FINAL DAYS OF 2011

Hard to believe, but we are nearing the end of 2011. Still no sign of snow but I am sure it will arrive soon. Yesterday we were greeted with a great sunrise, we have some lovely ones during Autumn and Winter.

Mid morning I took a drive up to Roundout to meet with some of the ladies from the guild. We are having a show in October 2012 and we wanted to look at the middle school to make sure it will be a suitable venue. It looks great and I am sure we are going to have a great show.

Sewing

Spent the rest of the day sewing, brought my Cotton Theory quilt back out of UFO land and decided to echo quilt rather than a quilt in the hoop design. It takes a long time and a lot of thread, I used 3 bobbins and that was only enough for about 5 blocks. This is quilt as you go style so it will come together quickly once I have the quilting done.

This morning I heard that my very clever niece has passed yet another audition with her oboe playing. I had already bought some musical fabric for her so I made clear view bag, zipped bag and a card case. Hope she likes them.

Also while reading the messages on the small quilt Yahoo group, a few of the ladies were talking about a 12 days of Christmas quilt along that was being organised by http://temeculaquiltco.blogspot.com/  They are up to day 5 but it would be easy to catch up. Each day the block finishes at 3.5 inches but is made from more and more pieces (1 piece day one, 2 day 2 etc) looking forward to seeing how we create such a small block with 12 pieces!

Exercise

Despite the cold ( it was only just above freezing) I decided to get out and run. DH dropped me off at the rail trail in Gardiner while he and the dogs drove around to New Paltz and started the trail from that end. I managed a comfortable 5 miles and probably could have gone further. There was no wind and it was a very pleasant. 

BOXING DAY

All over for another year ! Up early on Christmas morning, croissants for breakfast and nice cup of tea. We opened our gifts and then got the dogs ready for our hike (more details below). Mid afternoon Rob and I went to Kathy and Wayne's for Christmas lunch. Sandy and John were there as well. Plenty of delicious food to eat, Rob's favourite was the homemade apple pie of course. The wine flowed and we had a very nice time.

I spent this morning sewing and off we went off to Middletown for a quick tour of the sales and on to meet Gil and Sara to go see Warhorse the movie. Sorry to any that really liked it or have yet to see it but we would rate it as a 3/10 and the three are based on the acting skills of the horse. One thing that it made me think about was my great grandfather, he was actually a farrier in the first world war and was also one of the "old contemptibles". He never talked out the war but one leg was a good 5 inches shorter than the other from all the kneeling to tend to the horses. He had a built up shoe and needed a walking stick to get around. I used to go up to my grandmothers and go for walks with him. He liked to give me tuppence for walking with him, he said it was my pocket money. He used to have a toothbrush moustache and liked to smoke Senior Service unfiltered cigarettes.

Tonight we are watching Super 8 downloaded from Amazon and so far it's a 8 out of 10.

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Excercise

We drove up to Sam's Point, parked the car and started our hike. The weather was around 27degrees F but it was crisp and dry without too much wind. Took some nice pictures from the Point

and then hiked over to the ice caves, we were not able to hike all the way down as the steps were too icy but they were really interesting to see.

Onwards and upwards for a trek around the lake, on the way back we saw a couple of deers jumping over the road. We probably covered about 5 miles in total.

Of course the dogs loved the hike as well

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

To all of you over in Asia Pac, Happy Christmas, in Europe, night night I am sure Santa will be there soon.

We are relaxing this evening ready for a busy day tomorrow.

Travels

Quick trip to Middletown Thursday to finish off our shopping, then night out last night with our friends Gil and Sara. We went to an Irish pub in New Paltz and Rob got to eat some shepherds pie. He said it was pretty good although needed a bit more onion, then off to the cinema for some major eye candy! No I do not mean the glimpse of Stephn Fry's bottom but the always very sexy Robert Downey Jnr in the latest Sherlock Holmes movie.

The movie was a lot of fun although not the greatest plot line, we give in 7 out of 10.

Excercise

Ran into town to meet up with Rob who was fixing the email at the quilt shop. Only about 3 miles but fairly hilly and running into the wind for most of it. We are planning a nice long hike for the morning. Also Gil has made me a special dog lead for running with the dogs, it is made from bungee rope so that you are not getting your arm pulled too much. Cant wait to use it, currently I do not run with the dogs but this should mean that I can now. It will certainly make them very happy.

Sewing

Not much to report on the sewing front, still working on the binding on my Autumn quilt. Can you see the Clover quilt grips - they are perfect for holding the folded binding in place and much safer than having pins in the quilt. You should try them out. I also stitched out a IPad cover it was a stitch in the hoop project from Moosebestiching.com. It did not stitch as smoothly as my clear case but there was a lot of layers so I probably need to experiment a bit with them.

We are about to start on our Christmas Eve Feast, My sister Kat had some cheeses shipped over to us from France, they will go very nice with our beers.

The Girls are chewing on some xmas bones, blissfully unaware that it is any different from any other day.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS from Lynne Rob and the dogs xx

HO HO HO

Tis the season to update my blog, after a "gentle" reminder from my mother that I have been a bit lapse. Weather here is getting colder but no sign of any snow yet, ski slopes are crying out for it. 

TRAVELS

Nothing much recently, Had a nice long weekend with Kat early October and we drove all round the Shwangunks, including a trip to Woodstock to see the local lovies

There was a flea market there and it was fun to walk around and mingle with the locals.

We also went to see the lighthouse at Saugerties, the Hudson is still looking very brown from all the mud that was churned up with hurricane Irene.

We also got to do a fair bit of walking including a hike up at Mohonk Preserve. We included Rob and the dogs and took a picnic.

We decided to drive to Atlanta for our annual Thanksgiving bash with the family Pinto. We drove down over two days with an overnight stay in Raonoke VA. It was quite pleasant and we made good time. We arrived Tuesday late afternoon, just in time for dinner. Thursday was all hands to the pump to create the traditional Thanksgiving masterpiece even Rob had his role to play. He was in charge of sweet potato mash and his favorite job (not) preparing the artichokes.

Friday Robyn and I went shopping, she wanted to get herself a serger. We returned via Jo-annes just in time for their big discount coupon.

Saturday we all went to Stone Mountain, its a country park to the the south of the city. Nice bracing walk to the top, picnic lunch and then a trip to see the fake snow slopes and christmas village.

 

Sunday we decided to drive back in one leg, left Atlanta at 8.30 and got home about 1.30 the following morning. Not something I would like to do on a regular basis but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Exercise

I had a hare brained idea to enter the Edinburgh marathon, imagine my surprise when I got a response straight back saying I had been accepted. Oh well I better get training then. I have been out running a few times recently I am up to about to 4 and a half miles. Only 22 miles more to add.  The cold weather makes it a little hard, running when it is so far below freezing takes your breath away.

Quilting

I have been teaching at the local quilt shop recently, its been a lot of fun. I have also been busy sewing stuff for the holidays, I don't always remember to photo them but here is a quick catch up on some of the things I have done.

These are quilows - quilts that fold up into their own pillows. I made quite a few of them and this was also one to the classes I taught, it was so popular I had to repeat it twice more.

These are a pair of "hangers"  Robyn loves snowmen so I made these as a Thanksgiving gift. I think they are very cute.

This is my attempt at rug hooking - a little snowman pillow. It measures about 6 by 12 and binding it to the backing probably took as long as the hooking.

xmas cushion to brighten up the living room

Believe it or not I made this with my serger (overlocker). It is Dupion silk and took forever to mark the lines on it prior to creating the pintucks.

My sewing machine also makes great lace ornaments. they take quite a time to stitch out but I like the finished effect.

This is a small table hanger abut 12 inch square and I just stitched out some embroidery designs that I had.

 This is a larger wall hanger that I quilted on the longarm. It's a panel that I bought at quilters attic, Love the colors.

Some quick projects, glasses cases, small christmas ornament and a make up bag.

One of the Yahoo groups i belong to is called the 'small quilts group" and they are a great group of ladies that share all sorts of advice etc. We has a quilt swap a couple of weeks ago, everyone was allocated a partner and the idea was that you would make a quilt for your partner and they would make one for you. The lady i was paired with is called Dorothy, she is a really nice and lives over on the north west coast. We have emailed back and forth a few times and then last week the parcel arrived from her. It was fab, lovely blue and white quilt and a make up bag with tissue holder, she also sent some of the local coffee.

The work is really lovely, it gives me something to aspire to - Thank you very much!

I have also been quite active with the quilt guild and I volunteered to help with the quilt show that they are preparing for in October 2012. That should be quite an interesting experience. We have our meetings once a month and I always look forward to going and meeting with them all.

Well I think that brings me up to date -- am I off the hook now Mum ? 

More New Crafts

I am trying to stay on top of my quilting projects but also expand my horizons with other crafts. I am sure it will help me with the art side of craft.
My beading supplies arrived so I was able to try my first lessons. The explanations and diagrams were really clear.





looking forward to the next lesson. I posted a comment on Quiltvile's quips and snips about having too many projects and no deadlines to motivate me and she very kindly emailed me some sage advice. So after months of just looking at it, I loaded my blue and white quilt onto the frame.



I am doing a very dense design in the white parts using Qbot and then a light freehand design in the blue parts. Its going to take a lot of hours but it will feel good to finally get it finished.



While the Qbot parts are stitching, I have been doing some work on the Pineapple Blossom quilt from Bonnie's class. It uses up some of my scrap fabric. There are more squares to add and I will also add sashing.



Something else I tried this week was drawing zentangles, they are a lot of fun and for someone who is very drawing challenged, this is a good outlet for my need to create.





Tuesday I had a class on creating a table runner based on cotton theory quilting method. I took the class at Quilters Attic and was really pleased to be able to get so far that I was able to finish it when I got home. Its reversible and I am really pleased with it. It has great texture to it, I feel inspired to get out one of my other UFO's which is the Charleston Quilt from cotton theory 2. That one has been a long time in the cupboard.








Thursday DH and I went down to New York City for the day, we took the train to Penn station and our first port of call was a huge photography store to lust after all the great stuff. we then went off to walk the latest stage of the high line that has been opened to the public. It's an old train line that used to run about 30ft above the ground and it has been converted to a great garden area with plenty of places to sit and enjoy the view. it gives you a different perspective on the city and is well worth the visit.



After a nice lunch we went to Moods fabrics (of Project Runway fame) it is such an amazing place and even DH was impressed by the range of fabric that they had in there. Even more surprising was when DH pointed out that Mundo the runner up from last years project runway was standing at the counter, not bad for a man who had no interest in the show !



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Finished my Rug

Rug hooking is a lot of fun and very restful, well certainly at the level of designs I am working with and this will be something I can do in the truck when we are hauling the RV on one of our trips. I am a terrible passenger and can drive my DH nuts when we are, in my eyes, hurtling to an early death on the highway ( he just calls it driving). Anyway regardless of whose point of view is correct, if I am not looking out of the windows, it makes for a more peaceful trip for both of us. I am looking forward to starting another one.

Wednesday I was reading things on the Internet and came across this website www.joggles.com I had a look at their class schedule and took a fancy to the bead embroidery class. I like crazy patch quilts so I could embellish those but I also like small hand stitched projects and beads could add some pizazz to those as well.

So I have signed up and ordered my supplies. Lesson one was on Thursday, I have read it through and it is very clear and easy to follow, just need to wait for the supplies to arrive before I am able to try out the techniques.

I am sitting here with so many projects I should be getting on with but with no time pressure it is difficult for me to pick one and get on with it. This is not helped by the fact I know I have plenty that have been UFO's for long enough and they should be my first port of call. I commented to this effect on http://quiltville.blogspot.com and Bonnie very kindly sent me an email with some sage advice, which I will try and follow. I will let you know how it goes on



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July - Road Trip

I had a an unexpected break from work (next contract is delayed) and so we packed up the RV and headed off to Kennebunk Maine. the weather was perfect and Maine allows dogs on the beach up till 9am so we were up with the larks every morning and off to the beach. I made myself lots of little quilting packs to keep busy in my spare time and was able to get the Majestic Majesties quilt top from my Bonnie Hunter class finished.


I took a trip to Freeport and visited Cotton Weeds quilt shop, very nice shop well stocked, great range and friendly. I bought some hand stitching items and a pattern.




I found a rug hooking shop in Kennebunkport but did not buy anything as I need to know how to do it first ( although 3 days and 200miles later, I got an email from my local wool shop White Barn Farm offering a beginners class in hooking) ah well!

In Kennebunk there was a small quilt shop and so I bought a few fat qtrs just to show willing.



We also went to see a few of the lighthouses in the area and made sure we had our fair share of lobster rolls.








We were also lucky to see a Osprey nesting in the harbour at Portland - beautiful




After 5 days we headed up to Bar Harbor area (picture at the top of blog) plenty of hiking, more lobster and another quilting shop, Sewing by the Sea in Trenton.


another 7 days then off to Gorham New Hampshire, hiking in the White Mountains plus a drive up the auto route on Mount Washington.



We went out one evening and spent 2 hours looking for Moose on a stretch of road that we were assured was a guaranteed sighting. No luck but we were at least rewarded with a great sunset


On another scenic drive DH pulled in for diesel and low and behold there was a quilt shop across the road, I think it was called Pinestead and it was in Lancaster and they had 40% off sale, yippee !



We drove back home last Thursday and on Friday I finished off my autumn table topper, I am going to be teaching this at the local quilt shop (Quilters Attic in Pine Bush) in a few weeks time. It will teach piecing in the hoop, appliqué and quilt as you go.


Saturday I was off to the wool shop for my rug hooking lesson, great fun, we used yarn as it is an easier way to learn the basic techniques. The teacher was really good and allowed us to choose our own designs. I decided on a chicken and I am sure this is going to be a craft I will be doing more of.



Today I had fun playing with my photo's in Photoshop Elements and then printed out one on my lighthouse shots onto fabric and created this little coffee mug rug. I saw a posting on the small quilts yahoo group on a quick way to make pinwheels and I was really pleased with how these turned out


For those of you that are more interested in the travel part of the blog, there are a lot more details and pictures on the lynneusa.blogspot.com



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