I’m thrilled to report I am CAUGHT UP on Judy Laquidara’s Star BOM blocks.  Here are blocks 8, 9 and 10.

And all the blocks posed for a group shot:

And all I can say about the wonky colors is I need to take pictures at a more favorable time of day or something!  Every single time I photograph these blocks, my colors seem to be a little different.  Also, if you notice any points cut off, or any other irregularities in the blocks, I am also sure my camera is to blame!

Sue

Robins are so plentiful here in Minnesota from early summer until late fall.  I thought I would pull out a couple of other favorite robin pictures — one from last spring and one more late spring/early summer. 

You can see from the number of crab apples left on the tree that they have been doing some serious noshing!  They are great entertainment, and definitely the cheapest show in town!  You don’t even have to leave your house — or in my case, my kitchen table.  Well worth planting a tree outside one of your windows, if you have the option.  We were lucky and the townhouse association put this tree in for us.

Sue

I just had to post a photo of Milo, our rent-a-puppy, with his favorite toy.  It must have been a Christmas present from his owners before they went out of town.  This is what we see several times thousands of times a day.  Milo wants to play “fetch”.  Thankfully, he does the fetching.  He never tires of it.  Never.  Ever.  Also, in case you couldn’t guess, a picture of me and DH, and a couple of my most favorite bird pictures.  I never tire of watching the birds eating the crab apples off our tree just outside our kitchen window.

It’s hard to believe that today is December 24th.  We have a few packages under our make-believe Christmas tree (hibiscus plant, naked with no decorations).  We will have a nice dinner tonight, but nothing extravagant (pork chops and sweet potatoes, in case you were wondering).  DS3 will be home tonight or tomorrow (when we’ll be having corned beef and cabbage), and we will be delighted to spend Christmas with him.  We’ll be thinking of DS1 in Virginia, and DS2 and DIL in China with her family. 

I’m sending my very best wishes to each and every one of you this Christmas Season — wishes for good health, safe travel, and a blessed Christmas celebration.

Sue

Shortly after I started quilting, I decided to start a tradition of giving each of the three “boys” (they will always be boys to me) a queen-sized quilt for their 30th birthday.  Dave was first in 2003:

Then Tony in 2005:

And now Rob’s birthday is coming up in April 2009.  For Rob’s I thought I would try my hand at designing my own pattern, using Electric Quilt, which I purchased from Judy Laquidara this fall. 

September 29, 2008, Judy L. had an inspirational pep-talk type of post encouraging her readers to Follow Your Dreams.  It made me really stop and think what it was I wanted to do with quilting that I wasn’t already doing.  It was to learn to use the Electric Quilt software, and then to design my own quilt, so it would really feel like my own work when it was completed.

I did this design in October, and maybe that’s where the color scheme came from (autumn).  I found a same/similar star block in Electric Quilt to one of the blocks Judy L. is using in her Star BOM (Block of the Month) that I’m participating in.  It’s the star with the checkerboard center.  I love this block.  Thank you so much, Judy, for all your inspriration.  Here’s what I came up with:

I got Rob’s approval on the above pattern and color scheme when he was home for Thanksgiving.  Today I was in a local quilt shop, hoping to find fabric that would be a pretty close match to the EQ fabrics I used in the sample.  I’m really pleased with what I found — Robert Kaufmann Fusions.  (I don’t have the light gold background fabric yet.)

Are these fabrics spot-on or what???  They really have the richness that I wanted without being “girly” at all.  Yummy!  Today was a very good day.

Sue

We are having January weather in December.  I know this is January weather, because we were out of Minnesota the last four January/February months, and we didn’t have cold and snow like this the past four Decembers before we left Minnesota for the south.  It’s not fair!!!  It was 10 degrees below zero this morning when we got up, plus it was very windy.  Usually when it’s this cold, it is at least still in the mornings.  Not today.  Cold and windy all day.  Then to add insult to injury, it’s dark by 4:30 pm.  Well, dark enough to have to turn lights on.

Here is what’s left of the sunset at 5:00 pm.  It was a pretty sunset, but what was interesting to me is the snowmobile tracks on the pond.  When did those get there?  It had to be today, as we had snow fall last night, as well as blowing snow.  It’s amazing to me that people WANT to go out in freezing, windy weather and ride around on a snowmobile, creating even MORE windchill!!!  Of course, I’m not very adventurous.  Using two same-scale prints together in a quilt is as adventurous as I ever get.

Milo (the Sheltie we’re babysitting) has continued to charm us…

Isn’t he sweet?  pdudgeon thought his anxiety over the sewing machine is because he thinks the machine is hurting me.  I think she’s right.  I switched out the Janome Jem (my “kitchen island machine”) for my Singer Featherweight and tried again.  The Featherweight has a much smoother sound, plus a lower pitch.  Milo flipped out over that one too.  DH1 (I’m testing to how long it takes for him to notice the “1″) and I switched places so he was sitting at the sewing machine.  Milo ran to me, saw I was okay, got all upset barking and jumping up at Jim.  But he doesn’t mind the shredder that screams like a banshee!  What a goof ball.

Sue

(Correction:  This guy is a Chipping Sparrow.  Be sure and read Patrick’s comment for more information.  Thank you, Patrick!)

I took a photo of this little guy the other day.  I think it’s a Palm Warbler, but that’s just based on looking in my bird book.  I wish I was more knowledgeable on bird identification, but that’s the best I can do!  There were a bunch of these little guys in the edge of the wild area behind our house.  They are little birds, and they were jumping from dried weed to dried weed, eating the seeds.  I suspect they are migrating south.  I saw what I think was the same bird back on May 5th.  They both have the rust-colored cap and the strong marking through their eye.  If they are Palm Warblers, they spend their summers in Canada and then spend the winters along the Gulf Coast, Florida, and the southern part of our Atlantic coast.  I just saw them the one afternoon, then, pffft!, they were gone.

Sue

Please notice the comma.  Although as the weekend progresses, Savage the town could become savage the adjective.  The Twin Cities metro area hasn’t been hit as hard with snow as the western and northern parts of the state and it appears that will also be true this weekend (although we’re already above the average snowfall for the month of December and there’s a lot of month left).  There’s nothing like a snowstorm when you have the option of staying home, keeping toasty warm, and watching the snow-globe effect from inside the snow globe!

DS2 and DIL are now in China for a visit with DIL’s family.  This is DS2’s first visit to China and first meeting with any of DIL’s family.  I can’t wait to hear all about this wonderful trip when they get back home.  DIL couldn’t wait to enjoy some authentic Chinese food prepared by her mom, as it had been five years since she had been back to China.  Of course I put in a request for a piece of Chinese fabric when they visit the markets in Beijing! 

We have their pup Milo visiting with us while they’re gone.  DH1 and I are new to the world of pets, so this is an experience for us too.   Milo has won our hearts.  He has settled in nicely, not quite so hyper as he was on his trial visit.  He still loves to play — he is a puppy, after all — and loves attention (don’t we all?).

DH takes him outside for “business” as well as pleasure walks.  Milo LOVES to go outdoors.  The snow doesn’t bother him at all.  Here’s a question for you dog owners out there.  Milo can’t stand the sound of my sewing machine.  He whines and whines.  At first I thought it maybe bothered his ears, but when I tried it again, he acted like he was protecting me.  Could he think I’m being hurt?  Should I keep trying it and keep calming and assuring him, or is this really uncomfortable for him?

On the sewing front, I have a couple more aprons done, but everything is still taking me much longer than before I hurt my wrist.  They x-rayed my wrist Thursday as part of a routine follow up and it is healing nicely.  I have the okey-dokey to leave my splint off now, which is nice.  I did notice my wrist/hand is more tired and swollen at the end of the day, but it’s all progress.

I have to keep checking the calendar to see what the date is.  In a normal year, I’m so focused on how many days til Christmas; this year, it doesn’t really seem to matter much.  Since the whole family was together the week before Thanksgiving, we doubled up the holidays and celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We were done with the holidays before Thanksgiving!!!  I didn’t decorate this year, which seemed like a prudent decision with a bum wrist, but this just doesn’t seem right.  No last-minute shopping, no wrapping, no baking, no twinkling Christmas tree.  Weird.  It’s a little hard to get into the spirit of the season.  I’ll try with my signature:

Sue

– Those of you who wondered if there was a picture of me, regarding the previous post?  Think about it.  Do you think my husband would have noticed anything different about me?  I reference this post. 

– Seven of us from our Wednesday stitchin’ group went to the local NBC affiliate last night and presented our baby dolls with hand-made quilts to Toys for Tots, and made a brief appearance on the 6:00 news.  We all had a lot of fun.  We donated 15 dolls with quilts.

– I am in Full Apron-Assembly-Line Mode.  After completing the first Church Ladies Apron, I decided I would cut out the next nine, and do all the pockets at the same time, ties, facings, etc., and it should be a more efficient use of time.  More boring, but more efficient.  I am really excited about some of the fabrics I’m using (photos on a future day).  And I wish it was after the 1st of January so I could count these 20 yards as part of Stash Busting (two yards per apron, and 18 of the 20 yards out of stash)!!!  They are for gifts, so I will keep plugging away.

– Friday is our Christmas outing for the four of us “buds” that used to work together, and we keep in touch by meeting for breakfast most Saturdays.  We are doing an overnight at a local casino (free rooms), and will have fun opening our gifts, enjoying a fun dinner, and perhaps doing some donating  at the machines – at least until the smoke gets too bad.  I always bring knitting along…

– I got a new Keurig coffee brewer.  What a fun toy!  A toy that makes coffee/hot cocoa/tea, how good is that?

– Had my annual mammo today, and since I was close to the Mall of America, thought I would spend some time shopping.  I AM EXHAUSTED.  I guess it’s a sign of the times, but the mall was pretty low key for being two weeks before Christmas.

Well,  that’s all for now.  Pictures next time!

Sue

Friday my husband went to a luncheon with past co-workers, so I was home alone.  I decided to shower and dress so he could take me grocery shopping the second he got back.  I decided to catch him at the door before he could take his coat off, and it wouldn’t seem like a chore to him.  (I can drive with my bad wrist, but I can’t push a shopping cart.)

So I’m dressing myself:  pull-up elastic-waisted pants are still the order of the day; some kind of long-sleeved T-shirt, a fleece top, shoes and socks — and I’m good to go.  Not sooooo fastttttttt…

My ribs still hurt from my fall (I don’t think I blogged about that before, because the wrist hurt so much more.  Now that the wrist is getting better, the ribs hurt more.)  So for the first time in 45 years, no bra for me.  And when I go out, I always wear my wrist/arm splint, so it limits what I can wear for shirts.  Looking in my drawer (and surprise, surprise, I’m behind on laundry), the only T-shirt that doesn’t have cuffs is a pinky-mauve.  Okay.  My fleece shirt of the day is blue and red.  Well, nobody will see me at the store with my coat on, right?  Navy blue pull-on knit pants (pull-on is all I can manage right now), and I’m almost done.  Socks.  Low on socks.  Looking for a pair that is easy to pull on because socks are kind of tough to get on too.  The only pair that fits the bill is a pair of Halloween socks.  But wait, the lime-green cat with the crystal eyes will be under the pant leg.  If I don’t sit down . . . this is when it hit me.  A real aha moment.

“This is how it starts”.  Those ladies we’ve seen through the years with their knee-high stockings rolled down to their ankles, the ones with slips hanging unevenly below their hem lines, stripes with polka dots, colors together that were never meant to be?  It probably all started on a day when they were hurting or didn’t feel well.  Then the deep dark slide into a fashion-less abyss begins.  Oh, my God.  I felt myself teetering at the precipice.  I took the plunge and put on the Halloween socks.  I will never look at those ladies the same way again, because I am one.

Sue

I’m participating in Judy L’s Quiltathon this weekend, although in a somewhat limited way.  I only have a few hours available over the two days, plus I forgot that it takes me twice as long to do things with my injury.  It’s still fun to be getting something done though!

I just completed my first Church Ladies Apron, and I think it’s pretty cute.  Neat pattern, reversible, takes two one-yard cuts and thread.  One size fits most.  I guess I’m a “most”.

I have another apron cut out, and would like to make several more beyond that before Christmas.  These would be fun to make with holiday fabric on one side, neutral fabric on the other; or girly fabric on one side; manly fabric on the other, etc.  Now on to binding a couple of doll quilts.

Sue