Trick-or-Treat

GiGi, at www.charmingstation.com, has the cutest in-the-hoop designs. I just fell in love with these pumpkins. We have several young children in the neighborhood who are just like our grands. I made pumpkin pillows to give them for trick-or-treat. One pillow and one piece of candy.

My Babylock Ellisimo (aka Ellie) broke a couple needles today. So, she's going to have to make a trip to the repair shop as the needle threader and needle cutter no longer work. :-(

When Ellie comes back, I'll have to make a couple more pumpkins for DGD's 4 and 5 in NC.

I love quilt retreats!

I spent last weekend at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, GA with ~30 ladies who share my love of quilting. It was called the Runaway Quilter's Retreat and was sponsored by Sweet Home Quilt Co. in Conyers, GA. Melissa Morrison is the owner of Sweet Home and she sure knows how to put on a party.

We had the option of making an Autumn mystery quilt or a Christmas mystery quil. I opt'd for the Christmas quilt and am quite pleased with the result. I have a 3" red border to add to the quilt top and it will be finished... maybe. I'm toying with the idea of an outer border of random Christmas fabrics to make it a little larger. We'll see how it goes.

I'm off to quilt guild this morning. We're making a Christmas quilt, too. This one will be raggy. Can't wait to spend time with fabric friends!

Love my grandbabies

We took a road trip last Thanksgiving to see my Mom. She's in a nursing home in Wilmington, NC. My brother, my son, my son's four children, and I drove from Winston-Salem to Wilmington and back in one day.

I love all my grandchildren. These are the two little ones (Chloe and Kaitlin) with Mom and brother. This was half-way through the trip. I love the look on Chloe's face. It well describes how I felt at this point in the trip... and we had the return leg in front of us.

I don't think we'll try this as a one day trip again.

Kaitlin will be four next week. Happy Birthday, Kaitlin Jane!

It is hard to believe that my baby grandchild will be four years old. They are growing up so fast.

My Awesome Cutting Table

Top on my wish list for my studio was a cutting table. At the beach, I use the bar in the kitchen. It's so nice to have 6' of space to lay out material, rulers, cutters, etc.

Isn't this awesome?

I may never leave the studio. My cutting table is 7' long. The storage cubbies under the bottom are perfect for storing my stabilizer. (They are actually full now!)

As I am filling up my studio, I am cutting and sorting my scraps into "organized" stacks by size. The cutting table makes it a truly enjoyable task. I have two stacks of 5" square scraps. Sounds like it's almost time to start on a scrappy quilt!