A homemade Christmas

I'm the youngest of my siblings, and I found it fitting to get a sibling picture with them in front of the tree this year with their Christmas present quilts.

Go Packers!  (73 x 96)

Do you work better (more productive) with deadlines?  The final binding stitches for the Green Bay Packer quilt were sewn the night before heading out to my parents for our Christmas celebration.  The pace for completion of this quilt increased after my brother mentioned at our Thanksgiving holiday that he was wanting a new quilt. "No rush," he had said... 

Ask and ye shall receive...

When giving quilts, I don't have any expectations of reactions, regardless of who is the recipient.   It appears that Gma was a bit saddened that the quilt she claimed "dibbs" on as I was posting its progress on Facebook was given to her son instead of her.  

My sister and BIL knew this quilt was a project with their names on it, literally.  "Berquist Beauty" took its time being made throughout the year, and it appears to have been graciously accepted as a quilt for their king-sized bed.

Berquist Beauty (103 x 103)

  

Gma received her own (smaller) homemade items.  

After volunteering to take care of the dishes during the Thanksgiving visit, I was determined to gift her some new towels that actually absorbed water when used to dry dishes :)  LOL

And a couple of crocheted dish cloths to complete out her present.  I used the Dishie yarn from KnitPics;  I'm pretty pleased with this yarn for dish cloths.

Most of Wisconsin was pretty brown on Christmas Day, but Saturday morning (12/27) changed that picture!  A wet, heavy snow started falling Friday night into Saturday morning, dropping about 4 inches.   My parents have a beautiful cozy place nestled back into some woods.  Cliche-sounding, but true!

I'm in the midst of Christmas Break from school right now;  I figured it was time to give my blog another post update.   I've been sewing most of today away, but.... maybe I'll save that post for tomorrow :D   It could happen!  LOL

New start - Always Time

Bonnie's mystery quilt of 2014 has begun, and of COURSE I'm eager to participate.  I hadn't chosen fabrics, so after arriving home Friday afternoon after celebrating Thanksgiving at my parent's house, I spent some time in the sewing room.  I had a stack of luscious lilacs/sages/olives that I was hoping would fit the bill, but..... *sigh*.... no matter how I sorted them, varied them, added to them.... 

... they weren't working out with Bonnie's requests.

And, in a weird silly moment, I begged the silent aura of Bonnie for forgiveness.  I chose to push pause on her mystery.  I needed to work with these fabrics!

Friday evening, I spent in front of the television with stacks and stacks of quilt magazines.  I'm thankful I've been able to ignore the little voice in my head that often tells me  I need to reduce my pile of magazines, thinking I'll NEVER make a quilt from a pattern.  By the time I headed to bed, I had narrowed my choices to four that I felt would work with the fabric amounts on hand.

Saturday morning, I finalized it to the Ramblin' Aunt Sukey pattern.  I've made this pattern before for Cathy's Aunt Sukey, back in 2008.  It's a lovely, elegant pattern. 

The morning was spent cutting up most of the units.  It's crazy how much time it takes to cut all of these pieces, but yet...... there's SO little to show!

I would have loved to begin sewing, but I had a wedding to attend of a very special young lady.

Bright and 5:00 early this morning though, I was up raring to dive into the project.

Hours later (7?), the blocks are completed and are resting on the carpeted area, waiting to be sewn into a quilt top.  Today was a wonderfully productive day :D  After working on it for hours, I think it'll suitable fit the name, Always Time.

My Green Bay Packer scrap leader-ender project is growing nicely on the design wall.  I have no definite size in mind;  I'll just keep adding until it reaches (no larger than) a queen size.

Now, I have decisions to make!  I would love to continue tackling this collection of yarn odds-n-ends in a new 'Scrap Ripple' afghan, but, sadly, I think my school work needs to take some precedence.  (At least long enough for me to know what I'm planning to do tomorrow!)  And soon---the Packer game is on!

Cabin time, quilting style

I haven't done much (any?) blogging on the harvesting/preserving of the goodies from our garden this year.  Since we've been home from vacation, beans, peas, peppers and cucumbers have been most of our harvests.  This morning was the last of our bean harvesting;  we have reached our lot :)

The corn JUST became ripe, and we enjoyed our first meal of 'corn only' for lunch today.

Then, I started losing steam.  1:00 hit, and I was glad the beans and cucumbers were done;  picked and preserved.  I mentioned tackling the carrots to Cassie and Paul this AM, but.......... nope.  Not today.  They can wait a few more days.

Instead, I hopped on FB to see what everyone was up to.

Have you seen those "Which ________ are you?" quizzes?  Be it, superhero, color, Sci-Fi, ......

Today, it was Which quilt block are you?

Log cabin!  That was truly the little bit of kick I needed to get motivated to head downstairs for a few hours of some simple, relaxing piecing.

I've had this tote of fabrics cut since.... 2008 (?) for log cabin blocks.  

I had about 9 blocks of each style pieced that are shown in this picture.  Observe... do you see the slight difference between the block piles?

These (with a 1" finished center) were actually the second version of my quilt block that I pieced way back in 2010.

I think THESE 2" centers go back to..... 2008?  Goodness, I really don't know.

BUT, notice what had me hung up?  Due to the 2" (finished) square in the center, I wasn't able to leave this as a 9" (finished) block, {the size I wanted} because the darks weren't balanced with the neutrals.  I mean, I COULD have left them like this;  they did look okay on the design wall with the slight off--center-balanceness.  But I didn't.

I made up 10 new blocks, burning through some of the scraps from those that had already been cut in the tote, and then started to cut some new scrap fabrics in order to increase the blocks by 2 more edges, having them finish at 10".  

5:00 rolled around, and I was feeling the afternoon "I need to eat" slowsies.  Therefore, the remaining partially completed stack will wait for my next sewing & cutting-scraps session.

My GBP (Green Bay Packer) leader-ender piles are growing...

Upstairs, the girls were have a moment of "getting along," playing a game of checkers.

It's crazy that I spent so much time away from the blog this summer, but.... I think that time away really was just needed.   Denise and Pamela wrote me such simple, but MUCH NEEDED, 'missed you' comments on my post yesterday.  I wanted to reply, ladies, but both of you have your settings set to "no-reply."  I am super super appreciative of your kind words.   Lori, I've wanted to respond to your comments lately, too...but you also have a "no-reply" setting.  THANKS for the cheers and the scrubbie tutorial :)

And to all my readers...

There are those of you who have become true friends, even those we've never met face-to-face.  I truly am thankful for many advances in technology in order for this amazingness to occur. :)

Happy Friday

If you'd like to be FB friends---leave me a comment; don't be afraid to ask.  I promise I won't think you're stalker material! :)  I post to FB far more than here (especially lately!) 

Hawaii Sunset top done; new project (really?!?!!?)

Hawaii Sunset (c. 1845).  90" x 90"

Almost 2 years from the day I began the Hawaii Sunset (1845) adventure, the top is finished.

This started as a twisting of the arm idea between a couple of online quilting friends:  Andee and Andra.  I budged my big ol' butt into inviting myself to join them, and we worked out the math with all the units needed and turned it into a small block-unit swap between the three of us.

Andra has long finished her version;  Andee is still plugging along with hers.  In fact, part of Andee's Around the World blog hop post today talks about her progress in Hawaii Sunset.  She's nominated me to participate in next Monday's postings, so watch for that.  

In fact, it's Andee's nomination that kick-started my quilting progress again.  THANKS ANDEE!

Another neat fact...

The Sundae Quilter (Nancy) and I quilt-skyped for the very first time back on the day I began working on Hawaii Sunset.  In a crazy twist of fate, she and I skyped yet again yesterday as I was working on the final seams.  Kinda cool.

Nancy and I have both shared conversations about aspects of blogging.  I truly can't believe I only posted THREE TIMES in July this year!  Wha???  But, I just didn't feel like it.  Taking pictures, editing pictures, writing posts.... it all takes time.  I had/have been posting loads to my FaceBook account.  Finding time to duplicate it all to the blog just didn't interest me.  But... I think I'll be back.  

One PRO about keeping the blog:  It's an EXCELLENT journal!  Truly!  I love being able to trek back into years past just to see the timeline of my quilting projects, the progress of the garden, the changes in the family, etc...

Let's go back to Andee for a moment, shall we?!?!?........

A-hem.... yes.  Our dear Andee simply MUST accept at LEAST 90% of the blame for this.  

A NEW PROJECT?!?!?!  REALLY!?!?!?!?   AS IF I don't have a bazillion-n-a-half other projects/UFOs/WIPs!

However, my plan is to treat this as a Leader-Ender.

The colors definitely have meaning:  being a Wisconsinite, I simply have to make at least ONE Green Bay Packer quilt in my lifetime :)

After a quick google search, I was lead rather quickly to the following blogpost: Shirley Anne's Heart.  The jewel pattern shown on her post is my inspirational picture for this project.  I LOVE jewel patterns!  

Let's wrap up this post with a lovely comment towards two amazing online friends!

Recall one of the few July posts I wrote, where Caitlyn was determined to knit by using sharpened pencils!  The picture was posted to my Facebook page, and two wonderful ladies jumped into action!  I've often read stories about people doing kind acts, but I've never been on the recipient end of such acts.

Judy and Nancy both sent packages of hooks and yarn for Caitlyn to enjoy and start her down a REAL path of knitting...

  

THANKS ladies!  You are simply amazing!

It TRULY is wonderful what our technological world has allowed to happen!  There are many of you I've come to know over the past 7 years of my online experience, and I enjoy our online friendship just as much (if not more) as some of my face-to-face friendships.

Happy Monday.