Christmas stockings

Jackie let me know rather late that she didn't have Christmas stockings for the boys!  She had seen some at Pottery Barn, and so I set about making them before we left for Christmas in Colorado.

I got one done for each of the boys, but not for their parents! 

She gave us a Keurig coffee maker and I'm enjoying making single cups of coffee just for me.  

Lindsay got a picture of her fobot.  I'm starting to collect more "stuff" since Justin decided that he would like a new tradition--a fobot every Christmas!! 

Another fobot

Dale and I have been working together on fobots.  Forgot to photograph one before wrapping it up, so that one will have to wait until after Christmas.  

Our latest creation is this one, going out shopping!  It was a lot of fun helping it evolve. 

Here is Mrs. Hall taking little Thyme (Pat's fobot) out for a shopping spree.  The missing one could easily be the Papabot.
 
Sunday, I finally got tortellinis made.  We'll have them Christmas eve.  I thought the spinach gave them a nice green Christmas color. 

Winter blows in

Winter arrived with snow yeterday.  Big huge flakes fell that clumped together.  The wind blew, then the snow changed to little corn snow.

The clouds moved off before the sun completely set, just in time for a sliver of moon again.  

Quilts delivered

I finished up these quilts and we delivered them to Dr. Kaufman yesterday, probably the last for this year.

This is the last one of the quilts that Pat put together when she was here.  The twin sheet that was a perfect color for backing turned out not to be wide enough, but I found another that had small purple flower print for backing instead.  

I put this snowmen BQ3 together quickly over the weekend.  I think the most time consuming part is cutting it out.

Had the perfect backing flannel for it!  Looks like we might be in for more snow tomorrow.  Let it snow, indeed.  We can certainly use the moisture.

Quilts and a sunrise...

We finally got some much needed moisture!  Fortunately it came after Lindsay had gone back home to Albuquerque.  She finished another top for a friend.  We sure love the BQ3 pattern.

I did the faux piping binding that I blogged about here.  Unfortunately the tutorial for this is gone as it is now featured in a magazine article.  I still had the sizes so it was easy to recreate it.  I think it added a little to the quilt, since we had no additional fabric for borders.

I also finished the boys' quilts.  Similar but not exactly the same.  I wanted to use some of my Laurel Burch stash for quilts for them.  

 

I had the perfect, bright, colorful binding in the binding stash.  Thanks Pat, for keeping me stocked with a variety of bindings.

Got this row quilt that Pat had put together from leftovers done as well.  

 And the morning sunrise spectacles continue.  Yesterday I caught the tiniest, sliver of a moon and Venus above it in the early morning sky.

A parade of sunrises

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I posted.  We spent Thanksgiving in Colorado and it was great to have the whole family together! 

The boys are growing up and are no longer babies.  They provided a lot of entertainment over the long weekend with their antics.  So much to be thankful for.  

 The sunrises in Colorado didn't disappoint.  Pikes Peak in the background shadow from the kids' balcony.

Back home it's a daily display of color in the early morning.  Not so early since I've been routinely waking up way before dawn.

 I caught a star, or more likely a planet still bright in the sky.

 Every morning it's another spectacle.  We've had a quite a few sunsets worthy of photos too, but I don't seem to get out to photograph them.  I just enjoy them unfolding.  They are frequently short-lived as are the sunrises.

I fought the temptation to touch up these photos.  They never seem as awesome as the real thing.   

Cranes continue fly over, back and forth.  They are so graceful.  Sometimes they fly fairly low right over the house, but I've yet to capture them when they do.  It seems like this is the first year since we've been here that they've stayed in the area this long.

 

Quilts delivered

I delivered a nice stack of nine quilts to Dr. Kaufman.  She is busy as always with newly diagnosed diabetic children. 

 The sunrises continue to reward my early morning wakening, though at this time of year sunrises come pretty late for the truly early riser in me.

 Daughter Lindsay came back with me and she was able to complete this BQ3 top with a Day of the Dead focus fabric.  I think it turned out really well, and I'll get it quilted and finished to deliver to her at Thanksgiving.  We both wanted to keep it, but it is for a friend's birthday.

I didn't notice the bright reflection at the bottom left corner until this posting.  It's not in the quilt, unless it's a friendly spirit...

Another sunrise...

This is the time of year for beautiful sunrises.

These are two more that Pat finished while she was here.  These are actually the same size.  They just look different because my quilter holder upper isn't here, and I laid one on the floor and one on the bed.

Thankfully, several washings did leach out some of the blue that bled on the white airplane map fabric. 

I have enough leftover airplane fabric to put another one together with the big and small squares reversed as far as fabrics.  We don't seem to get enough quilts made that are appropriate for boys.
 

Finishing some more...

 Pat left me with lots of tops to finish--my favorite part.  This one turned out pretty big.  It's a bit smaller than queen, so maybe a full size.

I put together this BQ3 with some airplane themed fabrics that we found at Savers.  I backed it with the rockets, which had been washed.  

Unfortunately it still leaked color when I inadvertently washed it in hot water.  The blue bled, and evenly colored the large squares, which originally had a white map background.  I'm hoping that some more washing will return it to white, or at least not so blue. 

Glorious sunrise

Yesterday morning we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise.  Well worth getting up early for, though at this time of year, sunrise is late by my standards. 

Pat is in her usual production mode.  She's putting together BQ3 tops faster than I can keep up.  I have been busy washing the mountain of fabrics we bought, and making sure my workers have plenty to eat!  I'll have a lot of tops to keep me busy for a while.  

The week is going by much too quickly. 

Little fobot

Dale helped me make this little fobot for Pat's birthday.  I convinced her to leave him here--I'll take good care of it until she moves here.  It's my favorite we've made so far.

 

Monday we had to spend another day in town.  More shopping, and we got some great deals on fabric at JoAnn's.  

Pat started these ballerina pizzazz quilts on her previous visit.  She added borders to them, and I started quilting them. 

 She made this row quilt with the leftovers.  Let's hope there are a lot of budding ballerinas out there. 

 

Back to quilting

Pat arrived Saturday morning.  It was her birthday and we went out to lunch and did some serious shopping with time to kill until another friend arrived in the afternoon.  

Saturday was not a productive day since we didn't get back until later...but started cranking out quilts on Sunday.  I had a couple of tops ready to quilt.

This one gave me lots of grief.  The precut squares it was made with broke two needles on my longarm in quick succession.  It was also breaking thread, but I managed to get it done.  It's the only one of this batch that would work for a boy.  I backed it with racing themed fabric.

This next top was given to me at February's AZ retreat.  Thanks Denise!  I added the borders and the backing seemed a perfect fit.  

Valentines anyone?  And so work at the sweatshop begins.  Pat started working on tops she had started on her previous trip.

 

Rustimo!

Ever since I became acquainted with Amy Flynn's Fobots, I've wanted to create some of my own.  I have a habit of picking up all kinds of "treasures" which to someone else might be considered trash, little bits of this and that, all kinds of finds on our daily walk to the post office.

Yesterday while I was avoiding cleaning house, I went through a couple of containers full of rusting odds and ends.  Actually got rid of quite a bit of it that I knew I'd never use.  I got Dale involved and we built a couple of rusty fobots.  They are now gracing the entry to my sewing room.

Our weather has been absolutely beautiful.  I love fall.  Cranes have made their way back, and we can be hear them frequently.  A gorgeous sunrise welcomed us home.

Our last day in NYC!

 Our last day in NY we spent going to where I grew up.  My mom worked as a housekeeper, and we lived in a number of places, but I have lots of memories of living in Dobbs Ferry.  We lived at this home for quite a while. 

This view shows the second story windows of our rooms, above the kitchen.  

I have fond memories of living at this house.  The property backs into a golf course, and I used to cut through the golf course on the way to school, which is now a middle and high school. 

 We also lived here for a while.  This house had a dumbwaiter, which always gave me the creeps to walk by--since it was frequently where they put the dead bodies in the movies of my childhood.

 It was a very nostalgic trip.  Across from this house were three "new" homes.  It used to be just woods.  My mom and I left NY and moved to California in 1964.  Today would have been her 88th birthday.  

We returned to the city and decided for one more trip on the Staten Island Ferry to see the lights at night.  It was another late night, but we got our money's worth out of the city!