Angel Tree

The Salvation Army's Angel Tree program provides new clothing or toys for children of needy families. A sponsoring company or corporation places a Christmas tree in a secure, high-pedestrian traffic area or lobby. The tree is decorated with numbered paper angel tags with the first name, age and gender of a child who will receive the gift. Contributors remove one or more tags from the tree and purchase appropriate gifts for the child or children described on the tags.

The company I work for - the National Group - is participating in this program and I picked a 2 year old girl to buy for. Baby dolls and accessories were her wish list. I made a carrying basket with a matching mattress, pillow and quilt, and also a little blanket wrap with some scrap fleece. What fun I had making these items for this little girl. The basket is a variation of the Pink Penguin's Fabric Basket tutorial, and the quilt and pillow are variations of crazymomquilts doll bedding tutorial.



I purchased a couple outfits, socks, hat and gloves for her, and of course baby dolls!





I hope she has a Very Merry Christmas!

Jessica's Band Concert

My granddaughter is playing the clarinet in the 6th grade band at her school and they had a concert last night. They are pretty good for only playing a couple months. It was interesting to see the progression of the older grade bands. I played the clarinet in the Junior High band and for one year in High School, then I turned in my clarinet for pom-poms in the marching band. She is doing something that I never did tho....she is FIRST CHAIR! If you've ever played in a school band, you know that is a good thing. If you haven't, well here is some First Chair Info. We are very proud of you Jessica!


Here is a video taken last night and another one on Webshots. You have to get beyond the first few notes to actually hear them playing together.

We stopped at McDonalds for some ice cream on the way home to celebrate.

Congratulations to Jessica and all the band members at her school for putting on a wonderful concert.

New Year's Challenge FINISHED!

I realized today that I have finished all eight of my UFO projects for Finn's New Year's Challenge.

1. Welcome Wall Hanging
2. Pink and green Baby Quilt - OTQG Camp Mystery Quilt
3. Quilt Smart Apple Core Quilt
4. Sock Monkey Quilt for NICU
5. Mini-Charmer Bags(2)
6. Orange JudyL's Labor Day Challenge Quilt
7. Jeff and Dané's Wedding Quilt
8. Christmas Star Table Runner (Quilterscache.com)

Now, let's see if I can get a couple Christmas presents finished!

Santa Has Been Here!

Santa came yesterday and looky what he brought for our bedroom....



It's a good thing Santa got a nice Christmas bonus from work!!!

Look at Those Stripes!

Jeff and Dané attended another ball last Thursday and just look how nice they look in front of their first Christmas Tree.



And look at all those strips on his uniform....

I Won the Block Lotto!

I am so happy to report that I won the Christmas Tree Block Lotto at Christina's blog: Patches Quiltworks. I have known for a while now, but wanted to wait till I received the blocks from her to show you.



Here they are, along with a suprise gift of some cute angel fabric. I saved 6 of my own blocks to add to the winning blocks and I let Christina keep my duplicate 5 blocks for her effort. This will make a cute project and we'll just have to wait and see if I get something put together this year.

Thanks so much Christina for hosting this block lotto.

Courthouse Squares Circle Lord Fan-Clam Template

I was on a roll using my Circle Lord Fan-Clam Template this weekend. I loaded and quilted my courthouse stars quilt and have the binding cut and ready to sew on. I love how this pattern looks on the quilt. I had planned to do a custom design on this one, but changed my mind. I don't do a lot of custom quilt because my confidence level isn't quite there yet in deciding what to do where!



Anyway, I used Camel Permacore thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting on this one.

Next up was a real Quilt of Valor made by Kathy's group. They are a group of prolific quilters and I am always happy to quilt for them. I used the Circle Lord Fan-Clam Template, Camel Permacore thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting for this one also. It is flannel and oh-so soft, front and back. It's going to provide much comfort to one of our injured soldiers. What a wonderful group of quilters.