Hot Tea Month

I love tea.  I have always loved tea – it is my “go to” beverage.  It can be warming, comforting, relaxing, healthy for you, celebratory or just plain tasty!  This month is great for new beginnings or to revisit old friends (in the tea category, of course).  This month:

        Try a new black tea like Assam.

        Or go caffeine free with a unique and flavorful herbal like Roibos.

        Maybe it’s time to detox with a Tumeric Ginger Herbal tea (always consult your doctor before detoxing)

        Spice up your tea for winter by adding Cardamom to black teas.

        Or bring in the tropics with a touch of lemon or orange zest to your tea.

        Revisit an old tea-friend that has been in the back of your cupboard – I like both the dark Prince of Wales or a very light Oolong!

        Experiment and enjoy hot tea all month long …

And speaking of new beginnings, I began the construction of the Simply Woven pattern from Moda Bake Shop.  And two blocks that are assembled wrong have been corrected (all corner blocks should be small)!

It is actually fairly easy to assemble, but a little time consuming.  I made enough blocks for a kid-size quilt and decided to call it a day on this pattern and change it up a little.  This won’t become a larger quilt, but it will make a wonderful donation with its cheerful colors.  

This isn't the final design (they are now in two columns, and I’m auditioning a border to bring it to the right size today, then into the UFO pile to be quilted!

New Year's Day 2016

I’m back and starting the New Year off right!  We played golf this morning on a new-to-me course that was in beautiful condition.  This is the clubhouse at Heritage Harbor:

And how foggy it was when we started because the temperatures have been in the 80s – yes!  even into January.

But we are expecting a chill and rain this weekend and we will be grateful for it. 

This was part of the scenic cartpath (it was actually much greener going through than the picture shows but those cypress do lose their leaves in winter):

And a few holes (including the DH teeing off):

And on the quilty front, I began a New Year’s Eve mystery yesterday, but wasn’t able to finish.  This was how I progressed:

 

these were my mystery fabrics - a jelly roll and background fabric

pieces were cut and ready to go

some blocks were made

status when I had to quit - only bottom border is ready

It is now a 2016 UFO – amazing how those things mount up!  I hope to finish it this weekend and get it into the “to-be-quilted” basket.  It sure is ORANGE.

And this is to be my philosophy for today:

I WILL RETURN IN JANUARY 2016

Been taking a break, but I will return to blogging-in-full in January 2016.

Meanwhile, this is what I missed and will be missing until then:

Happy Labor Day

Join me in the National Day of Rest!!

I did quilt this one for Project Linus this past weekend, but today I'm goofing off:

panto is Aspen Leaves

 

Quilts of Valor

I went to both the Friday and Monday meetings of my Quilts of Valor group and finished up my duties for them for the months of Aug and Sep.  In addition to the few I showed in the last post, I quilted this one and turned it in:

the panto is called Variety

And then I took these blocks home from the Monday meeting and assembled this top - it's the same design as the one above, but it was using up lots of various size strips so it needed different borders to bring it to the right size:

Now it's back to quilting and making quilts for children - they go so much faster than those big ones!

Where Have I Been?

Well, goofing off on the computer rates right up there as a big time-waster, but the truth is that I have been quilting as much as I could squeeze in.  I have now received 35 quilts to quilt for others and I still have my Quilts of Valor and Project Linus local commitments (1 and 2 a month, respectively).

So here are some of the results that I have posted on Facebook or in Yahoo groups but not here on my blog:

Project Linus

panto is Stars and Clouds

panto is Van Gogh

panto is Cotton Candy

Quilts of Valor

panto is Surf

panto is Stars and Clouds

Another QOV is on the frame now so I can turn it in at the Monday meeting and have someone else do the hand-binding.

Quilts Beyond Borders

panto is Geometric

panto is Stars and Clouds (must be a favorite of mine!)

panto is PS I Love You

didn't get a detail picture yet, but the panto is Celtic Spiral

That’s it for now.  There will be lots more to come!

The Rain Stopped

I actually got a lot of quilting done when we had all of the rainy days.  This is the standing water at the back edge of our yard.  They haven't been able to mow that far back for three weeks:

But this is the quilts/quilting I have completed when there was no lightning:

this is the Easy Baby top - it is now quilted - I'll take another photo when it's bound

still using up the Nigerian fabric I received

Spaniels quilted up with Paw Prints, of course!