Bottle Tree–Version 2

A couple of years ago I decided I wanted a bottle tree.  Bill put one together for me and you can see it here.

Since it was made of wood, it eventually fell apart and some of the bottles were broken in the process.  The rest were packed into a box and they have been sitting in the garage.  I finally decided that I wanted to purchase a bottle tree made of metal so it would last.  I ordered it on Christmas Eve and it arrived last week.  We finally got it unpacked and put in the ground.

It is the Big Daddy Bottle Tree and is from BottleTree.com.  They are located in Mississippi and ship the same day if you order in the morning. The bottles have been collected over time and several friends donated them to me.  This summer I hope to plant a climbing vine at the base and see what happens.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–January 2, 2012

My design wall looks like it did several weeks ago.  I got out the Jelly Roll Race quilt and hope to get the borders on it this week.  Then it can go into the “to be quilted mountain”.

I did finish one this this last week.  Here is my Turning Twenty for Tiny Stitches.  Tiny Stitches is turning twenty in 2012 so each month we will feature a Turning Twenty quilt.  Mine is the first one. It will be hung this week so I will get a better photo of it.  I like how it turned out.

For more design walls, go to Judy L’s blog here.

Melinda

Stocking Swap

I did a stocking swap before Christmas.  Of course I forgot to take a photo of what I sent, but here is what I received.

Inside was all of this.

It was stuffed!  Another great swap – thank you Janet!

Melinda

SSCS

I opened my wonderful gift from Kris in Australia.  First she sent me this wonderful ornament that I had posted earlier.

There were two more gifts in the box.

 

Here is the first one I opened.

It is a homemade journal and I love it.

Here is the second package.

It is a drawstring bag and the center has beading on it.  Lovely!  I have participated in this swap for several years and look forward to it every year.  Thanks to Chookyblue for all her work on this swap.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–December 26, 2011

I need to get my Turning Twenty done.  I put a few of the blocks together this morning and hope to piece the top this afternoon.

For more design walls, go to Judy L’s blog.

Melinda

Last Minute Christmas Tree

I had a styrofoam tree and a bunch of yo-yo’s.  Also some buttons and white pins.  This is what I came up with.

It needs something on the top but otherwise I like it.

Melinda

Christmas with Friends

We went to Red Sky Tapas and Bar on Tuesday night for a little Christmas get-together.  We had hoped to go to tea at the Ritz in Buckhead but couldn’t get reservations until next week.  We were too anxious to exchange our Christmas gifts to wait until then.  Stay tuned though – we are going to the Ritz on the 29th!

Danielle, Jan, Lynda, Stella and me!  We get together every Monday morning and can’t imagine life without each other.  We can count on each other and can’t explain how much our time together means to each of us.

We had some delicious tapas and there might have been a little wine involved.  I made vanilla and hand cream for each of them.  Of course, I forgot to take a photo but they seems to enjoy receiving the bottle and jar.  I even printed labels and used some of my precious Moda twill tape for a bow on each of the hand cream jars.

Here is what Lynda gave me.

It is a little mixing vessel.  Perfect for making scrambled eggs and such.  Each of the others received a different bowl, etc.

Here is from Stella.

I love the little zipper bags and adore the fabric (I think I talked her into buying this a few weeks ago).  I have already put my embroidery project in the larger bag.

Here is Danielle’s gift.

Bread and butter pickles – she makes the best pickles!  Yum!

And here is my gift from Jan.

The ornament is on the tree.  Inside the box was a great selection of cookies and candy – not much left to show but enjoyed!

Have I mentioned that I love these women!

Melinda

Almost Christmas

I delivered the last of the Christmas quilts today – actually that isn’t quite correct since I have one more finished quilt in my car, waiting for it’s owner to come to town from South Carolina.  Next year I swear I am going to finish all the customer quilts in November and not work on them in December!!!!!

I am changing my scheduling of customer quilts and hopefully can stay on top of it better next year.

Here is a Christmas quilt of mine from several years ago.

It is a small wall quilt and I actually pieced it about 20 years ago in Australia.  I remember taking a class where this was one of the projects.  I appliqued the tree on the background and it sat for several years – it was really ugly and the fabric is not a very good quality.  A couple of years ago, I made the yo-yo’s and sewed them on with buttons.  It was somewhat improved.  I then quilted and bound it.  It is currently hiding hanging in the downstairs bathroom.

I didn’t get a lot of decorations out this year but did put up some quilts and a small tree.  It was all I could handle with all the customer quilts to work on.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–December 19, 2011

It is more of a design stool today.  Here are some of the fabrics I am going to use to make a Turning Twenty.  Tiny Stitches is turning twenty this next year and we are going to celebrate by having featuring a different Turning Twenty quilt each month.  I signed up for January so I need to get some blocks put together soon.

It will be fun to see what happens during the year.

For more design walls, go to Judy L’s blog.

Melinda

Blog Party Winner

I drew the winner of the flannel layer cake and it is

Happy Cottage Quilter!

Here is her comment:

This fabric is beautiful!! I would love to make a quilt for my daughter. She loves these colors. Thanks!!

I have sent her an email and hopefully will hear from her soon!

Melinda

Empty Bowl

For several years I have noticed a sign up at The Art Place in late November, early December advertising the Empty Bowl Brunch.  Every year I would say to myself that I wanted to go but time would get away from me and I didn’t make it until this year.  In November, the sign went up and I called Lynda to see if she would like to go.  Of course she said yes so I stopped by and bought tickets.  The tickets are only $10.  Debbie decided to join us and she was able to pay at the door.

We got there at the starting time of 11:00 on Sunday and there was already quite a line.  The way it works is that you go into a room filled with handmade bowls and select one.  Here is the one I finally decided on.

You then go over to the corner of the room and nice people wash your bowl for you.  At the end of the hall, there is a room full of crockpots of soup and chili.  You hand them your bowl and they fill it up.  They also had bottles of water and soda.  Taking your bowl, you find a place to sit and eat.  They had tables set up everywhere and on the tables were big plates of bread from Panera.  I had chili and it was very good.

After eating (forgot to mention that there were brownies, cookies, etc. set out by a girl scout troop also available), there was another dishwashing station and we left with clean bowls and full tummies.  It is definitely on my calendar for next year.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–December 12, 2011

My design wall hasn’t changed a lot but there are a couple more stars on it.

Not sure how many more are coming but I plan on making a few to add to these.

For more design walls, go to Judy L’s blog here.

Melinda

Gifts from Guild Presidents

I have held a position in two guilds this year.  One was Past President (a very easy job) and Quilt Show Chair (a more challenging job).  Tradition says that the current guild president gives a small gift to each board officer and committee chair.

Andrea’s husband is a wonderful woodworker and he made ruler racks for us.  Wonderful ruler racks.

Robin made little art pins for everyone.  They were all different and all wonderful.  Here is mine.

Two fun holiday parties in one week!  Of course there was also the Piecemakers’ brunch and the Tiny Stitches party.  That makes four parties in one week. 

Melinda

Tiny Stitches Staff Party

Monday night was our staff party for the employees of Tiny Stitches.  Each year we choose names and the only rule is that the gift has to be made by us.  I had Terry’s name and made her this bag.

I also made a Christmas ornament with buttons but forgot to take a photo.

Mary had my name and this is what she made for me.

I really loved what she made for me.

There are wonderfully talented women who work at the shop and the variety of gifts that were made was great. 

Melinda

Blog Hop Party

I am participating in the Blog Hop Party at Quilting Gallery.  I have decided to give away a layer cake of wonderful flannel fabrics. 

The name of the line is Urban Blooms and is it wonderfully soft.  As you can see it is by Robert Kaufman fabrics.  I actually have two of these layer cakes and plan to make a charity quilt from the one I am keeping.  Just leave a comment telling me what you will do with this layer cake if you win and I will choose a winner via  the random number generator on December 17th.  Be sure I can reach you if you are a noreply blogger.  Anyone is eligible to enter my giveaway.  It doesn’t matter where you live.

Melinda

Homemade Gift Exchange

I participated in the homemade gift exchange again but forgot to share photos.  My partner was Renee and she does not have a blog.

I sent her a Christmas quilt.

I know is is out of focus but didn’t realize it before I packaged it up and mailed it.

Renee made me a prayer shawl.

It is beautiful, soft, warm and wonderful.  I really love it!  I have been using it while watching TV at night. 

Melinda

SSCS

I received my SSCS package yesterday and opened up the ornament.  It is a very clever felt tree.

Here are the other two packages waiting for Christmas.

I sent my package to Australia last week.  Hopefully it will be received soon.

Melinda

Allatoona Quilters’ Guild

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of the Allatoona Quilters’ Guild.  I didn’t get many photos because it was my turn to act as hostess and that took a lot of time.  I made a pumpkin roll and it was completely gone – no leftovers to take home.

One of the wonderful things about this guild is when the Acworth police come to our meeting to accept quilts that we make all year.  I did get one not so clear photo of the police officers with the quilts.

We ended up giving them 79 quilts – mostly for children.  Hopefully that will keep them in quilts all year.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–December 5, 2011

More stars arrived during the week.  This is going to be an interesting quilt.

Stars are the only thing on my design wall today – check out Judy L’s blog for more design walls.

Melinda

Two More Customer Quilts

I delivered two more last night.  First here is Margaret’s little quilt.

She asked for squigglies so she got them.

The other one was Jeanne’s Mystery quilt from earlier this year.

I modified my usual swirls to be more oval in keeping with the look of the quilt – I like how it turned out.

Melinda

Customer Quilts

I went back to see the Monks and noticed a sign I didn’t see yesterday.  They ask that no photos be put on the internet so I removed the previous post about them.  If you are anywhere near Marietta, GA, stop by and see the Monks and their sand Mandala.  It is worth the trip.

I delivered four quilts last weekend.  One is for a special project and I will not be able to share it for a couple of weeks but it is worth waiting on.  Pia had three quilts for me to quilt for her and I got them all done on last Thursday.

There are two that are very similar.

Here is the second one.

Here is the last one – although it is also made with Asian fabric, it is a different pattern.

All of them are simple overall patterns but they are just what she wanted.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–November 28, 2011

Here is what is on my design wall – blocks from the Scrap Bee.  I have several more coming and am really excited about what this will be when all the blocks are received.

For more design walls, check out Judy L’s blog.  Off to the quilting studio to work on customer quilts.

Melinda