NEW BOM, A FINISH AND DESIGN WALL

When I saw Barbara Brackman's new BOM, I had to join in.  It's only one block per month!  And she is adding lots of history about wagon trains going west - one of my favorite topics.  I love to read about the "Westering Women!"  Here is the first block.

Independence Square

I showed this quilt in December when it was just a top.  Now it's finished and will be donated to a child in the hospital.  I am demonstrating how to make the ten minute block at my guild today and this is the sample to show how it looks when put together,

When I was looking for backing I cam across this "cat" fabric in my closet.  The colors were perfect, but it wasn't quite enough.  That was easily fixed by surrounding it with this coral colored fabric.  I probably got the cat fabric at a garage sale.  The fabrics for the top of the quilt were from Good Will.

It was fun quilting the top with the squiggly lines.  Some of the quilting thread was variegated.  The purple shows up at dark blue in the photo.  I didn't really put 3 squares of blue together.

In September I participated in a "bow tie" block exchange and had been trying to decide how to use them.  Yesterday I saw the eagle block (found at a garage sale as well a few years ago) in my closet and when I put it up on my design wall with some of the bow tie blocks, I knew it was what I wanted.  It has to fit on a particular quilt hanger which is 29" wide and with 7 blocks across it comes to 28".  It's not all sewn together yet, but that shouldn't take long.  It will be nice to have another patriotic wall hanging for July 4th!

Have a great quilty week!

CHRISTMAS TRADITION

I think I've had this wooden Christmas tree from Norway for about 50 years and it holds 9 candles - the Angel Chime size.  This year I was determined to find candles for it, because when we moved, and put all our belongings into storage in Texas, I didn't save any candles because they would have just all melted in the heat.  Therefore, I didn't have any of the candles when we came to Oregon.  So, I went looking all over town looking for Angel Chime candles - Walgreens, Walmart, Winco, Dollar Tree, Good Will, Albertsons.  I asked a girl working at Albertsons if they had a Jewish section with menorah candles (the lady at Walmart suggested that they might work).  They didn't, but she offered to check with another Albertsons store to see if they did.  Guess what!  They did!  They are a little fatter than the other candles, so we pared down the bottoms to fit in the holders.

The tradition we have is that we light all of them for our Christmas Eve supper.  I am descended from Norwegian immigrants and growing up we also enjoyed the home made lefse that my aunt or grandma made.  I made some on Saturday and put it in the freezer - after testing it to make sure it was good!  Yummy!

Notice beside the tree are my 2 Christmas S&P shakers - gingerbread houses and Mr. & Mrs. Santa.

I got the ten minute block table runner quilted and bound this weekend.

I can't show the other Christmas gifts I've made, but I can show these mug rugs that I made for the girlfriends of a couple of my DIL's nephews who will be coming by their house on Christmas Day.  One is in nursing school and the other is already an RN.  I had some of this medical fabric on hand and made these so I would have a little gift for them.

Saturday, I went to a thrift shop looking for a kitchen item and found these two porcelain dolls for a good price.  As you can see, one of them has a crocheted dress as well that needs buttons in back.  The other one needs re-stringing and some clothes.  The one in the dress can stand up.  They were made in 1980 and are in perfect condition.  I think I might make some clothes for them and might try to sell them in my Easy shop.  Don't they have sweet faces?

Thanks to all for your many comments over the year and for so many wonderful posts about quilting and other things.  I have enjoyed my blogging adventures over the last about 7 years and look forward to many more!  Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!  

TEN MINUTE BLOCK

I've made this block before and when lived in Texas my guild had a workshop to make donation quilts out of this block.  So, now that I'm in Oregon, I offered to demonstrate how to make the block in my guild here.  In February, I will be doing that, so I decided I needed to make a couple samples to show them.

The first one is a table runner made out of a charm pack.  It is super easy and with a charm pack, I didn't even need to cut any fabric!  This charm pack had been in the bottom drawer long enough, and the fabric is lovely - Hemming House by Bannock & Patek for Moda.  It took less about an hour to put this top together.

This next top will be a donation quilt, as the guild I belong to donates to a few different places, a hospital, for one.  I cut all the pieces for this to 8" and each block finishes at 15",  so it is 45" square.  

I will quilt these before the demo and have sample blocks in various degrees of progress to show how it is done.

On my daily walk, I pass this tree, which always amazes me because of its size and the covering of moss.   I wonder how old it is.

I think I have finished all my Christmas sewing and the shopping is almost done.  I have some cookies and appetizers in the freezer already and more to make.  My sister will be visiting after Christmas!  How are your preparations going?