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 ?