Maybe in time for NEXT Christmas !

Well, it's December 27th, here's hoping you all had a blessed Christmas. Ours was a quiet one, with family all snowed in and not able to travel. They did get here on Saturday though, and had to leave again tonite. So, this blizzard we had is now being called the Christmas Blizzard of 2009. Lots of snow, although I haven't heard the total yet. Now that I found ( actually stole from my "flip" video camera ) some batteries, maybe I will snap some pics of our winter wonderland tomorrow.



Now for some "old business" . . .

Here is the picture of the table topper from the last post. It is laying on a reddish quilt, but what do you think? Red binding or Green ? Better let me know quick so I can finish it before NEXT Christmas !



"New Business" is. . . my DD was home for Christmas, and she is a stylist, and I finally did the plunge and had her cut my hair. It was once again almost to my waist, and is now the shortest that I have had it in the last 48 years. I don't remember how long my hair had been back then, but I do remember my Mom had it cut in a "pixie" style and I remember crying for days. Little did she know how much that would traumatize me and for how long. . . well, it is NOT as short as a Pixie, but pretty short for me. And how am I doing about it now ?. . . well, no tears, and so far no regrets. . .. . . . .

Storm Watch ( or Oyster Stew for Two on Christmas Eve )

Big storm's a'comin' or so they say. . . so I'm thinking our Minneapolis family won't make it home for Christmas. That means that the grandson won't be staying the week between Christmas and New Year's either ! Big Disappointment, but I am not going to dwell on that, I am going to be thankful that we have weathermen and forecasts so we know when bad weather is coming and can plan accordingly. Our current forcast is for snow starting here at noon, snowing through Christmas morning, with 12" or more of snow, then the wind comes up and blows through Saturday ( translation: BLIZZARD ) .

So, today's plan is to make a grocery list and get to the grocery store for the big blizzard rush. . maybe a couple movies too. Then we should get some more wood in for the fireplace before it gets covered up with snow. . . Then we can hibernate for a couple days.

Now, just so this post will have a picture, I will post a 24" table topper that I made ( to keep ! ). Not sure what color binding to do, I think it will be a scrappy binding, but green or red ? What do you think ? I am guessing I will have time this Christmas to get it done !

oops. . . sorry, batteries are dead in the camera. . . guess I will have to put that on my shopping list, then come back here and edit ! See you later. . .

PAY IT FORWARD

Good Morning all. . .



Well, I finished the last of my customer quilts due to be quilted by Christmas a couple days ago, so now I need to start on my projects, one of them being to catch up on posts !



You may remember the floods we had here in North Dakota this spring. Well we
( the North Dakota State Quilt Council ) were contacted by a group of quilters from Mountain Home, Idaho, that wanted to send quilting supplies to quilters that had been affected by the flood. Below is a picture of the quilters receiving the boxes of donated quilting supplies. In the picture are Doris, Rita, Pat, me, and Paulette. Doris ( Pat's MIL ) was totally flooded out and lost her home. She was displaced for 7 months and just moved into her new home on Dec 14th. Rita had water in her basement and her home is not even close to the river, Pat's home had 6" of water on the main floor, and the dikes surrounding their home held back 3' of water. They now have a permanent concrete dike between their home and the river. Their son and DIL also lost their home in the flood and are rebuilding. Paulette's home was not flooded, but they were displaced for 3 weeks because all the roads and bridges to their home were out.













It was so fun to see this group of quilters get down on the floor and open these boxes like it was Christmas ! They have shared the items with the rest of their quilting group, and plan on paying it forward by making a quilt and donating it to the Red Cross.

I found out a few weeks later, that when Pat was going through some quilting magazines that were included in the boxes that in a Quilters Newsletter Magazine from 2002, there was an article about a quilt that Pat's Mother had made for the Ft. Seward Wagon Train in 1993. A quilt is made every year for the Wagon Train and is auctioned off to raise funds. She didn't know who had won the auction for the quilt her Mom had made, but somehow, the quilt was published, and Pat never knew this until picking up that magazine. What a nice surprise for her ! and kind of a "woo woo" moment - insert some Twilight Zone music here - just think about it. . . a kind deed, a random magazine sent to a group in crisis, and it happens to contain an article about a quilt made 16 years previously by Mom, and if Pat hadn't rec'd or looked at the magazine, she would have never known that her Mom's quilt had been published ! I think another "WOO-WOO" is in order for that !

A BIG THANK YOU to the generous hearts in Mountain Home Idaho, and by paying it forward, these ND quilters will be keeping the goodness going forth.

Imagine what this world would be like if everyone "Payed it Forward" . . . .


If you would like to know more info about the NDSQC or the Fort Seward Wagon Train, or see the "woo-woo" quilt, be sure and click on the links. The quilt can be seen on the Wagon Train website.

Hi. .

I thought I would take a little time out from the LIST ( my quilting list. . . only 5 more customer quilts/runners to do before Christmas, and barring any catastrophe, I do believe I will be done by the middle of this week with them all ! ) to post. I saw this tree skirt pattern in a magazine- and it was so nice to find one that I actually felt like making ! - and thought it was so cute. I made this for my DIL for her birthday. Sure hope she likes it. She has her whole house decorated PRIM, and boy, let me tell you, it could sure be on a tour of homes ! So, that is why I used the muted prim colors in this tree skirt. Now, I never can stand to make the same thing twice, if I do it is under great duress. .. . . but I really like this pattern and I think I might need one of these one day too. I had better mark that magazine and put it in a safe place. I am not up to making it this year, but I think it will go on my WISP list.

I quilted it using Nested Hearts, and am really happy with the way it turned out.

In other news, it has been bitterly cold up here in North Dakota ( like below ZERO), and just a couple weeks ago it was up in the 50's . I did not get my outside lights up yet - I hope to be able to motivate to get something up outside this weekend. Of course that all depends on how much quilting I can get done this weekend too !

Mr. Stitches has been good about keeping the wood stocked for the fire in the fireplace, and cooking the occasional suppper ( ok, he has been making most of the suppers around here , however I do have them organized so he knows what to make. . .) so I can quilt in the evenings, and go to practices and gigs with the band. We have been doing a few Christmas gigs lately, and let me tell you. . .. all those Christmas songs you THINK you know ? well just try putting chords to them and playing them right and singing ALL the words right. . . and figuring out which Christmas songs you can bluegrass up. . . . well. . . it just isn't so easy ! But it has been fun, and exhausting ! Soon enough we will be back to the usual bluegrass songs that we play all the rest of the year.

Ok. . . I have another couple table runners to quilt out tonite. . .

will try and post more later. I have some really cute quilty items to show you all !

I hope you are all taking time out to enjoy the season !