Curiosity

A few days ago my hubby and I began putting up our Christmas decorations. For years now I have been painting little village houses to put out during Christmas, they take me hours and I am lucky to get one done per year, we have 3 put out. Anyway, I had some extra batting from the quilts I have been making and I thought I would put that under the village to look like snow. Our village is in our dining room/living room sitting atop a buffet given to us by my in-laws and I laid the extra batting on our table and it hasn't quite made it back downstairs to my craft studio yet. My husband is working nights right now so he is gone to work before I get home and tonight when I came home from work, I found a very funny picture when I opened the door. Bobo had made his way up on top of the table, "fluffed" the batting and was napping in the middle of it on top of the table! I wish I could have gotten a picture of it, but he was down before I got the chance. I laughed and went on. Finished up the second quilt I was working on and came downstairs to check my e-mail and such and got a very pleasant surprise from Debra Jennings, her Starburst Nebula tutorial was in my box as a "secret" Santa gift as a result of the amazing thread over on LE. As I was posting my thank you for the gift I kept hearing a noise behind me and I knew Bobo was in here with me, but when I turned around, this is what I saw.





See if you can spot the very curious doxie in these pics amongst all the scrap material, candle scents and other unfinished projects and supplies! :)

Something NEW!!

I know I haven't posted in forever, and there are several reasons really, but I will spare you the details of most of it. As I think most of us, this Christmas is going to be tight for me and it is difficult for me to not be able to do the things I normally do for my family. Several years ago, I got the brilliant idea to make a quilt for my mother in law for Christmas....and, well because I am a *bit* of a procrastinator and I don't really sew well, and my sewing machine broke...it never got done. Did I mention I'm also a bit of a perfectionist and that if something doesn't turn out the way I think it should in the beginning I will often not finish it? Anyway, after we bought our new house and I had more room again, I bought a small sewing machine. A few weeks ago, I happened across someone talking about rag quilts and thought "I can do that"....see why I haven't posted in a while?! :) I thought it looked much easier than a "traditional" quilt in that, in my mind, it didn't have to be as perfect because you are going to clip all the excess so that the seams will "rag". I still had some of the fabric from the quilt I was going to make years ago and managed to find some others that matched it pretty well to be able to blend with it. The thing I didn't realize is that with a rag quilt, it's going to take you twice as much fabric if the front matches the back like mine does. I told my hubby about my plan and he basically rolled his eyes and didn't say anymore until I asked for his help with a "pattern". I showed him the blocks that I had done and explained that I wanted a decent sized quilt but not too big. We layed out the blocks I had and subtracted the amount for the seams...and then he told me I needed forty some more blocks! Anyway, it took me just under a week, but I DID finish it! :) (Hubby was truly amazed!) Here are a few pics of what it looked like before all the blocks were stitched together, and after it was all finished. This one has a total of 120 blocks (with the same fabric on the back, so 240 pieces of fabric). Not sure I still think this is an easier way to make a quilt, but I like the look of them and they do go together much quicker (for me anyway). Now I'm working on my second one that will be for my hubby, he knows he is getting one but doesn't know what it looks like so I can't say too much yet in case he actually reads this! :)