HAPPY NEW YEAR

I want to wish each and every one of you a very Happy New Year. Please be safe in your celebrating. I have been reading about people setting goals instead of making resolutions. I think that sounds like a great idea. I am sure I am not the only one who has not been very successful in keeping resolutions. So I have been thinking about the goals that I would like to set. Of course there are always the personal ones - lose weight, be a better house keeper, etc. In my quilting world I am setting a goal to finish at least one UFO each month. And yes, I do have that many UFO's and probably enough to make that a goal for 3 or 4 years. I have been involved in several Block of the Month quilts and have not finished them. I also have a few quilts that were started here at Thunder Bay Resort during a Quilter's Retreat that need to be finished. Right now I am working on a baby quilt that I was commissioned to make. I am also hand quilting my Round Robin quilt. As soon as I finish the baby quilt I am going to get started on the UFO's. I think the first one I will finish is my Broken Star wall hanging. It is a design by Edyta Sitar and I bought the kit at Lolly's in Shipshewana, Indiana in September of 2007. I started piecing the blocks then and just haven't got back to it.

So what are your plans for the evening? Steve and I will be hosting a small dinner party. We have invited our two sons and their wives, our grandson, my parents and his brother and sister-in-law. Our daughter-in-love will be bringing a turkey. Later this afternoon I will be putting a prime rib in the oven. We will also have mashed potatoes, spaghetti squash, a tossed salad and rolls. This morning I made my first cheese cake. It was really fun to make and it smells yummy. I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Oreo Cheesecake

1 cup crushed Oreo cookies

1 TB butter, melted

32 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 eggs

20 Oreo cookies, quartered

Press a mixture of the crushed oreos and butter in a 9 inch spring form pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl at medium speed until smooth. Beat in the eggs until well blended. Gently stir in the quartered cookies. Pour the mixture over the cooled cookie crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until set. Loosen the cake from the side of the pan. Let cool. Chill, covered for 4 - 10 hours. Serves 12

Happy New Year to you and your family. I hope the New Year brings joy and happines to all.

Merry Christmas

At this very special time of the year I would I like to send a very Merry Christmas wish to all of my family and friends. My hope is that we all have lots of time with our family and friends during the holiday season. If you are traveling please be safe. And remember that "Jesus is the reason for the season." MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

HELP!! I think I have created a monster.

I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. My husband Steve has been exposed to quilting for almost 25 years now and I think he may have "caught the bug". During the weekend I was in my sewing room working on some baby quilts for a local charity. I left my sewing room to go into the kitchen to make dinner. When I returned to my sewing room all of my stuff was moved and there were supplies for another project on my sewing table. Steve had some Christmas gifts that he wanted to work on. Now I don't mind him sewing (in fact, I am very proud of his talent), but I don't know about sharing my space or my tools. I have been very fortunate to be able to completely take over a bedroom in our house for my quilting. Steve has a little room for all of his "stuff". He borrowed one of my sewing machines to work on his projects and I am proud to say that he completed his Christmas gifts during the weekend. Sorry I can't show any pictures until after Christmas. Now ..... does this mean that I have to start going into burning buildings (he is also a volunteer fire fighter of 32 years) or start deer hunting? I don't think so!!!!

Cold, cold, cold

I took this picture of the moon here at Thunder Bay Resort last week. It was absolutely beautiful. But of course with the full moon came the cold temperatures. Right now it is 18 degrees - brrrrrrrrr. And predictions are for more snow starting tonight. If the predicitons come true we could have up to 10 inches of new snow here by tomorrow night. I have been taking a needle turn applique class at Hollyhock Quilt Shop, about a 1 1/2 hour drive from my home. The class was scheduled for 3 Fridays over a 6 week period so we could get our homework done. We have been given 8 blocks so far and I am proud to say that I have 7 of them done. Our class for tomorrow has been cancelled because of the snow storm. I was looking forward to the final class but I also like the idea of a "free" day. I plan to stay home all day, do some sewing and also some baking for Christmas. One of the new recipes I plan to try is for Holiday Pretzel Rings. I found this recipe on Pat Sloan's blog. They look pretty and sound yummy.

Christmas Gift Idea

Have your husband or kids been asking you what you would like for Christmas? How about a trip to Thunder Bay Resort for a Perfect Quilter's Retreat in 2009? We have lots of fun teachers scheduled to join us here in Hillman. In April Kay Nickols will be teaching her Wonderful 1 Fabric Quilts. In June Nancy Odom will be here and teaching Stars are Gathering. In August we will welcome Mark Lipinski back for a double header. In his first session he will present Mystery With A Twist. He is still working on plans for his second retreat. Also in August Joan Shay from Petal Play will be here and will be teaching Nantucket Hydrangea Basket. In October Sherrie Jaqua will present a Murder Mystery/Mystery Quilt Workshop. Also in October Sue Nickels will teach her Machine Applique Basket. In November we will host a Holiday Gift Extravaganza and Jeanne Perrine will be here to teach her W.O.W bag. All the details of our retreats are available on our website. Four day/3 night retreats start at $395.00 per person. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I would also be glad to mail a DVD to you if you are interested. Gift certificates are available from our reservionists at 1-800-729-9375. I am looking forward to welcoming back former retreaters next year and also meeting new retreaters.

Quilt Guild Christmas Party

We held our annual Christmas party yesterday. Our committee, Carol, Sue and Shirley did a wonderful job! Carol prepared a delicious luncheon including a black bean salad, mexican wedding soup, smoked turkey paninis and chocolate mint pie. We were also treated with lots of Christmas cookies and candies. Along with lunch we played a trivia game and several prizes were given out. Secret sisters were revealed and although I wasn't involved it was fun to listend to the excited little screams as reveals were made. We also filled the Christmas stockings that we made a few weeks ago. One hundred and 10 stockings were filled with hand made mittens, slippers, toys and candy. They will be given to children in the area. Betty, a Guild member, told me that when she was a young child she always received 10 shiney new pennies, nuts and hard candy in her stocking. She brought pennies in and we put 10 pennies in each one of the stockings. I think that is such a special tradition and I am so glad she shared it with us. It is always so rewarding to do things for others. I am going Christmas shopping today and along with shopping for my family I will be shopping for a 10 year old boy whose name I picked from the Christmas tree at Church. He has asked for a hat and a pair of mittens. It really brings me back to reality when all a 10 year old asks for is hat and mittens. I plan to add a few extras to his gift.

Snow, snow and more snow

We have lots and lots of snow. In the last 30 hours or so we received about 14 inches of snow. The first picture was taken on Oct. 29 and the second picture was taken this morning. I heard on the radio this morning that we are already at 20 inches of snow above the normal amount for this time of year. Right now I am looking out the window and the sun is really trying to shine through the clouds. Every once in awhile the small snow flakes look like glitter in the sky. We had tickets to attend a Christmas concert downstate last night but decided not to risk the travel. Of course we were bummed as we had looked forward to spending time with my sister-in-law, attending the concert and doing some Christmas shopping. But with all of the crazy weather in most of the state we decided it would be best to stay home. Perhaps this weekend we will make the trip, visit and do some Christmas shopping. I worked yesterday morning, then spent the afternoon in my sewing room. I worked on another Christmas gift and am so excited to share it with the recipient on Christmas morning and then to share it with you on my blog after Christmas. I got up early this morning and finished the machine quilting. This afternoon I will clips threads, trim the quilt and add the binding. If time permits I would like to make a couple small gifts yet, a couple of potato bags and a couple of camera cases.

Hand Made Christmas Gifts

Are you busy making Christmas gifts? I had a great weekend finishing up this I Spy Quilt for a girl friend who has 3 little grand children. I also made the cute little bags for a couple of very good friends. I think they will be great to sit near their sewing machines to collect threads and small fabric scraps. After the holidays I just may make one for myself. I finished 3 other Christmas gifts but I am not able to post them today as I don't want to spoil the surprises. I have one more large Christmas gift to make and if time permits I would like to make a couple of small things. What are you making for Christmas gifts? I would love to hear from you. Have a great day! ~~Pam~~

Hulbert Quilt Camp

I recently returned from a Family Quilt Camp at a friends cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We had a great time. Participants included my Mom, two of my sisters, a niece, a great niece, my daughter and grand daughter, a very good friend and I. We did a lot of sewing (although there was also some embroidering, rug hooking and crocheting), did a lot of eating and a lot of laughing. We also watched a couple of "chick flicks". We even took a field trip to Village Fabrics and Crafts in Paradise. What a fun Quilt Shop. And believe it or not we also woke up to 18 inches of new snow fall one morning. It was absolutely beautiful. Many thanks to Carol for organizing the camp and for hauling the water and the pellets for the stove. Also thanks to Dave, Jane, Chris and Donna for sharing their cabin with us.