New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve and the last day of 2013

Resolutions to be made and possibly broken. New projects to be planned. UFOs to be finished. Priorities, decisions and changes to be made. A new year to be hopeful...

Sharing an idea I gleaned from Pinterest that we plan to do in the new year...

Tomorrow, start out with an empty jar (you could also use a tin or a basket or a pretty box) set in a place you will see often (so as not to forget ;0) and fill it with notes about good things that happen throughout 2014. Then, on New Year's Eve, a year from this evening, empty it and see what wonderful things happened. I think it'll be a good way to keep stuff in perspective.

Looking forward to tomorrow's New Years Day Mystery with Plant Patchwork. I have fabrics pulled and will do some preliminary cutting and HSTs today. My friend Janie is planning to come over and attempt her first Mystery Quilt while we have the Rose parade and football game on TV. Snacks and Mimosas are planned. It will be a fun day! 

Wishing everyone a Peaceful New Year' Eve

(not advocating Amazon ~ just a cute image)

Thank you for following my blog and sharing yours. Looking forward to a new year with new inspiration and progress in quilting and life

Happy New Year!!!

Groetjes, Jo

Happy Holidays

Winter Solstice

Definitions and beliefs about the Winter Solstice vary greatly. Of course it also depends on where you live on this wonderful sphere we call earth. The time of sunsets and sunrises vary. The opposite seasons for each hemisphere changes the mood. For those of us in the Northern hemisphere we begin winter, altho as far as weather goes, it began a few weeks ago!

I look forward to the solstice as we swing back to longer days. Well that's not true, there is no addition of time. OK, then each day forward will bring more light into the day. Illumination or enlightening, good words, altho they don't really apply to the winter solstice either...

en·light·en·ment

noun: enlightenment; plural noun: enlightenments; singular proper noun: Enlightenment; noun: the Enlightenment ~ the action of enlightening or the state of being enlightened. Attaining or having attained spiritual knowledge or insight.

Synonyms: Insight, understanding, awareness, wisdom, education, learning, knowledge. 

Illumination, awakening, instruction, teaching.

A good time to reflect and find balance. Learn something new, like a new quilting technique. Start a new quilt project, altho, that is never a problem! It's the finishing that is the challenge or the balance :0) As a machine quilter, I am always interested in the direction of lines and filling space. Recently that interest brought me to the art of Zentangle. Also difficult to define as it has taken on many forms and theories. It has found it's way into the quilting arena which makes sense with the progress and interest in machine quilting. I for one, am looking forward to learning more and practice, practice, practice. And then practice some more!

Has anything new sparked your interest? 

Wishing everyone a lovely evening

Stars and a Mystery

As promised, this is the quilt I purchased a few weeks ago at Honey Run Quilters Holiday Craft Fair. Theresa Wright made this quilt for a store sample several years ago. It's quilted by Cindy Needham with beautiful feathers and radiating stitches from the center. I fell in love with the stars and layout at first sight. Then to find out it was quilted by Cindy I knew I wanted to buy it. Cindy is a member of our guild ~ Annie's Star Quilt Guild.  Cindy came to our last meeting as a guest speaker and showed her work, mostly her quilted linens that she is so well know for.
Here are some close ups of the quilting... there is a feather wreath going thru the second layer of star points with the radiating stitches coming out of the center star...

The radiating lines going out to the border with another spine of feathers. Love it!

The past few weeks have been busy getting quilts completed and delivered by the weekend. With a notice in the mail to show up for Jury Duty on December 16th (today) I wanted to make sure everything was done not knowing what would happen this week. Happily, I was not asked to serve and now I have some time to enjoy some quilting me time and the holidays. Yea!

The Mystery is by Plant Patchwork ~ they are going ahead with a New Year's Day Mystery for 2014. Their store is going out of business and selling off the inventory.  It is not decided what will become of the website. Having done several of the NYDs mysteries I was glad to get an email today that they are posting one for 2014. Here is a link to part one if anyone is interested in joining in. It's fun and free if you enjoy doing mystery quilts. Here are pix of past quilts I made doing PP mysteries...

My favorite, Gems in the Ruff ~ 2006

2013 Mystery

Chips and Strips ~ 2012

2005

This is my least favorite, the purple disappeared. But, that can happen because it's a mystery! The fun starts early on New Years morning, depending on where you live (time zone). I usually have the Rose Parade on and have a flimsy or close to it by the end of the day. A friend told me whatever you do on New Years Day, you will do throughout the year. Fun way to make sure that includes quilting!!!

Enjoy your week getting ready for the holidays

Groetjes, Jo

2014 Civil War BOM ~ Threads of Memory

Forgot to mention this morning, Barbara Brackman is hosting a new Block of the Month for 2014 on her Civil War Quilts blog. Here is her post. Today's post is the last block for Dixie Diaries which wraps up the blocks for this year's block of the month.

Threads of Memory starts January 25th 2014 and will be posted once per month ~ the last Saturday of each month. These will be 12 inch blocks, no applique (one per month, not a BOW).

From her post:
"The theme Threads of Memory refers to the Underground Railroad. Each month you'll get a block named for an important place in the story of the network that assisted slaves on the road to freedom. We'll explore true stories of people who lived in slavery, escaped on the "Liberty Line" or helped the fugitives."

Becky will be making two versions and Dustin will add his own flair by doing two versions as well, one all in one fabric :0) I plan to play along and may tie it in with my Mom in some way. She has dementia and Threads of Memory has a whole new meaning in our world. Mom did allot of cross stitch through out her life and I am thinking of including pieces of her work in the quilt.

Will be fun to see who all joins in for this one. How about you? A flickr site was set up in 2011 and I imagine it will be using for this project. Yep, just went over there and checked, Dustin already has a thread about it.  The Dixie Diary blocks are posted there now. Here is a link. You will also find a link on Barbara's blog, it's a photo of a woman holding a camera. Sweet!

Also posted by Barbara Brackman on her blog a couple of weekends ago... for anyone a bit more ambitious, looking to start a new Civil War block of the week... here is her post about Elm Creek's book ~ Loyal Union Sampler   Also a good choice for a new project in 2014!

Last of the Flowers

First, this is the layout I am going with for my Tree of Life quilt... still pinned, it's kind of wonky on my design wall.

Sawtooth border around the trees instead of running into them. It means making more HSTs which is what I am doing today. I am having so much fun working on this quilt even tho it's only a few hours a week. 

Keeping up with my longarm business and getting quilts quilted for the holidays by working Saturdays. Just finished working on a large quilt for Beckie. It's a new design and I love it! Quilted with wool batting, the quilting design shows really well. I would quilt one of my Civil War quilts with this pattern. For an all over design, it's really nice, especially for a quilt with a busy print/pattern.

Here is the quilt rolled up on my take up bar... it's big!

The last of the flowers are gone. Here is a picture I took just before the cold snap came in. We had almost a week of hard freezes each night. Last night wasn't as cold as the predicted 17 F but after yesterday's rain and snow mix, the wet was frozen this morning. Three nights in the mid 20's. We lost allot of plants, despite covering them each night.

The pic is of the flowers on the ground cover we added to the front yard this year. Flowers are all gone now, just hope the plants survived and will be back in the Spring. Of course, the veggie garden is toast! Goodbye Fall... Hello Winter! The Philadelphia Detroit football game today is being played in the snow! Those guys have short sleeves, sliding in the snow, crazy!

I'm off to make lunch and HSTs.  Enjoy your day, hope it is warm and toasty :0)