The quilt top is finished!

Boy am I exhausted! Carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand tomorrow so a forced vacation from quilting for a few days. Glad I got it done before the surgery.

How do you like it, kids???

The next cross stitched quilt by the Allmendinger girls: Thanksgiving

Becky and I have scheduled five days in March to work on the Thanksgiving cross stitch quilt (blocks and borders have been made for some time now) and in preparation, I have re-drawn the original plans and put together the first row. Here are some pictures

Here are the corn photos - added to represent the Midwest and the great state of Illinois

50 degrees and sunny today, January 12, 2012. Can you say global warming?

At any rate, a great day to photograph the quilt top. Wanted to show the row of corn. Next the City strip across the top....

and here are some close up of details. Almost done.

I thought the top was done...

But it turns out it was not quite wide enough. I am so glad I took it out to California and the kids at Christmas so that we could lay it on the bed and make well demonstrated decisions! So it turns out that 8 -10 inches need to be added to the right side (the side representing the Midwest). We all talked about it and decided CORN! What did we seeing growing up in Illinois but corn and more corn (and soybeans but that isn't really a easily identifiable plant). So I did a strip of corn on the right side. We also decided the trip from Chicago to San Francisco Bay was important so I will start on a city strip for the top tomorrow! After I clean house. It sadly needs it.

More pictures of the decision process:

The other reason for adding the city strip is that Jeff is very tall and we want to make sure we have enough to cover his feet!

Lastly, a few pictures of people I truly love taken this holiday season. Happy New Year!