I've been working on my pink blocks when I can. I need 44 blocks for this round of Facets. I'm getting there, little by little! I have one more full round left and then the border. I really love playing with my stash, but I also love using it up!! I can't believe how late it is! I had such a busy day today. Good night!

 

Since the holiday, I haven't done much with my blog. I didn't even turn on my laptop! I'll share a few pictures from our holiday. This is the tree tonight. Some gifts are still under the tree but most have been put away. I vacuumed our family room so it was easier to put things away.

I meant to post yesterday but just never got to it. I've been wrapping and decorating. I've also decided what I'm baking so I had to get all the ingredients. I had to pick up a prescription and log my hours at the library. Ugh, too much! Anyways, I thought I'd share my fireplace with the stockings my dad made for me and my family years ago! My dad was making patchwork long before I became interested in it! The stockings are quite large but we never try to fill them. We just put a few things in them. My dad is no longer with us but his stockings remind us of him.

I took this picture from my deck last week. The colors were so pretty. The pink was so bright! It was taken on Saturday, the day before Winter Solstice. I took this picture about 10 minutes after sunset. Okay, it's time to get back to holiday preps! I hope your holiday plans are going well!!

Welcome to I Like Thursday! A bunch of us bloggers post happy and positive content every Thursday. Please visit LeeAnna to link up to participating blogs. My husband and I went out to eat this past Saturday. The name of the restaurant is Ye's Table. Their sushi is great! I prefer maki rolls over sushi.  My order is in the front of the picture and my husband's is rear left. We also got beef teriyaki. So good! My white mai tai was tasty too!!

My daughter and boyfriend went to Iceland last week. They brought me this great yarn. It's lace weight and approximately 500+ yards. I'll probably make a scarf/shawl with it. It's all 100% wool. They chose a really pretty color too!

They also brought back chocolates. I'll probably open that box on Christmas so everyone can taste them. Our prompt this week asks us if we like red and green and whether it lifts our spirits. I love red and green together! It does remind me of Christmas but also of nature right outside our door. I don't have a particular shade although I love the darker versions of each color most. 

I can't believe we're only 10 days away from Christmas! I have a few little things to buy but the major purchases are done! I'm still trying to sew when I can find the time. I have 6 pink squares done for my Facets quilt. I have 38 more pink squares to finish this round. 

It's time for I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color to find more participating blogs that are posting positive posts today. Now that I'm done quilting Laurel Ridge, I'm back to working on Facets. These blocks are 6.5" square. This round is all pink! These are so fun to make. I have to make 44 blocks to complete this round. Only 2 round left after this one!

Speaking of Laurel Ridge, the binding is all ready to be sewn on! I have my binding baby keeping it nice for me until I'm ready to sew! The binding fabric was part of the quilt kit.

This is Laurel Ridge all quilted! You can't see any of the quilting in this picture but you can see how nice and flat the quilt lays. It finished  at 92" X 92".

Here's a close up of the top so you can see my feathers. This pantograph was a breeze to quilt. The curves were nice and easy to follow. I really enjoyed it.

It's time for I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to link up with more participating blogs. Well, it's time to display all our Christmas decorations. The first thing I always do is change up my table runner. I made this bargello years ago but it's still one of my favorites! The cats used to pull the ribbons but they leave it alone now that they're a little older.

I went Christmas shopping this morning and also bought myself a little gift! Isn't this the cutest sewing machine ornament?? I got it at the Hallmark store. I just couldn't resist!

 We're in the middle of a snowstorm right now. It's been snowing since mid-morning but it just started getting heavier. I'm not sure how much snow we're expecting. It varies depending what channel you're watching. I'd guess 3-5" maybe?!

 For a few days, I did nothing but cook, clean and eat! I suppose that's a sign of having a good Thanksgiving. We hosted dinner but we only had a total of 8 people so it wasn't so bad. My daughter's boyfriend's mom joined us this year and it was a pleasure to have her! Anyways, I wanted to get back to my projects so I practiced my pantograph and actually started to stitch it yesterday. This is called Acadia Feather by Bethanne Nemesh. A single row is 13.5" wide. I purchased the paper pantograph from Urban Elementz. The pantograph is set up on the back of the longarm machine and I follow the design with a laser light. It's a great feature to have. 

Here's just a few pictures with 2 rows completed on the quilt top. I really love this look. The blocks are so small that the large feathers are a great complementary design. I'm only doing a pass a day so I'm hoping to be done sometime next week. That's pretty fast for such a large quilt top!

 Since Laurel Ridge is ready for quilting, I'm back to working on my Facets Quilt. I just finished the 36 dark purple blocks for the 5th round. I'll probably still moves blocks around, but this is what I've come up with so far. I do love how the quilt is coming along. All those scraps surely shine in this great quilt designed by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. This quilt can be found in her latest book, The Quilting Experience.

It's time for Thursday Likes! Please visit LeeAnna to link up with more participating blogs. It's done!! My Laurel Ridge quilt is complete! This was not an easy quilt for me but I'm happy I finished it and it came out really good! I have already washed the backing but it needs to be ironed. I'll also iron the quilt top one more time. I've decided on using a pantograph so I ordered that yesterday. I'll be quilting it soon. I'm so happy that this quilt is done! Phew!!

My Christmas cactus is full of blossoms this year. It's a little early but still so nice to see! It's such a pretty pale pink.

I've really been enjoying knitting socks lately so I got this book. There are so many great patterns throughout this book. I've pretty sure my next sock project will be from this book.

Our prompt this week asks if we made turkey hands in school. I can't remember if I did or not but I do remember both my kids coming home from school proudly displaying their 'turkeys' for me! I think it is the cutest thing! I may have saved them. I'll have to look around.

I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving! Where does the time go??? Have a great weekend!

Here is my almost finished Laurel Ridge! It's in 3 sections that still have to be sewn together but all it needs are 2 big seams! And then, 2 borders and the top will be finished! Almost there. These 3 sections will measure 80.5" square once the sections are joined. I noticed I had quite a few blocks oriented in the wrong direction so it took me a few days to get everything corrected. I'm happy with it now that the corrections have been made. 

It's time for Thursday Likes! Please visit LeeAnna to link up with more participating blogs. I have focused all week on getting this quilt top complete. I'm getting there slowly but surely. Although I have more blocks to add, I will also have 2 borders to complete this quilt. It should measure 90" square when finished. I've been thinking about how I'm going to quilt it. The original quilt made by Lynn Wilder has beautiful feather in certain areas. The blocks are quite small, most are 5" square, so the pieces within these blocks are even smaller. Many blocks are made up of 1" squares. I've been leaning towards using an edge to edge pantograph but I will wait until the quilt top is complete before I decide for sure. I just don't think my custom quilting will be very visible in such a busy quilt.

I've been working on a new sock. I got this gorgeous yarn and just couldn't wait to start. The yarn is from Turkey and is made up of such vibrant colors. I love self striping yarn. It does all the hard work for you!

My daughter bought this Sumo Cat Wrestler for the cats. It's been peppered with catnip! They sit next to it and play with it but they're not overly crazy about it. Cats are so finicky. You just never know what they'll like!

The prompt this week asks us if we decorate for Thanksgiving. I just made this wall hanging last month so I only have one quilted wall hanging for the holiday. I do have a few kitchen towels with turkeys that I will display once we get closer to the holiday. I don't think Thanksgiving has the same power as Christmas which seems to take over every other holiday. Christmas is just too big!

Have a great weekend!!

 I hope everyone had a nice weekend. It's been raining here since yesterday afternoon. It's rather dark and dreary which I think is a great time to quilt! I posted what my star looked like for Laurel Ridge, well this is what it was supposed to look like! I inverted those green rectangle pieces with the gold square. It still looks very similar and I'm okay with it. By the time I noticed the error, it would have been too much work to fix it. The center block measure 30.5" square.

This quilt is made up of 4 corner blocks and 4 inner blocks as well as the center I've already made. This is my version of the inner blocks. I did not do any applique for this quilt. I decided to piece instead. Alternative blocks were made available. I made these pieced ring blocks which give the same effect as the appliqued blocks. However, I opted to make flying geese instead of the second applique block. Flying geese were repeatedly made for this quilt so I thought it would fit in nicely. This sections measures 30.5" X 25.5".