Time Flies

Wow, it's hard to believe that I haven't posted anything for over 3 weeks, I have been so busy and the time is flying by me so fast.
It's hard to believe that just over a year ago, my oldest daughter got engaged, and started planning her wedding day, and now it's almost here. They are getting married in Jamaica, at resort in Ocho Rios, so I have been busy getting caught up with my work and now I am busy getting packed and making sure things are all in order and getting ready for our trip, I haven't had very much time to quilt lately, but that's ok, it will be here when I come back and my daughter's wedding day is more important than my quilting.
My daughter has been very busy the last few months planning her wedding day, keeping in touch with the photographer by e-mail, getting hair appointments lined up and flowers arranged. I must say that I am so impressed by all the work and planning that she has done, you see I didn't think she was much of a planner, but she is proving me so very wrong.

It is going to be an exciting week and we are all so ready to get into some nice sunny hot weather for awhile, and get away from our long winter, hopefully when we come back home the weather will be warming up and we'll be on our way to some beautiful spring weather!
So I guess I will take a few minutes and post some pictures of some more of the quilts and wall hangings that I've made since I started quilting.

This is the first purse that I made, I had never made anything like this before, it involved sewing and I was not sure I could do it, but Joan Hawley’s patterns are the greatest and her instructions are so easy to follow, I was amazed that I made it. I have since put a zipper on the purse instead of velcro. August 2005

Chloe Handbag

I made this little wall hanging for my Mom for her birthday in September 2005

Pixies Through My Window Sept. 2005

Our next door neighbor and very good friend of ours was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2005 and he passed away on September 27/05 After he passed away I decided to make his wife who was also a dear friend something in memory of her husband Neville, so I made this little Hearts Wall hanging. I made it in the colors that she has in her home, and I put a label on the back that said Our Hearts and Prayers are with You. When I gave it to her, we both had tears in our eyes, she really loved it.

Helene’s Hearts

I made this blanket for my youngest daughter for Christmas 2005 , using some fleece fabric called Waffle Weave. It was really cozy.

This is the Christmas Stocking I made for my Grandson Sam for Christmas 2005 I also made him this little fabric book, which he loved!

One year at Quilt Guild we had to make something using 3 Fat Quarters, and what ever we needed to add to it from our own stash, then we put it into a gift bag, we had to bring it to our Christmas Party, and then when your name was pulled you went and picked out any package from under the tree, but not your own. This is the little wall hanging that I made. I planned on making one for myself after, because it was so cute, but I still haven’t made it.

I have 3 sister’s and one brother and numerous nieces and nephews, and every year we try to get together for Christmas, it doesn’t always work out that we can all be together though, but we give it a good try. We decided instead of drawing names every year, that we would just buy a gift for a Man and a Woman, and then at our Christmas supper we would put all the names of those who were there into a hat, and when your name is called you go and pick a wrapped gift and it was yours to keep. So ever since I started quilting I have been making my gifts for the gift exchange.
As you know everyone loves getting something homemade, and I enjoy making them too. This is what I made for Christmas 2005, and if I remember correctly one of my niece’s ended up getting the gift from me.

I made three of these little wall hangings, I made for my Mom for and DH’s Mom for Christmas 2005. I don’t know if you can see them in the picture, but I put little SWAROVSKI Crystals on some of the trees and in the church windows too. They both loved their wall hanging. I also made one for myself too.

“Church in the Valley”

In November 2005 my Dad contracted some kind of virus that attacked his muscles and joints and he was very sick, we were all very worried about him, he was in the city in a hospital for a few weeks, a couple of weeks before Christmas they moved him to hospital closer to home. Since I never know what to get my Dad for Christmas I decided to make him a fleece blanket to help keep him warm. Dad always loved to hunt and used to go hunting a lot when we were young, so I found this great fleece at my LQS and made this for him. It was made using 2 layers of fleece so it was really warm and fairly heavy, but he loved it.

I made this cute little wall hanging for myself after I had all the Christmas gifts done. I put some Hot Fix Studs on him, so I call him “Sparkles”

This is a picture of him hanging above my little “Christmas Village” that I got from my Mom.

I also made these cute little mitten pillows for myself, I think I got the pattern/kit for them at a quilt show that I had been to, They are so cute and so tiny, I love them.

Mini Pillows

One of my niece’s had her first baby in Feb. 2006 so I made her a rag quilt using flannel, since this was the first rag quilt I made, I decided to put batting in it, one of my quilting friends said I didn’t need to use it, but I did. My niece was so happy when she opened it, and told me later that it worked great, was heavy enough that it wouldn’t blow off the baby’s car seat or stroller.

Vanden’s Rag Quilt

This is a quilt guild project that we made in January 2006

Tea Time Runner

I liked it so much I decided to make one for spring/summer, I found some really cute fabric with butterflies in it and picked some other bright colors to work into it too. I call this one Butterflies are Free.

Butterflies are Free

I bought this McKenna Ryan Pattern at my LQS and was going to make it and give it away as a gift, but after putting a ton of hours into making it, I decided to keep it for myself. I have a couple more of McKenna’s patterns, but haven’t got around to making them yet… all those darn projects just keep pilling up…. some day!! April 2006

“Take A Gander”

Well that's all I have time to post for now, I will try and post some more when I get back home from the wedding and our holiday.