DESIGN WALL 11-30-09

These are the blocks I received from my SBS Blue and Brown swap. They came from as far a way as Ireland and Canada, also some from Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin & Ohio. I think this may be the start of another quilt... I'll be a bit selective on which blocks I make this time. No hard ones! And it won't be worked on more until after the scrappy one is at least a 'flimsy' top. Check out other fun Design Walls linked at Judy L's Blog.

2nd Thanksgiving

We have much to be Thankful for. Not just at this time of Year. We live in a Free Country and don't have much that we can't get with a little effort on our part. We have a family who loves each other. Our Children and Grandchildren who live close came for a belated Thanksgiving Dinner at our small house. Kori and Joe came first. They brought a "Thankfulness Journal" to start keeping for the holiday as a family. I love that my grandchildren like to play together. A bit noisily, but they do have fun when they are together. Before Dinner we had a Cousin's Picture on the Church Pew we got from Aunt Diana. 11 of the 14 isn't too bad. The Pew came in handy when it was time to have the children sit up to the table. I used the Checked table cloths for the backdrop. And they are sitting on the "Reunion" quilt. The food everyone brought was yummy! I think it tired Grandpa out. But I am grateful especially this year for all of his help. He was the Turkey cutter, Potato Peeler, Table carrier and dishwasher extraordinaire. This year he even helped with making the 'Colby' rolls. Thanks for bringing your families to share a Thanksgiving with us here. We love all of you.

Turkey Bowl and Thanksgiving Ham

My sweet Visiting Teacher and her daughter brought these pretty flowers to me. I'm thankful for all those who bring us things, even if we don't know who they are, you knock and run people make us smile, and may make us a little fatter too. Today I am Thankful for having Family in Town again, for health, and for a loving husband who takes good care of me and all of the members of Walla Walla 3rd Ward. Today is the day crazy people get up and go do a Turkey Trot or play a game of co-ed, touch football. No age limit and it's cold... My husband went with our son-by-love; Jes, Janessa and Jackson to the "Turkey Bowl" in Walla Walla. I sent the camera with Paul. Jes is on the right side of the picture in his Blue "Goodson" Football Jersey. I was home making dinner and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Janessa and Jackson caught by Paul with the camera... Our Elders who live with us have two Thanksgiving Dinners to eat today. They did service this morning while others were having fun. We are Thankful to have them in our Home. They bring a grateful spirit here. They will be back later to share our Thanksgiving Ham! I'll do the Turkey on Saturday... Yesterday, Janessa and Jackson came to help make Rolls for Thanksgiving on Saturday with the 4 families who live close. I'm Thankful for that as well. We will miss Brant and Jeff's families, but the miles are just too far for them to travel. They will enjoy their Thanksgiving in Idaho, Missouri and Ohio where they live.

33 years ago we were here...

Here we are leaving the Temple, no big Photographer pictures. Don't you love the 'skunk' coat. All I have are a few snap shots taken as we were rushing to get into our cars. My Parents and Grandma rode with Paul's Parents. Dinner afterward was at Burger King. See why Pictures are a big deal to me now. Why I don't cut Ovals out of them any more, and why I take so many...??? This is what it looked like when we woke up... My mother had purchased a picture of the Cardston Temple with the Green grass all around the day before and had to go exchange it for this one. It was hung at our Reception and has hung in our home for 33 years now HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! This is our Engagement picture. back in the day when black and white was the norm. I still have the green Jumpsuit and his white and green floral shirt. I know my children would roll their eyes if I tried it on, no pictures, I promise IF I do. Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year. The year is almost gone and it is time for FAMILY! I'm missing part of my family especially this year. Playing the "Glad" game and singing the "Count your Blessings" song though... It's also what would have been my parents 71st anniversary and my paternal grandparents 101st anniversary. On this date so many years ago they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. I chose the date but not that Temple. I love that my father bought the 'polyester' lime green suit and wore it especially for the day... Mom's dress is double knit polyester...the fabric that will never wear out! I know of at least 2 other couples, not related, who have the same Anniversary...

DESIGN WALL MONDAY 11-22-09

Here you go! I have a 'real' design wall now. I put a piece of white flannel over the top to cover part of the Muslin. Pictures of the SBS blocks show up better on the white. These are the blocks of the past 3 weeks on my SBS list. I have only 30 more blocks to make. I have been making beaded Christmas Ornaments this week and hung them up to admire on the design wall. I made paper clip angels, jingle bell angels, a Christmas spider and beaded snowflakes for an ornament swap I'm in. They need to be homemade ornaments in sets of 5. I have one more set to finish for the Swap, due by the 1st to the Swap hostess with the mostess. I found the Red and Gold Jingle bells and thought of making angels with the gold ones. Still thinking about the red ones, can 'angels' be red??? Maybe some cute little red felt hats would make them look like Santa... Check out other Design Wall Monday Posts at patchworktimes with Judy L

Holiday Traditions Quilt Contest

I saw this contest and chose to enter it with some of the Christmas Quilts I made last year for my children. I can only enter two in the contest but am showing all of them. It's almost time for them to get them out for December 1st. The object of having them is to have the youngest to oldest sleep under it each night in December, then put it under the tree on Christmas Eve for Santa to take a nap. This quilt was made for Our Oldest Sons Family. It was a pattern designed by "Quilts by KOS" as a Mystery in 2007. I had fun scribbling loops in the borders and sashing with the names of their family. I started this quilt in 2007 as a Mystery with quiltaholics - Wild Weekend Whatever #21. In 2008 I made Holiday quilts for each of my childrens' families. This one was machine quilted with holly leaves by Lynn Wilson, my quilting friend . I quilted in the names of each person in the family. I call this quilt the quilt that grew and grew. I used the book "Block Magic" by Nancy Johnson-Srebro for the Trains and Nutcrackers. To put it together I made the Log cabin blocks (not my favorite blocks to make). The dad in the family likes trains and my daughter collects Nutcrackers. I quilted this one with loops and swirls- hiding the names in the quilting. Our fourth child's family got this Mystery quilt "Just my Size" designed by Dorothy Young of apocketfulofmysteries. The fabric I chose is "bears" because I gave teddy bears to this son many Christmases and Birthdays. I added the 3-d flying geese to the borders and quilted it all-over including the names of the family. Our youngest childs' family received the new 'favorite' pattern that I learned to make in 2008. The pattern is the "Disappearing 9-patch". I made it with Fairy Frost and Santa fabrics. It has the same quilting all over done on my DSM (dear sewing machine) with the names of the family hidden in the quilting. I still need to finish the quilt for our 5th child's family. It is one of my many UFO's for now. I haven't finished my Christmas Lone Star either...

Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop

This week I've been doing the Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop. I started over at Pat Sloan's Blog which has led me to the other 11 blogs of Quilt designers. Some of them are featured in this magazine. I had to get the magazine so I could have all the patterns for the original blocks made by these designers. There are prizes when you leave a comment on each of the 12 Blogs and some of them have daily prizes too and each is having a day to offer a Free Project to make for Christmas. Have fun, you might even find a project you have to make for the Christmas holiday...

Veteran's Day

I can't let the day pass without honoring a few of the Veterans in my life. My Father, who served in the CCC's. He enlisted in the Army- hoping to be sent to a foreign land only to wind up in Montana. Then they saw he had flat feet and discharged him so he joined the Civil Conservation Corps and worked in Zion and Bryce Canyons in Utah. They built the rock cribs that hold the rocks from going in the road. My parents took me after Graduation through the Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park to see them. We tried to get a Flag for his casket when he died but it didn't happen. My sister and I put a Flag in our Memorial bouquets to remember his service to our Country. Sorry the group picture is fuzzy. Taking pictures of photo copies is not the best. My father is on the right in the photo of two guys and somewhere in the group Photo... My Father-by-Love...who served in WW II He didn't talk much about the war until our children had to do a report for Veteran's day. I'm grateful for his sharing a little of what he endured "over there" with them. My son, Jeffery, who serves in the US ARMY...Stationed presently in Ft Leavenworth, Kansas. He has signed up to be deployed somewhere other than Cuba next fall. He spent 16+ months there already. I also had a couple uncles who served in the Korean and WW II. I have no pictures of them to share. Thank you Uncle Lynn Waite, Uncle Art Brown and Uncle Don Brown.

Local Guild Night

The Walla Walla Valley Quilt Guild had the monthly meeting on Tuesday evening. We presented 9 quilts to the WW Helpline Women's shelter. These quilts will remain at the Shelter. We would be very busy replacing them everytime a women leaves and takes one with her. They have plans to have 18 beds there. We have some more work to do. Here is the director of Helpline loaded up with the quilts. Also the Hearts and Flowers committee presented a Hearts and Flowers quilt to a fellow member who lost her father recently, (in the past year). This quilt was set together by Lynn W and quilted by JoAnn S. My Secret Pal has been busy shopping for me... She must have re-read in my bio that I collect Lambs. You know "Mary had a little lamb..." I will find out at next month's meeting who she is and will get to thank her in person for all the goodies she has given me over the year.

DESIGN WALL MONDAY 11-9-09

Since I have two DESIGN WALLS at my house- (both are in the process of being attached so right now they are still portable) You will see two projects again this week. Quilting buddy has the swine flu and I am sewing remotely again this week. That is if I get my table cleared off so I can. The picture above shows the swap blocks that I received last week from my Sylvia's Bridal Christmas Swap. I added the blocks from Lynn to make it square. They aren't sewn together waiting for a few other projects that have been waiting longer to be done... This is Lynn W's Row Robin as it came to me. I will add the last row and she will have it very soon! This is a quilt for her son. I can hardly wait to show her my row. Get well soon quilt buddy! Go check out other Design walls at Judy L's Blog.

My Buddy Came Home

Elder and Sister Christensen returned from their Mission in England Thursday evening. After a full day of flying the first thing I heard Pat say was, "I'm so tired." There were a lot of friends and family there to welcome them home. I had to be there to document it as the "Japanese Tourist." The sign was made by Keith's brothers' family from Yakima.

SBS Christmas Swap Blocks

My SBS Christmas J-3 Blocks arrived in today's mail. It's sure been a good squishie mail week for me! I sent out 4 sets of 5 so I got 20 in return and one extra. Thanks Mary Anne. Of the 20 -they are from 12 different people. That to me is great and I will admire them a while before I make my mini Christmas quilt with them. I have the extra blocks that Lynn and I made also to put with them. I received blocks from the following... 2-Joan Sheridan- VA 1-RV Jan 1-Debbie Madigan - SD 1-Sue B -OH 1-Trudie- Germany 3-Mary Anne -FL 3-Karen H -Canada 1-Sharon - MI 2-Cecile -Ireland 2-Lou - Canada 1-Linda S- CO 1-Terry M IND. 1-Elisa- FL

DESIGN WALL MONDAY 11-2-09

I am doing the HAPPY DANCE at my house today. I had to wait for the mail which was later than usual, at least it seemed that way waiting...so after the long wait here it is---TA DA! My many thanks to the ladies on WASIQ who made rows for me. I have said it before and I'll say it once more...I love, love, love my rows! I'm in process of moving my design wall to a different location in the sewing area. Where I had been keeping it is now my bedroom. It will be attached to the wall this time so I can really use the space to pin quilts and enjoy putting the parts and pieces of my quilts up to admire. It's still MONDAY so I can post this and link it to Judy L's BLOG. Go check out the other quilter's design walls. And leave me a comment. These are just rows for now, but the finished quilt will be a treasure to remember my WASIQ friends.