Christmas Adventures

Even though Christmas has now come and gone and the house seems so very empty with only hubby and me here, we have lots of memories this year. Both of our daughters and one son were able to make it home for the holiday. We played games and cooked and did all the normal stuff that families do. Then, Christmas Eve just before 5 PM, the electricity went out. Of course, a winter storm was predicted and we knew it, but being optimistic, we just went about doing our own thing. We just put a little more wood on the fire and called the electric company. Power to be restored in two hours, or so the automated system said. So we played charades and ate goodies and waited for two hours, and then three and then four. To make a long story short, we waited all night and more. The son at home could check out the status of the repairs on his phone but mostly the answer was power will be restored in two hours. Oh, and there were nine people at my house!

Our son even began making croissants by candlelight! Now that is having faith that the oven would work the next day!


Now no power can be lived with when you have a heat source. But when we got up the next morning, we were also without water. With nine people at home, that becomes a bigger issue. We brought in buckets of snow to melt, but the melting is a long process, and do you know what you get from a big bucket of snow? About an inch of water and it takes FOREVER to melt.

And in just a little while, the telephone went out of service also. We really don't know what happened there, because after about eight hours it came back on without having contacted anyone about the problem.

Our son in law suggested that we all go to his parents house to celebrate Christmas because there was power there. And although we resisted as long as possible, it finally became obvious that this option would be the best-we had thawed raw turkey and a prime rib to think about, plus all the side dishes that were started and ready to put in the oven. So we packed up the gifts and were just getting ready to put everything in the vehicles when the miracle of the day happened and the electricity came back on! So everything was unpacked and we began the process of starting the meal and getting cleaned up as the water came back on too!

During the morning after we had light and heat again, we opened the curtain to the sliding glass door and found an interesting snow sculpture on the glass. First my sister said we had an angel on the door, but then we decided that we had an eagle for Christmas.

On a whim about a week and a half ago, I made all of the ladies aprons. Guess it is not working out too well to have five ladies in the kitchen at the same time!




Guess we made up after all.
And when we weren't looking, the croissants came out of the oven. Not bad for only the second time making these beauties!

When it came time for gift exchanging, I had everyone open this particular gift at the same time. That way, no ones surpise was spoiled. Last July, I made one of these wall hangings for myself, and thought it would be a great gift for everyone on my list.

This last one had to wait until today as my oldest son couldn't make it out on Christmas day because of snow and ice covered highways.

I hope everyone enjoyed Christmas this year. It will be one to remember!

Judy

Thursday July 16, 2009

Back to convention reporting!

Tuesday afternoon, the five of us went to Mammaw's Quilt Shop in Knoxville. There was lots of choices in fabric, but they were in the middle of rearranging the shop plus getting ready for the AQS show that will be in Knoxville in a week or so. Can't tell you how many people asked if we were coming back for the show. Since there will be an AQS show in Des Moines in October, my guess is that we will opt for that one. At least the driving distance won't be quite so far.

Early registration for the IDMA convention was Tuesday afternoon. Always good to get that out of the way before the workshops and meeting start on Wednesday. Tuesday evening we got to take a train ride with the evening meal included! It was fun and the food wonderful. Here are a few of the pictures I took on the ride.

The fourth picture is of a bird nest on the top of bridge. The bird builds a nest there each year, and each year it gets a little larger.



The first picture here is just now nice the bridges are, and the second is of the train station. Although the ride was at least and hour and a half, it was over too soon.

That's all for now. Watch for installment three!

Judy

IDMA Convention

Monday July 13, 2009

Another International Doll Makers Convention has come and gone! What a good time my four friends and I had. We drove to Knoxville, Tennessee and spend many days with our doll making friends.

Our first major stop was in Hannibal Missouri where we visited the Hickory Stick Quilt Shop and had lunch at the Old Planters restaurant. The Hickory Stick is at the left side of the picture. We spent about

two hours in Hannibal before we headed out again on the road. We kept on driving until we reached Paducah, Kentucky where we wanted to visit the American Quilters Musuem and Hancock's of Paducah. We did get to see the Museum, but Hancock's was closed for the 4th of July. What disappointed us the most was that we sat in from of Hancock's for about 20 minutes waiting for the store to open. There was no notice on the door saying they would be closed for the Holiday. Back here at home the fabric shops have BIG sales on the 4th.

We found some goodies at the Quilt Museum, too. T-Shirts and books and quilt kits. After spending a couple of hours here we started out again for Knoxville.

We were lucky enough to get rooms on the same floor of the Crowne Plaza in Knoxville where we would spend the next seven days having dolly fun. Sunday, though, we started working on a fun weaving project that Connie had learned. The beginning was tedious just getting the prep work on the grids done, but when we started weaving, we thought it was great-until we needed to add strip number three. Then it became a little harder. But perseverance paid off and in a couple of days, in our spare time, we completed the weaving. It will be fun to see what we all make our of our woven pieces.

Monday July 6th we toured to Gaitlinburg to see all the tourist traps and then on the Seven Oaks outlet mall. Most of the four of us found little to take home, but others on the tour found lots of things. This is a place I will not have to visit again as I would like to eliminate all the trinkety things out of my house. Probably impossible.

As we drove by the Tourism offices we saw our convention in lights. Look closely-you might be able to read the marquee.

Tuesday July 7th we toured Knoxville and we all found that interesting. Our first stop was at the Theater where we got to see the beautiful decorating and hear the pipe organ being played by Mr. James Dick. He is an awesome organist.We also drove by many beautifull homes. We lunched at Market Square and enjoyed a free afternoon which we spent at a local quilt shop.

More on our adventures tomorrow!

Judy

It's been awhile since I took the time to write in my blog. Always hoping to do more! Work it seems takes up a lot of time.

Last month I finished table topper-in Pink! Guess that one will be for me.I don't have a picture of that one yet, but will post it later. I also finished the Christmas piece that is called "Over the Edge".

It is to go on the edge of a table such as a buffet. My thought was for it to go on the fireplace mantel, but our mantel is shorter in depth than the piece is. I like it anyway, or maybe it will turn into a Christmas gift. One never knows!

Here is a picture of the whole piece, so you can see that a few rows do hang over the mantle. We have a table that is meant to go behind a sofa that it could live on at Christmas instead of the mantle.

Of course we quilter never have just one project going, and I have been working on several BOM's.

We are now on block four of a black and white quilt that has brights as the accent pieces in them. When I say we, my 83 year old Mother goes to this monthly meeting with me and is sewing up blocks, too.

I also joined the Applewood BOM which is called "Now and Forever". This block has lots of appliqued roses and sweet peas. This will be a challenge, but I just loved the pictures of the prospective quilt.

Here are the first two months blocks. The third month was making applique roses. I have a few of those done. My goal was to do one a day for a couple of weeks, but that only lasted one day! ROFL! I spent one whole evening getting some for pay work done and I guess that took precedence. Fourth month were green blocks and those are done, but now it is time for the fifth month so will post pictures of the last four at the same time.

The first weekend in June, my husband and I went on the "Motor Ioway 500" tour. He likes vintage autos, and I like them, too, but don't feel comforable driving one-have never been very good with stick shift vehichles. But this car shouts out that it is "ME". Can you see why?

So one of these is on my 'want' list. But then a convertible is on that list, too.

That's it for tonight. See you again soon!

Purse Organizer

Hi,

Just recently I found the pattern for a purse organizer on the web. I had wanted to make one for quite a while-ever since first hearing about them last year. Sunday I looked through my stash and found some fabric that I thought would nicely. Of course, I didn't have the required interfacing on hand so had visit the LFS yesterday to get that. This evening, I cut and sewed and was quite pleased how well it all went together. Of course, the hardest part was turning the darned thing right side out. I know I will like using it, because I can never find anything it my purse! I chose this fabric because my favorite doll of all time-at least for now- is a French doll by the name of Bleuette. What could be more French that the Eiffel tower and poodles, which probably won't show up in the photo. I think my doll club friends will like this project, too.

My other current project is a hexagon star project that isn't quite ready for a photo yet. It will be quite a while before that one is finished since it is all hand done. Have been cutting more hexagons for it this evening, too. And of course, there are the UFO's. I will work on one of those this next weekend.

Take Care!

Judy

Heartland Dollers Wallet Project

Doll club went pretty much as planned today. We spent the morning with Show & Tell, the business meeting, lunch, and then on to work on the wallets. Of course, we did not get quite as many completed as hoped, but we did get thirty or so almost completed. Only the top stitching and the fasteners left to take care of. We will work on these at home, and if necessary finish at the March meeting.

Here we are with our little Janome Sew-Mini's which we really like except for no lights and they are a little noisy. But they sew well and that is the key point.

What good sewing project doesn't need a raft of pressers! Three people sewed, two pressed and three or so people pinned pockets into place. All twelve of us present worked on the wallets in various stages.

We have one junior member and she was right in there helping us line up edges and turning corners.

More pinning being done!

And here are most of the wallets that are mostly completed. Nice variety of colors and prints. I am so excited to see this project under way. We had lots of fun and good conversation while working on these.

Next month we are on to Charity Quilts. Wish us luck and good weather!

Until next time!

Judy

Quilting and other projects

It's been a while since I posted here. I hope to do better! It has been really cold here, but sounds like it will be better next week. When not working, I have been working on quilting projects. Since the first of the year I have made a table runner and pieced the blocks for the NYE Mystery quilt.

The NYE Mystery was the first I have done in this kind of setting. I had to work on New Years Eve day, so got a late start, but all the blocks are finished and I have tried several settings. The hard part is chosing which one to go with. Take a look at the pictures. What do you think?

Tomorrow is the monthly meeting of my doll club, and we always have lots of fun at the meetings. Our project for the day will be making wallets for the tote bags for the annual convention. I hope we have a good turn out so that we will get this project finished tomorrow. Some of us have cut the fabric already so that we can sit and sew during the afternoon.

At the February meeting, we are to start some lap quilts for a charity project. This is hopefully to help use up some of our collective "stashes".

See you all later!

Judy