Thank you

Thank you Connie G for your generous donation!

Thank you

Thank you Janet L for your donation!

Steps 10 and 11

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/10.pdf and http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/11.pdf

I hope you’ve enjoyed this mystery.  If you would like to share a picture of your NYE Mystery quilt with the www, please send it to me and I will add it to a web page. 

Step Nine

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/9.pdf

How many mystery participants?

I asked that question on Facebook and a few replied.  I didn’t ask on the Yahoo Groups or here on the blog.  And even though only a few replied to my Facebook question, I know there are a lot more out there who are at least downloading the files.  The number is not that important to me, but if only the few who replied were participating, I might reconsider all the work that goes into a mystery or project on line. 

Google Analytics tells me that there have been 3301 visitors to my web site today.  Of those 2098 are new visitors and 1203 are returning visitors.  United States 2,438, Canada 272, Germany 132, Australia 97, United Kingdom 65, Netherlands 53, New Zealand 27, Brazil 23, Sweden 17, and 19 other visitors who have not set their location.  (and those numbers don’t add up because more people are visiting as I type, LOL!)

Considering all the other projects and mysteries that are being offered today, I am pleased as punch with the numbers.  And that means I will keep doing what I am doing, sharing my quilting projects with the whole wide world!

Step Eight

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/8.pdf

Step Seven

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/7.pdf

There is NO rush, please take your time.  I’m going to give you about a half hour now before I’ll post the next step… but remember, there is no hurry.  Take your time. 

The steps will stay on line forever and if you don’t get back to this today, they will be there waiting for you. 

Step Six

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/6.pdf

Step Five

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/5.pdf

Step Four

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/4.pdf

Step Three

Here you go everyone, step number three!

http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYE/3.pdf
 
To assure that you make it to your NYE parties in time, (IF you are in the US or Canada) I’m going to show you how to make just one block.  That means the clues will come pretty fast to start, then slow down to give you a chance to sew a big stack of blocks.  And then when party time rolls around you can set aside your stack of blocks, and come back later to finish. 

Directions for the NYE Mystery will stay on line forever; the links will stay on the projects page. 

Links to all of the steps can be found at http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013

Each step is a PDF file and will require an Adobe Reader to open.  You can download the newest reader at http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Next step in 15 minutes. 

Getting ready?

Are you ready for tomorrow's mystery?

Have you precut your fabrics so you can start sewing?

Is your MACHINE ready?

Dust out that bobbin area, oil as needed, put in a new needle and wind bobbins.

Do you have dinner ready and the family taken care of? 

Pop a favorite recipe in the crock pot or have a favorite meal delivered.  If you have a spouse and maybe still kids at home, send them to the movies and have them bring home dinner.    If they leave you alone all day, you will be done and ready to ring in the New Year with them. Give yourself a day off to enjoy this project.

We will start at 9AM US eastern time tomorrow morning.
Enjoy!

NYE Mystery

Step Two has been posted, just to give you something to do while waiting.  http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/  

Have fun!

New Year's Eve Mystery

If you haven’t heard already, Delaware Quilts will be hosting a NYE Mystery.  When, well on NYE of course.  Only we’re starting at 9 AM Eastern Time so you can sew all day, and still have time to go out and party on NYE.

I’ll be sending email notifications to my yahoo groups every time I post a clue, and announcing it on Facebook, and posting on here too. 

The clues will be posted at http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/  The introduction and Step One are already posted and I’ll probably be posting Step Two ahead of time too! 

Happy Boxing Day

No boxes in this house yet, we’re still relaxing from yesterday’s celebrations.  We had a great day, almost perfect… something was missing.  Mike and Kelly didn’t make it over for Christmas but they had a good excuse. 

Last Monday Kelly donated a kidney to the kidney bank so that her Mom could withdraw one.  Both are home now and doing very well.  Well… Kelly is a little sore; it was her first ever surgery and it’s going to take some time for her to be back to 100%. 

So our Christmas was John and I, Jonathon and Steph and grand-kitty Simba. John made his famous sticky buns for breakfast, and then we opened presents, and then enjoyed each other’s company until Pop and Arden arrived around 1.  After a great Christmas dinner, visit from Cheri, desserts (too many) and two movies we crawled into bed about 1, putting behind us another merry Christmas day. 

Kids make Christmas

Yesterday I told you about Jonathon’s first Christmas with a black eye, well his second Christmas the other one was black.  He was watching Daddy put up the Christmas lights and in his excitement bumped his head on the window, giving himself another shiner.  Fortunately it was fading some by Christmas.  His third Christmas he was healthy and so excited for Christmas, Santa AND going home for the family Christmas party in Delaware.  He only knew many of them through pictures and stories but was excited to be going on an airplane to meet them in person. 

The night before we flew home sometime in the middle of the night he climbed in bed with us… only I didn’t know it.  When I got cold and the covers didn’t come when I pulled them, I pulled harder and threw him on the floor.  He screamed for a few minutes then went back to sleep between John and I.  The next morning when we were dressing him he screamed again and we realized maybe something was wrong.  We made a quick trip to the emergency room to learn he had a broken collar bone.  They showed us how to take care of it, wrapped him up and off we flew to Delaware.   He was given special treatment on the flight down, visiting the cockpit, special seating, snacks and more.  And family continued the special treatments too. 

Shortly after we got home from Delaware we saw a Wednesdays Child on the news that really tugged at our hearts.  We weren’t eligible for that baby but if we were interested in adopting they really wanted to meet with us.  Two months and nine days after we saw the baby on Wednesday’s Child Michael joined our family.  The next Christmas was the best ever in my opinion… we had two boys who gave Christmas a whole new look.  Aunt Sheryl flew to Texas to spend that special Christmas with us which made it more extraordinary.  Michael was just ten months old and already walking and talking and Jonathon was enjoying being the big brother.  I love watching the old video of Jonathon showing Michael things on the Christmas tree, and sharing presents. 

Yes indeed, Christmas is all about children.  Without them, Christmas just isn’t the same. 

And more Christmases

The next three Christmases were so different, and amazingly wonderful in their own ways.  In late 1980 we had sold our little home in Alexandria and made a huge profit on it.  When we bought it we only paid $33,000 for it and then they started planning the Metro system, including a proposed Metro station in our neighborhood.  That made the property value skyrocket and we almost doubled our investment. 

Christmas 1980 found me living in the bedroom of a family member’s home while John was back in San Antonio attending OTS, Officer’s Training School.   John did come home for Christmas and went back to school the day after the family Christmas party.  I joined him for his commissioning and then we traveled to one school after another.  First was Biloxi where we had another efficiency apartment right on the Gulf.  The apartment was small, but the Gulf and beach were right there.  Peanut (our dog) and I spent little time inside.  We visited family on the way north to our new assignment, John’s Dad and family in Charleston SC, lots in Delaware, my Grandmother and Ray in New Jersey, and finally Aunt Sheryl and Gram in Kingston on our way to Plattsburgh. 

It was a whole new lifestyle for us as officers and a whole new life too… I came the realization that I was pregnant on Thanksgiving Day 1981 and it was confirmed the next day… after 12 years of trying we’d finally got it right, LOL!   What a joyous Christmas it was (despite the morning sickness) and we were happy to share our good news with the family at Christmas. 

The following year we planned ahead of time to share our baby with the rest of the family on Christmas.  Sadly they got to see him earlier in the month when we went home for John’s Grandmother’s funeral.  However we still went back for Christmas, visited everyone on the way south, Aunt Sheryl in Kingston, my Grandmother and Ray in NJ, lots of family in Delaware, then to NC to visit John’s brother and wife and their brand new baby boy. 

While visiting them Jonathon rolled for the first time, right off the bed and onto the cement floor… so he had a black eye for his first Christmas and when John’s Dad and family met him for the first time. 

More Christmases

Living in Alexandria VA was very convenient for going home, it was just three hours up the road… we could go up on Friday night after work and be back on Monday morning to go back to work again.  We continued our happy Christmas traditions, having family at our home on Christmas, enjoying the celebrations in and around the nation’s Capitol and then going home for the family Christmas party.   Every Christmas was wonderful… but something was missing… 

At the family Christmas parties the fun was in watching the children.  Everyone had kids, well almost everyone.  Each year there was another baby and the fun grew along with the families.  And each year we got asked the same question, and each year we didn’t have an answer. 

Oh we were trying, believe me, LOL!  We had no problems trying.  It just didn’t happen.  Not to us anyway.  (One of John’s sisters and her DH made a baby while visiting us one Christmas, right on our sofa bed!  We tried it there, didn’t work for us.) 

Christmases 5 and 6

By time the next Christmas rolled around we’d moved again.  This time to what was truly a glorious apartment.  This one sat over the pool maintenance and laundry room.  In this apartment we didn’t share walls with anyone, it was just us, no one over us and no one under us, and the laundry room was closed at night.  The only noise was from the pool below us, and that closed too (to kids anyway) when it got dark.  And the whole apartment was HUGE, gigantic compared to the previous two.  We got a bigger tree that year and threw the office Christmas party.  My Dad came again but I think my brother was in the service then.  Regardless, it was a great Christmas. 

And we moved again before the next Christmas came, this time a big move.  We left Texas in late October for a new assignment in Washington DC, John was going to the Pentagon.  When we arrived there we started looking for apartments and soon realized we were in big trouble…  an efficiency apartment like the first two we had in Texas would cost us $1000 or more in DC.  And we couldn’t afford that.  A friend said we HAD to buy a house, it was the only way to afford living there. 

So we bought our very first home.  It was actually the very first house we looked at too… when we walked in it just felt right to us and we didn’t want to look anymore.  But the realtor insisted we look at more.  I’m not positive how many we looked at, but nothing compared to the first one, so we went back and looked at it again and bought it.  (I just had a feeling it was OUR home)

We moved in the day before Thanksgiving and had Thanksgiving dinner there… TV dinners sitting on boxes and using two boxes stacked as our table.  (We had a real Thanksgiving dinner the next day in Delaware with family)  Between then and Christmas we unpacked and settled in, our car was wrecked sitting in front of the house, we bought a new (used) car, I got a job at a fabric store, and we decorated for Christmas.  We had family for Christmas and went home for the Christmas party, and I got a puppy.  It was a wonderful Christmas!  But something was missing. 

More on Christmases

Our first two married Christmases were in New Hampshire with family, the third one in San Antonio all alone and depressing. (see my previous post)   Our fourth Christmas was far from depressing, it was almost hilarious… no it was beyond hilarious. 

We had company, lots of company.  Let me explain our "home" to you before I go on… we were living in an efficiency apartment.  That means you walked into the living room/kitchen which was just about big enough to turn around in.  In the living room were two twin bed mattresses on platforms that served as our sofas (and guest beds) and a table that seated two and also served as the TV stand.  Then there was our bedroom and since we had a queen size bed that was all that was in the room, and of course a bathroom.  (Fully equipped bathroom I’ll add, tub and shower, sink and necessity throne.)   

I considered it a lovely apartment, much better than the previous one because we had moved to the second floor.  The apartment we had the previous year was on the ground floor, and people literally parked outside our living room, if someone’s foot had slipped they would have parked in the living room.  From the second floor we had a lovely view of the other apartments, the parking lot, and the strip club across the street.  (Which was later burned down by the neighbors because of all the problems it created….  ) 

So in this tiny little efficiency apartment lived me John and our two cats.  Christmas #4 as a happy couple included his sister who was working her way across country and had decided to come visit us on the way, and spend the holidays with us.  She also had a dog.  Nice little dog… well nice in that he didn’t bother the cats and was good about going outside to take care of business.  He would ask politely to go out and because of the neighborhood someone would have to take him out.  In the middle of the night he would ask ME to take him out, since his owner slept through his requests, LOL!

Because I had been so depressed the previous Christmas my Dad and brother decided to spend Christmas with us too.   I can’t remember now if they told us in advance if they were coming or just showed up, but I was very happy they were there.  Fortunately no pets came with them. 

So there we all were in our tiny little efficiency apartment, John and I and our two cats, John’s sister and her dog, my Dad and brother…  We did put up a tree but for the life of me I can’t remember how we fit it in. 

I’m back

I guess I can’t really say I’m back since I didn’t go anywhere.   I’ve barely left the house.  But things are caught up here, house is decorated for Christmas and all is well in my little world. 

I’ll confess, I was escaping, getting away from it all, and doing some thinking.  I seem to reflect back a lot this time of year every year, thinking of Christmases past, dreaming of Christmases future. 

Christmas is supposed to be a happy time, but it isn’t for everyone.  I realized that a long time ago.  My early Christmases were not always happy, but I don’t remember those.  I chose to remember just the happy ones.  And what made them happy usually had nothing to do with Christmas itself, which I probably can never explain to anyone. 

The first year we were in the military we were stationed in San Antonio Texas.  I grew up in the mid-Atlantic, John too.  We had cold Christmases.  Our first two married Christmases were white, we were living in New Hampshire and it’s kind of guaranteed to have a white Christmas up there.  San Antonio. Not.  That was depressing.

Our first two married Christmases were spent with family.  His was a huge one so all of his Christmases had been huge ones.  Not so much with my family, but it was always a time for children and family.  We were in San Antonio, we didn’t have any children and we didn’t have any family. 

I was soooooo depressed on Christmas day, miserable even.  I cried when we talked to family on the phone.  When my father called he asked what was wrong, and I told him, Christmas isn’t the same without family.  He said he’d come visit us early in the year and we could celebrate Christmas then….

And we did… we left up our Christmas tree and all the decorations.  I bought fun little gifts when I saw them on sale and wrapped them and stuck them under the tree.  For two months people would look at us strangely when they came to visit and found our tree up.. we had to explain it a lot. 

Sometime mid-February my Dad came to visit us and we celebrated Christmas.  We had turkey and all the fixings (he cooked) and it was just like Christmas.  Sure it was 80 degrees outside, but inside it was Christmas. 

Taking a Staycation

What’s a staycation?  Mirriam-Webster defines staycation as “a vacation spent at home or nearby”  For my staycation I don’t know what I’m doing, or where I’ll be doing it, but I probably won’t be posting here on my blog. 

I’m letting you know in advance so you don’t worry about me, mainly Kathy and Sandy who both seem to fret if I don’t post on a daily basis.  Thanks for your concern, but I’m fine, I just need a break and a staycation sounds like what I need. 

And if anything exciting happens…

The Giving Quilt quilt

I reported before that I’d read The Giving Quilt and greatly enjoyed it.  A friend asked me if I’d seen the quilt itself and I told her only in my mind, and she sent me this link. 

http://elmcreek.net/GivingQuiltInstructions.pdf  Thanks for the link Sandy and thanks to Jennifer for sharing it with all of us.

I will confess… what I saw in my mind was nothing like this.  I wish I’d diagrammed what was in my head before I looked at the pattern…  I thought the pattern in my mind looked pretty good and now it’s gone forever… the image in my mind replaced with Jennifer’s quilt. 

Out my window part two

So yesterday I posted the picture of the bush with nine birds.  Below is the same picture with the birds circled. I know some of you will be skeptical about my counting, but I have a confession… that picture was one of a long series of pictures; I keep the camera on rapid shot and keep my finger down on the button.  So I had ten pictures to look at and help me find the birds.  I counted the birds as they flew out while I was taking the pictures and wondered if I could find them all in the first shot.  I did, but only with the help of the other nine pictures. 

 

And actually there are a few more birds in the picture, but not in the bush.  There are a few under the trees at the very top of the picture, but you can’t see them unless you enlarge the original photo, so just take my word for it, LOL!

Out my window

I find myself getting distracted looking out my window too many times a day.  I should sit with my back to it, rather than sitting here where any little movement draws my attention that way instead of on what it should be doing.

Today the birds are gathering worms or seeds, whatever they hunger for.  At any time I see dozens.  Their bright red and blue flashes in my peripheral vision and I just have to look.

I snapped this photo a little while ago when all the birds rushed into the bush after a loud motorcycle roared down the street.  I counted five as they flew out, but when I enlarged the photo up I saw many more. 

Tomorrow I will post a picture with the birds circled.

Record high

Yesterday we set a new record high for December 3, 71degrees.  Today it wasn’t much cooler, maybe one degree. 

 

Now imagine me going out to my mailbox and finding a squishie waiting for me.  I was sure it was fabric, it even said so on the back of the package.  I ripped it open, but instead of fabric I found a pair or purple fingerless gloves.  They looked so neat and comfy I had to try them on, and I did. 

 

Now imagine me walking back to my house carrying an armload of mail and wearing fingerless gloves when it’s 70 degrees out.  Good thing I live in the country and no one saw me, LOL!

Thanks Pat, I know I’m going to love them.  And as much as I dislike the cold, I almost wish it was cold enough for me to wear them.  I know it’s coming, and now I’m prepared!

 

September or December?

OK, so I know that days are getting shorter, winter coming and all that stuff, but today’s an odd day for sure.  I went out to get the mail and it is like September out, seriously, 72 degrees.  So when I came back in I opened up the windows, get some fresh air in here while we still can. 

However at 4:15 the sun is way down, already hiding behind the neighbors’ trees.  Certainly had me fooled, I thought it might stay up longer since it was so warm out.  And the lower it dips the lower the temperature falls, time to close the windows and turn on some lights, already… 

December 1st

So it’s that time of year when I should be thinking about next year’s projects and block of the months.  I should, but… well... I’m still on quilt over load from this fall’s retreats. 

But that shouldn’t stop my head from thinking about what’s to come in 2013.

And I really should get my act together….  

SOOooo… I’ve made a few decisions.

First, I will be hosting a New Year’s Eve mystery.  I will share steps to making a really terrific quilt, a pattern I am sure you will enjoy… at least I sure hope you do.  It’s a great stash buster, or if you just want a quick and easy quilt, use pre-cut strips.  Jelly Rolls, Tonga Treats, Bali Pops, whichever is your favorite, grab one and join me on December 31, starting about 9AM (eastern).  I will make a page on my web site just for this, and put links here on the blog to point you there.  In the meantime here is a link to the NYE Mystery introduction.. http://delawarequilts.com/Projects/2013/NYEIntro.pdf

Second, well.... you will just have to check back later to see what comes next!