National Dog Day!

 Today is National Dog Day! 

I have some special dogs in my life that I would like to recognize. We rescued our dog, Nellie in 2013! She is a very smart and obedient girl! We love her so!

Nothing better than lying on the picnic quilt!

Miss Sadie is my grandpup and lives with my daughter and family. She is a sweet, cuddly girl that loves to chase squirrels!

Milou is my grandpup that belongs to our oldest daughter and her husband. He is timid until he gets to know you. He loves to be dressed up!

I would be remiss to not mention my grandpup, Ole. He was a sweet Frenchie that survive many trials in his life. We loved him so much! 

RIP Ole

And finally, the quilt I made titled Dog n' Quilt. I made this quilt in honor 

of all the dogs that 'bomb' a photoshoot! 

This quilt was made as part of the 2018 RSC challenged and was donated to charity. 

Linking up to National Dog Day @quiltfabrication.

2019 is under way!

With the New Year comes new goals, quilt alongs, BOM and projects. I have set some goals this year and joined some quilt alongs and BOM. Hopefully I didn't do too much! 

It is so hard to resist! 

One of my goals is to make charity blocks for Covered in Love. You can read more about this charity at Kat & Cat Quilts. Every 2 months, the block changes. For January and February the block is a variation of a string block. 

Here are my blocks that I will send to Covered in Love.

I will continue the monthly Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by So Scrappy. January's color is red. This year I will make the reverse rainbow starburst block.

You can find the tutorial here.

I will link up to Scrappy Saturday.

I also joined the Quiet Play Pattern Club. Each month, around the 15th, 3 patterns will be released and emailed. One word block, one picture block and a bonus block from her favorites. Quiet Play is known for her foundation pieced, rainbow, geometric blocks. I'm excited to get started!

I was intrigued by the Bitty Block Follow-A-Long over at Quilt Art Designs. I love the challenge of working with tiny pieces (and it was a challenge!) This is another paper pieced block project. 

This month the Bitty Block is a Tiny Bee.

I will also be doing the Block of the Month Optical illusion with Nine Patch blocks over at Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design. It appears that you just make this at your leisure as I don't see a link up for it. I haven't pulled fabrics for this yet. 

I like the optical illusion challenge of this quilt!

The last BOM I'm interested in is Scandinavian Flowers over at Angie's Bits and Pieces. This is an applique BOM which is not usually my thing but I will be away from my sewing room for 2+ weeks in February and I thought that I could practice this skill. I will get January and February blocks ready before I leave to bring with me. Time to perfect this skill!

I also started a medallion quilt. I don't have pictures yet. This is a quilt that I have had in my head for a while. Materials were purchased back in late summer/fall. Stay tuned. 

 Of coarse, I need to catch up on quilting the quilts left from 2018. 

I did finish Dog 'n Quilt, one of my Rainbow Scrap quilts. 

In this picture you can see the stand that my hubby got me for Christmas. I can hang my quilts to make taking photos easier!

The quilting is a simple straight line, 1" apart and stitched in the ditch around the dog. 

The back is a purple floral from my stash.

This quilt was made entirely from scraps and stash. Yay! 

It finished at 43" x 53" and will be donated to charity. 

Busy times and updates

Once again I have failed to keep up with life, quilting and blogging. 

The month of November was quite a blur as we welcomed (and helped move) our DD1, her partner and dog, Ole to our home after they lost their lease and decided to try to save some money to buy instead of keep renting. We moved most of their things to storage and the rest to our house. 

We are glad to help but I have to admit, it is a bit of adjustment after being empty nesters for many years. 

Thanksgiving week, we welcomed home our DD2, our SIL and their dog, Miss Sadie and our DD3. The house was full and BUSY!

We hiked. We ate out. We visited. We cooked. We crafted. We baked. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. So many blessings to be thankful for! We took the opportunity for a family picture (missing one). 

On Friday, we ventured downtown as our out-of-town kids wanted to have a family day there. We strolled through Maggie Daly Park, and Millennium Park. Saw the Chicago Christmas tree and went to Cindy's on top of the Chicago Athletic Association Building for a beautiful view of the skyline. We also went to the (very crowded) Christkindlmarket for some holiday cheer!

 Maggie Daly Park

kids of all ages @Maggie Daly Park 

 Millennium Park

 Chicago Tree
still too light out to get the full effect

view from Cindy's

 my daughters and me from Cindy's

hubby bought me a giant pretzel at the market

On Saturday, we had a Baby Shower for my DD2 with our friends and family. 

(I am limiting the number of pictures from the shower as this post is a bit photo heavy)

dessert table

 center piece we crafted

our dear friend said the welcome and dedication

On Sunday, DD3 flew back home early. DD2, SIL and Miss Sadie headed back home a little after 1:00pm. A storm was brewing so even though it was sad to see them go, we were happy for them to get out before the weather got bad. 

It was a good thing because at 1am my husband woke and said we had lost power. The blizzard was in full force. It was 36+ hours before we had electricity and HEAT. Schools were closed for a Snow Day on Monday so my job was cancelled. By Monday night, the temperature had dropped to 20º and it was COLD in our house. It gets dark by 4:30 so we had candles and battery operated lanterns to give some light. My husband had to leave for an out-of-town business trip which left my daughter and me with 2 dogs. Thankfully, the power was restored on Tuesday afternoon! It took a bit to get everything back online but we are back up. 

As for quilting, My Little Blue House quilt is waiting for an opportunity to photograph it. It is all finished. I hope to have pictures soon!

I also put together one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. 

I decided to add a dog as if sitting in front of the quilt as I took a picture. Kind of like a photo bomb...? This will be a charity quilt. It is waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. 

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday @ So Scrappy

I also have been working on trying to catch up on my Temperature quilt. I continued to log the daily highs and lows but have to admit that I fell quite behind on actually making the blocks. 

At least, I'm into November now.  See how the temperatures are dropping. Orange and reds are gone for the year. I will start to see more greens and blues now as we come to the end of 2018!