Twas the Night Before Christmas

and all through the house.... I have been diligently working on this stitchery for the past year and finally got all the pieces complete and recently put the top together. I am working on this for a family member who loves all things Christmas and hopefully I'll have the backing together soon and get it quilted and in the mail to her by Thanksgiving so she can enjoy it for the holidays. The stitchery is a set of patterns I bought from Hugs 'n Kisses. The designer, Helen Stubbings  is an Aussie stitcher with some great patterns and kits. I do alot of stitchery but this is the first redwork I've done and I loved not having to pay attention to where the colors change. I just started on a new one and can't wait to get some quality sewing time.

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!

Santa Sack Swap 2

Recently I signed up for a Santa Swap that is being organized by Carol at Carol's Crafts Blog.  This is a swap that will take place over the next four months. We will each make a little sack/bag and add two small wrapped gifts and then mail them on Sept 1st and then each month mail two more small gifts to go in the sack. Then in December we'll also send a larger gift. All of these will be opened on Christmas and the anticipation of getting these gifts each month will be very tempting to look, morning and we've all taken a vow of honestly to not peak before then. So today we found out who our partners are. My partner is Kim from Creating by the Lake in the arid state of Arizona so I'll be working on some surprises very soon for her. Kim I'll be checking on your blog to see what surprises you would love the most :)

Yoko Saito - My Home Town

About a year ago I bought a tapestry wall hanging kit My Home Town by Yoko Saito, a well known Japanese artist/hand crafter quilter. Once I actually had the 6 kits in hand I was overwelmed when I realized it was all written in japanese and I had never even done needle turn applique in english much less japanese. I eventually contacted her to see if she would translate the instructions for me which she graciously agreed to do. Now with the english translation  in hand I was ready to start. So I made a sample block using scrap fabrics and using a pattern from her book House House House. I love love this book. I will definately be doing more houses down the road. So now with some practice behind me I was ready to start on the real thing. The kit is made up of 6

Sample block

 separate months , 5 of which I'll be making houses, barns, trees and lambs, and then on month 6 I'll sew all the separate kits together and begin hand quilting. She has very detailed instructions on the hand quilting lines which I am already looking forward to starting on. All of the awesome fabrics are included in the kits and most of them are taupes that she has designed herself. So below are some photos of my progress so far.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the hand work process but the pieces are very very

tiny so when I finally get to the applique process my fingers always feel like they are in the way. I have the first two sets/months done and working on month three. The progress is very rewarding but slow.

Beginning House 1



House 1 roof



  

Flower Cart complete

House 1 complete

Month two row houses complete

Happy Wednesday

Happy Easter ......

Happy Easter to everyone and what a glorious day to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. I hope everyone has been blessed this Easter Day and is spending time with family.

  I spent the better part of the weekend in San Antonio enjoying the The San Antonio Market Square
and   The San Antonio River Walk. It's hard to believe it's only spring and I was dying of thirst in 90 degree weather on the river. We need rain so desperately to cool down the whole state of Texas. Heat or not I still enjoyed a relaxing lunch at www.mitierracafe.com  and always come away feeling like life is too fast paced. San Antonio has a way of making you relax, of the margaritas might have had something to do with this. The Mexican pottery is always a favorite and I have taken to collecting  the Televera style that has a raised painted surface and just delightful to look at.

I also just fell in love with this framed picture of 3 "wet birds" and couldn't leave without taking it home. It just makes me smile to see at how much fun they have taking a bath! We could learn a thing or two from the birds. It seems life everyday I see people, animals, places and think how calm and relaxed things can be if we strive to make that a priority. It helps remind me to keep my life in BALANCE.

 

So I am still quilting but spare time is hard to come by during the spring.  I have been working on a quilt that will be a gift later this month so can't show the back with the "larger than life" label but will take a photo when it is finally sewn on and the quilt is on it's way to it's new owner. The pattern was designed by the Honey Bee Quilt Store and was originally called "Dancing in the Dark" but I have renamed it "The Ties that Bind Families" since it is going to a newly found family member. It is made of all vintage fabrics and I just loved all the different blocks that were incorporated.

Well I'm off to eat a chocolate Easter bunny so enjoy the rest of your Easter!

Vintage Memories BOM

I'm not sure what I was thinking back in November but I signed up for a new BOM being offered by one of my LQS Honey Bee Quilt Shop and I finally started on the three months that I had accumulated. We are doing this in Maison De Garance by French General using the pattern Little Scraps by This and That. The patterns are very easy to follow and while I don't think I would have picked this fabric on my own and I am really starting to like how it's coming together. Below are my first three months ( 6 blocks)

Lest I get too carried away I do have a civil war quilt that I have to finish before April so this will no doubt fall behind again but they are fun little blocks to do on cold rainy day.

Prayers for Joanne

Joanne needs our prayers right now. On January 11th at 9:00 in the morning, 38 year old Joanne Heim suffered a major stroke and remains in a coma. She is the mother of 2 young girls, Audrey 12, Emma 9 and wife to Toben. You may know her as The Simple Wife. She is a fellow blogger and a student at the Denver Seminary working on her MA in Old Testament Biblical studies. The family is praying for a miracle and have claimed Psalm 46 as their prayer for her. Toben, Audrey and her sister Kristen have been updating her blog and have left a list of ways you can help, financially, prayers, cards so please take the time to check out her blog and keep her in your prayers.

They no doubt have a long long road ahead of them but as we've seen recently with Gabby Giffords miracles do happen and God hears our prayers. You can follow her progress at The Simple Wife or by clicking on the Praying for Joanne button on my sidebar.

Thank you for holding her up in prayer.

Fat Quarter Shop 2010 Christmas BOM

I am so glad I signed up for the Fat Quarter Shops 2010 Designer Mystery BOM. We are in month 8 and it has been so much fun. I did the FQS 2009 Designer Mystery and fell in love with the ease of their BOM and just couldn't resist doing another one. We are making blocks designed by a different designer each month and using Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas. I think the wreath is my favorite so far and think it would make a great pillow as a gift for next year so this will be one pattern I'll be going back to and what a cute little house we got to make this month.

Fall Squared Quilt

This is a quilt I started sometime in 2009 and finally got all the blocks made and sewn together sometime this past fall but then with the holidays it just got set aside. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the back but found this Saltbox Harvest circles in flannel and thought it would be a perfect contrast to the squares on front. The picture makes it look more orange but it is really more of a nice rich barn red. At the moment it is just laying on top of the backing but it's on my "to be finished in January" list so we'll see.

Christmas 2010

I never posted pictures of these two finishes since they were Christmas gifts but have no excuse for waiting till mid January. My brother is always hard to either buy or make for so this year I made him a pillow with pictures of he and his dogs. He lost one of the dogs (Sheila) this past year to old age so it was sad and since they were siblings Kaycee is also getting up there in age and I hoped this would serve to remind him of the good days.

I also joined Fat Quarter shops Mystery Quilt BOM back in June of 2009 and finished it up in August 2010 ( obviously I fell behind somewhere along the way). I had been working on this with the intent of giving it to my sister for her birthday but it ended up being Christmas.  As I was taking a photo of this quilt outside the front door a roadrunner was just checking things out and stood there long enough for me to take his picture.

Wool projects and some finishes

I was finally drawn into the world of wool and love it. I started with a free project sponsored by Kaaren at http://thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com/ who does First Friday Freebies and did this little Halloween wall sampler and while I enjoyed it for my first project the pieces were very tiny. I then moved onto a cute pumpkin pillow for Halloween and the size of the pieces were much easier to work with. This a pattern by Buttons and Bees and I had run into her at the Austin Quilt show and loved how cute all her patterns ( and buttons) are. I then started working on a fall candle mat of autumn colors and pumpkins and really enjoyed doing this so know I'll continue in wool. I have also been working on a couple of fall pillows (embroidered) and finally finished and feel caught up for awhile. I started a fall quilt last year and have been just doing one block at a time as I felt the urge but finally decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed to finish it for fall this year. So the top is finished and it turned out larger than I had anticipated mainly since I decided to add the stacked bar border at the last minute, but I am very happy with it so far but it will have to go on my bed now, a bit too bid for a couch quilt. Now it's time to put all my things away I've been playing with and get busy on some Christmas gifts.