Quilted Jonquil

Seems like all parts of the country have had cold and snow but in the St Louis area, most of our precip has been rain.  Yeah, okay there was one day with some snow but it didn’t amount to much.   I love snow.  I love the way it makes everything look so different, muffles sound and squeaks and crunches when you walk on it.  Okay, don’t send the thugs over to beat me up, I know lots of folks don’t like snow and I do feel bad for the folks who’ve received yards of it, but I love it! And last night we got some snow   I took these pictures on my way to work this morning…..the birds are glad the bird bath de-icer is working

Our niece is having a baby girl Dec 31st.  I finished the snuggler for her and am quite pleased with the results

I received these from my husband today.  They are beautiful as are all flowers I’ve received from Geechi’s in downtown St Louis.  They are in celebration of  our 24th wedding anniversary.  Thank you, Dale!  Here’s to another 24 fun and happy years!

Here’s my slightly changed design wall.  I finished another First Sat block and put the 9-patches on point.  I like them better

Below is the 3rd First Sat block (FSB).  I haven’t finished the 2nd month because I missed the First Sat when I took the workshop with Judy Laquidara.  No deadline, no block…..bad Cherie

I haven’t sewn the alternate block yet either but I will get them knocked out pretty quickly as I got the binding for the Cards vs Sox wedding quilt made and machine sewn down, yea!!!

I even gotten one side hand sewn, yea, yea!!!

My parents arrived from California for a visit with my brother & me and they brought this:

It’s a carousel dragon made by my grandfather.  He was a pattern maker for engine aparts and made this carousel dragon in his retirement.  He also made an elephant and two rocking horses….well not horses but a cow and a pig   That’s my dad next to his truck.  He said they used a fork truck to get it into the truck.  He did a wonderful job protecting it for the trip!  I wasn’t home for the unloading but I heard it went smoothly and was much easier than the loading part was.

So here it is in our front room.  Our front room has never been a living space for us and doesn’t have much furniture so it’s a perfect place for a carousel dragon, don’t you think?

Dragon tail

Dragon Back

Dragon head

And Dragon TEETH!!!

The IBOL (Iraqi Bundles of Love) project received a total of 3,445 bundles.  Wow!!  Art has been posting about his efforts to distribute that much love and it sounds like the end is in sight.  Art is amazing, which you can tell if you read the IBOL blog but also from this:

I’m totally blown away by the wonderful, hand written note from Art himself.  I’m pretty sure Art didn’t make the card   It’s no wonder the man said he needed sleep…..he must not have been getting any for several weeks what with logistics, thank you notes and his military job!!  Truly a soldier with a huge heart.

Ami Simms has a blog here and at one point she talked about the pencil sharpener she sells in her shop under notions here.  It’s the three-in-one pencil sharpener and, I have to say, it truly is the best ever.  I bought the soapstone and graphite markers from Morgan Systems at the Paducah quilt show.  Both are a different size and both need sharpening.  This sharpener is well made, does an excellent job AND keeps the shavings contained.  I highly recommend it

See the soapstone and graphite shavings above?  Maybe if you click to make the picture bigger you will

As Millie from the Darling Millie blog says, “Click to biggify the picture” and you can see that I made the deadline.  My mom has told me “I’m a high achiever procrastinator who works best under pressure.”  Since I haven’t finished too many projects lately, maybe I need some pressure…oh wait, I do, the Cards vs Sox quilt has to been done by Oct 16 and the Dino quilts have to be quilted & bound by Sept 16th.  Okay, there should be some finishing going on soon!

From the IBOL website here’s a picture of the first bundles going to their staging area   Mr. IBOL guy is pretty funny.  You should check out his postings!

Check it out:

The front row, right side, top bundle is from me   I know this for certain because I used a blue ribbon in one direction and a white ribbon in the other, woo, hoo!!!  Check out the latest updates on the IBOL project here.

Here’s a pic of my bundle of love in the box and ready to go….

I included pins, needles, scissors, buttons, ribbons, safety pins, a couple of pieces of solids and several yards of the fabric used to make the bundle.  I’ll mail this off tomorrow so it should make the Sept 7th deadline with no trouble   Wow that’s two things in two days completed before the very last minute…..something must be wrong with me!