January - Missed Items

Heather sent this awe inspiring picture to me from a recent snowfall. I love the fact that I have family that can see the beauty within the storm, or sometimes just after it.

Some paint samples to decide on where and what colors I will redo that fireplace and mantle with. George has already gotten the mantle (a very darkly stained wood) covered with two coats of Kilz. That was an amazing change in the dynamics of the room already. I’m leaning towards a ‘shades of creamy’ for the bricks and that very light aqua for the mantle. Time will tell on that decision. The light fixture, I kept it off for the picture because I could get my phone to adjust (lol) is the new one over my dining room table. The last image is ‘the truck of goodness’ that delivered much of the necessities for the remodeling that’s underway.

And the demolish of the house continued with removing everything from within the walls of the second floor bathroom along with the hallway carpet. That carpet had riffles in it when we moved here over 5 years ago, we’re finally ready to have it gone and a nice smooth, easy to clean, surface in this hallway. 

During this month I finished the longarm quilting of 5 quilts for Royal Family Kids Camp, processed a trunk load of fabrics from one charity group to several others, prayed a lot for everyone in the Polar Vortex areas, and had my first try at shooting a handgun. I’ve not been interested in the past, but accepted an offer by the hubby to go to the indoor range and ‘see what you can do’. He was pleasantly surprised with what I did, for me,,,, I was ecstatic! ! !  I’m thinking of framing it??? LOL

January-Very Productive

The top two images are of a couple of the quilts being made for the Doors To Freedom house in our area. Barb T. brought these 2 beautiful tops to me. And the bottom to images are quilts that are specially made for family members. The one on the left is called Stella, a pattern by Gudrun of GEDesigns.com.  It will be for our table at Christmas time, unless I am moved to give it to someone else before then. And the one on the left is a bookcase looking quilt for someone very special. The empty shelf will have some special additions that are significant to the person. I can’t say more than that at the moment, that person just might be reading this. 

Three of the twelve blocks for the Block of the Month program were completed. Each month has something interesting to process through. I’m leading this program for my local quilt guild this year. I’m doing a color sequence and I’ve encouraged others to choose their own direction with this. A few of them have posted their pictures on our facebook page and some are doing theirs in batiks. I like that idea and I may make another one to use up more of my ‘left overs’ for another charity quilt.

These are some thread sets and stencils for Crazy Quilting. I purchased them from Sharon Boggan. She lives in Australia and I wondered how long it might take them to make it through customs. I was pleasantly surprised when I found them in my mail box in less than 2 weeks. And those twists of various threads, textures, colors, etc sure do make my heart sing.

These were some of my highlights this month. I received a beautiful dip pen, ink and ink well in my  Boho Berry Box from Kara Benz. Daily Guidposts had 2 items that will be within reaching distance whenever I have moments to sit and enjoy the Lord’s Words. And a snapshot of my lifetime stitches on my longarm quilting machine. I record each project’s stitch count. I was happy to find out that my machine keeps a tally of the lifetime stitches.