colors. The background is totally scrappy beige neutrals. It has a pieced teal inner boarder and a beautiful purple batik for the outer border. I worked on it off and on over the summer and then finished up all the blocks while at a quilting retreat in September. I finished the top in early November and delivered it to my long armer with the wedding quilt. I picked a flower design for the quilting to echo the floral design in the border.
When I was in Florida, all I had to do was hand stitch down the binding, so that was something nice to work on while watching TV when the weather was cooler. I haven't measured it, but I suspect its about a full bed size.
Now on to Bonnie's Carolina Christmas Mystery quilt! Well, okay, it won't be a mystery to me as I peeked at each of the clues as they were revealed and know what the final results will be. But when she started the mystery on "Black Friday", I still had the wedding quilt to finish and a Christmas present to finish. They I was hoping to be able to work on it while in Florida, but I just couldn't find room in the car for my machine and all the other stuff I would need.

Back from Florida

DD and I got back from our annual Florida vacation yesterday. We had a great time.

We left Wisconsin on December 18th and drove (ok, so I did all of the driving) to Port Charlotte (south of Sarasota), arriving on Saturday evening the 19th. My dad is in PC and we were there about 9 days. The weather wasn't as warm as in past years, so we only got one day at the beach and about 4 days at the pool. Plenty of running around and shopping for Christmas presents.
Here's DD playing on the beach. She always finds a little friend to play with and this year was no exception. They played in the sand digging holes that kept filling up with water.
Christmas morning at my Dad's house. He doesn't have room for a Christmas tree, so we just pile the presents in front of the TV. I don't know where she picked out this outfit from, but it was very colorful. DD was very excited to receive (as a family) a Wii.
After Christmas weekend, we drove up to my Mom's place in Homosassa (about a hour north of Tampa). We had a great time playing dominos and mom made DD a new nightie. DD has been very interested in clothing design and I wanted her to get a feel for garment construction. My mom is a great seamstress, so I knew that she had both the skill and the temperment to give those lessons.

Here's DD with my mom and step-dad.

Tomorrow its back to school and work for the two of us. Neither of us is really ready, but what can you do? We still have today and we're going to see Avatar and I'll work on a quilt (what else!).