Heather - Hope you have a wonderful Christmas too. (Its sure to white in Colorado). Looking forward to picture of MIL's finished quilt. You by the way have more courage than I with FMQ. (I know practice, practice, practice).
Barb

Annis...love the quilts!!!
Ritzy...I have that book...made some last year
Heather...have a safe trip, and very Merry Christmas!!!

Dorothy

Dawn, that's a lovely tote! Your grandbaby will love it!

Annis, that is a gorgeous runner (both of them!), and that pattern is delightful! I'll have to hunt down your website and download. Looks fun! (And I would likely also get it all backwards....I'm queen of that)

I finished the quilt for MIL, label is on just needs hand stitched down to secure it (fused, but needs stitching) and then a quick wash and wrap it up for her. It is quite imperfect, but she will love it, which is the point. I'm pleased with it for a first go at FMQing entirely. By the end, I was doing well Next time, will practice and plan more rather than just doing what strikes me at the moment. (planning is NOT my strong suit....).

I will have my boys help me take a picture in a bit and come show you all

We head out to Colorado tomorrow, be there until Christmas eve, so I'll not be around. Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!

Geneva - Awesome picture of Victorina Rose. (I'm sure we'll get together sooner or later too).
Lois - DH and I passed thru / stayed in your area couple years ago attending the Hershey Swap Meet.
Dawn - Neat totes.
Ritzy - I've not done much crocheting - snowflakes do sound fun!
Annis - Fun to hear about and see what you're doing the shower curtain bird runners look great!
Barb

Thanks, Ritzy for the information. Found it on Amazon and just put in my order.

golfjane wrote:
Jane--I have a book that has 100 snowflakes in it. Each year since I bought the book I have made five snowflakes for each of the daughters and myself. The name of the book is:

100 Snowflakes to crochet
Author: Caitlin Sainio

I have made some where I just picked up the thread and crochet hook and made up my own but I didn't make up a pattern for it and I wouldn't be able to pick them out from the ones made from the book.

Cute baby, Geneva, and nice totes, Dawn. Makes me want to do some embroidery, but it will have to wait.

I finished the bed runners except for hand sewing the binding. I managed to print the templates I needed on the printer with the old ink. It didn't print anything but yellow on the first try so changed all of the cartridges with at least 6 year old ink and everything worked but black and magenta. The black printed as light blue and the red as yellow, but the green printed nice and dark so I traced over the lines that didn't print well with green lines before printing. The template is from my pattern Zig-Zag Rainbow which is now a free download on my website as are all of my patterns. I'm taking the next year off from my pattern business so I can get caught up on so many things and decided to give my patterns away for now rather than just putting them aside. Depending on the interest I may or may not go back to writing patterns but hope to get back to doing tutorials again.



I did everything wrong making the block units, something to do with mirror images, pressing direction, and fabrics right sides together. But I made it work. Next time maybe I will make a sample block first as I tell everyone else to do instead of sewing them all at once, or maybe not. The colored blocks should have been made as mirror images as I wanted the darker fabric on the upper left. Repressing the seam allowances in the opposite direction wasn't that hard on the dark background as I should have put the light fabric on the bottom instead of the top and used the mirror image paper that I didn't use on the colors. And it wasn't hard to recut the background pieces that finished the edge of the quilt as only half of them were cut wrong.



The shower curtain for the bird runners worked out fine. I was a little concerned about how it would quilt as the machine sung a different tune going over the fabric but they look good and am glad they're almost finished. Now I've come close to finishing everything I started this year including some of my larger UFO's from previous years. There's still a lot of UFO's to go, mostly PBNQ's (pieced but not quilted), and I'm hoping 2016 will be a good year for those.





I'm avoiding the stores this month which is saving lots of time. Instead I'm designing some metal artwork for my retreat center which will combine wildlife with quilt blocks. I don't do a lot of drawing but I can draw quilt blocks and I can trace wildlife from free clip art. And if I stay busy maybe I will get the Lady of the Lake lap quilt finished that I'm making from 10" squares.

Awesome tote, and beautiful grandbaby!

Lotti and Ritzy - I live about 4.5-5 hours south of Chicago (close to Springfield, IL). Don't know if I could make it up there - it all depends on if I'm on call, but would love to try!

~ Jen

Ritzy,
Would love to see the pattern for the snowflakes. I made some soooo long ago, I can't find the pattern anymore. I, too, like to crochet and knit (beginner stuff) along with the quilting.

Dawn,
Love the totes

Nice totes, Dawn. I was just going to say, Ritzy lives near Chicago and she hasnt' been poping in quite so often, but apparently she's lurking. Glad some of us get together face to face.

Geneva--Rosie is beautiful!
Lotti--I live about an hour south of Chicago--let me know when and I will try to be there.
Terrie--prayers are going up for Alfred
Dawn--love the totes

I have been crocheting snowflakes. I love the crocheting, I love hanging them on the tree--today I did what I hate doing with them--making them stiff so they can be hung on the tree...ugh! They are drying now and soon all I will have to do is put hanging thread on them.

I would love to meet also but in the mean time, I am content to meet with you all here.

...and I can assure you all, meeting up with Lottie was/is a wonderful time of precious memory making. And the test of true friendship as she forgave me for being late for her un-50th birthday party. The lizard presentation was a delight! And such fun planning all that with everyone in it!

Love those Totes, Dawn, lucky grands!

One day we will all meet up in one place - for the time being we're ding the meetings and visiting in bits and pieces --- and mostly virtually ... But I have managed to see some of you in person - and the rest will come...

Terrie & Andree: i'll be visiting my parents over Easter - but only a shortish stay for a week or so... Terrie knows the place - Pike River - in the Eastern Townships - maybe we can manage a visit then?
And I should be in Chicago for the cardiology congress right after ... Maybe someone lives in the area?
I'll let you know dates when I'm closer to booking my flights - hopefully early January