UFO list

Well, I guess it's that time of year again.  Time to make a list of my UFOs.

1. Plum Creek Penny rug: need to finish vines, pennies and backing.

2. PA Dutch: eight blocks to go

3. Pilgrims Pride: Stuck on the border

4. Winter River: border and finishing 

5. Nautical & Nice: to border or not to border, that is the question 

6. Broderie Perse Tree of Life: still quilting 

7. Cozy Cabin: I am going to take of the borders and trim so they fit better.

8. Summer Sampler: three done,  nine to go.  

Still irritated at QQ for messing up my schedule.

I have a couple of other projects that I started recently:

1. orange circle quilt-just started this fall
2. sparkle plenty-just started in December
3. pinwheel quilt-just started in December

Pressies from my amazing swap partner!

I have to say that I was amazed by the contents of my Santa Sack!  As you can see, Barb does exquisite work.  Her stitches are exactly perfect and I love absolutely every bit!  After I opened my pressies, DH said Wow, Barb really went all out!  In the first picture you can see the table runner, a penny pocket stuffed with Cosmo  threads (which I have been dying to try), a charm pack of Happy Campers which is my all time favorite line of fabric, a darling pin cushion, a pattern and fat quarter for a wallet, a tote bag with mini squares and a huswif with another beautifully embroidered pin cushion-with needles, and scissors, rick rack, pins and two adorable wooden buttons!

 Here's a close up of some of the stitching on the runner.

 And here's a close of of the huswif.

 And look at this pincushion!

 Barb instructed me to open one package on Christmas eve.  She made placemats for each of us with our names on them!  My boyos were thrilled to be included Barb!

 And finally, take a look at this sweet bird!  She will keep me company at my sewing machine.

Barb, thank you so much for your incredibly beautiful and generous gifts.  I will treasure each and think of you every time I use them.

Santa Sack 2 gifties for Barb

What did I send Barb?  I hope she likes it as her gifts to me were just amazing!

1. wrist pincushion
2. scarlet today needles
3. needlecase
4. thread tin
5. ME kit
6. thread and bubbles
7. birds
8. wire quilt stand
9. The final gift was a mini quilt to go one the stand.

Corners of my home

Second week of advent!  We're preparing inside and out for Christmas.

Aren't these cupcake potholders adorable?  They and the magazine are from my Australian Santa Swap partner, Barb.

 I made this mini wall hanging over the weekend.  I bought the kit at the Houston Quilt Festival from White Swan Quilts.  Too cute!

 These are a few Christmas aprons hanging in my kitchen.  The one in the middle I made with my sister years ago-maybe when I was still in high school.  The spotty one on the right I made for my  Gma.

I made this cookie advent calendar for the boyos a couple of years ago.  Red announced that Tig would pull cookies out of the bowl on the odd days and he would do the evens.  Good idea!

 These are plates I put up every December in my kitchen.  Most of them have St. Lucia on them and the other two have Swedish motifs.  I always get very Swedish this time of year!

We don't yet have up the Christmas tree but it is coming!

Happy Birthday Auntie!

This was the birthday present I sent my auntie.  When I packed it, I was worried the little penny rug would get lost in the tissue paper so I wrapped it in a piece of neon green tissue paper and wrote on the card that she should look for it.  Well, she didn't and threw the tissue paper in the dumpster!  She emailed me and thanked me for the turkey but not the penny rug so I called her and told her to look for it-that's how I found out it was in the dumpster.  My aunt's husband, who is obviously awesome, dug in the dumpster until he found it for her!  She is pleased to have all of her birthday present.  

So now I am stitching a matching penny rug for me-in honor of Ray!

Cute!

Bought this miniature at the Quilt Festival!  I liked to so much I bought a second one in different colors for my aunt's Christmas present.

Wool Crazy

Well, guess I have a wool stash now!  I've spent two days at the quilt show and I still need several pieces for a pattern I bought!

Ornament Swap

This is a little ornament I made for the Jo Morton Stitchers ornament swap.  I also included as a little gift, three fat eighths of Jo fabric, some hexi paper pieces and a tube of needles.  I hope my swap partner likes it!

I should have made two as I have another swap for Betsy-Tacy coming up.  I'm hoping to get back into the sewing room.  This weekend I need to tune up my featherweight as I'm taking a maintenance class at the quilt show, stitch up my final swap for Santa Sack 2 and stitch a little something to go along with my aunt's birthday present next week.

We're ready!

Red has his first loose tooth.  So today I made his little pillow for the tooth fairy.  I was afraid the tooth would come out before I got the pillow made.

Growing up so fast. . .

Magpie went off to the Homecoming Dance tonight. Not only is she beautiful but she's in all AP classes, can knit, sew and is working on a quilt for her little sister!  Love this girl!

My gorgeous bag!

This is the bag that my swap partner, Barb, sent me.  Isn't the embroidery just perfect?  Coincidentally, we used the same fabric line-Flurry!

Goodies for Barb

Just a peek at the goodies I sent to Barb!

Cozy Cabin

Jan Patek had a free pattern download on her blog-and you could order a scrap bag and a tiny 2.5 inch charm pack. So this is what I did today! I still need to tone down that little window-it's far too white for this little runner.

Finished Quilts!

This is the Happy Camper quilt I made for DH. I bought it as a kit last year at the Houston International Quilt Festival. I'm really glad that I finished it before Festival this year!
This is the backing for the quilt. I just love it's retro goodness!

Isn't this quilting beautiful? Karen the Quilter did a great job. I love the leaves. I asked for brown thread and I really like it because it spruces up some of the bland white/light tan blocks.


This is the Shades of Blue bluebonnet lap quilt. I was hoping to finish it in time for my dear friend's brain surgery but she got the jump on me. Unfortunately she will be having another surgery, so I will save it for then or give it to her for Christmas.

I was trying to show the great quilting here.

And here is the back. Love that bluebonnet batik. I even went back and bought a couple more yards of it. You can really see the nice quilting here.

Mini Quilts

These are my mini quilts hanging on the art wire in our kitchen. The Pinwheel quilt is from Houseelf. The others are by yours truly. The very orange one was made during a non-eventful tropical storm and hand-quilted in the non-electricity days after Ike. Still not finished with that! The star is from the first quilt class I ever took. The alphabet one is from a blog (can't remember which one) and the pastel one is from out of my head!

Santa Sack 2 for Barb!

Here are some pics of the bag I made for my Santa Sack partner, Barb. The pattern is from the Fall issue of Quilts and More. I used Flurry by Kate Spain. I love that line and I hope Barb likes it. This project was a good excuse to purchase this fabric! It is a roomy tote and has a tie on the inside that you can't see in this picture.

ETA: I just saw Barb's post on the Santa Sack 2 blog. We both used Flurry! Guess Carol knew what she was doing when she matched us!!!!

Been busy

I have been busy working on things but some I can't post due to the Santa Sack Swap. Don't want to ruin the surprises for my swap partner Barb.

In other exciting news, I received a PIF from Houseelf! Isn't this pinwheel quilt adorable? It was beautifully wrapped in red polka dotted paper and tied with red ribbon-I was too excited to take a picture of it before I opened it. Thank you Houseelf!Houseelf also sent a Wind in the Willows greeting card. I've got it up in my office. We both love Willows so I love the card. (Sorry about the glare!) You can see Toad, Ratty and Mole down in the lower right-hand corner. Canary colored carts! The way it works, when you receive a PIF, is that you have one year to Pay-It-Forward to three people. I don't know if I have three people reading this blog but if you are interested in receiving a PIF let me know!

I'm still slowly working on my first applique block for my applique group. I'm going to finish this project but I think I need a project with variety. This one big ole piece of red is getting to me.

I also received two quilts back from Karen the Quilter. Haven't taken pics of those yet but they are gorgeous! I'll try to get pics up later this week.

Good deals

You can get some good deals when your LQS decides to close up shop. I bought these books from Quakertown.

Some little FQs that Tig picked out.

Yardage that was 50% off. The wheels match Tig's FQs. The starry navy will be a quilt back for my sailboat quilt. The rest goes to the stash.