Happy New Year!

2012 has been a very difficult year for our family.  There have been wonderful milestones and unbelievable hurts, but through it all we have managed to remember that we love each other and we have supported each other through it all.  I am so thankful for our family, for the love and respect we have for each other.  Most of all I'm thankful for the mercy of the Lord.  I'm thankful that he forgives and that He helps us to forgive.

 

I am also thankful for this wonderful thing called quilting that I have fallen into, and for blogging which has led me to so many talented and generous people, many of whom have become my friends.  I consider myself blessed to have been allowed into a portion of your lives.

 

I think these are all the quilts I've made this year.  Included are a couple of special mug rugs and a sewing machine cover, so they are not really quilts, but they are quilted.

 

Miss Lady is doing well.  She had another brush with sickness - kennel cough, but it is well in hand now and she is on her way to good health.  And she has found her energy again and is into everything within her reach!  Miss Ru has not had the healthiest Christmas either, but both of these little girls are fighters and they are both getting better!  Hallelujah!

 

I do hope the coming year will be a better one for us all.  These are uncertain times, but there is one thing for certain - God is still all powerful and none of this is a surprise to Him!  We can trust Him to bring us through.

 

My best blessings and dearest love to you all,

Guess Who's Home!

That's right - our little Lady come home this afternoon.  When our wonderful vet brought her into the room she ran straight across the table to Mr. Muddling and tried to climb right up his chest!  She was so glad to see him, and see how she's nestled into the crook of his arm on the way home?  That's where she stayed most of the evening.

Here she is showing off her semi-shaved legs (for IV antibiotics and other drugs).  Poor baby!  She's had a rough time, but she is determined to make up for it with lots of loving and spoiling.  I think we can handle it.  I'm just thankful she made it and that she's here with us where she belongs.

 

We did not do a big Christmas celebration this year.  We did have an extended family dinner here on Saturday before Christmas (We counted twenty-five people here in our small house.), but for Christmas day, we were pretty quiet.  I just had to show you though that our younger daughter knows how to shop online.  Look what I got in the mail - in three different packages on three different days - a grand total of 34 (!!!) Kaffe Fassett fat quarters.  Yippee!  They have now all been washed, dried, folded (and maybe petted just a little) and put away while I think of a really good use for them.  I do love his fabrics.

 

In the meantime, I've gone back to a project that's hit the back burner several times and done more cutting, sewing, pressing, cutting, sewing, pressing.  You know the drill.  Maybe this time I will actually get it finished.  One lives in hope!

 

Speaking of hope, I hope you had a marvelous Christmas and that you have lots of really good plans for the coming year.  I know I do!

 

Hugs and kisses and lots of love,

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

 

I do hope you are having/have had/will have a wonderful Christmas!  My very best wishes and blessings to you and yours. And if you'd like another blessing, here's a link to Josh Groban singing O Holy Night, my favorite Christmas song.

 

Hugs and kisses and lots of love,

Our little Lady is having a rough start to her life with us.  She got very sick Thursday night and we took her to the vet bright and early Friday morning.  He diagnosed her with parvovirus.  Not good.  She was immediately admitted to the doggy hospital with an IV for fluids and antibiotics.  We haven't heard anything, but we have great confidence in our vet.  He pulled Bruno through the same thing when he first came to live here from the animal shelter almost ten years ago.  We believe Lady with be back with us soon, well and healthy. 

The little Christmas quilt looks right at home, doesn't it?  We had a big family Christmas get-together here on Saturday.  We try to do that every year and it had been planned for some time so we went ahead with it.  It was fun to see everyone again and we all had a good time.

 

Christmas is such a special time of year - a time when we just feel more kindly toward people usually.  I'm thankful for our family and for the love we have for each other.  Mostly though, I'm thankful for Jesus!  He is the reason for the celebration.

 

Hope your Christmas season is going well.

 

Hugs and kisses,

A Finished Christmas Quilt and a New Baby

The Christmas quilt is finished, just in time.  We have a cold front (for us, at least) blowing in tonight, so another quilt around here will be welcome!

I really like the colors in this one, and the border and binding fabric fit it very well, I think.

And yes, I do know that turtles are not exactly included in traditional symbols of Christmas, but they are green!  The backing is fleece, so that will be a little added warmth. 

 

I've had issues before with using fleece as a backing because it stretches.  This time I sewed a muslin backing to the front of the quilt and ditch-stitched it through some of the seams going in each direction.  Then I put it on the frame and quilted the fleece to the back.  Hopefully that will stabilize it so that no seams are pulled apart.

This pretty little girl is Mr. Muddling's Christmas present.  He's been wanting a dog like Bruno.  Even he has had to admit that Bruno is practically perfect! I've been keeping an eye out online and found her at the local animal shelter last Thursday.  I went right away to see her, and they let me pick her up on Monday. It was love at first sight for both of them.  She seemed to know right from the start that she belongs to him.  Incredibly sweet!  Both of them.

We had a little scare today.  She fell off Miss Ru's bed!  Ruthie rushed her to the vet, and all is well, thank God!  It's been a rough day though, and she's glad to rest now.  Her name is Lady. 

 

Chloe is not happy, but Bruno is already teaching her the ropes.  Should be an interesting Christmas!

 

Hope everything in your world is going well.  And that the peace of this season is living in your heart.

 

Hugs and kisses,

George

This is George.  He came to live with me because I stumbled upon a man who knits bears.  Mad Man Knitting just sounds interesting, doesn't it?  I read a bit of his story and was impressed that he didn't use the downturn in his fortunes as license to give up, but instead found solace, sanity and a bit of an income knitting.

 

I've wanted a knitted bear (and monkey, but alas, Monkee Maker retired long ago) for quite a while.  I am not a knitter.  Somehow I've never been able to wrap my mind and my left-handedness around it.  I'm sure I'll give it a try again someday, but for now-----I have a bear!  Thanks, Gregory.

 

We had a freeze forecast here a couple of nights ago, and it did get cold, just not freezing.  I could not bear the thought of all these beautiful angel trumpets just shriveling up so I brought them inside.  A little over two days later, they are still beautiful and busily perfuming the room that used to be our dining room and is still on special occasions.  Most of the time though, it is the cutting room and the quilting room since that is where my quilt frame lives.

 

There has been a lot of cookie baking going on around here and boxes have been sent in the mail.  Mr. Muddling has promised to help me make more tomorrow night.   I baked 15 dozen cookies Monday night and it just about did me in!

 

I worked on the non-traditional Christmas quilt last night for quite a while, putting blocks up on the design wall.  After I got them all up there I didn't like it.  So, back to the drawing board.

 

Hope you have things going well at your place!

 

Hugs and kisses,

Non-Traditional

I am supposed to be working on the Easy Street mystery, but instead I wandered off track (again) and started playing with these Christmas fabrics I bought in a great Black Friday sale at Connecting Threads.  Aren't they fun?

Easy Street fabrics giving me dirty looks.

I did a lot of cutting with the GO! cutter.  It's a real time saver.  I also used it to trim the half square triangle blocks so they would all be the same size.  I need all the help I can get!

More cutting waiting for me.

My very sweet sister-in-law recently gifted me the Christmas fabrics and I'm thinking one of them might be the backing.

 

 Speaking of sweet, my friend Margaret sent me these two beautiful bags.  Isn't this a neat use for old ties.  I love them!  Margaret is a determined lady.  She sent these earlier and they didn't make it, but were returned to her.  She sent them again, and this time I got them.  Thank you, Margaret!  I so enjoy our long distance friendship!

 

It's cold here today.  Getting colder.  Looks like a good day to make cookies!  Hope you're having a good day where you are!

 

Hugs and kisses,

Finally!

I finally  finished the fourth and final quilt to send to New York for Hurricane Sandy relief.  It was a relief (!!!) to me to get it finished and all of them in the mail yesterday.  Hallelujah!  Now, back to my regularly scheduled life.  There is absolutely no pattern for this one.  I just sort of made it up as I went along.  I like it though~

I used this paisley that has been loitering around here for a while for the backing and included a strip of the same fabric I used for sashing on the front.  It has also been here for quite a while.  I like both fabrics, just never had quite the right spot for them.  You know what I mean.

Here is a little collage of the four that went.  And here is a link to the post from Bonnie Hunter with a place to send them.  I hope they go to just the right person and that they love them as much as I loved seeing them complete.

 

There is still a lot around here that is green and growing.  That may change soon though.  We're being threatened with a freeze in a couple of days.  There have been a LOT of figs on the tree next to the chicken yard.  I haven't even tried to pick most of them, but the birds have enjoyed them and I've fed a lot to the chickens.  Hey, they like figs, too!  I also give them some of those mustard greens sometimes. LOL

Chloe is pretty bored with the whole thing and would like to be left alone!  She's a funny one.  But she does like to see me working late at night next to her little nest here.  She feels I should be doing something to entertain her in the nighttime hours when she prefers to be busy.

 

It's quite warm here today, but maybe we can actually get our Christmas tree up and decorated.  We'll see.

 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

 

Hugs and kisses,