40 Games

I know a lot of my virtual friends are big game players, too.  So I humbly recommend 

my journalist son's review of the 40 best games, just in time for your holiday shopping.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/11/best-family-games-list-catan-sushi-go-codenames.html

ENJOY!

Thanksgiving's Over

On to Christmas!

I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving.  We were with Son-2 and family in Conway, Arkansas.
My favorite part of spending this holiday with them is seeing all the family mementos that have made the holidays special for years.

Delicious spread

Not only was the food delicious, but the table was spread with DIL's grandmother's china 

and Son-2's grandmother's crystal.  

And Priscilla and John took their honored position by the turkey.

John and Priscilla

A friend of my mother made these figurines in the 60s.

On Friday Son-2 always breaks out the Christmas decorations.

Tree, waiting for a new string of lights

The felt tree skirt was made by my mother in 1970, Son-2's birth year.

Stockings hung by the fire

Stockings knit by my MIL along with the Santa she painted.

Quilted wall tree I made a few years ago ...

... and my first fusible applique project from about 15 years ago.

Now it's time to decorate in The Glade!

Revisiting an Old Friend

Long Time Gone

Long Time Gone - Jen Kingwell design

This one has been gone a LONG time.  I think the last time I worked on it was August 2017!  That was when I got infatuated by another Jen Kingwell design, Gypsy Wife.

Gypsy Wife - Jen Kingwell design

I was attempting to clean up the sewing room yesterday, getting ready to entertain the Devo and Sew group for their Christmas Party.  Well, LTG had exploded all over one of my sewing tables and I thought if I assessed my progress and organized the fabrics, maybe even cut and kit up some of the blocks, I could clean up the mess.

Can you believe that Nann/No Strings Attached sent me a picture of someone's finished LGT yesterday and she had NO idea how I had spent my day!!!

THAT Time of the Year

Secret Sewing

Piles of this

Becoming piles of this

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Did your Fall whisk through with the wind?  

I will say that our fall colors were especially pretty on the Plateau this year.

But, good golly, everything seemed to disappear overnight!

View from the deck on October 27

Same view on November 17

Granted, that's more than overnight, but just had to show you 

what a spectacular sunset we had last night!

Another kind of change ...

Fog line

My husband captured this line of demarcation in the fog yesterday morning.

And the birds ...

American Coots

There must have been about 100 of these birds 

changing their location for the winter, just passing through.

Coot photo from www.birdweb.org

As long as I'm on the subject of wildlife ...

Dedication!

That's one dedicated angler, bundled up and fishing from his peddle-kayak on a 40-degree morning.

100 YEARS

Today was a beautiful day to reflect and remember 11/11/18.

The church we have been attending erects flags all across the property on patriotic holidays.

There is a display case in the church lobby filled with retired flags that will never fly again.

We also had a QOV presentation today to one of the members, a Japanese-American from Hawaii who rose to Brigadier General, serving in both Vietnam and Iraq.

Brig. Gen Wong

It was my first time witnessing a QOV presentation.

The makers and quilter are members of the guild I recently joined.

Loosey Goosey Trees

Retreat Final Day

My plan for Wednesday was to put the finishing touches on Loosey Goosey; however, as I reported in yesterday's post, that plan was thwarted on several fronts.

I had brought several extra projects to retreat "just in case," but I wasn't in the mood to concentrate; I needed some mindless sewing.  So out came the "tree" project.

Leftovers from Winter Trees border  ...

... had already been put into a small flimsy ...

... but it was a quite small and I still had lots of bits left over.  Since I had already made the snowball corner cutoffs into a mound of pinwheels quarter-square/broken dishes, ...

... I set about adding borders to make them bigger.

Set on point with some setting triangles ...

All that's left is to measure and do the math for the inner/stop border.  And think of something to do with the leftover quarter-squares ...

Linking with Oh Scrap!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018

Nearing the End

Finished all the Loosey Goosey columns while at retreat, 

but forgot to plan for filling in the pointy ends so could not put them together.  

Just as well, as I discovered a major problem.

A little lot too long

The light blue strip ended up too long!

I've counted, it has the same number of geese.

I believe I stitched it on a different machine while we were moving.

No way to salvage except to take apart so I just took it OUT!

Also this minor issue ...

Tipsy geese

Mr. Lakeside suggested putting the aqua strip in place of the light blue.

I'll need to make some adjustments as I intended those geese to fly down.

Final column arrangement

I think I've been able to balance value and left/right columns successfully.

And I'm not going to stress over clipped wings.

Clipped wings

Celebrating a near finish by linking with Angela at soscrappy.

Quilt Awesome

S'mores Retreat 2018

Two of our S'mores lost a family member in an ATV accident a couple of years ago.  He was known as an "awesome dude" and a scholarship has been set up in his name.  We are supporting the fund with our T-shirts.

Two Blocks Shy of a Quilt

Retreat Day 2 was kind of a do-nothing day, I don't know why.  But every once in a while it's nice to slow down and contemplate my navel.  Anyway, I began the day by making and applying the binding to Winter Trees. Easy peasy.

Winter Trees

Then I set about finishing Celtic Solstice.  I mean, it's only been 5 years since that BH mystery ... Well, I won't bore you with details but I never could get the border Tri-Recs units to fit.  I counted, I measured.  It looked like I had fixed the problem by making two more non-matching Tri-Recs blocks.

So I proceeded to add the remaining borders only to find ...

Two blocks shy of a quilt

No extra fabric in the box.  Oh, well, maybe next retreat I will finish it. But I am happy with how it is turning out.

Celtic Solstice

The remainder of the day was devoted to finishing my Loosey Goosey columns from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018. 

Loosey Goosey

I failed to bring extra fabrics to fill in the pointy ends so that has gone back in the box, as well.

Off to Retreat

I haven't seen most of the S'mores since May, if not earlier.  So sad that some of us will not be here this time.  Distance, physical limitations, spouses with limitations -- it's what happens as we age.  It just makes me even more grateful when I can get together with these beloved friends.

True to my plan, before I even plugged in my machine I set about trimming the three quilts that I picked up on the way here.

Surf and Sand has been a flimsy for quite a few years, so long that I don't remember the teacher or the book it came from.  (I really need to keep better records!)

Surf and Sand

My LAQ chose a wavy pantograph for the quilting called Ebb and Flow.

The next two wall hangings are Christmas gifts for my SIL who requested "seasonal" things for her mountain cabin.  Both are from the Kaufman "Sound of the Woods" collections.

Winter in the Woods

My LAQ did a snowflake pantograph in the body and swirls in the light inner border.

Autumn in the Woods

This one has Indian Summer panto in the body and Acorns in the brown inner border.

Two of the bindings were made and applied before going to bed last night.  Third binding is first on the agenda today. I'll save the hand stitching for TV time at home.

We had major storms come through our area last night but no serious damage here at camp.  I hope things are calm where you are.



  

RSC Activity

I managed to cut and assemble 1/4 of the sage green Loosey Goosey column.

I'm hoping to finish all the columns and assemble the quilt top at retreat next week

Linking with Scrap Happy Saturday..

Squirrel Alert!

Am I the only one?

I recently purchased this sweet brown "sprig" print and 

thought about putting a variety of brown scraps with it.

Then I noticed there is a lot more "goldy" brown than dark brown ... hmmm ... 

wonder if I have anything to go with that?

Would you say that's a pretty good match?  But what about the dark brown ...

All of a sudden I'm building a new quilt when I should be finishing what I've already started!  

Am I the only one???