In the Hoop Bag

I went to the Embroidery Club at Suzzie's Quilt Shop. Not only was it informative but I also got a free embroidery pattern.  Each month everybody who attends will get a new pattern.  One of the embroidery designers that was featured was Anita Goodesign.  I picked up one of the CDs.

This CD gives you 12 in-the-hoop designs each in three sizes (10.1" x 7.8", 8.8" x 6.7" and            7.6" x 5.8")  The software on the CD also tells you how (with free software) to re-size a design if your machine hoop size isn't big enough to accommodate the sizes on the CD.

This is my first project with this CD.  I have one blocks worth of applique materials in the bag.  This way I can just drop the bag into my purse and have a quilt project with me at all times.

Applique blocks

Somehow I had gotten behind on my applique class.  With no class scheduled for December I was able to get back caught up.  January will be our fifth class and I now am proud to say that I have 4 blocks finished!

 This is my second block. I hope there is some improvement from my first block.

 This is my third block. I added more Batiks to this block.  I really like the batiks.  I think I will use them more in the rest of the blocks.

My fourth block.  I am starting to see my technique getting better.  Don't get me wrong, I know I still have a long way to go before my technique is good.

Update on "Grandmother's Flower Garden" Quilt

I started thinking that I wasn't getting very far by making a few hexagons and then sewing them together.  I figured that I would feel that I was making better progress if made several hundred hexagons before sewing them together.  With that said I have been working hard making the hexagons.

I know that this doesn't look like much but there are 57 print hexagons, 53 white hexagons, and 44 green hexagons.  I think I need to make a lot more before I start putting them together.  This is going to be a slow moving project.

New Embroidery Machine

Last March just before I went on my Disney Cruise, I tried to update my embroidery machine (Janome 350E) and something went wrong and I lost the software that was in the machine.  Suzie said that it was "in a coma".

Since I didn't need the machine, I had not taken it in until fall.  Then I started to look at other machines and thought about an upgrade.  So I started thinking that with the new machines on sale and trading in the old machine and Christmas coming up I might be able to make the upgrade dream come true.  My dad added some money for Christmas and my very wonderful husband added the rest along with the trade-in to get the Janome  MC9900.  I am so excited.

My first project that I made with the machine is In-the-hoop Snowman silverware holders.  I got the design from Embroidery library.  Embroidery Library is my favorite place to get patterns.  Every Wednesday they post 10 to 20 new designs and usually only charge $1 for the first week.  I check every Wednesday to see the new designs.  If I like them I go ahead a buy them because if I wait until the next week they will be 3 to 4 times more expensive.

New Grand baby

As I said before, my youngest daughter was expecting their first baby on January 4th.  Long story short, the baby came via c-section.  Her name is Charlotte, nickname Charlie. She was born on January 9th. She is healthy and weighs 9lb 12 oz and is 21 1/2" long.

 

 

Beautiful baby girl in the hospital.

Her first car ride home from the hospital.

Hectic Times

OK, I really wanted to get back on track with my blog after the holidays.  It seems that just wasn't in the cards.

As you may have remembered that my youngest ( I only have two) daughter was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and wishing she could have the baby before the new year.  That  said,  here is the story of our Christmas.

Juli, her sister and another friend of hers from Columbia wanted to cook us some traditional Colombian food.  Everything was wonderful. It was getting to be after 8:00pm and time for grand kids to be in bed waiting for Santa to arrive.  So my oldest daughter (Elizabeth), her husband, and their three kids headed home. I am so lucky to have them only about 3 blocks away.  Juli, her sister and their friend also headed home.

About 20 minutes later Brian (Elizabeth's husband) called to tell us that Elizabeth had fallen and probably broke her leg.  He told me that he needed to hang up because the ambulance had just arrived.  So, discussion at my house started as to how bad it was and who was going to the ER to see her.  A few minutes later, my phone rang and my youngest daughter answered it.  It was Elizabeth saying that her leg was dislocated.  Missy (my youngest daughter) said that Elizabeth sounded in good spirits and did not seem upset.  After that conversation, we decided that I would wait 20 to 30 min. and then head to the ER.

On my way to the small local ER, my phone rings and it is Brian.  He informed me that Elizabeth was not a the local small ER but at the main county hospital.  I turned the car around and asked him why they had taken her to the hospital. His response was that the local ER could not handle her.

When I arrived, I was not prepared for what had happened.  When Elizabeth fell, she hyper extended her knee and  had destroyed the PCL, LCL, MCL. She had partially torn the ACL.  The doctors were afraid that she would lose her leg.  They called in a specialist because they needed to take her into the OR under general anesthesia to set the leg back in place.  That also meant a 24 hour  stay in the hospital.  I stayed with her until 2:30 in the morning. But with 3 small children expecting Santa to arrive I needed to be home when everyone arrived in the morning for Christmas.  We tried to have as normal a Christmas as we could under the circumstances. We were able to Skype Elizabeth from the hospital so she got to see her kids open up their presents.  She was released in the afternoon and wanted to come over to the house for Christmas afternoon/evening.

To make matters worse, her husband Brian headed to Afghanistan on the 26th of December leaving behind Elizabeth, a nine month old, 21 month old and a 7 year old.

All that said, my crafts and free time have been put on hold.

Holiday projects

I'm sorry that it has been so long since my last post.  I was working frantically to get all my Christmas projects done.

These are a few of the projects I was working on.

 

If this looks a little familiar, it is because it is the same pattern as my 

Dallas Cowboy quilt.  One of my friends is a Steelers fan and she asked me to make this for her.

 After I bought this fabric I wasn't crazy about it but I was in a time crunch to make a thanksgiving table topper, so this is what I came up with.

 This is the quilt I made as a Christmas present for my son-in-laws parents. They recently bought a river house and I made this for them to put in their river house family room.

This was my last quilting project I finished before Christmas.  This went on the kitchen table.

As you can see I was very busy before the Holidays.  so much more has happened since then. Stay tuned and I will try to get everyone updated.  I will work on posting every other day until I am up to date.