How Dogs Make Their Beds

We had a house full of big people, little people, and one extra dog this weekend.  Exhausting, but fun!

Here is my granddog, Roo, making himself at home at our house this weekend.  I thought you might enjoy it!

Trying to Save a Little Snow

It is still so cold.  You know I love my dog when I am taking her for a walk and the temps are below freezing!   This is the neighbor's duck pond, slightly iced over.  Even the ducks were staying out of the water.

My oldest son and grandkids live in South Carolina, where they get even less snow than we do.  We are trying to hold on to the little snow that is left until they get here Friday evening.  In shady spots, there is still a bit on the ground. But the sun is shining brightly and doing its job.

This area beside our driveway is where most of my guests will park on Saturday.  It is supposed to shoot up into the fifties, so this will probably turn to mud.

I have been getting to know (and love) Kasey a little more each day.  In addition to motivating me to go for walks, she wants to help me do my exercise videos. 

She thinks when I get down on the floor, it is to roll around with her.     Sometimes I get licked in the face with every sit-up.  I wonder why I waited so long to get another dog!

Some Quilty Things

Brrr- it is way too cold here for this to be the South!  We have been getting this unwanted gift of cold air from our Canadian neighbors to the north!  It is unusual to have frozen ponds around here.  It is definitely feeling a lot like Christmas these days!

On Monday, it was a wonderful day with my Anything Art Bee at Ruth-Ellen Flanagan's house.  The topic was dimensional beading.  Ruth-Ellen has taken classes from Nancy Eha and others.  She had many beautiful examples of beaded pieces to inspire us, like this section of a finished piece.

She showed us how to make little beaded trees with bugle beads and seed beads, and then join the seed beads together to make a "forest."  This one is Ruth-Ellen's, not mine!

We also did  a corkscrew, and she showed us how to sew on Shisha mirrors or cabochons.  I'm not even showing you mine, because I felt like I was all thumbs that morning.

With a last name like Flanagan, you would never know it, but Ruth-Ellen is Jewish, and we had our second annual potato latke lunch after the beading lesson.  Also some kugel made in Massachusetts.  It is a sort of noodle casserole, but it tasted like apple coffee cake to me.

I have finished two customer quilts this week.  The first is another of the die-cut quilts made by Stampin'-Up demonstrator Martha Armstrong.  This time, even the fabric is a Stampin'-Up product. It coordinates with their scrapbook papers.

 It is very perky and cheerful in some non-traditional Christmas colors.  Martha chose not to use Christmas motifs for the quilting, so she could use it all year.  I did mostly spirals and swirls.  Of course, you have to go around and around the flowers to attach each tier to the quilt backing.  They are only glue-basted on when I receive the quilt.

The borders are stripes and polka dots.

The back is an even larger polka-dot print.  I used one of Signature Thread's newest colors, Misty Jade.

The other quilt is by my customer, Gertrude.  This is the first quilt she has ever made to keep for herself.  It was a Block-of-the-Month quilt from Bernina. 

The navy frames around the patchwork really make the colors pop against the lime green in the alternate blocks.

I did a leaf meander in the patchwork, and leafy circle wreaths in the green areas.

The borders were navy blue.  I just did some heart-shaped leaves and loops.  I neglected to get a good picture of the borders before Gertrude picked up her quilt.

The back is also lime green, but has a small print, which I like because it hides any little knots or other flaws.

I have two more small customer quilts to do before Christmas, and some small applique wall-hangings.  This weekend my kids and grandkids (and granddog Roo) are all spending the weekend, and on Saturday many of my Turner relatives are coming over for dinner.  I expect to be pretty busy the rest of this week!  How are your holiday preparations going?  Keep smiling!

The Morning After

This is how our yard looked when we went out to get the morning paper.

It did not take long for the snow to start melting, even though it is still cold today.  I waited until it was above freezing, and took Kasey for a walk around the neighborhood.  I smiled when I saw the baby boy snowman next to the stork a few doors down!

Our neighbors Hutch and Jo had a beautiful Christmasy mail box.

We walked to the end of our street and up Rogers Road to see the barn on this pond.

The sun was shining beautifully on the water through the trees. I often see blue herons and turtles sunning themselves when I drive by this pond.

Kasey blended right in with the landscaping at the entrance to our neighborhood from Rogers Road.

The hollies are full of berries in time for Christmas.

We also have many native hollies, but this one does not have any berries.

I took this picture of snow on the fallen autumn leaves,

and realized how much it resembles my art quilt, "Autumn Leaves!"

Life imitating art!

First Snow

Last night, we went to an office Christmas party at North Ridge Country Club in Raleigh.  It was beautifully decorated like a winter wonderland.

And, today, we got a rare December snowfall that turned our yard into a real winter wonderland!

It snowed big, beautiful flakes all afternoon and into the evening.  The roads are clear, but the trees and shrubs are covered with a blanket of fluffy snow.

And guess who enjoyed playing in the snow!  Kasey's fur coat came in handy today.

When she wasn't out in the snow, she was watching the birds at the feeder out the front door or window.

We just love our beautiful new snow dog!

New Things

Today was the annual Christmas brunch for my local quilt bee, The Whacky Ladies.  We met at Brigs' Restaurant in Wake Forest.

Our custom is to exchange small gifts, often handmade, for each member.  This year I made a selection of quilted bookmarks and magnets.  Here are the needle-felted magnets, made of silk roving and Angelina fibers.

I also had a few made from one of the mini quilt sandwiches that I use to check thread tension on the longarm.  I added some beads and/or embroidery to these.  They look kind of Cinco de Mayo to me!  Wrong holiday, but they got snapped up pretty fast!

And there was one magnet from some of the Non-Traditional Patchwork from Rebekah Meier's book, Fabric Art Collage.

The bookmarks are quilted pieces from a piece of Setacolor painted/and or foiled  fabric.

We also exchange one big gift. This year I made a tote bag from a tote bag! 

I opened the sides of one of those gimme-bags from a school conference.  I added patchwork made from my own hand-painted fabric and commercial fabric.  These are painted with Shiva Iridescent Paint Sticks.

I added some fusible batting and the patchwork, and sewed the sides back up.  I added a lining in a light striped fabric.

My big gift from the exchange was a Yankee Candle Snowman candle holder, with cinnamon-scented candles. He is very happily at home in my Christmas Snowmen display! (Right in the middle, front row)

I came home with some wonderful little gifts.  Here is a change purse from Sharon with "Quilting Bee" fabric.

From Janice, our scrapbook queen, a beautifully decorated metal box of beautifully-wrapped candies.

Several lovely new ornaments:

And, a gift I've been enjoying while typing this post:

But, the best New Thing of all....

I finally decided I was ready to get another dog, especially after babysitting for my Grand-dog Roo  recently.  I've been looking online at all the local shelters. Finally, I found the one I wanted on Craigslist.  I went to get her yesterday.  We are already in love!

She is three years old, a Golden Retriever mix, but much smaller.  She only weighs about 35 pounds.  She came from a family with lots of children.  So far, she has been a perfect dog!

She loves our big yard and going for walks.  So far she has stayed downstairs, thus avoiding my longarm quilting room where she should not venture.  She loves to sleep at our feet, and will sit with her paw on my lap.

We are not sure what we will call her yet.  Stay tuned!  I am so happy to have a sweet doggy again! 

Nice Cozy Quilt

Here is the latest customer quilt that I finished.  This one is by my friend Jean.  I don't know the name of the quilt block.  It looks like two Delectable Mountains blocks put together.  The blue and brown palette is very cozy.

I quilted in an overall leaf meander.  I like that pattern for men's quilts, as well as anything botanical.  It gives lots of texture and adds softness to a quilt with lots of points and lines.

The border fabric ties together all the blues and browns.

The backing fabric is a luscious chocolate brown flannel.  Talk about cozy!  (The color is off in the photo- it is a rich, dark brown.  It is cloudy today and this is the best picture I could get.)

Still have four quilts to do before Christmas and lots going on.  Better get going!