The previous 2016 monthly update links are located at the end of this entry. I hope that you make it that far.
Goals: I am no longer even attempting to comment on those that were not touched. They'll just stay on the list until they are achieved, even though life jumps in front of them now and then.
Easy Street (ES) - quilted, bound -
Old Tobacco Road (OTR) - Clues 4, 5 - YES and backing, binding, label made
Roll Roll Cotton Boll - quilted and bound - Old Tobacco Road (OTR) - Clues 4, 5 - YES and backing, binding, label made
Mad City Mama (MCM) - quilted and bound -
Weed Whacker (WW) backing/binding made, quilted and bound -
En Provence (EP) - Clues 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - YES
1st - Happy December. Oh my, another year-end is closing in on us. Have you accomplished all you set out to do this year. Remember, this is my year of UFO's. I really need a bunch of finishes this month to even come close to making a dent in mine. However, today is not a day for that. I am back downtown with jury duty once again. Please, please, please let this be the end today. I'm asking oh so nicely.
2nd - I simply can't sleep and have been up since 4 a.m. I have to be in court again (apparently my asking nicely yesterday didn't work too well) today but sure was hoping Clue 2 would be out by now so that I could peek at it and maybe start pressing or cutting. Drat. It turns out that as soon as the jury arrives, they release us to deliberate and by noon I am on my way home. Can I get a Hallelujah? Sweet, ever patient Allison sent me a message today telling me she would wait for me. I send her a message and we are soon both at my house and ready to sew. Here is the Clue 2 post. I am even lucky enough to get a visit from Janet today. Life is good.
3rd - Mister and I are off to L.D. Bell High School today for the craft show that my friend, Debi, participates in. Our first stop is to peek in on her and her booth is just hopping. I hope it all goes well for her and Marcia since they work all year for this. It's a great show and soon we are off to check the rest of it out.
The students here perform throughout the building as this whole thing is a fundraiser for them as well. They collect food as admission and help the vendors load and unload the place. It's great to see.
There must be a perfect project for this fabric. Right?At one booth, we spot these little rocks and are fascinated by the fact that the turtle and the koala are right next to each other. Asking permission first, I get a great picture. Check out the baby koala on the back. Use the mirror.
4th - Mister and I are home today and my fingers are busy at blogging old entries on my personal blog. I am trying oh so hard to get it current by year end as I have plans for it for next year. It is 48 degrees out. Brrrr. After I've had just enough of the keyboard, I set up Danielle, my 185k, in the spare bedroom and find all the parts for Talkin' Turkey -- a block a day is my new mantra. Okay for today it is. It likely won't last the entire month. Blog comes first.
5th - While cleaning out the blogs, I discover that my Old Tobacco Road posts are just sitting in the draft stage still. That means that I dropped the ball big time. 
After setting up Cocoa, my first LBOW 301a, I get have layout achieved and the top half sewn together
I also manage to get two more Talkin' Turkey blocks completed. I'm thinking of getting ahead for the days when I fall apart. Seems logical. I have lots of little extra OTR blocks to play with as well. What to do with these?
6th - I DID IT! I have completed this section of the OTR mystery and here is the Clue 4 POST. Woohoo -- not only is that a step forward on a UFO, but it is another blog entry out of the "draft" stage.7th - I am on a roll now. Today I tackle Clue 5 for OTR. I'm the little engine that could. Or maybe it is Dory. One of the two for sure.
By the time I call it a day, I have a top, All the borders are on and I'm pretty happy with how it lays. It's not perfect, but I still like it. You'll have to click on the clue 5 post to see the finished top -- it's pretty. You can do it -- click and see.
8th - Okay, I want to clean up the OTR mess so that means finishing all the parts so that it goes in the "to be quilted" basket. Today that means, label, back, and binding. I even have an entire post devoted to today. Please go HERE to see everything that went into this step. It's a lot. Now to prepare for tomorrow.
9th - Friday!!! Allison is over again and we are busy, busy, busy on En Provence, Clue 3. Here's your LINK to read all about our super fun day. Love, love, love Fridays.
Oh, we have a visitor in Bill Young, who is a delight and stays around for awhile. He is picking up a finished quilt of his that Allison quilted and wants to know more about quilting. Sweet Mister tells him to stick around -- there is a ton of knowledge in this room. What a kind hubby he is.
10th - I am blessed to have two "friend" days in a row. Yep - today I am off to Fabric Fanatics to meet up with Elisabeth, Elizabeth, Allison, Janet, and Brenda for some paper piecing fun. It's another amazing day and you can read/see all the details in this POST.
11th - I am devoting my day to my sweet Mister. Whatever he wishes to do, that's what it will be. Me do some shopping and some antiquing. Perfect. To see all the treasures we find, here's a LINK. 
12th - I am having sun fun this week. Tonight is the Lewisville Quilt Guild Meeting, which I am planning on attending and we also get the house decorated. I do the inside and Mister, who is taking a vacation day, tackles the outside. We'll save the tree for another day.I gotta hurry now. Clean up, clean up -- gotta run and I have a bit of a drive too. I'm picking up Elisabeth at work and taking us both to the meeting. Let's do this.
Here's Allison with her favorite Christmas quilt:
Madame President and my friend, Maria, is in charge and the whole evening goes off smooth and is fun-filled. I have brought my own Christmas quilt to share and I am super excited to do so. As always, put a microphone in front of me and I stutter and stammer, why is that? No matter how large an audience I have presented to in the past -- the first two minutes of my heart pounding is crazy.
13th - My sweetheart has another vacation day today and we are starting out at the coffee shop with a little crossword time before finishing shop end of year shopping. Several stops are made and then we return the rental car (oh yeah -- the car broke last week and was in the shop until Friday. We kept the rental through the weekend so had two cars for awhile. Odd, I know.), makes a few retails stops, mail my mom's gift that I picked up at the craft show earlier this week, AND have dinner at Babes. This is a good day for sure. We end it with A Christmas Story. Nice.
14th - Mister is back at work today and after working on the blog for several hours, I am playing in the blue strings and working on Talkin' Turkey blocks. Parts, parts, parts. These blocks just have so many parts.
15th - Well it's the 15th of the month. Where has it gone. The tree is still not decorated and I've given up on doing it together. It's time to "get er done." Now for the house. Clean, clean, clean. All the tubs are put away and that part is over. I was hoping it would help me find some spirit but it's so challenging this year. I still don't even know what I'm doing for gifts for kids/grands yet. Ugh. Through all of this, Allison calls and we arrange for her to come and spend the night. Yay! Sewing fun for me. She is just the bestest friend ever.While she binds on some projects, I pull out a UFO from 1995. Yep, old, huh? It's an Ohio Star project that I started back when I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing and I TORE all the squares. This should be interesting. I get all the hour glass blocks finished. Tomorrow - blocks.
16th - When you are in the middle of a mystery, the weeks just seem to fly by. Yes, even when you are caught up. It's Friday again and I'm thrilled. The house is pretty, Allison spent the night, and we are ready to go bright and early. Bring it on! Oh -- wow. It's not all what we are expecting and will go very quick today. With a quick finish on En Provence Clue 4 (yep, that's your link), I am able to work on my Ohio Star blocks blocks.They are really starting to come along. Total for the today: 9 blocks.
17th - It's a me and my Mister morning so we are off to the coffee shop for a treat and some crossword time.When we get back home, I settle in with a new book from Allison and within moments, I have an idea and set forth to make it happen. The rest of the day is spent making five giant nine-patches with battings and backings, little pouches, and ties/bindings. You can follow along the Button Sudoku adventure HERE.
18th - After purchasing buttons last night, Mister comes to the rescue today big time.
Between marking the pads for quilting and sorting out hundreds of buttons to find just the right ones, he is busy all day helping me get these to the binding stage.19th - With an early morning sit by the tree and bind time, I am able to complete all the pads and spend the rest of the day working on the sheets required to set up the games. Sixty-four games all handwritten with the colors of the buttons instead of numbers 1-9. I have writer's cramp for the first time in AGES.
20th - Hmmm. Today is the 20th and only 4 days until Christmas Eve. Perhaps my focus should be on mailing these packages today. Mister is working from home today so I have a car and a few things to do before I can mail. Number one is that I need to make photocopies of the handwritten setups as I'll be danged if I'm going to write out five sets of them. Then to the post office -- NOT to mail, but to retrieve boxes to mail in. A quick trip to the car repair to ask a couple questions and then to Tuesday morning and JoAnn's to return buttons we didn't use. Mister bought oh so many. With a final stop at the bank for retreat deposits and it's back home to wrap and box up the gifts. Thankfully, Mister comes to the rescue again and we have it all done in short order so that I can dart off to the post office one more time. Whew. It's done. Take a deep breath Lady.
21st - After a crazy, run around day yesterday, today's focus is on my blog. I still have not achieved my goal of having the personal blog completely current and so that is where my fingers are today. All Day! The only other thing I manage to do is laundry. My reward for all of this is to go out and buy groceries late in the evening. Yep - that's always a good time. Ohhh, goodness. I almost forgot. I received my exchange gift in the mail today. Aren't these just so wonderful? Thank you Mary Ann.
22nd - Ugh -- I have another WORK day. Frankly, my attitude is starting to reflect the tediousness of my days. Not only is this time of year difficult for me, but typing, typing, typing is a bit crazy too. Have I learned anything? Oh my yes, I will NEVER let things get behind again. Period. As part of the "taking care of me" mantra for 2017, eliminating this stress by staying on top of the projects is a big part of it. I LOVE doing the blogs. Don't get me wrong. I HATE being behind. End of story. To add to the wonder of today, I also am paying bills and cleaning house. Yep, I'm just that special. Oh guess what? Along the way, I have discovered The OA - a new Netflix series. I'm hooked.
23rd - OMG. Thank goodness it is Friday again. At least today I will get to play a little. Allison is on her way again and we are going to use yellow and green. Right? Wrong. The release shows us back to purple and neutral half square triangles. What? Well, it will be another short day. The CLUE 5 POST will tell ya all about our fun. It includes Chicken Asparagus Chowder - yum.
24th - Christmas Eve has arrived and after a walk to the coffee shop, we came home and hung out, then went to the mall and upon my return home, I am inspired to spend some time in the kitchen. Please share in our wonderful Christmas Eve with a link to my personal blog POST. 25th - Merry Christmas! I sincerely hope you and yours are enjoying the comfort of family or friends or fur babies or something you love. It's a time to do just that. First thing I do this morning is finish the lefse I started yesterday. If you don't know what that is -- you definitely should check it out. YUM. Here is your link for the recipe: LEFSE. It's time to hit the road. We are off to Abilene and while on the drive, I start a new handwork project. Yep, cos I don't have enough to do. This is the same one I gifted to Allison for Christmas and am making it the "travel" project for awhile.
26th - Mister and I have another family day planned. It's lunch with Bob and then a visit with his mom. In between those two, we make a pit stop at Penzeys' to replenish the spice cupboard. All part of my new year plan to be more in tune with me and us. I am going to spend more time in the kitchen. Plan on seeing lots of recipes that I will share throughout the year. It's gonna be a fun time as I work through several cookbooks full of wonderful ideas. Our evening ends with Christmas Stollen and Gluhwein. What a delight.27th - Oh yes! I've been waiting all month for today. It's a play day with gal pals. PLEASE check out our fun in this Play Day Post.
It is also a shopping day. Fun, fun, fun ideas for 2017 projects. I am getting a head start on next years gifts. It's gonna be a fun year -- I can feel it.
28th - Back to the keyboard today. I'm not going to make my goal of having everything current by year end, but will by the middle of January at the latest. I'm getting closer each day. It's super fun to be working on these, no matter how much I may be whining. Reliving the memories is very heartwarming.
29th - Today is being spent at the desk again. Blog posts and emails for upcoming retreats and trips occupy most of my day. I know that sounds boring to ya'll but those emails are how we keep these retreats going. Lots of information and fun that people need to prepare for. February is right around the corner.
30th - It's the fifth Friday this month and that means that Clue 6 has posted. (Click that highlight to go see). Is today the day we get to use yellow/green. Well no to yellow but green has finally come out to play. What a great day with the most amazing friends a gal could ask for. 31st - It's New Year's Eve and that means all of my yearly posts will hit the interwebs today. Here is a link to the Finished non-quilty items one and another link to the 2016 Finished Quilts. Take a peek as it does a body good to see eye candy on New Year's. Especially if you are taking a vow to stop eating the stuff tomorrow. HAHAHAHAHA -- nope, that's not me. As my goal for this next year is to stay on top of things and not fall behind as well as to take care of myself better, I'm posting this on time and then spending the rest of my day with my sweet Mister. It's not likely to involve much quilting. See ya next year.
Wow, thanks for checking in with me again this month and all year long. I do this for ME and appreciate you so much for peeking in now and then. Since it is for me, I keep it ad free and hope for it to stay that way. It's just a way of holding memories tight. We're moving onto another year and I sincerely hope it will hold many wonderful memories for you too.
Check back in now and then (or sign up for email notifications and you'll never miss a post) and please check out the link to OUR QUILT BLOGS at the top of the page for many of the quilt groups are starting to restrict the posting of blogs into the groups. If you want to still have a long monthly read and time for your tea, join the group. Thanks for sticking around this long -- I am grateful for everyone who reads each month.
Check back in now and then (or sign up for email notifications and you'll never miss a post) and please check out the link to OUR QUILT BLOGS at the top of the page for many of the quilt groups are starting to restrict the posting of blogs into the groups. If you want to still have a long monthly read and time for your tea, join the group. Thanks for sticking around this long -- I am grateful for everyone who reads each month.
Links to Previous 2016 Monthly Update Posts:
Whew . . . another whirlwind month in your life! I get to be a part of so much. Thank you for the memories we are making together. Hugs, Allison in Plano
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