It's a Wrap...2010 that is.

Well here we are...another year just about gone.  It has been a year of a lot of change for us.  We have moved into Julia's old house (her new abode is attached), rented out our house in Exeter Twp to an awesome family, and finished all the remodeling of the old house.  We are very comfortable here.  I asked Lynn after he was here a few weeks did he want to stay or go back to our house.  His answer surprised me - he said he wanted to go back - then he qualified that with "to get the rest of my stuff".  Too funny. 

The photo is of my new quilt work space.  At the old house I used the dining room table for all of the sewing and the huge breakfast bar for all my cutting.  Plus my ironing board was in the kitchen in front of the stove so I had to remove it every time I needed to cook.   The new space works just great for me.  Each "table" can be folded down to the wall when not in use and there is more shelving to the left as well as a stationary table.  The taller table on the right is for cutting and layout and is set high enough for me to stand comfortably.  My ironing board is to the right of the high table.   I love the compactness of my workspace.  The shelving holds all my quilt books & magazines as well as all the tubs full of fabric or supplies.  Once I had it all planned out my wonderful contractor buddy was able to put together the drop tables and hang all the shelving.  He proved to me that the tables were strong enough by sitting on them...he weighs about 180 lbs.  That should be strong enough.  Once I had this wonderful work space I just had to get a new sewing machine as a Happy Birthday to me...I love my new Babylock Quest Plus.

I had to go to plan "B" for Lynn's Christmas quilt surprise.  I waited till he was in the kitchen making breakfast then laid his quilt top on his bed.  Once he returned to take a shower I knew he saw it when a very loud WHOA erupted from down the hall.  He loves it.  Now I need to find a machine quilter to finish it off.

Wishing you all a safe and Happy New Year.

FINALLY

This evening I finally finished the last border on Lynn's surprise quilt and now I can take it to the machine quilter for the next to  final step. 

I had some delays in the past few weeks as Lynn was around the house way too much.  On his last fishing trip 2 weeks ago I thought I had it made.  That was until I pulled out the red material I purchased for the final border, laid the edge of the quilt on it before cutting...and hated it.  Okay I thought, just go find another red fabric that has the right tone and a small, but not flowery, pattern on it.  It wasn't till yesterday afternoon that I was able to sneak in a visit to Hayloft Fabrics in Morgantown while I was supposedly running other errands.  It was only a slight detour from the other errands.

So today he left at 6:30 AM to hunt with a friend and I thought I had all day.  So I wasn't really Speedy Gonzalez.  I got the border cut, sewed two sides...and Lynn showed up around 11:00 AM.  The quilt was laying on the ironing board...WAH!  When he went looking for a drink I quick covered up the photo parts so that it looked like just a lot of different colored fabrics in the process of becoming "something".  We worked on the Christmas tree and some outside lighting before lunch.  He went out into our fields to hunt this evening till dark so I had enough time to add the final two border fabric strips....WHEW!

So now I need to invent some "errands" on Monday to visit the machine quilter.

A very pleasant surprise was the comments on the American Quilters Society on Lynn's quilt.  They requested photos of quilter's Christmas quilt projects so I sent one of Lynn's quilt that I had posted here.  The person monitoring their Facebook page commented "This is a great idea! Nicely done, too."   WOOHOO that made me great.