Life happens

Life happened during November.  It's been busy here.  Yes, that's a photo of Maisy.  Crazy Maisy.  Yes she is caked with paint.  Not entirely her fault however.

We had the house painted!  Finally.  This is the last look at the blue, yellow and red.  In a closer photo you would be able to see the painters had been prepping and the house has dabs of caulk everywhere. How did Maisy get into the paint?  Well.  One of the painters poured out the remainder of the paint from a previous job in a corner of our backyard.  Environemtally hazardous and illegal if nothing else.  First notice I had was Maisy coming to the back door caked with paint after she had a fabulous time rolling in it.  I was LIVID as you can imagine.  I dragged her upstairs to the bath before the paint could completely dry.  She, of course, was confused and upset and twisted her collar out of my hands, which led to paint on the carpet and paint all over my new clothes.  I had to throw out her collar too.

The contractor was mortified and rushed over to make things right.  So if one disregards the dog-and-paint incident, the painters did a really nice job and the house is looking pretty darned good.  The weather has been really nice too.  Look at that sky!

White with a yellow door.  New 6" gutters with covers to keep the leaves and pine needles out.  Yay!  Now we just need to save up for new windows.  There's always something to do, isn't there.

In the midst of the painting chaos came Thanksgiving.  Just a few of us this year.  Windows were jammed open from the new paint and I improvised and stuffed them with towels, but no one was looking at that, we were all focused on the table.  

And it was also my turkey baby's birthday.  :-)

I made a matching purse and wallet for her.  She'd worn out the last set which is a nice compliment to the designers.

I also broke down and got my hair cut.  Long was fun for a while, but short is best.  The Viking asked me if I had cut my hair.  I explained I went out to get it cut and asked if he liked it.  He didn't even have to think about it.  "No," he says.  "You look like a tall toothbrush."  Well thank you very much little boy.  He did make up for it a couple of days later by announcing I looked pretty in my new pink sweater.  :-)

We were stuck inside a lot with the anxious dogs while the painters were busy outside.  I let the boy choose a couple of fat quarters and some fabrics from my stash.  I helped him cut the fabric up and stick it to a background.  Now I have to get it quilted.  In the photo he's gotten bored with the fabric and moved on to cutting up junk mail.  I have to keep "his" scissors carefully hidden!

We were also limited to walks around the pond.  So I dug the garden wagon out from under the porch and he had a wonderful time pulling it on the new road.

And I had to get ready for my quilting bee's holiday lunch.  I saw this ornament pattern and just had to make them for everyone.  The one on the top left is my practice one.  They are a bit fiddly, but really not hard, and oh so cute!

I made this cute vintage style apron for the gift exchange.  I added matching pot holders and a cute red spatula that said on it, "Watch me Whip!"  Too bad I forgot to take a photo.  I need to make one of these for myself!

I've been doing a Round Robin with another group.  We call ourselves the Quilting Babes, courtesy of one of our husbands.  :-)  All of us receive our quilt tops back over the past couple of weeks.  They are all fabulous!

This is mine.  I started with the Carolina Lily block.  Kathie cleverly hand dyed the same white on white polkadot I used as my background to make the green polkadot border.  Anne added the fabulous fans and snowballs, and Dawn finished with the double flange border and more Carolina Lilies.  I'm thrilled with it.

I made the outer border on Kathie's quilt top.  She loves to hand dye fabric so I thought lots of color was the way to go.  I included some of the fabrics I dyed at a class she taught this summer.

Dawn's quilt top is so different.  I added the second border to this one, the Carolina Lilies.

I did the ribbon border on Anne's.  It's so interesting how different each quilt top is.  It's also a great way to stretch the creative muscles.  I haven't had this much creative fun in a long time.

So despite the fact I've got more projects than I care to mention waiting in the corners of The Sandbox, I decided to jump in and do Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt.  I haven't done one for several years and when I saw the color choices for En Provence I just couldn't resist.

So step one is almost finished.  221 neutral four-patches.  Need to finish ironing them all so I can start step two!

I must be out of my mind.  ;-)