Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all of you a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

A Christmas project finished BEFORE Christmas!!

Earlier this month, a new quilting group I joined had a charm square exchange during their get together. We played "Craps for Scraps" and the ante was Christmas charm squares. We all ended up with a nice variety of fabrics by the end of the game. At the end of the meeting someone called out, "Don't forget to bring what you make with the charm squares!" Well, that's all I need to hear! I was going to bring a completed project if it killed me! LOL I already had a nice stack of Christmas charms to add my new stash too, so I decided to try the disappearing 9 patch pattern. I backed it with a cozy flannel fabric....so it will be nice, warm quilt to snuggle up with on a cold December day. I love napping quilts! :P

I also wanted to practice my free motion skills...so I chose to try stars. I discovered two things...it's much more time intensive to do anything other than regular meandering. Also, flannel is HEAVY! It's hard to maneuver on the machine...probably not the best thing to practice on! I'm really happy with this little holiday quilt and it's all ready to take for show & tell at our next meeting on December 2nd.

A couple of Christmas gifts I can show!

I made two fleece throws today. These are gifts for my youngest niece and nephew. Three years ago (wow...time flies!), at Christmas-time I made fleece blankets for all the nieces and nephews in our family. Well, my sister and sister-in-law were both pregnant that year so those to kiddos-to-be didn't get blankets that year! This year, my sister suggested I make them each one...which I thought was a great idea! Two gifts crossed off the list!!

Of course I had to share a picture of our resident quilt inspector, Smokey. As you can see, he's not a cotton snob...he'll lay down, err, I mean inspect any fabric that I lay out on the floor.

Jesse Tree Ornaments

Recently, I posted a picture of my sheep ornaments for an exchange. We were exchanging 25 ornaments for a "Jesse Tree." A couple of you asked to see a picture of all the different ornaments after the exchange took place. So here you go! Hopefully, you'll be able to "click" on the picture to see the ornaments close up. We are missing one ornament...the one for the 25th day...the Nativity Scene!! I guess the gal ordered something and it didn't come in yet. But we have time, since it won't go on the tree until Dec 25th.

Here is the book that goes along with the Tree. It has a devotion for each day from Dec 1st to Dec 25th. For an example, the on Dec 1st, the devotional verse is Genesis 1:1..."In the beginning...." and you hang the little earth ornament. Honestly, I'm not sure if hubby and I will actually do the advent devotions this year (there are adult devotionals in the book!), but I know my kids would have loved it when they were little. I'll tuck the set away and maybe one day I'll have grandkids to give it too! :)

On the sewing/quilting front, I have been working on a few things. I can't share pictures though because they are gifts!! I'm sure that will be a common thing among the blogs during this Christmas season, don't you? We love to make things for others, but that means we have to keep things under wraps! I'll take lots of pictures though and after Christmas, I'll have lots of show and tell!!

A giveaway....

Head over to the Sweet Liberty blog for a fun giveaway! (But I'm going to win...heehehehe)

Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown

I finished a quilt!! This was a BOM at my LQS last year....It was $5 Saturday Sampler program. So all pieced blocks cost me a grand total of $5! The fabric for the log cabin setting blocks and borders/binding/backing, etc., were purchase seperately. You can see Peg's here...she used a different setting, but it looks great too!

The quilting was done by Sandi at Moose Valley Quilts...didn't she do a great job!

You can see a rare picture of our second quilt inspector, Whiskers. She's usually a bit shy so she doesn't show up on my blog much.

Time to catch up....

I've not blogged for a few days and I have lots of pictures to share! The first one is from a blog giveaway I won over at Stella Bella Quilts. I received the package last week, so I'm sorry for the delay in posting the picture. Didn't I receive some awesome goodies! There are two great charm packs, a cute Christmas quilt pattern, note pads, a halloween-y bear, candy (there was a bit more chocolate when it arrived! I admit to snacking on a few!) Thank you so much Gretchen! I love it all!

The next picture is of my ornaments for an exchange...the ornaments are for a Jesse Tree. A Jesse Tree is a way to celebrate Advent in the month of December...you can do a Google search for more info if you want! Twenty-five ladies from our Bible Study are doing the exchange...so I made 25 sheep and each lady will get a sheep. In return, I'll get a different ornament from each of the other 24 ladies. So in the end, we'll each have 25 different ornaments. It's very similar to a quilt block swap!! :)

Here is a close up of the sheep...I used Warm & White batting for the body and black felt for the ears/feet. I showed them to a friend today and she pointed out that they don't have tails, so I guess I'll go back and give them tails before the exchange.

This is a picture of my first disappearing 9patch top. At a quilt group a week or two ago, I received a nice variety of 5" Christmas charms...when I added them to my already existent stash of Christmas charms, I decided I needed to try and make something with them! I would still like to add another border, but I need to go to a LQS and pick something out!

Lastly...I wanted to show you one of the benefits of working at a Thrift Shop! You get first dibs at the stuff that comes in! I picked up these two books for .25 each!! Now, I need another quilt book like I need a hole in the head, but how can you pass up a quilt book for a quarter??

Until next time....

I voted!

I voted this morning (that's my sticker above!) and I have to say I'm happy to live in a small town! :) No long lines for me...in fact, no waiting at all. There was a steady flow of people, which is a good thing, but they had a good system to get us through. The little voting booths were just cardboard partitions and there was a trusty #2 pencil tied to the table with a long string to color in the ovals on our paper ballot! Technology is a great thing, but sometimes nothing beats pencil and paper. :) When I was done voting, I handed my ballot to the official and she dropped it in the box and announced to the room, "Michelle C has voted!" (she did say my whole last name :P ) I felt very official...and a little self conscious, until I realized no one was listening anyway. Anyway, I was glad to do my patriotic duty and exercise my right to vote in this great country of ours!!

Halloween Fun

My sister and her family came for the weekend and Halloween. I had pumpkins here waiting for them, so before trick-or-treat time, we carved some jack-o-lanterns. It was tons of fun and I think they turned out pretty cool!