Christmas Swap

I want to send many thanks to my secret Christmas Swap partner, Cheryl, of Willowberry Designs in Australia for my beautiful
gifts for Christmas!! Look at the beautiful Redwork wall hanging that she made for me! I just love it Cheryl, and it is hanging in my longarm room already! She added fat quarters in Christmas green and red, plus a tea towel, handmade hot pads and her own personal tree skirt pattern! I also love the beautiful buttons Cheryl! I was amazed by all the beautiful things you sent me, and I will use and enjoy them all. I am really looking forward to trying out that pattern for Christmas next year! Many thanks also to Chooky Blue for putting on the swap. It was my first time participating and I enjoyed it so much that I'd like to do it again next year! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Year will be the same. Look forward to seeing what everyone is up to in the new year!!! I will have more to share really soon. Keep Quilting!!!

Record snow in Vegas!!!

Here is the view this morning, after all the clouds moved away. I'm sure you may have heard already that we had record snow!!! It is so beautiful! We measured 9" at our house this morning. It started yesterday morning and never let up all day, continuing on through the night last night. My next door neighbor didn't even go to work today, and there were alot of cars abandoned on the side of the road. Luckily, we have all wheel drive, so my husband got off safely. We are down a steep hill so he did have to wait until the road melted off before he could leave. These pictures are the view from our backyard this morning.

Yesterday Roxy was facinated by the snow, and played in it every chance she got!!!

Even Peanut joined in on the fun. They didn't know what to think of all this white stuff!!

Here is the birdbath last night. At that time it was almost 8 inches deep!!

Snowing in the dark, it was coming down heavy!!

Here's a shot of the backyard last night.

The view from my sewing room! Needless to say, try as I might, I didn't get much sewing done yesterday!!! LOL!!

Early this morning.

The front yard and the car WITHOUT 4 wheel drive. It's still sitting there!!

We might be lucky and keep some of the snow until Christmas. It is a beautiful day and I am so thankful that I now work from home!

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

Snow in Vegas!

This morning we woke to snow on the mountains and very chilly temps outside! This picture shows the view out my front door, and the other is from our backyard.

You can see the whole range of mountains got snow all day yesterday. It mainly snowed on the west side of town. Beautiful!!

These are a couple of my favorite Christmas cross stitch pictures. I made this one of the mouse years ago
and don't know what I did with the pattern, unless I gave it to my daughter, Charlotte to make. It was one of her favorites. She is an excellent cross stitcher and the next picture is of a Christmas scene she gave me one year for Christmas. I cherish it among one of my most precious gifts as she was going through a difficult time back then and it took so much of her time to do all that work. She had a cute little dog then named Ginger, and she use to say that Ginger snaps but she doesn't bite!!! If you look at the lower right you can see where she added Ginger to the picture and I think it is so darn cute!!!!

I finally got my longarm room put together, hung some of my quilts on the walls to make it "warmer" in there! LOL!! I have it all organized and am finishing up another job today.

Here is a pattern I did from Houston Market for P&B Textiles! They made a flyer so you might be able to get the pattern at your local quilt shop if they purchased the line, called Siena. The fabrics are just beautiful.

I also now have a pattern ready for the Laurel Cottage line from Benartex! This quilt is another one I made for Houston and it is called Cozy Cottage Days. If anyone is ever interested in a pattern, just leave me a comment and I will get back to you . This one is $9. The border fabric is mitred.

Now that the longarm room is complete, I was able to reorganize my actual sewing studio and bring in a new cutting table which I needed desperately!! I have my embroidery machine now set up at all times, so I can sew at one table and embroider at the other at the same time. What a time saver that is going to be. I actually have room for a design wall now too, so I think I'm going to get alot more done in alot less time. Tomorrow I will be finishing up a new design for P&B Textiles, then I start 6 new freshly designed quilts for Benartex to be done the middle of January. Who says you get a break for the holidays? Lol!! I will be a happy camper not having to move everything as I work!! Which reminds me, I better get busy!! Keep quilting!

Twilight Christmas version

A blogging friend Debbie die Steppdecken des quilter showed me this really funny version for Christmas of Twilight! I had to add it to my blog so you can see it. It will only make sense if you've seen the movie, and it is a riot!!!! Enjoy!! Just click on the picture.

Christmas parties and puppies

My husband called me yesterday from the SPCA. We have been trying to find a play friend for our Roxy, since Cindy is as old as dirt and doesn't want to play anymore! Sorry Cindy!!! I ran out there with Roxy in tow to meet a prospective new buddy and we saw several, until I spotted this little girl in a cage by herself, hiding and shaking in the corner. She was pitiful!!! I just couldn't stand it, and so she came home with us and we have been reahabilitating this sweet little abandoned girl, and we named her Peanut. She was very afraid at first, but today was her first full day, and she is adjusting even better than I expected. They found her loose on the road, tired and hungry. She was saved by the SPCA the day before the pound had her scheduled to leave this world. Poor baby!!!! Anyway, we think she is adorable, and we are doing our best to teach Roxy to have patience with her. They play some already, and I think she is going to be A-OK. How could anybody turn away from that adorable little face? Roxy is sharing her bed with her by the Christmas tree.

Well, the weather report says a chance of snow all next week! I guess it has been known to put a foot or so on the ground in Vegas, but I have only seen a couple of inches since we have lived here. My african violets still think it's summer by the window.

I had to show you the beautiful sunset we had the other night. It lit up the whole room with beautiful color. My camera flashed in the window, but you get the idea. This was the view from inside the house!!! Even little Roxy's eyes are glowing!!!

Darlene Finney, owner of Quilters Quarters in Henderson had her end of year Christmas party Tues night and it was so much fun. Beautiful quilts hung on the walls and we all got to see projects we all worked on throughout the year. Very inspiring!!! These two are versions of the museum quilt by Kaffe Fassett. The one on the right are his original fabrics and colors. They measure 120" square, and have 6" blocks, so they really took some work, but so worth it!!

This is a shot of the owners Ev and Sandy of Fabric Boutique in Las Vegas, and friend Beverly is on the right. She was one of our most prolific quilters this year!!!

Carrie Ketchum made this beautiful Storm at Sea quilt. Great job Carrie!!!

There was show and tell throughout the evening and great food as well as good company and friends to visit.

Here is Bev with her Holiday Redwork quilt that I taught at retreat this year.

Here is Darlene, with her brother, and husband Jack to the left.

It was like a mini quilt show!!! Beautiful. Thanks Darlene, for a wonderful time!!

Tomorrow I hope to ship the last presents and longarm one quilt before Sat. I still have 4 stockings to embroider names on and then the packages can all be sent off! Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I think I can see a glimpse!!! Breathe deep. We're almost there!!!

Twilight and Christmas quilts

Ok, so I have a confession to make. I'm a grandmother and I'm crazy for Edward Cullen in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. Rob Pattinson is so perfect for the part!!! He is exactly what I imagined when I read the books!!! I may be old, but I am not dead!!! LOL!!!

My husband and I went Christmas shopping in the mall today, I must be crazy, but it was alot of fun, and while standing in line a young girl was wearing her Twilight T-shirt! I asked her if she was reading the books--she said she was on the 4th one and hadn't seen the movie yet. Her Mom was on book 2!! I was way ahead of these two and they laughed when I informed them I'd already seen the movie twice!!! I'm sure they must have thought I was a very cool grandma, right? LOL!!!! Anyway, being a Twilight fan seems to defy age!!! I loved the movie and will buy the DVD as soon as it comes out. The best part is, they are already working on the sequel for book #2, New Moon. I can hardly wait!!


The Christmas season is here in full force and with Thanksgiving being so late in November, I'm feeling like there is no time at all before Christmas will be here!! I'm really wanting to enjoy the season, and thought I'd share some of my favorite Christmas quilts with you. This is a spiral tree skirt pattern that I have been selling at the local quilt shop and also have taught several classes. It looks real hard but is very easy with a 9 or 10 degree wedge ruler. Everyone loves how fast it is to put together, and it makes a great gift too.

This quilt is called "Frosty Frames" and I made it a few years ago. It is applique and the snowmen I made with white flannel. It's a fun quilt.

This is a wreath wall hanging I taught classes on in the past and is made using the "watercolor" technique on fusible grid that was so popular when the watercolor quilts came out. I glitzed it with sparkles, but they are hard to see in this photo.

Here is a bargello style Christmas tree from last year. It is glitzed too, and the pattern is called Christmas Stardust by Grissley Gulch Gallery. Hope to get the rest of my shopping done soon, and feel more caught up....er, uh, is that possible this time of year?!!!

Christmas Swap!

My package arrived for the Chooky Blue Chrismas Swap! My partner is Cherly Goss of Willow Berry Designs, and I am so excited!!! I just made a quilt out of your fabrics this year and I love your style!!! I can only see the outside fabric, but promise not to peek inside, (it is wrapped in clear wrapping!!). The outside of the package says something about buttons, patterns, fabric, ok the suppense is killing me!!! I hope I can wait that long!!!! Thankyou!!!!

A new room and Thanksgiving!!

Well, I'm not being very good at this lately, I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted!!! Somehow everything got out of whack and there has been so much going on, that I'm lucky to pay my bills on time!!!

I just found out a couple of weeks ago, that this quilt, called Sunflowers at the Farm, from a new Benartex line called Farmyard Toile, will be going into a new issue of Fons and Porter magazine sometime next year!! So keep your eyes out for the pattern!!

This quilt will be shown in the Jan/09 issue of Quilt Magazine. It is called The Apple Orchard and is done in Nancy Halverson's line called Cider Mill Road!!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!! We had a houseful! Four adults, 4 kids, and 3 dogs in my little house made for lots of cozy gatherings and fun. The kitchen seemed to run non stop and there was lots of turkey for everyone.

This is me with one of my twin Granddaughters, I think this is either Presley or Peyton. We had all gone out to dinner for her older brother, Justin's birthday. The girls are identical!!!! The other twin is in her air mattress bed below with Roxy.

One of the new dogs in the house is the kids new puppy Max. He is also a rat terrier with brown spots and really pretty green eyes! All the kids had a quilt from Grandma, so Max had to have one too!!! See his doggies on the quilt?

Here is Max with Bryson, our younger Grandson.

Since everyone left, Roxy just doesn't know what to do with herself!! She played with Max constantly, and now all the attention in the world won't make up for him!!! We walked this morning, but instead, she is in mourning, poor Roxy!!!

She loved sleeping with the kids

Here is the other reason why I've been so busy. This is the beginnings of a new longarm room for my quilting!!

It went together in just 2 weeks. I still can't believe I have my very own longarm room!!!

The finished room, with baseboard still to be installed.

My new longarm table came on Saturday, and since I have been bringing everything that is longarm related into the room. I finally have a place for the batting and treads.

There are still some hanging rods to be put up, and more quilts to be hung, but I am so excited to get started. I have alot of work to catch up on!!!!

Nine new quilts have come in for companies due in January, and more longarming to do. I hope I get the Christmas tree up soon!!!! I always have it up by this time. No bah humbugs allowed!!!! I will be back soon!!! I've missed you all!!! Happy Holidays everyone, find time to quilt!