Better late, than never!! A gift completed!

Better late, than never...isn't that how the saying goes? I started gifting at Christmas, with a scrappy quilt a couple years ago, when my nephew asked to have one made with the cool dragonfly quilting done on my son's Bug Jar quilt. He asked for just with plain fabric; instead I did rough pieced squares of all the bug fabric scraps and found some cool blue batik, cloudy blue fabric for the back...a new tradition was hatched. The next year I took a class to keep learning since I was still a beginner; made my niece a quilt, black and white with pink accents. Last year was another nephew's turn (this goes over our spending limit for Christmas for nieces/nephews, so they each get a turn to be the recipient) and I made him a fussy cut University of Michigan quilt per his request (I have let each set the "theme" and I pick the pattern/design). I finished quite early in the year so my niece, Audrey (pictured below) and I were talking about what she wanted. She indicated even if it wasn't done, she would love to have her quilt in 2010 instead of 2011... So I had it cut and several blocked pieced at Christmas, wrapped those up and told her after my busy month at work in January, I would finish it. Then I got sick, had surgery and have been recovering for several months in 2011. Well, I finished...and here she is...she was thrilled and I was over the moon with how thrilled she was and how she squealed (literally) when she saw the back. You can only imagine the gasp when she saw the front. A close up. Purple is her favorite color, so that is what I used as the main color. This is a Turning Twenty pattern - it is shown in the book with lights being one stripe, darks the other. I just substituted purple batiks for one, mixed brights for the other.

My husband held it up for me to take pictures on a sunny day - spectacular, if I do say so myself. I still can't believe I can do this!

I had another stitching finish this week. Blackbird Designs Merry Christmas Ella Vaughn modified with the words "Winter Wonderland", my name and 2011. I am making this into a pillow someday. I hope that someday will come soon! I have tons of finish-finishing to do and hope to finally tackle some this next couple weeks before I return to work.
I have been doing some other stitching and will have some progress pictures up soon. I also have some other pics of a couple quilting classes I have done recently. I hope to get the backing done (just need to measure and cut) and get the batting together to drop off at quilters tomorrow - it's a wall hanging, so it shouldn't take me too long. I will try to remember to snap a photo before I drop it off to be quilted. I also have a Dresden type plate I have the main circle done for one square. I am gonna put my camera with the clean laundry to be carried upstairs so I remember to take a picture or two.

I have been stitching quite a bit due to the parking of my fanny in my chair to watch the Detroit Tigers - they have advanced to the next round and are now working on the Texas Rangers...gave the Rangers a chance, letting them win last night (ha ha). I have been a Tiger fan forever, all my life actually...remember laying in the yard listening to game with my Grandpa and in the garage with my Dad, both on small transistor radios. I attended many games with my parents, sometimes with two of my cousins in tow; and many, many games just me and my Dad, for Father's Day every year once I was old enough to buy tickets. The last one attended with my Dad before he died was with him, myself and my two sisters - we surprised him, just us four. He always commented that we shopped and hung with mom, just us girls and her, and neve rdid things like tha twith him - Boy was he surprised. I had very sweet tickets right behind the dugout, on the third base line... Watching them go this far and not having him to rehash the games makes me really miss him more than the norm! My husband and son humor me listening to game talk for just so long. To my blog pals who were cheering on the Arizona D'Backs, I am sorry they were eliminated. I was looking very forward to a D'Back/Tiger game (with two 1986 Tiger World Series game winners on the D'Back staff, it would have been fun to beat them)! Anyway - GO TIGERS!!

My husband and I took another trip up north the first weekend of October. We went to visit with my Grandpa again and it was opening day of bow season for whitetail deer. My husband saw a couple, got a shot at one and missed. While sitting in my Grandpa's family room, I saw at least three deer every morning and every evening when hubby was a mile down the road in the woods. They were this far away from where I sat. You can kind of see three here - I think pictures are clickable and there's a zoomed in picture next.

Besides the weird eyeball thing the middle deer is doing, they are beautiful. This was a mama (on right) and her two yearlings that came in every day, twice a day. There were several others that waundered in a various times. There were seven in at once, one day. The fawns and yearlings were always playing a bit after eating. Fun to watch, and what peaceful creatures. They really bring pleasure to my Grandpa (94) to be able to see God's creations so close.

He spends hours each day watching the deer, bunnies, squirrels (who are very entertaining, by the way), chipmunks and birds. YOu can always tell when a hawk is overhead, they all freeze and it gets so quiet. Some of the birds are more elusive than others...these came in just before the deer one afternoon:

Three jake turkeys - no Toms and no hens. These three come in every day, sometimes accompanied by another jake or two. In the sunlight they are absolutely iridescent. You can hear them talking non=stop and when they fly, it's really noisy.

This weekend was filled with cleaning the house (hasn't been done to the level it was yesterday since Christmas last year). For some reason (sarcasm here) my husband and son didn't get it done a couple times the last few months while I wasn't able. I made the list yesterday and we all worked for over three hours moving things, cleaning up dog hair...then my husband and I worked another hour or so alone. I wiped the walls where I had dirt from me "walking the walls" once I moved on from the walker to a cane, to on my own. I even washed the curtains from the two entry doors, kitchen and bathroom window. My husband did the hands and knees thing on the kitchen floor and it looks better than it has for months...cleaning up the normal dirt, but also the dribbles and such that I had and couldn't always bend to clean up. It was a great weather day here, we opened up the entire house and it smells so fresh and clean! Since we were both whipped - we went out to dinner and I'll make the chicken, thawed yesterday, for dinner tonight.

Today I am attending the Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild and hope to see my friends Terri, Deb and Julie (no blog), along with my great friends. I know you are probably all familiar with Terri and Deb's blog - they are the reason I am blogging today. I don't know whether to thank them or curse at them - I love my blog friends, seeing what everyone is doing and boy have I been inspired and added to my list of wanna stitch and have purchased many of those items! But I also spend a lot of time reading blogs...that being said - hi to the drop-ins, hi to all the loyal followers and hello to the new ones - welcome!! Thanks for reading, following and commenting - I love all the feedback and howdies...I try to respond to all, but know that I am reading and enjoy all you say!!

Have a glorious week - mine will be busy, once again. Building that endurance for my approaching return to work date!

Stitch lots,

Sherry :o)