The Best Christmas Present!!

I wanted you all to see the beautiful Christmas present that my husband Bill made for me in his "Basement Getaway" /or workshop. (I equate his get away with the AYYYHHHHH that I feel when I sit down at my Bernina to sew). I had heard the buzz and smelled varnish for some time after Thanksgiving and I knew something important and secret was going on down there. Knew enough not to open that door or look in the window. I knew enough not to ask what that sheepish yet excited look was on Bill's face..............................and it was worth it! I love you Honey!!!!

Tree's down :(

I'm back from Geneva, a short reprieve......... so appreciated and cherished!!! I was fortunate enough to spend hours of quality time with Lisa's daughter Chrissy as well as with Nancy. You will be so excited to see the "show and tell"time I enjoyed. I had all of you in mind when I took the photos so here goes:

This is Nancy's Spider web Quilt-notice the firefly quilting.

To the left is Nancy's "Thirty's fabric quilt-hand quilted

WOW!!

Lisa's "Dress form" quilt-also hand quilted. I an blown away at how much these ladies have accomplished since my last visit. I have so much to be inspired by. There are two pieced but not yet quilted tops on my "To -Do " list and two quilts cut and ready to sew. I have started a knitted scarf but have not finished my cardigan sweater yet.........But the tree is down and I'm back to work on

Monday.............My regular schedule will need some creativity .........so stay tuned!!

Wonderful Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with our grand kids-yes the boys I made quilts for. As predicted, the boys looked at the quilts and pushed them aside to open their toys. I didn't mind at all.................we had already baked , sledded and played with tinker toys and Lego's. The boys made certain that the quilts were packed in the suitcase rather than send them through the mail. They call me GRANDMA!!!!!!!!!!!And WE have snow................about an inch but you would have thought it was a winter wonderland the we way they carried on.

I will be traveling to see my quilting mentors tomorrow AM. Hoping for good travel weather. There's a good chance we will be going to our favorite quilt shop Patchwork Plus. Hoping to limit my purchases.....................they would be on the same "Christmas bill" I am dreading.

Bento box sucess!

I decided to use the black as the binding to frame the Bento boxes!

It took two full days of relentless quilting but I did finish and I am happy with the results. I am certain that both grand kids will say a quiet "thank you" then push the quilts aside reaching for toys BUT..........................someday when they are snuggled in their Quilt, they will think of me or remember what I hope will be a great Christmas memory!Can you see the leaf quilting pattern on each quarter of the Bento box-it looks neat on the back as well.

Please don't look at the back!!

Well, I finished piecing the top but please don't look at the back. You know, I have a quarter inch foot and I measure with a host of quilting rulers........I can't believe what a variance there was each time I cut and sewed pieces together. My mentor Lisa would be shocked and dismayed BUT......................if you don't tell, I may just be able to pull it off because the affect is a success.................may be an optical illusion but ...it works.Thanks Lisa and Nancy for the color advice!! Sorry about the camera wire in the corner. Today I had a proud moment in my motherhood career. My daughter Vanessa had a "premier event experience" participating in the annual "second storie indie market 2009".

She has a site on Etsy and has had much

success selling on the internet.......................Today she sold at a craft fair for the first time and we enjoyed watching people purchase her loom woven scarves after viewing, touching and trying on her beautiful creations. Check out her work at http://www.etsy.com/shop/pidgepidge

Bento Box

Well, I finished the blue quilt-no photo yet cause I have yet to gently wash it-love the way that first wash yields all the puckers!!

I have begun piecing the Red-lover grandson's Christmas present. I am referring to the Bento Box Quilt I am working through the vague directions I have gleaned from several articles and blog posts. Basically it is like a log cabin quilt in that you create a design with fabric strips that are frames around a center square. The trick is that you then slice those 16 inch blocks into quarters and sew THEM together to yield Bento Boxes.

Here is a sneak peak-you can see that I have just folded the three top squares in order to demonstrate the transformation. I need to really press the framed blocks and cut them to square them up for size before I quarter them. That will take time, several trips to the basement where the Rowenta iron lives and precision slicing.

I'm certain that the project would have been easier if I had ordered a pattern........... because my thoughts of random cutting and paring of color failed. I realized that each four block arrangement needs to have the strips arranged with opposite colors when next to the section you will sew them to ..............after the quartering. Not sure if you get it but check out the photo to see that each seam has opposite fabrics.

Light at the end...........

Well, I thought I was well on my way last post................but there is a lot of quilting to do in order to cover an entire quilt top. I finally finished the machine quilting and have made the binding.

Next, I will sew the binding on and I have put in a couple of straight pins to show where the stitches will be and then rolled the folded strip over to show how the finished edge will look. I usually use a "walking foot" to sew the many layers together so that the binding doesn't slip. The walking foot is an

attachment that has "feed dogs" like the ones under the needle plate on the sewing machine. With feed dogs on the bottom and on the top of the fabric, all layers of fabric will move under the needle at the same speed and without sheering away from each other.

SNEAK PEAK AT THE FABRIC FOR THE OTHER GRANDSON'S QUILT!!!