SSCS sent and rec'd

First, here is a pic of the awesome table runner that Kerry sent me in the SSCS:







Here is some detail:







These are the present and goodies I sent to my partner, Lurline:









Another great SSCS! Thanks to Kerry and to Donna for organizing this wonderful swap!

Have a pieceful day!

Where is the time going????

I've been meaning to post for sooo long! It isn't even a lack of things to post about - just a lack of time and energy. The cold I had around Thanksgiving is hanging around and combining with allergies to wipe me out!

I want to show you my SSCS package - here is the ornament that Kerry from Forever Friday sent me:



and here is the package (that we are not allowed to open until Christmas - although my willpower is weakening!) Thanks Kerry - I can't wait to open it.



Its pretty cool - Kerry was the partner that I sent to in a bag swap last year and now are paths have crossed again with her sending to me!

I've got more to show and tell but I am going to try to do it in small bits each day.

Have a pieceful day!

I'm Exhausted!

or I was anyway! My son came home from college for Thanksgiving and brought his girlfriend and 3 friends with him. So we had 4 houseguests for the long weekend. They went to the parade in NYC on Thanksgiving and then came back for dinner - twelve of us total. The next day we went to our cousins' for a family dinner and the next night DH and I had a dinner to go to. By the time DS and his friends left on Sunday I was exhausted. I am just now recovering!

I wanted to show you a few pictures before all the Christmas prep starts- I know its already started for most of you - but not here! Knowing I was going to have that many houseguests showering in our one bathroom, which is being remodeled so there are no towel holders or hooks up - I made each guest (and DS) a towel with his or her name embroidered on it and bought one of those old fashioned drying racks. They were instructed to hang up their towel and reuse it!



They all seemed happy with their little "favors" and it did keep my bathroom and laundry a LOT more organized.

My friend Karen who is very Martha-like made us this wonderful Cornucopia out of refrigerated breadsticks:



Isn't it awesome? The little pilgrims on either side I made years ago and lost them. This summer I was cleaning out the attic and found them in a box tucked in corner. I was so thrilled! I love these little things! Here is a closer look -


Okay, Thanksgiving officially over - let the Christmas festivities begin!

Cards, tree, shopping, baking...... where do I start?????!!!!

Have a pieceful day!

Funny Story!

I have a funny husband story to tell but first I need to show you my latest finish. This is a sewing organizer that I made from a tutorial by FlossieBlossoms.



I won the fat quarter of retro NYC fabric at the Brownstone Guild Quilt Show a few weeks ago. It was donated by City Quilter in NYC who has a whole line of NYC themed fabrics. While they are very pretty they are not practical for a lot of things because this is a large print so its not a fabric to cut into small pieces - much better for a bag - or a sewing organizer! Here are some pics of the inside - it has a little needlecase that snaps closed, a holder for scissors both while traveling and while using the organizer on the couch, thread holders, pocket, trash baggie and tool holder.





On her blog, FlossieBlossoms tells how she created this organizer to keep pins and needles and other unsafe sewing items from the paws and mouth of her cat - whose name is NoseyParker. She advises that it would be good for keeping these items out of the hands of young children as well. Enter the funny story....

So I am showing DH the finished organizer last night - after he very generously installed the snaps for me when I was having some issues - a fact I add only to point out what a terrible wife I am for what I am about to share with the world - but it was just too funny not to....

so DH is looking at the finished product, opens it up, looks at the needlecase part and sticks his finder INTO the closed needlecase asking "what's this for?" as I am at the same time starting to say "be careful, there's a needle in there" - before I could even get the words out, he lets out a loud "OUCH" and I fall to the floor laughing hysterically as any terrible wife would! As soon as I could pick myself up and compose myself I told him "that is definitely going on the blog!" So my advice is if you have nosey cats or nosey toddlers they are probably safe but if you have a nosey husband you might want to add an additional layer of security to your sewing organizer!

Have a pieceful day!

Just when I thought it was safe...

DH and my two DDs have all been sick recently - congested, cough, sore throat. Up until now I had escaped it because they've been better for a few weeks and I never caught it. Until today. So I am sitting on the couch doing some handwork and watching t.v. I worked on some hedgehog pincushions -



The one on the right is a work in progress - this is actually the prototype - I have a different fabric in mind and a few adjustments but I think he came out pretty cute! When I feel better I'll make another.

Last week one of the local guild's had their quilt show. It was a nice show and I was lucky enough to win a mini quilt in the mini quilt auction!



Have a pieceful day!

Halloween Witch Doll

I've been meaning to post these pics for awhile now and if I don't do it soon Halloween will be long gone - actually it seems long gone already - everywhere I turn someone insists on telling me how many weeks or days there are until Christmas! Anyway - last month DD and I stopped into this store and I saw this awesome doll and the store was giving a class on how to make it! Only problem was we were there on Monday afternoon and the 2nd class was that Wednesday night so I was already behind and didn't have a lot of time to catch up. But since I've made dolls before I figured I should be able to do the initial stuff without any guidance. There were two more classes and I just love the way everyone's doll came out.

My doll is not finished yet. I still want to accessorize her a bit and with time crunch I didn't have time to collect everything I wanted. Here she is:



I also want to redo her hair. I really was not happy with the way it turned out. But all in all I am very happy with her and I love the class. I was ecstatic to learn how to do sculpted faces. I am hoping the store does more doll classes soon. The owner is an incredible dollmaker - very talented. Here is a pic of everyone's dolls together:



The one on the right is the teacher's doll - isn't she incredible?

I have one other little autumn project to show. I finished this little pillow this week despite it giving me total fits! I hate it when an "easy" project just becomes more trouble than its worth and that almost happened with this one for various reasons not worth going into. But its done!



Have a pieceful day!

I have a few more swap pictures to show. Ariane of Arianescrafts received my placemats today from the placemat swap2 on flickr. They are made of flannel. I've had the kit for these for about 4 years and they've been on my to do list for just as long. When the placemat swap came along and Ariane told me she uses placemats on her table I decided these would be perfect.



My partner in another Flickr swap received the mini quilt I sent her last week - the theme was Woodland World.



I have one more swap package on its way to my partner - my last Stitcher's Angel package. Hopefully it will arrive soon and then I can show that one.

Have a pieceful day!

It's Done!!!!

I did it! I managed to get the Halloween quilt from the swap done before Halloween was gone. I finished it about 4:30 this afternoon and had it hanging in the kitchen by 5pm. Normally I would take all my Halloween stuff down tomorrow but I think this will have to stay up for awhile longer - maybe till Thanksgiving! This really has me in the mood to get the Christmas swap blocks together this year too. I had told myself I wouldn't have time before Christmas this year but I might have to try to find a couple of days to knock it out.

Have a pieceful day - and Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to you!



This is my youngest DD in her halloween costume last night. She wanted to be Alice in Wonderland but every costume in the stores was too "slut-y" She said you couldn't even tell they were Alice in Wonderland. So she went to Walmart, bought fabric and a pattern and asked me to help her. I've never been a clothes sewer, other than doll clothes and halloween costumes. She took 2 years of Fashion Construction in high school but kept claiming not to know how to do it. So she cut it out and I did most of the rest with her assistance. Then we got to the zipper. I said "I think we need to call Florence for help, I have no idea how to put a zipper in a dress and the pattern directions sound like Greek to me" she said "oh, its easy, you just do this, this and this..." and promptly taught me how to put a zipper in a dress.

I think I've been hoodwinked! Seriously though I am just thrilled that it came out okay (if you look closely there are a ton of flaws, but it is only a halloween costume) and more importantly that it fit! I had these horrible visions of spending all these hours on it and it not fitting when we were done and then rushing to the store to buy one of the slut-y costumes anyway!

Have a pieceful day!

Christmas block swap

If you read my blog you know I recently participated in Jane's Halloween Spooky Spectacular block swap. I made 12 owl blocks and 12 nine patches and received 12 different halloween themed blocks and 12 different 9 patches. Those blocks have been assembled into a quilt top and I still have hope of having the quilt finished before Halloween is over - even if it means I am stitching binding Saturday night!

So last month I was at our monthly-ish meeting of our firehouse quilters group and I was showing everyone my blocks and telling them about the halloween swap. Bernadette says "why don't we do something like that?" and I replied "we should - and you can organize it!" and she did! So 9 of us each made 9 Christmas themed blocks and last Saturday we swapped them. They all go together so well and everyone did such a great job! There was already talk of a Snowman themed swap in January. So without further adeiu, here are the blocks (only 8 are shown here - Mary wasn't able to make it on Saturday so I don't have one of her blocks yet - I have seen then though and they are great - a redwork candycane. If you check her blog I'm sure she will post a picture soon.



I made Christmas stockings personalized with the recipient's name:







Bernie made these adorable paper pieced Christmas presents:







Sue machine appliqued angels - this was her first time doing applique and she did an unbelievable job!







Florence did gingerbread men and as always they were perfect!







Priscilla did Christmas trees - aren't they great?







Ann chose a snowman from Art to Heart - I love that blue background!







Megan made stars that as always are pieced perfectly - front and back are perfect!







Talin made mittens - check out the ribbon and button embellishments!





Speaking of Talin - I've been meaning to post for awhile to tell you about Talin's new blog. Talin is extremely talented and blows the rest of us away with her creations. She makes beautiful handbags as well as other things.

Update**** I managed to get a pic of Mary's block - she hand embroidered a candy cane on white on white snowflake fabric - a ton of work and so pretty!

Have a pieceful day!

More mail and swap goodies!

More goodies from the mailbox! First up is a little gift I received from Nanette of Freda's Hive. I volunteered proofread (believe it or not I enjoy proofing!) her new pattern Kettles in the Kitchen (which is awesome by the way - check it out!) and she sent me some fabrics as a thank you. These fabrics are so cool! I've never seen anything like them around here. And check out the fabric covered button too!





Next up is a gift I received from my friend Florence. Florence, myself and three other ladies have been getting together for YEARS to stitch/craft/talk etc. and Florence always makes us the best stuff!!! When I asked her where she got the idea she told me it was on Kim's blog. Now I am a faithful reader of Kim's blog - I mean I read it every morning, and somehow I missed these! If i don't get to them this year I will definitely be making some for next Halloween!



Last, but certainly not least today I received my swap package from Ariane for the Placemat Swap 2 on Flickr. I am just so in love with this placemat! Of course it is way too beautiful to use as a placemat - it will get hung on the wall with my other mini quilts. She also sent a potholder, coasters and a little drawstring bag that will be perfect for small stitchery projects and the like.



Sorry these are a little blurry - DD took them with her phone.



That's all for today. Tomorrow I will show the blocks I got in my local quilt group's xmas block swap. There are 9 of them so they are a post in themselves!

Have a pieceful day!

Catchin Up!

Ok, I'll warn you know, this is gonna be a long one! In my last post I mentioned I've been doing a lot of stitching and got some good things in the mail - well since then I've been doing more stitching and got more stuff in the mail. Some of the stitching was for swaps so it will be a few more days to a week or so until I can show those. So let's start with the mail - both incoming and outgoing:

First is a quilt I received from a swap on Flickr - we swapped Teeny Tiny Mini Quilts - under 6 inches! I recevied this little beauty from Cindy in Texas. All of those squares are pieced - I originally thought that was one fabric!



This is the teeny tiny mini I sent to Cindy:



Another swap on Flickr that I am doing this month is the Swap Till You Drop October Woodland theme swap. Kimmie in Oregon sent me this cutie:



I can't show you the one I made for Kimmie because it was just mailed today. That will have to wait for another day!
Next is two packages from my Secret Angel in the Stitcher's Angel Swap: first I received this beautiful needlecase and then a week or so later I received the beautiful embroidered bag. I'm not really sure how my angel Drommequilten knew I've started collecting thimbles because I didn't think I had posted about it on my blog but she sent me one!





This is the Halloween Annie I made for Aunt Pitty Pat's Bumps in the Night Swap:



Here are my blocks sent to Jane for her Red and Aqua Disappearing 9 patch swap:



Seen enough yet? Believe it or not this isn't all the swaps! But I think its enough for one post. I'll post again tomorrow with more!

Have a pieceful day!

Giveaway Alert!

I've been busy quilting all day and also got GREAT stuff in yesterday's mail. I will be back to post about all that in a little while but in the meantime check out this giveaway at Sampaguitaquilts The prize is a kit for the most awesome tree quilt.

Be back soon!

Have a pieceful day!

Busy, busy, busy!

Ugh! I've been meaning to post but believe it or not couldn't get around to taking pictures of the things I wanted to post about! I hate it that it is dark so early again.

A couple of Saturday's ago we had our "almost" monthly quilty get together at the firehouse. We hadn't met since July and the attendance at that one was meager so its been quite a while since we all saw each other. A bunch of us worked on a tote bag featured on Moda Bake Shop with the Mill House Inn fabric line. Not everyone used Mill House Inn fabrics, a bunch used fabrics from their stash. It is always so cool to see the same project done in different fabrics/colors isn't it? Here is mine:

This fabric line is just awesome! While we were cutting our fabrics for this bag we decided to cut for the friendship bag tutorial on P.S. I quilt

It's hard to tell from the picture but this bag is only about 6" x 6". Not very practical but very cute!

I never showed my Halloween blocks from Jane's swap but I think I will wait - last night I bought sashing and I am REALLY going to try to have that done by Halloween. I might be quilting and/or binding it ON Halloween but hopefully it will be done! When I showed my blocks at the firehouse some of the girls were intrigued so we decided to do a similar swap amongst ourselves with Christmas blocks. It is a short turnaround - they are due on Oct. 24 so I bought fabric for that last night too and have my idea - now to make my 9 blocks.

I've been working on lots of other stuff too - swap stuff I can't show. I've become a little addicted to swaps on flickr. I never knew they existed until I did Doll Quilt Swap 7 - now I've found monthly mini quilt swaps, placemat swaps, teeny tiny quilt swaps! I'll have lots of pics of all of those as soon as I mail and my partners have received them - not to mention pics of the quilts I receive! Oh, and I did Aunt Pitty Pat's Bumps in the Night Halloween Annie Swap. I haven't received mine yet but my partner has gotten mine so I can show you. When she was sent she was holding a pumpkin in her lap but I forgot to take a final picture so the only one I have was taken before the pumpkin was added.



Last night I finished two Halloween pillows - I just LOVE these! I wish I could keep them out year round!!!!






Well, I hope that makes up for a few post-less weeks! I've got lots to finish this month and for now anyway I am on a roll. There is also a mini shop hop planned for this month. My birthday is tomorrow and a few (semi) local shops send 20% off coupons to use during your birthday month. Of course, I don't really NEED anything, but after they are nice enough to send you a birthday coupon it would be rude not to stop in and at least say hello, right?

Have a pieceful day!

More great stuff in the mail!

When I returned from our long weekend away guess what was in the mail? My quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 7! My partner was Michelle from http://rosebudquilting.blogspot.com/


Michelle looked through my blog and saw that I have made some rag dolls. She is a longarm quilter and had a rag doll quilting pattern so she bought some vintage fabric on ebay and made me this darling doll quilt. She also included some fabric and a chocolate bar in a beautiful rubber stamped/embossed holder. Here is a pic of the quilting detail:

I need to find a place in my house to hang this. My plan is to put a shelf next to, above or below it and display some of my dolls on the shelf - won't that be cute???!!

My weekend away and sick time have put me woefully behind on blogging. I have a bunch of things that I've been working on that haven't made it to my blog yet. I guess I better get busy taking some pictures and writing some posts! I also have a bunch of blogs I've starred in Google Reader meaning to go back and comment on and I never seem to get back to them. Hopefully I can catch up now that I am back into the normal routine.

Have a pieceful day!

Best mail day ever!!!!

Okay, maybe not ever - the day I got my bar results can't really be topped, but a pretty darn good mail day today - I received not one but two packages - the first was my blocks from Jane's Halloween Swap - they are awesome. I can't wait to put them together. DH and I are going away for a long weekend at the beach so I will have to wait till next week to play though - and you will have to wait till then for a picture because I am in the middle of packing and can't find a clean surface to lay all 24 of them out on to photograph!!!!

The second package was from my Stitcher's Angel!!!! She sent me this gorgeous mini quilt:

The note that came with it says the saying means "Have a good summer". This picture is not the greatest because it was taken inside at night but I wanted to get it on my blog right away! I love stitchery and do some myself but mine is no where near as good as this! I don't know if you can see it in the pic below but the stitches are sooo small and consistent in size! I am definitely going to be emailing my partner for some tips on stitching!!! Also in the package was a nice note on a notecard with a picture of some scenery from Norway and a delicious chocolate bar that did not make it long enough to be photographed - oops!

I am just so thrilled with my new little quilt. Even though it is a "summer" quilt I will hang it year round - now I just have to decide whether to hang it here at home or in my office where I can look at it all day! Thank you Angel!!!!

Have a pieceful day!