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.

Look What I Won!

I was so excited earlier this week to find out that I was the winner of Collaborate Again by Gwen Marston & Freddy Moran over at Michele's blog http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com. The book arrived in the mail and I opened it when I got home late last night. It is really a beautiful book and very inspiring. I think this is exactly what I need to stretch and grow as a quilter. I've already thumbed through the book and have found several new ideas.

I've been working on my Sister's Choice from my Bonnie Hunter workshop I took in June. I finally got all my 9 patches done - 70 in all. Here they are. The blocks are all in the purple and teal colors -- two of my favorites. For the past week I've been working on the star points. I think I have about 60 done, which is only enough for 15 blocks. I ran out of yellow for my star points and have bought some more, but it doesn't match. So I guess this will be more scrappy than I expected!

A few weeks ago, we got the call that blueberries are in season in Michigan (where both of my parents grew up). So Dad put in our order and a few days later 30 pounds of blue berries were delivered to IL. I cleaned them and bagged them all up for freezing.

That same weekend was my Dad's 75th b-day. I gave him the Florida Shell quilt that I made last winter. He really seems to like it and has it packed in his stuff that will go south with him in November.

That's what's been going on in my life for the past few weeks. DD was at church camp last week. I quilted a few evenings, but didn't get nearly as far as I would have liked. Later this week we leave for our vacation in VA! We're both really excited about that.