Good Morning friends,

I have made this little wall hanging for my chiroprator's office. This is the third one I have made for them. They hang it in the reception area for all to see. This is spring/summer. They also have fall and winter. It is really fun to go in there and see my work hanging on the wall. I used a book called Floral Applique by Nancy Pearson. Then I did a little redoing to fit the spot they hang them. The original was a little more spread out and I just redrew the pattern until I got what I wanted.

I am started on a new project. Just what I need, another project. Anyway, Debbie has finally talked me into doing a Dear Jane. Now I am an official Janiac. I have three blocks done and have used Inklingo's Storm at Sea for the sashing. With the Inklingo it is so easy, just print all the cutting and sewing line on the back of the fabric and cut them out. Then get going and sew them together. I have a goal to do the sashing as I make the blocks. This way I can print a little at a time and sew them up and on to the next block. For the DJ blocks I am using whatever jumps out of the scrap box that is big enough to use. Now, I could go to the basement and take up the other two scrap boxes I suppose. NOT!!! But, if I run out of possibilities, I will have to go dig in the other boxes anyway.

This is the little wall hanging I made for my Chiro's office. I had given him a fall one and they have it on the wall in the reception area and he wanted something for winter now so he offered to pay my to make him another hanging for the same spot. I hope he likes this. I did some pieceing, some applique and some machine embroidery on this. Then did some free motion stuff with some fancy threads. The picture does not do it justice but did make one of my friends (I won't name her, OK Hester?) said it make her chilly in California.

Well for goodness sake, I can't believe that it has been this long since I posted on this blog. Soooo, I will try to catch you all up with my news. Christmas was pretty close to finished on the 20th of December for us as Jody and Todd decided to go to Gilbert for Christmas eve and day so we had Christmas the weekend before. We celebrated all day Saturday and Sunday. Then Christmas eve we had dinner at our house with Rick and Gavin and then went to their house to open presents again. Then off to church and home to bed. Good thing for old people like us. We can't do so much celebrateing any more. Christmas day was spent with ourselves and Rick, very relaxed and fun.

Then the weekend came and we had to start to pack for vacation. We left on Mon the 28th for Mission, Tx arriveing there on Weds. the 30th. We got to Mission at 2:15 in the afternoon, unpacked our bags, got back in the car and drove to the golf course. We golfed 6 times in 6 days while we were there. Also got a little side trip on foot into Mexico, went to South Padre Island, and went to church at Our Lady of Gaudalope church. That was interesting. Someday you will have to ask me about the dogs and llama in the church.

On Mon the 4th we golfed in a scramble in the morning and then headed north to the San Antonio area. My cousin rented a condo in New Bruenfels and we spent a couple of nights with them. We also got to see a cousin of Norb's while there. Had a great time with them but on Weds the 6th started west to Mesa Arizona to visit with our friends John and Marion. Had another great week there. We golfed with a couple from there church on Mon but Norb golfed 4 times while we were there. We also did a little climbing and hiking and walked during the day. Also got to go to a quilt shop when Marion was teaching. We visited all the great hang outs while we were there. Like the Bernina store, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, a bead store, and the Quilt shop at least 3 times. On Thurs the 14th we headed back east and then north. Took three days to drive but got back on the 16th about 2 in the afternoon.

Back to routine from there. Tues I volunteered at our local school and then had to catch up on things like grocery shopping and gym workouts and nails to be done. Then we will not talk about the two days I spent running up and down the basement stairs getting laundry done.

I think I may have gotten to the caught up point but then had to make a wall hanging for my chiropractors office this week. And also had to get together a power point presentation done for church this weekend. Tonight I presented that as a part of the homily. It was about a project we have been working on for Venezuela.

Wow, Sunday and almost time for the Viking game so I will make this quick, maybe. This is another of the blocks from the Garden Gatherings book. This past week, I have prepared another of these blocks, and another of the Christmas ones I am working on and also a new applique project I picked up in Wisconsin in Oct. My friend Debbie was here for quilt camp on Fri and Sat and did we have fun. Or as my friend Deb says "How fun is that?" We talked and laughed and sewed and even called Hester in California to bug her a little. She really has no sense of humor. All we asked of her was to hop a plane on Fri and join us. She refused, can you imagine that. When do you get to spent time with two great people like Deb and I? She is probable feeling sorry for herself as I type. I will try to load a few more pictures of our projects later today. Right now it is time to listen to the TV and stitch on some more on my applique blocks.

The color is not true on these pictures because I had to take them with the existing light so that you could see the quilting. Hope the quilting will show up when I put this up for publication.

Hi all, it has been a long time since I have added anything to this blog. I have been busy. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

I don't know how well this picture will show up as I had to have it taken with my cell phone. I entered this Venezuela quilt and 5 others in the St Cloud Heritage Quilts Show this weekend. And, surprise, this one won Viewers Choice 3rd place.

I worked on the applique on this quilt in 1999 and 2000 when we were in Venezuela doing mission work. I did some of each block while there and some of the fabric is even purchased there. I have had it done for quite a while but didn't know what to do about the quilting. In February I took this to Kathy Crabtree to quilt and she returned it in August. What a beautiful job she did.

I got talked into joining the St Cloud Group and then to enter something in the show. I didn't even have a picture of this one before I entered it. I will try to get a good close up of the quilting to post here next. When I got the quilts back tonight, Norb wanted to have it on display with the ribbon so he helped me hang it on my Venezuela quilt rack in the family room. So, now I can't get a photo of it all as I had to fold it to fit on the rack. And that is about 8 feet from the floor. I am not going to get the ladder again and take it down and then put it back up.