Tree

Here's this year's iteration of our Christmas tree. Nice, huh? C for Cookseyville, lol.

Matilda supervised.

Holiday Photos

I gave Warren an art quilt that I made especially for him. I call it "Positive Energy." (Get it? There are plus signs all over it) I used the marbled fabrics that I made at the Fibreye retreat last spring. I told him I was going to try to enter it in a show or two, so he may have to let me borrow it if it gets accepted.

Christmas was an opportunity for the Westcotts to inspect the time machine.

Three male cousins, photo opportunity!

Alex, Denise and my brother Bob

I am sorry I have been lazy lately in updating this blog. I will try to do better. I am hoping for some technical upgrades in the coming months that will make things easier. Thanks for visiting, and I love comments!

bear with me, a little more Christmas

Scenes from Christmas, mostly from the morning.

Martine made this fabulous duck lasagna for Christmas dinner.

Christmas brunch

I am determined to put the holidays behind me. Still plugging away at photos. Sorry if you're not into family stuff.

These photos are from Christmas eve brunch at the Westcotts.

Uncle Warren giving Sammy a push on her new lady bug toy from cousin Alex.

Alex, my son-in-law, Jack, and Sammy.

Waiting for brunch to begin...

Nice photo, but a little dark.

This is one of my favorite photos from their visit.

Sammy was fascinated by my brother John's train set. I won't show all the photos here.

The annual Westcott Christmas photo! My oldest brother Jim and his family were missing, choosing to stay up north, where they recently moved. We missed them! This is a good photo except that Sammy has her back turned. Notice Warren is sitting on the lady bug.  My brother John is in the middle and brother Bob is just behind me. I'm wearing the upcycled sweater I made for the Fibreye challenge.

By contrast, here is a holiday photo from the 60's. My brothers are the ones with neckties; Bob is near the center and John is on the right, with glasses on. I'm in the middle row in green. By coincidence, Jim is mysteriously missing from this photo, too.

Holiday projects aplenty

At last I can share some of the things I made for Christmas. I made this stocking and donated it to a silent auction at Flying Geese Quilters in December. One Dresden plate block, cut up and appliqued to the stocking shape. I used my sashiko machine here.

I made an upcycled sweater as part of a challenge for Fibreye. I used an old J Crew pullover sweater, overlaid with silk chiffon which I dyed at the last retreat in the Diane Ricks workshop.

This is the front. I was inspired by Christopher in the last season's Project Runway; he put "shredded" silk chiffon on a lot of his clothing, but not on sweaters.

I made this wall hanging, kind of a riff on my previous VW tree quilt. I used the sashiko machine again. It ended up being a gift for my friend Linda.

Detail.

Another detail.

Well, that's a start. I will post more holiday projects soon, now that I've finally figured how to efficiently access the photos from my phone. :-) Hurray!

Hello again

My goodness, I've been AWOL from my blog. Sorry about that! I've been busy, caught up in the holiday frenzy. I have lots of things to share, but I don't want to spoil surprises.

Family members will be arriving this weekend - we are excited! I am still doing a bit of knitting, but otherwise Christmas gifts are done. Also, this afternoon I cut into some fabric for a new art quilt. It's kind of a scary stage - hope it all pulls together soon.

In the meantime, this very same anthurium from last Christmas is still blooming like crazy! I've never kept an anthurium alive for this long, and I am not doing anything special to it. Lucky me...

more holiday related photos

Unfortunately most of the photos I took at the Christmas eve family gathering turned out blurry...

But these anthurium looked wonderful on Christmas, and they still do.

And Ginger looked festive in red.



I don't believe I've shared this cute tree pillow. I was the lucky recipient in the annual ornament exchange, and Darla Cox made it.

Due to an unexplained online ordering mishap, my granddaughter did not receive the baby doll that Santa had planned to give her. So Santa found another one on sale at Barnes & Noble. It's made out of soft plushy fabric, not plastic. Cute, huh? It has a belly button.

I made a little sundress to fit the doll, something unpink.



I also made a tiny hat to go with the dress.

I got the hat idea from this book. Is it not a clever title? I want to make a similar hat for my granddaughter, and I intend to make a lot of the other adorable hats that are in this book.

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for the photos I took of the socks, sweater, etc., that were given as Christmas gifts.

what I've been working on

I am giddy! I just downloaded images to Spoonflower and placed my first order for fabric from them. My fingers are crossed. Wish me luck! The fabric will be for my next quilt, due in March.

Now I can finally show you what I've been working on lately.

This is the stocking I made for my granddaughter. I made one dresden plate and chopped it up to arrange onto the stocking shape. It got stuffed full of goodies.

I knitted up bunches of these hearts and added fabric scraps, felt and embroidered embellishments. I gave them all away except for a green one for myself.

More hearts, including two in progress. They weren't exactly addictive, but eventually I was making them by heart (ouch, inadvertent pun). All were made with leftover yarns from other projects, mostly Noro.

Here is the cool yule log that Peggy brought to our Cut-Loose Christmas party. I don't know why it took me so long to post this, just busy.


Now I'll have to search my camera for photos of other things I've been working on. I gave away four pairs of socks! And I made Samantha a sweater and pants. And I made two hats.

holiday discoveries

Samantha was fascinated by this life-sized painted cow at Yankee Candle in Vermont.

It's funny because she lives on a farm and had real live cows in her "backyard." Love seeing her walking around like a big girl.

She wasn't about to sit in Santa's lap, but she was willing to sit next to him with Mom. He's a pretty nice Santa in overalls.

Meanwhile, back here in California, Ginger enjoys cuddling with Dave or whoever is available.

I am knitting, and I am planning my next quilt, I promise. I will post photos when it's safe to.

busy gal

It's been a while since I have posted, but I've been so busy. The tree is up, shopping has been started, and various projects are underway. My camera is getting full of photos that I can't really show yet. I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise.

'Tis the season....

Photos soon.

More classes coming up

I am teaching a class on how to make this flannel baby ball at Flying Geese Fabrics on Tuesday, October 18, from 2 to 5. If you don't want to make the ball but just want to learn basic English paper piecing, I can teach that, too. Better sign up quick, it's coming up fast.

I am scheduled to teach how to make this Holiday Cookie stocking, also at Flying Geese Fabrics, on October 26th, from 4to 6. The phone number for the shop is on the right under "Coming Events." Thanks!

what I'm working on quilt-wise

I have begun a quilt with a winter theme. Here is some of the fabric that I've been dyeing for it.

This is the quilt currently being exhibited in THe ArT QuILT ExPERIENCE in NY.


I'm also working hard on teaching plans for my three classes at Flying Geese Fabrics in Tustin. Here is more info:

July 6, Wednesday - "Bringing Home the Trees" from 3 to 7

August 6, Saturday - "Baby Hexagon Ball" from 1:30 to 5

August 18, Thursday - "Holiday Cookie Stocking" from 3 to 7


Flying Geese Fabric
307 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA
714/544-9349
http://www.flyinggeesefabric.com/