New Winners!

Well, I never heard from the winners from my previous post and it's been more than a week.  I've decided to go ahead and pick new winners for The Giving Quilt.  Mel from Covered Porches and Wooden Screen Doors and Suzy from Suzy's Quilting Room are the two new winners according the random number generator!  Congratulations ladies, please send me your addresses and I'll get your books and pins off to you!

I visited a lovely quilt display a few weeks ago...post coming soon!

Winners!

I'm sorry it took so long to choose winners! Last week got away from me because I was busy with our new family member...we welcomed Ivy to our home!  She's not really a one eyed cat, the vet said that her eye is in there, but is so retracted that she couldn't tell if it was very small or just retracted so far in.  Ivy will see an eye specialist later this week.  She's a sweetheart and adapted into the house quite easily.

But, enough about Ivy, how about some winners?  Comments number 4 and 5 were chosen by the random generator, so Elisabeth and Patti from My Current Obsessions are the winners. Ladies, please send me your shipping information and I'll be happy to send your books along!  Elisabeth, I don't have an email for you, please email me!

Happy Easter Giveaway!

Wishing all of you a very happy, blessed Easter.  I love going to the Easter morning mass at our church, love the music and seeing all the little children dressed up in their adorable outfits.  I miss those days!

I was lucky enough to receive two copies of The Giving Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini and some pins to share with you.  If you are interested in receiving a copy, just leave a comment.  I'll choose two winners in the next day or two and send them along.  I reviewed this book awhile ago, you can read about it here.  I enjoyed this story!  The Giving Quilt comes out in paperback on Tuesday.

On The Needles Friday

It's been a while since I posted for On the Needles Friday.  I've been working on this hat for awhile, it's a Ravelry pattern called the Temperance Hat.  The pattern is pretty easy, I just knit slowly!  I'd hoped to have it done to wear this winter, but that didn't happen, so now I'm planning for it to be done by the end of baseball season...some of those late season games get cold here!  What's on YOUR needles today?  Show us at Patchwork Times!

My Little Helper

Holly decided to give me a little help quilting today. This quilt is made from blocks that I exchanged in the Jo Morton Yahoo group a few years ago. I made the top and basted it on the machine for hand quilting. Well, you can see how far I got with that! So it's back on the machine and on its way to being finished at last. Sometimes you just want/need to get things done...

Binding

Time to stitch down the binding, I just love the polka dot flannel on the back!

Getting close...

To another finish! Should have this one quilted today, then the binding and I'll be done!

Monday Morning

This was on my desk when I got to work this morning. Day made!

Hexies

It seems I've caught the hexies bug too. But mine are just a bit different than the rest I've seen on other blogs, seeing as they're crochet, not quilting! I used the tutorial from the Lavender and Wild Rose blog but did the first two rounds from the same color so the blocks would sort of look like flowers. This is the start of a baby afghan for a little girl who will be arriving in late May!

Winner at last!

I'm quite late in choosing a winner for this book...bet you thought I forgot all about it!  The random number selector chose Ruth's comment as the winner, so I've already contacted her and the book will be off to her house in the morning.  Thanks to everyone for leaving a comment!

Christmas Quilt

The sewing room is finally cleaned up and I found a little time to quilt and bind my Christmas quilt made from a free Gail Pan embroidery Block of the Month from a few years ago.  I couldn't seem to get a good picture of it, so here are a few...I hope you can get an idea of what it's like.  This one gets the whole quilt in...

A little closer so you can see the embroidery. Most of the fabrics are old Robyn Pandolph Christmas fabrics and some by Three Sisters.

Here's a picture of the family room where it's hanging...even though Christmas is over!

So, that takes two items off my short list.  I really didn't like the way the baby blanket for Ellen's friend was going and when the baby was born he was far to big for the small blanket I was making...he was over 10 pounds! Now onto Plan B, whenever I figure out what Plan B is. So, that leaves me with this...

The Short List

1.  Ellen's quilt - my "birthday quilt" from this post

Wow, guess I need to find a few more projects!

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker - Review and Giveaway!

I was recently asked to review Jennifer Chiaverini's new book, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.  This is this first book that she's written that is not part of the Elm Creek Quilts series, which we all know and love!  I was curious to see if her writing style would \be different when taking on a more serious topic, and it was definitely a change from what I was used to!

While the book is not one that I couldn't put down, like the Elm Creek novels, I'm enjoying it in a different way than her other books.  This brief synopsis of the book came from Amazon:

In March 1861, Mrs. Lincoln chose Keckley from among a number of applicants to be her personal “modiste,” responsible not only for creating the First Lady’s gowns, but also for dressing Mrs. Lincoln in the beautiful attire Keckley had fashioned. The relationship between the two women quickly evolved, as Keckley was drawn into the intimate life of the Lincoln family, supporting Mary Todd Lincoln in the loss of first her son, and then her husband to the assassination that stunned the nation and the world.

Elizabeth Keckley, a freed black woman, was a seamstress to many of Washington's elite.  Her work came to the attention of Mrs. Lincoln and she was hired as her personal seamstress. The book chronicles her life with the Lincolns as she becomes a confidante of the first lady and a friend to the president.

I'll admit, I'm not yet finished the book as it is a much slower read than her previous books and I've had a hard time remaining interested in the subject. To me it reads more as a history book than it does as women's fiction.  I haven't connected with the characters. I'm looking forward to hearing what others have to say about the book!

If you've stayed with me this far, please leave a comment...as soon as I finish the book, I'll randomly select someone to share this book with! (US comments only!)

Here I am!

Hope you didn't forget about me!  Thanks to all of you who sent me your thoughts and condolences for Cheyenne.  She was a sweet cat and I miss her terribly.  We did adopt Holly right before Thanksgiving and she has been a joy to have around. We've had a lot of great cats over the 27 years we've been married, but never one with the personality that Holly has.  She's constantly making me smile!

So, here's a quick wrap up of our holidays...the kids were all here for dinner and we had a wonderful time...

and my little bit of "secret sewing" that was on my short list was embroidering Dayna's name on her new Christmas stocking.  We figured that it was about time she had her own stocking on Christmas instead of using an old one that we've had for years.  I got this stocking at Target and embroidered her name on it. She seemed very excited when she saw it!

I haven't done any sewing since the new year started, although I have been doing some crochet.  One of Ellen's friends just had a baby boy and I had started a little afghan for him.  It's about 36 x 36...not very big! Well, little Wyatt weighed in over 10 pounds, so by the time I finish it, he will be far too big to wrap up in it!  On to plan B....I think a baby quilt is in my future!

Another reason I haven't sewn is that my sewing room has been a dumping ground since Christmas.  It's going to take a bit of tidying up before I can find the top of my sewing table...I need to excavate down through layers of stuff!

So, my short list for now will stay very short...

1. Finish the crochet afghan,

2. quilt and bind my Gail Pan Christmas Quilt that didn't get finished for Christmas!

3. Finish my "birthday quilt" which will be going to Ellen once it's finished.  It needs more borders, quilting and binding.

But none of that can be done until I clean the sewing room....I'd better get to work!

Rest In Peace

Rest in Peace, Cheyenne.  You were a good friend and I'll miss you. 

Eleven years was just not enough.

Another finish...

Another project on my short list is finished!  This wool Santa Mat was finished about a week ago and I haven't had time to sit down and post it!  It was fun to make, although I didn't fall in love with working with wool.  Want to know why?  There's way too much cat hair in my house to work with wool!  I spent more time pulling stray hairs off the black wool than I did stitching!

With the tree skirt and this done, I have two projects left on my list.  I've loaded the Gail Pan quilt top onto the longarm, but haven't had time to quilt it yet.  I've also started the baby blanket, but haven't gotten too far yet.  I have one secret project that I'm adding to my list.  It's only a tiny bit of work, but it has to be done by Christmas.  I'll try to take a picture when it's done...if I remember!   Then I'll decide what will be the next projects added to my short list!  Luckily the shopping is done and except for a few small things, everything is wrapped.  Grace is in charge of the cookie baking this year...can't wait to see what we wind up with.  I'll make pizzelles for my dad like I do every year, and probably chocolate pizzelles and chocolate chip cookies for the boss.  I can't believe Christmas is so close!!!!

Drunkard's Path

I don't think I've ever shared this quilt with you before.  When Grace was getting ready to go into a bed before her second birthday, I decided she needed a quilt.  Being a relatively new quilter,  no one had ever told me that a Drunkard's Path quilt is not a beginner's pattern.  

I forged ahead and cut out all of the pieces by hand, using a mylar template that I had bought at JoAnn Fabrics.  I carefully pinned according to the instructions, then machine sewed the curves. I loved the purples I used in this quilt and often wondered if this quilt is why Grace's favorite color is purple!

I started out hand quilting it, but switched to machine so I could get it done before she turned 20.  There are some hearts hand quilted in the light areas, but all of the purple was done by machine.

I pulled the quilt out to bring with us when she was sick and we picked her up.  I thought it would be nice for her to cuddle in during the ride home from college.  As long as it was out and washed, I thought I'd share.

I love this quilt!

One down

I finished the first project I tackled on my short list!  I had the binding sewn on the edges and was ready to settle in on Saturday to hand stitch it down when I got a call from Grace.  She'd been sick all week and was scheduled to take the train home for Thanksgiving on Tuesday.  But by the time we spoke on Saturday it was becoming clear that she had the flu and really needed to come home.  Now!  We hit the road for the 4.5 hour trip to her school at around 2:30.  I made the best of the daylight that was left by stitching until we lost the light, and managed to finish the binding just in time!  All I had to do when I got back home was add the binding and ties around the center circle, which goes around the tree. That had to wait for Sunday since we didn't get home until midnight. But it's all done and now it's ready for Christmas!

On Wednesday, with Grace feeling much better, we wound up running errands, most of which involved the need for me to immediately adopt a kitten.  You see, I had found the sweetest little kitten last week, put in an application on her, then found out that she had already been approved for adoption to someone else.  So, the search was on for another kitten to adopt.  Hey, once the Boss gave his approval, I was all over it!  So, instead of making stuffing and pies like I was supposed to be, I was going back and forth between Petsmart and the Animal Orphanage to adopt this little beauty!

Her name is Holly and she is the sweetest little thing!

And it looks like she's made herself right at home!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all the kids here and not a single picture was taken to document it.  Well, except for this one of Andrew watching some post-turkey football!

I hope all of you had a happy Thanksgiving too!

Progress

I decided the first project I should tackle on The Short List would be the Christmas tree skirt.  Last night I finished removing all of the binding (which took just as much time to remove as it did to put on!).  Once that was done

I trimmed the corners of the quilt.

I couldn't find any of the fabrics I used to make the tree skirt, so decided on a black and tan Thimbleberries fabric for the binding.  Tonight I made the binding and sewed it on.  Once it's handstitched down, this one will be finished!  I didn't have enough fabric to do a bias binding, which I really needed for the curved corners, so I hope everything will lie smoothly, otherwise I'll have to press it into submission.

I think once I finish a project, I'll take if off my list and add a new one on.  That way my list will never be longer than four or five items.  I'll keep a separate  list for my applique and other long term projects.  It sounds like there are a few of us who will be making our short lists together.  This isn't a formal challenge, so there are no rules, regulations, linky lists or any of that.  I'm sure that we all want to spend our time sewing , rather than trying to follow challenge rules!  Just let us know that you're sewing along with us, so we can see your progress too!  I know that Kathie wants to sew a few bindings, Ruth wants to join us, JulieQ, and Debbiequilter to name a few.  Let us know if you're in too!  Vicky, have you had time to sew this week?

The Short List...

consists of the projects that I have to have done soon.  Like next month.  Or the next one.  From the left they are:

1.  A Tiramisu Baby Blanket, which is just the sweetest little thing! I'd like to have this done by January, I know of a few expectant parents and want to have at least one or two of these ready!

2.  My Gail Pan Christmas Wishes quilt.  I know I posted a picture of it at some point, but can't find it.  Needless to say, it's waited it's turn on the longarm for long enough, time to get it done!

3.  My Primitive Gatherings Old St. Nick Table Mat.  This one is close, a little more blanket stitching, some embroidered snowflakes, assembly and finished.  Should be a quick project!

4.  My Thimbleberries Christmas Tree skirt.  See the corner there?  Where there's a break in the binding?  Daisy must have needed a snack last Christmas and chewed the corner off.  I'll need to remove the binding, curve the edges and rebind it.  Hopefully it won't take too long!

So, that's the short list.  I'm afraid to make the long list!

Vicky, do you have a short list?

Finishing things...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how many quilts I have in progress and how I really need to finish some before starting anything new.  Apparently Vicky over at LA Quilter has been thinking along the same lines and after I commented on her post she emailed me back, saying "Let's hold hands and do it together!"  Vicky, I am SO with you!

This week I'm going to start making a list of what quilts I have that are in the works as well as the knitting and crochet projects I have, then I'll put them in order by which have deadlines.  Then I'm going to work to finish those pieces.  I hope the list isn't too daunting once it's made!

This is the quilt that has commanded my attention for the last week or so.  It is my birthday quilt for this year, which you can read about here.  I'm using the pattern Sherbet Stars by Cotton Way but when I laid out the quilt on my design wall, there was just too much open space because it was set with alternating plain squares.  I just finished custom quilting one of my quilts and want this one to be an all over design...definitely one without too much white space!

My solution was to make one extra block and lay it out 4 x 4 blocks.  I'm going to put a narrow border of the background, a second of the blue (which is not nearly as bright as it appears!), a third of the background and the last border will be the brown floral, about 6 inches wide. That will give me a nice sized quilt and I can quilt it relatively quickly with an all over design.

Can't wait to get my list made and see what's on there! I do know I have several long term applique projects that I've started, so not everything will be finished up quickly.  And then there are the projects waiting their turn on the longarm already...this list might be very long...