It's December Already!

Ok, I am a bit late in posting my finished projects for November. It was a "short" month for me so I didn't finish as much as I would have liked, and My one and only finish for OPAM- November was this table runner--shhhhhh...it's a surprise gift.

I did finish a couple of "blocks," though, that will count for the Charming Girls Quilt Club:
This block is for my Live Piecefully Quilting Bee online.
This block is for a Christmas "retirement" quilt for a gal at work!

Now it's December, and I only have one decoration up, my Advent calendar, made in 1979.
(We add a candy cane for each day in December leading to Christmas Day; see my daughter, Nicole's blog post about our family tradition of this Advent Calendar at gidgetgoeshome).

I am already feeling a bit of the crunch of a "short" December! Nick hasn't gotten our other decorations down from the shelf in the garage as yet, and we aren't getting our tree until this weekend (the 5th).

As for projects to do in December there are so many, and there won't be enough time. But I think I will be ambitious, so here goes:

1. Finish my "cat" placemats similar to these I made for my mom and aunt last year:
2. Several (4-5) shopping bags for Christmas gifts, similar to this one:
3. A taffeta Christmas dress for my granddaughter, Gigi


4. A table topper for Gigi's table out of these fabrics (she picked the brown birdies one!):
5. A baby quilt for my friend, Susie's new grandbaby due soon with this flannel:
I better get busy and get to my sewing!!!

Our Blessed Thanksgiving Tradition

The month of November seems to have flown by in the blink of an eye! We returned from our wonderful cruise, had two weeks of regular life and then we went camping for the entire week of Thanksgiving, Sunday to Sunday!

For the past 32 years or so we have almost always gone camping with family and friends for the Thanksgiving weekend. The few years we stayed home and had a "traditional" Thanksgiving, our kids would say, "This is boring! Let's go camping next year like we always do!" So we pack up the RV and head to the campground, this year (as in many past years) we headed to South Carlsbad State Beach.

Most years, including this one, the weather has accommodated us and we usually have a warm weather Thanksgiving. We've only been rained on a couple of times over the years. We cook a full Thanksgiving dinner while there with all the trimmings. Nick smokes our turkey in the smoker and friends deep fry their turkey. Everyone pitches in making everything that goes along with a traditional Thanksgiving meal. It's truly the best way to enjoy Thanksgiving!

Above top: Our "Stuffed Turkey" table decoration made
by mom almost 30 years ago;
just above: Nicole and Susie and Dane in line for the feast!

We have so much to be thankful for and spending time with family and friends tops the list!!
We are blessed! This year we all shared what we are thankful for and a new tradition was added to our way of celebrating this holiday!

To view more pictures go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72308330@N00/sets/72157622920644710/

Our Southern Caribbean Cruise

We had such a great time on our 11 Day Southern Caribbean Cruise, October 26-November 6, 2009, aboard the Celebrity Millennium ship, with our friends, Cara and Andy Mejia, Nancee and Marc Revere, and our new friends, Donna and Rod Guilmain. It was a very memorable trip!!Friends together!

(Top l to r: Andy, Karen Nick, Cara, Marc
Bottom: Nancee, Donna and Rod)

We flew into San Juan, Puerto Rico and spent the night there boarding the ship on Monday. We set sail at 8:30 pm sailing to our first port, Fredriksted, St, Croix, US Virgin Islands (84 sq miles). From there we headed to Basseterre, St Kitts, West Indies(65 sq miles) ; then to Roseau, Dominica (298 sq miles) ; on to Castries, St Lucia(238 sq miles); Bridgetown, Barbados (166 sq miles); St Georges, Grenada (133 sq miles), Willemstad, Curacao; and our final port of Oranjestad, Aruba (75 sq miles). From Aruba, we sailed back to San Juan, PR, where we spent one more night at a fantastic resort, The Conrad Hotel.

We saw plenty of lush, green, tropical foliage, fruit trees, and tropical flowers, in and out of rain forests, and met some friendly people along the way. Most of the cruise it was hot and humid, ranging from about 87 to 89 degrees daily with about 85% humidity! It only rained on us a couple of times--but the rain didn't last long. We did a lot of sightseeing, took some taxi tours, a bit of shopping, river tubing, swimming and snorkeling in the warm Caribbean waters,
and enjoyed martinis and wine aboard ship!!

St Croix is the largest of the US Virgin Islands, 19 miles south of St Thomas. The US purchased the island from Denmark for $25 million in 1917.Taken from St Croix looking at the Caribbean

St Kitts is a lush green island and home to the "green monkeys" on St Kitts-the fur on the belly of these monkeys is actually a bluish green color. Caribelle Batiks are designed and hand made on this island. The "Green Monkeys" of St Kitts!

Dominica is home to 365 rivers, many waterfalls and the cool waters of the Emerald Pool in the rain forest, pictured below.

It rains approximately 435 inches every year on Dominica. English is the offical language and Patois, a mix of French and Creole is also spoken.

Barbados is the easternmost island of the West Indies islands. We spent Halloween day here. It rained a bit while we were in port and the rain just added to the heat and humidity! That night we "dressed up" in masks for the festivities!

Grenada is known as the spice island, since many spices are grown on this island, such as nutmeg, mace (which grows on the outside of the nutmeg), cloves and cinnamon.View of the coastline from the fort on Grenada

Curacao is a very diverse island composed of 55 nationalities and many languages are still spoken there, including Portuguese, French, English, Dutch, and the local dialect known as Papiamento (a mixture of the languages). This island is not very green, as most plants won't grow on it since the island is coral and it rains very little in Curacao. Curacao is 35 miles from the northern coast of Venezuela. We were told one can only see the coastline of Venezuela 15 days out of the year and we were there on one of those days! We visited their "Sea Aquarium" set right on the coast of Curacao--the setting of which was breathtaking!

These are pictures of the Dolphin pools and the rocks mark the separation of
the Sea Aquarium pools and the Caribbean Sea.

Aruba is 18 miles off the coast of Venezuela and is the westernmost Caribbean island. The official language of Aruba is Dutch, but almost everyone also speaks English and Spanish. Aruba has gorgeous white sand beaches with the whitest sand I have ever seen.

Our new friend Rod doesn't much like monkeys....... but we thought we'd get him one to help him get over his "fears" and the remember the trip!Rod and his green friend.

To see all our pictures and Mejias' pictures together go to my flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72308330@N00/sets/72157622667712183/

HAPPY 31 TO US!

Today marks our anniversary---Happy 31st Anniversary to us!!

Projects Complete for "Charming Girls" and "OPAM"

I know I'm posting my completed projects for October early, but we leave on our 11 day Carribean Cruise on Sunday morning, October 25th.

This red Hawaiian Dress for our adorable granddaughter, Gigi!













Fabric actually bought in Kona, Hawaii! (and my friend Lynn is making matching dresses for her two granddaughters!)








The pj bottoms with ruffles at the ankles



















that match the nightie top I made for Gigi last month!













Another Baby Girl Quilt, my pattern 4 Patches and Squares.
This one is backed with a cute "Suzy's Zoo" Panel and I used flannel for the "batting" to give it an extra soft feel!
The large pink squares are a coordinating "Suzy's Zoo" print!!



and 2 Flannel Burp Cloths, aka "Ni-nites" to Gigi. Two as gifts and two for Gigi to keep at Yaya and Papa's house for sleepovers!!













As for November projects, here's a couple I hope to complete:

Pin, machine quilt and bind Gigi's Hawaiian Quilt for her toddler bed:

A Christmas project for my SSCS (Secret Santa Christmas Swap partner). Since it's a secret, here's a hint-one of these possible patterns:
I could name a few more projects, but as we draw nearer to the holiday season, I know my time will be limited to sew. I think I will be a bit more cautious in my predictions of finishes.

A QUILT SHOW in San Jose

Last Wednesday I sent two friends (Nancy on the left of me and Lynn on the right, pictured below from the Brown Bag Retreat we attended in Sept), the following email (I know, corny, but I couldn't resist!):

Jury duty Complete! CHECK!
Working today and able to get some stuff for my good friend Nancy, and oh, by the way, do you need anything, Lynn?! CHECK!
Packing almost Complete! CHECK!
Boarding Pass Complete! CHECK!
Flying to be with good friends at a Quilt Show! PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then, Thursday morning I flew to San Jose to go to the Pacific International
Quilt Festival XVIII held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. My friend Lynn drove into town via Sacramento from Redding, spending the previous night at her daughter's house to get a "grandma fix," and picked me up at the airport. From there we headed to the Hyatt Regency/Convention Ctr for the quilt show, where we met up with 3 more quilting friends, Nancy, Barbara and Una, who drove up from the Buellton area, Central Coast of California.

When I say it is a big quilt show I mean it is an HUGE show--the biggest one I have seen, (more than triple the size of Southern California's Road to California Quilters Conference ) with hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous quilts to see as well as vendors of quilting supplies!

We hit the quilt show by 11 am., meeting 3 friends from Buellton. Two days of quilt shopping (fabrics, patterns, threads, notions, machines, etc) -- what could be more fun for 5 quilters?!?! Creativity was abounding, fabric was plentiful, and did we ever shop........................
We were so busy shopping we forgot to take pictures of ourselves, but here's a few of the beautiful quilts we saw:
To see more quilts from this quilt show, use this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72308330@N00/sets/72157622630188058/

September Finishes-October TO DO's!!

My Brown Bag (quilting) Retreat was so much fun, as always!! We sewed non-stop, Friday from 8am-midnight, Saturday 9 am-12:30 am, and Sunday 8 am till the end at 3 pm, and, yet, I only finished two quilt tops!! I always think I will finish so much more, forgetting how time consuming some projects can be, for example, my "Moose Junction" (pattern by McKenna Ryan). All the animals, birds, fish, trees and mountain are machine appliqued on top, using a blanket stitch all around the raw edges. I timed myself while stitching around one of the mountain goats and it took 20 minutes to finish one!!! So this project was definitely labor intensive, but worth it.It's a favorite of Nick's, and I'm thinking of adding another border, making it a small throw for our motorhome--since it looks so great draped over our couch!

I also finished the quilt top, "Gigi's Hawaiian Quilt" for our toddler bed. I got the initial idea from a free pattern and changed it to make my own. The blocks are made with two 3 1/2" squares of different Hawaiian fabrics and two 4 patch squares. I love the way it turned it. The criss cross pattern formed by the 4 patch squares are actually a pale yellow fabric that has beachy items on it. This accent really brightens up the quilt.[I had planned on posting pictures from the retreat, however I left my camera at my friend, Lynn's house and won't be getting it back until we meet up at the Pacific International Quilt Show, Oct 15-17th in San Jose!}

I also managed to finish some other projects during September, including another Firefighter Baby Blanket...
a matching "Big Brother" Pillow case (pictured on the left below, both gifts for one of the firefighter's in my husband's dept!);
another "Big Sister" Pillow Case, for another new baby girl born to a member of the fire prevention team;

and lastly, I made a "nightgown" for my granddaughter, to match the nightgown of the little girl in her favorite book, "The Goodnight Book" (which was also one of my daughter's favorite books as a child!). (Picture will be posted once I have it!!)

My October TO DO List will be shorter than my September list was, for two reasons. First, because I was over ambitious last month, and second because I actually have less time to sew and quilt, since we are going on a cruise, leaving the last week of October.

I'm hoping to complete the following:

1) Pajama bottoms to match the pj top/nightgown (which is supposed to be the pj top-but it is longer on Gigi than I planned). The pajamas are made out of the softest fabric--100% bamboo!
2) Another Hawaiian dress for Gigi (made from Hawaiian fabric bought when we were in Kona, Hawaii a year ago (my friend Lynn will be making matching dresses for her two granddaughters as well!
3) Pin, quilt and bind "Gigi's Hawaiian Quilt" (pictured above)

4) Time permitting, pin, quilt, and bind the "Moose Junction" quilt.

And if there's more time, any other projects I've previously mentioned and haven't finished as yet!!!! Wish me luck!

"Brown Bag Retreat Time!"

I'll be able to finish some projects for sure this month since I'll be attending a "Brown Bag" Quilt Retreat in Buellton, CA, hosted by The Creation Station Quilt Shop. I've been attending at least two Brown Bag Retreats per year for several years now. It's three days of all the quilting you choose to do and the best fun!!

One of my closest friends, Nancy, works and attends these retreats, so I join her, often spending the weekend with her. Other times Nick and I take the RV and stay at the Flying Flags RV Resort with our friends, Lynn and Rick from Redding. The guys hang out at the campground, go fishing, play horseshoes, etc, while Lynn and I meet Nancy and quilt away the hours for 3 days! For this retreat we're taking the RV, meeting Lynn and Rick at Flying Flags, so it's going to be a great weekend for sure!!

As any quilter knows when attending a quilt retreat it's best to take several projects to do, because you never know how much you'll get done or what you'll feel like working on. You wouldn't want to run out of options, should you find yourself stuck on a pattern, or just in the mood to work on another project, so it's good to have choices and a variety of projects just in case!

September projects to do (as a member of CGQC and OPAM):

1) from my August to do: finish my All American Tablerunner-just needs the label actually! 2) also from my August to do: pin/baste, machine quilt, and bind my Mary Engelbreit "Tossed Nine Patch" Lap Quilt! 3) McKenna Ryan's "Moose Junction" Quilt (my friend, Lynn and I both bought this kit on our Alaskan Cruise last summer, and we plan to work on it together at the retreat!) 4) McKenna Ryan's "No Trespassing Tablerunner, block three of "Calling Me Home" Quilt (also bought on my Alaskan Cruise last summer--I just love McKenna Ryan's patterns!) 5) If I still have time, I'd like to finish my Quick Trip lap quilt made with Robin Pandolph's line of fabrics in soft reds and greens--( I pieced the top in August) -- just need to pin/baste, machine quilt, and bind! I'm really looking forward to making my McKenna Ryan patterns!!

PS Another quilt reveal: here's the front of the "4 Squares and Animals" Baby Boy Quilt I finished in July for my friend's daughter, due in a week or so.....I was able to find fabrics that matched the colors of the baby's room. I appliqued baby animals in the solid squares and surrounded them with 4 squares and a pieced border. I made a personalized label too!

A Productive August!

August was a busy month and a productive one for me. I finished more projects than I expected I might! I completed my lap size "Nine Patch Party Christmas" Quilt which now hangs on display at the the Quilt in a Day store where I work part time. It was a fun quilt to make, easy and quick! I did some basic quilting through the nine patches and free motion quilting around the poinsettias in the border.

(Here's a close-up of the quilt front)

Since this is a Christmas quilt I thought it only fitting to do a special backing, one with a cross in the middle, made from fabrics used on the front.

While I didn't finish all the projects I set out to complete, as mentioned in my previous post, I made a few I hadn't anticipated doing, including a re-useable tote, new valances for my master bathroom, two small pieced baby blankets, and a summer dress for Gigi (I fashioned a pattern from one of her other dresses!).

(It's next to impossible to catch Gigi smiling
when I snap a picture of her these days!)

(Notice her quick moving in this shot?!)

I've got another one of these cute dresses cut out to make in a pink Hawaiian fabric (one of my September projects to finish).

This month I also designed, appliqued, pieced and quilted a small wallhanging (this is a surprise gift).

I got my inspiration for this wallhanging from a napkin,
shown above with the fabrics I used.

I machine appliqued this mini quilt, with a palm tree, beach umbrella, sun and a 'surfer,' and used fabric with beach umbrellas for the border. (Machine applique is so easy when you use paper backed fusible.) I shadow quilted around the pieces appliqued and stippled in the border. My daughter loves this wallhanging so much I will most likely make her one. Actually, it looks so cute on my quilt hanger in my hallway, I think I will also need to make another one for myself!!

Oh, and I almost forgot, here's a picture of one of the quilts I finished in July:

"Our Quick Trip to Novato Quilt"

for our friends Nancee and Marc