It's the Season

Lots of Christmas activities going on here. A couple of weeks ago my guild exchange our 12 day of Christmas gift. My secret Santa seems to know that I like purple.  I was good and didn't open my first gift till yesterday and it purple too. Will take a photo of all the present once they are open.

On Monday we had our guild Christmas party and it was a night full of laughter. We also do a Chinese present exchange, but we do the stealing while the presents are still wrapped. This has led to some very creative wrapping over the years. I got a book and some fabric that matches a charm pack that I already have.  These are fun exchanges, and we have to be creative as we keep the $ value low.

I put up my Christmas decoration. DH doesn't pay them much notice but  this year I found on he loves, he is a big Dr Who fan.

Here is a new one that my mum sent me, I think I'm going to have to try to work out how to make these.

Snowmen

These snowman went in the post today, hopefully they will make it in time for Christmas.

Two more to go, but I have till Christmas day to get those done, but hopefully I get to them before that.

My first Christmas party of the year this morning (kids party), followed by helping to decorate the church. I think I'll have to decorate at home tomorrow.

Still Here

Well my recovery was slow, but that is normal for me. I have been back at work for a couple of weeks, the first week was so hard.  Then Monday this week I finally felt better. Only to start fighting a cold on Tuesday. Arrg!

I only did a little sewing while I was off work, I had planned on doing lots more.  I made a little something for my secret Santa so will have to wait to share that with you. I also made these coater for a couple of my friends who helped out while I was out of it.  I still want to add a couple more items to these gifts. I just need the time and the energy to make them.

Health update

I also wanted to share a health update. You may have noticed that my blog updates are a bit sporadic. When I'm feeling good than come more often, when I'm not they can be weeks between. I am having surgery later this month (still a weeks away) and hopefully after the recovery I will feel better all the time. This surgery was planned a few moth ago but I wasn't sure I really needed it, but since then the number of bad days has increased so now I'm almost counting the days. Its nothing too major and I should be back at it in after only a couple of weeks.

Hopefully I manage to take a couple of photos of what I have been working on to share soon.

Floss

Going Backwards

Sometime you have to go backward to move forwards.  up to a couple of days ago these blocks where joined together as the top half of a "Hot Chocolate" BOM quilt. It had been in the same state for about 5 years.  About 2 years ago I realized that I was never going to finish this.  So it sat, unloved, there nothing wrong with it and if it was finished I'm sure someone would love it. A few weeks ago I gave myself permission not to finish it as a quilt and decided that I would take the 5 finished blocks and make them into wall hanging. I may even do the same with the 3 partially finished ones. Any one want to guess what the girls in my family are getting for Christmas.

I finished a couple more blocks for my herb pillow, I think this pattern has too many french notes, they really slow me down. LOL

My in-laws have been for a visit so last Friday my MIL asked to go to Sugar pine for a day trip, I was happy to drive her, but wasn't going to get anything, but this is my favorite purple and it has polka dots how could I resist and I looked at this cute little wall hanging many times. 

I really must get to doing more sewing if I'm going to keep shopping.

To see what other are working on visit Freshly Pieced

Herb Pillow

I wish after so many weeks of missing WIP Wednesday I had more to share, but over the summer I have not had much quilting time.  I have started stitching block for a herb pillow.  These are quite small, I think these will be cut to 3 1/2 inch blocks. There will be 9 herd blocks plus more stitching in the boarder.

To see what other are working on visit Freshly Pieced

And there was Shopping

As this trip was about a family vacation I wasn't planning on getting much quilting related shopping done. I was planning on 2 stores. Now things didn't go to plan and I didn't get to any store on the way to Seattle. DH may have felt a bit guilty and made sure I got to 4 quilt store.

 The first store I visited was in the Seattle area.  I didn't know much about this store except a friend had told me about how much LM would enjoy the shopping area it was in (see last post). 

It was Keepsake Cottage Fabrics.  I have to admit from the outside I wasn't sure that I was going to find anything, they had a lot of country fabric outside, but once I was inside this store there was lots to choose from. It was packed with different fabric selections. I picked up some fabric for my Farmers Wife and a pin cushion with tread garbage attached.  I had been planning on making one for at least the last two year. I thought this one was cute and the best part, no assembly required.

The next store was The Quilting Bee in Spokane. This was a large store with tons of fabric. It would be very easy to decide that you wanted to do a new project and buy all that you needed while at this store. I was good and stuck to my list of fabrics I needed for current projects. I picked up more of the pink I'll be using as first boarder and binding in LM quilt. As well as a possible main boarder fabric.  OK the magazine containing the kit for coaster was not on my list, but everyone needs something to read when you're on holidays.

The third store was in Bear Paw Quiting in Coeur d'Alene. I picked up a lot of notions at this store. I think I could of picked up more if my little helper was not being so helpful.

A while ago I picked up "Salt Air" charm pack and instead of making a small wall hanging or pillow I decided to make a lap quilt, so I found a background at a LQS but wanted more fabric from the "Salt Air" line for the boarder and binding. I thing the flowers will be the border and the strips will make fun binding. The best part about this store is I found the last of the items on my list.

So I could look just for fun when we stopped in Bonners Ferry at Alley Fabric Nook.  This seemed a little strange after making myself be faithful to the list. I did pick up another candidate for the boarder on LM quilt.  I am planning on piecing the back so the one not used as the boarder will end up in the back. 

I was still good a pick up a charm pack, with a couple of fat quarter so I can make something out of it.  I not big into the traditional Christmas fabrics, but like this line. I think it more transitional, as it not really modern or traditional. Not sure which Christmas I'll use it by as I have to come up with the right project first.

All in all I was happy with these stores and would happily go back to any of them. I was very pleased that I could find the items on my list, so now I won't have to wait to find fabric for some of these projects.  I am also happy with myself as I could easily have picked up fabric for lots of new projects.