"Stars for a New Day" quilt top is done!

Woohoo!  I'm doing the happy dance.  My "Stars for a New Day" quilt top is done.  I finished it on December 12.  This is big news.  It took me almost 3 years to complete it.  I'm hoping I'll have it quilted before another 3 years passes.  The year 2012 will be my year to focus on improving my longarm quilting skills.  I won't be starting to quilt "Stars for a New Day" until I feel I can do it justice.  Here's a picture of it.  Not the best picture, but it's the best I can do for now.

My mom fell and broke her hip on December 17th.  Not a good thing.  She's 81 and just had knee replacement surgery in August.  She's recovering in the hospital still but should be home in a week or two. 

I've managed to gain back all the weight I lost earlier in the year.  So my goal for 2012 is to lose 15 pounds and keep it off this time.  Not an easy feat but it will be worth it for health reasons.

I'm also going to try to keep my blog updated with what's going on with me.  We'll see how long that lasts!!!  ;-)

The kittens are growing up way too fast.  They're 9 months old now and going outside some.  Mittens keeps crossing the road so right now they're being kept in.  Audrey is a good girl and stays in the yard mostly.  But she's being punished too because we can't let her out if Mittens has to stay in.  Let me see if I have a recent picture of them....

Aren't they the cutest kitties!!!  We love them to pieces.  Mittens was bathing Audrey here.  This cuddliness with each other doesn't happen often so I had to get a picture of it. 

  

Progress made and pictures of the Monkey quilts

I've got 4 more blocks made on my Stars for a New Day quilt.  Here's a picture of all 8 that are done:

And since I finished a couple of kid's quilts in December that haven't found a new home yet, I'll post pictures of them.  In some of the mid-sized strips, I quilted monkeys from the Barrel of Monkeys game.  In the other mid-sized strips, I quilted "More fun than a barrel of monkeys" written out.  In the large strips, I quilted straight lines in the "green" version and arcs in the "orange" version.  Here's the pictures:

I'm up to Chapter 3 in Made To Crave.  I had actually lost 2 pounds but got off track yesterday a little.  We'll see how I counteract that through the next week. 

Other progress I made this week was cleaning up the room with my longarm in it.  What a mess it was.  Next, I plan to do the same in my "piecing" room.  It's a little out of control too.  Ok, maybe more than a little.  I cleaned off my desk area too.  But since that won't last very long, I don't like to even mention it.  :) 

Since it was so snowy here Friday morning, I stayed home from both Curves and Friday Stitchers.  So I missed my quilting time with my quilty friends.  But the guild meeting is Tuesday night, so it's all good. 

I got a Kindle on Thursday.  I think I'm gonna love it.  I'm still playing around learning to use it but it seems pretty easy.  I've been playing with the Annotations and highlighting and stuff and trying to stay out of the Kindle store!!  That could be very addicting.  We won't talk about the whole library of "real" books I have in the house that haven't been read yet!

TTYL!

Start of a Blog??

Shall I start a blog?  Do I have anything to say?  Will anyone listen?  Do I want anyone to hear?  Let's give it a try and see.

I'm back to working on a quilt that I've had on hold for almost 2 years.  The quilt was designed by Sue Garman and published on The Quilt Show.  It was their 2009 Block of the Month.  All the fabrics I selected were from my stash.  I'll probably have to buy fabric for the backing but that's a ways off yet.  :)  I've finished the instructions through the month of April and am currently working on the blocks for May.  Here's what it looks like so far.

I'm really hoping to keep motivated on this quilt.  Maybe keeping a blog and posting about my progress will keep me going on it.

Something new I've got going on is a new book and dvd I've just gotten.  It's a Bible study by Lysa TerKeurst called Made To Crave.  It's about how God made us to crave Him, not food or other things.  My hope is that doing the study will bring me closer to Him and get me healthier in the process.  Melissa Taylor is hosting an online Bible study using the book so I'll be following along with that also.