Basket Challenge Quilt and Word of the Year

I belong to a quilt group that meets once a month. They do a yearly challenge and this year the challenge was to make a basket quilt, and the entire quilt must be made by you, quilted and bound by you. Well I finished my top last night at the Wed night group meeting. I am so lucky to have PTM as a friend. She let me come over to her house and cut, and sew on this top so I could get it done. Now I just need to go to LTW's to use her machine for the quilting. I designed it myself and I got the embroidery pattern from the Hoop Love Vintage Transfer group on Flickr. If you haven't found them and you like to embroider, you need to go and join the group. They have LOTS of fabulous free patterns.

I am especially fond of the scrappy flying geese and the rick rack handles on the baskets (thanks PTM). What do you think??

My friend, Cori, from Crazy Quilt Girl online quilt shop was at quilting last night too. She is testing my My Neighborhood patterns for me and as soon as she can let me know where the glitches are I just might get around to writing that thing up and putting it on ETSY! Thanks, Cori!! If you haven't discovered her wonderful shop you need to go and visit. Her prices on pre-cuts and Moda yardage can't be beat!!

On to the word of the year. Kelly, at Charming Chatter has challenged us to "choose a word the identifies what we'd like to see more of in our lives in 2011 - what we want to cultivate in our lives! It's a word to reflect on throughout the year - and to help us live our best life". I really gave this some thought and have chosen:

HAPPINESS

Why you ask? (Oh I knw you did ask that, right?) I am generally a happy person, but I see a lot of people that could use more happiness in their lives. I need to work on learning to be happy with the blessings that I have, and giving more to make others happier. I also need to work on living in the moment and enjoying the here and now and being happy with that. I am going to strive to make the people in my life happier too. Happiness emcompasses a lot of things. You need to do things like give, be kind, listen, have empathy, surprises, hugs, I find that for me happiness is a verb. What about you? Is happiness a verb in your life too?? If it isn't maybe you need to choose happiness and make it a verb too! I'd love the company!!!
XOP

Playing In PTM's Basement

Here it is January second and I was lucky enough to spend several hours playing in the basement at PTM's house today. Of course this was after I spent all day yesterday putting Christmas away. Just had the tree left to do today and DH took that down. There was one ornament that I missed. I always seem to miss one Christmas decoration. It's kind of a family joke. Anyone else do that?

Anyway, I have a baby shower coming up for a dear friend on Thursday. I wanted to make a chenille blanket. I bought the fabric, PTM helped me baste it last Wednesday. Today I needed to sew the lines, take out the basting, cut the lines and square it up. "To the basement!"

The first thing I had to do was put a piece of half inch tape diagonally across the quilt. I stitched along one side of the tape and then the other. Next was to put a "guide" on the walking foot so I don't have to mark all the lines.

Then just stitching lots and lots of lines, about half inch apart like this. I used a thread color that matched the print on the back as you will see the lines there and if they are not perfectly straight you will not notice it as much with matching thread. this was the first time I used colored thread on a light flannel and it was GREAT!! I could see my stitching lines so well!! Maybe a tip would be to use a light color flannel on the top if you are using dark thread or visa versa.

This stitching takes quite awhile. We watched Men who stare at goats, what a weird movie, while I was stitching. Done!

In case I forgot to tell you. I use about 1.25 yard of cotton fabric with a cute print for the back, lay this cute side down. Next comes 4 layers of flannel. I like the Cozy solids at JAF. They are reasonably priced, and the color goes all the way through, very important so the chenille is really colorful when you are finished! I get a yard of 4 different flannels. I think just a hair over a yard might work better since you have to trim later. You need to layer the flannel on the back of the print, but put your flannel right side up. Obviously, you need to do all this pre-basting. Well duh!

Once all the lines are sewn, you get to do the cutting. Only cut through the top 3 layers of the flannel. For this quilt there were 2 layers of green, one layer of blue and then the red, followed by the cotton print. This means that I would not cut the red layer only the first 3. Like this:

I like to use these chenille scissors. It is hard on your hands but the little chenille cutter distorts the blanket so I like the scissors better.

Here is what the front and the back look like prior to squaring up.

For the squaring up, I folded my blanket in half and used the fold line for my straight line to do the trimming. Then I flip it over and do the other side. Next I re-fold in the other direction and do the same thing. I do one more check using a BIG square ruler just to double check that the corners are really square and trim them if they are not. After that I pick it up, and fold it, chenille side inside and check the alignment. Do the corners line up? Are the edges even with each other? If you said yes then you are ready to apply the binding.

Lucky me, PTM does the bindings for me. They really hurt my hands and all the way up into my shoulder (of the hand that holds not the stitching hand). I am trying to get her to do a binding tutorial because her bindings are EXCEPTIONAL!! No really, you will not find a better binding. Go over to her blog and BEG her to do the tutorial. We will ALL benefit if she does that!! I promise.

We ended up watching another movie and it wasn't quite finished so I decided I should take the time to sew my HST into "flying geese" for my kitty basket quilt. I got them all sewn and pressed. Now I need to lay them out and assemble the quilt top. I really love how they look.

Maybe I can sew this together on Wednesday night since I will have Zumba tomorrow and Body Pump on Tuesday. Or maybe I will go back to PTM's and sew on Mon or Tues. Anyway, that was my afternoon and I am so happy with all I got done. While I was working PTM was taking apart some of our wool finds at the Thrift shop. (The Sally Ann,she calls it). We went on New Year's day and got all the tag of the day items 5 for $5!! We will be busy disassembling them and then felting them. I'll keep you posted. I have to remember to take some pics next time I go over there.

Well, I have to get off to bed since I have to be up at the horrible hour of 5am tomorrow and go back to work for the first time in 2 weeks!! Have a great evening!!
XOP

Happy New Year

I just want to take this opportunity to wish all my friends (IRL) and in blogland a Happy New Year! I have been thinking alot about this post. The year is fresh and new and anything is possible, right? I made some goals last year. I met some of those goals and not others. I am a firm believer in having goals. It helps me to focus. So you don't have to keep reading if this is boring but here I go.

Goals for 2011

1-I wanted to learn EQ last year and I finally got the program out but did not learn it like I should have. I need to spend some quality time with this program and maybe take a class or 2 to become more proficient.

2-I really, really, need to get my embroidery module out and learn how to use it. I have had it for 5 years now and still do not have the first idea what to do to use it. Maybe this will be the year!

3-I need to continue to work on my already started projects. I'm actually happy to say that I got through about 20 of them last year. They are not all finished but of those 20 or so old projects they are either done or at the quilters. I want to continue to work on this. Of course I will begin some new projects but I want to cut down on the number of new things I participate in online, just for this year to see if it helps out with the de-stressing.

4-I have designed some quilts in the last few years that I would like to write up the patterns for. I now have a good friend that has promised to help me with this, so hopefully you will see patterns from me soon! Going hand in hand with that is to continue to design some more quilts this year.

5-I am thinking about setting up either some kind of embroider along or maybe a Halloween block swap. This, of course depends on time and may or may not happen.

6-I would like to try to use more of my stash fabrics and cut down on the new fabric purchases this year too. I did not do as well as I had hoped using more stash rather than purchasing, this past year.

7-This is not quilt related, but I would like to work on having a more sustainable life. We started on this last year and I would like to continue this endevor. Grow more of my own food, can more food, re-use, re-purpose and recycle more, cook from scratch more. This will help maintain a more healthy lifestyle.

8-Continue on my weight loss journey including more healthy eating as well as keeping up with spending time at the gym. I have kind of a high strung personality (betcha haven't noticed right?) and I have decided that alcohol is not my friend. Yes, it does help me wind down and relax but it does not help with my weight or my personal relationships or my achieving of goals so I am going to give it up for a year and see how that goes. It couldn't hurt right?

9-I will work on trying to spend more time doing the things I want to do instead of always doing what has to be done first. I read something a friend wrote recently about always putting off our happiness until later rather than enjoying the here and now. For instance I tell DH I will do something fun with him when I finish ____, rather than just spending time with him or the kids and doing something fun. I really need to work on this! I think many of us don't spend enough time in the present being happy but rather I'll have fun when this is finished, or I get that done, etc. Well, anyway, you get the point! This includes doing more with DH and my friends. Finding a way to say YES instead of an excuse to say no.

10-I really feel like there should be a tenth thing here just to make it even, (my OCD coming out I guess!!) I think the last thing continues the theme of the last few. I want to streamline my house. Thin out the "things" that are cluttering up my house and my life. Less stuff. DH and I have already begun this by cleaning out our clothes closet, we got rid of 7, count them 7 garbage bags full of clothes and shoes from that closet. YEAH us!!

I guess that sums it up for me and what I have been thinking about. I wish for all of you everything you need to be healthy and happy in this upcoming year. Enjoy your friends, your family and all your blogging buddies. I appreciate all of you so much. You are what makes this all worthwhile. I am glad you are joining in and becoming a part of my life! I look forward to getting to know you better and maybe even meeting up IRL!

May God keep you safe and healthy in the upcoming year. If you have read this far, thanks! I hope to have an awesome year and I hope you do too!!!

Playing With My BFF's

Since this will be my last post for the 2010 year I thought I would post about what I did for the last day of the year. I got the spend the last day of the year with my two BFF's. We all met up at PTM's basement today to play. LTW sold PTM her Gammil when she got her Statler and today was the day she was going to show PTM some tricks of the trade. Here is PTM in one room of her awesome basement getting something out for LTW.

Then LTW decided that it would be easier for PTM and would put her more at ease if she did some drawing on paper. She said it helps with the muscle memory and build confidence. So here they are playing on paper.

I was sewing while they were playing. I got my 5th LCQAL block done while I listened to them in the Long Arm room. Love how it came out.

We worked for around an hour and it was time for lunch and present exchange. I got LTW a Jim Shore cookie jar (she collects cookie jars). I think she liked it!

I got PTM a Pandora like bracelet. Then I had cut out a quilt for her! It was the Charming Stars quilt from the Moda Bake Shop. I gave her all the fabric, but it was all cut out. I cut one for myself and one for her (at her house, LOL). LTW Contributed and will do the quilting when the quilt is finished!!

PTM was incredibly generous to both LTW and me. I got a new exercise mat, some evergreen spray, some body butter, a really cool square glass dish with a glass lid (I love the antique ones, and this is just like those), an antique blue Ball jar, and some Diana sauce (great on meatballs and spare ribs) all the way from Canada. Sorry no photo, I forgot, but trust me, this was a great set of gifts!!
After gifts we went back down the basement PTM got more instruction and I got to do some more sewing. Our monthly, Thursday night quilt group has a basket challenge going on so I had stitched some kitties in a basket and decided to build a quilt around them. The whole quilt has to be made by only you. I have to piece it, and quilt it, guess I'll have to go over to LTW's and use the Statler. So my design has 96 HST around the outside and baskets in each corner. I worked on sewing all the HST blocks and then trimming them to the right size.

Then I decided that I needed to try to put the basket blocks together. I wasn't sure what to do about the handles but decided on rick rack. I just took out a few stitches and inserted the rick rack in the HST then sewed it back up. What do you think??

I still need to stitch the handles down but you can see all the HST blocks here waiting to be made into flying geese.

While I was trimming all of those HST blocks PTM was busy working on some bindings for me. I had both of these quilts finished for quite some time but didn't have a place for them, or al least for the baby one, therefore no real reason to hurry on the binding. Here are 2 more finishes for both me and PTM for 2010. Thi baby quilt will go to my niece who is having a baby soon.

This is one of my favorite blocks in the quilt. So sweet!

This quilt I had made for my DD@ but the colors didn't come out very true. It is quilted with silver thread and I love it! It was a stack and wack.
V

Well, tomorrow I will so a little recap of 2010 and something of what I am looking forward to in the new year, but for now, I will wait until midnight and watch the ball drop with my sweetie. I have Jack laying in his usual spot right next to me. My friend, Yuki called tonight from Japan to wish me a happy new year. I got to spend the day with 2 of my favorite people. For now, right this minute, all is right with my world.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Sorry it's been a few days since I have posted. I haven't been idle though. I've been thinking about what to post on NYE, cooking, doing unending laundry and such. Today I got to go over to PTM's and play for a little while. I thought I was going to get to do some sewing on a few projects only to realize that I needed to re-cut all the red and white pieces I *thought* were done. Silly me, I didn't do the math quite right, dang it. So PTM and I watched 2 movies, I cut, she sewed binding and we took a little time to sit and watch the end of one of the movies. We watched My Sister's Keeper, so sad, and He's Not That Into You, AWESOME movie.

I managed to get all the red and white re-cut, thank goodness. I had cut out blocks 4 and 5 of the LCQAL on Wednesday but needed to cut the next 12 Days of Christmas BOM block, sigh, so much to get done. On top of all that, I need to make a chenille blanket for a baby shower on the 10th of Jan. ACK!! By the time it was time to go, PTM waas taking her dinner out of the oven and I just wanted to get something sewn! I sewed block 4 of the Layer Cake QAL and here it is.

I'm very happy with the way this came out. I plan to sew the next block in this series tomorrow.
LTW, PTM and I will be getting together at PTM's house for a day of sewing. WE will have our Christmas exchange too. I have to go to the gym first and weigh in. That has not been so good recently. Since the first of Dec I have gained 6 pounds back. I plan on getting back on track for the new year.
I'll take lots of pictures tomorrow so you can join us in the fun. After that I plan on a post about the upcoming New Year. Original huh? HAHA, I know but it helps me to focus on things. Until tomorrow.
XOP

Sizzix Pro VS Accuquilt GO!

I just heard about the Sizzix Big Shot Pro machine and how you can use it for fabric not just for scrapbooking. It looks like it will use the GO! dies as well as all the Ellison and other scrapbooking dies out there. Has anyone used it? What did you think? Since the GO was on back order I have an opportunity to choose between the 2. So far, from what I have heard, I'm leaning toward the Sizzix. Any input would be helpful!
Thanks!!
XOP

Wonderful Blogland Gifts

I saw a quilt on my friend, Sophie's blog and I was so excited about it. It was of Bevo, the University of Texas's mascot and it was gorgeous!! Pop over to her blog and visit, she is the woman that runs Block Lotto (as seen in Quilter's World magazine. Tell her I sent you! Any way I borrowed these pics from her blog to show you the quilt.

Isn't this gorgeous? Well Sophie knew I would love it and she offered to send the pattern to me!! It arrived with a darling little kitty card too and she sent it as a gift! Look how different it looks in the pattern. Now I have to think about how to make it my own, right?

On top of that, Kelly over at Charming Chatter told us that Mrs Claus was looking for inspiring stories so I sent her the story about my friend that went through so much adversity this year but never lost her positive attitude. Also I told her about my family. I think you all know that story but briefly, I have 2 sisters, the older one was born retarded (mom had the measles during her pregnancy) and the sister is also schizophrenic and bipolar, the younger one has Cerebral Palsy, she is the one that came over for Christmas and she lives with my dad. Anyway there are the 3 of us, we are still waiting to discover my handicap, LOL. (It's ok to laugh, we say this in my family and we all laugh). Ok, long story short, Mrs. Claus chose my story so I was a winner! She asked me to send her some of the things I liked and told me she would send me (and my friend if she was a quilter, which she is not) a nice fabric package. Boy she wasn't kidding! Thanks, Mrs. Claus!! What a huge package of fabric!!


I took my machine in to get tuned up, just like I do every year so no sewing going on here at the moment but I think I may be able to do some cutting and maybe some sewing on Wed (yes we have Wed night sewing) and Thursday, I will be going over to PTM's to play with her and LTW!! I have a lot to do so will see how that goes. I need to do my layer cake block probs the next one after that by then too, the next JR QAL block and my 12 days of Christmas block. In addition, I need to work on my "basket" quilt for the Piecemaker's challenge. I still have some cutting to do on that one too. YIKES! Maybe I should put Christmas away this week too so I can get all the sewing stuff out? WE are supposed to have some warmer weather soon, so it may work out. Tomorrow is going through the closet day (I hope). What are you up to this week??

XOP

Christmas

Christmas morning was an amazing day here at Chez Lincoln! My father and sister came over around 9am and we started to open our presents while the breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls were baking. Here is a little peek. DD1 and my little sister.

A few years ago our family took a vacation to the Smokey Mountains. We stayed at a cabin in the mountains and one night the lights went out. We were looking for candles and couldn't find any so the kids made up a candle thief named "Marcos". They drew a picture of him and wrote about him. My DD1 was cleaning out some things recently and found this sketch, so she framed it and gave it to DD2 for Christmas. We all cracked up!

I didn't know what to give my dad for Christmas. He is 84 and he has what he wants or buys it. Sigh. I knw he is always cold so I bought him some fleece lined jeans, which BTW he loved. I know he is cold at night so I decided to give him a flannel quilt that I had at home that didn't fit on my queen sized bed. He is opening it in this first photo and do you think he liked it?

Then every year I give my DD2 a "creepy elf" and this year was no exception. I actually found more than 1 this year but here she is with one of them. We gave my son that crazy hat that looks like a mohawk but in hat form! He loved it and I'm not sure he has taken it ouff since he opened it up!

I didn't happen to get any photos of my DH or myself but I assure you we had a wonderful Christmas! He bought me an Accuquilt GO! cutter!!!! Except where he tried to get it from it was backordered so he had to think fast. He had my daughter consult with LTW, who gave her the box from her cutter and my thoughtful DH wrapped that box!! He told me I can order the cutter, the case and a die or two!! Am I not the luckiest person ever?? I am going to try to get PTM to order hers at the same time! From my kids I got, Victoria's Secret undies (DD2) and a gift certificate for a pedicure as well as a certificate to get my ears re-pieced (the holes closed up). DS told me he had ordered something but it didn't arrive in time. My sister gave me a GC to JAF, dad gave me a nice check! DH also gave me the shoes I found in Shipshewana, a new piping foot for my Bernina, some bobbins and a Sietz oil lamp and a few little things. See what I mean? GREAT Christmas.
The next day was my DS's 20th birthday. We got him a few things but I think he loved the UT blanket I made for him almost as much as the check we gave him! (still with that hat!!)

Notice that little tree on his left? See that paper angel on the top? DD1 made that years ago and I love it. My kids HATE that tree!! They hang all the kid made "ugly" ornaments on that tree.
We had a funny moment when I took out the cake I had bought at the local bakery. DS likes "bumpy cake" so that's what I bought. My dad took one look at the cake and asked me if I bought it all lumpy like that and just what exactly was in those bumps? I told him bugs and yes I bought it that way! Actually it's cream. LOL!! Oh dad!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too. More soon, I've been working on my New Year's resolutions and my look back at 2010.
XOP

Christmas Eve

Every year we go to my SIL and BIL's house to celebrate Christmas Eve. This year they were in a new home in Jackson and it is an amazing house. I am not going to post all my photos on the blog cuz I took so many but I will share a few.

First DH and I brought Gingerbread cookies for all the little kids to decorate. We usually bring them a craft of some sort to do. They seemed to have a great time.

This is just one of the staircases. Isn't it beautiful?

DD2 and her BF along with some of the family.

DD2 and her BF and DD1 and her BF, it was nice both of the BFs could join in the fun!

Then we got a great photo of our whole family with both of the BF's.

Here is a great pic of DD2 with her Aunt Margie. They share a birthday. Also Margie's DH with a bottle of wine that my DH found for him with his company's name on it, CMS.

Last but certainly not least a great pic of my DH's brother and SIL. Thanks Mark and Jackie for a wonderful night!!

I will tell you all about Christmas tomorrow. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa was very good to all of you!

Quilts Made In 2010

First of all I would like to wish everyone that celebrates Christmas a very Merry Christmas. I am just about ready for the big day tomorrow. Last night DH and I baked some gingerbread cookies to bring with us today for our nieces and nephews to decorate. Every year we bring something for them to do. I have to say making gingerbread cookies was a brilliant idea, so easy. I used a gingerbread recipe from my friend Cori and it was fabulous! Anyone need that recipe??

Earlier in the week DD2 came home and her friend, Andy, came over and they decorated the sugar cookies. Anyone else use the frozen ones from Gordon Food Service? I love these cookies! I did manage to snap a few pics of them. This is the second year Andy has come over and he said, "Hey I came here last year, right? So this is kind of a tradition, right?" Yes Andy it sure is. I am so happy that even though he is home from his military training for a few days he spent some time with us!

Whenever Andy comes over it means apple pie time too. He loves pie. As soon as I knew he was coming over I set on making a pie for him.

Now on to something I wanted to do for myself. I will be changing the list on my side bar and removing the finished quilts. I did that last year but I didn't document here in a final post, all the quilts I had finished in 2009. I decided that I need to do it this year so I went to bighugelabs.com and made a mosaic, using photos from my Flickr account. Here it is!

1. Origins Baby Quilt 001, 2. Christmas Presents 2010 008, 3. Christmas Presents 2010 005, 4. Christmas Presents 2010 001, 5. Christmas Presents 2010 003, 6. Fair and Square 01, 7. Mermaid up close, 8. Mermaid quilt, 9. JRQuil 02, 10. Curious Geroge 02, 11. DSCF9987, 12. Shelby and Don's Wedding 029, 13. RQ finished, 14. Liam's baby quilt 001, 15. Matt's Quilt quilted 007, 16. Kelsey's "S" Quilt 02, 17. Veteran's quilt quilted 01, 18. CC with binding, 19. Dragon LS 02, 20. Blue lighthouse quilt finished
I think I counted 16 finished, although there were 2 of those veteran quilts so maybe that makes 17. I didn't put in any of the embroidered blocks, or quilt blocks or tops, just the finished projects. Not too bad, huh?

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! Mine begins very soon.