Happy Birthday and Groundhog's Day

I must wish my sister-in-law a Happy Birthday (Groundhog's Day).  I forgot to give her a call. I was so busy cleaning house (ha, ha), doing laundry (really), and sewing that I didn't get to call her.  I know today she was going to be busy.  Maybe tomorrow, that is if I don't forget again.  Anyway, things around here are the same.  Nothing really new.  I lead such a boring life.  Well, this Wednesday us girls are getting together.  I'm told that we are going to go to the casino to celebrate the second youngest one's birthday that was at the end of January.  If course it's Senior Day so we should fit right in!
My niece did have her baby girl the last day of January.  Looking at her picture she is such a beautiful chubby baby and looks like her Mommy.
As I said earlier, I've been sewing up a storm so that I can get some of these scraps gone.  So far I've made 4 scrap quilts and I didn't even put a dent in the 5 containers.  This is the last one that I've been working on all week into the wee hours making the solid 12" blocks. The star block centers are 6" and they were a breeze. I finished up today putting it together.  I saw the pattern in Quiltmaker Mar/Apr 2013 Issue.  It's the one on the cover and is called Star Splitter.  Anyway it was done with a yellow background which I thought was horrible.  I liked the layout so I made it with a white background.  Everything is scraps.  Here's a picture minus the borders.  Right now it's 73"x 90".  It will fit either a king or queen when finished.

Close up of the blocks

Entire quilt

I can see my 2 featherweights just sitting there naked and gathering dust when I'm sewing.  I figured that I should get busy and make some 'blankets' for them. 

Naked and dusty.

Warm and clean.

 The Super Bowl is on right now and you can see how interested I am about it.  I don't like either of the teams playing and now is a good time to update my blog.  That's about it from here, till next time....................................

Quilts: done and in progress

Since I haven't posted in a month, I thought that I would give you a little update on what's going on here in Texas.  Christmas was excellent for the little kids.  Santa was very good to them.  I had to cancel Christmas dinner because of an ice storm and then some snow on top of that.  Son, Steve, had put in over 30 hours of work because of the weather.  (He works for American Airlines)  Part of his winter job is de-icing airplanes.  Anyway, Thursday after Christmas was our dinner.  I think everyone enjoyed it, at least I didn't hear any complaints!
I've been sewing alot just to help get rid of some scrap fabric that I have in 5 containers.  Nope, not even a dent.  So it will be keep on sewing.  I did go to Suzanne McNeill's moving sale a couple of weeks ago.  She had a warehouse in Fort Worth and was moving to Arlington.  I got more fabrics, some quilting books, and patterns.  Most of the fabric is Moda.  The prices were better than a garage sale.  I did good!!!!!  But I sure didn't NEED them all, just WANTED the stuff.

My haul from Suzanne McNeill's sale

The quilt tops are being made and put in a pile and then I will quilt them at a later date.  So far I have 2 completed, 1 needs a border, and 1 is just starting.

Completed top ( I might put a final border on it)

Completed Shadow Box  (squares are 6")

In progress  (little colored squares are 1 1/2")

 

Shadow box needs borders (squares are 9 1/2")

The purse that I showed in my last blog wasn't working out for me.  I didn't like the outside pockets.  I made another one with pockets on the inside for my glasses and cell phone.  I got the fabric at Rose Tree in Dallas where a group of us would get their throw away fabrics.  This is the last of this fabric that I had.
 

Purse  (size is approx 15"w x 8"h)

I think that I'm getting caught up on the news around here.  Oh, wait, this past week proved to me that I could not have lived in the early 1900s.  The 9 year old refrigerator decided that it was time to die.  It did.  We didn't get a repairman in until Friday and was told that it was time for the burial.  After 3 days with NO fridge, we went and bought a new one, which was delivered yesterday.  Hey, I'm back in the modern world now.  No going into the ice chest to get something. 

It's a beautiful Sunday in Texas.  The sun is shining bright, the birds are singing, and it's warm.  It's almost like Spring.

Catch up time

It's been almost a month since I last posted.  I've been a little busy with Christmas preparations.  Shopping has been done for quite awhile, it's the wrapping of the gifts that is going slow.  With only a week left, I better get busy on that!

 This year, Bill and I decided that we wanted to put up a very small tree.  By doing so, no going up in the attic to haul things down (only to put them all back up in a week or so).  We got a 3 foot table top tree this year.  By waiting to long to buy one, we ended up with a white one.  Okay, it will do.  Since we didn't get up in the attic, I didn't have a star to put on the top of the tree.  So Christy and I made one.  We took a cookie cutter and traced it and then 'decorated' it.  I keep saying it's the meaning of Christmas that counts and having a 7 year old to help me.

 Last Wednesday I got to spend a very enjoyable day with my girlfriends.  We had heard that our favorite quilt shop was going to close.  We took a ride over to see if it was still open.....  It was.  After shopping and talking, we left and went to lunch at the Olive Garden.  As usual, the food was outstanding.  During the talking phase, my one girlfriend asked if we had tried the Gingerbread Oreos.  She said that they were delicious (well not exactly but I don't have a picture of her happy smiley face as she described them).  Within a couple of days I bought myself a couple of packages since they are a 'limited edition'.  They are as good as stated.
 

 After lunch we went to Hobby Lobby and shopped around in there.  The only thing I can I say is we all had a very happy perfect day just being together.

I made myself a new purse.  I love it except I wouldn't put the pockets on the outside.  I have some black pleather that I may make another one without pockets.

 I'm also making a quilt.  I have the applique done and most of the blocks.  I have a choice, wrap gifts or sew.  I'll have to think on that one.

I have jury duty from Dec 28 to Jan 11.  How exciting :(  

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.