Advent Tea

Last night our church hosted an Advent Service and Tea for women.  The music was wonderful and the guest speakers did an outstanding job.    The theme was Follow the Star.  The first speaker talked about following God's plan for her to open a home for teen mothers and the second speaker started a business for developmentally disabled employees.  They make gourmet popcorn.  She had popcorn available and with every sale she is shipping popcorn to troops in Afghanistan.

After hearing such inspirational stories, I was wondering why I had spent even one minute fretting about my table setting and decorations.  It is always so uplifting to hear how God works our lives in such a powerful way.

Here is a photo of the table that I hosted.  We had peppermint ice cream and Christmas cookies and the servers were the daughters of the planners, ranging in age from 4 to 12.  They all did such a great job.

Designing Monday

I finished the 12" Christmas block from the 100 Blocks magazine.

Now I am working on hexagon flowers for a 2nd 12" block.  These are both gifts for Christmas.

I finished both of my star banners for church this week, so I feel I have gotten a lot done.


I got word that my name was drawn in a giveaway for a copy of the 100 Blocks magazine that just came out.  I love those so much and they are so inspirational.  So now I will be waiting at my mailbox everyday...


Hop on over to Judy's blog to see some beautiful designs.

Advent Banners

I was asked to make some stars for an upcoming Advent service at our church.  The theme is Follow the Star.  I wasn't sure what was needed, so after some discussion I decided to make banners for the pulpit and lectern.  I found a paper pieced star on the Internet that measured about 6 x 9 and I blew it up on my printer to the size I needed.

The Advent service is sponsored by one of the Women's groups in our church and is just for women.  The organizers asked the quilting group to make the stars for decoration during the service.

I am also on the Decor Committee which decorates the church for each church season.  This year the theme is metallics, so I made my star banners in gold and silver.

I have also been asked to host a table for the tea that follows the Advent service.  That means bringing dishes from home as well as decorations, tablecloth, etc. to make my table unique.  This is the 2nd or 3rd year for the tea.  I have been to the service, but not the tea.  The thinking is that many people have sets of Christmas dishes and decorations and get so little use out of them, that this tea is a fun way to share and enjoy each other's stuff.  I don;t happen to have any Christmas dishes, so I am improvising.    I made a trip to Stein's this week as well as Hobby Lobby and Joann's looking for ideas for decorations.    The lady at Stein's who makes up their displays spent some time with me showing me how to put together a neat table arrangement. So far I have only spent around $10 and have a good start.  I got more than $10 worth of advice from her.  I will try to remember to take a photo of the table when I get it all set up.  Should be fun.

Designing Monday

I finished the stitching on this 12" block (from 100 Blocks magazine) and have it prepped for quilting.  It will be a wall hanging for a friend for Christmas.  I bought a metal hanger for it and hope to make a couple more 12" blocks that she can change out for the seasons.

This is my friend, Liz.  She is in the quilting group that meets at my church.  She made this adorable little Tinkerbell costume for her granddaughter.  The wings are a work of art.  She attached them to the back of the costume with grommets and laces.  It is so sweet.

My other accomplishments this week are finishing sewing the blocks of the black and batik quilt and working on the paper pieced star.  I now have a plan to make a pediment for the church pulpit.  Hope to make a second star for the lectern.  We'll see.

Hope on over to Judy's blog to see more designs in progress.

Designing Monday

Just a quick post and I'm off.  I have made a little progress on my black and batik quilt.  I have been sewing the blocks together and I'm more than halfway there, so should have those done this week.

I started new projects for Christmas.  The first is a paper pieced star that will be used at church to decorate for the first Advent Service.  We hold a Wednesday night service just for women followed by a tea.  I have also been asked to host a table for the tea which means bringing my dishes from home and providing table decorations.  I don;t have any Christmas dishes so am going to use my good china which is blue and white and come up with a neat silver and blue table centerpiece with a star theme.  Shouldn't be too hard, right?  Right?  RIGHT?  Can you tell this is not my forte?

Also am making a 12" square from the 100 Blocks magazine that I love.  Fun hand work.

Be sure to check out some great designs at Judy's  blog.

Designing Monday

Yikes!  Another week flew by.  I finished this little pineapple quilt.  Love it, love it.

While on vacation, I found a Walmart that still carries fabric on the bolt.  They had this beautiful orange  print that was only $6/ yd. and has a fabulous hand, so I bought 2 yards.  Don't ask me what I plan to do with 2 yards as I have no idea, but I loved it right away.  So it is now on the back of the pineapple quilt with lots more to spare.

I also finished this little candle mat.  The packaging says it is wool, but it feels kind of like a synthetic.  I could be wrong.  I still think it turned out so cute.  Plus I rusched.  I really rusched.  I always wanted to rusche and this project called for a little trim, so I rusched away.

My design wall is still full of the big black and neon quilt that I need to finish.  I have a full plate for  the next several weeks, so it will just have to wait its turn.



Hop on over to Judy's blog  to see more lovely designs.

Designing Monday

I'm heading for the wire on my orange and black quilts.  I started with a pile of these

and a bunch of these

and now I have a whole lot of these.

By the end of the week I will have finished quilt #3 in the orange and black theme.  That will probably have to do for this year.  Halloween is around the corner and I have one more orange and black project to finish and then move on to other things.

We have been gone on a 3 week adventure.  My high school class reunion was the first stop. It was scheduled in conjunction with the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival -- a food fest and fair rolled into one.  I had my first Brain Sandwich.  It was so big I ended up sharing it with a dog.

This is half of my brain sandwich.  The white part on top is the bread that stuck to it.  Lots of breading and grease on this baby.


From there we went to Oklahoma to visit a cousin I hadn't seen in about 50 years.  We moseyed on down to Texas for lunch

     
 and New Mexico to see the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.

We were advised to take the 4 am shuttle to the Balloon park, so we set the alarm in our hotel room to make sure we were there on time.  When we got to the hotel lobby, there was only the clerk and no other passengers for the shuttle.  He informed us we were plenty early as it was only 10 minutes to 3.  Apparently the clock in our room was set ahead for some reason.  The clerk blamed it on people from Texas who are an hour ahead.  The only bad part of this experience is that the wind was too high on that morning and the balloons could not fly, so we were up at 3 am for nothing.

We did see a Twinkle Glow in the evening -- that's when they turn on the burners and light up the balloons against the night sky.  Really beautiful.

The next morning we got to see many, many balloons take off. Everyone wanders around the field and talks to the pilots and crew and some hand out trading cards.  I even found one balloon with a quilt pattern.

We spent a few days in Arizona with my husband's family then headed north thru Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.  Such beautiful country.

That's all for now.  Stop by Judy's blog  to see more beautiful designs.