Wall hangings finished

I got some wall hangings prepped to finish in Colorado.  Thought Jackie would enjoy working on them since it was something she could do "bed resting."  The snowman was a pattern, and there is also a stuffed snowman that's supposed to go with it which I didn't get done.  Of course I used the pattern for a guideline, and didn't exactly follow all the instructions to the letter.  I appropriated a strip of flying geese for it that had been given to Pat for our kid quilts, and I hope whoever made them won't mind!  ;-)

 I also used this idea to create an advent calendar.  I thought making all the ornaments of felted wool would take more time than I had, so I used some of my milagros collection that Pat gave me.  


I thought Jackie could count down more days toward her goal of 36 weeks for the twins.  It would be good to keep them in at least that long--which is around December 20th.  


Now I have to get busy and make another calendar for Lindsay, and I want one too!  We don't put up a tree as often anymore, and this would be a good alternative.

Cooler temps

The temperatures have really dropped.  A few flakes fell on my way to shopping in Albuquerque yesterday, but today it is clear and sunny, albeit cold.  Good temperatures for spending most of the day cooking and dealing with all the groceries.  I baked muffins early, made a big pot of butternut squash soup, and another of red sauce.  I'm anticipating having company to help me eat the stuff that Dale can't.

I finished the baby quilt for my daughter's friend.  It's for a girl, though she chose the colors. I loaded it the standard way...and then realized that it made more sense to load it sideways in order to do the design I had decided on.  I decided it was worth it to take it off, and load it so I could do the design lengthwise on the quilt, horizontally on the table.  Thanks to Shelley for featuring a similar quilt on her blog.  It's one of the hardest things for me to do--come up with a viable all over quilting design.  

 

 I tried a new pantograph on this donation quilt, which is also from Shelley.  It's a dense design, but flows nicely.  I must admit I had my doubts about Shelley's claim that the foundation tissue paper that she had used would disappear in the wash, but I quilted without removing it.  Like magic it did disappear in the wash! 

Okay, back to the kitchen.  I still need to cook dinner and Dale is out of his cookies.  Baking those will warm up the house.

Fall colors hanging on

I started this post after we got back from a quick trip to Colorado and only got as far as the title.  Dale is on the mend after a surgery for his torn rotator cuff.  Much better than enduring the pain with no end in sight. 

We enjoyed some beautiful fall colors at the River Walk in Cañon City which was conveniently close to the surgery center. 

 
Fall colors seemed to be hanging on throughout the drive, though the aspens were all done.  We've had a few frosts at home, but the leaves haven't all dropped off yet.  Still enjoying warm days and cool nights, with too much consumption of baked goods on my part.  It's such a good way to warm up the house...