Wonderful Gift and Christmas Decorating

I received a wonderful package from my friend, Mary of Quilt Hollow.  She sent me a charm pack of Frosted Memories by Holly Taylor.  I love it!  I've been wanting to do something with Christmas fabrics and this is perfect.  After starting to decorate for Christmas, I realized that I don't have any Christmas Quilts.  I have lots of Fall colored quilts, but nothing to use for my Christmas Decor.  I'm on the lookout for some simple patterns using charm packs, jelly rolls, etc.  So if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.  Mary had the charm pack all wrapped up with white fabric tied with a green ribbon.  Now there is another idea for using some of my stash.  She also sent the cute snowman card with a package of Cinnamon Spice Tea.  Thank You, Mary, for the wonderful package and for thinking of me.

Here are a few pics of my Christmas Decorating.  This is my dining room cabinet with a couple of my Santa's.  I still have a coupe of other Santa's to put out.

Here is a wonderful Rocking Reindeer that I just got.  I usually look for Santa's each year, but when I saw this reindeer, I just had to have him.  I also bought the 3 ornaments in front of him.  They were just too gorgeous to pass up.

This is another new buy for this year.  I found the plate and bird at a local craft shop.  They also have some gorgeous candles there, and I thought it would look nice with this setting.

This is my kitchen window.  The Candle holders were a gift from my Brother and Sister-In-Law a few years ago.  The Santa coffee pot is my favorite.  I found it a few years ago and love him.  The Gingerbread teapot is a gift from my Cousin and I have a matching plate that my Mother sent me.

That's what I've done so far.  We have to get our tree up still.  I was afraid to put it up too early with having a puppy in the house and kitten in the house.  We'll get that up this weekend.  Doug and I have his Squadron Christmas Party tonight at a hotel in Bitburg.  We have our neighbor watching the kids for the night, so we got a room at the hotel for after the party.

I hope everyone has a Wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!  I'm going to start making some plans for things for the New Year and see if I can get more projects done in 2010.

Happy Birthday to my oldest!

Today, my oldest turned 12!  Eek, where did the time go.  One more year and he will be a teenager.  He won't have his party til Saturday, but asked if he could open one present today.  He could barely wait til his Dad got home.  He also asked for a Red Velvet Cake for today.  Well, I got the cake done, but didn't have enough of the powdered sugar to make the icing.  So we wait til tomorrow and I'll get the icing done.  He will also have a Birthday cake for his party, but the Red Velvet is for us here at home.  This is the latest pic I have of him. He usually hides when the camera comes out.  I had to snap this one quick.  He's heading to the bus stop for school.  The only other pic, I got that morning, had his binder covering his face.  He gets that from me!

I've started hearing my projects calling to me again.  So I hope to have something crafty to share soon.  I've also started decorating for Christmas.  It's still a WIP, but once I get my totes from the garage, I can finish up the decorating.

What a rough week last week was....

First, I went shopping in Trier with a neighbor. We had a good time until the last shop we went into. I paid for my items and put my wallet in my purse and left. Only to get to the next place to get a pastry and found my wallet was gone. Yes, I got pick pocketed! I've been to many places in Europe and the States with no problem. We went back to the shop and asked them and they remember me putting it into my purse, as do I. When we started leaving the shop, which is a narrow home decor shop, there was a couple that split up around me. The Husband was walking ever so slowly in front of my and the wife was behind me. I had bought some long leaves, which were wrapped in plastic for a vase, and had them in my hands trying to make sure to not break anything or hit anyone. It was only about 5-10 minutes later that my wallet was gone. So now, I'm having the fun of waiting for new cards, id, licence, etc.

Next thing was Kindergarten started on Tuesday for my youngest, Thomas. Got him on the bus and came in to get to work. Tried to vacuum the den and pulled my back. So for the past week, I've been laying on a heating pad to get my back better. I had so many plans for the week to get done while being home by myself. Nada got done.

Needless to say, nothing quilting, knitting, or fun to post pics of. I will hopefully get to things this week. Let's hope it's a better week.

What I have been spending my time on..

This summer has been spent with kids outside mostly AND we added 2 new members to our family. Meet Dante (Golden Retriever) and Sam (Cat). This is when we first got them and believe me, they both have grown so much already. Dante is pretty much house trained now. He was pretty easy, so far. They both play together and keep each other on their toes.

Now that school has started back (Yea!), I'm planning on getting back to my projects. My little guy (Thomas) start Kindergarten next week. So for the first time in a long time, I will be by myself during the day. What will I do? Well, I have alot of decluttering to do in the house, plus I want to get back to my many projects.

I haven't quilted in awhile, and I have quite a few things kitted up to do. So I want to get to those and get those done. Then I want to work on my stash a bit and use some of it up. This is so that I can not feel guilty when I see all of the new fabrics coming out and want them. I also have some cross stitch projects to get to, as well as a hooked rug that I started the beginning of this year. Not to mention the sweaters that I bought yarn for. I figure I might get half of the things done this school year. (fingers crossed)

I'm going to start my list of things to work on soon and can't wait to jump back in to my projects.

Internet Woes

It's been a long time since my last post. I've been having lots of trouble with my internet connection and couldn't even get into my google mail or yahoo mail. Each time, it said due to my slow connection that it wouldn't open. Occasionally, it would open, but when you clicked on an email to open and read, it would just spin and give an error message regarding our connection. I got so frustrated and felt really cut off from the world. Isn't it amazing how you feel that way when you have no internet? Our tv has also been on the fritz, but we would rather do without tv than internet. I called our internet provider over here, TKS, for support. I think the guy didn't want to work or something that day, cause he didn't even try to help me. He told me that I would need to send them an email asking to upgrade our internet service to a faster speed. We have no faster speed where we are, I've checked. We pay for 1000 speed, but only get about 300+. They have 2000 and 6000 speed, but not in our village. This is one thing I won't miss when we leave here.

Another thing that I have had problems with is posting comments to others blogs. I would type in a comment and then it would just sit there and spin. Also, for awhile, it wouldn't let me choose which profile I had for telling who I am. I finally got it once to let me do that. So I hope that's worked itself out.

Sorry, no pics this time, just wanted let you know why I've not been blogging lately. Oh, on another note, DH put in asking for an extension here and it got approved, so we will be here for an extra year now. Just hope my internet gets better during the next 2 years.

I will get some pics out and tell you some more of my recent adventures for my next post.

A Little Decorating

I, finally, got the chance to play around with my Dining Room Cabinet. I put up one of Jo's Little Women Club quilts that I made. It's Jo's Calicoes Surprise and is now in her book 'Yesterday's Charm'. I just got in this book and also her latest book, 'Vintage Journey'. Both books have some of her earlier Little Women club patterns in them. Found quite a few that I would like to do when I get back to my sewing room.

It's been warmer here, so I've been out more than in. I've also done a little more shopping with neighbors, so I am behind on housework. Oops, the dreaded H word. Next week is the last week of school, so the house will be even worse then. I figure while we have sun out, I'll be out with the kids and worry about major cleaning when school starts back. My little guy goes to Kindergarten in the coming school year, so I'll have more time to myself to clean and quilt! Yippee! Just a few months away.

Show n Tell

I promised that I would show some of my quilts soon. I've been trying to do a little on my blog, but blogger has just sat and spinned for me the past few days. I think it has more to do with our location than blogger though, as our internet does that quite often.

Here are a couple of quilts that old to me, but new to you. The first one I made when we were stationed in Germany the first time. I used a fabric line by Robyn Pandolph and the pattern was in an old issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting. Sorry, I can't remember the names as it's been a few years. While at Ramstein, we had a lady to join our guild who was a long arm quilter. So I had her to quilt this one for me. I've since sent it to my Mom and Dad to have.

This next one is a Thimbleberrie pattern. It was a fun quilt to make. While we were stationed in California, I joined a guild there. I met a wonderful lady, Diane, who had started the guild and she and I became friends. She had a long arm and told me to bring a quilt up to play on the machine. She helped me to quilt this one and it was fun playing on that long arm. She kept telling me to relax my arm. *LOL* I kept raising it up higher and higher, so she would remind me. Think I should have had a glass of wine before starting to loosen up. *S*

Here is a close up of the quilting.

I will share more another day. Enjoy!

Shopping in Trier

I spent the day shopping with a neighbor friend on Saturday. We spent the day in Trier and had a fun time. I bought some goodies for the house. I've been hung up on birds lately and was on the lookout for an iron bird. I didn't find one, but found some made of stone. I also found this wonderful bird bath for sitting on a shelf or window ledge. I haven't decided on which yet. It was on sale for 5 Euro's!


Next I found this wonderful jar with an iron top on it. I can't figure out what to put in it, so any ideas would be appreciated. I just loved it and had to bring it home with me. Not sure if you can see the iron ring of keys in the lower left corner, but had to have those too. Now the iron basket in back is one that I have had for awhile. I just haven't figured out what to put in it or how to use it. So again, I would love some ideas.


Here is a gorgeous Iron Water Feature in the Walkplatz of Trier. I would love to have something like this in my future dream home.


I will get to my quilting pics soon, so be sure to check back.

I've been MIA again...

A funny thing happened earlier. I was thinking, Gee, I haven't posted to my blog in awhile. So I run downstairs to take a pic of my fabric stash and a backing that I have been working on. DH calls to tell me that gas will be going up .18 tomorrow and I should go fill the car up. So out the door the little guy and I go. Get back home and check Google Blog and there I see a quilt of mine. *S* My friend Mary at Quilt Hollow has posted to introduce my blog to her blogging friends. *S* Mary is the one that got me to start blogging a short while ago. She and I must have been sending vibes to each other, over the pond, to remind me to post. *S* Below is my fabric stash, although it's not all of it. This is just my favorites. I still have 1 or 2 totes full of fabrics that I bought over the years and aren't really what I want to use.


Just last weekend, I sent a couple of quilt tops to Mary to do her magic on. I still have 2 more that I am piecing backings for. While working on these backs, I've pulled out of my stash of older fabrics and some from the same lines that are in the tops. I noticed that some of my pieces of fabrics now have fold lines in them that are a bit lighter. So now, I'm determined to use up some of my stash and not let this happen again. Let this be a warning to you, either use it up, or re-fold from time to time. I went on and used a piece with those fold lines and figure that will be my humble part of this quilt and, also, a reminder to use up the stash. See the fabric in the lower right hand side. That's the lighter fold lines.

After I get these 2 backings done, I'm going to start cutting strips from my stash for a Lady of the Lake Quilt. I found the perfect border fabric in my stash and I used EQ software to design it out to see if I have enough. The blocks will be set on point and the border fabric will be the corner and side triangles. The fabric below is the border fabric that I chose. This from the Harvest Home by Brannock/Patek for Moda. I'm a big Moda fan!

Until next time......I have other quilts that I don't think I've even taken pics of yet. I'll get to that for my next post.

Quilt Tops and Backings

That is what I'm thinking about this week. I am getting some quilts ready to send out to my Dear Friend Mary at Quilt Hollow. Mary and I met when we were stationed at Ramstein AFB in Germany years ago. She has been sharing some of her quilts that she has quilted on her Long Arm and has done some gorgeous things. The first quilt is a civil war quilt that I made to fit a Queen bed. I've been trying to figure out how to go about quilting it for a long time. I just didn't want to try to fight that much fabric on my little machine. I was so excited when Mary got her machine, as now I can pass them to her to do her magic on them.The next quilt is an applique quilt by Pat Sloan called 'Mama's Garden'. I did hand applique on this quilt while we were stationed at Ramstein. I put in alot of hours at our quilds 'Stitch N Gab'. Man, how I miss those Friday Night Stitch n Gabs.Another quilt that I'm sending to her is 'Sunshine on my Shoulders', which was a Jan Patek Girl Gang quilt designed by Cheri Ralston. I love Cheri's designs and have her book waiting for me to make some more of her designs.
I am also sending her my Millineum Garden that was featured in my last post. I can't wait to see what Mary comes up with for quilting these quilts. Since I now don't feel like I have a stack of quilts sitting there waiting for me to do something else with them, it's making me want to start some more quilts! Yippee!! I have some in mind and will post about them in a future post.

Now for backings for these quilts. I had some backing fabric that I bought years ago and it's a perfect it for my civil war quilt. So it is trimmed up and ironed, waiting to be packed up to send. The other quilts will need a backing made for them. So I've gone into my stash and pulled out any leftovers of fabrics used in the tops. I will just put them all together to make an interesting background, while using up some stash in the process. Another Yippee!

Millenium Garden

Millenium Garden
Originally uploaded by WoolieChelle

It's been a week since I've posted, so I thought I'd share a pic of a quilt top waiting to be quilted. This is Millenium Garden BOM by Jan Patek. When I first learned to hand applique, the lady who taught me was working on this quilt. She had ordered it when it first came out as a BOM. I fell in love with it and had always wanted to make it. Years later, an online friend was done with her patterns and passed them on to me. So I jumped in and started my own. I used IMA (invisible machine applique) on my Millenium Garden and I love it. It's in my pile of tops waiting to be quilted at the moment.

Knitting in the Sun

I haven't been around the computer too much lately. I was taking in all of the nice sun we were having. Well, it didn't last. We are down to the 50s now and rain again. :( It's suppose to be this way this whole weekend. So maybe I can get back to cleaning up my sewing room while we are stuck inside. I have a lot of organizing to do in there, before I can get back to my quilting projects. I'm one of those that if it's a mess, I can't really work on something. But I have some new fabrics waiting to be cut and sewn into a beautiful quilt. Not to mention, the many UFO's waiting to be worked on again. There are just too many wonderful patterns out there.


For now, I have been taking some knitting outside with me. I started a summer sweater recently. Here is my progress so far. It's called Slinky Ribs and the pattern in the book Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. I found knitting is great to work on while sitting outside letting the kids play. I'm using the yarn called for in the pattern, which is Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold. This is a wonderful yarn and I am really enjoying using it. I hope to have more progress soon.

Nice Weather Outside

Gee, it seems like it's been a bit since I've posted. That comes from having Spring weather and sitting outside with the kids. All of our neighbors come out and we let the kids play together while we socialize. Friday, I taught one of them to crochet while we were sitting out there. I'm going to have to get my hand work together and take out to work on. The kids are out of school for Spring Break this week, so I'll be out more than in.

The past couple of weeks, I've been playing in the dye pots. I was trying to over dye my red wools for the background of the rug from the previous post. I have worked on it and have some more progress to share. This is a Blackbird Design rug and I just found out that Alma of Blackbird Designs has started a blog! I'm so excited to see them join in blog land. I just love their designs, whether it be quilting, rug hooking, cross stitching or whatever they do. I think I could have my house be decorated in Blackbird Style.

What I've been up to today...

I've been rug hooking a bit today. This is a rug that I have been wanting to hook for a long time. It is a design by Blackbird Designs and is in their 'Samples of the Past' booklet series. I bought the series for the quilt pattern that is in it and when I got them, I saw this rug on the cover. I had never heard of rug hooking before, and after that, I set out to find out how. I couldn't find any classes in my area, so I bought a beginners kit on ebay and set out to learn on my own. I've done a couple of small rugs and finally decided it was time to tackle this large rug. Above is my progress for today.

Country Sampler Grouping

Country sampler grouping
Originally uploaded by WoolieChelle

Since I don't have any other progress pics to share yet, I thought I'd share another of my decorating with quilts. This is a grouping that I did many years ago in my dining room. The quilt is from one of the Little Quilts books. When we were stationed at Ramstein AFB, Germany, some friends and I did this pattern together. We divided up some of the blocks and each of us made enough for the rest in the group. We then swapped our blocks and put our own quilt together. It was such fun to see them come together and how each of them looked different. I hand quilted mine and love it!

I'm hoping this post goes through, as I'm trying something a bit different. Rather than uploading the pic through Blogger, I'm trying it from my Flickr album. I'm still learning how to blog and I'm sure there are lots of other features that I still have to learn.

Amazing, What the Sun can do.....

We've had some nice sunny days the past few days and it has definitely had an affect on me. That is for the better. I feel like I am finally back to myself and enjoying the process again. I just finished putting the borders on my Churn Dash Quilt this morning. I usually use darker/primitive colors, so this was sort of out of the box for me, but I think I needed a little change to get me jump started again. I've already been playing around with ideas for my next quilting project. I also have some kits waiting for me to start and other UFO's that I would like to get back to. Not to mention a hooked rug that I put in a few loops yesterday. I will share pics of it when I get more done on it.

Old and New

I am making some progress on the Churn Dash Quilt. I have all of the blocks completed and started sewing the rows together. My back is getting better, but I still have to take it easy on it. I keep doing a few household chores and then I get the pressure on my back again, so DH has told me to STOP! I was so anxious to get back to my sewing, that I snuck down and did a little here and there today. Don't want to push it, but when the quilting bug has hit me after so long, I don't want to lose it!

Since I don't have any progress pics yet of my Churn Dash, I thought I'd share an old pic of my Entry Way at our previous home. So this is Old to me, but New to you.
The mini quilt is a Jo Morton Little Women's club piece. The applique quilt is a pattern by Jan Patek. I will post a close up pic next time of the 'Basket & Blooms' by Jan Patek, as I did 'big stitch' quilting on it. I've tried to add it this time, but blogger isn't co-operating with me. Until next time......

A Little Sewing Time

After having a flare up of Fibromyalgia the past couple of weeks, I finally got a few days of feeling better. So hopped down to my sewing room and got my machine out. Poor thing had to be dusted off, as I haven't sewn on her in awhile. It felt really good to do some basic piecing again. I stepped out of my box a bit and went for some springy, light, romantic colors. I've done prim for so long and we've had such dreary grey days here, that I really needed a pick me up. I also chose something simple. Another thing that I haven't done in a long time. For years, I've done applique quilts and felt the need for some simplicity in my life. So I chose a simple block, the Churn Dash. Right now I have about 12 blocks done, but have cut out 11 more to make this quilt a 5 x 5 block quilt. The pick above is the border fabric that I am planning to use for it. The inner border fabric, might not be able to work, as I only have a fat 1/4. So depending on if I have enough of it or not, it might not be used. I'm hoping I can, even if it's just a 1/2" wide inner border.

We had plans for today. We were going to go to Cologne and walk around. Well, I ruined it. I went down to my sewing room and was putting some fabric away and turned the wrong way. Pulled my back and hip, so now I am laying in bed on a heating pad with laptop to post to my blog. Go figure! I was so looking forward to today. Gotta have DH bring me some stitching up to work on. Until next time!

Finding my inspiration again....

For awhile now, I have been trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Since I dabble in a variety of fibers arts, my stash has sort of taken over. Now that I feel that my wool stash is a bit more organized, I've moved on to my fabric stash for quilting. Now in the past, I have always gone for more primitive colors and for awhile now have wanted to try something different. All in all, I think I just needed a break from everything.

I used to do lots of hand applique and just loved hand work. Somehow, the past couple of years, I have lost that and found myself doing more IMA (invisible machine applique). I found I was doing this to get more done to keep up with the Joneses per se. After all of that, I found I got burned out. This past weekend, I decided to choose a project that I had always wanted to do and then to do it by hand. I want to get back to the basics and enjoy the process again. Before I got to the project I had on my mind, I pulled out a couple of UFO's and looked them over. I found renewed interest in them and think I am BACK! It feels so good to be inspired again.

I want to share a pic of the blocks that I have completed so far. This is 'Quilt for Emily' from the Christmas Memories Series by Blackbird Designs.
Hope to have more pics in the next couple of days of some other UFO's that are going to become WIP again.

Circles and More Circles

Remember the basket of scrap wool in the previous post? Well, I've pulled some pieces out and cut some into strips for rug hooking and others in circles. Yes, circles of wool for a penny rug. Here are some to start out with.

After a bit, I just had to play with them to see how they would look. I'll do something like this layout, only larger, and stitch them down on a light colored piece of wool. I'm thinking of using Walnut Crystals to dye the cream colored wool that I have for the background. I'm planning a scrappy penny rug/runner for my buffet cabinet.

Now I have to take a break from the wool stash. My nose has been itching and I have been sneezing with all of the wool dust from cutting.

What do I work on next?

Making Progress

I am finally making some progress on organizing my sewing room. As mentioned in my previous post, I started sorting my wool. A lot of my wools are recycled wool from Thrift Store finds, so they weren't exactly a shape that folds up nicely. So I started snipping and ripping to get them straight on the grain. Here is the basket with all of the edge pieces and small pieces. From this basket, I will pull and cut some strips for hooked rug projects and also cut some circles for a penny rug.

Then I started sorting by color. I pulled one of my wool dye books out with a color wheel in it and started with reds to sort. I followed the color wheel and sorted from light to dark of each color. With reds going into oranges to gold, and so on. By doing this, I was able to pull the wools from the tote and add them to the shelf. I now have my wools on one place. Of course, with the exception of some reds that I will over dye in another basket. So that has freed up the tote for some other use. Plus I can see all of my wools at a glance. Here is my organized wool shelf. I'm sure you can tell a difference now from the pic in the previous post. Now that I've done this, I can tell that I really need to get some golds in my stash. I will put that on my list for my next wool dyeing day. I also need to get some lighter colors and also some light backgrounds. See all of those greys, I will use those for some golds and greens on dye day. Plus you can see the basket of reds in the background bit, those will be over dyed for some dark backgrounds on a rug that I am starting soon. Here are some close up pics of newly organized wool.

Comtemplating Goals for 2009

Here it is February and I'm still planning for the year. January was a wash for me, as I wasn't feeling well most of the month. February is getting better, as I'm getting a little excited about the coming months and Spring. I'm already thinking of putting out flowers and wanting to start some projects with Spring colors in mind. (More about those later)

For now, I'm needing to do a major clean up and organizing of my sewing room, and house for that matter. I have a hard time working on things when the house is a mess or my sewing room is cluttered. So for today, my main goal is to clean up my wool stash.

This is wool that I have mainly dyed and then some waiting to be dyed.

I also have a tote that has re-cycled wool in it.

Hello, out there in Blogland. I've finally jumped in and started my very own blog. I've been following some blogs for awhile now and love being able to keep up with friends. I am still learning and trying to figure out how to get it all set up. I've seen some blogs be used as a way to track what projects are being worked on and I love that concept. So little by little, I will be adding those thing to my blog. I'm hoping this will make me be accountable to finish some projects and to also get my camera out more often.

Now I'm hoping to share a pic with you of our new Pub Table. Right now it's sitting in my sewing room, but once we return to the States, we hope to have more room for it. (keeping my fingers crossed that the pic comes across).

Until next time, Enjoy!