For the beauty of the earth,

For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies.

For the joy of human love,

Brother, sister, parent, child,

Friends on earth and friends above,

For all gentle thoughts and mild.

For Thy Church, that evermore

Lifteth holy hands above,

Offering up on every shore

Her pure sacrifice of love.

Lord of all to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! We have so much for which to be thankful! We'll be singing this song around our dinner table, tomorrow. Hope everyone has a blessed day!

(yes, Daniel is missing, again. That kid! It is so hard to get all 8 together, these days.)

Twinkle twinkle...

...got all of my stars put together, and I am almost done with joining all the strips. You can kinda see how the overall pattern is coming along. I am loving that and as it is going to be a wall quilt, it'll show up very nicely. I'm taking a little break so that I can sit and chat with you all for a few minutes. There are a lot of intersections to match up- I have even been pinning- aren't you shocked? I almost don't have enough pins for an entire row! I can only work on it for so long before I start heaving big sighs. Then you know it's time to work on something else- I've quilted one quilt, pinned another one on the quilting frame, and I finished up about a dozen little pocket papers. See? I never go too far from the project! Can't seem to get myself out of the quilting room, these days. I have lots of big windows out there and the radiant heat is just yummy! And the view is pretty awesome, also. There is a light dustiung of snow on the ground and with Fernando Ortega singing softly in the background... well, it's pretty irresistable!

Movin' right along...

Finally got all 200 some qst and hst all trimmed up to 3.5". quite an accomplishment. Now I am putting them together to make 32 stars in red and green. There are places where I have 8 points coming together...theoretically. I try, anyway. All in good fun. It's like making a doily. Sure the doily is nice, but it's just a bonus. It's about the journey to the doily, ya know. The process is what I love, even more than the finished quilt. I love the sewing and the coming together of color and pattern. I even like the pressing, making it all smooth and seeing if I can't make some of those points come out better!

It's a drab day, today. Snow is all gone and a cold front is upon us. We'll be staying home from the holiday and I wonder if we can get any family or friends to come and share our turkeys. Yes, we have two- I love the leftovers, don't you?

Autumn quilt...

done just in time for the wintry weather! Snowed most of the day- very little stayed, but the children were all bouncing off the walls- pointing out each and every snowflake. Remember the excitement of the first snow? I still feel the same thrill.

My friend, Sandy, gave me these sweet 9-patches. I just couldn't resist them at this time of the year. The quilt is entirely too big for the wall, it's a queen size, and so you can only see the top third of it. The days have been just too windy to take pictures outside. And talk about gloomy! But I've kinda enjoyed the cloudy days and the rain- good excuse to hunker down and read a good book- like I need an excuse! (I am reading the Twilight series and enjoying them.)

I finally, finally, finished all the trimming of the hst and the qst! I am feeling so pleased with myself. Now I am ready to start the fun of putting together a big ole stack of stars. Hope everyone has some fun sewing this week.

Notably,

November. It's cool out and the trees are all bare. The fields are stripped clean, yep, it's November. I love this time of year. It feels like we are on the cusp of something wonderful. Thanksgiving and the holidays are straight ahead. But for now, we get to start burrowing in for a long winter.

I have been sewing up a blue streak. At least I feel like I have been! My newest quilt is progressing, if somewhat slowly. I have all the sub sewing done- now to trim a couple hundred hst and qst to 3.5". Not my favorite part of the quilting hobby. But a sweet stack of trimmed squares is slowly growing- nothing like knowing that you'll be sewing with the perfect sized pieces, huh? I have been trying to trim a few every time I walk by that countertop with the cutting mat on it. Just plodding along and making progress, even if it is slow. I trimmed a section of my finger off with the rotary cutter a few days ago. A first for me and I figure my due as I have been using that thing for 15 years now. Bound to happen sooner or later- especially with a middle name like "Grace." No, not my literal middle name, just the one people call me when I demonstrate my clutziness. So a bandaid keeps me from bleeding on the fabric and lets face it, that's what we were all worried about, wasn't it?

I finished this doily before the maiming of my finger- isn't that a pretty color? It's for a sister of a friend. The floor boards are 12" wide so you can see that it's a bigun. I have had to lay the crochet aside as it is hard to work around the ouchie and the constant throbbing.

Hope everyone has a safe weekend- watch those fingertips!

Visitin'...

Some of our favorite people have come for a visit- all the way from Alabama(Roll Tide!) They always come laden with various goodies for all of us. The girls are all decked out in princess apparrel- feeling very pretty, as you can tell. I got some new pyrex pans- with the fancy lids. I never seem to have enough pans, especially when company comes.

Sewingwise, I've been steadily chugging along on a full size quilt- one of the biggest I have tackled for a while. It is for a large wall in a friend's log cabin. I'll share my progress as soon as there is something to see. I also finished two table runners for my friend Donna- she is having a huge Thanksgiving bash at her house come Sunday. We about have the decorating under our belts. I've finished a doily and am working on a few others.

It's hunting season and my youngest hunting son, Jack(12y) got his first deer on his first day hunting. Time to start filling the freezer. Have a great week!

My love affair...

with spray starch! Dontcha just love that stuff? My Aunt Eva turned me onto it when I was starting my first year of college and I've been hooked ever since. It's great for your regular ironing, but wow! what it can do for your quilting! It firms up the fabric so it doesn't stretch when you're working with it. Gives a nice crisp edge for sewing. Crumb blocks are just lovely with a little spritz of starch- smooth and flat. Sewing curves is a cinch once you spray the fabric first. I love the fresh linen scented starch, best, that and the lavender. OK, the lemon is nice, too. Haven't tried it? It's cheap and I think you'll like it!

New front door...

Nothing fancy, but Sandy wanted to see it. They had a fancier one, but I didn't think that it would match the more humble aspects of the house. Notice I have no doorknob- something we keep forgetting to pick up at the hardware store! The electric is run and the insulation is in, progress, progress. Movin' forward.

The little baby quilt is finished. I just threw the blocks in with some of my vinage fabs. I think it turned out sweet and very old fashioned. Working on another one that Sandy embroidered with her fancy machine. I spent the day with her, yesterday. She loaded me down with new projects- her old ones that she was tired of and I am thrilled to have! There is a fall colored 9-patch, the baby blocks, a stack of dresden plates, and some redwork snowmen! What a windfall! I have company coming next week so I need to try and set those aside and concentrate on the housecleaning. But then again, what's the point of cleaning too much in advance? The kids will just mess it up... see how easy that little justification was? sigh. I'm hopeless.