A Proud Moment!

Last night was the Fall 2011 Recruit Class Graduation for the Township of Langley Fire Department and we are bursting with pride to say that our dear Craigy was one of the twelve wonderful young men who graduated!

There were 16 of us who went to honour our boy last night and when each young man was called up, friends and family were invited to come forward to take photos.  When Craigy's name was called there was an onslaught of us with cameras flashing etc.  Everyone thought it was funny and the Captain commented that Craigy had the paparazzi there!!!

We are so very proud of our Craigy ... he is our son-in-law married to our daughter Dee Dee, but really he is the son that his Mom and Dad here always wanted and were never blessed with ... what a treasure he is!!  Another blessing in our lives!

Craigy and Dee Dee

Craigy's Dad and two brothers

Gerry, Craigy, Carol and four of the 8 grandchildren

Jen, Craigy and Traci

Craigy with 5 of the 8 grandchildren

First Cousins Austin and Emmy

Merry Christmas to Me!

UPS knocked at the door this afternoon and delivered all 7 boxes for my Handiquilter longarm.  It will be installed on Saturday with instruction following on Monday.  I am sooooo excited!!!  Thank you honey hubby ... you are the best! ;-)

Did I ever show you .......

Did I ever show you the placemat I made for my secret sister Debbie at our guild retreat in October?

Our theme for this retreat was a western one so I chose to quilt some wild horses running through a forest.  The trees and grass are all snippets pieced and top stitched with tulle over and the horses are black silouettes and sewn down onto the placemat.  I won a prize for viewer's choice which I was so delighted about!  Here is my placemat ...

Not Nice to Fool Nana Banana

That little monkey Emmy ... last night while fast asleep, I must have slid my hand under my pillow as I sometimes do while asleep and abruptly woke up with a start as I felt something fluffy and a hard round object under there ...  when I put on the light to see what it was, this is what I found with a note from Emma!  What a cheeky little monkey she is!!  She had a good laugh this morning when I told her how much it had scared me last night! LOL

Love these times ...

Last night two of our little granddaughters, Emmy and Lauryn, stayed overnight at Nana and Poppa's house.   What fun we had as the photos will show.

First we started off our fun evening with making a gingerbread train ... I think more candies got eaten by the girls than actually ended up on the train! LOL

After supper we began to tackle the 3 HUGE bags of scraps I had been collecting to make pillows for the kitties at the animal shelter.  We still have 1 very big bag of scraps left and were able to make 23 pillows out of the other two bags of scraps.  On Thursday,  I am taking the girls to the animal shelter so that they can give them to the kitties and get lots of cuddles in with them too.

This morning after the girls had finished their chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for breakfast, we cleaned up Nana's quilt studio and got in some cuddles with the two little porcelain dolls that I had made.  They love cuddling these dolls as they feel very lifelife.

Gosh, I love being a Nana!!!!  These are precious times indeed!!!

One UFO down ... many more to go!

I was able to finish my "Peaks and Valleys" tablerunner yesterday.  This was an "in-betweens" class offered by our guild after our last meeting in November.  The class was great fun and I learned some neat new little tricks.  Here is my finished tablerunner ... it looks perfect in our dining room.  Thank you, Jean!

Ready for another fun day ...

I was able to get a lot accomplished in my quilt studio yesterday ... lots of little projects that I am working on - mostly within the guild.  I am pleased with the results I am seeing.

I have another wonderful day planned to work in the studio again today - there is always lots to keep me busy and amused! ;-)

One of the projects I am planning is our quilt show challenge that I am entering into.  What a marvellous response our organizers received when 54 of our members signed up to take part in this fun challenge!  The rules are whatever the item - whether it be a quilt, wallhanging, wearable item etc. be constructed in black and white.  The only exception was incorporating the colour of a crayon that we randomly selected from a box (eyes closed, of course).  I picked a yellow/green colour which is absolutely perfect for what I have in mind ... just as with our last quilt show challenge, when I heard and saw what was expected of us, an idea immediately popped into my mind.  I am so looking forward to working on this project!!  It is due to be finished in March 2012 - just before our quilt show in May.

Only 12 more days until our guild's Christmas in the Country Social.  I am on the planning committee, along with 7 other great ladies, and we have had a ball planning this event.  I think the guild members who attend will have a marvellous time!

One of the packages connected with the longarm was delivered by UPS last night ... they are the 7 lovely DVD's that Handiquilter gave me as a gift.  They cover such a wide range of interesting aspects of using the longarm to its fullest extent like ...

• pantographs and groovy boards
• quilting blocks with stencils and patterns
• quilting applique and patchwork with guidelines and templates
• quilting borders with patterns or stencils
• quilting borders with pantographs and other techniques
• stencils and freehand quilting
• quilting borders with freehand designs

As you can see, I have a lot to learn!! LOL

The longarm machine and frame are awaiting customs clearance in a bonded warehouse in Richmond, BC right now and hopefully will be delivered sometime today or tomorrow ... I am so excited and have about 15 quilt tops stacked to be top quilted, plus some community quilts that I have promised to do.

Yes, I am indeed blessed!