2014 In Review

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone had a  wonderful Christmas!  Ours was full of family, which made it perfect for me.  For Christmas Eve, we had dinner here at our new house with my husband and I and 9 other family members.  As I sat at the table and looked around I was so happy that I got a bit misty-eyed.  Christmas dinner was also here and after that we spent the afternoon and evening playing games, playing with my baby nephew, and just visiting.  It was kind of old-fashioned and fun.

I have been wanting to assemble a post with all of my quilts that were finished this year.  I would prefer that they all be totally finished--quilted and bound, but there are a few tops that I'm showing too.  I'm sure I may have missed at least one or two, but considering I did very little quilting the second half of this year, it is still quite a lot of them.

I participated in the Schnibbles group off and on.  These are the ones I did this year.

 Hook

 Jersey Girl

 Short Story

 Whit

I also made another pattern by Carrie Nelson, Sample, out of French General scraps.

One of my most prominent projects was the Blogger Girls' Block of the Month.  It was so much fun to be asked by Monique Dillard of Open Gate Quilts to be one of the featured bloggers, and I loved the fabric and the quilt.  Here it is, all finished, quilted, and bound.

Another huge project was Talkin' Turkey.  I got to take a class with Bonnie Hunter for this quilt and it was so much fun, that I finished it.  I love red!

Other projects include the following:

Early in the year, Moda was sharing free patterns for all of the letters of the alphabet.  It was fun getting them and thinking up projects to make with them.

My nephew's baby quilt.  I'm really going to miss all of the scenic locations where I photographed quilts in Virginia.  I'm going to have to search out some here in Indiana.

This is one of the unquilted tops I'm sharing.  I love this so much.  I really need to quilt it.  One of my plans was to quilt up all of my tops before the New Year (most of them are even pin-basted) but I just haven't gotten to it.

And this is another top.  I won these blocks at guild and they were quite challenging to fit together as they were all different sizes.  

I haven't shared these yet.  A few weeks ago Pam Buda had the free pattern for this pincushion on her blog.  I loved it so much that I made two.  

Here are the other small projects that I recently shared.

This heart quilt was a sew along back in Jan-Feb with the Temecula Quilt Company.  

 I put together all the blocks from my Virginia Bee into this Christmas sampler.  I hunted high and low to find cardinal fabric for it, since the state bird of Virginia is the cardinal.  I guess it is also Indiana's state bird!  

And lastly, I finally made a Twister quilt.  I couldn't start with anything simple, though.  It was lots of fun making this Uncle Sam.

I think that is all I can think of right now.  I'm onto deciding what to do for next year.  I know I'm itching to get into a Big Complicated quilt.  One with lots of pieces.  I happen to know exactly what I want to tackle and already begun the cutting for it.  I will share about it next year.  

Happy  New Year!

JoAnne

Merry Christmas!

Hi Everyone,

I'm checking in to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  I'm sure I'll be back before New Year.  I saw this several weeks ago and wanted to share it with you--maybe you have seen it.  I know it is based on a true story.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

JoAnne

Wait! The Year is Almost Over?

Hi Everyone,

Oh my goodness!  It was so sweet to hear from so many of you that you missed me and are glad that I am back--it really warmed my heart and makes me wish I had gotten back to this much sooner.  I've missed all of you, too!

I simply cannot believe that there is only two weeks left in this year!  The time since our move seems to have flown by.  Looking back, we had our stuff packed up in July, so I feel as though I've lost 6 months--just "poof!"  Anyway, I'm not going to waste any more time dwelling on that fact.  I want to see what I can do with the rest of the time.

What with Christmas thrown in the mix, I'm not sure I will have time to get much done in the way of projects, so I want to spend my time planning a bit.  Usually at this time, I am looking back at the projects that I did this year.  I think I will see if I have enough to share in a post for later.

I say that I haven't done much, but in fact, I have started and completed two Christmas projects!  The thing about moving is that you find thing that you forget you have.

Last year, my good friend in Virginia, Linda, was making this candle mat from a kit.  I said I liked it, so she gave me the pattern and the leftover bits of wool.  I found it and decided I should actually make it.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much wool I have, and yet this is only the second project that I've made with it!  I loved this project as you just whip stitch the wool--no need to do the blanket stitch, which isn't my favorite.

In other stuff I came across another pattern that I'd bought a few years ago.  I decided to work on it next.  (The key to both of these projects is that it involves lots of hand work, and that is about all I've been doing lately--at my bee days.)

It took two Bee meetings to get the embroidery done.

(Ugh!  Sorry for the sideways picture!)

There are two snowflakes.

Then last Friday, I pieced it all together.  My husband was flying home from a trip to Canada and was delayed in Toronoto, which made him miss his flight from Detriot, so while I was waiting for his new flight to land, I got this together.  Monday I did some minimal machine quilting and added the binding so that I could take it on Tuesday and do the hand finishing on the binding at that Bee, so it took three weeks to do. 

I have no idea what I'll be taking to the next meeting:  If nothing else, my Sarah's Revival applique blocks.  Remember how I wanted to get a few blocks done while on hiatus?  Well, it didn't happen!

So I'm thinking forward to next year and considering the projects that I want to tackle.  I am in the mood to do a "major project." I know what it is and actually started cutting it before we moved.  How about you?  Do you have plans for next year?  I'd love to hear them.

Have a great day!

JoAnne

Jumping Back In

Hi Everyone!

I have been wanting to get back blogging for several weeks now, but the first post back seemed so daunting to write.  So much has happened, how can I possibly remember it all?  How do I get back to it?  Are just a couple of the hurdles that made it difficult to start again.  Compounding the problem is the fact that I was feeling so guilty for not posting, that I haven't been reading many other blogs.  I think if I had been, it would have inspired me to get back to it.

The past few days, I decided just to write a "normal" post--just "jump back into it."  Then this morning when I woke up, I had an email from Maggie in Vermont wondering where I was, so I decided that it had to be today.

The closing for our house went off without a hitch.  Well, at least once we got there.  Since my husband had the afternoon off, he decided to stop by the DMV on the way to the closing.  (The DMV is just a couple blocks from the closing.)  His goal was to get his new Indiana driver's license.  His previous license had expired, but that state allows it to remain valid if you are in the military.  This state has the same provision with theirs, so you would think that everything would go smoothly.  We allowed over 2 hours for the process and there wasn't a line, but still we nearly were late.  To make a long story short, it involved the clerk, the supervisor, and several phone calls down to the state office.  On top of all of that, the clerk didn't think that Alaska was a state(!)

 Here we are signing some of the papers.

That was the end of September.  The very next day I began painting some of the rooms.  They were all very lovely to begin with, however, most of them were green, and while I like green, it just doesn't go with my things.  So I tackled the kitchen, my new quilting room, the dining room, a guest room, the master bedroom and the entire basement rec room.  I finished it all on a Thursday and on Friday went on a day trip with my daughter to Ikea in Cincinnati.  While we were there, my husband called to say that our stuff was arriving on Sunday (as in the day after tomorrow!)  We weren't really expecting it until the following Tuesday, and so we just had Saturday to move out of our apartment.

 

The delivery went pretty smoothly.  If you have ever moved, you know that sometimes it can be heartbreaking when your things arrive damaged, etc.  Our stuff was mostly okay--a few dings here and there, but that is expected.  Nothing seems to be lost, either.  The weather was gorgeous--it had poured with rain the day before, so that was lucky too.

Once they left on Sunday afternoon, the work really got started.  We actually got most of the boxes emptied and out to recycling by the end of the next weekend.  I think I was motivated by it being the last time!  Also, I was leaving my quilting things to the end...

What went very slow for me (and always does) is the "dressing" of the house.  Where to sit things?  How to arrange things on the wall?  What should go in each room?  Over the course of our military life, my house became entirely red, white, and blue.  The advantage was that if some favorite thing didn't fit in the room it was supposed to, it could go in another.  The huge disadvantage has been deciding what room to put everything in!  It would have been much easier if I had, say, a blue and yellow bedroom.  I would put all of the blue and yellow stuff in there and arrange it so it works the best and be done.  Instead, nearly everything I have could go into any room, so that was all a bit daunting, too.  I finally got the main floor done, and the guest rooms upstairs.  I have a few things hanging in the basement, but all of the rest is leaning up against the walls down there.  I had all of the "sitting" decorations all over the dining room table.  Luckily, I had Thanksgiving to motivate me, and I got things arranged and the excess carried downstairs in time.

Amongst all of the tasks to get done, are heavy doses of these:

My nephew who is now 10 months old

My nine year old neices.  

Moving somewhere where there is family has been wonderful!  I adore these kids and love spending time with them.

I am still going to the local quilt shop for "sit and sew" on Tuesdays.  Today is our Christmas party.  I also joined a newely-formed bee and have been to one of the two meeting that we have had so far. 

Have I shared that this is Amish country?  Shipshewana is only a bit over an hour away.  There are several wonderful quilt shops there, but I haven't been to them yet since we moved here.  We did go to Shipshewana for an antique show, but I didn't want to go to the quilt shops with my husband tagging along.

I think that this is a good start for now.  I will try to be back in a day or two to share more things.   My plan is to show some of the rooms, but in small doses.  I've done a bit of stitching lately, but not too much.  Part of the problem was getting my room set up--it took a while.  It still isn't ready to show as I'm redoing my fabric.  I had folded it all around my 6" ruler and had it neatly stacked on shelves in Virginia.  I planned to do that here, but I have different shelves, and they are not as deep, so the fabrics hangs over the edge.  Now I'm in the process of winding it around the comic book inserts.  I had 300 and ran out and just got some more.  More about that, later!  (Incidently, the folded fabric was easy to move.  They just stacked it in boxes, and I took it right out and put it on the new shelf.)

Until then, here is a teaser picture from out of the window of my quilting room.  I have a great view of the pond.

Have a wonderful day!
JoAnne