I was tagged by Sunny of Quilting Dreams

I was tagged by Sunny of Quilting Dreams with the Liebster Blog blogger award!

Liebster Blog is an award to highlight your favorite 'wee' blogs out there--the ones that we love that don't have huge numbers of followers.


First, I would like to say Thanks Sunny.  I really enjoy your blog,  your humor, your pictures and your creative works.


Now that it's my turn, here are the "wee" blogs that I'd like to highlight:

Peas in a Pod  Mama Pea always has some very entertaining things to say each day.  She has beautiful quilts and other projects, reviews, and give-a-way notices. 

The Vegetarian Hunter  Don't let the name fool you, Carolyn has some great quilty ideas and projects, and fun everyday life stuff happening at her blog.

Marilizs Musings I think of Marilizs blog as light hearted.  I always enjoy visiting her for a quick happy view of life.  She has such lovely fabric that she works with. 

Paula's Sewing Challenges  Paula's site is fairly new.  She has challenges for quilters. It's fun to enter and fun to see other's work.  She also have so really cool prizes to go along with those challenges.

Quilt Times with Sue.  She's from West Yorkshire. She quilts and even writes patterns.  Her book (published by Martingale) will be coming out in the Summer of 2011.


If you wish to accept this tag, feel free to post about it! Don't forget to mention who tagged you, and spotlight 3-5 of your favorite 'wee' blogs (as in, the aim is to highlight blogs with fewer than 300 followers, so spread the love!), and let people know you tagged them.


What are you waiting for? Go check them out!   I hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do.


And now a picture because no post should be without one.  Below are Barq's and Briar's Rootbeer sleeping on my lap.  There is a third puppy on the floor.  The rule of the house is - if there's dog on your lap, you don't have to get up.  Someone else has to answer the phone, get the snacks, change the TV, you get the idea. 

And here's a picture of the progress I've made with the crocheting.  Don't laugh, it's not much. 

Someday this may be a beanie. 

If I were setting goals...

I sort of want to post my goals for January. 

I've been doing this now for a couple years.  But to be honest with you, I really don't care right now if I have any goals.  It could be the weather.  Or it could be that it is time for us to get our taxes together.  If I were going to set goals they would be:

Finish quilting, the BOM.  I have it 1/4 of the way quilted. Yea for me!  And it's turning out great.

My next project would be this bag holder. I need to make a new one or at least replace the elastic because 

as you can see the bags fall out of the bottom. 

And it's kind of funny because my husband never notices the bags all over the pantry floor.  He just keeps stuffing bags in there! 

And if I were setting goals my last goal would be:  Scarlett's skirt. 

That wouldn't be that many goals for this month.  Only 3.  But I'm just not sure I want to commit to that.

I would rather sit around and eat these.  Our family favorite.  Mincemeat filled sugar cookies.  YUM!

 

Great date - 1/11/11

For all us number people out there - this is a great date  1/11/11.  I work with numbers a lot throughout the day, so I do think dates like this are cool.

My grandmother had a joke that one could crochet if they could count to 8.  The pattern she was working with consisted of lots of 8's.  She would get all mixed up with her counting, laugh and have to rip out her stitches.  I have to laugh at myself.  (I'm relearning to crochet) Mine consists of series of 1 and 2s!!  I keep getting all mixed up and ripping them out too!  My grandma was so right!

One nice thing about crocheting is that once you have it down you can sit in front of the TV and just relax.  Which is what I want to do.  For Christmas my husband and I bought a "together gift" and purchased a big screen TV.  My daughter was so worried about her children coming over and knocking it over and it killing them.  We knew right away we were going to need a good sturdy TV stand.  So my husband went off looking at TV stands for flat screens.  I gave him instructions to buy one that is medium colored wood.

Oh I thought I had the picture of it - well hopefully tomorrow I can post that picture.  He did a really good job and I'm so pleased with it. (Wow, can you imagine sending your husband off to buy a piece of furniture for the livingroom?  I can't believe I do that kind of stuff.)  It is a really nice piece of furniture. And it's sturdy - even DD approved and will allow the grandkids to come over. 

I'm a Central Park Winner!

I'm so pleased that my name was pulled for Sara's give-a-way at My Sewing Room.  Sara has reached her 200th post.  (Yep, I really do think that is amazing.  And..be sure to check out Sara's blog - she really has some interesting things going on over there.)  For her give-a-way prize she offered up a Central Park charm pack.  Oh these are so my colors! 

Sara, this was so sweet of you to offer this charm pack - I totally love it!  Thank you so much!!
I know I'm going to love working this charm pack. I'm so glad Moda came up with the idea of charm packs - I've had a lot of fun with them.

This is what I'm working on....

This is a BOM quilt from my LQS.  The first Saturday of the month we would meet and get a new block to make.  So much fun to see each other's work and chat with friends. (And buy stuff - shh...don't tell on me!)

Each block was a lot of fun to make.  I changed some of the blocks, like the bird house.  Then added more leaves and flowers.  I also added some buttons and beads.  I had bought a different red/flower fabric for the border.  Then I went back and bought this one with the Polk-a-dots.  I just liked it so much better! With all that work I want to have the border I like best.

It's all sandwiched and pinned.  And now laying under the needle of my sewing machine.

I have one block quilted and the quilting of the next block planned out .  I think that's pretty good - it's progress at any rate.  I'm a little worried about quilting it and messing it up with my inexperience.  But I'm gonna do it.  That's the way we learn. 

Design Wall Monday - I need a bit of help.

Now as we all know Judy at Patchwork Times is picking a number for which UFO we will be working on.  This Month is number 6.  Which is this star quilt being held up by my beautiful daughter - although all you can see of her is red hair and some dainty little feet.  She is being gracious even to be my design wall because my real design wall in my sewing room was turned in a guest room.

I really like this quilt - but the problem is, it's not the right size.  It needs to be a bit bigger to be a good throw size.  If this was your quilt what would you do to it?  I have small amount of the fabrics not enough to even do another border.  And I'm was worried about adding more borders and it getting wonky.  Help!  I just am stuck!

Kelly at Charming Chatter makes a good point, which I totally agree with, not to allow pressure force us into completing a quilt before it ferments.  However, this little quilt has had a couple years to ferment and it's really not a MUF (masterpiece under fermentation.)  It's a "stuck and not going anywhere" quilt.  Any ideas?  Thanks for any suggestions.

Linda

1 - 1 - 11

Are you all excited about the new year? 

I love having a new year.  I love the idea of new beginning's.    What about New Years Resolutions?  Do you make them?  Did you make any good ones?

I've made my share in the past - but basically I'm not good at keeping them.  About January 3rd I'm wondering why I even thought those New Year's Resolutions were even good ideas.

This year I'm thinking that I'll try not to start any more new projects.  (Yeah, like that is going to work. hehehe) And I'm going to try to finish one UFO per month. So here's to a Happy New Year!!  May all your quilting be beautiful and your thread never break.

Linda