Major Award Winner

First let me say I won I won, hot darn I won!! A major award(remember the Christmas Story movie where he won the lamp?)!!! I won Bonnie Hunter's book Scraps and Shirtails from the Quiltmaker blog. YAH!! Can't wait to get it and start working on one of her quilts. I am a big fan of hers. Speaking of Bonnie, I am doing my second mystery quilt with her. The first one was Double Delight and it was a lot of fun and is now one of my absolute favorite quilts. I love it. This one, Christmas Lights, will be featured in Quiltmaker magazine. It's just started with the current issue on stands now so get it! This is going to be fun. Here are the fabrics I have picked out for the blocks. Still debating on borders. . .

I keep a bag under my sewing desk and drop strips and scraps into it. I have dug in to those scraps and made two log cabin quilts (and there is still a huge bag of scraps left!). Here is one finished. I have the top of the other done and I hope to have it quilted soon. Of course, it looks almost identical since it is from the same scraps. I love that I have this quilt now to look at and remember the fabrics that are used in other quilts. The second one is to be a Christmas gift for a former boss.

Many many updates

I finished a purse, Rosalie Quinlan's Black Forest Bag, stitcheries, a skirt, a mini quilt, two memory quilts, let's see what else. . . .okay pics:

The purse. I love this pattern and these fabrics really play up the bag I think.

The skirt is the Lazy Day's Skirt by Oliver + S. EASY Peasy to make. Go try it.

The stitcheries are the first two blocks from Rosalie Quinlan's Little Patchwork Village.

These two memory quilts are made from a loved one's clothes.

And this little mini quilt is 7 x 9.5". Tiny. All hand pieced and hand quilted.

Friends Needlecase

I have just finished this stitchery for Shannon at Treasured Threads. This worked up quickly, like in 1 day. If you like it, hop over to Shannon's page and order it. She is great to work with. I get all my stitcheries from her.

Jacob's Ladder

As my oldest prepares to go away to college I decided to make him a quilt, aptly named Jacob's Ladder. He was very pleased with it. (Especially since Spike, the Crack Russell terrier has been using his old quilt as a chew toy, but I digress.) I love the darker more masculine colors for him. It was an easy pattern and a lot of fun to make. I'm going to miss this kid when he goes!

Frog Legs Anyone?

I've been up to my ears in frog legs!!! I made this quilt for a customer. The pattern is called Bullfrog Boogie. Isn't it cute?

I've been busy working on the Nice People Nice Things stitchery.

And a beautiful (if I do say so myself) small quilt. I handquilted this one and included some close ups of the quilting I did. I stitched a cable pattern in the borders.

Quilting puppy

Spike was helping me quilt. Actually he was cutting strips I ran out of strips and wondered why. This is what I found. Falling asleep on the job again. What's a quilter to do?

If you're not doing Gail Pan's Christmas BOM I have to ask why not? They're quick and easy and fun. I recently caught up on the last two months. Can't wait for May now.

And I've been busy on Nice People Nice Things. It's stitchery madness around here lately!

On the home front. The azaleas are in bloom and they're beautiful. There are more pics of them in the photography album on the right hand side of my page.

Housewife

I finally received my copy of Remembering Adelia by Kathleen Tracy. If you've not seen this book check it out at Amazon ASAP. It's CHOCK full of wonderful patterns. This is a book that I will do every pattern in. It's that good, really. The first pattern I had to do was the housewife. I love the idea behind it. Women made them for themselves or for loved ones. They were taken on the trips out west. Men carried them into battle during the Civil War in order to make quick uniform repairs themselves. It's just a wonderful little sewing kit that you can drop in your purse and carry everywhere. You never can tell when you're going to have time to get in a few stitches =0) Here is mine. Completely hand pieced and hand quilted.

and inside pockets for thimble, thread, scissors, etc.

I also finished another variable t-shirt quilt this past weekend.

Now onto my next project. It's called Goose Chase and I'm using Charleston IV fabrics for it. Aren't these fabrics yummy?