goals for the new year

My main goals for the coming year are to finish more projects than I start and to become proficient with my machine quilting. Guess I had better get to practicing. :) I would like to complete lots of charity projects and in the process use up lots of stash.

I am very happy that I started a blog....I have met such wonderful ladies. My life has been very enriched and inspired by all of you. I thank each and everyone who comes to visit whether you comment or not.

I have much to be grateful for....family, good friends and enough to keep me happy and content. I wish you all a happy and healthy new year!

Sunday report

I did manage to finish sewing the binding on the tablerunner and it just needs to be washed. Not much else was accomplished in the way of sewing. I do have 3 more of these and I'm going to finish them up and I'll be ahead for next Christmas. :)

the gift of old friends

I had a wonderful visit with my friends....I was sorry to see them leave but happy to know they'll be back in March. We laughed and talked and laughed some more. It didn't matter that we hadn't seen each other in 30 years.....seemed like it was just yesterday. What a very special gift for me......thanks Yvonne and Henri!!!!!

I'm finishing up a few last minute things. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas filled with much happiness and joy!

stash busting, decorating and company

This is a bit of my Christmas decorations. I'm late and I just put up a few things to make the house festive. This is my little Charlie Brown tree....I love it. Tim laughs everytime he looks at it. We have a 7.5' tree with 1100 lights but no place to put it right now. We turned our living room into a game room complete with pool table. I didn't mind not having a tree last year because it was this week last year that we got Cally and we were busy with getting the girls adjusted to each other. But this year I wanted a tree. I saw this online....the price was right with free shipping and here it is in it's glory and I love it. Hey Kimmy....I have some lime green balls in it. :) I know JudyL will like them also....lime green being her favorite color.

Next is the tablerunner I've been working on. I decorative stitched quilted it and I was pleased with the result. I should have decorative stitched the binding as well and it would be done....lol!

These are some of the machine embroidered projects that I have worked on. I didn't really bust any fabric but lots of thread. I was a little disappointed with the santa. It a cross stitch design but it didn't really stitch out as nicely as I would have hope. It's seems to be spotty. I was happy with the tree and the snowman.

These are free standing lace ornaments. I'm very happy with these and I plan to do lots more. They are a bit time consuming but well worth the effort.

Tomorrow my friends are leaving Canada on their way to Florida. They are going to stop here tomorrow night and if the weather cooperates with stay until Sunday morning. She is my friend that sent me Memere's quilt. I haven't seen her in almost 30 years so I'm really looking forward to her visit.

So this is what I have been up to all week. I hope everyone has had a wonderful week getting ready for the holidays.

stashbusting report

I can't believe another week has flown by. I'm happy to report that nothing was purchased this week except a few Christmas gifts. I've been deleting the sales ads as they fly into my inbox. I finished all of my tree blocks and I'm ready to sew the rows together. I feel good that I stayed with the project even when it frustrated me. There were times that I was very frustrated.....I frogged quite a few seams in the beginning. Usually that's when they hit the ufo pile and I move on to a new project. Guess that might be why I have so many of those...........

This week my plan is to embroider some kitchen towels for gifts and finish up several tablerunners that I started last year. I guess I should pull out the decorations, deck the halls and all that stuff. :)

The cats and I have finally come to an understanding of where they can sleep when I'm sewing.

stashbusting report

I finished the 36 stockings for NIN....all made from stash. I cut up 118 foundation squares for heartstring blocks. I did purchase two patterns by Sandy Gervais. The trees will be made with holly jolly fqs and the snowflakes will be made from white and blue stash fabric. Since the tree quilt will use up all my supply of holly jolly fabric, I ordered another collection from the Fatquarter shop.....lucky for me, it was on sale. I have two other patterns I want to make out of those fabrics for me. :) Although I did buy some fabric, I plan to use it when it arrives and not add it to my stash. I'm happy with my efforts for the week.

Sunday Stashbusting Report

I didn't buy any fabric this week. I'm still working on my Christmas stocking project which I hope to finish up in the next few days. I have two projects I want to make for my kitchen from Kim Diehl's new book "Simple Seasons". I plan to pull the fabrics from my stash this week. I found several tablerunners that I started last year so I will finish those up this year for gifts. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with laughter and love. I'm thankful for my many blessings....family, friends, good health, enough of what we need. I'm thankful this year for my new blogging friends....you have added much to an already blessed life. Have a wonderful day!

winter wonderland

These are what I've been working on lately. The fabric came from my stash...I got it last year after Christmas. It's working out perfectly for these snowmen.

It's snowing....the first snow of the year....nice big fat fluffly flakes. :) It looks so pretty in the front yard. It's a perfect day to stitch some redwork.

Too much of a good thing

Yes, I admit it....I have too much stash. I used over 45 yards of fabric for the Christmas stockings and didn't make a dent. I've been trying to organize my sewing room but it's hard to do when you have too much stuff. So....Judy L has sent out another challenge....we are going to stash bust and I'm in.

The Great Chocolate Swap

I received my chocolate swap package in the mail yesterday....Oh my! Carole was my swap partner. She embroidered me a lovely bag to hold my chocolate stash....is this not just the cutest bag?

I just love it! She sent me a nice assortment of chocolates and cookies....yum, yum. She so generously included a yard of this fabric for me to use on my stocking project....little did she know that I love teddy bears....what a sweetie.

It was a fun swap...... thanks to Carole who was a fun partner and to Sharon for setting it all up.

it's been a long time comin

This is my new baby, Bernice.....I've been waiting for her since June. She's a Babylock Quest which is their version of Janome's 6600. Can I just say....I'm in sewing heaven. She has a dual feed system like the pfaff and the lighting is so good I don't need any extra. She sewed perfect little stitches and can make 8mm decorative stitches. It's love, I tell ya!

I will be spending the next week or so sewing up some Christmas stockings for Newborns in Need. I volunteered to make 36 of them and I figure that will use up about 45 yards of fabric from my stash.....woohoo!

I am thrilled that the "Cake" post made so many of you laugh. I did think it was so funny and too good not to share. Hope you are having a wonderful day. Thanks for stopping by....I love it when you do.

the cake

My cousin's son ordered a cake for the office from a bakery. The order was as follows "Best Wishes Suzanne"... and underneath that write...."We will miss you".

And now it's all about me

Nan tagged me....yup she did so I'll play along. :)

4 jobs I've had

nurse's aide
semiconductor clean room person.....where I met my darling
newspaper carrier
fruit basket maker at an apple orchard

4 films I could watch over and over:

Sleepless in Seattle
Wedding Planner
Pollyanna
You've got Mail

4 TV shows I watch

Ghost Whisperer
Numbers
CSI
Murder She Wrote reruns

4 Places I've lived

Waltham, MA
Haverhill, MA
Lawrence, MA
Methuen, MA

4 Favorite foods

macoun apples
cheesecake
veal parm
pasta

4 Favorite colors

teal
blue
green
red

4 Places I would love to be right now

I'm pretty happy right here at home.

4 Names I love but would/could not use on my children

Rebecca
Emily
Annie
Abigail

4 People I'd love to Tag

Teresa
Vicky
Sharon
Deb

Way down yonder in the pumpkin patch

Yup.....that's where I've been, busily sewing pumpkins. I must say, I've gotten very proficient at machine buttonhole applique. No curve or point is too challenging for me....lol I was beginning to feel like Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear. It's not a great one but 42 little pumpkins that I'm very happy to report are finished. They need to be pressed and trimmed and sent off to the swapping headquarters.





Yesterday, while I was ripping off all the stabilizer....don't you just hate that part....this little guy stayed on the window. Guess he was enjoying the company. It was such a lovely day.

I must say....I am rather spoiled

I received this very lovely bag as my PIF from Linda. The stitching is gorgeous....pretty little stitches. Thank you Linda....I love it! I think it will become my new stitchery bag. :)

My sweet friend, Teresa, has started hand dying fabric. She so generously sent me this wonderful piece. The colors are wonderful....the different shades are so pretty. I don't think the picture does it justice at all. I think it will become part of a Hawaiian quilt. Thank you so much, my friend!

As you can see, I've had a week filled with many blessings. The gifts are a bonus but the real blessings are the friendships!

I've been remiss

From the author of the award: The thing that I love most about blogging is that I learn so much about a person just by reading his/her blog. I have met MANY wonderful people with wonderful stories to tell and I am grateful every day for each person whom I have the pleasure of crossing paths in life with. I wanted to create something special for the top ten people who have inspired me through their blogging; the stories they tell, and the lives that they lead with grace and dignity. I visit their blogs for inspiration and encouragement.

A few weeks ago, Linda so kindly gave me this award. I didn't post about it at the time because I didn't know how to bring it here. I'm rather computer challenged but I'm learning. So here it is. I've met so many wonderful ladies over the past few months. You all make me smile whenever you visit and leave me a comment. I love to visit you and that always makes me smile. Thanks for being a part of my life and for the sunshine you bring me.

OMG....look what she sent me

I recently reconnected with a longtime family friend. Our families grew up together in a small village in Canada. I don't really remember the particulars but it was after having lost a sister in an accident that my parents and I went to Canada and they left me with her family for a change of pace.

When I tell you they took me in as one of their own..... they were so wonderful to me. From that day on, I was part of the family. Memere, the grandmother, was a quilter. There was always a quilt in the frame. She made wonderful quilts and always told me she would make me one when I got married. Sadly she passed on before that and I never did get my quilt.

Anyways, Yvonne, that is her name also, and I were like two halves of a whole. She was such a good friend to me....the kind of friend that you never have to explain your self to. We sure had some good times growing up. She got married and started a family. I did the same and we kinda lost touch. We always knew what was going on with each other through our Moms but we both just somehow left it at that. We got back in touch with each other last year because of a visit they had with my Dad. We exchanged a few emails and such here and there and discovered that we both quilted....that was all we needed.

Well now we are in touch pretty much on a daily basis. It's like we were never apart. She even convinced me to get a webcam so we could visit and it's been a wonderful thing. I got a package from her today. I was so overwelmed....the tears started flowing. She sent me the best of the quilts that she had left from Memere along with a framed picture of her. Words can't even begin to touch how I feel but I do know that I am very blessed!

Design a Quilt Challenge

Judy challenged us to try designing a quilt. She gave us the block to use and this is what I came up with.

witches, pellets and stuff

Cindy and I had a wonderful day....we chatted, laughed, cursed..... yup, cursed! It took us 3 hours to cut out the witch pattern....lol It was a fun project but one I will never make again. If anyone would like to have the pattern just let me know and it's yours. :) Once we finished the wallhanging and I took pictures of them, I decided that I didn't really like my borders. Saturday morning while waiting for our 3 tons of wood pellets to be delivered, I ripped off the borders. I have other fabric I think would work better for the small inner border. I'll post a new picture of mine as soon as I get them back on.

The pellets arrived and we stacked them. 3 tons of pellets is 150 40 lbs bags. It's not a fun job and thankfully we only have to do it once a year. These will heat the two floors of our house.

Then it was time for family night and Luke had just arrived. I was still downstairs throwing on some laundry. He was standing near the piles on the right which at the time were stacked a bit differently. Ma.....the bags are moving. Luckily he is very strong and held off a huge avalance. We only had a minor one but that meant we had to restack roughly a ton of the bags. Poor Tim thought he was all done....lol We did enjoy family time after that!

We have supper together and play a mean game of dominos. We play a game called train and sometimes the competition gets a bit ugly....lol I look forward to it every week and it seems, so do they. :)

cats and pumpkins

Here it is another week has flown by, oh my. I've been stitching my cats and figuring out my method for doing the pumpkin swap....what was I thinking? I wasn't....I had a temporary lapse in brain function. I have not had very good luck in the past with swaps. I do hope this one will be different. I like how my little pumpkin came out....2 down, 34 more to go.






Tomorrow my good friend, Cindy is coming for a sewing day. She's been drooling over this witch wallhanging so I got the stuff for us to do it. I hope it will be a nice surprise for her.





I really want to make a quilt with my scaredy cat fabrics. I was thinking of using this pattern or maybe this one.......what do you think? I love seeing everyone's seasonal decorations and I want some too. :)

my surprise

Look what Teresa sent me....isn't she the sweetest! I just love those little kitties too! They have such attitude....lol. You shouldn't have T but I'm glad you did!

home sweet home

We had a wonderful time but it's great to be home. I missed my little furballs and all by blogging buddies. The weather was a little cool and it rained on saturday but it didn't matter.... it's so tranquil up there. It was so quiet the first night I had trouble falling asleep. You couldn't even hear a cricket chirp or anything. I did feed the ducks....one of them was even brave enough to eat right out of my hand. I'm not sure who was more timid.

I'll have to catch up with all my blog reading.....I hope you all had a nice weekend too!