Christmas Part 2

A complete and wonderful surprise last Saturday afternoon. Guess who rang the doorbell....oldest son Mike and his wife Lindy, who you all know is in the Army stationed at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. It had been 2 years since we'd seen them. We'd planned to visit them over Thanksgiving and had to cancel due to my bout with H1N1.

Unknown to us they traveled first to Iowa and spent several days with Mike's dad and other family. Sunday afternoon, middle son Mark and his wife, Stephanie, were able to come over for a few hours. That meant two sons out of the three here for awhile.

If you are lucky enough to have all of your children living near you and able to visit often, treasure that gift! With Mike in the Army for 29 years now and Mark in the Army for 7 of those years, and now with three sons living in three different states, none of them the state I live in...well times when we can gather at the same time are few and far between. Even worse we have our five grandchildren living in four different states.

So, why am I so bad at remembering to get a camera out and take pictures? No one did that Sunday night. I guess I'm always too busy enjoying the moment and don't think of pictures until it's over and then "I wish.......". Dang!

Did get the camera out last night.



I guess here I was praying "let me remember to take more pictures in 2010"!

Today Mike and Lindy are headed back to Arizona.

And great-grandson, Jeramiah turns 6! Happy Birthday, Jeramiah!!

And Happy New Year to all my blogland friends. May 2010 be filled with good health, good time with family and friends and peace.

Christmas 2009

Despite snow and sleet on Christmas Eve, we were able to make the drive over to Aurora to spend Christmas Day with Mark and Stephanie and family. Good food, time with family....it's the best part of the holidays.

But before we could get on the road, Tom split his head open when he banged into the open door on the compartment holding the garage door opener in the car. There was plenty of seasonal color.....I thought it would never stop bleeding! We've taken the door off and I think it will stay off, since this isn't the first time it's happened.

Of course, the little ones are what make Christmas fun. Here are our two great-grandsons, Jeramiah & Maison. Jeramiah will turn 6 on the 30th and Maison is 4. They do the best job of posing, don't they? I hope they are always this fond of each other!

And now we can show who the last silk flower wallhanging was for. Caitlin & Lucas were married last April and this Grandma has been a tad late in getting one made for them.

We missed Granddaughter Ashley (mom to Jeramiah & Maison) . As a police officer she spent part of the day assisting with travelers who found the slick roads a challenge.

I hope your Christmas was full of good times too.

Merry Christmas!

Sending warm wishes to all my blogging friends. May your holiday be filled with love, laughter, peace and good memories.

More Flowers

Saturday I put together another silk flower and tulle wall hanging. It has yet to be personalized for the recipients.

This picture taken without flash shows the quilting a little better, but mutes the colors

And this picture of the back taken before it was trimmed and bound almost looks like a whole cloth doesn't it?

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My mother turned 80 today.

This was taken in 1947, a year after I was born, and is one of my favorite pictures of her.

This was taken in March of this year.

I made this quilted birthday card for her earlier this week.

And sent her this quilt made last year. It's called "Bouquet of Roses" and reminded me of her from the moment I made it. These are definitely her colors and she sounded tickled to receive it.

We aren't able to attend her celebration in Iowa today but send our love and wishes for many, many more healthy birthdays.

Wanna Trade?

In the last few days I've had a blog visitor from Bahrain and one from Kazakhstan. People from over 90 countries have visited at one time or another. Both Tom and I would love to swap siggies with quilters from as many countries as possible. We'd also like to swap with quilters from all the U.S. states. If we could collect siggies from even half of the countries and states represented by visits, I'd be doing a happy dance!

You don't have to join a formal siggy swap to trade with us. If you are interested, email me and I'll send you the pattern for the siggy block and we can swap. Both Tom and I will send you a siggy, and you can send two siggies to us.

You'll get a siggy like this from me............

And one like this from Tom.............

I also need to catch up with the siggies I've received during the last few weeks.

Chris from The Netherlands

Ineke, also from the Netherlands

Cornelia from Germany

Aren't they wonderful? I love reading the letters that accompany the blocks. It's so interesting to hear about the lives of quilters all over the world.

So...........do you want to trade?

My Student

Next month I'm going to be teaching a workshop for my guild on wall hangings made from silk flowers and tulle. Tom thought he wanted to see if he could make one, so Monday he began a project.

Here he is pressing his fabric for the background, borders and backing.


Sewing his background and borders. He really likes my little Featherweight.



Selecting the flowers to use

And arranging them

Layered with tulle and batting and ready to quilt

This was a busy week for us, so he wasn't able to start quilting until Wednesday

He finished the quilting yesterday

I bound it for him this morning (that's his least favorite part of the quilting process and I've convinced him there is no shame in letting someone else do it for you).

Didn't it turn out nice?

It's a Christmas present for his mother. Hope she doesn't read this before she gets it!

Tom thinks if he can do this, then anyone can. Hope the students next month feel the same.

Here's a link to projects made by people I've taught in the past

And some of the many I've made

Elmer Elf

I'm still working on the hand quilting of my Dutch Treat quilt. And I'm making good progress. But I don't have pictures to share yet.

So here are a few pics of the Elmer Elf dolls I made a few years ago. Since they were my own design and made without a pattern, each one was unique. I still have one, but the others found new homes.

Hope they bring a smile to your face. It's really cold here today, but at least we don't have any of the white fluffy stuff that my family in Iowa is struggling with..not yet anyway!