Happy New Year!

I did a lot of stuff this year. I think I completed 10 quilts. I have two that I have not posted the photos of yet; I need to get them off my camera.  I had surgery on my foot, took a short vacation to Seattle last August, one trip up the river last summer, went wading in Big Rattlesnake Creek, ate watermelon, cleared a few things out of the house, painted the dining room wall, took on a kitty sitting job for six to seven months, took a few barn photos and a couple train photos in the snow.  For Christmas, I got a new sewing chair! I am making a commitment to get at least four UFO's completed in 2015.  Happy New Year!

This one was coming into the Nampa yard last Sunday.

Rustic Crazy Snowmen Wallhanging!

Someone wants to know why I made so many bags in 2014.  Between the big quilt projects, I like to do quick and easy projects to get that instant gratification.  There is no instant gratification in making quilts.  It is exciting to shop for fabric, to choose out of your stash which fabrics go together, getting the top all pieced, and then when it is done, but it takes awhile to get through the entire process.  I think that is what turns a lot of people off to quilting. It takes a lot of time, but the end result is fabulous!  I love it.  I have finished my rustic snowman wallhanging! Yeah.  These can also be rather instant gratification projects, if you get down and stay with it for a week.  This one is 20' X 20' and is hanging on a stick, as described in a post I did last July 25, 2014.  I think I put more red into it than I thought, but I love it!

The one on the upper right's name is Curly Joe.

The Year in Bags

I have mailed out all my Christmas greetings and have everything I need to make some most excellent fudge.  We've cleaned out a few things, rearranged a tad, and bought a couple new things.  This year I made snack bags for a number of folks including all the ladies in the Cloverdale Ladies Society.  Below are photos of all the bags I made this year (and a couple of pillow cases, thrown in for good measure).  I made ten bags. Some of them got a little out of hand on the size for snack bags . . .you could get a full sized bag of Doritos in a couple of these bags!  The second photo down shows both sides of the same bag; the one I made for Elverta.  You can see the Laurel Birch elephants on one side of that bag and Laurel Birch kitties on the other side.  It was an excellent year for making bags!

All the Cute Laurel Birch Elephants

All the cute Laurel Birch elephants are on the back of this baby quilt now.  This view is of the new front, which was formerly the back of the quilt. The new name of the quilt is: Modern Baby Quilt.

The moral is: Always look carefully at your Friction Pen, to make sure it is really a Friction Pen and not a Bic permanent marker, or your elephants and borders will have permanent blue lines on them.

Knotty Quilters November Retreat

This is how it looked outside my house on the first day (Nov 14) I traveled to the retreat in Eagle, Idaho. That's my lavender garden covered in snow.

I left around 10:30 a.m. and got there at 11:30, in time to save the two, who had made it before me, from sure starvation.  We had a fine little lunch and then Mary took a nap on the couch and I took a snooze in the chair in front of the stove, while Marsha took photos of us sleeping.  Around 1:30 I started cutting flannel to make a flannel rag quilt.  Others arrived later in the day and more joined us on Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday morning, Colette and I both had our rag quilts finished! Then we all worked on car blocks for a group wall hanging project.

Colette made the Spidey quilt, on the left, for her son.
I made the Autumn Kitty quilt, on the right, just for fun!

My angry monster robot, on the left, morphed into a "Friends fur ever" puppy mobile.

We Lose Friends.

My good friend, Betty Finnegan, passed away suddenly last Sunday, November 16.  I've never had a close friend die before. It is hard to think that anything is worthwhile, when you lose someone forever.  Those of us who knew her are very fortunate to have wonderful memories of her.  Memories are magical things.

Inspiration from one another (snowmen!)

     Being around other quilters and doing things with other quilters causes a chain of creative events that are immeasurable.  I have a friend that I like to do things with, and we are both quilters. I was out of my favorite strawberry rhubarb jam, that can only be obtained at Cliff's Country Market in Caldwell.  Also, I needed to pick-up a gluten free apple pie.  Cliff's has the best, no. 1, gluten free apple pie in their frozen GF section. 
     We drove over to Cliff's and got yummy things.  Then I thought why not stop in a quilt shop while we are in the neighborhood?  We did.  She behaved, but I had to buy some fabric.  While we were there, another quilter came in and was asking advice on a small quilt she was working on.  I loved it!  It was delightful and simple in design.  My friend and I, headed for the nearest best Mexican restaurant, where we drew the design out on a hastily found piece of scrap paper. 
     A few weeks later, my same friend and I planned a trip to Weiser to visit Judy Ann's Quilt Shop.  What fun we had.  Her niece was running the store, when we got there, at 3:00 in the afternoon.  Such nice fabrics, most of which we had not seen down in the valley.  I spent all my mad money!  I got two different snowflake fabrics.  I found some awesome 50's car hop fabric, and I bought enough to make the front and back of a quilt for my cousin.  Such a nice time we had.
     That evening I took out that piece of scrap paper and went through my fru-fru quilting fabric and scraps and pieced that entire wall hanging.  It took me Monday and Tuesday evenings to sew on the snow man faces; five of them. I got the "Fru-fru Snowmen" wall hanging completely quilted and bound by Friday evening, November 7. 
     Yesterday, I surprised my friend with this darling snowman wall hanging at our "Cindy's Retreat" yesterday afternoon.  I am getting ready to head back there in a few minutes.  I, and even my mother, think it turned out well, even though I used the non-winter fabrics on it.  I sewed the binding on the backside, then turned it to the front and machine stitched it in place with a snowflake stitch!

This is so cheery!