Thanksgiving

I know it's over but I just have to blog about my day. We had a great time sharing with our younger son and his family. His wife did all the dinner and we just had to eat! I am so thankful that we have been blessed by wonderful children and grandchildren...I really don't need much more.
As for BLACK FRIDAY. I don't do the shopping thing. We did once, years ago. We drove an hour to the mall, saw the crowds, turned around and came home. This year I didn't shop but worked at the store. Fortunately, I had the evening shift so most of the crowds had dwindled but we were busy. People seemed to be buying lots of books for gifts. I work the day shift today so we will see how it goes!

The last couple of days I haven't been doing much quilting...just a little hand quilting on a table topper while I sit and rest. Actually, I have been working on family heritage scrapbooks for my brothers. I am the "keeper of the family stuff" and ended up with all the old photos, etc. So, I decided to make each of them an album. I made an ancestry chart them with a computer program then I am putting in pictures of anyone in the chart that there are pictures. Quite a task as I have literally boxes of old pictures. My plan was to have them done and in the mail so they arrive by Christmas...will keep me up some nights I am sure. It has been fun tracing the family heritage but one can get really wrapped up in it and spend a lot of time looking at old photos, documents, and Bibles. Then there is the internet search which is addicting. It is amazing how much information is on the internet...old census records, social security records, military records, newspapers!

Christmas coming ...fast and a new blogger

The cottage quilt is off to the quilters. This time one of my guild members, Jackie, is going to quilt for me. She does all her quilting freehand rather than computerized so we talked about how she might quilt to emphasize the cottages. I can't wait to see it! She hopes to have it done by December 1.



Last night we had snow...I should admit that it was just flurries. The flakes melted once they hit the windshield but it was snow here at the beach. Today, the sun is shining but it is still a little chilly. The shoppers are out in force though! And we are off to look around. Most of my shopping is done but I still like to look.



One of my friends, Pat, who often comments on my blog just started her own. It is pretty good. Check it out at http://alittleofthisandalittleofpat.blogspot.com.

Sharing projects

I didn't think I would get it done but I got my cottages put together! I am taking it to be quilted this week. For those of you in my group, the cottages are arranged in the order they were numbered in our packets. I wanted to keep them that way so I can easily refer to the sheet that Terri sent with our packet and remember who did each block. It was amazing how they all actually were coordinated even though we used such different fabrics! I decided to frame them all with a cream colored border just to even out our tiny differences in sizes. Then I put a green sashing between them with some other fabric I had in my stash that actually had Christmas cottages. The border also was Christmas fabric I had in my stash. The top measures about 59x78. I'm sorry the photo is a little blurry but hopefully when I take a picture of it when it is quilted, the picture will be better.

The other thing I worked on this week was my Winter Star wall hanging. It is the second in my seasons collection. It is about 60x60. I will hang it when I take down my fall quilt. I don't know if you can tell, but the quilting is in a snowflake pattern. I really enjoy making stars blocks!

Enjoying Fall

Tuesday was such a lovely, sunny day here. We decided to go for a walk along Breakfront Trail at Cape Henlopen State Park. There were a lot of people walking and biking. I wish I had taken my camera! We walked about 4 miles. The trail takes one through the woods and salt marshes. We saw a deer running through the forest. It was a buck with a small rack. It's interesting that here the deer are more gray than the reddish brown in PA. Several other people we met told us they saw a fox in one of the fields but we didn't see it. Be sure to check out the link to learn about the park.

Rainy morning then four days later!

Wow, have I been busy lately. I have been working some extra hours since a couple of ladies at the store have been on vacation...then watching all the election returns...and of course doing some quilting. I worked on a Christmas table topper and a fun crazy quilt design topper out of all of my scraps of Christmas fabric. It was great fun. I actually resorted to picking up pieces of fabric from the floor because I was bound and determined not to cut into any new pieces of fabric. I had to run to the quilt shop yesterday to buy more batting so the pieces will soon be ready.

I figured I'd give you a preview and show you how messy the area was when I was doing the crazy quilt. It was actually relaxing to let it all out and not worry about making a mess. Usually, I am more anal about keeping the tables neat! These pics were actually taken AFTER I started to clean up the area.

Talk about being busy....I am actually finishing this post four days after I started it. Thursday night my son and grandson stayed all night. My son had to work security at Return Day in Georgetown, DE. (It's always the second day after elections...historically it has an interesting story. It old days, when all voting took place at the county seat and votes would be counted by hand, voters would return two days later to hear the results. Both the winners and losers rode together in carriages in a parade..the winner facing forward, loser facing back.) Anyway, this year Joe Biden returned as he was also on the ballot for senator and he won that election, too and he has never missed a Return Day since he took public office. Thus the extra security. My daughter-in-law sells jewelry and had a show Thursday evening so they needed a babysitter. My son came here from Georgetown since we are closer than him going home and he had been in Georgetown since 5 AM. Here is a picture of my son and grandson having morning "coffee" Friday morning. It was a great treat to have them and that they could stay a little while as my son didn't need to go to work until evening.

Saturday, I picked up my blue and white quilt at the quilters...she did a fantastic job! I also worked on some small pieces. But the exciting piece was that my cottage blocks came! They are so great. I can't wait to start putting them together. I haven't decided exactly how to do it yet. They are all so special, I want to make sure the setting does them justice.

Sunday my husband and I went out and bought bikes. Yes, at sixty, I own my first new bike. I had one when I was a little kid, but it was one that was given to me by neighbors whose daughter was older than I was. I hadn't ridden a bike for about 15 years. We went for a ride around our neighborhood. I was a little shaky, but it was fun.

So, today it is back to normal....do a little surfing the net, do a little quilting, go to work.