Yikes!

We had a great wind last night and my plans of sewing today were interrupted. :-/  The cable was out until just a few minutes ago, but the power stayed on~ yay!  BUT~

We lost a pine tree.  We were lucky it didn't damage the roof of the cottage, just the rain gutter got crinkled .  DH and I spent all morning picking up branches and we trimmed this so it is off the roof now~ but there is much more work to be done. I guess you know where I'll be~~

 Stitch a stitch for me! ;-)

Christmas Quilt Show

Have you heard about SewCalGal's Christmas Quilt Show? It is very inspiring! Hop on over and look at all the gorgeous entries!

I had a hard time deciding which quilt to enter~ not because I have so many Christmas quilts! :-o  I don't ( I'm working on that) ;-) but because the ones I do have all have special meanings to me. I decided to show you this one. (and blogger tipped my photo! :-( boo! ) This lap quilt started out as a swap for 6.5 inch squares of snowmen fabric. Then I used all my snowflake prints to make the nine patch blocks. It was fun to see all the different snowman fabrics while swapping with my friends~ I'd not seen even half of them in the shops near me! I made it about 6 years ago and it is a family favorite for snuggling and watching TV. It reminds me of a great swap, great quilting friends, and happy days stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! Now don't forget to go see all the quilts in the show!

~I've Been Quilting!

Whoohoo! I just love renting the longarm at my LQS and getting things quilted! No, I don't have all the bindings on the things I did last week, but I am making progress! And now I can add these to the 'needs binding' pile. :-)

Wall hanging from Nancy Halvorsen's 'I Believe' book

Christmas toppers and another N. Halvorsen pattern

'Maple Mumbo' topper and autumn mini

Fig Tree Club table topper

One of these things is for my Charming Girls Club Secret Santa~ which do you think she'd like? :-)
That's all for now~
Have a great weekend!

Batting~

Do you piece batting? I do for wall hangings and things that won't be washed too often. It's easy to do and it has always held up nicely for me. This wide zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine does a good job of holding the pieces together and is pretty invisible ~ can you see it right above my signature? Once it is quilted into something, I don't even know it is there. :-) 

I need to thank a couple fellow blogging friends for their generosity~
Karen at Quilts... etc had a wonderful giveaway last month and I was the lucky winner.  She had these patterns and fabrics from a couple of her recent projects. She also had a pair of Christmas socks tucked in her pkg, but I put them away before my DD spotted them. LOL Karen does amazing hand work, stop by and see what she is up to. Thanks Karen!!

Also Vicky at LA Quilter had a great giveaway of this book and fabric kit and I had to pinch myself when she wrote that her cute pup Penny picked my name!  I was so surprised! {{hugs}} to Penny! lol And Vicky too! She was so generous that she included a little extra for the backing fabric! :-o  I have always wanted to do more applique but have been intimidated but after reading Karen's patterns and Vicky's book, I am ready to go! I purchased a bunch of fusible this weekend and my Dad made me a really nice light table for my birthday one year, so I see some evenings spent tracing in my future!  Once I master fusible applique, maybe I'll be ready for hand applique! :-o  But don't hold me to that yet! ;-)

That's all for now~


Have a great day and make a little time to sew! ;-)

Monday~Monday

My design wall is bare, I just finished this one up and will be taking it to quilt later in the week. It is the second project from the Fig Tree club this year. Yep, I'm behind, but that's ok because I have been enjoying the sewing time! :-)  To see lots of inspiration and lovely works, visit Judy L's Patchwork Times.

On another note~ have you ever seen one of these? My friend sent it to me~ it is a house blessing box.  She explained that it is a German tradition and inside there is a small piece of bread, a little bag of salt, a coin and a religious medal because according to the German saying all man needs to live is God's blessing (the medal), bread, salt and a bit of money.  My friend doesn't blog, but if she did you would see she is a master cross stitcher and hand quilter. I am indeed blessed.

Until next time~
Happy stitchin'!

Charming Girls Club Accomplishments & Goals

Since I never actually posted my accomplishments for Sept and October, I'd thought I'd do that in this post too.  My biggest goals were~
1. Get the Schnibble Paganini made for Le Petite club
2. Unpack boxes :-/
I don't know why, but the Schnibble top went together quite quickly~ the boxes languished. lol :-)  I've emptied quite a few, but there are still too many left~ I've run out of room and need to decide what to give away and what to keep... and where to put it! :-/  Truthfully, I'd rather be sewing! ;-)

Now for goals for November and December~
1. Get some things quilted and bound.
2. Get the new Le Petite pattern made~ its a cutie!
3. Get ready for the holidays.. the shopping, the sewing, the decorating (I guess those last boxes will get finished up after all! ;-)  

And I'm real happy to report that half of goal one is done! :-) I went quilting for the last 2 days at the LQS and got a lot of things quilted!~

Plan C from Schnibbles Times Two in Park Ave 

Fig Tree Club lap quilt

Imagine from Schnibble Times Two book in Gypsy Rose

I can't think of the name of this Schnibble :-/ and an autumn table runner

Paganini

Sorry the photo's are a little blue~ I tried to lay them out on the lawn so I'd have enough room and it was starting to get dark out. ;-/

Until next time~
Happy Stitchin'!

Design Wall Monday~

Well, my 'design wall' is the back of the love seat today. :-) I know this photo doesn't look like much but it is 2 large quilt tops, backing and batting, one lap size, 2 Schnibbles, and a table topper. They are all ready along with my thread and panto's to go to the LQS tomorrow to rent the HQ. I will be quilting Tuesday and Wednesday. Whoohoo!! :-))

If you would like to be inspired, awed,  etc, check out all the design walls posted at Judy L's Patchwork Times.

Until next time~
Happy quilting!!