A finish!

Finished this last night. I found that ducky fabric for the back and thought it would be perfect. I have one in pink started too!

Whirly not so giggly - but doing better

I thought I would take a few minutes and try my hand at the whirlygiggle block that has been popping up around blogland. Obviously I had forgotten about my dismal performance in high school geometry (and also home ec - one of my most embarrassing days was the day we were required to wear the skirt we made - sorry I digress)
Blocks sewn wrong, upside down, wrong sides together, whirlys whirling the wrong way, oops sliced through my one good template, uh-oh can't read the template because I wrote so many times on it which was up/down/top/bottom and one inexplicably wrong size. But look 3 perfect ones! Let's hope I can remember this for tomorrow

I've been busy the past few days completing some blocks that I made from Lynette Anderson's Noah's Ark www.lynetteandersondesigns.typepad.com/ and this block offered at Bunny Hill www.bunnyhill.blogspot.com/ . I did the first one on the blue snowflake background and then worried about finding backgrounds for the future months so did one also on some off-white background.

I finally finished this quilt top! I hope to get it quilted and put the binding on by this weekend. This will be a baby quilt for a new nephew. The goal is to get it to him before his 1 month birthday.

We have had some rare snow here. It's been about 3 years since we have had any - at all! There are some much cuter pictures than mine on John's blog www.quiltdad.blogspot.com (we live in the same town - look at August 28th's post for more about that).
It's my favorite kind of snow - around for a few days and then 60 on Friday! Keep in mind though I have crocuses and daffodils coming up and as you can see in this one picture - my forsythia has buds on it.

Earlier this fall I with the permission of the creator of this quilt I posted this picture. I am showing it again in honor of inaugration day tommorrow. Also I am sharing this newspaper article that was recently in our paper about the quilt and it's maker - Marjorie Diggs Freeman.




HAND STITCHED INTO HISTORY

Marjorie Diggs Freeman was so inspired by Barack Obama during the Democratic National Convention that she immediately began to design a quilt.

The fabric artist had not been as moved by any political candidate since John F. Kennedy --and that was more than four decades ago.

So the 72-year-old retired school principal set out to frame her feelings with a patchwork of red-white-and-blue fabric and hand-stitched stars.

That work is part of "Quilts for Obama: Celebrating the Inauguration of our 44th President," an exhibition that will hang through Feb. 1 at the Historical Society of Washington.

The display, with 44 new works from 44 African-American artists, celebrates the historic thread that quilts weave through many families -- with their folksy stories and cherished fabric of years gone by.

One of the quilts in the display, exhibit organizers say, is from Carrie Nelson, the oldest member of Michelle Obama's family.

Sauda Zahra, another Durham resident, also has a quilt in the exhibit.

Freeman, a member of the African-American Quilt Club in Durham and workshop chairwoman for the Durham-Orange Quilters Guild in the western Triangle, said that hope was the theme of her project.

Not only was the quilter optimistic that she would see the first black president in her lifetime, she hoped to someday weave Obama into the fabric of her life.

"If my prayers are answered, I will be able to present this quilt to him when he IS the president of this great nation," Freeman wrote on the label for her quilt, titled "Yes We Can, And In My Lifetime."

The artist had to redo her original quilt to fit the show's required dimensions. But that just means the 44th president of the United States has his choice of quilts -- the original or the one tailored for the show.

"He can have either one he wants," Freeman promises.

anne.blythe@newsobserver.com

I forgot to show a Christmas gift that I made. Another set of placemats and pot holder. I also wanted to show one of the many dishcloths I have made using instructions from Amandajean's blog www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com There is a large chain fabric store that I usually never go to. It takes forever to get fabric cut and then check out. Plus they cut the fabric all crooked. But I was there buying buttons and saw the fabric with the fruit and the brown polka dots. And --- I saw this fabric - which was just too cute to pass up. So I feel a little guilty about not patronizing my local quilt shops but the house fabric with my coupon was only $3.80 a yard! At that price my moral stand on patronizing local businesses is a little shaky.

This is what the New Year brought us - new pipes! I'm trying not to be sad about losing so many azaelas. Here's a picture of part of my front lawn - after the 8foot deep trench was dug. It's been a challenging week keeping the dog (Maggie) out of the area (she can't read the caution tape). She insists on going over to it and managed to climb down in there. She wasn't hurt and in fact seemed to love her adventure and we got her out easily. Thankfully today they are finally filling it back in. I have also been organizing/cleaning my sewing room. I spent a few days tidying up my stash. So now that my sewing room is straightened I can really start sewing again and once it gets a little warmer I think I have some landscaping to do!

What santa brought me

One evening while reading magazines at the bookstore coffeeshop with my husband - I showed him an article about vintage sewing baskets and mentioned that my mother and aunt had one and wondered where it got to.

First of all I have a wonderful husband to sit and listen to my sewing basket story but even more remarkable is what santa brought me just a couple of weeks later!

Happy New Year

I am wondering how many quilters out there have a New Year Resolution to get some UFO's completed, not buy more fabric, finish up works in progress? By the looks of the challange that May from www.abyquilt.blogspot.com and Kris from www.tagalongteddies.blogspot.com are hosting I may have some company in needing to get some UFO's finished. So I will be participating in that challange. One project finished a month. I am also joining in on the Pay it Forward Challange I read about in Amanda's blog www.scrandasmusings.blogspot.com . Amanda's PIF comes from www.skattebo-skattebo.blogspot.com . Which I think comes from another blog - see how it works! Here are the rules. So if anyone is interested I need three people who would like to participate and I will send each one of those three people a PIF - who in turn will send a PIF to three people and so on...

The "Pay It Forward" rules:
Three people will be chosen to participate when they leave a comment on this post asking to join. (The first three will be chosen).

You are agreeing to post a similar announcement on your blog, and Pay It Forward to three more people, who will in turn agree to Pay It Forward to three other people, etc.

You will create a hand-made item for your three people sometime over the next 12 months

I am also doing a reading challange I saw a Reading to Know challange www.readingtoknow.blogspot.com . I haven't been reading enough lately and thought this would get me started.

I am also going to be having a giveaway to celebrate my 100+ posts. So check back for that to happen here soon.
Oh and I think I finally after much frustration have learned how to post links!