Christmas Eve always starts out quiet. I have homemade rolls rising and sausage balls baking in the oven. Going to my nieces home for Christmas dinner. It will be noisy and so much fun. I thought while I am waiting on the food to do its thing, I would post some photos of my customers quilts I just finished and she has picked them up. She cried as she stroked each star remembering seeing her late mother in each dress and the memories associated with them. I do wish I could be there when her daughter's open their gifts.

Merry Christmas to us all.

I was really on a cleaning roll (procrastinating putting a quilt on the frame) and I broke my Dyson....boohoo. It died and will not come back on. I went to their website and they said to clean out the filter (amazingly was not dirty) and then to let it cool completely. Hmmm, how long will that take? I guess I could mop while waiting for it to cool. The cat box quit running and it is not the power supply, the guest room toilet is broke (got the stuff to fix it, trying to get up nerve to start), my car is making noises and the heater fan no longer works joining the radio and clock that no longer light up, which has been a problem for a while. On the bright side the house is almost clean and I am going out to dinner tonight with friends. OK going to mop now and clean the bathrooms.

Easy Street, all of the 4 patches are sewn and pressed. I just finished the flying geese (and of course I am one short) but they need pressing. Whoohoo!

Wow, it is December the 1st already. I completed my two commission quilts this week and my client gave me a thumbs up on my choice of backing. A beautiful pale lavender with a white scroll in it. I ordered a bolt, so I hope I have other quilts where this will work.  I somehow have lost the ability to post photos, I will try and figure out what is wrong and post them.

Mother's Fruitcake

I remember my Mom baking the best fruitcake. She took a box of spice cake mix and used coffee in place of the water. She then floured all of the nuts and fruits and mixed them in the prepared batter. I just took it out of the oven and it smells just like Mom's, now to see what it taste like. Yummmm!

Yesterday I spent the day with my friend Liz. We sewed from 10 am to 6 pm. I finished 16 Ohio Star blocks and she finished quilting a quilt on her long arm (she has an HQ16 with a Side Saddle Computer System) . It was a very productive day and we had so much fun. Our own little mini-retreat for the day.

I got an urge to clean out a small walk in closet. My bedroom looks like something off of Hoarders. Geez, why do I need so many bags? (I think I must have bought a Laural Burch bag at every Houston Quilt Show I went to (not the small ones either)). Lots of shoes and purses for Goodwill. Two bags of trash and one bag for shredding. I found all of my sons' report cards from High school and some of his grades from Clemson (I am going to save these for him). This does not include the walk in closet full of luggage (I have a container fetish, what can I say). It is next.

I am working on a commission quilt (times 2) for Carolyn to give to her two daughters for Christmas. She chose Ohio Star as the pattern. She wants them to be full bed size and made from her mother's clothes. I need to make 84 blocks, put them together and then quilt them. I am trying to figure out if I want to use sashing or not.........

I have to figure out how to do mobile pics. I have two from the Lexington Veteran's Parade. I drove my trike and my WWII veteran had a ball. He wants to know when we are doing it again. He gave up his trike at 84 and says he really misses it. I am so glad he enjoyed the day. We left suddenly because it was threatening rain and he did not have any rain gear.

We had homecoming at church yesterday and I had to leave to get to the meeting place for our group to line up for the parade. I know I missed a lot of great food. Oh well, next year.......I also missed a good friends birthday party for the parade. I will have to make up for that one. Hope you all had a great weekend.

I live adjacent to the Lexington High School football field. While grilling out on the back deck last night I got to listen to the Homecoming candidates being introduced, but I missed who won. I did see where they lost the ball game ;o(. I love listening to the band but I do have issues with whomever is playing hard rock and rap over the PA system every day starting around 3 PM. Geeez, get an IPOD.

Sunday afternoon Lexington is having their Veteran's Day Parade at 2:30 and I am riding an 80+ WWII veteran on the back of my trike. Come out and join us if you are close to honor these wonderful vets. Now I need to find time to wash the bugs off of my trike. I will post photos on Sunday afternoon.

I have a new quilt made by my s-i-l on the machine today, but doubt if I will get started on the quilting this weekend. She did large squares and I am still trying to decide how I want to quilt it.

Have you ever got carried away and just starting sewing pieces together because you were so anxious to get started? I have 150 half square triangle blocks that should have been sewn into triangles not squares. I almost cried (these are for a clients quilt), but then I decided they are a design opportunity, they will now go in the border. I am making 2 bedsize quilts from Carolyn's mother's house dresses. They are going to look like old quilts when I am finished due to the timing of the fabrics. We decided on doing Ohio Star blocks using a white background. I think they are going to turn out very nice and very delicate looking. I have decided to put a whole piece of muslin between the tops and the batting just in case some of the fabrics don't hold up. So back to sewing triangles and not squares. I will post some photos when I get several blocks completed.

These are some other quilts that I have worked on. The bright one with the stars and VWs was pieced by a friend that passed away last year. She had partially quilted this quilt so I finished it for the family. I have no clue what the batting was that she used, but my longarm and my regular sewing machine did not like it.

 

This quilt was made for a friend who bought a kit for the top and then could not figure out the directions. Now to get it on the frame.

 

This quilt is the largest one I have ever quilted. My customer wanted it quilted very loosely so she could use it as a bedspread. I like what I did, but I would have loved to make it something special.
Below the quilt is a very bad photo of the pillow shams. She did a lovely job of piecing this quilt.

Well last night was a repeat. I could not fall asleep so I took an over the counter PM and when I did go to sleep, I slept till 11am. The medication has left me feeling yucky all day. No more of that. If I can't sleep tonight, I will start binding some quilts. Hope you all had a great Monday.

These are some of the quilts that I have quilted:

Have you ever gone to bed and all of a sudden you were wide awake. That was me last night. The last time I looked at the clock was 5:30am and then I slept until noon. So much for a productive Friday.

I am an avid reader of other's blogs, so I have decided to start my own. I am a longarm quilter located in the midlands of South Carolina. I also am a motorcycle rider of a 2004 Goldwing 1800 Champion Trike. We will see where this new journey takes me.