December Cupcakes

The December birthday girls at the Scratching Post received these cupcakes from me. 

The year long swap is over.  I received about 40 cupcakes for my birthday.  I will spread them out later and take a picture of them for you.  The Cuppa Joe swap is also over.  Will publish the ones received at a later date.

I will be "off the air" for a week or so.  Tomorrow I go in to have a total knee replacement on my right knee.  I hope to have a great recovery and be able to walk a half marathon in the future.

Until later..........

Sandra

Sandstitchers Christmas Party - Part II

A block lottery was also held at the party. President Susan Linn chose the focus fabric and members had the opportunity to make one or more blocks and get a chance to win them. There were 20 + blocks so two names were chosen. Angel and Ann H won the blocks.

This is the one I made.  It's not in the picture because I forgot it in my car.  I did give it to one of the lucky winners the next day.

We also exchanged gifts.

I received this, Chocolate!!

Some other are shown below.

Thanks Terese -- we all had a marvelous time!

Sandstitchers Christmas Party

The Sandstitchers Quilt Guild of Ocean Springs held their Christmas party at the home of Teresa Ess. The home was beautifully decorated and fun time was had by all.

The Guild supplied the meat and the members brought the side dishes.

Main Dishes

Desserts

Members enjoying the food and fellowship

Just Needles Christmas Party

The Just Needles Quilt Guild of Pascagoula held their Christmas Party at the local library last Tuesday. The food and the fellowship was great. The Guild furnished the meat and we brought the various side dishes. 

We also had some wonderful desserts.  Just look at the cake!  Almost too pretty to eat.

We also played Dirty Santa with handcrafted gifts.  I was having so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. 

The Guild has many activities planned for 2012.  In January we will be swapping handcrafted or purchased pin cushions.

Stay tuned...................

Block Therapy Trunk Show

On November 17 a local quilt store, Block Therapy, had a trunk show featuring Northcott's Stonehenge Fabrics.  We were able to hear the history of the development of this fabric and to also preview some of the new lines coming next spring.  There were door prizes and a free bag of fat quarters for everyone attending.  More than 50 local quilters came out for the show.  It was a wonderful experience.

This is a quilt, Smokey River, made from the Stonehenge Fabrics. 

Pattern

Quilt on Display

Joan, owner of Block Therapy, and the Northcott representative


Block Therapy has every one of the Stonehenge colors and will be ordering the ones picked by the attendees as their favorites.

Fun with the Grandkids

I spent a week in SC visiting the grandkids and enjoying time with my family.  My youngest son celebrated his 31st birthday while I was there.  We ate Thanksgiving at my oldest son's home.  The food was great and the company was even better.  We all found time to do some shopping for Christmas.  We also went out to eat together to celebrate Aaron's birthday.  Pictures follow:

Mandy and Baby Kensie

Nana, Conner, Danyell and Kensie

Happy Baby

Aaron's 31!!

Conner and Nana

Louis getting ready to fry the bird

Carolina Girls!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving Day

This is a good time for reflections back on the last 11 months, a time to count our blessings and to be grateful to live in a country where we are free.  My thoughts are with our troops on foreign soil, those here in the states that will not be able to spend this holiday at home, and for the many families that will have an empty seat at their table this holiday due to the ultimate sacrifice that their son or daughter made for this country.

I am so thankful for my health, for my wonderful sons and their wives, for my beautiful grandchildren, my brothers and their families and for my friends as well as my quilting buddies.

Enjoy your day wherever you may be and have a safe and loving holiday.

Hugs,

Sandra

2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge

SewCalGal is issuing a challenge for quilters. 

On her November 19 post, the following information was given

Take the Pledge - Registration for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge

"Do you want to learn or improve your free-motion quilting skills, using your home sewing machine? If you do, consider taking the pledge for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge. Similar to a block of the month, every month one of 12 FMQ Experts will share a tutorial for you. While you can do these exercises anytime, if you complete them in the month that they are released, and share them in the challenge, you'll be entered to win a monthly prize. Complete all 12 tutorials, anytime during the year, enter them, and you'll be eligible to win various Grand Prizes."

This is a skill that I need to improve.  If you are interested, go to the site and register.  Who will join me?

Hugs,

Sandra

Cobble Court Quilters Retreat II

On Thursday, October 27 I flew to Newark New Jersey.  This was the start of a fabulous weekend with 22 women from all over the US that came together for a weekend of quilting, friendship and fun (and good eating).  My friend Sue picked me up at the airport around 6 PM in a rather cool rainstorm.  We spent Thursday night at Sue's home in NJ, got up on Friday morning, packed the car and headed down to CT.  This is how the trees looked on Friday morning.

We made our way down to Litchfield, CT and to Camp Washington by 3:30 pm.  We chose our rooms, unpacked the car, set up our sewing machines and spent some time meeting the new girls and getting reacquainted with the ones from last year's retreat.  We were all delighted to see each other.  By 5:30 we were back in cars and headed to Marie's home for dinner.  We all enjoyed her hospitality and the great meal.  One our our group, Pam, was having a birthday.  We surprised her with a cake and sang happy birthday.  After this great get-together, we made our way back to the Camp and got settled in for "Show and Tell".  Shellie showed off her lovely turtle quilt.  I will show more of the "Show and Tell" photos in another post.

After our show and tell evening, many of us went to bed, but got up rather early to begin our sewing.  We had heard rumors of a snowstorm, but did not pay much attention to it. 

Around 11:30 am we got in cars and traveled into Litchfield for lunch at the West Street Grill.  This is what it looked like when  arrived.  

By the time we had completed lunch and started on our way back to the camp, it looked like this.

It was cold, but it was so beautiful.  The snow was light and airy and the town looked like a Christmas card.  We managed to get back to the Camp and sewed away until sometimes around 4:30 or 5:00.  The lights went out and stayed out.  Of course our sewing was over, but we did not let that stop us from having a good time.  We exchanged our fat quarters (that had been wrapped so we could not see them) by playing a game where we could steal others gift if we liked it better than the ones on the table.  If you managed to get your choice back after three steals it was yours to keep.  We all had fun in the pale light of the lanterns and flash lights.  We woke up the next morning to somewhere around 14-15 inches of the white powdery stuff.

Late afternoon

Early Sunday Morning

We did exchange our 2.5 in strips and Debbie showed us how we could make blocks from the strips.

 (Bento Box)

We are all expected to bring the quilt made from these strips to Show and Tell next year.

We also had our block drawing.  Cathy McG won the Jack in the Box blocks.  I am sure she will have a great quilt made out of these blocks by the time we all see each other again.  Marge over at Delaware Quilts gave us permission to use this block.

The snow plows were out and busy when we got up the last morning.  By 10:00 am, with help from some very nice men at the Camp and a group of  very savvy women, the cars got shoveled out, moved up to the front of the house, packed up, and was ready for the ride home.

A great time was had by all, and we cannot wait until next year's retreat to do it all over again (well, maybe not the snow part!)

More pictures later..............

Sandra

Catcing Up

This has been a very busy month for me.  I will catch up by starting with today and work backwards.

Today I made four pillowcases for two of my grandkids and two of their friends.  My third grandchild is only 5 months old - she will get a pillowcase next year!

Saturday morning I walked the 5K "Stride for Breast Cancer" in Biloxi.  This picture was taken after the race, looking down from a parking garage.  This was only a very small number of hundreds of participants.  It was a beautiful sea of pink as we walked to support those with the disease and to honor those who fought a good fight, but did not conquer it.

Friday night I made the block, seen below, for the block swap for the upcoming Cobble Court Quilts Retreat II.  The retreat is scheduled for Oct 28 -30 in CT.  I will have lots of fun pictures to share with you after the retreat.  I am looking forward to seeing the friends that I made at last year's retreat and making new ones this year.



Last week I traveled to New York to spend a few days with my friend, April, who lives on Long Island.  We spent one day in New York City where we visited the Statue of Liberty and road the Staten Island Ferry.  The visit to the Statue of Liberty was fantastic.  This is a picture of the original torch.

We also visited the Vanderbilt's mansion, Eagle's Nest.

This was the view from the back of the mansion.

Interesting designs in rock leading to the mansion.

I have many more pictures of New York, but will not bore you with them at this time.

Thursday I travel to the retreat, so the rest of the week (at night) will be spent cutting out projects to work on, sewing on the blocks for the Black and Bright Swap, and packing for the trip.

Until later..............

Sandra