Now For Some Quilting

Yes I have actually been doing some sewing.  

Actually it turned out to be a lot. 

This project turned out bigger than I thought it was but I am so happy with the end results.  I must admit at one point I was ready to chuck it all.  

It is a Twister Easter Bunny and a class sample. I was in a rush to get it done for Meet and Greet at the shop but I didn't make it. 

All the fabrics except for the background fabric. I had to cut 409, 3.5" squares.

Then sew them together and add a border, so I can cut it apart again and sew it together again!

Here the bunny is about half twisted. 

See how much small it becomes. 

Some were around row 21 one I realized I was missing a piece.  

I almost cried. 

That is where it should go!

I was so relieved I found it.  It had been hiding in that pile of blue waste squares.  I am planning on making a small bunny out of those left over waste squares.

Here is the backside of the bunny, yup there are a lot of seams.  This is one of the few projects where I press my seams open.  

The mini clover iron helps a lot. 

The bunny is still on my frame here, I had just finished the quilting. Before I arrived at this point I had basted it and was quilting it on my table top machine.  The quilting was pure ugly.  The fabric had started to bunch up and wasn't laying flat.  So I spent three hours ripping out the quilting and decided to quilt it on my frame.  

I am so glad I did!! It turned out so much better!!

A close up of the quilting.  I actually changed the thread three times on this project, the first time I had done that on a frame quilt.  

I was so happy to have it all done!  The binding was on the sleeve was on!  Than I realized I didn't do the whiskers.  Luckily I noticed they weren't on before I took it to the quilt shop to hang up as a class sample. 

Now he is done, with his little whiskers!!

This little guy kept me busy! Now on to other stuff. 

Fun in the Snow

On New Year's Eve Mr. B had off from work so we took a day trip to find some snow in Northern Arizona.  We found some up on the Rim around Wood's Canyon Lake.  There were a few people there but we had our little section to ourselves.  We don't have a lot of winter cloths but we make do with what we have.  It is also called layers!  We wear lots of layers.  The girls even bought extra pants, shoes and socks to change into, without being told.  They remembered from our last trip when we had to stop in Wal-Mart and buy them new jeans. 

The first thing Little Bit does is lay down and make a snow angel. 

Yes she has rubber gloves on over her knit gloves in hopes to keep her hands dry and a little warmer.

Little Bit found this log that had been covered with snow, that had been packed down and made the little hill there a little bigger and she started sliding down it.  Those were brand new blue jeans she had one and her undies had a very dark blue dye on them when I went to do the laundry. Actually both girls had the same dye stains. 

Here is Bigger Bit trying it out. 

Mr. B. found this piece of broken plastic sled and the girls started using that to slid down the little hill.  Boy did it help make them go fast.  They had a blast!!

That is Bigger Bit all the way down at the bottom. 

There goes Little Bit!  So fun to hear them squeal in delight. 

Mr. B took some pictures of them in an igloo they had found and built up a little but they are on his phone.  I was freezing and sat in the car for a while to warm up, so I missed it.

That is one of the nice things about Arizona, you can go a couple of hours away and find different weather. 

That evening the us girls went to a friend's home and they had some small fireworks to exploded, so it was a fun way to end the year. 

Happy Day to all. 

My Special Gift

My Second Cousin in England sent me a marvelous Christmas gift.  She sent me an art book full of the art work of another cousin.  He is a cousin once removed, or a grandson of our great grandfather. I was very excited to receive the book.  She was also good enough to send a newspaper article about the release of his book.

This is my cousin Robert with his book! And Here is a link to his home page.

This is the article.

More pictures from the article.

Cover of the book, inside my book I have his autographed.

From the first time I saw his artwork, I could see some of his pictures being made into quilts and this is the one that I can see making into one.  I have an idea how to go about it, but I need to find some fabric. I haven't been drawn to landscape quilts but there is something about Robert's art that wants me to try it. 

Congratulations to Robert for publication of his book! 

And thanks cousin Susie for sending me the book!!

Christmas Day

Slow but sure I am making up for lost time.  

After all the excitement, I had an interesting moment with Little Bit who is age 10.  While opening the gifts, she said the writing on the gifts looks like Mary's writing.  Later she walks into my bedroom closet and saw this years wrapping paper on the floor. So she asked me why did Santa leave the paper on the floor.  So I said because he leaves the left over paper at the house after leaving the gifts.  

Then she said to me, how come the cookies where gone last night but the presents weren't here yet? Probably because we had the cookies and then went next door to get the bike we had hidden in a neighbors garage. She was having a hard time getting to sleep and we were having a hard time playing Santa. 

So do you see where I am going with this.  I am thinking she has pieced together there is no Santa.  I mean she figured out three things.  So she asked me is there really a Santa, so I am thinking, she is ready to know the truth, and I am running out of answers to questions and I am getting tired of all this hiding.  She tells me she is ready then I tell her that Mr. B. and I are Santa.  

Wrong Answer! she didn't have it figured out as well as I thought.  She was devastated and tried to get another gift out of me for ruining Santa for her.  I tried to invite her to the big girl's club of being Santa' helper but that didn't work real well.  

I felt terrible.  Here I have continued the tradition of being told too young that there was no Santa, that their birth family had, that I didn't know about.  The birth mom told the Biggest sister there was no Santa at age 8.  I am not sure when the teen sister found out but she told Bigger Bit when she was 8 there was no Santa.  It seems amazing that Little Bit made it to 10 without knowing.  I was 10 when I figured it out.  I recognized my Mom's hand writing. 

Luckily this took place after all the festivities because both Little Bit and Mr. B. weren't real happy with me. 

Look at my Little Precious Bit looking so longing at the tree and gifts.

Bigger Bit was excited to see her new bike, in her favorite color. 

Ready, Set, Go as Mr. B. Starts passing out the gifts.

I didn't take any pictures of opening gifts because I also had a gift almost the same as the kids.  I had gifted myself some small stuff to go with my big gift from Mr. B. 

Afterwards, what a mess! A Happy Mess!

Playing and visiting with Big sister.

Going for the first bike ride! Notice the matching helmet!

The girl's Biggest sister came over and spent the whole day with us.  Lots of fun.  Aren't these girls just beautiful. That Bigger Bit is getting so darn cute and growing up. 

The three of us, I am not too sure what Little Bit 

is doing here, other than signing or laughing.  

February Report on Christmas Eve

We let the girls open one present on Christmas Eve.  

Last year it was PJs and they thought that is what they were getting. 

But no it was Christmas shirts!! Thrilled can you tell.

Little Bit placed all the stockings out to make it easier for Santa to load them up.

Of course the girls made cookies for Santa and even left a lollipop and some eggnog. 

Our straw collection to make a nice manger for the Baby Jesus by doing good deeds was in good shape.

Little Bit wanted an Elf on a Shelf and she made a special home for him.  This cranky old Santa was having nothing to so with Elf on the Shelf.  She is very creative.  Elf would have had a bed, a pillow to sit on and his picture on the wall. 

And here is her letter she left for Santa.  Bigger Bit told me she doesn't believe in Santa because one of her bigger sisters told her there was no Santa and she hasn't believed all the time she has lived her but she pretended for Little Bit, so she could still believe.  She is such a good Big Sister.  

This is my responds.

I worried about how she would take this, because she didn't get either of these gifts.  The next morning the first thing she said to me was, "Santa left me a note and I cried when he talked about you because you are a good Mom." So she was set for the day. 

What a Relief!!  Playing Santa can get hard. 

Little Bit had a hard time going to sleep and 

still was awake at 1 AM. The little stinker.

PS: Little Bit did get her Samantha like doll, her Nana gave her a gift certificate to Target and she picked out a doll from there that she named Samantha, and has the dark hair.  She was happy. 

Christmas Sewing

Of course, I didn't start my Christmas sewing until the week of Christmas.  So it will be no surprise to you that it didn't get all done.  

Bigger Bit has admired this horse I had on my design wall.  I had forgotten to reverse it for a quilt I made, so I just kept it. She is really into horses.  I sure hope she will have some in her life. 

She cleans at a stable now to ride. So I made this little pillow for her room.  Her favorite color is teal and I found this fun batik in my stash. 

Here is her cat Sugar enjoying some quiet time in my sewing room.

Bigger Bit really liked her pillow!

The other two pillows I am making is for my big daughter Kierra and her husband Will.  They are really into skeletons so when I saw these in my LQS, I got them. 

This one was easy to quilt, I just did meandering. 

This one was a bear only because it took so long to quilt.  All that echoing. But I am pleased with how it turned out. Now just to make them into pillows.  They were both liked by Kierra and Will. They felt they will go nice with their new couch.