Goodbye 2015.......Hello 2016

Happy New Year Everyone!

Next weekend is our first Open Quilt Saturday of the new year and I'm excited!  I want to complete Hailey's quilt and then do something fast and quick.  Just to get my new year started off right!

I bought these at our local shop here last week.  They have one particular fabric line coming in after Christmas that I have my eye on to get......but I could not resist getting these.

I love the Simply Colorful II line.  Those are all my favorite colors in there.  I found the regular charm pack online on sale and had it loaded into the basket to get and then the 2 year old struck.  Do you think I can remember what site I had that on?  I'll have to search back through my history.

I got this pin cushion from a dear friend.  She is really non-blood family, my 2 year old calls her Grandma.  I love it.  The embroidery is awesome, and the walnut fill is supped to keep your needles sharp.

I bought myself an adult coloring book.  I find that not only does it help me de-stress a little, but it also helps get my creative juices flowing again when I find myself going stagnant.  This first picture is as far as I have gotten so far, and it is not completed yet. 

It is a beautiful and sunny day today after a week of gloom and snow.  I do not mind the snow, but it is nice to see the sun again!  Love you sun!!

So Happy New Year, and may it be beautiful and prosperous!

Always,

Gentrie

Christmas Madness

Amongst all of the Christmas Madness this quilt is still in the hoop, but getting sooooo close to done.

Between how busy we are at work and trying to get all the Holiday festivities and chores done it is not complete yet.  Basketball is over now (for the 6th graders).  In a way I am sad, I do enjoy watching Hailey play basketball.

I am loving our tree this year, smell and looks..

Mark got an elk this year which means we had to buy a small freezer to put the meat in.  Which means the shelf that was once in the room (no pictures due to the horrific mess it was) had to come out.

What to DO with the extra shelf????

In walks my Saturday project this weekend......

Yep, reorganizing my closet!!  I do not have my own quilting room in this house so the question becomes where to put stuff.  My husband could barely get to HIS portion of the closet due to boxes of quilting items in the way.

Insert trumpets sounding here.........he can now walk RIGHT up to his clothes now!  Oh, and the tool box is mine.  My husband did inform me that I have another tub of fabric in the storage unit, besides the tub of batting, and would I like him to bring it over?  Oh how sweet you are dear, but I think we may have to wait for that momentous occasion.

Again, the before photo is WAY TOO atrocious to post here.  Let me assure you this was an all day project.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Always,

Gentrie

In the Hoop

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I have been hand quilting again, which I have not done for quite a while.  In the hoop is my granddaughters quilt.

Through the strip piecing I am doing a meandering diagonal quilting.  Nothing structured, fun and random.

Can you see the calluses forming on my fingers?  They are so stinking sore.  Had I PLANNED on hand quilting this quilt I would have used wool batting, especially since it has minke on the back.

In OTHER breaking news, I did finally receive my swap blocks!!!!  Yeah!  There are SO many fun fabrics in here!  I love them.  Now just to figure out what I am going to do with them.....hmm. 

Projects in progress

I have been out of commission for a while with all that has been going on.  Between taking care of two elderly parents and 2 kids and working full time, I just don't get enough quilting (or me) time.

Right now as I type this my 2 year old is sitting in my lap asking if she can touch the buttons. Um mm, no.

This is a quilt that I made for my grand baby.  I had made her blankets but not a quilt.  We had a one day sew in the third weekend of October and I put this top together.  I am hand quilting it now.  I tried it on my machine but I think the minke on the back was throwing it off.  I could not get my tension adjusted right and gave up before I ruined the quilt. 

We had another one day sew in yesterday and that is where I tried machine quilting this.... FAIL!!!  So I hand quilted for a little while and then worked on Hailey's quilt for a little while.

In other news, we have been having some amazing sunsets!

My block exchange blocks seem to be lost in the mail.  SAD FACE HERE!

I am keeping hope alive they will show eventually.

Always,

Gentrie

Whoop, Whoop!

I have been so busy lately.  Yesterday I actually was invited to quilt with a group of women for a day.  No class, no instruction, just come in and sew on whatever you need to get done.  IT....WAS......AWESOME!  I realized how much I have missed just sitting around and sewing with a group of gals.  We sewed from 9am to about 4:30pm.  I got a quilt top completed for my grand baby Lynlee.

Yeah!  So they are getting together every 2nd Saturday of every month.  I am so in!

I did get my block swap completed and sent in the mail last week!

There was a shop hop a couple weekends ago.  Hailey had a birthday that same weekend.  I bought some cool fabrics at the shop hop.

This beach one was in a gift bag from one of the stores.  Really cute.

I also found this mustache fabric to slide into Hailey's quilt somehow.

She is all about the mustache craze!

We also had a horse who somehow poked himself in the eye so we had administer antibiotics to him 2 times a day.  That was a bit of a chore since we board them right now.

I will show pics of Lynlee's quilt in a while.  I have a minky back I can use on it and happen to have a crib size batting.  So hand quilt or machine quilt?

Better machine quilt it if I actually want it to get done!  LOL!

Hope you are all making progress where you are at!

Always,

Gentrie