"And Lo, the Days Are Hastening On......"

Does anyone besides me wonder who put the clock and calendar on fast forward? It's mid-December already and will soon be 2017.   Yikes!  The packages have been mailed, but there are still gifts to finish and wrap, music to learn, and, oh yeah, the Peace Project.  That is languishing, I'm afraid.  It'll get done eventually, but for sure not by the Dec. 21 date.  Oh well, it's supposed to bring peace, not stress.  I did complete another Interrupted Cowl, however.  (Don't tell anyone though that I have the yarn for two more......They won't get done any time soon either.)

I dove into my stash to find the next project, a Bead Stew bracelet, from Earthfaire.  I'd forgotten how much fun these are to make and also discovered a few more beaded projects patiently waiting for me to discover. (do?)

A while ago I promised to post more photos from the quilt show.  There's not room here for all of them, but when I saw this one I knew I had to include it for Dee.

Speaking of Dee, she is such a talented cross stitcher, and much to our delight, she sent us this sheep that is now reigning over our garden window.  Thank you, Dee!

At the moment it is pretty chilly (for us) here, and lots of plants are looking quite unhappy. Not long ago though Dick caught this photo of one of our Hydrangea plants.  The purple tipped leaves caught his eye.  Aren't they amazing?

And now I need to get back to work on an apron I'm making. Have a good evening.

What Happened to November?

 Since my last post, this month has been crazy busy!  First, was the weekend of Veteran's Day that started with the quilt show.  So many pretty quilts, and too many to show them all.  My favorite was the cat one. (Are you surprised?) It featured Laurel Burch fabric, and all of the cats were done with tiny seed beads!

Here are a few close ups: (If you double click on the photos, you can see the details.)

The sign tells you that it took the designer/quilter a year to do just the beading.

I fell in love with these dolls, too.  Have you ever worked with felted wool?  I have not.

The very next day we had a surprise family Birthday Brunch for Dick.  His brother and our SIL flew up from CA for the occasion.  It was a fun and busy weekend.  We were so full that we took the cake home.

Much to our surprise when we saw it next, it looked like this:

Since the birthday bash, we've been busy practicing for our Christmas choir concert on the 11th, doing lots of knitting, and of course, a little Thanksgiving cooking.

We took these over to the GK today; Stella grabbed hers and ran into her bedroom where she hid them in a drawer.  Maybe she'll try them on some day?

 Max put his hat right on; it's a bit slouchy now but should fit for another Christmas season or two!

And of course I finished another two cowls.  You will be glad to know that the last one, at least for now, is on my needles.

I don't bake cakes but I do make pies, and we are still eating this one.  With only three of us at our Thanksgiving table this year, we had a lot left over, but it is very yummy.

That's it for now.  If I have a chance, I will post a few more photos from the quilt show.  Till then, have a good week!

Busy! Busy! Busy!

This time of year is always a bit crazy, isn't it?  No matter how early I get started, it seems like the calendar speeds up faster.  We've been preparing for a special choir presentation, doing some unplanned for baby sitting, volunteering, lots of stuff,  including holiday knitting....... And so it goes. Each day is gone in a blink of the eye. On Halloween, we always celebrate our first meeting in 1964. The flowers Dick brought me are still nice almost a month later! (Lots of interesting plant painting in this bouquet, eh?)

This hat turned out way too big for the person it was for, so I'm making another smaller one.

When the youngest grandson saw the rainbow socks, he asked for a red pair.  Hope these fit!

I was in the midst of holiday projects, when DD#1 requested hats and socks for a teacher's baby.  This little infant is facing lots of challenges at birth, so these projects come with lots of good thoughts and best wishes.

A couple Fridays ago, Becca and I went to the annual Block Party Quilters show.  Most of my photos didn't turn out because I was using a different camera, but luckily these two did:

The Camp River Ranch blocks on this t-shirt quilt brought back lots of fun memories of Girl Scout campouts with the daughters.  They both enjoyed summer camp there, too.

This was my very favorite quilt of the whole show.  It's been years since I put on a pair of skates, but I sure had fun when I did!

Yesterday when we were coming home from volunteering at the hospital, the moon was just rising. Close to the horizon, it looked huge.  This photo doesn't beging to capture its beauty.

Tonight the moon will be full, so I hope you can take time out from the season's busyness to enjoy it, too.  And most of all, have a very Happy Thanksgiving! 

Small Quilts but Terrific! (More from last month's show)

Life has been a little crazy these past few weeks, and it's taken until now to finally post the rest of the quilt show photos.  The smaller quilts were hung upstairs at the show, and I think they were the best!

This one fits the season, doesn't it?  It was part of a group challenge to make a quilt with penguins.  Wouldn't Elvis love it?

Guess which month is featured in this one?

Another group challenge included this 3 dimensional piece, a technique I'd never seen before.

Here is the same piece from another angle.

Here's another one from the same challenge, inspired by Mount Rainier, I think.

This one has lots of fun details as does the one below.

~~~

It's so interesting to see the different interpretations of the same theme, especially this one which included some really fascinating 3-D!

As did this one.

All things Swiss were highlighted in this one.

I thought the applique on this one was very pretty.

And these two featured really interesting stitching.

The show included a number of quilts by young quilters, and this one received a ribbon. That about wraps up my quilt photos except for the ones by a friend in my quilt group, and I'm saving those for one last post.  Hope you enjoyed these as much as I did. 

Quilts Galore!

Believe it or not, I didn't take a picture of every quilt in the show, but I did find many that I liked and hope you will, too.

I spotted this one as we walked through the door. Those reindeer were so cute!

Hearts and anything red and white always catch my eye.

Rainbow colors and autumn leaves~

Marine life and woodland creatures~

I loved the flowers and birds on this one and just had to take a close-up.

Aren't these houses interesting?

I think the centers of these blocks are done with a process called  "stack and whack," and the results always remind me of a kaleidoscope.  Guess what this quilt was called?

And then there were the cats~

The detail on this one is amazing, and if you double click on the photo, you'll agree.

This one has such peaceful colors while

                               the colors on this one are practically vibrating!

Yes, every one of these quilts is unique, and every one of them has something in common, the hours and hours of work in creating them. Next time I'll show you some quilts by a talented lady in our quilt group and some other ones that are truly unique in their construction. But, that's all for now as it's getting late.