My husband's quilt and some friends...

I made this quilt for my husband a few years ago. It was supposed to be a lap quilt, but since numbers mean nothing to me until I see something in that size, it turned out to be a queen sized quilt. I had it professionally quilted so that it would be ready for Christmas that year. It's being aired out on the woodpile right now, that will make it smell nice for tonight.

Well, I guess Christmas is really over. We took the tree down today and put everything up in the attic for another year. It sure makes the house look bigger and cleaner, but not as cheerful.
Time for Valentine's Day decorations then! <3

The weather here is so weird today that it seems like spring will be coming in a few weeks. We are trying not to be fooled, because we are definitely in for at least a few snow storms and freezing temperatures. It sure has been gray most of the month though. I feel sorry for people who have winter depression since it's so dismal and dreary.

Homemade pizza for dinner tonight. I will make spaghetti and meatballs for tomorrow while I am making the pizza. That makes the first day back to work each week a little easier to manage.

Some projects to work on. New fabric (I broke my own promise not to buy anything new! :)

This is a tea towel that I wanted to have ready for Halloween, but I guess not! :) I work on it at night once in a while, so maybe by next Halloween, huh?
My husband, his cousin and I went to Connecticut to the gun show and we also went to a quilt shop in Ridgefield. What a great shop it was! So much cool fabric and the people were so helpful and friendly. We had lunch at a great tavern and then drove around before heading to Greenwich to the gun show. The show was awesome and pretty big. Many antique guns (for hunting, etc) and clothes for shooting and hunting with style!! :) I got these fabrics to work on my churn dash quilt. They are the Kaffe Fassett prints and I have never used them before, so thought, why not?
So, about that promise not to buy new fabrics until I use up most of my stash...How can I go to a new shop and not bring home souvenirs? That would just be wrong! A country girl has to support the economy too, doesn't she? Hey, now I will always remember our little trip whenever I work on and then snuggle under the new quilt. Yeah, I know...justifying again!

Need some eggs?

Here are the eggs I collected in the past 7 days! Even though it is cold here, the hens are now laying every day since they are young and just starting. Next winter they will not lay every day, but more like every other day. I am giving them to neighbors and friends at work tomorrow. I washed them all in hot water tonight and will put them in their cartons. People love fresh eggs and give me all manner of cool stuff in return, like:

Homemade soups
Fabric they won't be using
Cookies and bread
fresh deer or turkey from hunting trips
treats for my chickens (always appreciated)

I guess it is our version of friendly bartering. You never even ask for anything from them and there it is on my desk or doorstep one morning. It's a good way to do business, isn't it?

I participated in a quilt block swap over at MaryJane's Farm this fall and I got my blocks in the mail yesterday. Here are some of the fabrics I will use in the sashing and borders. We purposely chose winter and holiday themes rather than just Christmas so that we could keep the quilt out all winter. I'll post the top as soon as it is put together, which I hope will be this weekend. This one I will quilt right away too, so that my husband can use it on his couch.

Repurposed chenille!

I made these curtains for my bathroom using an old chenille bedspread I got a while ago. They are much nicer than they look here. We did the bathroom renovation a year ago, and I made the curtains to match the look of the room, which is sort of old fashioned, like the rest of the house, which was built in 1933.

More reproduction fabrics!! My favorite quilt!

This is the first quilt I made using reproduction fabrics. I just used all the ones I loved and did not care how well they fit together. I had just gotten my embroidery machine and practiced using it on this quilt. I tried every stitch and many different embroideries that I liked.
I raise chickens, so they are on virtually everything I make!! Sometimes I hide them in my work to make it fun to look for them. I think the whole thing came out cute. I use this one on my bed all year.
The pictures are not too great because I had to take them inside since I got home so late today. First day back to work and I got home around 7 p.m. I had forgotten that I signed up to chaperone a volleyball game today and they are very long.

Our girls played great, but lost their first game in like 3 years. What a heartbreaker! I am sure there were a great many tears on the rides home tonight.

So far, I am enjoying my daily BIBLE study (ha--I just realized it's only day 2!) It gives me something to think about all day. During the vacation, I was reading my books in the morning, but of course, now I have to do it at night.

I had McDonalds for dinner tonight, which I have not done in so long! It was not really that good, but I do like the fries. Better not get into that habit, not a good way to start a new year. When you are used to homemade food only, that fast food loses its taste, doesn't it?

Millie's tired!

Millie was tired from hunting this weekend and all of the post-holiday excitement. It was her birthday on December 27. She is nine years old.

Happy New Year & New Quilts!

The quilt on top is the one I made in class this past September. It was our trip to Japan! It was the easiest one so far and I did it in one night. My husband likes it a lot.

This is the quilt top I had to finish before my next mystery quilt class which is on January 10th or 11th. It looks a lot lighter than it really is. It is all shades of blue and I put the thin red border on to make it stand out. I put it together this weekend and did not read the directions! Not smart!! Anyway, I got it all together and realized that it did not look like the one we made in class. Well, of course I had to tear it all out and rearrange the blocks to make it right. Not that it looked terrible the other way, I just remember loving the way our teacher's top looked and wanted that.

We had a great day today. Went to the bookstore and got a few books recommended on the MJF reading thread. I have to finish HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS first and then I will move on.

Also, this year I have made a commitment to reading the BIBLE from beginning to end. I got a version put together by Charles Stanley, and it shows you how to do it each day. I always wanted to read it at least one time through, so maybe this is the year!