A year in Review

Wow, I have only been quilting for about a year (I took a class in October of 2011) but I feel like it is such a part of my life now!  I wrote out my UFO list at the beginning of the year, here.  
1)  The first item on the list was a Birdhouse quilt for my friend Marie, that several ladies in my church helped me make.  It was our first quilt for the prayer quilt ministry, we just didn't know it!

2)  The second item on the list is a rail fence quilt for my husband, I just have some strips cut, that's it.  I'll have to finish that!
3)  The third item on the list is my cat panel.  I am putting that on my hexagon quilt.  See the link for the flowers.
It's not finished, but I have been working steadily on it, and since it is being hand quilted, I am not fretting about it.
4)  I did not finish number four, a rag quilt for my uncle, I didn't even start it!  I'm hoping to start on my rag quilts by the end of January.  I want to make 3 denim rag quilts.  One for my Uncle Glenn, one for my Uncle johnny and Aunt Debbie, and one for my nephew who will be 17 in April.  These will be Christmas gifts for 2013.
5)  I finished this one, it was a skirt!  I'm not happy with the fit though.

6)  I did not make me the dress, but I did make it for two other people.
Mother and daughter!
7)  This was a another dress that I did not finish!
Here is a dress I did finish though!
I made one for me, Chrystal made one for herself and her daughter.
I made one for Ebbye, I also made a pink one for her daughter, but don't have the picture.  Both her daughters made their own dresses using the same pattern also.  Kristi and her daughter Kayla also used my pattern to make their dresses!
Since I have started sewing last year I have completed four quilts.  The birdhouse quilt above, my first quilt was this wall hanging for my stepmom.

This rag quilt for my sister, 
And my favorite quilt, my mom's Dresden Plate quilt, I couldn't tell ya'll who i was for because it was present!

There's a lot more sewing I did, but that is just too many pictures!  It's nice to see what all I have accomplished this past year!

New Quilt!

I got a "new to me" quilt.  The quilt has never been used and was made for one of my grandmother's grandchildren, but never given to us for 20+ years, LOL!  To hear about that story and the other quilts, go here and here.  When my Daddy passed away, I was given the choice of four quilts, and I got to choose one.  My grandmother had made all four.  One for me, one for my sister and one for my step brother and step sister.  See the above links to see them.  My step sister told my step mom to give hers to me since she was not as close to my grandmother as I was.  It is a circle upon circle quilt.  I wrote a post about that pattern here.

There were two of these, I kind of wished I had picked these for my sister and I, since they match, but I love  my Martha Washington Flower Garden quilt!  (I included the link above)  Don't you love the pink scalloped edges?  I wanted you to see all of the blocks, so I took lots of pictures!

 I had to move my treadle into the dining room sewing room, so I would have a place for our new organ.

 I love the brown and yellow fabric together, it reminds me of a banana fudgesicle!

 Isn't the pink and green one pretty?

 Here's a closer look at the scalloped edges.  See the orange and yellow block?

 I love the cross stitch look of this material.

 Here's the backside of the folded quilt.

 Look at that bright pink and purple!

 She did a great job of matching a solid color to one of the colors in the prints.

 I did not have a way to hang my quilt, so I got a dowel rod, and hung it on two nails.  Easy, Peasy!  I hope my husband didn't have plans for that dowel rod because he can't have it back!  LOL

 This is my favorite block, my husband's too!  I love the blue!

 I rearranged my sewing machines yesterday, I'll share that with ya'll next week.

The sad thing about my quilt is that it has a burn hole, I'm assuming it was from an iron.  My sister's Grandmother's Flower Garden has one too.

Since it is Feline Friday, I have to share a funny picture.  The neighbor's dog got in our backyard and it scared the cats.  Muffin ran off before I could get a picture of his puffed tail.

 Even Pippi was bigger than that little bitty dog! LOL

 What a tail!  LOL  I have always loved Tiger's tail, but it's great when pouffed!

Have a great weekend ya'll!
Missy

Organ and cookies

We had a pretty good Christmas this year.  My daddy passed away in May, so we went to Arkansas to spend Christmas with my stepmother, her son, daughter in law and grandson, and her son's aunt.  We were only there for two days, but it was a nice, unstressful holiday.
My stepmom and I made cookies.  Her daughter-in-law(Danielle) and she made the cookie dough last week (ginger krinkles, walnut balls and sugar cookies).  Sunday Marge and I baked them.
I rolled them out and put them on the cookies sheets.  She put them in the oven and took them out of the oven and made the frosting.

She tried to hide behind my hair.

Her grandson, my step-nephew, put the sprinkles on, but the picture was blurry of him.

Marge also sent us home with an organ that was my daddy's.

 I had to move my treadle to the dining room to have place for the organ.  (I'll show you that later)  My cats wanted to crawl in the hole where the pedal is, so we had to stick a penguin there to keep them out of the organ!

It is a "Thomas 4 channel, Californian 266 and the Rhythm Section".  It is a digital organ with a lot of  buttons.  We can't figure out half of the buttons on it.  Does anyone know where we can find a manual for it?  Or some good music to learn to play an organ?
I thought my old oil lamps looked perfect on it!
I am linking this post to Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady.
How was your Christmas?
Missy
BTW, I have new "old" quilt to show ya'll later!

Feline Friday

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine.

I just love that song!  I was teaching my kids in their class about what Christmas is all about.  They loved hearing about the angels, about how there was a lot of them.  They were really excited to learn that angels are all men, most of the time when you see a picture of an angel they are women  even though all angels in the Bible are men.  Can you imagine being the shepherds out in the field and hearing a multitudes of angels singing their praises to God?  Can you imagine the goose bumps they got on their arms listening to that choir?

Today I wanted to share pictures of Frosty.  He is Pippi's brother and lives with my friend Ebbye and his brother Splash.  This is also where Midnight lives.  Pippi, Splash, and Frosty were born wild and we(Ebbye and I) tamed them.  Midnight was also born wild. Here is a kitten picture of them.
Frosty was hanging out with us at church last week so I took some pictures.

 His girls, Tabitha and Valerie are learning to quilt with our quilt along.  His yoga pose!

 He is so friendly.

Doesn't he look just like Muffin though, except half the size?  I couldn't find a head shot that I have not already shared.  Here is Muffin and Pippi sunning themselves.

Pippi

Muffin and Pippi

I am linking this post to Sarah's Feline Friday.
This will be my lost post until after Christmas.  My husband got me a new book for Cristmas and went ahead  and gave it to me.  It's called Grandmother's Flower Garden.  I told him how much trouble I was having trying to figure out the placement of my hexies and how I wanted to work on them in the car, so he went ahead and gave it to me.  Which reminds me, my husband will be home i an hour and I still have not wrapped his gifts!  Ugggh!
Have a merry Christmas ya'll!
Missy

Quilts update!

We had our Tuesday quilt along today at church.  We did not have many show up today, it's a pretty busy week.
I basted my quilt today, but when I take it out tomorrow, I'll have to make sure it's done right, because I had to rush.

While I was basting I started laughing really hard because I felt so foolish crawling on the tables at church.

Do you feel silly while crawling around basting your quilts?

Here is the backing I'm using.  It is a thin fleece I won back in January with my Janome.

Siouxsie is making a postage stamp quilt using solid colors.  I taught her today how to strip piece her blocks and she finished her first 16 patch block.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Valerie and Tabitha sewed a lot of their squares together.  Since they are using scraps, I'm having them sew twosies and then sew the twosies together to make four patches.  They have to wait two weeks for our next quilt along before they can sew the 16 patch blocks.  They really like chain stitching.

Tabitha's was so long I could not get it all in the picture.

This was the first quilt-along  Ashleigh was able to make it to.  She is crocheting granny squares.  I love the colors she picked.

If I don't have to rebaste my quilt, I'm hoping to get it quilted tomorrow.
I also HAVE to sew my husband's bath robe tomorrow, which I will do first!
Have a great day ya'll!
Missy

Piano Cake

I've been busy making birthday cakes for friends.  I just made a cake for a set of twins at church.  Aaliyah always knows what kind of cake she wants and gives me an idea and then I can do what I want with her ideas.  Aaliyah and Aaric turned 16 on Tuesday.  They are very talented and have been teaching themselves how to play instruments using videos and books.  She wanted a "violin on one side and a banjo on the other side", sounds pretty easy.  I got permission from their mom to use fondant.  Then I remembered I have a piano "kit".  It is as old as me!  It is the old Wilton piano pan set.  Aaric plays the piano too, so it was perfect!
We didn't want fondant on the entire cake since they don't like the taste of fondant.
This is what I came up with, first I made the instruments.  I pulled out my husband's banjo and his viola to get an idea of what sizes to make them.  I then printed off pictures of other people's cakes to get ideas.  The strings was the hardest part, and I decided a gray strip with lines would be the best way to go.

 Here are the instruments before placing them on the cake.  My size proportions are kind of "off" I think.

Here is the cake.  The white with gold scroll on the top of the cake, the music stand, base and foot pedals, and bench are all plastic.  I didn't leave the candles on the cake because t would have been too "busy".

 The key board and instruments are all fondant.  The piano is cake.

Here are the birthday twins - 16 years old!

Aaric and Aaliyah with their cake.

I wanted to share some recipes I have enjoyed some past Christmases.
White Christmas Pie , Fudge Recipes , and my favorite fruitcake.  The fruitcake link also has a picture of a dog I made the twins a couple of years ago, but I must say that the piano cake is my favorite!

Do you have a favorite recipe you would like to share with me?
I have another birthday cake to make on Thursday, this one is a fire truck for a little boy.
Missy