Christmas Brunch with the Quilters

It has been a busy week with many Christmas functions and parties.  One that I look forward to every year is the Whacky Ladies brunch at Brig's Restaurant in Wake Forest.  Besides the great food, we have a gift exchange and also share small gifts with everyone.

I hit the jackpot this year on the gift exchange.

I thought Lori had made this Christmas stocking, but she says it is from Hobby Lobby.

It was stuffed with lovely gifts...the best being four yards of beautiful fabric!

There was also a very pretty journal, which I will enjoy very much.

 And stuffed in the toe, some Ghirardelli chocolate squares!

Opening all the small gifts was like Christmas morning.   I thought I took pictures of these as well, but I must not have.  I will take one of the owl pincushion made by Gloria next time- it is so cute!

Charlie and I used a gift certificate he got as a retirement gift to eat at The Angus Barn in Raleigh with our friends Ricky and Mary.  They decorate it beautifully at this time of year, but you can always count on seeing lots of quilts hanging on the walls.

I have continued to paint lots of angels, and sent this one to a relative who just turned 90.

I purchased some cards with a framed mat that allows you to insert photos or artwork.

I think that soon I will be offering these for sale in an Etsy shop to raise money for cancer research, a subject close to my heart.

I hope that you are enjoying the holiday season.  Busy as it always is, Christmas time is my favorite. I have been sharing a Bible journaling page each day of December to try to keep in mind the "reason for the season."  Here is one that I did recently.

Baby Quilt Fabrics for Layla

We have a new granddaughter arriving soon...and her mama and other grandmother (the interior designer) have selected fabrics for her nursery.  I now have a package of fabrics to use in designing and making a quilt for little Layla!

Looks like a lovely garden theme in soft pastel colors.  I will use these plus, hopefully, lots more that I pull from my stash.  Butterflies, birds, flowers...some of my favorite things!

Not sure it will be finished by her arrival around September 8, but I am glad to know the theme and color palette so I can get started!

This little one is looking forward to being a big sister!

Catching Up

We spent Easter week and a little bit longer at our mountain cabin.  It was very restful, and I think it helped Charlie a lot to be off work for awhile and be in his "happy place."  We enjoyed walks and rides over the mountains, and also seeing all the nieces and nephews who came up for the opening day of trout season.

Most of the trout that were caught in the creek were transported to our fishing pond, so the kids can catch them again and again.

Here is my sister's granddaughter Holly enjoying the tire swing.

The trees up there still did not have any leaves.  They are a few weeks behind Raleigh.

But back home, it is dogwood and azalea time!  We have huge mounds of azaleas surrounding our Raleigh home.

Yesterday I went on an excursion with friends Marcia and Laurie.  We went to Pittsboro, North Carolina, to visit the French Connections shop.  Marcia wanted to select some fabric for her quilt featuring fabrics from Provence.

It is a most eclectic and charming shop in downtown Pittsboro!  In addition to fabrics from France, they carry fabrics and many other items from West Africa and lots of metal sculpture from Mexico.

If you look closely, you can see Yours Truly standing next to the giant metal rooster!

She ended up purchasing a yellow fabric with lavender sprigs for the backing, and a navy and yellow print for the binding.

After we finally finished buying fabric, we walked to the Pittsboro Roadhouse  for delicious chili and sandwiches.  Then we browsed our way back through some great little galleries and shops.

I found this chenille baby throw, which I intend to make into a quilt. It was less than twenty dollars at Reclamation Home Furnishings and Company.

Today I have been doing a little painting in my art journal and Bible.  I'll post that work another time. Tomorrow I am off to the North Carolina Museum of Art with my art quilt bee.  It's time again for Art in Bloom, a pairing of art work and floral masterpieces.  We really enjoyed it last year, and can't wait to see the new creations!

Here are some pictures from last year's event.

The exhibit is only Thursday through Sunday, so better reserve your tickets and make your plans if you want to go!

Alma Sue's Quilt Shop

Yesterday we went to breakfast at Yoder's in Sarasota, an Amish restaurant.  We have been three times now for the generous helpings of delicious homemade food.  We sat at a table under this wall quilt...one of the first quilty things I have seen in Florida.

As we went around the block after breakfast, look what I found!

This area of Sarasota, called Pinecraft, has had an Amish community since the 1920's when a group came down to work in the celery farms.  I was expecting some cute little ready-made Amish things inside...but was surprised to find a regular quilt shop.

I just had to purchase a little souvenir fat quarter pack to remind me of Florida.

Not that I have seen any sea turtles or starfish here.  Sand dollars are another story.  You can scoop up dozens of them on the sandbars of Sanibel Island.

I also picked up a cute baby panel.

The quilt shop is not all that Amish...there were not one, but two, long arm quilting machines inside...and a sales clerk with both arms heavily tattooed!

When we left the shop, we saw an elderly Amish woman riding a recumbent tricycle!  Very cute.

We went back to Lido Key for a couple hours.  We were surprised to see a manatee swimming by in shallow water!  No picture, unfortunately.  These guys were more cooperative.

I spotted an iguana sunning himself next to the lake at my brother's house when we got home.  That is something we do not see in Raleigh or at our mountain pond!

When I approached him to get a better picture, he did a belly buster into the lake, and swam across to sun himself on a rock on the other side.

Enjoy your weekend!

Silk Packets

Got some nice little packets of silk pieces in assorted colors from Joggles.com on sale.

There are six pieces in each bag, 7.5" X 10.5".  Not bad for ten bucks.

Here are a couple of other packets I just had to purchase for the mountain weekend:

Why does Blogger turn pictures sideways some days?  The packets are Dingo Dog Treats.

Had to get them for the Dingo.

Dave photoshopped this fake magazine cover when they were trying to figure out what kind of dog they were adopting.

Answer:  A cute, smiley dog!

New Stuff

We had so much fun yesterday at our Whacky Ladies sew-in at Quilts Like Crazy. We had a good turn-out, and got lots of quilt tops started or completed. I came home with two finished ones to quilt for others and donate to our guild charities.

I decided to work on a nine-patch in an analogous color scheme of blues and violets. The alternate blocks are a white print with little pointing hunting dogs in blue. It is about three-fourths finished.

One of our bee members is the long-arm quilter at the store, and she and another store colleague prepared our delightful meals. It was even mostly on my current diet plan, which is South Beach Phase 1. I only cheated a little by eating a bit of zucchini bread. That's healthy, right?

As a little thank-you to the store for hosting us, I just had to make a little purchase. I can't resist those little fabric tulips of fat quarters, so I got one of those in teals and avocado greens.

Here are those fabrics opened up a little.

And I added a few more FQ's to the yellow-salmon fabrics I purchased there recently.

Today several of us had planned to go to Sanford, NC, for the Quilting and Fiber Arts Marketplace. Thirty-seven vendors will be in the Dennis Wicker Civic Center for a two-day trade show. This has my name written all over it---like the vendor mall at a big quilt show without all the distracting quilts to look at!

Snow was predicted for today, so we decided not to go. And I remembered all the stuff I had recently purchased at Mary Jo's, Michael's, and Jerry's Art-a-Rama during Christmas vacation- and had not even put away yet. So, I think I will pass on the trip. I wish it was not scheduled for right after Christmas! But it did not snow a bit here, just rain once again, although the snow caused a lot of traffic problems just north of here.

When I went to Mary Jo's Cloth Store in December, I did not have anything special to buy, like backing fabric for a certain quilt. So I just zoomed around and looked in all the bargain bins, fat quarter tables, button collection, etc. The only fabric I had cut were three pieces of organza. But here is some of the booty:

Some buttons (all are marked down at Mary Jo's)

Batik scraps and some fat quarters:

I love bluebirds, so had to get this fat quarter:

Here is the organza, some thick black satin, and some voluptuous tassel trim.

Some brass stencils for embossing or ???I have a needle-felting machine, but sometimes you need to do a little by hand to stick fibers down before running them through the machine.

And I found two more Cedar Canyon rubbing plates for Shiva oil Paint Stiks.

and some big bags of seed beads.

Okay, gotta go create something!