New Year's Eve

Wow...forgot about posting to the blog for half of 2016...sigh..I will really try to do better next year!

2016 in review:
Finished a few quilts... Echos of the Grand Canyon, Goose, Goose, Duck; Dragonflies Paradise, Hexie Daisy, Thread-Sketching Bouquet, Embellished Antique Linen, Summer Quilt for Dad, Star Mug Rug, Doodled Hexie Mug Rug
Worked on a few more quilts ...Fire Mountain Bargello, Desert Landscape, Wee Hexie Basket, Cape Blanco Light, Columbia Gorge...
Ate lots of good meals...
Went on several trips - Arizona, Texas, Nevada and the annual Quilter's Run in So Cal
Laughed a lot...
Cried some...
DGD moved to Tennessee..we are going to try visit soon..
Still working...Retirement is looming though!

Hope 2017 will be a great year!

Here are the Christmas gifts I made this year:
Squirrel Lovie

 Frog Prince Lovie

 Wolf - kinda a lovie..but I stuffed him...

 Three French Hens

Hedgehog for my hedgehog loving Sis: (not a Christmas Present!) - I had to try out my PomPom makers I bought on the Quilter's Run...amazingly..they work!

I discovered Corner to Corner crochet...it works up soooo fast...

 ...that I made a whole passel of washcloths and handed them out at the Christmas party!

Our tree...

 ..with a silly squirrel under it!

And the mountains out the back on Christmas Day - as close to a White Christmas as us flatlanders in So Cal get!

Embellished Antique Linen

I saw a piece on Kelly Cline's blog that intrigued me.... http://www.kellyclinequilting.com/2016/04/frame-a-quilted-hankie/

Hum...I have an antique linen piece - I think it was an antimacassar  - one of those linen pieces ladies used to put on furniture to protect the places where human skin  or hair would hit the upholstery to reduce the damage to a replaceable piece...perfect!

I soaked it in Terial Magic and arranged the cotton lace - it was badly scrunched! The Terial Magic made it stiff enough to embroider without a hoop. Note there is some damage on this piece (it adds 'character'!) - I glued the broken threads down with OkToWashIt glue..not that I ever intend to actually WASH this piece!

I embroidered the center - making sure to cover up that hole with the big pink rose! I used the silk ribbons I got from Kathy at Retreat (she decided to give up all her beads and threads - a couple of other ladies at the Retreat and I split up the booty! Whoohoo!) Antique linen is pretty fragile...I almost wrecked the piece a couple of times - but manged to hide the boo-boos!

Wool batting, two layers of  plain teal fabric from the donation table at Retreat and I was off and running...

Added some antique lace around the edge and buttons from my Grandmother's stash...et voila'!

I usually name my pieces something more exciting than 'Embellished Antique Linen'...but I have no ideas on what would be better for this piece.