Month: December 2012

  • Ariel Joy Yoder

    My next post was going to be all about our Christmas time but that all changed when Ariel Joy Yoder made her appearance into this world.

    I’m a proud new grandma!
    Two little boys are so happy to welcome their sister into this world.

    ~ Cheryl and Ariel ~

    Jeremy and Cheryl congradulations on the arrival of this precious gift from God!

    The day after Christmas I started rooting through my fabric stash and started dreaming of another quilt.    These are the fabrics I pulled for the next quilt we’ll be putting together for Sewing Circle.

    I cut enough strips for two quilts.  One for Sewing Circle and one for me!  You’ll have to wait to see the pattern we’ll be using.

    The Christmas post will be put on hold for now.

  • I’ve always loved a good good mystery.   I’m in the middle of one now.  I absolutely have no idea what the finished quilt is going to look like.

    This week we were given Clue #4 for Bonnie Hunter’s  mystery quilt called

    This weeks Cast of Characters:

    All ready to be sewed into 64 flying geese units.

    I love numbers and I’ve done a little running tally on all the pieces we have used for the first 4 clues.   Anyone want to guess how many pieces we have used so far?
    Below are all the completed units to date.

    1809 if I’ve counted right.

    Last weekend we went out to Michigan and celebrated Christmas with half our family.   Before going Holly and I got together one day and made some Christmas candy.   We’ve been wanting to try this recipe of Caramel Twists that we keep seeing on Pinterest.

    They were good but way to time consuming for me.  The only redeeming factor was that I got to spend the day with my Holly girl.



    Then today I made one of Marks favorite Christmas treats.   Date Balls.  They are quick, easy and delicious.  A recipe like this gives me more time to sew!

    Date Balls

    2 eggs beaten
    2 cups sugar
    1 cup butter
    1 lb. chopped dates
    1 cup chopped pecans
    2 T. vanilla
    6 cups Rice Krispies
    14 oz. coconut

    Put eggs, sugar, butter and dates in a sauce pan and bring to a boil stirring the whole time.  Boil for one minute then remove from heat.   Stir in vanilla, nuts and Rice Krispies.  Drop by spoonfulls in coconut.  These freeze really well.

    This year we did Christmas stockings for our gift exchange.

    Seven of our ten grandchildren!

    Christopher loved playing boardgames with the kids.

    Timmy and Diana jumping on the trampoline with the younger ones.  Israel dug a hole and lined it with cement with a drain in the bottom.  They live on a hill so any rain that collects runs down and out.
    Pretty cool!

    Three of my four boys.  Timmy, Chris and Israel.   Jeremy we missed you and Ethan.

    Jessica always puts on such wonderful brunches when we come.
    Cousins Max and Summer play together so well.  Wonder what they are discussing here.

    Alicia and Grant.

    Diana and one of the twins.

    “Mom, hurry up and take the picture so we can chow down on these fantastic scrambled eggs and apple fritters!”

    Thank you Israel and Jessica for hosting us this year.  You get a gold medal for being such gracious hosts.   The meals, the fellowship, the beds were all great.   We love you bunches and pray God will bless you richly for your kindness!

    ~ Parting Shot ~
    Israel, Jessica and the tribe of Israel

  • Michigan here we come!

    This past weekend we made a trip to Michigan for a very special occasion.
    Our three oldest grandchildren were baptized.

    This is a new step of obedience in their New Life in Christ.   Shad, Misty and Grant we are so happy for you.

    ~ Shad ~


     
    ~ Misty ~

    ~ Grant ~

    Mark and I have also been anxious to go out and see “Bullseye Marketplace” since they opened for business in November.

    Here is Israel with a little bit of his advertisement.

    I sure hope his taxidermist doesn’t cause a wreck while on the road!

    The taxidermist work abounds in the store.  Even above the freezer cases.

    Here’s the lunch meat and cheese counter.

    They had a table promoting these new sauces and dressings they have started to carry.

    Come to find out they are a new adventure of my first cousin Nevin Strite.
    Nevin, I took this picture for you.   Also want you to know I brought home a bunch of bottles to try.     Jessica served us the Jalapeno Ketchup with our scrambled eggs for breakfast and it was wonderful.   Gave those eggs a nice kick!

    Tim and Diana, and Chris and Alicia also made the trip.  We had our Christmas celebration while out there.    I’ll do another post with those pictures later.

    Can you guess what this phone call is all about?

    We had stopped in at Baltimore and brought Max out with us.  This is a phone call home telling his momma about……

    ~ Parting Shot ~

  • A New Mystery Quilt

    Another Mystery Quilt!

    Some of you might remember that this time last year I made a mystery quilt called Orca Bay.   It was a fun challenge and especially so because my sister Julia was also joining in the mystery.
    Here we are with our finished quilts last year.

    This years mystery quilt is called Easy Street!



    Thanks to Bonnie Hunter for putting this challenge together.   You can check in on her “Linky” page and follow over 200 other women who are taking on this project.

    I decided to go with the color pallet that Bonnie suggested of purples, teals, lime green and grey.

     

    These colors just didn’t seem to go together for me until I saw this one piece of fabric in my stash.  It included all her colors and I now LOVE the combination!

    Last week after I did Clue #1, which was to sew 192  4-patch blocks I spent some time ironing the seams while I watched Bonnie streaming live on her blog.

    That got me to thinking……why can’t I have a mini sewing retreat with my sisters?

    So this past Saturday while I was working on Clue #2, making 128 flying geese blocks,  I sewed with 3 of my sisters via Skype.  Now how fun is that!!!

    Thanks Barbara, Emily and Julia for the two hours of sewing fun.

    I now have my 128 flying geese blocks done.

    Clue #3 will be given on Friday but that day  our plans are to travel out to Michigan for an early Christmas with some of our children.   Clue #3 will have to wait.