It's Practically Here!!

Christmas is less than one week away!  Yikes.  Everyone seems to be running late and I am no exception.

I managed to squeeze in some time and finish my "Hot Flash" quilt.  I attached an extra wide binding, which finishes at 3/4" inch.  I love the way it looks.

 The backing is Nancy Drew fabrics.

It's a really fun line and the colors go perfectly with the front.

Last weekend, I rushed to Ohio after Hanna had an emergency appendectomy.    She missed most of her finals in a Percocet haze.....We made do at the hotel with quilts from her school collection, bad TV and my Alice Payne applique'.  Thanks to my FB friends for your support and good wishes while I was there.

A Nor'easter blew through while away resulting in this disaster...

After the initial hysteria and panic....everyone did their bast to get through it.

 We will rebuild!

Connecticut Strong!

My first amaryllis was a disappointment so I bought this beauty a few weeks ago at the grocery store.  The first one is showing promise so I'm nursing it along.

 Could this be the craft I was talking about in my last post?

 No, but it does look festive in the meantime.  It's how I imagine they decorate a hunting lodge.

Thank you Rich for taking photos this week before work and for my family's support of my crazy ideas and projects.  I'm so grateful for you all.

I thank you all too, for your encouragement, comments and enthusiasm.  You really make Fun With Barb fun for me.

If I don't make it back here, Merry Merry Christmas to you all!

Happy December!

Soon after my last post, we had a great sadness here at our home.   We lost our sweet Luna very suddenly and very fast.  This is a photo I took of her with Starbuck recently.  They are brother and sister and have always been together.

Thanks to all my Facebook friends for you kind comments.  We are missing her.

Here is a lovely male downy woodpecker at the feeder.

Here I am doing some extreme housecleaning.  I sweep and dust this once a year before we put a tree up.  I hate the 2 story entry, but we might as well use it.

With help from Mr. Fun, I pinned basted my Hot Flash quilt for machine quilting.  

Seems like a lot of pins, right?  My feeling is if you are doing straight line quilting, you had better do it well.  The best way to keep the lines from wobbling is pins, pins and then pins.

By the way, if you're not familiar, drop diamonds are parallel lines with 60 degree lines creating a tilted diamond.

I quilted all the vertical lines first to secure the quilt.  The diagonal lines are on the bias so I wanted to take care.  I'm removing the pins one row at a time as I quilt.  HHmmm, there is a line here that looks a little crooked.  I'll have to check that out.

Randomness:

I know I'm over 50, but why do my vitamins say Century?  I'm not 100......yet.

Sometimes you hit the jean lottery.  Lucky Brand, my size (short), down from $119. to 29.99. Thanks TJ Maxx.  Recovery Stretch?  Again, over 50....

The sewing room was definitely Luna's territory.   Here is a post that features a fun cat showdown at the end.  Starbuck has been coming in for extra love and petting while I've been quilting.  He even jumped onto the sewing table! a first!

I've added a new feature to my sidebar; an email form.  I am happy to receive questions and happy to answer them, but they are often from non-reply commenters.  So if you aren't a blogger, and don't have a google profile, or don't have settings for receiving email......use my new form.

Have a great week everyone!