a busy Friday!

I got lots to share today. Not sure if I can get everything in here in one post but if I can't I will finish it tomorrow night. First, I finished a cross stitch project that I have been working on forever. Here is a picture of it. Now all I have to do is get a frame for it. I will get that the next time I am in Joann's. I know it's not a quilt UFO but it's good to get something else done.

After we went shopping for a while we came home and set up the decorations. Here is a picture of our fireplace. We put up a stocking for all the people that live here (4), the older kids out on their own (2), and the dogs (2) and Desirae's new boyfriend (1). Here is how it looks!! I love it. We didn't have a fireplace up north and I just love how it looks. Of course our temps will be dropping this week and then the stuff on the hearth will come off and we will have a fire going...the dogs love laying in front of it.... :)

While I was growing up we always had a village at Christmas time under the tree. We had houses, people, cars and ice skaters and of course our nativity set. As the years passed the houses and items started falling apart. When we moved to Florida my mom started working with plastic canvas and made a whole new village for her and also for me. She made me a gingerbread village and I just love it. I am posting some pictures of the villages and also some of the gorgeous handmade ornaments we put on the tree. We used to put up 3 trees but with the dogs we only do one now. The great part is that I had enough ornaments for them all!!!

These are ornaments my mom made many years ago. The circle one is a tuna can. I just love it. She designed some of these on her own and some were kits but it's been so long I can't remember which ones are which. But they are beautiful aren't they?

OK I will post more tomorrow. I am going to take my camera to work and get a picture of the bulletin board and will post that too!!

Happy Holidays!!

Marie

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I want to take this time to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and hope you are spending the day with family and friends.

Today my daughters and I woke up at 830am and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I just love watching it and we have been doing this since they were little kids. We have a blast doing it too. Of course the turkey was in the oven cooking and was smelling sooo yummy we were getting hungry.

While we were watching it I was crocheting a scarf for my younger daughter Carol. She bought this great yarn and it's been challenging to work with but it's coming out so great.....I know she will like it. I am going to fnish it early so it will be an early Christmas present.

We ate early today so my older daughter Desirae could eat with us before she goes to work. It was nice being together. It was just the 4 of us and the dogs. A very quiet day, but we managed to eat plenty!!! And now we are waiting to eat our pies but I think that will come much later tonight!

Daisy our labrador is in my room as I type this waiting to eat dinner. Mind you, she and Gretchen (the german shepard) have already sampled the turkey we had and now they are wanting their dinners. And the cat is waiting too!!

I finished another project last night while watching TV. It was a cross stitch that I had been working on for about 3 years. It feels good to finish something. Now I have to find a frame for it so I can hang it up in the house.

We have 5 days off from school for the holiday and it feels good to get some rest. We have been really busy at work. I had to get my bullentin board done in the hallway and it is awesome. My daughter Carol, the artist, drew me a beautiful gingerbread house. She used construction paper to "color" it and then I laminated it at school. I read the Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Baby, and the Gingerbread Boy to the kids at school. Then I had the kids color a Gingerbread Man and they wrote sentences. We covered the bulletin board in tin foil so the gingerbread men looked like they were coming out of the oven. When I go back to school I will take my camera and take a picture and post it here on Monday night. It's really cute. I love how it came out.

I am going to spend the rest of the night working on a mitten wall hanging and keep working on the scarf!!

Have great night!!

Marie

Quilt Retreat Weekend

WOW!!! I had fun this weekend. I belong to the Stashbusters group and this was the weekend for the at home retreat. The object is to do as much quilting as you can. I started the day making the backings for 3 quilt tops that I assembled this weekend using leftover blocks. Years ago I belonged to AOL and joined every block swap there was. I have so many blocks. I made most of them into quilts for the house but I can only use so many quilts living in Florida. So most of the quilts I make I donate either to the Breast Cancer Society or the Quilts of Valor. I finished 4 tops using blocks that were left over from swaps and who knows where some of them came from. I also used fabric from my stash to make the backings. And I used strips and squares left over from other projects to assemble the tops.

They are about lap size quilts and I loved working on them. I have another one on the design wall but I am done for tonight. I found 3 blocks that had parts ironed on and now I am going to satin stitch them down before they go into a quilt. Then I am going to be making more baby booties. There is a place in South Dakota who needs help with all sorts of items to help their citizens get through those rough winters. Here is the link http://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/projects/Sewing_Supplies_for_the_Kateri_Circle_Sewing_Group.shtml

I think they are a great charity and if you can spare anything please send it to them. I might send the 4 UFO quilts that I put together to them once I get them quilted. So I am going to be making some baby booties and hats to send them. I found some baby yarn today in one of my baskets.

We have a full week of school this week and I am going to be out 3 nights this week in a class. It's a great class, it helps experienced teachers mentor new teachers and we can also work with college students who need classroom experience teaching. I am looking forward to doing that. The class is great and I am really enjoying it.

I have the turkey in the freezer and the week after next I will get the rest of the items for our dinner. It's just going to be the 4 of us this year. I hope the older kids call their dad, that always makes the holiday better for him.

Keep sewing!!!

Marie

Happy Belated Veteran's Day!

Yesterday was Veterans Day and I chaperoned the JROTC high school kids marching in the parade. I love going to this parade. It's held in the next town to me and the people really came out to see this parade. It's the third time I have marched with the kids and I think this was the best turnout the parade has had.

The kids and adults loved seeing them and cheered us on. We had two groups, one group just marched and sang Army cadence (marching) songs and the other group was spinning 14 pound rifles while they marched. The last group is the one my daughter was in. They are amazingly talented kids. We had 55 kids in the parade from our high school but over 300 from the whole county. That is wonderful.

I had a doctor's appointment in the AM and all was ok so far. Still have more appointments with other docs to complete my complete physical, I think you get the idea!!

I have a new quilt on the design wall and CMA Country Music Awards on for a while. I also finished another quilt yesterday. This is an old underground railroad quilt I made about 5 years ago and I am going to send this to my friend in Colorado again. I am going to fill another box and I hope to have 4-5 quilts (all UFO'S) in the box before I send it.

I am charging the camera tonight and will get a picture of it and the one baby quilt for my granbaby CoryAnn (who will make her grand entrance in January 09) and post them here on Friday night.

I have a class to go to after school tomorrow and won't get home to do much on the computer. After a day with the kinder kids and then a 3 hour class on top of that I will be wiped out.

Keep sewing and quilting and making people happy!!!

Marie....this is our Lab Daisy who is my official quilt checker. This quilt passed her inspection and thought it was a good one!!!

The latest pictures

Ok I finally downloaded the pictures off the camera. Here is what I have...

These are the 4 charity quilts that are going to Alycia's 400 Quilts of Valor. I am going to wrap them up tomorrow and get them in the mail. These are also UFO's that have been sitting around waiting for a home. I am so excited to have these quilts going to the soldiers from my old unit and my dad's. I quilted another one today and have to finish putting the binding on it yet. This will go into my next box to Alycia. I finished the Christmas quilt and now I am getting another UFO ready to put together. This one is really out there so I am going to iron the blocks and live with it on the design wall for a while.

Happy Quilting!

Marie

We are going to be....

GRANDPARENTS!!!! Isn't that cool. My step-daughter is going to have a baby in January and we are very excited about this news. Mom and baby are doing fine according to my daughter who is in contact with her over their MYSPACE accounts. She also called her dad (my dh) to tell him last week. Today he told his parents that they are going to be great-grandparents again. They are very happy too. We know the baby is a girl so I have one pink quilt all set and ready for quilting...I need to make the backing and buy the batting this coming weekend. Today I found some scraps that a friend gave me and started playing around with the squares. I made a really cute middle part of a quilt and then started a new technique I have wanted to try and now I am in the middle of another quilt for the new baby. I also finished the purple and green quilt for my step daughter. She will be getting a box of goodies pretty soon. I just have to get a good sized box so I can send all the goodies to her. I also want to make her a set of booties and a sweater for the baby. I have to get more yarn for that.

I worked on a customer quilt today and then took the day off. We are going out to dinner in a few minutes and then I am coming home to finish the baby quilt. I will post a picture later tonight of the pink quilt.

Happy Saturday!!!

Marie

Halloween stories!

I thought I had posted this but I completely forgot about Halloween. I was so happy not to have to give out candy I even forgot about the blog!!! AAARRGGHHH!!!!

My daughter and her friend handed out candy to all of about 15 kids that came to our door! But they had fun and that is all that matters.

At our school we had a storybook parade....some of the grade levels had a theme but everyone had to dress up....even the principal (she was a witch) and the assistant principal was a pirate. The kindergarten team (my team) were witches and we had our pictures taken for the yearbook and also one with the principal. We were teasing her that she was the head of the coven....LOL...She has a great sense of humor and we all had a great laugh.

The kids had the best time in school. They came in wearing their costumes and once the announcements were over we started trick or treating in the hallway. The lights go down low and the music comes on and we all parade around the school and the kids get candy. Then we did some Halloween activites and watched, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!". I love watching that movie and have seen it 3 times this year already! (I love Snoopy!)

My daughter was a vampire and we got a great black cape for her (I wore it to school for my witch costume) and then she bought some fake vampire teeth. They are pretty cool, they fit to her teeth and she wore them at her school and also at mine. The kids loved them. She scared one of my little boys until she showed him that they come off and are fake and then he was fine. Here is a picture of her "new teeth".

They are great and she loved them.

I am so excited about this weekend. We have off for 4 days. Monday is a hurricane make up day so we are off and then on Tuesday its Veterans Day and we are off then. I have a doctors appt. on Tuesday and then I am going to chaperone the Veterans Day parade with my older daughter. She is marching in the Veterans Day parade with her JROTC unit and I go with them. I love being with the older kids after being with the little ones all day.

I am looking forward to finishing some major quilt projects this weekend too. And maybe even making a new pair of pants and a skirt for school. I will let you know.

Later!!!

Marie