A Finish, A Start and A UFO

Finally, a finish!  Yea!  Those are few and far between for me.  I always seem to have trouble doing the finishing on any project that I start.  I can get the quilt tops done, but not quilted.  Once they are quilted (I have 3 quilted tops that my friend Mary of Quilt Hollow quilted), I have trouble getting the binding sewn on.  I have multiple cross stitched pieces ready to frame and rugs to be bound.  How do you get to that last little thing to get them completed?  This I have to work on.  So I completed my snowman hooked rug.  I got my yarn out and whipped the binding edge and it's done.

I've been seeing so many blogs with Schibbles patterns by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. and they look like so much fun.  My friend, Mary, sent me one of the patterns to get me started.  I had some charm sqaures already and found a set that I had double of.  So I started the Hot Cross Buns Schnibbles pattern.  It's been fun!  

Above, I have them laid out ready to sew the blocks together for the center.  I've been working on it this morning and have my center sewn together now.  Just started cutting out the borders now.  One tip, don't bother with washing those charms.  I've had these charms for so long and I made the mistake of washing them when I first got them.  Now I'm scrambling with some of them to make sure that I can get what I need out of them since they shrank a bit.  Lesson Learned!  I can't wait to get some more Schnibbles patterns and some more charms.  This is quick and fun!

As for my UFO, since I was cutting strips out of stash, I pulled a tote down that had some cut already.  This happened to be pieces that I had cut for a scrap basket quilt out of one of Blackbird Designs books. So I started sewing them together.  I have the 4 patches done, which are a start of the basket block.  I'll share more of them as they grown.

Just look at those scissors with my 4 patches.  I just got those in and love them!  I've seen them on lots of cross stitch patterns by Stacy Nash and always wanted a pair.  I was searching around on primitive websites and came across these.  I just had to order right away.  Aren't they adorable!

Happy Quilting!

New Year, New Stash, New Printer

Happy New Year!  I can't believe we are already in 2010!  Time just seems to be flying these days.  Well, I hope to get more things done this year than I did last year.  I don't have much to show for this past year, as I was in a slump with my hobbies.  Now that I'm back in the saddle again, I've been playing in my sewing room a bit.  I had to organize it again and get things out of it, as it became a catch all this past year.  I've got my cutting table all cleared off and started cutting strips.  I pulled a book out by Kim Diehl and decided on what size strips to cut.  So my drawers are almost full with strips.  I started out cleaning out my scrap basket and then went to my stash.  I decided to take the smaller pieces and some that had been in my stash for awhile and cut into strips.

Since it's been so long since I have had any new fabric stash, I ordered some.  It's here and it's gorgeous! It's Jo Morton fabric.  I pulled out some UFO's and one of them is a Jo Morton pattern.  I almost cut some of my Jo Morton fabric up for strips, but then realized that I needed some of it for a UFO that I had started.  Well, I didn't pull the fabrics that I had used so far out and put with it, so now I'm a bit low a couple of colors.  That is what the reds are in this pic, but not sure if they will be the right color of reds to go with the older Jo Morton fabric that I used.  I may just take the one applique block that I have done and make it into a wall hanging.

Another new thing I got is a new printer.  I've been wanting a wireless printer for awhile now and I decided it was time.  I loved my other printer, but can't find the ink on base here.  I found it downtown, but with the Euro to Dollar exchange rate, it was too much.  I just got it set up and printed some things out today.

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.