Not our typical Christmas

Well Hello Friends from Sunny Florida! Well kind of overcast this morning, but NOT snowy so I will take it!

Back

It is hard to believe that our two weeks is almost up! We have had such a great time! Uncle Timmy has been such a great host and so wonderful to take the four of us in! We have packed a LOT into this time down here!


Front

I finished up a quilt and gave it to my Niece Natalie for Christmas! I worked on the binding on the flight here and on the drive down to Key West!

our view from our room!!

My Fam!

We Drove down to Key west for the weekend! Drove over the Seven Mile Bridge! And visited the Southern most point of our United States!
We rode on a hover thingy I the Everglades and drove down Alligator Alley and saw a BAJILLION alligators!!!

Uncle Timmy and Lil

Darien and Natalie

Uncle Timmy and the kids made gingerbread houses!







We celebrated Christmas in true Timmy fashion! We watched the Family Guy Star Wars trilogy, Darien, Timmy, and Honeyman played a Star Wars fantasy something or another game, then we watched Star Wars I, II, & III! Yes we are in that kind of home! LOL

 

We also went to Bush gardens and rode coasters and Lil had the high light of her vacation when she got to meet this guy...

Just look at the sheer joy!
 

 

Oh he knew he was making this kids day, too! He was playing it up! It did my heart good!

 

We also visited MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) And are planning Lego Land for today!

 

WOW that is a LOT! I'm glad when we get back I have a few days to recover from this vacation! But really, it has been such a wonderful trip! We did not exchange gifts, the time together WAS our gift! I just hope our children see it as such!

 

We fly out on Monday! I do so hope Allegiant does not mess up our return flight... Oh, I forgot to mention our flight here was SUPPOSED to be at 4:00! It got moved back to 5:15... and then to 8:30!!! That is a late flight and they had no other options! Since booking we have heard from several friends who have also had HORRIBLE experiences with them! I will not fly with them again!!

Sorry, done with rant! LOL

 

I'm off to start my day!

 Have a great one friends!

And QUILT ON!!

Josie

Celtic Solstice Part 1

Oh, I did it! I started! Normally I like to wait till the end of a QAL to start. I like to change up the colours, I like to make it my own and sometimes I like to do mulitiple steps at once! Especially when I'm working on. One that is as labor intensive as a Bonnie Hunter QAL! But thins time...
Well I have step one finished all but triming up the last dozen or so. I know, week 2 has already been posted, but I went and wrecked up my back and spent all day Sunday druged up and lying on a heating pad! So I am trying to take it slow and let it heal up.
One more week and we will be out of here for 2 weeks! Let's cross our fingers for good flying weather!
Have a great day friends
See you soon
Till then, quilt on!
Josie

November wrap up

Sheesh! I feel like I'm so far behind! But what else is new! LOL
OK SO I was last working on my Rainbow round! I only had the binding to go!! And my FAVORITE is a good striped bias binding! So I went with Purple!! SQUEAL! This quilt SCREAMS me! It is bright and has lots of red and purple! I am psyched I can put it on the DONE list!

Also on the done list are Sunshine's Quillow AND Terra's Quillow!
I do feel bad because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to get the other 2 done before we leave for vacation! OOPS! But Sean loves me! He will forgive!

Close up of quilting!

Back

Terra's front

I took pictures at night and had a difficult time getting a good one. The top is the best representation of colour. I do love this one and hope Terra does as well!

Sunshine's DONE!

I also finished Sunshine's, but had to go with the flow! I didn'[t buy enough white (and it is a white on white) and when I went back to the store they didn't have any more! SO I decided to make the center bottom black! I think it works! And like me it is something UNEXPECTED!! LOL
Those are the only updates to my WIP list! I don't think 2 started and finished in one month is bad! LOL I'm pretty sure because we will be gone for almost 2 weeks in December that I probably will NOT have such a productive month! But one NEVER knows!!

Have a great day!
See you soon!
Till then...
Quilt on friends!!
Josie

Sunshine's Quillow Started

I have begun Sunshine's Quillow! I guess I have to back up a step! When my baby Brother was home for my Dad's triple bypass he saw Lillian's quillow and asked if I could make one for each of his girls! There is his girlfriend Sunshine (yes, her real name not a nickname) and her three daughters Terra, Desiray, and Karina. Of course I said yes, because any time someone wants to buy me fabric to do work I'm all in!! He asked each one what their favorite colours were and HE chose what patterns to use for their quillow, OK I may have given him a little direction and guided him toward some of the patterns!

Ruler is TO small!!

9 'sunshines!

OK So Sunshine's birthday is the end of November (two days after Sean's) so he wanted hers done first. No problem! I have NEVER used a Dresden ruler and did not own one and since we were going for 'sunshines' well Dresden it was!! My only problem was I wanted the 'blades' to be about 12 inches and the only ruler I could find was only 8 inches. Well, I made it work because that's the kind of gal I am!!!
I have all of the fans (or in this case suns) finished and am planning to get the 9 blocks quilted up today. I am going to to the QAYG method to join them like I did for Lillian's!

LOOK it is a sun!!!

I just LOVE how simple the quilting is and LOOK on the back it gives the appearance of a sun!! I know I am such a geek! But I own it!! LOL

Quilting on the front

 Sean also requested that instead of just putting her name on it I do 'You are my Sunshine'! Well I am just the bestest sister in the whole wide world so you know I did!!!
OK friends! I have 9 more of these to get done!!
Have a great day!
See you soon!
Till then...
Quilt on friends!!
Josie

An update on work for the month!!

The beginning of the month I took FOUR days off! All to myself!! it was our Guild retreat weekend and I planned on getting a few finishes!!

I finished up this guy and it is bound and DONE!! This was the Modern Orange/brown/green. I took a little time to try out different stitches in the squares and used this as sort of a 'practice' in FMQ!  All in all I think it turned out great and with any luck I will give it away this weekend! Shhhh don't tell! It's a basement warming surprise!! The colours are not really me, but they will fit her basement PERFECTLY!!!

Next up I got ring around the rainbow all quilted

Close up of quilting

Ring around the rainbow

 I think I decided I am going to bind in a deep purple to really 'frame' it up! I LOVE this quilt! It is bright and ME!! I hope to get it finished soon, I already know what I am going to do with it! EEK!

Quillow front

Friends it is true! I started a new project! I blame it on my cousin (she's my favorite but it is still her fault) Courtney! See when we went on a trip together this summer she brought along a quillow that our Aunt had made for her and it got me thinking... Crap here I go again! I am not really a fan of tie quilts so I decided to to a quilt as you go method (this was a first!) and I let Lillian choose the fabrics! She LOVES Yellow!! I personalized it with her name!! I do still have to bind this, but it is DONE other than binding!!

Packed up Quillow for my Daughter

Quillow back

Now to top it off my brother came home (my father had triple bypass surgery) and when Sean saw the quillow he enlisted me to make one for each of his four girls!!! SO I have to add those to my list of things to do!! 

Is there anything more beautiful??

I also spend a minute or two sitting by my father who also suffered a small stroke following surgery and I love to bind and often take charity tie quilts from guild to work on. I bound and tied three of them and was very thankful for the hand work to pass time by!!

I just love the stack of finished quilts (even if they are not my own!) 

So to update my prior list of ELEVEN tops...

No change to ...

-Impromptu 
-Bento Box
-Honeyman's Swoon
-Star Surround
-Halloween QuiltUberFest (and the back is pieced and ready to go!)
-Easy Street

-Brown Blocks
-Luke's Shirts
Top in progress...
-Medallion Star

Basted and ready to go...

-Twisted Sister

To be bound...
-Rainbow Round

-Lillian's Quillow

DONE

-Modern Orange/brown/green

Recently added to I HAVE to do...

-Sunshine's Quillow
-Terra's Quillow
-Desiray's Quillow
-Katrina's Quillow
Well, I have my hands full! I think I need to take another four day weekend just to get some of these done! LOL
It was really nice to get the two quilted and another basted and ready! 
OK friends, I'm off... what to work on today???
Have a great day and see you soon!
Till then...
Quilt on friends,
Josie

Lets talk quilt math!

I have to kick myself in the bottom!! We all know that 2+2 =3 (quilt math friends!!) So why in the world did I keep adding them up and coming up with 2... I will never know!

See the laser!! 

64 pinwheels!

The other day I made pinwheels! LOTS of pinwheels! I made them an inch and a half smaller than they needed to be to get me to where I wanted to be! OK I guess I can go back and make MORE! I am pretty much winging this quilt! Letting it flow and seeing what happens!
 Have to say... I LOVE some of the features on my new machine! On of them that I like to use is the laser guide! When doing HST I draw only one line down the middle of them, set the laser for a scant 1/4 inch and let it guide me! LOVE!!!

2 more rows added on!!

OK so I got off my rocker there for a minute! So after I realized that one of my planned rows was WAY to short I decided to come back to it later! Oh, I know I'm going to make 4 squares... and I made WAY to many of them! (back to the beginning there!! 2+2!!!)
Well I GUESS I could have
1) scrapped a few... OR
2)  come up with another row to go in between!!
YUP!! I'm going to go with option #2!!
I drew up a template for the triangles (because I needed them to be 3 7/8 inches! I know I know make fun of a gal!!) and away I went!
Last night I officially ran out of Kona black so today I will have to make a run to the store before I can continue on!
I spent the better part of last night (hold your hats friends) Getting applique ready for this quilt!! YUP!! The next row is not going to be near as quick! I decided I love the bright on black applique so I am going to try to free hand something!
I am home today with the sniffles, well other than my trip to get more fabric of course!! But I think it will be a great day to sit on the couch and do a little hand stitching!
I have rambled on long enough! back to my coffee and off to start the morning!
See you later!
Till then...
Quilt on friends!!
Josie

Busy Mind

So, a little bit back I made a square for a swap! Silly me.... I made backwards!!
The rainbow colours should go clockwise and these go counter clockwise! Any way! Into the orphan block pot it goes!! (I'm sure EVERYONE knows all about that!
A while back I had been reading a blog (and for the life of me I can not find the picture) and there was a modern scrappy quilt done in the round! I decided that this block would be a great jumping off point for that!
I have it all drawn up and math ROUGHLY done! But oh.... it is swiming in my mind and I can not get it out!!

Yesterday I decided I have to take the plunge and start this thing! I thought about trying to make it a quilt along, but I don't have fancy soft ware to make up a mock sketch and well the way my mind works you don't want to see those scribbles! LOL
I have two of the rounds started, but I used the last of my Kona black last night and will have to get more before I get to into the rest!!
I hope to have a few little tidbits to show tomorrow!!
Till then...
Quilt on Friends,
Josie

Goals and such!

So, I think the best way to achieve goals is to hold yourself accountable! Right??? I have so much on my plate and I just have to stop for a minute and remind myself what I want and where I want to be!

Well, here they are, because if I write them down they become a little more real, theoretically!

I have ELEVEN quilt tops that are finished and need quilted!!
-Impromptu
-Bento Box
-Honeyman's Swoon
-Star Surround
-Halloween QuiltUberFest (and the back is pieced and ready to go!)
-Easy Street
-Twisted Sister
-Rainbow Round
-Brown Blocks
-Modern Orange/brown/green
-Luke's Shirts (pictured below)

Never mind the baby sumo wrestling going on here!!

These are the tops that are DONE and ready to go! I do have to say I prefer a pieced back to a plain back to that does take me a minute to figure out what I want to do! My QuiltUberFest Has a back all ready to go!!! So I might just start with that one! I be thinkin I need to get a move on these tops before I start on something else! LOL The last one on the list I do have to decide if it is done done or if I am going to put a sashing strip on the outside of it! It is a gift for the little curly top you see in the pic! He is my little guy who recently left me! And I miss him (and his sister) like crazy!!! I think it needs something to finish it off! Ideas??? Suggestions?? I would LOVE to get this one done first! But since it is not yet how I want it it might have to get pushed back!

OK, I think this is enough for goals for right now! LOL Well, quilty goals anyway!!

Hope to see you all again soon!
Till then...
Quilt on friends!
Josie

Where has this year gone???

Sew just a McRazie catch up on my year!
Spent Jan and Feb not really feeling the best. Not sure why! but I pressed on!! To be honest not a whole lot of quilty stuff happened in those 2 months!!
Honeyman took pity on my and tried to make me feel better, he is the sweetest!! Anyone remember my DREAM... well Honeyman bought me on, SQUEAL!! To be truthful there was not a lot sewn on it in the first month!
In May our oldest Daughter turned 18, graduated from High School, and moved out! WOW what a change!
Our biggest thrill of the summer was camping for almost 2 months! (not straight, but all together)!

Lil and her bike!!

Lillian was THRILLED because Grandma and Grandpa bought her a set of wheels!!! However she spilled it the second week she had it and we thought she broke her arm! We dodged a bullet and it was just sprained REAL bad!! Thank the lord for small miracles!

The guy in the red cap is our director!

I did spend quite a bit of the summer going back and forth d\between the Quad Cities and Maquoketa this summer as the Timber City Band that I am honored to be allowed to play in had FIVE performances this year!!  (I play flute if y'all don't know) One of the performances was the big band festival in Boone, IA. It is a 4 hour drive! So my day was 1 hour drive to Maquoketa, 4 hour bus ride to Boone, played and listened to AMAZING bands for 7 hours, big dinner, 4 hours back to Maquoketa, 1 hour back home... This gal was counting the miles as it was 5 AM when I got up and ready and it was 1:30 AM when I HIT the bed! I really did have a GREAT time!

Darien and Archie

School started in Aug and for the first time since our oldest started kindergarten we only have to deal with
ONE school!!! Lil is in 8th grade this year and Darien is in 6th! Both in Middle School!! Yippy!

Honeyman on vacation

Honeyman continues to be my hot fireman, but this year he has also taken on a teaching position! Getting the next rescue heroes ready! hehe!

I continue to watch kids! However 2 of my babies just left and I am down to the last 3! This is it! I mean it NO MORE! LOL I have a Connor (5, happy birthday today to him!) his sister Ellie Jo (2), and Miss Charlie Tuna (11 months)!! I have told the Mommies (and Daddies) 1 year 8
months and 6 days till I retire!! And then...

I am setting goals! I will be back with goals friend!!
Till then...
Quilt on friends,
Josie

Star Surround Quilt Along FINISH!!

So, I really am still here! I have been so busy with ... well everything! I have made a little time here and there to quilt But my latest I do have to take a moment and share!
I have been following along with the Star Surround Quilt along over at Happy Quilting. I do so Love Melissa's quilts! And when I saw this one I JUST had to!!
I decided if I was going to do this I was gonna go BIG!! I went with the Queen size top! Now I have to decide how in the world I am going to get this bad boy basted so I can quilt it! My kitchen floor is not big enough! LOL maybe I can move the fridge! Oh, the things we do!!
I chose Kona Black for my background because I just LOVE how the black POPS! The fabric (most anyway!) is M'liss from Hancock. I just LOVE how bright and fun her colours are! I have to say I am not really into the whole Asian theme that goes along with it but the bright colours are SO me!!!
I hope you pop over and check out the parade on the 16th!!!

Quilt holder #2 was not tall enough to hold it up! LOL 

Maybe I can get back into the swing of blogging! Till then...
Quilt on friends,
Josie

Bloglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5155723/?claim=mkmng22ghen">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Winner Winner Chicken well you get the point! hehe

Without further adieu the winner is...
Liz I have popped her a quick message and hope to hear from her very soon!

I do apologize (again) for some reason I have exceeded the number of photos I can use?? I don't know if this is because I have not been on here for a while, or if it is because I have been on here for to long? Technology tends to confuse me! It said something about purchasing more room?? Does this make any sense to anyone? Is there anybody who knows if this is so or if I am getting a crazy computer something or another?? LOL

Thanks again to everyone,
Josie

traveling stash

Dear friends,
  I am so sad that I have been away! I have been under the weather for most of this year.
OK, but I am going to get straight to business because my time is short. I was the lucky recipient of a traveling stash from Grammie Q! I have grabbed a few treasures I hope to get to use now that I feel somewhat human again!
Rules, rules there have to be rules!
Rules:

1. Be an active blogger. Post about receiving the box on your blog in a timely manner. Post the giveaway for the box soon after receiving it.
2. There's a note in the box that logs where it's been. Please add your info and place the note back in the box.
3. There's a list of Rules and Guidelines in the box. Please read and follow these and return the list to the box. 
4. You may take anything you like from the box. Just replace every item with comparable quilt shop quality items equal to the amount taken.
5. Ship the box to the next person in a reasonable amount of time.
6. Due to the amount of postage shipping is only within the USA.

I feel I have already broken rule #1 and do so feel bad about that!

I do however want to give y'all a chance to comment and get a chance at this amazing box! I will pop pics on when I draw up the winner! Oh, I guess I should tell you I will draw on Sunday Feb. 3rd! So you have till midnight on the 2nd! I will pop it in the mail as soon as I hear from the winner! 

Thank you for being understanding!! I look forward to hearing from y'all!!

Good luck! And I look forward to (I hope!) getting back on here!!!

Josie