December and Final New FO

I'm so sad to say this is the final NEW FO linky party, after 3 years Barbara is calling it quits and there's nothing to say except Thank You Barbara for putting it together, I think we've all had a good time, met new people and enjoyed a chance to talk about what we started during the month. 

The FO party always made me feel like an overachiever, I'm a start to finish quilter, putting something aside even for a few days finds me bored with it and moving on to new, better and shinier "best quilts in the world". That's what I call most of my quilts. So, I find it a little ironic that for the last linky party I have lots of starts and only one finish.

This is my "Let's Book It" finish, when it ended up so different from the original plan I should have just locked the sewing room door, my brain went on vacation for December, this is what followed.

I trusted a fat quarter pack and put together a quilt which was hideous, the colors were awful, why is there always "that color" in a fabric line? this one had two. I had all of the rows together and had started sewing them together when David said the dreaded "It doesn't look like your usual quilts", that's code for "this quilt is hideous". So here's the quilt

I spent a full day cutting it apart and keeping the pretty ones, so now I have a whole stack of four inch squares, which I've laid out and played with but the brain is still on a beach some where, so no go. 

Then I made these for a fund raising quilt

But I didn't like the way it was turning out (probably the brown, I don't usually use brown), some of them became mug rugs and the rest are just sitting there whining. 

That led me to making another fund raiser quilt, which I've made before.

The blocks are made but, brain on beach=bored with making the same thing again, so now the dogs and cats are playing nicely together in a pile. 

Yesterday my brain lit up and came back on line (yes, I'm a geek).
I spent the day making HST's from the cut up quilt blocks, it just needed some white to cut down on the relentless color in them.

I'm still not using the ugly colors, can't find them, may have trashed them, LOL.

Now with the brain back I've got so many ideas and quilts to make. I woke up this morning and added another. Years ago my daughter handed me a garbage bag full of her t-shirts from her sorority and asked for a quilt, I said "yea, O.K." and threw the bag in the back of the closet. The "sisters" all get together a few times a year and they just decided they need a traditional spring break, traditional meaning Ft. Lauderdale which is where Cori lives. Cori offered her house for anyone that wanted to stay there and they all accepted, 7 woman at last count will be in her tiny house, but what a great time to have that quilt done, right? David of course, asked what I'm going to do when they all want one, but we'll cross that bridge (probably jump off it) when we come to it. 

So there it is, the final New FO. Normally I encourage you to jump in, now's the time if you've been thinking about it. Again, Thank You Barbara for giving us these years of fun. 

Happy New Year Everyone,
Dana

Let's Book It Dec. 2014

The final Let's Book It for 2014 is in full swing over at Vroomans Quilts blog. Sharon's genius idea is to pick a pattern you already have, make a quilt that you wanted to make, in any colors you want then link up, what's not to love. It's had me digging through the stacks of magazines that I bought when I first started quilting. Getting rid of old magazines makes more room for fabric, again, what's not to love. 

I started here

I can't resist Star Quilts

I picked this one

After pulling the lime and white I pulled a dark teal that was a mistake when I was dying fabric, then I took a sharp turn and ended up here

Nothing like the pattern, even looking at patterns as suggestions, this one went way off course and it backfired, when I looked at the pattern again I think those sun looking blocks would look great in yellows and oranges, while the smaller stars can be all different colors, so I'm not donating this magazine yet. :)

I'm so happy to say, Let's Book It is continuing into 2015, so if you haven't jumped in yet there's still time, really I know you have books, magazines, or patterns that you bought to make something, so blow off the dust and get started.

Later Gators,

Dana

Merry Christmas

Santa Ray a very real Santa

Just popping in to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas or ____ fill in the blank with your smile making, makes you dance and sing holiday. The one that brings family together, even if it's only in your dreams. 

A lot of you know Christmas is a crazy time for me, a couple of years ago I sent this Christmas card out

We've merged with another charity and I've handed off the reins, it makes me sad that Ray's Kids no longer exists, but they have better funding and although I'm very much involved, I can breath and bake cookies. 

Did I say Cookies? Here's what's filling my kitchen right now

Yep, homemade dog biscuits for all of the terrible twin's friends and dozens of them go into these bags

My friend Darlene made these labels a while back and we donate them to the local shelters full of those delicious (that's what the twins say) pumpkin cookies. Those labels are one of my favorite things :)

We've also made a bunch of these

They hold empty water bottles and the dogs go crazy for them, when the bottle loses it's crackle they can be untied and refilled. 

Speaking of the twins

NAUGHTY, I think I'm being punished for being gone so much. It's been cold here and Maya gets in touch with her "inner wolf" when it's cold. (don't look up the temperature you'll just call me a wimp and make fun of me)  

NICE, so happy to see Mom he just wants to cuddle.

Did you see what Freda made, click the link and check it out. That sent me running up the road to Michael's, if mine turns out I'll show you, if not....we will never speak of this again. 

David and I gave ourselves an early Christmas present and went to spend some time with these people.

If you're a fan of Fleetwood Mac, you know that Christine has come back after a 16 year absence, we had to make the pilgrimage. Christine's "Songbird" was our wedding song and the concert ended with just her, a grand piano and "Songbird" :) Perfect!

One last thing, the morning after the concert I felt hungover even though all I drank was tea and water, which led to the revelation that in my youth, sitting on the beach watching the sun rise, it was the sun rise that caused the hangover not the bottle of tequila in my hand, huh. 

Wishing you the best of everything. 

Dana  

New FO for November

Seat belts on, it's Dec. 1 and we're all in that downward slide towards the end of the year. I know we all say "what happened to Nov.", but December only lasts about two weeks or feels like it, lets be safe out there. 

The end of the month means it's time for the New FO linky party over at Cat Patches, a chance to show off what we did for the month. 

Remember the train Christmas tree skirt I showed you last month? I had such a good time with that one I made another using Designs by Juju's North Pole Village designs.

Each one of those little buildings takes over an hour to sew and the first rule of machine embroidery is never walk away, if you do machine embroidery you know what I'm talking about.

So while the Princess (embroidery machine) sewed I put together a couple of quick and easy quilts.

If I made this one again I would add a thin wavy blue applique under the boat.

This one is sweet and simple and uses some of my favorite beautiful fabric that I would normally hoard. 

This one is my "Let's Book It" project for November, I made it before the tree skirt, otherwise I would never have gotten it done.

If you have been considering joining the New FO linky party do it now, Barbara has announced that it is ending in December so you have two more chances to join in the fun.  

For those of you who know that I'm Batman, I have very little to report, we came across a cable wire down that stretched across the entire street, so we saved some poor soul from wondering why he had no T.V, although I did have fun running and jumping over it, then telling my friend it was electrical and she needed to do the same. I couldn't get my phone out fast enough to catch a picture, her husband would have paid big bucks for that. 

And we've had a lot of reports of a nine foot crocodile on our walking route, he's been spotted by quite a few people, but mostly at night sleeping in the road, he must be cold, poor thing. Please remember our crocodiles are the sweet and cuddly ones, protected and more afraid of us or so we're told. The running and jumping will come in handy if we spot him, so I was really just training my friend. She's already lectured me on not stopping and making friends with it like I do with all of the dogs and cats. No worries, I don't believe the sweet and cuddly part. 

Later Gators (or crocs)

Dana