A Big Birthday

Today was another one of those milestone birthdays, the big 8 - 0. It was a family day and my kids, grand kids, and great grand kids were all here with the exception of one grandson who lives out of town.  It was a nice day and though I have been unseated as the family Scrabble champion I had a great time.
We got a four generation picture of women in the family me, my daughter and her daughter, and my grandsons daughter. We missed my daughters other daughter who had to leave early and we didn't get my daughter in law in the photo. We  didn't get  photos of any of the men. Maybe we will do better Christmas Eve.





W e did get a shot of me with the great grand kids and the birthday cake; their ages are from 8 -12. It is not easy to get a picture with everyone looking good but this one turned out pretty good.
That is the celebration tablecloth on the table. I had dyed fabric at a guild workshop 20 + years ago and I was going to throw it away recently because it ran when I washed it. However, I fished it out of the waste basket and made 16 patch checkerboard blocks and added a  bright border. I thought if the colors  ran "so what". Some of them did run when it was washed and you can see it on the solid yellow back but the front looks OK and it think it makes a nice family tradition to put it on the cake table.

Christmas Decorating

Two days ago Jack set up the tree and today we bought the decorations up from the basement and I decorated the tree, He helped by getting some of the ornaments unwrapped and he put new hooks on the ones that needed it. It took a few hours to get the tree done and right after I arranged the tree skirt Miss Mona, the princess cat, settled herself on the tree skirt for a nap.

She really has very pretty green eyes but I think this glowing kind of demon look is the feline equivalent of "red eye".

No amount of coaxing or gentle prodding would convince her to leave her new napping quilt. I might as well give in because she will do whatever she wants as soon as I leave the room.

Over the last few days I also hung Christmas quilts in my sewing room. I replaced the quilts from my last post with Christmas quilts. I don't have the places to hang them that I used to have so I am working out new arrangements. I do believe that the gray flannel I use on my bulletin boards has made the colors in my photos come out true to life.

The quilt on the lower right is hung sideways and I will have to change that and I need to clean up the shelf under the wreath quilt. I found that I have 20 mug mats so I hung some of them with my 12 days of Christmas cheater smart panel.

I have some larger quilts and I am not sure what to do with them. Well..... one is on my bed and two are one the backs of chairs but I have 3 that have no place to go yet. Maybe they will find a new home.

Not much sewing going on

It seems like I have been doing everything but quilting and that means I've had nothing much to post.
I finished the tree skirt and don't have a photo of it and I already gave it away. I did finish my bedroom window curtains too.
About a month ago Jack hung my 2 bulletin boards in my sewing room, They used to be on either side of my window in my old sewing room now they are side by side like one board. I also covered some foam core panels with gray flannel and hung up 3 small bulletin boards where I hung some small pieces. I have been starving for color as there is a lot of white and brown here. There are 2 shelves above my sewing machine; the top one is about 6 ft. high and the other 24 inches below it. I put one board there with some of my small zentangle quilts. I was going to hang something more colorful  but decided to hang my tangle quilts for a while.

The shelves butt up against the bookcase in the corner,  around on the corner on the next wall I hung the next skinny bulletin board with a few small things. Next to the bulletin board is the window above my desk and on the other side I hung another small bulletin board above a tall narrow chest. A 24 inch square cat quilt hangs there. Just around the corner, above my quilt rack on the next wall, is my Diva quilt; it is 45 inches square so you can see the quilts in this collage are not to scale.

I am feeling more at home now with some of my own favorite colors around me.

When the weather turned cold this fall I put my plaid quilt on the bed but it has a lot of black in it and though it has a lot of other colors it isn't colorful enough. It is also in need of repair again as some of the patches are wearing out. I exchanged the plaid quilt for an all floral log cabin quilt, which is too heavy to sleep under. I keep it folded across the foot of the bed and only open it up if we have company (so I can show off). I quilted it in sections and used florals on the back and I like the back as well as the front.
Last Wednesday Jack hung my Red Flowers quilt over our bed.

The Red Flowers will stay where it is but I will be getting out all of the Christmas quilts this week and the rest will all be changed soon.