Thanksgiving pix

Well, here's my family, gathered together at Thanksgiving. First, the grand-nieces, I didn't ask for permission to use their names on the net, so I won't, but aren't they cute, even nameless?


My nephew Mike and his wife, Kelly:


Paula, who was also lurking around with her camera:


Fred, relaxing in his chair, after eating turkey and the trimmings. Notice the quilt in the bedroom, in the background:


The group shot of the folks that were there, minus me, taking the picture:


And last, to make this somewhat crafty, my mom holding a glasses case I made for her from a leg of her jeans and some timtex, for stiffening. I decorated the front with eyelet lace and ribbon:



Hope you had as nice of a Thanksgiving as I did!

Pipe Cleaner Elf and Ruler Holder

I just got back from our guild's November Retreat... and here's two things I finished there.

First, the quilting ruler holder for my living room, where I sew. All loaded with rulers, rotary cutters, triangles, and scissors. Only problem so far is the fact that it's covering part of the light switch. It's so heavy though, I couldn't just attach the shelf to the sheetrock, I wanted to go into the studs, and that's where it's got to hang.


Next, a pipe cleaner elf. She's hanging from my ceiling fan chain right now, and Libby's keeping a close eye on her - she adores pipe cleaners, it's her favorite cat toy of all. I plan to make a few more and take some to work, maybe even make Libby one all for herself. :)

Tomatoes in November?

When I planted three tomatoes way back in April 08, I had absolutely NO idea that I'd still be eating homegrown tomatoes from them in late November. How long does a tomato plant last, anyway? I brought these three indoors before the first freezing night was predicted. Here's the Goliath:


And here's the Better Boy plant:


And the Cherry tomato plant is producing best of all. Lots of blooms too! Now that they're indoors and I don't have to worry about the birds getting them, I can leave the tomatoes on the vine to redden, instead of picking them when they start to turn orangish. I ate three of them last night:




The cats don't seem to bother them at all. Toby takes a couple of long sniffs at them, then sneezes and walks away.

Baby Quilt

Here's what I've been working on lately, a baby quilt for a friend of my mother's. Sometimes I forget how quick and easy a quilt with no triangles or little pieces can be. This one's made of flannel, very nice and soft for a boy baby.


I cut the big squares at 8½ inches, the blue squares at 4½ inches, and strip pieced the little four-patches from strips cut 2½ inches... fast!