Merry Christmas

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas. I was very busy but will post some photos and what was happening later.

Texas here I come

Texas is almost mine! muwahhhh. My firned, Liz the Quiltin' Whiz just sent me this teaser photo of the Texas quilt I made for my DS. She got a chance to work on the quilting over the snowy day we had yesterday and last night and guess what?? She is finished!! I didn't brave the roads today but she is at work with my quilt!!!! I am so excited. I was hoping to have it done for him for Christmas. Isn't the quilting on it so neat? She did all those little circles around every longhorn (there are 20)to make it look like leather. Then she did barbed wire fence in the sashing between the blocks!!! Ohhh, I can hardly wait to see it in person. I will take more pictures once I receive it.

Snowy Day!

Wow, who would have thought that we would be totally snowed in today! I had my Christmas party for my work on Friday afternoon. We do a secret Santa exchange type of thing. I guessed the person that had me. His mom is a big quilter so some of my gifts were quilt related, which was very nice. We had the party at my boss's house and it was a lot of fun. I had to leave early to get home to go to DH's work Christmas party. He is a pilot and it was at the hanger with the other pilots and their wives. It was fun too. Then yesterday it was time for the church ladies Christmas party. I got over to the church about noon and set up. Several of the CL's were there to help me too. We had so much good food. I invited Liz the quiltin' whiz to attend and she was able to make it too. This is when all the snow began. Not too bad but they expected 10-12 inches. We did a small gift exchange too where everyone draws numbers and then the first person picks from all the gifts and the second person can take person #1's gift or one from the table and so on. It was really a lot of fun.

Oh...but the snow...just kept on coming. Woke up this am with a LOT of snow. I didn't have big plans for today and it is a good thing! DD2 helped me decorate the tree and then put all the boxes away. We baked some cookies together today too. She threw in some laundry while DH took the snowblower to the driveway and sidewalks. DD helped me with all the Christmas cards, stuffing in the Christmas letter and putting on all the return address labels. I just have a few more to look up addresses from my email and then I need to go and buy stamps. I am grateful for the help! She wants to start wrapping, but I think I need to be done for today.

Speaking of Christmas letters...what are your opinions on them? I love receiving them as otherwise most cards would just have signatures on them. So...love em' or hate em'? I will try to take some pictures of the snow tomorrow and maybe even the tree and all the Christmas decorations. Sleep tight!

Quilts

I am still alive and well, just super duper busy! (Who isn't, right??) Well I was *trying*, (trying being the operative word here) to sew some binding on my flannel brick road Christmas quilt. When what to my wondering eyes did appear? Miss Autumn, see her tail?

AAAHHHH, now you can see her. She would not leave this quilt alone. I did finally get the binding sewn on but not turned yet.


These are 2 of the quilts I donated to the U of M quilt raffle. I designed the embroidered animals one. I first did the squares in all different colors and I HATED it...a lot! So I tried adding the white and making the squares the same color but with different fabric. I liked this much better. I did not repeat any fabirc in the colored squares. When I was a little girl, (a LONG time ago) I used to sleep under a quilt that my grandmother made. It was a crazy quilt made using feedsack fabrics (I am still trying to find this old quilt!) I vividly remember falling asleep while trying to choose my favorite fabric or seeing if I could find any that matched. I really wanted to re-create that for whoever ended up with my quilt. We raised $10,700 total for the charity!! WOO-HOO!!!


On to the most recently finished quilt. I made this baby quilt for a baby shower for a friend of mine, who's son and his GF are expecting. When the future DIL opened it my friend was announcing all the gifts and who they were from etc. She took one look and said over the microphone, "Oh no you didn't" But of course I did!! So I just nodded my head and she burst into tears as the DIL opened it up. Everyone in the room gasped and started clapping and wanted to know who made it. It was very embarassing!! I did not want to be the center of attention! My friend told everyone that the very first quilt I made had gone to her daughter 6 almost 7 now years ago. I had completely forgotten that. The panel is from Thimbleberries and was, of course, quilted by Liz the Whiz! Aren't the bees so cute?



I did not know the baby's name (which I now know is James) so I made this label. I used flannel on the back. I used the stamp my GF Yuki carved for me to jazz it up a bit too. The whole quilt was made from stash so that made me happy too.



I just sent another quilt off to Liz that is for a baby due in feb. The new dog is learning, although a little slowly for me, not to chase the cats. She and Jack are ok the others still HATE her. She is a sweetie but still a dog. Hopefully I will have some more photos to post later.

This and That

I know that I have not posted for awhile but a lot has been going on around here and not much of it quilty! I trust that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. It was small but nice here. My DD1 had to work so it was a little strange without her. Last year we had some friends from Japan and from Brazil for dinner but this year just the fam and my dad and sister. My DD and DS wanted to know where all the other people were? That made me laugh. I told them that my boss and his wife had invited them first so I was told I had to call my friends that night and invite them for next year, which I did. Kids are funny aren't they?

I gave 3 kits to my LAQ friend, Liz and her parents made 3 crazy rail quilt tops for donation to the Methodist Boys Home (MBH). They have embraced the project (which is what I have the CL working on too) and have finished 25 tops to date. Go folks!

I had quilting with the CL this past Wed and we had a very big turn out. We have attracted several new quilters which has been great. Interestingly enough one of them told me that she was from Indiana. When I asked where...you'll never guess...Madison!! That's where DD1 lives!! How odd, huh? Well, I had to go to the church office and found out that one of my CL's had passed away the day before! It was so sad. I had just seen her 2 weeks ago. She has been unwell for some time but I had no idea she was so ill. I collected money for flowers and ordered a beautiful basket of white roses, larkspur and carnations. We all went to our quilt room and selected a quilt to give her family too. It is the first CL to pass on since I have taken over the group. I had a really hard time with that. Sorry to be so sad, but it is good to talk.

On a better note. Laxy, the dog, is adjusting to life in cat central. She was spayed on Tuesday and seems to be pretty much back to normal already. I wish I could bounce back so quickly.

Well, I GTG as DH and I are off to Shipshewana to shop and spend the day together. More later...

INTRODUCING...

I am very proud to introduce you to the newest member of the Lincoln household...Laxy!






Isn't she just adorable? A friend of ours from lacrosse had her follow her home. They have been trying to find if she has an owner but so far no one is stepping forward, so they began looking for a home for her. The vet thinks she is a lab-german shepard mix, but she is not really all that big. She is housebroken and walks on a leash like a dream! Of course all five cats HATE her!!! I have to tell her "NO KITTY" when she goes for the cats. She came home with Thadd and I last night. So here's how this happened. We had the 7 on 7 tournament last week and heard about the dog. My friend send an email with these photos of her to us (and many others). When my DH called from flight school I asked him how he felt about a puppy? Now, I would not even consider it if she was not housebroken, not enough time to do that but since she came that way, so much the better! DH may want to try to train her for hunting, we will see. She likes to ride in the car and hopefully she will like to go for boat rides. DH and DS are thrilled beyond belief! Let me know what you think of her!!

Judy's Cat Quilt

These photos are from the quilt I made for my friend Judy that has bone cancer. I met her last night for dinner and gave her this quilt. I did some of the applique and the ladies in my quilt group at the church did some of them. Liz my LAQ did the quilting. Judy was thrilled with the quilt. I would like to know what you all think of it.



Here are a few close ups of the individual blocks. I especially love the ones with the mice on them.














This is the label I designed for the quilt. Notice the pinwheel stamp!


Here is a gratuitous photo of Aiden and Mosen sleeping that I took recently. Aren't they cute?


I have to work the quilt raffle for the next 2 days so probably won't get a chance to post. I have a few photos of the back of the Big Ten quilt and the label that I will share when I get a chance. Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Baby Quilt

I have been so busy for the quilt raffle showings that I have not been near my computer for awhile. We had the big 7 of7 tournament for lacrosse on sunday too. That was taking up a lot of time so now it is the raffle (and probably thanksgiving, since it is always at my house!) I did manage to finish a panel baby quilt and I sent it to Liz. I will show you the photos once I get it back all quilted up! It was the Thimbleberries "Wiggles and Giggles" panel with a bear and a bunny. Maybe some of you know it. I just bordered it with a blue star border and then a second border with rectangles. I found a nice blue stripe flannel for the backing. A good friend of mine sent me a shower invite (Dec 9th) and I was so suprised as neither of her boys are that old. Apparently the 19 year old is *that* old and now there is a baby. I guess it is not the end of the world but him mom is pretty upset. I hope the quilt helps!

I found these pretty fabrics and thought they would make a nice baby quilt too. Our lacrosse coach and his wife are expecting a baby in Feb and the lax moms will be having a shower for them. Any suggestions for a pattern? I really want to work on it soon as the shower will be in Jan. I am open to any ideas, mine seem to be coming in fits and starts right now.




Isn't this mouse adorable??


I don't know if you remember the woman friend of mine with cancer that has no family only her two cats? Well, I *finally* finished putting together, and binding her quilt. I am meeing her tonight for dinner at the Olive Garden to give it to her. She had tumors in her jaw, bone cancer. She said one of the tumors is not responding to treatment, so I would appreciate you keeping her in your prayers. I will post that quilt once I remember to bring my cord to work = )

I had to see the dentist yesterday to have him replace a filling that had cracked. They ended up giving me 3 shots to make my mouth numb. It was awful! My jaw is so sore today. It is difficult for me to eat too (I guess that is no great loss as I need to lose some weight anyway, lol). Hope all is well with you and send me some ideas for that baby quilt!

Just a funny Aiden photo for you to enjoy!!

U of M Quilt Raffle/ BIG TEN Quilt

It's finally done! We finished the top awhile ago and then we got it back from Liz, the LAQ genius. As you can see in every block she did a star pattern to quilt the block but the best part is that in the sashing around each block she wrote (using thread) what they cheer at each school. You might think this an easy task but it was not. I did not know what they cheer at some of the other schools so what to do?? Well I went on my facebook account and randomly selected students from the places we didn't have and asked them, of course! The guy I chose from Northwestern actually emailed me back telling me that his mom was a quilter and that what we were doing was great! (I have to say everyone I contacted did get back to me with whatever the chant was from their school). I thought some of them rather interesting. Like for Penn State they say "We are...Penn State". And Purdue says, "Boiler Up!" and Illinois says, "ILL...INI". Interesting, fun facts to know and tell, hahaha.

Then I threw in a few close ups of the corner stone where we used the logo in a 4 patch and when we didn't have enough for 16 (only 11 schools in the Big Ten) I appliqued the Big Ten logo in the square! I love the way the Big Ten block came out too. I appliqued all the logos in the block. I also did all the center appliques for each block and Iowa and Penn state win the prize for being the most difficult to applique! Note the amazing Liz's BIG TEN quilting in the border of the quilt too. She even drew the football in free hand! I would sure love to hear what you all think of this quilt.