Roll Roll Cotton Boll, a Merry Christmas Holiday, too!

Here's a little quilt sketch that I turned into a puzzle for my visitor's amusement:

Click here to go to the puzzle when you are done reading the blog - and leaving me a note, of course!

It's been a busy week at Granny's - mostly sewing, of course.....

1. I know this doesn't look like much... but these little baggies contain Clue 5 of the Mystery quilt.... 600 half square triangles - finished size?  1 1/2 INCHES....  plus an extra 24 - for insurance purposes.

I've also finished a couple of little gifty things, but they are surprises, so you can't peek!

Have to finish the wrapping now.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a Good Night!

GGS

Preparing for the Winter Solstice

December 21 is a Solstice Day in 2010


"The December solstice will occur at 23:38 (or 11.38pm) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 21, 2010. It is also known as the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere due to the seasonal differences. Its date varies from December 20 to December 23 depending on the year in the Gregorian calendar."

This is the time of year when I ponder my (usually meager and sometimes even dubious) achievements of the past year and start planning for the next year.  I ask myself how many quilts have I finished?  how many are quilted and waiting to be finished (3)  How many tops are waiting on the line to be quilted (14) How many quilt tops are partly sewn together, waiting for me to figure out how to finish them, find 'just the right fabric' or the hardest part... figure out the math?  (too many to count!)

I have also achieved a few intermediate creations.... small projects that give me the gratification I need so that I can go back and continue working on the more 'monumental' projects.  If you have followed my blogs, you will have seen most of those.

Here is a photo gallery of the 'Ladies in Waiting' on my clothesline:

 these are little 'table toppers' waiting for me to find backs, decide on thread, quilt designs, etc...

 this is a wall hanging I made in a class a couple of decades ago... still waiting for my free motion quilting skills to catch up with my imagination.....

this wall hanging was started at a retreat a couple of years ago....

this was a class sample.....now on the frame being quilted...  almost twin size!

another little quilt done for a class sample....

a Mexican Star made at a retreat.... still pondering how to quilt this one, too!

this is a 'block of the month' that I won back when I lived in California, added applique to it for a couple of years, took another 6 months to find this perfect back/border fabric, and even though you can't see the quilt top in this picture, believe me - it will be worth it!  and 2011 WILL BE the year it gets completed!

This next one is a little scrap quilt I made using pages from a phone book and piles of scraps - surprisingly, I didn't have a 'just right' backing fabric!  Go figure!  I think I have one now, though, so this will be finished soon, too!



Strippy Scrap Quilt

 So that's some of what's waiting to be quilted - there are a couple more - but they are to be surprises, so I don't want to spoil it...
 
I also enjoyed a short visit with son, Jason, recently - we went to Meyer's Dairy for ice cream, of course!

They had such a nice tree, we just had to use it as a backdrop!
 
So there will be Winter soon, and I am starting to think I have bear dna in me somewhere because I have such an urge to hybernate, but I won't. 
I'll get up, get dressed, put my shoes on, and sew....
and dream of warmer weather, flowers, birds chirping and the coming of Spring.
 
What do you do to help you survive the cold season?  Aside from covering up with quilts?

Happy Holidays to YOU!!!

the Christmas CanCan is a dance we all seem to be doing these days... Turn up your sound and enjoy the link!

I've been working some more on my Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery quilt... still don't know what it will look like, but I'm starting to have fantasies about how all these parts will fit together...

I have HST's in one drawer:

 and little pink and green strips in another...

 and lots of little green and 'neutral' pieces in another drawer...

and 60 of these 8 inch lovelies in another drawer...........................

 

Now I'm thinking that these 60 blocks alone would make a good size quilt...
for instance:



but I really have no idea what these will end up like, so I may as well wait for Bonnie Hunter to tell me in due time... but being patient has never been my strong suit.

ah well, lots of holiday chaos to enjoy...

see you next time~!

Balloon Fest in Gallup NM

I was not the fortunate attendee - but my friend, Jamie, was there - in a BALLOON!

I am not normally a jealous person, but I'm making an exception today!

yes, I'm still working on the Roll Roll Cotton Boll challenge  mystery... making a little progress

...not quite as much fun as a balloon fest, and not nearly as colorful!

Three weeks til Christmas....

Yes, only 3 short weeks until Christmas eve... 
no, I don't have my 'shopping' done, although I've done a little shopping!
no, I don't have any cookies baked, either!
but have I been busy?  you betcha!

busy reading blogs, sorting my office stuff (the quilt/guild/show/shop related box-see below), and working on a few things in the studio, which has suddenly become a frigid wasteland..... Brrrr!!!

I took pics of all the quilts waiting to be quilted - they are waiting patiently on the clothesline next to Helga... I can't post all the pics cause some are 'surprises'...
I also am working on the Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery quilt with Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.

Here's a couple of samples of my previous efforts at using up my scraps...
this is a pillow top waiting to be completed... this is foundation pieced directly onto the batting scraps - no additional quilting needed!  Just needs another border, a back and a pillow insert and some lucky recipient will be getting this for Christmas!  (well, at least I hope they feel lucky to receive it - sometimes it's a little hard to tell....)

 

another quilt top on the aforementioned clothesline is this strippy quilt - I used phone book pages for the foundations in this one... the paper falls out so easily -

and it's a great way to use up the wonky strips that result from 'squaring up' before rotary cutting the 'real' quilt pieces!  dd may recognize some of these fabs from her college quilt!  This will also be a gift... but it's a 'quilt in waiting' for today!

my next 'phone book quilt' may have to be smaller blocks - the phone book has shrunk this year!

...that's the new one on top, last year's is on the bottom.... all the pages are torn out now from the old one.

so, I'm off to work in the tundra room studio
- Step 4 of the mystery quilt will include fabrics from these two bins:

this one is a shoebox - nice and tidy!

this one holds three loads of laundry - except it's all scraps!

I have my emergency rations at hand:

chocolate hidden in my extra large thimble.....

and in case I need serious nourishment,

and then I can quilt this little table topper/wallhanging,whatever.....

and pet my latest acquisitions, courtesy of dd via Lonni Rossi....

and if I need to warm up, I can finish sorting/filing/recycling this overflowing box of quilt related paper....

So, I have plenty to keep me busy today, besides cruising on over to the Blog Hop for more Holiday make-it ideas and recipes.... click on link below to visit!

Henry Glass Holiday Blog Hop

and just one more little thing before I sign off.... my good friend Lani has a story published in a book!

check this out, too, I'm so proud of her!

http://lanilongshore.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/journey-of-the-journal-quilts/

whew!  that's all for today - ttfn!

My hat is off to Rosa Parks - 55 years ago today she made the news....

Rosa Parks was a humble lady with a lot of backbone.

Take a little time to review her story - I remember this being on the news when I was a kid!
 
Have a great day - take a bus ride!

Rosa Parks' booking photo at the Montgomery, Alabama police station in 1954, after refusing to give up her seat on the bus.