It's Officially Christmastime

Now I just need to pull down all the fall decorations, my favorite, and bring out the Christmas decorations. Why is it that this seems like such a big task? Maybe it's because I have to haul out the empty boxes from the basement to store the fall stuff and then do the same with the Christmas decos. I need new Christmas decorations. I'm just not totally happy with what I've got. Plus some of the problem is that I just love the fall decorations so much! I'd love to have them up all year. It's sad to see them go!

DH and I woke up at the same time this morning just before 5:00am. What's up with that?? Just boom, wide awake....both of us!! Today, I have a friend coming over to sew for the day. I love these days. Hoping the need for a nap doesn't kick in until she leaves! Hopefully, I will have something completed to show you by the end of the day.

Hope you are having an enjoyable day as well and get a few stitches in before the day is over!

Melanie

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for! Just to name a few: Great family and friends, a God who loves me more than I can imagine, a beautiful place to live (California Central Coast), the best husband in the world and more, more, more!! I hope you are having a great Thanksgiving with those you love!

I haven't posted in a while and that is mainly because I've been busy working on Christmas and birthday gifts. I have to share this great fabric I recently purchased from the Rouenerries line by Moda. It is a linen/cotton blend.  I plan on making some pillows for my couch.  Pretty, huh??

Speaking of the Rouenerries line, my friend Vangie gave me 2 charm packs of it for my birthday. So I also bought some coordinating fabric and this Schnibbles pattern to make them up. This project will have to wait until after I've finished Christmas presents, but it should be a fun and quick project! Can't wait!

Again, happy Thanksgiving to you Americans. For the rest of you, I hope you get some stitching in today!

Melanie

DJ Design Wall Update

Every now and then I like to show a picture of my DJ progress. I was just talking to one of my oncology nurses who is a new quilter about this project and told her I would post a picture. Just counted and I have 115 blocks done and 36 triangles done, counting the 2 corner kites. As you can see, I've started to do the whole thing in order, or at least row by row. That way I can make sure I don't get 2 blocks of the same color together. I do wish I had done this in Trip Around the World format, but oh well. I like it this way too. This photo does not show all the blocks and tris that are done, just the ones on the upper portion. There aren't many others, just sayin'...

Hope you are doing something fun and creative today!
Melanie

My progressive for this year

Well, Monday night was the big reveal. Here's what my group produced for me.....

I had started with just the center star. My friend, Launi, was the first to work on it and she did the flying geese surrounding the center star. Then, her sister, Linda, made the 4 corner blocks. Now, this is a pretty big deal because for both of them, it was their first time paper piecing! Great job ladies!!! I'm really happy that my project stretched you into doing something you hadn't done before. Now you have a new skill that will lead to even MORE quilts you just have to make, right? Next, Le added the side strips and attached the NY beauties. At some point in here (maybe before the side strips were added or just after) Vangie appliqued the center medallion onto the background.  Next, Linda C made a label for this beauty seen here....

Cool signature block, huh?? Next, Barb added another solid yellow border that ended up being used to make the final fence rail type border you see on the final product. This border was done by Lucretia and I think was a fantastic addition, pulling all the colors together! The last person to work on the top was Rana and she put the triangles on the borders and the little snowball type corners in blue on the corner blocks to mimic the shape of the top. I'm super excited to get this thing quilted!! I have lots of ideas for it, which is kind of unusual for me to be able to think quilting ideas up this quickly!

Anyway, aren't I lucky to be part of such a talented group of women??? Here's another quilt that was made this year that is super fantastic!!! This one belongs to Rana and I know she loves it too!

That's it for now.  Hope you enjoyed the show! I may be out of commission for a while, though I do hope to get another triangle done before I go down. So hopefully I'll get another post in before tomorrow's chemo kicks in. Hey, and I might as well be optimistic here. I might not ever go down on this chemo. I might just do fine!!

Hope you are getting some stitching done today!!

Melanie

Another DJ Block!!

I may have caught the DJ bug again. After doing that block and tri this weekend, I decided to do another block. This one was so simple and can you believe, it took me 3 tries! What? The measurements were funny and I just kept cutting them out wrong. Thankfully it was an easy block. I save all my errant blocks and someday they are going in their very own quilt! That ought to be interesting!

Now I need to do a triangle for this week. However, I have a quilt all layered and ready to be quilted that I should really get started on. Maybe tomorrow I will work on that a bit. I won't feel much like sewing come this weekend. Chemo #4 happens on Thursday so.....Until then I'm trying to beat the clock!!

Hope you are doing something creative today!

Melanie

A Jane Block and Triangle

It has been somewhere around  4 months since I've done ANY work on my Dear Jane quilt. I felt like I needed to focus on getting some other things done and then came the Big C. But now I have done I-1 called Ralph and Nelda's wedding. It was rotary cut and pieced and has 20 pieces. It is not as wonky as this photo makes it look, but it is a bit wonky!! I'll be able to fix that when I set it in the quilt.

I also did a triangle. This one is LS11 called Kathy's Cake. It was paper pieced and appliqued like most of the triangles. It has 24 pieces. I'm motivated to keep going! In fact I quickly made another easy block this morning (I-2) but had measured the pieces wrong so it came out the wrong size and will have to be redone. Oh well, at least it was easy. I only have 3 more triangles to make on the left side and 3 or 4 on the right side to have the top and both sides done. I really should be focusing on Christmas presents though!

I have several things to get done this weekend. First, today I am going to go out and plant the pansies I bought. Our town is on water restrictions for a short time and so I can only water the yard on Saturdays and Tuesdays. That forces me to do the planting today.

The other thing I must get done is to put a border on the progressive quilt I am working on for a group member. They are revealing our quilts at the meeting on Monday evening. Unfortunately, I can't be there as my immune system is suppressed right now and the doctor won't let me be in groups. However, I have heard that my quilt is beautiful! I can't wait to see what it looks like! To see what I started with look here. It's the compass star and I hear the wonderful women in my group have done a fabulous job making something perfectly wonderful. I can't wait to see it and share it with you.

Hope you are doing something creative this weekend!

Melanie

A Return to Jane?

I belong to the Dear Jane list sponsored by Brenda Papadakis and read the other day that for 2 weeks in a row only 2 people had completed the TOW (triangle of the week) challenge. I was shocked! Before I got sick I did one every single week and never saw less than 15 or so names on the achievers list. I emailed Marianna, the achievers list mistress, to make sure what I had read was correct and it was! So, this was a call to action for me. I'm feeling well enough to sew this week so I'm committing right here for all to read that I will do a TOW this week! I've got the paper foundation all prepared for LS11 and hope to have it to show you in a day or 2. In the meantime, I'm going to go clean up my front yard just a wee bit. It has that scraggly fall look right now. Check back soon to see if I kept my committment!

Hope you are doing something creative today!

Melanie