Happy New Year!

May you all make many beautiful quilts in 2011. 

glen:  who is home guarding the grand-dog Hugeaux from all the horrible noises and monsters who may be coming to get him tonight!

Dutch - my odd boy

The definition of a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog's personality is listed in the official AKC Standard as "bold, willing and vigilant".  Dutch is none of these.

He is the 125 lb dog who is afraid of the mat in the bath tub or the coat on the back of the chair.  

He also is afraid of anything new, out of place or just something he hasn't noticed in a while.......like the fan overhead in the den. 

But oddly enough, he is not afraid to walk under ladders and tease the 7 Year Bad Luck Fairies.

Chloe the Smelly Basset, on the other hand, is just plain odd.

A little bit Christmas, a little bit gone

I am glad Christmas is over.  While I love getting gifts, there is always the day after.  Frank is somewhere in lower Louisiana back to work again.  He has off again the end of the week toward New Years.

Christmas dinner was at Carrie’s house.  It was the very first time she ever had a family holiday at her place.  They moved in directly before Christmas last year so they had packing boxes everywhere.  This year she wanted her First Christmas in their home, melding the two families.  Andrew’s parents and Andrew’s brother and wife and son came, they work different schedules so having time off together was a good thing for them.

I thought I would arrive to see my beautiful daughter, dressed in her fancy Christmas clothes, with her fancy Christmas Apron tied around her skinny waist, with fantastical smells of turkey coming from the oven.  But there was none of that.  In fact, she was in casual clothes, sans apron, and not an oven light flickering.

About 15 minutes after we arrived, there came a knock on the door.  The in-laws had arrived.  And with them came a flurry of activity that involved turkey, ham, roast, gravy, rice, green bean casserole, dressing, broccoli cheese casserole, pies, rolls and gumbo.  The food had been transported from Plaquemine to Carrie’s house! 

It was good.  Interesting, but good.  Fayne is a fabulous cook. She certainly has no competition!

We opened presents after dinner and never got around to the pie and cookies I brought, but that was fine.  While I felt like a third wheel, it was good that Carrie and Fayne bonded over food brought from the old homestead.  And later that night they all went to his family’s places for more  celebrations.

Frank and I went home and played Wii by ourselves.

But we did get to enjoy the day with Carrie, and we did get the Grand-Dog Hugeaux for the night!

glen: today I am cleaning out a corner of the Quilt Room as part of my New Year’s Resolution push!

 

 

 

 

What Christmas Eve looks like where I live….

 

When I was a kid I was totally amazed with all the scenes on  Christmas Cards with snow and deer and moonlit fields of beautiful crystal clear ice and snow.  It just didn't happen where I lived.  And it made no sense to me as a child, looking upon those cards and seeing SNOW! 

I still have a hard time seeing snow on the ground in my adult mind's eye.

 

So here is what Christmas Eve looks like in Southern Louisiana!

The berries on the nandina are bright red to attract the birds.  And the berries on the privet hedges are dark like juniper berries.  The leaves have turned beautiful colors this year because we had a deep freeze early in November.  That was very unusual (global warming people are nuts if they think we are getting warmer)  but we do get some beautiful colors from the early freezes. 

 

Pansies and lettuce share side by side planters.  My red leaf lettuce is getting bigger.  We might have a few leaves in our Christmas dinner salad.

   

 

 

 

 

The periwinkles are still blooming from the summer plants.  I just have a hard time pulling up perfectly good plants.  So they are mixed with the pansies!

Chloe the Smelly Basset’s pine cone stash is growing.  She carries them home on her nightly walks.

 

 

 

The Azaleas are blooming.

 

Merry Christmas and I hope your snow is not too deep for you to go over the hills and through the woods to Grandma’s house!

 

glen

Houses for the Virtual Quilting Bee at Bumble Beans

For the month of January Lynn has chosen houses as her block.  She wanted them bright and beautiful and modern and wild.  I made three wild, modern, bright houses for her.

I like this one because it is so busy.  It reminds me of a circus tent.  I found that fence block in my scrap pile.  It came from the Lighthouse Quilt that Frank carries around in his van with him.  He shows it to everyone who asks about his wife.

This one was a bit of a mistake.  It was supposed to be a pretty cool orange house sitting against a mountain.  But instead it looks like a weird orange house inside of a mountain.  Not sure what to do with that, but I guess it is what it is!

 Now I really liked this one.  A bit more sedate, it is a wonderful place I would like to live in myself.  It has dogs and cats living in it, which is the perfect place to live anyway.  And the flowers in the front yard are happily blooming away with smiles on their faces!  And the sky is clear blue with no clouds in sight.  And the house is brick to withstand the hurricanes that might blow a lesser house away.  I like this one!

glen:  Lynn is getting some really great houses from the other 10 people.  It should be a fabulous quilt!  I am certainly lusting after it already.  Check them out at:
http://www.15minutesplay.com/

Merry Christmas to all and I hope you get MORE!

If I don't get back to you for what ever reason, I wanted to make sure you knew I wanted you all to have a Merry Christmas.

My tree is minimalist this year due to the constraints of the surgery....and time.  But it is still pretty.  I find it interesting how we can see beauty in less when we never thought about it before.  We usually load our tree with the wonderful ornaments we have collected in our 38 years of marriage, 25 years of child rearing, and life.

This year we have not a single ornament.  And it is still beautiful.  Next year the ornaments will be back on, simply because they are a lifetime of our memories.  And we do want them on the tree.

Merry Christmas, I hope your Christmas is definitely MORE!

glen:  thanks to all of you for being my friends.  I love you all!

Design Wall Monday 12-20-10

I can't believe it is 5 days to christmas and I still have like 12 Quilts to complete for people.  Sigh.  I think they will be getting UFO IOUs.

I have been hindered by having surgery two weeks ago that doesn't allow for nice large arm movements.  And recovery time is longer than I am used to.

Here is what I am working on right now.  The Mystery Stars for the unveiling of the Mystery Quilt Challenge for River City Guild in the first week of January. (Almost complete........nearly there.......)

12 UFOs for Patchwork Times Challenge

OK, here is my narrowed down list.  I am ready for Judy to pick her numbers!
I have combined since there were so many and some are in a more advanced state of being.  Some are blocks and some are tops just waiting to be completed.  Carrie says I have to give away some of these quilts before making more.  So that might be in the future as well.  Although how one can give away a child of your own making is beyond me.  I didn't give HER away, did I????


1.  Elephants from Sri Lanka
2.  New Year's Mystery Dog
3. Cow I and Cow 2
4.  Stacked Posey and Blue/Beige Row Quilt
5. Frank's Transportation Quilt and Progressive Jar
6.  Outhouse Blocks and Mystery Orange Snowballs
7.  Mystery Blue Snowballs and Patch No Work
8.  (3) Bumble Beans 15 Minute quilts
9.  Progressive Jar and Karen's Watermelon Quilt
10.  Virtual Quilting Bee Warm/Cold and Christmas Scrappy
11.  My House Hanging and Sassi Strippers Red/Green Mystery
12.  Matthew's Saints and The Polar Bears

UFO list - Patchwork Times Challenge

Judy over at Patchwork Times has issued a Challenge calling for all your UFOs to be done in 2011.  I think that I might just join in the fun.  I failed miserably in the last year getting many of my UFOs done, maybe this will be the Year of the UFO.  Although if you remember my earlier post about having over 1000 of the things lying around the quilting room, you probably won't be impressed by the list. 

And I know what you are going to say....isn't that vaguely familar from LAST year???????  Huh.  Go ahead.  You want to say it.

I guess i can add to the list as I go along during the year.  Or not.  I might just be too embarrassed to actually list all my UFOs.  In one sitting.  Maybe I can do 17 posts with about 30 in each post.......

X Scrappy
Raven's Coat from Alaska
Fireworks Kit
Double Wedding Ring for Carrie
Lone Star
Santa
Card Deck
Shirt Plaids (stars maybe)
Sitka Waves
Polar Bear
BleuBeige Row Quilt
Christmas Tree Kit
New York New York
Just Ducky
Frank's Transportation
Elephants from Sri Lanka
Stacked Posies
My House Wall Hanging
Cow I
 Cow II
New Year Mystery Dog
Christmas Scrappy
Progressive Jar Quilt
Bumble Beans 15 minutes
Bumble Beans 15 Minutes Oriental
Bumble Beans 15 minutes Scrappy
2010 Mystery Blue Snowballs
2010 Mystery Orange Snowballs
2010 Mystery Sassi Strippers Red/Green
Patch No Work
Matthew's Saints Quilt
Karen's Watermelon Quilt
Virtual Quilting Bee Warm/Cold Rectangles

It was a dark and stormy night…..

The night was dark, and the cold wind blew against the shimmering Christmas lights hung in the stark trees silhouetted against the shrouded street lamp across the dimly lit street.  There came a deep rumbling motor sound and squealing brakes as the motor coach driver rushed through his route, far later into the evening than he wanted out on the pitch dark freezing roads.  Dogs inside the warm house, snug in their beds with furry tails covering their cold wet leathery noses, roused with the rumbling motor coach sounds and barked loud excited warning barks.  Cat shadows flew against the dark ancient wainscot panels into the deep nether regions of the dark cold house, upset by the baying of the alerting hounds.
Suddenly.  There came a pounding knock on the wooden door, wild careening dog sounds exploded from beasts that reminded me of the noise as if the Furies of Hell were entering the sacred realm of house and hearth. 
Once the massive estate mastiffs were silenced and the huge drawbridge doors were opened, it was obvious a small but ornate package from the depths of the wild Amazon had been placed on the doorstep leading to the mansion’s entry. 


My Word Play Book had arrived!  Yay!

Pig, proclaimed

So the pig ended up to be just one lousy block, so I took a page from the Bumble Beans blog and grabbed some cool looking fabric and made a table runner that will go along with her other pig-ish stuff.

It really turned out cute.  I sure hope she likes it!

glen

Why are pigs so hard? (whine)

pig

I decided today that I would make a pig quilt TableRunner for my sister in law.  She has a pig.  Blossom is a Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig.  I usually think of these things as small pigs but Blossom is larger than my Swissys, and they are pretty big dogs.

Blossom is older than 20 years.  I don't think I have a picture of her anywhere, but I guess she is cute...as pigs go.  She has a lot of wiry odd sticking out hairs.  And a huge nose she uses to root up the sofa cushions every day when Michelle leaves for work.  She learned to open the refrigerator a long long time ago, so they actually have a padlock on their fridge.  (It hasn't stopped anyone from getting fat, so it only works for real pigs.)

Last year I made Michelle a quilt from the Olivia the Pig collection in black and white and reds.  I loved the quilt.  I hope Michelle did too, since I have not heard from her about it at all.  She was not present when I handed the basket of presents to my brother, so I have no idea what she thought about it.

I thought I would just zip out 8 pig blocks this afternoon and then finish them up tomorrow.  Well, best laid plans of pigs and women.  I fought with the construction of the pig for some reason.  It was way harder than I thought it would be.  See my Bad Pig?  It looks like, I don't know what.  A blimp maybe?   The red pig turned out a bit better not worse.   I think I need to make the pigs skinnier in their body.  LOL.  That is funny, my pig needs a diet!  I finally did get it done, and had to cook supper then leave for a Toastmaster meeting.  So I really got nothing done all day!

But does it look like a pig?  Aughhhhhhh!

So then I decided not to do a whole big quilt, but to do a pig theme group of presents and the tablerunner.   I found a really adorable watering can that is shaped like a good sized pink pig.  And I found a red/white/blue piggy bank.  And a dish shaped like a cute little piggy.  I think this along with the table runner will be a pretty cute gift.  I guess once again, though, I won't know how it goes over since I never hear from them and never see Michelle.

She won't read this, they have not paid much attention to us here in Baton Rouge in a long long time.  So the surprise won't be spoiled.  I just get upset that my mom never sees them either.  That is the hurt in all this.

Sigh..........pig things.

glen

Santa Claws at PetSmart - Day 2

Today was Dan Day at Santa Photos!  Dan was the consummate Santa.  He stayed jolly all day through a dog who peed on him, kids who screamed when he waved at them and all the adults who wanted to sit on his lap.  (He might have been sexier than Sexy Bobby Santa!)

This is a fabulous photo of Santa Dan and a Schnauzer. 

And this is Arwen on the left, one of the CAAWS dogs from last year.  She found a very fabulous loving family.  This little guy on the right was the one who peed on Santa!  Naughty boy!  Gets coal in your stocking.

Here is Amber, officially Mrs. Santa, loving up on some dogs.  She liked the ones she could cuddle with. 

And here is Santa Dan with a little white fluffy that was pretty cute.  She didn't pee on Santa so she will get doggy goodies in her stocking come Christmas!

Another great day, we totaled about $400 in money for CAAWS Spay and Neuter program.

Thanks, PetsMart!

glen

A Day With SANTA PAWS at Petsmart

Every year Petsmart Charities lets animal groups take Santa Photos using their store and equipment and they donate $5 back to the Charity of the day for each photo sold.  We are darn good at selling photos, let me tell you.  Another unnamed charity last weekend only did 30 photos ALL weekend!

We will be there tomorrow if anyone wants to come down, Petsmart on Millerville, Baton Rouge, LA.  I'll be the perky one in the front of the store!

I told them this would be my poster family this year.  I love them.  Three kids, all girls, mom works part time, one dog, a cat and some fish.  And she was mostly sane!

Sexy Bobby V was our Santa today, tomorrow it will be my friend Sexy Dan.    Here is Mari "organizing" things.  She likes to do that.  Large and in charge, although she was jealous of my recent renovations.

This is Julie, our wonderful volunteer coordinator.  She was thinking she was strategically hiding between two dogs, but we knew she was there!

CAAWS gets $5 from every picture we take and when I left at 3 pm we had hit about 41.  On one day that is great!  That is 10 cat spays, and a couple of neuters.  What a day!

glen

Land of the 1000 UFOs

I have no idea how many I actually have.  There is a semi-official record of my UFOs in one of the guild challenges.  I think that list has like 24 on it.  I was conservative. 

Then there was the period in my quilting life where I "kitted" groups of material so I would remember what I bought them for and how they were to go together.  I have 20 or so of those.

Then there is all the kits I have purchased from Hancock's of Paducah, Keepsake and Fons and Porter.  And the ones I inherited from my mother when her quilt room merged with mine. 

I figure there are pert near about 1000 by now. 

Like my freezer, I really have to use what I have in here before I go out buying more stuff.  I saw a stash report by one girl who listed her fabric usage as like 381.50 yards.  OMG!  I could never keep such a report, I wouldn't want anyone to REALLY know how much fabric I have.

I know Jessie will read this.  In fact she probably friended me just so she could see if I slipped up and actually mentioned this stuff on my blog.  You see, Jessie is the UFO coordinator in one of my quilt guilds.  She was not happy that we members were not finishing up on UFOs this year and vowed to make our lives miserable unless we started giving her something to work with.

Well, Jessie, this is for you.  I am going to tackle my UFOs in 2011.  2011 will be the year of the UFO .

(Don't tell Jessie, but 2010 was the Year of the Square and I only made one quilt with squares in it and I am not finished that one yet either!)

glen

4 days out of surgery

So at 4 days out of surgery, the drains were the things that were bugging me the most. So doc agreed to take them out. I feel 2000% better! They were pretty painful where they were stitched in. Another 4 days and more stitches will come out.

He was late for the appointment, I was on time, he was working on some guy who had his eyelid ripped off.  He said you can do a lot of things to your face but ripping off your eyelid is probably the worst of all.

I told him that since he was in charge of my body that he needed to give me something for this sinus headache I had for the last 5 days and that had now grown into a full blown infection since he wouldn't let me take any of my regular meds.

So he gave me back my medicine cabinet. That will cure the rest. I told him that I can cure dog, cat or human from my medicine cabinet! He looked at Frank, who just shrugged and confirmed that he is still alive.

glen: ahhhhhh, sweet turmeric and decongestants!

I'm baaaaaack!

For a while.  I am still recuperating.  But getting stronger each day.  Today I got tired of sitting on the sofa watching lousy TV so I must be getting better!

glen

Out of commisssion

I will be out of commission for about 5 days.  So be good little birdies!

glen

Fabric find

Oh oh oh.  Just had to post this one.  I found this 100% cotton house dress at the Purple Cow, our local resale shop which is like Salvation Army and Goodwill.  They know me there and will save extra goodies for me. 

This was in the 99 cent rack!

What a find!  I laid it out on the ironing board but it is a full length house dress.  Wowser!

We were talking on one of the blogs just this Monday about having all these shirts and making quilts out of them.   I have enough for several quilts!  Stuffed into a drawer in the quilt room closet.  They may come out soon. 

glen:  do I have to list them as a UFO???????