Time sure flies when you're quilting!

I have been busy, busy, busy hand quilting a quilt for my daughter.

I'm quilting in the ditch around each star, log cabin strip, pinwheel, etc.   So it's taking me longer than I had anticipated.   But she will love it when she finally gets it!  She has seen it in person and liked it.

I read on The Old Tattered Flag blog about resolutions....I have a better name for it....my bucket list for 2016!  LOL!   She mentioned diets, exercise, that sort of thing.   Well, each year I make a list of projects I want to complete, that I want to start, and then some.   I write it down.   This past year it actually helped me stay on track and I did manage to get quite a few things completed on my list.   But quilting, cross stitching, punch needle, rug hooking are like shiny objects to me.  I swear I'm not going to start another project until the current one is finished.   Then I see people's posts on facebook of their quilts or rugs or cross stitch or cute little bunny punch needle and adorable little punch needle hearts and I want to stop what I'm doing and make those.   I've been strong so far and haven't given in to the urge to do something other than the quilt I'm working on.  But it's hard!  Plus I see those things and think, "oh, I could do those up quickly" forgetting that I'm not as fast at cross stitch or punch needle as I'd like to think I am!  And then there's rug hooking....I haven't picked up my hook since last April when I attended a rug hook in.   What the heck!?!?   Then I see my friend's blog Rugs and Pugs and see all that she has hooked and think, I should set my frame up in my craft room and even if I can only hook here and there a little bit each day or every other day I just might get a rug hooked!   

I've also been babysitting my grandson and two great granddaughters so my daughter can go to her son's wrestling tournaments.   They are ages 5, 4, and 1year.   I didn't think I'd be so tired after they left.   I've only watched them once so far but will be watching them next weekend.  

Sorry there aren't more pictures.  I will post pictures of the completed quilt when it's finished.   And I just might post my "bucket list for 2016"...oh wait!   Part of my bucket list is to actually make the bucket list for this year!   So maybe now I have the incentive to at least make the list!  LOL!

Take care - have a great weekend.  

Thanks for popping in to see what I've been up to!

Char

Christmas is over and we quickly approaching a new year....

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with my children (John and Ginger).   Between the two of them they have 8 children (my daughter has six of the eight).   My son's daughter, Brooke, lives in Tampa, Florida and was not able to make it.   My stepdaughter who lives close by was not able to make due to daughter being with her dad Christmas Eve so the two of them came over this past Sunday.

The grandkids were on good behavior Christmas Eve with the threat of Santa not coming looming all around them if they dared to act out!  LOL!  Oh, heck, who am I kidding - they were wound up to beat the band.   The 5 year old (Dominic) and his cousin (Liam) who just turned 7 had a blast seeing who could talk (yell) the loudest!   Then Dominic's niece (Juleigha) who is 4 just sat very daintily observing it all until after presents were opened and then she gave them a run for their money.   The baby (also Dominic's niece) who just turned a year old December 6 (Mariah) was the life of the party!   Everyone enjoyed the food.   My daughter-in-law, Michelle, and my daughter, Ginger, cleaned up the kitchen and washed and dried dishes.  Yay me!   They all left around 7:30 which was somewhat of a relief to hubby and I as we had been battling colds all week.

Then on Saturday, December 26 we celebrated Mariah's birthday.   Which was hilarious!   So I'm posting some pictures below of Christmas and the birthday girl!

These are the Christmas gifts I made for family and friends this year.  They weren't very hard to make - just time consuming but it gave me something mindless to do while watching tv.

This is a gift I  stitched for my nephew who lives in Tennessee.

This is a gift I stitched for my niece who lives in Mississippi.

 This is a quilt I made from my grandson, Liam.   I had made his dad a quilt a few years back using the guitar fabric and musical notes that I binded Liam's with and Liam tried to take ownership of it.  Now he has his own - not exactly like dad's but using some of the same fabric.   He was a happy camper.

The quilt I made for Dominic.   He said it was so soft.  :)

 Miss Juleigha Renee.   She is our 4  year old great granddaughter.   Her hair was longer at one time but one afternoon she decided she wanted it short, went into her Grammy's bedroom, found the scissors and cut all her hair this short.  Lucky for her, Aunt TM (Toni Marie) is a hair stylist and cleaned it up for her.  She's such a little cutie pie!

 Uncle Dominic and Juleigha.   He's a wild thing and if I try to give him "the look" the little stinker just gives it right back to me.   It's so hard to not laugh when I'm trying to get him to stop doing something and he gives the look right back.

 This Uncle Dominic, Juleigha, and Uncle Ryan (Ry Ry aka stunt double).   To get somewhat of a smile from Ryan is a major accomplishment!

From left to right....my son-in-law, Tony; my daughter, Ginger; great granddaughter, Mariah; granddaughter, Toni Marie; her boyfriend, Tristian.

 Dominic and his big brother, Andrew.  My hubby and granddaughter, Karley, in the background giving them bunny ears.

 My granddaughter, Karley, with her precious baby, Mariah.  Those tights Mariah has on made it look like she had black shoes on.   So cute.

 Dominic, cousin, Liam, and niece Juleigha (my daughter in the background).

 Little Miss Mariah was infatuated by her cousin Liam and just followed him around and would stand and stare at him.  Then she started hitting him, cocking her head to the side and smiling at him.  She's already a big flirt!

 Liam with his quilt.

 Dominic peeking over his quilt.

Mariah hugging her educational doggie.


Picture of Mariah in her birthday dress.   She looked like a real life baby doll.   But she was not too happy being all fru fru'd up!   She was much happier once her momma took her out of her dress.   Ordinarily she's all smiles.   She's a happy little baby but has no fear.   Her daddy got her an age appropriate riding toy and the little stinker stands on it!







And here is the birthday girl, Mariah, with her cousin, Juleigha and my hubby, Paw Paw.



So now it's time to clean up my craft room so I can get started on a quilt for our guild quilt show in October. Time to make a list of projects (quilts, stitching, punch needles, rugs, Christmas gifts I want to make or finish in 2016) so I can stay on track.  I did that in 2015 and did a pretty good job of getting things done!

Thanks for stopping by.   Hope you leave a comment or two.

Happy New Year!
Char

Happy Thanksgiving!

For all of you that celebrate Thanksgiving - I hope you have a wonderful day, enjoy your time with friends and family.   If you have to travel or have family that travel I hope they have a safe trip.   To those of you who don't celebrate Thanksgiving - I still wish you a wonderful day!

Here in Ohio it's 60 degrees and just beautiful out.   We will not celebrate our Thanksgiving with my family until Saturday.   However, we are going to my daughter's house tomorrow for dinner.   My cousin, her children and her brother (also my cousin) will be here tomorrow evening to visit their big family in Vermilion.   Then they'll come here and spend time with my family before they have to head back home to Tennessee.

I have finished quilting one of the quilts I'm giving as a gift this Christmas.  Just have to finish the other one.   I still have two more to do but they'll probably be given after Christmas....there are only so many hours in a day ya know!  :)    I have also finished the Christmas gifts that I make.  Yay me!

So hubby and I have cleaned downstairs, put the tables and chairs up.   Now we're going to eat some lunch, then I'll do my baking for Saturday.

Today I am grateful for the many friends I have "met" on facebook and on blogs.   You are what keeps me motivated to make my quilts, hook my rugs, punch needle and cross stitch.   You all give such good tips and good advice.   You're all just awesome!

Thanks for stopping by!

Char

Oh my! It's NOVEMBER already!!!

Where has the time gone!?!?  

I've been busy making Christmas gifts (sorry no pictures until after Christmas on those), busy hand quilting some smaller quilts, and playing with my new Ipad.   I have no idea what all it does but I've been playing around with it trying to learn all the quirks and features.  

And as if that wasn't enough I decided to purchase Apple TV which is a streaming device to be able to watch Netflix and Hulu - those types of things.   I bought it for two reasons 1) everyone said super easy to install...NOT and 2) I'm sick and tired of paying a huge bill every month for cable or satellite and still watching reruns of reruns.    My goal is to eventually stop the cable or satellite, get antennae tv to watch local channels and Netflix and Hulu for every thing else.    We'll see how that goes.

So the saga of the installation....   I came home, read the instruction book page by page, got my Ipad and looked up how to install Apple TV, watched the video on You Tube and thought I was ready to install.   I plug it in, then had to figure out how to get to the HDMI port once I turned my tv on.   Got that figured out.  So I used my little apple tv remote to install....   everything came up French!!!!  I don't speak or read French.   So my friend called and walked me thru where to find language and I found English.   Cool!   Next I ended my Wi-fi password....not able to find Wi Fi....   So after 3 hours I quit for the day.   Next day I tried again - still unable to read my wi-fi.   So I called Apple Tech support - very friendly, very helpful but couldn't help because it was my wi fi speed - to slow.   So I called the phone company explained my problem and they did a few things and then said, "so sorry but you're going to have call our loyalty department and have them upgrade your wi fi speed - if we do it, it will mess up your phone and they're not in on Sundays."    So finally Tuesday afternoon I was home long enough to have them upgrade the wi fi speed and make a few other changes.    Then Wednesday I was brave enough to attempt installing Apple TV again and VOILA! (oh maybe I do know some French...or is that Spanish...whatever...LOL!) it worked!   Yay!

So, no pictures to post this time but just thought I'd pop in and say "Hey!".   I've been stalking your blogs and you all have such lovely fall displays!   Once of these day's I'll get there too!

Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by.   I hope you have a great week!

Char

Yep, I'm up super late!

Sadly it's because I just came home from the hospital.  I took my hubby there around 8:00 p.m. with atrial fib.  They were able to get him in normal rhythm fairly quickly but as with all heart issues, they decided to admit him.   Hopefully he'll get discharged some time tomorrow.   He has had this problem off and on for 15  years and has had two ablations.   It might be time for a medication change.

Meanwhile....   in my August 12, 2015 post I posted a picture of pieces of fabric.  Well.... here is that it turned out to be!

 It has lots of pockets and zippers inside and out!

 This is the pattern.

And last but not least is a picture of my great-granddaughter, Mariah.   She is 8 months old - well, soon to be 9 months old.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Char

So, this is part of what I've been up to....

Hmmm....pieces of this and pieces of that....oh what will it be?   Stay tuned for the series final...  :)

This is a quilt top that I've made for my daughter.   She loves purple and many, many years ago - like 10 or more - I bought this fabric with her in mind and began searching for a pattern that would look good with the variety of greens and purples and had no luck.   Then last December or January I got one of my McCall's magazines and it had a six part series of a quilt called Cottage Romance.   It used lots of floral fabrics but in reds and pinks.   Then I had an "Aha!" moment and realized I could make it using the above fabric.   But I knew I didn't want to make the whole quilt - I just wanted to make a lap size so I did the first three parts of the pattern and added a border.   The size is about 55 x 55.   Now I just need to hand quilt it, bind it, wash it and give it to my daughter.   I really struggled with those pinwheel blocks but after much ripping and cutting new fabric and re sewing and ripping and cutting new fabric I finally am satisfied with them.   The sad news...I still have a ton of the purple floral fabric and some of the greens left so I'm going to make a rag wreath for their bedroom wall.

Couldn't remember if I'd posted a picture of my spring rag wreath.   I have butterflies to glue on the lighter part.   But meanwhile I have a patriotic rag wreath hanging where this one was.  But just realized I don't have a picture of it so I'll need to take one and post the picture of that.   I plan to make one for the fall and then a Christmasy one.

I've also finished a Lorain Lighthouse just need to frame it and am working on another small cross stitch that I've almost finished.   I can't show pics of that because it's a gift.   And I'm working on a punchneedle project and of course, can't forget my slow, painful progress on the Jane Harris sampler.

And last but not least....   I bought a new car today.   I've been researching and pricing and checking Kelley Blue Book for the value of my old car (2008 Mercury Sable with 114,000 miles on it).   Then decided how much I could afford for a monthly payment and then went to the dealership.   I hate buying cars and always get so tense.   Well, this was effortless and I ended up paying $8.00 more per month than I had originally planned but I can live with that.  I bought a 2016 Ford Fusion in Ruby Red.   Here it is....

Thanks for stopping by!   I'm going to try to get better about posting pictures and just updates on what I've been up to....  Hahahahaha!   Like I said - I'll try!   It just takes so darn long to upload these pictures and it seems I'm always in a hurry.   LOL!

Char

Where oh where has the time gone!?!?

My goodness!  I can't believe I haven't posted since February!!!!!!    I thought when I retired I'd have more time to get my crafting done.   Well, I probably do have more time but I also seem to procrastinate more!  LOL!    I have been busy and will post pictures but thought I'd better pop in here and let you all know that I'm still around!

Thanks for stopping by!   Stay tuned for pictures!