The real December mini plus other blocks

 I finally finished the binding on my December mini, which you will recall was made using Janet O's scraps (with the condition that I only add one or two fabrics!).  I did only add a light and the binding.  Otherwise it was all Janet's scraps.

I think this is called a bar quilt.  I forgot to wash off the markings for the quilting patterns ...sorry.  This was a fun project, especially using someone else's scraps, which I always think are more attractive, right??!!  Thank you Janet for sharing your leftovers!

I have started a new project (note that I'm not working on something I already started or identified! That would be too easy).  I started doing this block a day being published by Jessica Dayon.  I'm going to do it in purple and aqua for my new granddaughter, Leia, who is living in Virginia now.  These are just the first two. You can join in at her blog:  jessicadayon.blogspot.com.  I think the blocks will slow down after New Years.

When I took the picture of the mini, I realized I had some fun things to share on my sewing table. It's kind of an international collection!

I love the clock.  I ordered it from Moda.  So cute.  But the strangest thing is that when I hung it on the wall, it didn't work.  Didn't keep time.  On my sewing table?  Worked great.  Hung on the wall?  Not so much!  STUMPED

The little star pin cushion was made from fabric I bought at the quilt show in Nantes (France) several years ago.  I love it.

And the Hawaiian "box' in the back is my "trash" holder which I found at a quilt store in Kauai.  I've bought them for all my friends!  It's perfect and even folds flat!

One closing picture of my Zeke, which gives you another idea of how large my dog is!  Here's he's "standing" at the window seat looking out the window where he thinks he sees some people snow-shoeing out back of our cabin.  He does this all the time at our kitchen counters, scanning for something to sneak!  The sweetest dog but oh so strong!! He's been loving the snow, too!  Buries his face or just plops down in the snow banks!!

Hope you are all healthy (this new variant is scary!!) and having a great holiday.  I am sending you lots of love and hugs for a wonderful new year 2022!!

Much love to you all!

Being productive, sort of

 This past month I've tried to work on my December mini, using the scraps that Janet O so generously gifted me, with the challenge to make something using only her scraps plus one or two other fabrics.

I've just about finished my mini (still sewing down the binding) and followed her instructions.  So you'll need to wait a day or two for that reveal.

But I had many more scraps leftover and decided to use them to make a little something:

Any ideas what it is?  I used a fabric I bought in Virginia that's Bernina fabric!  FUN!  So, what are you thoughts??

I have two machines in my sewing room and the second one needed a cover (have been using a pillow case~! YIKES) and thought it was the perfect project for the leftover gold/blue/light scraps plus I added a bunch more.  Of course now I have more scraps than I started with!

There's no pattern for this;  I just made it up as I went along.

We've had lots of snow in Central Oregon this past week and it's quite beautiful.  My poor birds (I've become a bird feeder!) So much snow that the top of the bird feeder had about 4" as did the water bowl (which is completely frozen)

I need to refill the feeder but I'll need to put on my heavy tall boots to have to climb over the snow to reach it!!

Here's the view out my back!

The snow is perfect for snow shoeing this week, although it's VERY cold.  Hasn't gotten above 22* and nights are in the teens (or lower).  BRRR

Hope you're having a great week and recovering from Christmas.  I'll be back in a day or two with the December mini all finished.

Big hugs,

Definitely due for a blog post - November mini, at last

 I cannot believe it's now December and I failed to post again in November.  Fall has definitely come and gone!  I will share one more fall picture I took in a local park:

Now fast forward to December in Central Oregon!!  SNOWY

So have I been getting much sewing done lately?  I wish I could say yes but not so much.  I did finish my November mini but had trouble posting the picture.  This started as Thanksgiving placemats but obviously got remade into thimbles!  VBG

And I'm happy to say that I've been working on my December mini, using Janet O's scrap bag of blues and golds.  I've used just about all the golds in several projects, which I'll share very soon.

We've been able to enjoy the snow and I've gone snowshoeing in the mountains nearby.  Even Zeke, now weighing in at 75 lbs, loves the snow.

When he goes out into the snow to play (he loves the snow), he winds up with these little ice balls up and down his legs (he has a coat which protects his tummy and back!) which are very tough to remove so I've moved my hair dryer into the laundry room where I dry off his body as best as I can, leaving a puddle on the floor! ;-)

Last winter we put lights on our trees (a first for me, nice Jewish girl that I am) and this year, we have even more.  Very pretty with the snow, I think.   These are all in our backyard.

Hope you're all having a wonderful, healthy holiday season!

Be safe, healthy and happy!

xxxx

Last fall colors

 I'm sharing my last fall photos (well, as of now, anyway) -- I continue to be awed by the colors!

I can't resist taking pictures of trees like this.  I have one more Japanese Maple tree that hasn't started turning yet... I will likely want to share that photo in a couple of weeks!

This is an entirely different tree;  the leaves will only turn yellow, and very slowly.  It's in my backyard.

Our puppy turned ONE year old on Friday and he thinks he's just a small guy.  NOT. Here he is sitting on my lap, sort of!

I may be optimistic to say that his puppy (bad) habits are going away but not entirely.  My husband brought me some fabric that had gone through Zeke's body and came out.  YIKES...  He still loves to grab my fabric and run away from me with it.

I'm going to do my monthly mini using Janet O's scraps and one of her instructions was to photograph them before being used.

I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with them.  I had thought about small thimbles but I can't find where I put my thimble template (one of the drawbacks of cleaning up is the inability to find what you put away!!).  UGH

Remember my small quilt group that makes quilts for kids?  We finally got to meet again in a new location!  It was great.  They had been working on an auction quilt for the guild's quilt show in February.  Here are the two tops before quilting.

Pretty nice, I think.

Hope you have a great week!

Happy Halloween

Halloween is such a fun kid holiday!  Our neighborhood always attracts loads of kids.  We usually run out of candy!  Don't you love Halloween?!

Being in California now, we are enjoying fall all over again.  It's not as cold obviously as Oregon so the fall colors are a little later.  Here is one of my favorite Japanese Maple trees outside our front door.

First picture was a week ago;  second one today!  Amazing changes, right?

I took our dog for a walk this week and passed a house with many trees and great Halloween decorations!

I finished my October mini this morning!  WOOHOO.  I decided to do the reverse of what I did last month!  I did circles on light backgrounds in September;  this month I used dark backgrounds!

I used one of my favorite fabrics for the backing!  BIRDS!  And the border fabric is another of my favorite fabrics with birds as well!

Here's my funny story of the week--I had my book group at my house last weekend for brunch and baked a coffee cake using a very elaborate bundt pan.  BIG mistake.  The entire cake stuck to the pan and I had to dig it out. UGH

It worked out fine because my friends started nibbling on the coffee cake as soon as they arrived since no one had to slice it!! VBG.  And, by the way, the book I chose was LOVED by everyone so I'll recommend that you read Tammy Duckworth's autobiography called "Every Day Is A Gift"!  Very inspiring!

Have a great week!

More fall colors

 hello my dear devoted bloggers,

I am still on the look out for fall colors for photos.  It's been windy here in Central Oregon (weather is changing!) and my chance for the colors is getting more limited.

I found these this weekend!

This one is a cheater--those are all deciduous pine trees which obviously don't change colors.  But early this morning, the sun was just coming up behind me and I thought this was a cool picture.

Sign of the changing weather here in Bend is this little bush that had tiny beads of ice early in the morning.  The temps here in the morning are in the low 30s, or even lower.  We had one morning when it was 16*!

We are heading back to California this week and because the weather is obviously warmer, the fall colors are later.  I'm pretty sure my Japanese Maples will be spectacular later this month.

I put away the sampler spree kid quilt and will deliver it to my small quilt group when we meet in a couple of weeks.  So once again I was in the "between quilt projects" funk.  I decided to pull out my purple baskets which were swapped between Wendy Reed (constantquilter), Barb Vedder (funwithbarb) and myself last May.  

I struggled with the setting squares and must admit that i bought some fabric this weekend for those squares.  I'm much happier with these little checks.  And the border stripe, I think, is perfect.  One detail in this process that I love is doing mitered corners! In case you're curious, all these purple fabrics are from Betsy Chutchian's line "Susannah's scraps".  I think I could buy them all (and did order a layer cake...but that's all).

Now I just need to quilt it and it'll be amongst its sisters on my small quilt wall.  I'll  need a ladder hang it, though! ;-)

Now once again I'm in that between quilts stage and stumped as to what to work on--so many ufos.  I'm working on my October mini little by little and did start something using scraps that I saw on a facebook page.  I saw a similar quilt last night that i might opt for instead but it's pretty brainless and goes quickly.

Hope you're going to have a great week! Stay healthy and safe, my friends!

xxxx

Randy

More fabric?? What was I thinking??!!

 Just what I don't need is MORE fabric!  But who can resist Pam Buda??

Some time ago, I responded to a sign up call for a kit and fabric that she was just releasing.  I completely forgot about it.  Well, much to my surprise, it arrived this week.  What fabulous fabrics!!  It's called "Needle and Thread"!  This is the pattern!  It doesn't look complicated although I will admit I found the initial instructions to be a bit confusing.

Here are some of the fabrics!  There's a load of gorgeous fabrics that you can't see in the layer cake but aren't even the whites fabulous?  I do love her neutrals!

I am going to resist cutting into it until I get my Sampler Spree put together.  I had originally thought I'd do a child's quilt for a donation to my small quilt group (which has started to meet again) but I realized it's too large for their parameters.  So I think I'll continue to make it larger and then decide what to do with it.  I made nearly 100 6" blocks so I still have a large stack of blocks! 

I usually put tops that are too large for the wall onto the floor while I'm working on them, but my DOG loves to eat fabric so that is a definite NO.  ;-). I tried and he started chewing on a corner.  My old dog Max used to plop down on the fabric regardless of its size.  I found that annoying but now I think it was endearing.  This is truly annoying!  Zeke steals my strips from my ironing area all the tie!

Fall continues to dazzle here and I'm sharing some of the more recent photos I took.  I find it so interesting that several trees in the same area will change colors at different paces!

I did get to kayak this week and it was just wonderful.  It was a little chilly initially but once inside the cockpit of my boat, it was just perfect.  The lake was empty (one other kayaker only) and we leisurely toured the perimeter of the lake.  The water was like glass, so still.  It was a little cloudy but still beautiful.

That's my friend Carol, my "partner in crime" who is always up for an adventure!  I loved the reflections and fall colors in this picture!

We came across this bush that was so interesting, with red berries and beautiful yellows.

We may try one more day if it's not too cold later this week.  The weather has turned for sure but if we bundle up, it should be ok.

GREAT news today. I went to the library, waited on line and got my BOOSTER shot!

Just FYI--that's a diagram of Oregon and the heart is just about where Bend is located in the state.  Pretty cool, hunh??  Very appropriate--my heart is definitely here in Sunriver/Bend!

Hope you're having a great week!

xxxx

September mini etc

 Happy Fall  dear bloggers!

I can't believe that September is gone and we are now into October.  I do think fall is my favorite season and I'll be sad to see winter arrive but we sure do need the rain/snow!  Think snow shoeing!!

I saw this fabulous fall tree the other day and would love to know what kind it is so I can find one for my yard!  I plan to show the picture the someone at our local nursery.  Maybe they'll even have one in stock still!

Great hiking weather and I went with a group to one of my favorite local hiking spots right in Bend!

I did get my September mini finished last night but was too tired to post it while still in September.

I'm calling this "Going in Circles"--might be a nickname for my life!!

I wanted to show you this close-up of the center to show you that I tried something different for the quilting based on a quilt I'd seen in August.  I did a different quilting pattern in each little square.  I had fun trying that out.

Sewing circles has been something I've been doing throughout Covid, thanks to my circle mentors, Wendy Reed (constantquilter) and Barb Vedder (funwithbarb), my Covid quilting buddies!  They're quick and easy!  Definitely don't use up much of my stash, though!

I've also been slowing putting my Sampler Spree top together.

I found a fabulous bird fabric last weekend and thought the colors would really make this quilt pop!  So I have my borders all ready to add once I get the top done.

My sewing has been slowed down because our puppy is like a baby and wants my attention--he is very affectionate and wants to put his paws on my legs or chest .  Here you can see how large he's gotten already--

Here's a sign of the changing seasons--there is snow already on Mt. Bachelor.  I don't expect it'll last since it's going to be warm this weekend--it'll be my last chance to go kayaking this year so I promise to send you some pictures from the lakes!

Have a great weekend.  Stay safe.  Be careful.  Get vaccinated!

xxxxx