Happy New Year!

Okay...I'm a little late.  Yes, it is the middle of January, but as the saying goes, "better late than never".  Right?

I've been working on a Block of the Month with Jo's Country Junction called "Quilt Square Quilt Along".  We will be using 3 different patterns from Lori Smith's designs, specifically Quilt Squares #1, Quilt Squares #4, and Quilt Squares #6.  Each month, Jo will select a block to make from one of these patterns.  This is the block for January.  I used my leftover Kansas Troubles fabrics.  The block measures 12" square. Why don't you hop on over to Jo's Country Junction and join the fun!

Finishing

I have been working on finishing up some of my UFO's.  I recently took a trip to my sister's house in Arizona, and made some progress on my slowly, but surely, dwindling pile of unfinished projects. 

 My sister owns a Gammill, so that made quilting the completed tops a breeze! 

 This was made from blocks from a BPF swap.

This UFO, entitled "Red Tidings" was made using scraps.  It measures 80" x 80".

In all, 10 UFO's were quilted, bound, and crossed off the "To Do" list!  Hooray!

Sweethearts

My little Sweet Pea has been here for the past few weeks.  We have had loads of fun and made just as many memories.  Sweet Pea loves to watch the Food Network and is constantly coming up with new recipes, like her special "Veggie Pizzaz"!  Our trip to the library resulted in a cookbook entitled, "Mom and Me Cookbook" by DK Books.  She picked out the recipe she wanted to make, and we began...

 First, we made jam from the strawberries from Papa's (great grandpa) garden.

 Then I mixed up some cookie dough, and Sweet Pea rolled out and cut the cookies.  I placed them in the oven to bake.

 When cool, I frosted one cookie with butter cream icing, and my little Sweetie tenderly added the jam.

 Next, the second cookie was placed on top, and voila!

 Strawberry Jam Sweethearts!

They were sooo yummy...and they went very fast.  My compliments to the Chef!

Finally, A Completed UFO!

I am finally able to work on whittling away at my UFO list.  This Zigzag quilt was on the list (notice the past tense here!!)  It's now finished and donated to my local Project Linus chapter.  The fabric for this quilt came to me as a bag of scraps.  Putting it together was quick and fun.  I did the machine quilting myself, although it has been more than a year since I have quilted anything on my machine, and it shows!  Boy, was I out of practice.  I thought about taking the quilting out and starting over, but that's not going to happen.  So I officially declared it DONE!

Now on to another UFO, as well as getting projects ready for the upcoming retreat in May.  I'm way behind!

Snowman Gift

Recently, two of my friends(Michelle and Peggy) have posted on their blogs, cute little snowmen quilts displayed on a wire frame. I just loved them! I became inspired to make one, too, but knew it would just turn into another UFO. Really, I'm trying very hard not to create more UFOs. To my surprise, a package came from my sister the other day. Can you guess what was inside?!! Yep!! My very own snowman quilt in a cute little wire frame!! My sister embroidered the snowman in red (my favorite color) and embellished him with some cute snowflake buttons. Woohoo!!

Wool Round Robin

I'm taking part in a Wool Round Robin with some friends from my May Retreat group. We will be passing these around each month until May, when we will reveal the final results at retreat. Each person in my group (there are 4 in each group) will add to the wool round, that I started at right, bringing it to life with cute appliques and embroidery embellishments. I started my "on the farm" themed wooly with a little sheep. Baa!

If you want to see what several others in my group have started off with, check out Michelle's and Laura's blog.

Using It Up

This past year, I've been trying to use up the vast stash of fabric that I have in my house. I've made a number of quilts from my scraps, but the pile just isn't going down! This quilt is one I made yesterday from a dozen fat quarters that I had on hand. Even the borders came from my stash. The pattern is one I have had for many-a-year...it's a "stack and slice" technique...and is extremely easy and fast to construct. It will be quilted and given to the child of one of our fallen troops through my local Project Linus Chapter.

Has anyone else been successful at using up their stash? I know there are lots of blogs out there that are dedicated to stash busting if you are needing ideas on how to sort, cut, and use up that ever-growing pile of fabric!