Merry Christmas

Taking this time to wish you all a very Merry and Blessed Christmas from my family to yours!  I wish you all  a healthy, fun filled and creative New Year!!!!
I have chosen 2 words to set as goals for this coming year

Simplify & Focus

Have you chosen any words  to help with the coming New Year?

thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving either with family and friends or in your quilting studio.  I know I had a dinner for 15 family and friends and truly enjoyed it so much and "thank the Lord" for  allowing me to do so.  But now comes the hard part of trying to race to the finish line which is Christmas Eve to get some things completed. From my home to yours... I  truly wish you have a wonderful Holiday season
Here are a few pics from my Thanksgiving...

Me and the Mister

My daughter Leigh-Anne;S-I-L Jeremy: The Mister: A Friend Karen

at the door my sister Debbie: brother Carl: my son Gene: my daughter-in-law Samantha

 Friends Jeremy and his son Jerick;

granddaughter Phalynn: grandson Dayton

My Mom Evelyn; and M-i-L Kathlene

Our 40th

Yesterday was our 40th wedding anniversary and I woke up to a beautiful gift from my husband and a day shared with family and friends..it was a wonderful celebration.....this is the gift I woke up too and I am thinking I just might keep him..lol  Have a great day everyone.

A few colors of Fall

Let me leave you with a few colors of fall that have finally come to Chattanooga.  These photos are mostly from the house here but there is one beautiful tree filled with red leaves that was taken down the road...Have a great day everyone.

October ATC's

I am in a FiberAntics art group led by Veronica and we are winding down the year.  We have one more to go and then we will start again in the New Year.  This month the theme was pumpkins which I guess we could dress a pumpkin up in all ways but I chose to use the pumpkin seed.  I used modge podge to actually add the cupcake holders to the cards then added a little pumpkin die cut and some pumpkin seeds in the center.  Then added a little information on the back about pumpkin seeds.  I really did not know what I was going to do until I started them I just wanted to use pumpkin seeds so this is how they turned out.

Greatful threads art group

I have been wanting to try and catch up with the finishes for this year so here is another one.  In January our "greatful threads" art group here is Chattanooga posted a challenge to make a portrait of ourselves .  The parameters were it had to be 50% fabric and the size was to be around an 11 x 18 (?) and it had to be quilted.  Well I did finish mine, just by the ringing of the last bell,,,lol

I really did enjoy doing this project and it was a stretch for me and my problem area was skin tone.  The only medium that is not on this quilt is oil paints.  So if anyone has any ideas on what is good for getting the skin tone on fabric I would appreciate any suggestions.  Thanks for taking a peek.

SLKS group (our challenge)

Morning everyone..I think my blog may be working now but I still have to tweak a few things but the blogger community is helping me and I do appreciate them.  I just wanted to post a few pics from our little silks group that I am in.  We took our initials and hence labeled us silks so we could put a word to it.
 We challenged ourselves this year by doing an add a round  which to us started out with the beginning block being our own and passed it on  then every second month we came back with what we added to that block and then passed it again and so on.  Well this month we finished up with the last additions and gave them back to their original owners and here they are;

Sharon"s (left) center; the next round was done by Sandi; the next one was done by Linda and the final round was done by Karen(right).  I had this square for sometime but did not like where it was originally headed so I put it in the UFO pile because I could never quite figure out what to do with it and when we decided to do this challenge in our group I put it out there and I could not be more pleased with it...looks wonderful doesn't it?

Karen's (left) started out with her block being the one on the left with the circles inside the rectangle; then I  got it next and added the chevron; then Sandi got it after me and added the bottom blocks; last but not least Linda(right) had it last and added the circles extending into the border and a shadow affect on the bottom and left side

Linda (right) started with the very center flower block and I might add a very pretty well appliqued flower; then Karen got it next and added additional leaves and the flower pot, which in my opinion completed the flower and it looked perfect; then I got it and added the small border and the three flowers around the border and on the very bottom a little picket fence; then Sandi (left) had it last and added the different width borders using the beautiful gradation fabric that Linda had put in her box.  But at any given round this quilt could have been finished and that was pretty awesome.

Sandi (right) started with the teal and orange block in the center; then Linda got it and added the triangles with the very small gray almost piping on each side of the triangles and added it to the top and bottom of the square; Karen received it next and added the left side star with the gray rectangle and the half square triangles; then I (left) got it for the last round and added a beautiful star which I do not see much of called "Sunrise" with the (3) crazy patch blocks above it.  I must say working with Sandi's colors was allot of fun and something I may refer back to at one point.

With each round I think we all  learned a little something and they all turned out wonderful.  We all are at different levels in our quilting journey and I think each one of us added our own little niche to it and they all turned out just wonderful.   I truly believe we all  walked away happy with our wall hanging quilts and could not  be more pleased.

Note: Linda already has us starting  a challenge for next year by taking photographs to be ready to gear up in January for a year of fun and fellowship. What she suggested has peaked all of our interests so we are looking forward to it....stay tuned.

A friend home from Ireland

A friend of mine has been gone for almost 2 weeks on a trip to Ireland.  While she was gone I just watched over her cat, which she was wonderful but in the last few days before she came home she was really missing her Mama....the little attitude set in and she was just as glad to see her Mama as Linda and I were to see her.
Well to make a long story short Karen had left in the summer and returned in the fall so Linda

and I wanted to welcome her home in style and we decorated the outside of her home with all kinds of fall stuff and signs telling her she was missed.  Here are some photos of what we did and Karen did manage to see them all and thankfully cause that night it rained and they were falling down and re-arranging themselves...lol  Here is some of what we did:

A "Dangler"

In this same group we are having a rear view dangler exchange and even though I am not very good with the small beads like I use to, I did manage to pull this very pretty black and pink dangler to gether.  Rosemarie I hope you enjoy it.

Altered Domino

Over a the art yahoo group I belong to we are having an altered domino exchange and I just can not put them away they are si much fun.  Below is the one I sent to my partner and then after that is ones that are in progress now.  Some I have used paint on and a really pretty sticker but the majority are done with the acholol inks and come out the best I think especially after you dress them up and use the glassy finish.  Have a super day!

Norelle I hope you like it,,,,

These are ones in progress

Little Modern goal

I belong to the Chattanooga Modern quilt Guild and I have to tell you the atmosphere at these meetings is just filled with  inspiration and fun.  One of our chiefs in the meeting was telling us about doing just small little quilts to grow with our stitching and colors so this is my first one and I would like to do one every month in different colors and do different quilting stitches on each one to remind me of what stitches I have done and to use as a reference...here is the first one.  Psst it feels good to be doing some stitches but I don't want to say it too loud...lol

Woohoo my ATC Swap

Good Morning..I am in an ATC Swap over at FiberAntics and our theme for September was "9" and I wanted to do something where I could use this blackboard paint that I have been wanting to try.  So here it is I did a "Domino"  representing 9 and each one of those dots is covered with glow-in-the-dark paint and let me tell you after you sit them in the light for a little bit they really do glow.  I had fun making them and I even got them out a week early.....Have a wonderful day!

Well it is the "after" days of AQS

We had AQS here this year and all I can tell you is "wow"!  It was like a huge quilt party.  We got to see so many quilters that we have not seen in awhile; we got to meet new people and make new friends; we got to see all the lovely beautiful quilts; shop at the venders area; see the new and exciting wonders of the quilting world; I got to meet Gail Garber who is a wonderful teacher, Linda Hahn who does things with the New York Beauty that I have never saw, Karen Combs who creates beautiful celtic pieced illusions and many more.
We had many more venues in Chattanooga where local quilters got to show off their creative side such as: The Aquarium;  Creative Discovery Museum; Southern Belle Riverboat; Hamilton Place Mall; Bessie Smith Cultural Center; Chattanooga WorkSpace  and I could go on.  Chattanooga was just filled with quilters and their creativity.  If you did not get a chance to join us we will have AQS here for 2 more years at least so think about coming to visit next year and see how the red carpet is rolled out for AQS and all the creative energy we have in our city. I will follow up with the dates for next year event.  For now I will leave you with some wonderful photos of this truly wonderful event.

I hope you enjoyed just a drop of what we here in Chattanooga had to offer....