Happy New Year!!!!

Here is corner number three for ole Mary. Seemed to take forever, with the Christmas holiday. We had our son, and family here, which was lovely, but there was no stitching going on.

Here is Mary with three corners. I am leaning more, and more, towards a very small geometric border to separate the center. There would still be considerable space for fancy quilting, and I do love the crisp look that a little geometry adds to an appliqued quilt.

I have signed up for a quilt history bus trip for next April. Lisa, is going on the trip, too, and that makes it even more fun to anticipate. The trip culminates in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the International Quilt Study Museum, which is something I've longed to visit since first learning of it.

My best friend Gina, and her husband are coming up from Houston tomorrow to spend New Year's Eve. Gina will then stay and sew for a few days, and I really look forward to her visits.

I wish you all a wonderful, safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year. Michele

Corner #2.......................

Here is corner number two, one of the cornucopias. The cornucopia itself gave me fits, and I'm still unsure whether I can live with it, or will end up having to change it later.  If anyone cares to offer an opinion, I would be interested to hear it.

So this is where I am today. Although the original has nothing between the center, and the corners, I find myself wondering if a small, pieced sawtooth, or square on point, would look good as a first border. Again, I would be interested in your thoughts. You all wouldn't believe how much Philip Jacobs fabric I have gone through. I have an enormous pile, but when I pick up a yard, and open it, all the good bits are gone. It's sad really. If you are curious, let me tell you that in a one yard cut of his fabric, you MAY have two, or maximum of four, of any one blossom. So I have laid waste to yards, and yards, of expensive fabric, and I can't imagine what the rest of it could be used for. Not a project for the thrifty quilter.

The weather is pretty, if unseasonably warm, here. I know many of you are coping with ice and snow. I think it's easier to get in the swing of the holidays when Mother Nature gives us appropriate temperatures, but that's Texas for you.

I hope all your Christmas preparations are proceeding smoothly. Have a wonderful Christmas week.

Merry Christmas to you all!  Michele

Ahhh, poetry........................

The first setting triangle is all but complete. Yayyyyy! I lack only the stitching of two small leaves, and I can move on to another. It's been fun watching the whole thing evolve.




Here is a close up of the corner. Can you Kaffe/Philip Jacobs fans pick out which prints the flowers came from?

As for the poetry, Ogden Nash, my favorite poet, said: "If called by a panther, don't anther." Good advice, then and now!

I hope you are all making it through the holiday stress with joy, and panache. Michele

Quote for today...................

"I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall."

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

I've persevered, and finally I have the center medallion finished. Unfortunately, this required sewing on, and removing, TWICE, the base of the tree (dirt and leaves) in order to get them to look straight. Not my finest hour! First it slanted one way, and then the other, and it would have driven me completely nuts every single time I looked at it, so it had to be corrected. As you know, if you've seen the original, Mary Brown likely intended her medallion to be set square, then changed her mind and set it on the diagonal. Apparently it didn't bother her that this left her center tree at a 45 degree angle. I appreciate the quirkiness of antique quilts that chop off points, and do all sorts of interesting things, but I am just not able to relax and whack away. I make plenty of errors, but I am incapable of making them on purpose!

I will most likely do some embroidered detailing at a later time, but for now I've moved on to the first setting triangle.

 

Here is my progress as of this afternoon. On the cooking front, I am trying to make my beloved some split pea soup, his favorite, and my blasted peas won't soften. Shoot! I wanted to surprise him when he got home this evening. I don't care for split pea much, but it is getting more, and more, difficult for him to find canned. I guess I'll just keep cooking them till they either soften, or the bottom of the pot melts. Will I still get an A for effort? Probably not.

Back on October first we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. It's rather a mind boggling thing to have made it this far, but you can NEVER take anything for granted. It ain't over till it's over. I remember when one of our sons was getting married and he asked us when it would be okay to (ahem!) "pass gas" in front of his bride. The answer, from both of us at the same moment, was "never"...............not deliberately. If you think this sounds silly, and unimportant, I'll just say that a bit of courtesy never goes amiss in a marriage. The little things can show the overall tone of a relationship. It still makes me incredibly happy when I make my husband laugh out loud, or when I cook something that he raves about. For a teenage girl, with very little sense of what is needed in a marriage, I sure lucked out when I picked Phil...............and he picked me. I wish all of you as much joy in your lives as I have found in mine with my sweetie.  Enough sentiment. Happy stitching.  Michele