How to eat an Elephant .....

One bite at a time!  That is such an old joke but appropriate for this post.  Remember this BOM pattern that I won from Paula the Quilter?

I decided to make my own BOM.  I am happy to report that I am totally on schedule with this one!  I have finished the September through December rows.

 

September

October

November

December

I am using all Thimbleberries fabrics.  Lord knows, I have plenty of them.  The original pattern had much more detailed trees that were made with templates.  Honestly, I was just too lazy to do that.  In honor of Lynette Jensen (Mrs. Thimbleberries herself) and her love of the Flying Geese block, I decided to make simple Flying Geese trees instead.  If you have ever made Thimbleberries patterns, you know how much Lynette loves to use those in her design!

The Santa row is a little hard to see right now without any detail.  That will be added later.

I have 5 more rows, then sashing and borders.......another little diversion from the pattern.

Blessings, Cathi

Merry Christmas From Our House to Yours.....

Blessings, Cathi

Rowing With One Oar.....

That's how I feel quilting right now!  Some how, one of my Machinger Gloves went missing a few months ago.  

 I'm pretty sure it's one of the boys........probably this one.

He has this thing for dirty socks.  I'm pretty sure that my missing Machinger is with all the missing socks. 

So the HoHoHo quilt is on hold for a few days.  I tried quilting with just one glove but it was like rowing a boat with one oar.  I felt like I was going in circles!  No, circles was NOT the quilt pattern I wanted to use on this quilt.  The other quilts I have finished lately were just straight cross-hatching but I wanted to try my hand at meandering on this one.

On the plus side, I sent a detailed Christmas list to the kids.  TurfBoy lives 2 miles from one of my favorite quilt shops in Central, SC.  I even called them to make sure they had what I wanted before I sent him a list.

So maybe Christmas afternoon, after the paper is thrown away and the dishes are loaded in the dishwasher and the obligatory afternoon nap (!), I can start quilting on HoHoHo.

Blessings, Cathi

December Charming Girls .....

I finished the first of two challenges for this month.  Here is the baby quilt that is going to Dear Hubby's cousin.  All quilted, washed and fluffy for baby Gabe.

I still have a week to get the HoHoHo quilted.  Maybe I can do it!

Blessings, Cathi

3 Little Sno'heads All In A Row.....

I made this Buttermilk Basin stitchery several years ago but never did anything with it.  They have just been hanging around my "current projects" box.  How current is a current project anyway? LOL  This week I finally made a wallhanging out of it!

Blessings, Cathi

Long Distance Friends .....

I finished this cute little stitchery in time to send off to it's new owner for Christmas.  She reads my blog sporatically so fingers crossed she doesn't figure it out before she opens it.

It's a pattern by JAM (Jo Ann Mullaly) .  I first saw the pattern on Darlene's blog and just had to have it.  Of course, I changed a few things.  The original had just used one color.  I suppose to give the maker a chance to use their imagination.  I added the cross-hatching and french knots to the dresses to give them a little more character.

I hope she likes it!

Blessings, Cathi

I love my mailman.....

Really I love my bloggy friends.  They are such warm, generous people.  And here is a picture to prove it.....

The pillow in the back right is a pillow cover from Mary at Quilt Hollow.  It's a Christmas toile with some coordinating fabric.  I didn't know they made a Christmas toile. I just love it!  Mary also sent a packet of cinnamon spice tea but I can't show a picture of it because I brewed and drank it within an hour of getting it!

Carrie at A Passion for Applique sent a cute appliqued (of course) snowman ornament that is on the left laying on a Christmasy fat quarter that came in the packet also.  Thank you, Carrie!

And the biggest surprise came today......a wonderful 36-patch (is there such a thing?) from Darlene at Quilting Daze made of Civil War fabrics.  It was such a surprise because I didn't know that she knew my snail mail address.  What a sweety she is.  I know exactly where it will go once the Christmas decorations come down.

Bloggers surely are special people.

On a sad note, Teresa at Stitchin' Friends lost her dear mother this afternoon.  She had temporarily stopped blogging back in November to spend more time with her mom.  Anyone that knows Teresa personally will agree with me that she is the most giving, generous, unselfish person around.

Blessings, Cathi

Charming Girls December Challenge.....

First, I want to say a BIG Thank you for all the prayers and words of encouragement since my big announcement on Monday.  I personally think I have held up pretty well.  With the exception of Wednesday, but that wasn't my fault.  It was cold and miserable and rainy and I just didn't want to do anything so I'm blaming Mother Nature!

Since I seem to have so much time on my hands these days, I am jumping back on the Charming Girls Challenge wagon.  I somehow missed last month.

This month, I want to quilt this cute little baby quilt.  It is going to my husband's favorite cousin.  She just had her first baby at age 37 in October and he is a cutie!  I need to have this finished before we go to the in-laws at Christmas.

And just for kicks and giggles, I am going to throw in the HoHoHo quilt that is STILL not quilted.  I'm not promising that it will be done before Christmas but I really would like to have it finished before I put the Christmas decorations away the first week of January.

 

 

I'm sure you guys are tired of seeing this picture.  Next time I post it, it will be quilted!

Blessings, Cathi

Another One Bites the Dust.....

And this time it is me.

I was laid off this morning after working at my office as a CAD designer in a civil engineering firm for 23 years.  I had no clue or warning (other than the obvious economy woes).  I had been out of town since last Wednesday for Thanksgiving.  What a welcome back to work.......

So if I don't post for a few days/weeks, I hope you understand.  I need to regroup, have a little pity party and figure out what to do after I pick myself up with my bootstraps (engineering is out of the question).

On the plus side, I can get all the Christmas decorations up in a reasonable amount of time.  And all the quilting time I just gained!!

And I wasn't the only one.....I was among 4 more.  The office is down to 13 out of 27 since last October.

I'll be okay....... but your prayers sure could help.

Blessings, Cathi

Wool Batch 2, 3 and 4.....

I spent Sunday afternoon and Monday evening dying three more color batches.  I'm so in love with this! And I am getting much faster at it.  The first batch took just about all day Saturday but I was in a learning curve. 

This is called Sky Blue in the recipe book but I think I am changing the name to Confederate Blue .... a nice Southern name.  LOL

This was supposed to be a little more on the brown side but it looks a little green in person.

This is supposed to be green.  Good thing 'cause it came out green! A celery green but a green nonetheless.

There are a zillion more colors I want to try.  They won't all be this muted......I'll have to throw some brights in there, too.  I have a feeling that the experimenting will be half the fun!

If I don't "talk" to you all again in the next few days, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Even with all the doom and gloom in the world, there is still a lot to be thankful for.

Blessings, Cathi

Off onto my new adventure.....wool-dying!.....

I have been toying with the idea for a year now about starting to dye wool.  I've read, researched, planned, collected supplies and yesterday I finally took the plunge.  

Here is my first batch...and you get to see it first!

Aren't they gorgeous!!!???  Six different wools, same recipe.

If you live in the Carolinas and like to hook or make penny rugs or want to use it for applique, you know how hard it is to find it without ordering it on-line.  And just like cotton fabric, it's much more fun to shop when you can touch it first!

Now I know why wool-dyers have a lot of "Out of Stock" listed on their websites.  These 6 fat quarters took quite a while to do.  Over an hour per pot and each pot only does 1/2 yard at a time!  Plus trying to cook dinner and sew in-between!

Don't know where this will lead but it sure has been fun so far!

Blessings, Cathi

My little woolie pincushion from Lynda.....

Several years ago, the Wild One bought some patterns for me from Lynda Hall of Primitive Pieces by Lynda as a Christmas gift. Every quarter, Lynda has a drawing from all the names of people that had bought patterns from her during that quarter...........and the Wild One won!  My gift was a hand-made pincushion by Lynda! 

What made it so special is that Lynda is allergic to wool so she had to take extra care.  I really appreciate her doing that just for little old me.

Lynda also has a blog now.  If you have never visited her blog or website, you need to go.  Besides quilting and designing prim patterns, she has a wonderful prim house. There are pictures on just about every page of her website and bunches if you click on the "Telegraph Office" tab.

Lynda has also organized a "block party" for the last two years to raise money to fight Ovarian/Breast Cancer.  I participated this past year.  We had enough blocks to make 4 quilts that were auctioned off.  Here is just one of them.  To see them all, go to the "Box Lunch Social" page of her website.

Hopefully, she will have another Block Party in 2010.

Blessings, Cathi

Remember Valentine?.....

Valentine is an amaryllis that I started last year at this time but he didn't show his beautiful face until........almost Valentine's Day.

Back in the summer, I transplanted him to the garden and forgot about him.

About 2 weeks ago, I found this.....

He's come back for a visit!  Even though we have had some cold nights and one good frost, he is still chugging along.  What a trooper!

Blessings, Cathi

Talk about out of my BOX.....

So I've been MIA for a week.  What are the odds of getting the flu even though you have had a flu shot?  Something like 50%?  I don't know but I did get it anyway.  I want my money back!

One of my latest projects that "jumped" in line is this quilt that is SSSOOO out of my box.  The Married One volunteered me to make it.  The baby is due November 22 so I HAD to finish it.  I wouldn't let myself work on anything else quilty or crafty until it was done.  What a struggle!  Why is it so hard to make myself sit down and work on something I really don't like?  I guess we have all been there.

Regardless of how I feel about it, the mother-to-be absolutely loved it.  I have washed it once so it should be good to go for the new baby.  It really went together quite easily. 

Last week before I got sick, I had two big things to do.  First was finish the above quilt by Saturday because Saturday was The Married One's big 30th birthday party.  The mom-to-be was at the party and I wanted to get it to her (and out of my house).  Son-in-law was handling the party himself.  I felt kind of sorry for him.  He was so out of his element!  So along with finishing the quilt, I did all the decorations for the party and all the desserts and a couple of side dishes.

Here is a picture of The Married One 30 years ago last week.  What a sweet, little girl she was (is)!

Now that I am amongst the living again, I plan on catching up with blogging and quilting.  I have so much to finish and share!

Blessings, Cathi

The Old Parsonage hits 100.....

100 followers, that is!  And Leann has decided to have a giveaway to celebrate.  Jump on over to her blog to see what you could win.  She has a wonderful blog that is just as charming as her personality. I should know, I've met her before!

Blessings, Cathi

Fun new Christmas Blog Hop.....

I came across another fun Christmas Blog Hop on Wendy's blog this morning and thought I would share.   It's the Cross-Country Christmas Quilt Designer Blog Hop.  Quite a mouthful but it sure looks like it will be fun!

It's a group of 12 designers from Minnesota and beyond that will post one FREE pattern everyday for 12 days starting November 9th!  Gudrun from GE Designs is the hostess with the mostest.  Hop on over to her blog to see who the other designers are.

Don't forget to keep visiting the GumTree Designers.  They are on week # 5 of their free Christmas pattern giveaways.  AND this Friday is the next First Friday Freebie from Kaaren at the Painted Quilter!  What wonderful Bloggers there are out there!

Blessings, Cathi

A little stitchery finish.....

Some quick pictures of the stitchery I finished and where I put it.

And a close up.....

This was a freebie stitchery pattern from Robin at Bird in Hand Primitives.  I just love her work.  I changed it a little bit by putting shingles on the roof and stone on the chimney.  The frame was 99 cents from Goodwill.  Can't beat it!

I think I might make a sign to put up above the two framed pictures but haven't decided on what phrase or word yet. Maybe something tongue-in-cheek and bathroom appropriate!

Blessings, Cathi

Boone, NC .....

Dear Hubby and I went to the mountains of Western North Carolina (WNC) this past weekend.  We went last year around this same time.  You'd have thought we would remember to check the Appalachian State Univ. football schedule!  We didn't last year and we didn't this year.  Yup, home games. Traffic was nuts.  At least this year we checked the game time.  We ate sometime during the second quarter so there was no one in the restaurants.  We weren't so smart last year!

We stayed at the KOA in a Kamping Kabin which was great.......except for the 38 degree weather we woke up to.  Luckily, KOA had put little space heaters in each cabin and we did take sleeping bags and extra quilts.  Still.......getting up at 4:00 in the morning to run to the outhouse wasn't as much fun.  Ok, so it's not really an outhouse but it was a separate building with no heat and no shower.  Think of gas station bathroom.

We did a lot of sightseeing along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Most of the leaves had changed but it is still beautiful.

We stopped at an apple orchard somewhere along the way.....

 

And of course we had to eat breakfast at the Dan'l Boone Inn .....

some of the best country cookin' in the Carolinas!

We even did a little hiking!

 

All in all, a lovely relaxing weekend.....

Almost forgot......remember the vacation from he** ......when Dear Hubby decided to take me to Green Park Inn for my 50th birthday?  Well, they have closed and are in foreclosure. Imagine that?!  They closed in May, were up for auction in August and had a winning bid of $800,000 which didn't even meet the reserve.  Such a shame after 100 + years in business and visited by dignitaries like Margaret Mitchell and US Presidents.  You can read about it here.  What a grand lady she was back in the day!

Blessings, Cathi

Happy 4th of July.....Huh?

Well, this was supposed to be finished by the 4th of July!  It was a little kit that I have had for about 8 years.  Thought I'd whip it up in time for the holiday and I had even finished the top in time.  Quilted it all but the star part, then put it away........huh???  It must have gotten stuck in the middle of a pile somewhere.

I finished it this week.  I'm going to look at this as a glass half-full kind of thing.  I'm 8 months ahead of time for the next year's celebration!

Blessings, Cathi

My Christmas Wish.....

is to finish my Christmas quilts!

Here is the next one that is ready to finish.

 And the fabric that I am going to use to finish it.

No, I haven't finished the HoHoHo quilt yet :<(  Or the other three Christmas quilt tops I have. But I'm optimistic!

Blessings, Cathi

A Day in the Park.....

4 of my 5 kids (including the son-in-law) have birthdays within 6 weeks of each other.  We usually have a big picnic to celebrate them all.  We cook LOTS of food, decorate with lots of pumpkins and other fall decorations and invite a lot of their friends.  This year, with the new boys at the house, we thought it might be better to skip it this year and wait until Nelson has grown out of the puppy stage!

So instead, we decided to go to Kings Mountain State Park which is located on the opposite end of the county from where we live.  It was really miserable out as far as weather goes but we had a good time anyway.  We took a lot of pictures but here is the best of them all.

 

The Wild One, TurfBoy, Dear Hubby, me, Computer Geek, and The Married One

There are some other really good pictures that The Married One took but she hasn't emailed them to me yet. Her significant other took this picture.

Then after a quick trip to two different pumpkin patches, we headed back to the house and LOTS of food with some football thrown in.  We are a big football family so it killed them to leave the house and miss the 12:00 games.  But I made up for it with all the food I had cooked ahead of time!

Some more pictures of the day.....

 

 

 

And finally......... all my boys!

Blessings, Cathi