I may be in trouble!!

I guess my husband does read my blog entries!! I had mentioned in my last post that I was hoping we would get our outdoor Christmas decorations out this year. After
Church on Sunday while London (our 4 year old grandson) and I were inside decorating our Christmas tree and the house Steve was outside putting up our outdoor decorations. The cows and horses were all hand painted by Steve, Heather and myself many years ago. I always enjoy seeing them in our yard. I was raised on a dairy farm and have always loved cows. Someday I will have to show you pictures of my kitchen and my Merry Moo's collection. Steve was raised with horses although he hasn't riden one in over 35 years. We feel our yard decorations combine both of our interests and loves. Thanks hon for all your efforts. I truly appreciate them.

A White Christmas in Hillman

Well, after the big storm this week it certainly looks like we will have a white Christmas here in Hillman, yea!!!! We had a major storm come through and dropped about 10 inches of snow here. I had hoped we would get more outdoor Christmas decorations out but that didn't happen. That is ok. We don't have our tree up yet or our inside decorations up yet either but hopefully today and tomorrow we will get that done.

Our Quilt Guild Christmas Party

We had our annual Thunderbay Quilt Guild Christmas party today. It was so nice to spend time with my "quilty" friends. I had to miss our business meeting last week so it was nice to see everyone and catch up on their news. We enjoyed lunch of soup and salad or sandwich and dessert. The dessert was either cheese cake or a warm apple strudel with ice cream, yum, yum!! During the month of November most of our Guild members made Christmas stockings and today we donated items and filled the stockings for local children. We ended up filling over 100 stockings. It is always so rewarding to do charity work and especially when you can combine it with quilting!!!

Hulbert Quilt Camp #3

I recently had a chance to enjoy a six day Quilt Camp with family and friends. Thanks Dave, Jane, Chris and Donna for sharing your beautiful cabin with us. We all managed to work on lots of projects, did lots of visiting, laughing and enjoyed lots of good food. We had some snow, those big flakes that are so pretty. I got the machine button hole stitching finished on 9 of my Guild's Blocks of the Month, put together a Tiny Miracle quilt and pieced the Stacked Four Patch Posey blocks that have been sitting in my sewing room for over a year and a half. Tasha was into making tote bags, then learned to make the knitted hats with the loom. Lana had her flip flop blocks all machine appliqued and learned how to make the log cabin blocks for the borders. Mom worked on re-doing her heart quilt and also did some hand stitching. Carol learned how to do some machine quilting (stippling) and was very excited about that. Karen learned how to machine applique and machine quilt on her cupcake wall hanging. She also worked on a table runner and hand quilting on a baby quilt. Again I had camera problems so I am not able to share all of the pictures with you. Maybe I should just stick with my sewing machine and forget about all of the other electronics. We all had a great time and are already looking forward to next years camp!

Scrappy Thursdays

Our Guild started a new fun get-together. We are now holding Scrappy Thursdays. We had our first get-together last Thursday. I probably shouldn't have started another project but I did. I started a quilt named Trail Mix. It consists of lots and lots of scrappy squares of various sizes and rectangles. I pulled a bunch of my fabrics and started cutting. The pattern is layed out in steps so it will be perfect for our Scrappy Thursdays. The first steps calls for 32 4 patches so I got those done. But the most exciting news of the first Scrappy Thursday was that I used our Featherweight Sewing Machine. We bought it a little over a year ago on E-Bay and I just never took time to play with it. Steve used it in a Featherweight Care and Maintenance class so she is all tuned up and ready to go. She is so beautiful and just purrs like a kitten (or as a farm girl, she purrs like an old John Deere). I am really excited about using the Featherweight and our Scrappy Thurdays. Several women worked on scrappy quilts and some worked on finishing up some Christmas stockings for area children. We will fill them with small gifts at our Christmas party in a couple of weeks. Thanks Sandi for the idea of Scrappy Thursday. I already have ideas for several scrappy quilts. But first ...... I need to get another quilt or two finished.

A Quilter's Retreat for the Retreat Coordinator

I had so much fun. I was able to attend a 3 day Quilter's Retreat last weekend. Daughter Heather and I enjoyed sewing and visiting with friends. This is the 4th year I have attended this retreat and Heather's 2nd year. Heather made a beautiful purple tote bag during the retreat. I did some machine button hole stitching on some flower blocks from a Guild Block of the Month from 4 or 5 years ago. My sewing machine didn't want to cooperate real well so I then moved on to some piecing. I worked on the Bouquet for Karen blocks from our Murder Mystery Quilter's Retreat. I was able to get 50 or 51 blocks done at the retreat. I think I just need to make about 10 more blocks, then I can start putting the quilt together. I think I will put up my design wall and lay the blocks out that way instead of on the living room floor. There were so many different projects going on during the retreat including sweatshirt jackets, full size quilts, a T-shirt quilt, wall hangings, wallets, bags and table runners. It is so much fun to see all of the different projects and fabrics. I am looking forward to this retreat next November. I am also looking forward to a small quilt camp with family members and friends in 10 days. Oh my, I didn't realize it was coming up that fast. I will have to get busy soon and get packing.

Our Beautiful Little Trick Or Treaters

I have always loved Halloween and seeing all of the little trick or treaters in their costumes. We live on a dead end street so usually we only have family members come to our house. This year we had 30 trick or treaters and it was so much fun. Grand daughter Allie and her Mom live on Mackinac Island and are here visiting for a couple of weeks before they head to Florida for the winter. When Allie arrived here in Hillman she was scared of everything Halloween including pumpkins. I think we are past most of that now. She dressed as a Dora Princess and looked so beautiful. She loves to dress up in princess dresses and even in her little tu-tu. London invited Papa and I to attend his party at pre-school. He decided to be a dinosaur and looked so cute in his costume. When it was time to go trick or treating he decided to wear his Thomas the Train costume. He looked so cute and I loved his hat. Cameryn chose a Star Wars costume. He was sick with the flu for several days before halloween so wasn't really into all of the trick or treating but he did manage to make it to a few houses. We loved seeing him and his half-sisters.