I Will Get This House Decorated...

I will get this house decorated if it kills me!

Welcome Everyone!

Yesterday was another fun day of blogging and linking and commenting on Easy Street!  I think I'm almost enjoying that more than the actual quilt--almost.

Last week was a "free" week with no commitments.  I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but it is progressing.  This week Monday and Tuesday are free, Wednesday (tomorrow) is my bee party(!) and then I have a meeting on Thursday and an evening party on Friday.  (My husband's work party.  I know no one, so it should be "lots" of fun.)

Anyway, I did get lots done yesterday.  I decided to employ the age-old technique of making a list and checking off what I finished.  Wow, I must say that that technique actually works.  I now have all the decorating done except for finishing hanging the ornaments on the trees--and that should happen today.  I got a lot of little unfinished projects completed, too, and more of the bins stuffed back in the attic.

As for the attic, this is where the "if it kills me" part comes into play.  Let me show you a picture.

 

 

This is the attic at eye-level.  I have to say that I love having a walk-in attic.  (The door is open and you can see my cutting island in my quilting room!)  But what I really want to show you is attached to the rafter.  The rafter is easy to see and to duck for, but it is that small pointy board that I wanted to show you.  Can you see it in front of the yellow bin?  If you can't, follow the nails down.  See it now? 

 



 

This is a hardhat that my husband acquired at some point in his Army life.  It is now just inside the attic door!  I managed to nearly scalp myself not once, but twice while lugging Christmas deco bins in and out.  You would think that after the first time, I would have gotten smart, but no, it took two good whacks.  The second one made me see stars, as well, and I avoided getting up on a kitchen chair to nail/hang things for the rest of the day.  I also have various bandaids on fingers from other small "incidents." 

 

Since this is a quilting blog, perhaps you would like to see a quilt or two.  Not only do I decorate with a patriotic scheme year round, but it also comes into play in my holiday decorations.

 



This is one of my Christmas quilt wall hangings.  One day at our bee when I lived at Fort Bliss, one of the ladies came in with her version of this paper-pieced tree.  I'm guessing it was Christmas 2001--just after the terror attacks.  I had seen that it was a class at the local shop, but wasn't too interested in the pattern.  Well, she had the idea to slip pieces of this patriotic fabric into it, and of course, I fell in love right then and there, so I got the pattern and made it.  (Hey, if I like a project enough, I WILL paper piece to get it!)

Also made in El Paso, but this time for the guild:

We had a challenge for the year to make a quilt combining two holidays.  It was obvious to me which two I wanted to combine:  Christmas and Flag Day.  When I made it, I purposely tried to do so with fabric and not just pattern--so you will find that the flag is made of as many red and white Christmas fabrics that I had, and the Christmas elements are made with patriotic fabrics.

 

 

My favorite element was the border fabric.  It is a Hoffman and I only found a few fat quarters of it back in the 90s at a quilt show.  I frequently look for it on ebay. 

 



Isn't it awesome!

 

Well, I have things to do.  I didn't just decorate yesterday, I also got a chance to dye some fabrics and I'm "dying" to rinse it out and see the results!

 

Have a great day!

JoAnne