Friday Finish

I finished the binding on the 64 patch star quilt last night with two cats laying on the quilt as I was watching the Harry Potter movie on TV. They did not like when I had to tug the quilt to get to the parts I needed to finish but it all worked out with a completed quilt last night around 10PM.
This is Sophie this morning enjoying the snugly flannel backing while Greg is making waffles with the kids. Yes Mom, we do use our waffle iron occasionally!

Yesterday he made a pan of lasagna with a little help from the kids. I am really enjoying having him home the last couple of days all day long.

He is ready to go into work tomorrow..... but is not scheduled to go in until Monday!

We also had someone arrive this morning from the North Pole. Our  Elf on the Shelf arrived back to our house this morning. Emily was the first to find him hiding up in the popcorn cups above the cabinets in the kitchen. Since they were not very inventive with a name last year (Mr. Elf), they decided to rename him Chilly this morning. I think our Elf approved. Hopefully he will help us have some better behaved children over the next month as he fly's back to report to Santa each night. Now to remember to move the little guy around each night after kids are in bed. I remember a few times waking at 3AM and having to do some quick arrangement of things before the kids woke up and started the search for him in the morning last year.
As for me..... I plan to start on the first part of the Celtic Solstice mystery today in between continuing the Christmas decorating of the house. If I get a couple of hours... I did pin my coin quilt yesterday and hope to try some free hand circles while quilting that at some point this weekend.

                            

Happy Thanksgiving.

Wishing all those in the USA a very Happy Thanksgiving and those elsewhere a very Happy Thursday!

We will have a 'quiet' day at home (as quiet as you can get with two very chatty children who don't understand inside voices when they are excited) with a nice lasagna dinner prepared by my hubby. We will do our Thanksgiving feast on Sunday with my father in law and hopefully my mother in law and her hubby and brother will come over after for dessert.

As for me - I plan to make a couple loaves of french bread to go with the lasagna and then pin a quilt for quilting today. The kids are busy in the play room making construction paper garland for the Christmas tree.... which will get decorated today. We decided on a real tree this year and picked it up yesterday and it is in the living room. The first thing they both did this morning was check on the Christmas tree. We will also set up the artificial one in the front room. I fear it it going to be a long 4 weeks until Christmas with two very excited children.

As Kathy said today... one more sleep until the Quiltville Bonnie Hunter mystery starts. I can't wait...... Are you joining in?

Challenge completed!

I had issued a challenge to Kathy to get her quilt quilted and the binding on for a slow stitching binding post for this Sunday. I'm happy to say that I was able to get my quilt quilted on Friday afternoon. I worked today (Saturday) and then when I got home went out to eat for a date with hubby and then picked up one kid from Grandma's. We got home around 9PM and got Aidan to bed. Off to the sewing room for me. I didn't have a chance to hit Joann's for some fabric for binding after work since I knew we were going out to eat. I did a dive into the basket of fabrics where I knew I had tossed the trimmings from the last quilt backing. I had enough of this brown to make the binding, pressed it and then threw the walking foot on the machine and got it sewn down to the top of the quilt. Woo Hoo! I did it! 10PM finish.

For our cold snap tomorrow (highs in the low 60's - after being in the 80's today) I will have a nice quilt to snuggle under while I hand stitch the binding to the back. I'm sure a cat or two will be snuggling on this quilt with me. Sophie is already testing it out.

I did a free motion meander on the stars of the quilt. The outer border I did a loop and star as you can see here. 

I had only two issues with thread the whole time I quilted it. Not sure if it was the thread combo or the really soft flannel on the back but I am ready to pin another quilt and tackle it Sunday if I have time after getting some hedges trimmed and some carpets cleaned in the house.

Head on over to The Rainbow Scrap Challenge and see what other brown projects were worked on and then check out Slow Stitching Sunday for some great hand work in progress. 

Challenge issued and a finish!

I got two quilts pinned last week and then the flu bug hit and nothing got worked on. This week I was able to run some machine and hand stitches in this little Halloween quilt and am going to call this one done for now.

I may add that spiderweb next year when I pull it out still.... and maybe some stitches outlining the Boo. I really liked how the stitches look around the ghost.

As for the challenge..... I seem to have issued one to Kathy to get a quilt quilted so that binding would be the slow stitching Sunday post. I really should have thought of this better since I kept a girl home from school Thursday - which was my 2 hours planned to quilt. Oh well, maybe I can meet this challenge - I didn't say when on Sunday I had to do my post =).  Hehehe....
This is the 64 patch blocks I was making this year in the RSC challenge. I added some big flying geese to make them into star blocks and then added a green border to get it a little big bigger. It is around 58x74 right now.

The cats are going to be disappointed. I have had this quilt back side out on the floor in the quilting room. The soft flannel is a hit with the cats- they keep going in there and sleeping on it! This is one of the 2.99 a yard flannels I got from my shopping spree. There are leftovers so I can see a green and blue dot rag quilt in my future. Another type of quilt I have never made but am going to give it a try.

The plan - to get this star quilt quilted and a binding made and  attached to the top by the end of the weekend. Think I can do it? I have doctor appointments Friday morning (normal yearly things) and then I am working on Saturday. I feel like the little engine that could... I think I can, I think I can.....

Patch Pals Collection....

I was wandering through the web and ran into this cute doggie pattern. Turn's out there are tons of cute little animals that make up into very cute baby quilts or wall hangings. I found it on amazon and since I had to order new batteries for the house phones, it just popped into the cart. It got delivered yesterday and I love looking through it. I can see this used in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge next year by color. Could grey and black come sooner than later so that elephant and penguin can get made? Emily already wants the dog. Aidan has not seen it yet, but I'm sure he will request one.

The title is Patch Pals Collection - Best of Quiltmaker.
Here is the cover.

The back with all the projects in it.

Sow Along Blocks.......

Way back last year I had started a sow along over at Randy's blog. I made 15 of the blocks and then they stayed in their part of the drawer with the three fabrics I was using. I figured I needed something 'easy' to do and was not feeling the applique blocks that are intimidating me still on the century quilt.
Since brown is one of the colors for this block and brown is the rainbow scrap color this month I decided to make some progress on these over the next little bit. I think these will be my Tiny Tuesday posts through the end of the year - they do finish at 6 inches.

This is the scrappy star block I added to them today.

All of my blocks so far.

Off to the doctors today so I'll grab my little baggie of orange peels and head out. Next Wednesday - my goal is to have that applique block for the century quilt done. We'll see how I do with that goal.

Weekend Post....

Wow, second week in a row that I missed a RSC Saturday post.
I did a little sewing on the FNSI - got two more of the peels made into my X and O block for the brown RSC challenge.

I also needed two more blocks for the snails trail blocks I have been working on all year for the RSC challenge. I went with a bright pink and a yellow block.

Earlier in the day on Friday I did get one of my quilts pinned and a backing created for a little Boo wall hanging and that got pinned for quilting too. I guess I did get a bunch done on Friday until the stomach bug hit at about 11PM. Today I am feeling better but plan to take it easy (as easy as you can with a 5 and 4 year old running around the house wanting help with things). The most I will do today is maybe some slow stitching on my apple quilt. I am making some progress... who know's maybe I'll turn another corner today!

For more inspiration - head over to SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Kathy's Quilts for Slow stitching Sunday and FNSI.