giving thanks

I am so thankful...

for family, and friends,

and all of the bounty we have.

 

Speaking of family,

I had a little help in the kitchen this morning

starting my Thanksgiving cooking.

We started with dessert ...

and

we made some great plates of cookies!

Turkeys!  
Turkey cookies not turkey kids! :)

I have just a partial gang coming in tomorrow.
The large group will be here Saturday.
That means I get to make two dinners! 
So excited!
Here's part of the gang:)

Happy Thanksgiving from us to you!

Hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful and bountiful!

from Shipshewana to Lucy Boston POTC

My year-long POTC journey -

my one-block-a-week-this-year goal
is nearing the end.
I only have a few blocks left to make for my

 Lucy Boston - 

Patchwork Of The Crosses quilt!!

And if I haven't miscounted in my block-making,

I should be finished in mid January!

 I think I only need the following blocks:

• two blocks for the last weeks of November
• four blocks for the four weeks of December
• two more blocks for the beginning of January.

So a little addition to the stash was in order to finish the blocks!
Of course, while retreating in Shipshewana,
I visited all the local quilt shops.
(You would too, wouldn't you?)
And I picked up a few (mostly) fat quarters
(specifically for POTC) at each shop.

See this picture?:

pinks, corals, some greens and browns
for my Lucy - POTC

 AND this picture?:

blues, with a little coordinating brown
for my Lucy - POTC

That seems like it should be plenty to
make only eight more blocks, don't you think?

I continued unpacking my retreat 'stuff'...
digging deeper into my travel project bag,
and what do you think I found???
MORE fabric that I had purchased for my POTC!:

So, see THIS picture?:

more blues, pinks and corals...
yes, I liked the pretty blue stripe/scallop (top, right)
so much that I purchased it twice!
All for my Lucy - POTC

mulberries, greens and some great blue stripes
All for my Lucy - POTC

The four pictures above,
show my addition of stash fabric.

From Shipshewana, Indiana...
to Lucy Boston, Patchwork of the Crosses.

Confession:

IF each of these pieces was only a quarter yard

they'd add up to 15 - yes, FIFTEEN yards!!!

Guess I now have enough to finish those 8 blocks,

don't you think? :)

retreated!

I am back home -

inspired,

enthused,

not at all rested :)

and

almost laughed out!

I'm back from a week at the Dear Jane Retreat!

 

This retreat is held in the beautiful town of Shipshewana - 
a rural, predominately Amish area of Indiana
and is held Spring and Fall each year.
A friend from Dayton picked me up and
we drove (well, she drove, I rode) through horrendous weather
the last hour of the four hour drive.
But look what greeted us when we arrived!:

It was a beautiful welcome. 

There was a double rainbow, but by the time we stopped to take a picture, the outside rainbow had pretty much dissipated. 
 
There is also always a nice welcome from Yoder's:

Yoder's is a very nice general store with a great fabric shop
(yes, I did some stash enhancement:).
 
I've been able to attend the Fall Dear Jane Retreat
the last couple of years
and have met the most wonderful quilters
and have seen the most beautiful quilt projects!
It's just a wonderful time
with quilting sisters
from across the country and the world.

Some of my table mates:

Jeanette on the left, and Kathy on the right were some of my table mates.
At center is LuAnn (from across the room) 
LuAnn has a great blog to visit - Loose Threads.
Another tablemate was Barb who was away pressing her half-square triangles,
and my space was beside Jeanette
(as you can see, I was working on baby projects).

My across-the-table mates and in the background,
about two thirds of the room of Janiacs:

left to right: Colleen, Pat, Kim, and Nancisue

It was a table full of wonderful quilters,
laughter, and great quilt projects.
Thanks, tablemates, for adding to my pleasure,
and it was so nice to meet you! 
Doesn't that last picture look like a wonderful place to spend the week?!

I have been Totally retreated!

More pictures of the retreat and of my now up-coming new issues projects
in the next few days.

Happy Stitching!

my September LUCY Patchwork of the Crosses blocks

September LUCY blocks are looking more Autumn-like in colors, I think.

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses - Sept blocks

I'm almost out of my pre-cut honeycomb papers!  (from PaperPieces.com)
I think I had 1,200 papers when I started,
and the stockpile is gettin' low!
Definitely time to start connecting my blocks together
so I can remove the outside honeycomb papers and re-use them.

I leave the outside papers in the blocks for stability
until I'm ready to connect them to the next block.
(The connecting pieces are one-inch squares
between each finished block.)  
After I have two blocks attached with
the four connecting squares, 
I can remove the honeycomb papers on either side.

That's a whole lot 'o squares coming up!
I just frightened myself :)

Happy Monday and Happy Stitching!!

my August LUCY Patchwork of the Crosses blocks

I'm still lovin' my Lucy!
Here are my four blocks for August:

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses - August blocks

Still think it's time to start connecting my blocks...

I think I mentioned before that I wasn't finding fabric (for connecting squares) that I LOVED that went well with all the patterns and colors in the blocks for this quilt...
Part of the problem was that I had wanted to get quite a few of blocks done before I started connecting them as  I wanted to be able to spread out the blocks to balance the  blocks/colors across the quilt. 
Anyway,

I finally chose my fabric to make the connecting squares,

so now I can start making a quilt from all these blocks! 
It's a light blue/slate gray/linen-looking fabric. 
I had hoped to find something that was a little more patterned, but after laying blocks all over many bolts of fabric at the LQS, I went with the fabric that was my first choice.  Isn't that how it usually is? 
Choose a few bolts of fabric and put them on the cutting table, choose some more bolts and add to the stack on the cutting table, ask opinions, then go with your first instinct? :) 
Is it just me and my problem habit of playing with fabric

or do you do this also?

And, finally, I'm kind of proud of myself -

I'm still up to date on

my goal of

one block a week

on this, my Lucy project for this year!

That's 35 blocks so far!!!

What are you stitching on this week?

November chill, 9-10-11-12-13, & stitching Lucy

OK - today there is a number thing going on...
(me and numbers - still don't know what's that all about)

 

9:10 a.m. on November 12th, 2013.

 

Only once every hundred years!
How cool is that?!
and I think I'll have to do something special at that minute.
Don't know what, yet, but I will!
(yes, I'll have to do something special TONIGHT at 9:10, also.)

And on top of the 9-10-11-12-13,

there's a Brrrrr! in the air...  

Measurable snowfall came early this morn!

Just a few inches of the white stuff, but it sure is pretty out there!
I think that there's not much better than a new-fallen snow...
AND this meant that it was time to start the fire in the wood stove!

Freshly fallen snow, a wind chill, a blazing fire in the hearth, and

I can stay inside and stitch some more!

Hope your 9-10-11-12-13 day is wonderful!

annual

It's that time of year again! 
Did the annual

change the clocks back from Daylight Savings time on Saturday night.

At the same time,
I also did the annual "changing of the batteries" -

smoke detectors, you know.

Then there's the annual 

rearranging of quilts...

refolding all the stored ones and
changing the main wall hanging quilt.
(Is refolding quilts on your annual list or is it just me?)

Then there's the annual

clean-up outdoors...

flower beds, leaf raking, sticks to the burn pile...

Because of high winds on Halloween again this year,
we had anther large tree down
(in the last picture you can see the freshly cut and stacked wood) 
AND
a WHOLE LOT'o sticks on the burn pile!
But it made for a great bonfire for our

Annual Chili Cook off & Bonfire!


We started the Chili Cook Off "taste testing" 
and it started to rain - but only for about half an hour.
We stuck it out, though and it ended up being
a beautiful night for a bonfire!

Six Chili cauldrons this year -
and the winner was...
Green chilies Chicken Chili
with fresh toppings of cilantro, avocado and lime.  YUM!

late afternoon -
 just getting set up and the fire started.
(See that newly-cut stack of wood?)




 

That was a whole lot of 'annuals'...
but sure fun. 
Might be time for a nap.
Or maybe some more stitching!!

November! & my July LUCY Patchwork of the Crosses blocks

November already!!
And here I am, finally!, getting pictures posted here
of my July LUCY - POTC blocks:

mylifeisastitch.blogspot.com
July - Lucy Boston
Patchwork of the Crosses

Now that I see this picture,
I think I should have made five blocks for the month -
as aren't there five weeks of July,
not just four?
Yep, checked the calendar, and sure enough,
five weeks in July, not four.
Oh, well...
guess I'll be making another block later.
And here I thought I was up to date!

A side note - looking at my blocks,

the majority of my fabrics are Jo and Judie.

Jo as in Morton, and Judie as in Rothermel.

May have to add their names to my Lucy project...

Lucy J.J. or something :)

I love the rich colors of these reproduction fabrics.
Almost as rich as the fall leaf color around here last week...
it was peek leaf-peeping season,
and gorgeous.

Back to playing with more fabrics/colors.
Happy November & Happy Stitching!