This and that....

Some of the ladies in our retreat group are doing our own "Wool Crazy" pincushion Round Robin. I'm sure you've seen these all around blogland in the last few months. The round robin will go for about 4 months, then we'll have a "big reveal" at retreat in May. Here is my base...we each added one element to sort of set the tone for our pincushion. I'm hoping mine will have a

winter-y feel...like a snowy mountain night with pine trees, cardinals, snowmen, etc., but I know whatever the ladies add will be perfect! We'll all have to wait until May to see the progress!

Can you guess what this is? Believe it or not, that little basket has 386 HSTs for the RRCB Mystery! I'm using the Triangulations 2.0 program and it is working out very nicely! Only 214 more HST to go! :)

This last picture I just thought was pretty enough to share. This was taken Monday night after all the snow craziness had calmed down...I looked out my sewing room window to see this beautiful sky. Isn't it awesome?

Happy Quilting!

After Christmas Sewing!

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas. We sure did here at our house. It was so nice to have both kids home this year. I've kind of been hunkered down since Christmas...playing with new toys, eating, napping, eating, watching movies, eating....

Finally last night, I decided I needed to kick my mojo in gear and get back to some sewing. A couple months ago I bought a new book by Nancy Halvorsen. It's Art to Heart book called "Count On It." It has adorable monthly banners to hang on a cute table stand. I've got January's banner all done! Well, except for the button eyes and button mouth...I just didn't have enough black buttons in my stash. I'll take a trip to JoAnn's sometime this week.

This morning I finished up Step 4 of the Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery. Yay! Still pluggin' along.

I'm sure you've heard about the blizzard that hit the east coast yesterday. I don't think we got as much snow as other places in Delaware...I think we have about 8-10". It's hard to judge because the wind is causing huge snow drifts. Here you can see the snow plows have done a good job of getting our circle cleared already. The wind is still blowing like crazy out there. I'm happy to stay indoors a little longer...the buttons will be there when I get there. :P

Happy quilting!

Giveaway

Dawn has a fun giveaway on her blog....go check it out

HERE!

Go check it out....

Kim Walus is having an awesome giveaway on her blog! Go check it out!

Bitty Bits & Pieces

Happy Quilting!

Cookbook Winners!

Does Buster need some Christmas Spirit or what? He was not too happy to be posing for this picture, but he was a good little doggy and "stayed" when mommy told him to stay.

Okay, now to the important stuff! I used the random number generator to pick two winners for the cookbook giveaway! Can you believe the numbers were 4 and 5? Is that random enough? Oh well...I'm going with it. LOL

Without further ado...winner #1 is:

Debbie M ..."

I want to play too! Merry Christmas, Michelle."

And winner #2

Conni ...."

Cookbooks! Fun! So, Michelle, what is your recipe that has been included in the newest volume???"

Congratulations ladies! Your cookbooks will soon be arriving soon! Thanks for playing everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Michelle

ta-da!!!

There are some accomplishments that are little more rewarding than others, don't you think? The idea of making 60 string blocks really freaked me out! I've never made string blocks before. I'm not good at "random." But I did it! And of course, I love them! :) It may seem silly and insignificant to some, but I'm proud of myself for sticking with it!

Now on to Step 4 (relatively easy) and Step 5 (oh my).

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas week!

Happy Quilting!

p.s. don't forget to go here to enter to win a set of cookbooks from The Quilting Gallery!

Cookbook Giveaway

edit: Contest ended...thanks for playing!

Don't you just love cookbooks? I know I do! Have you seen these?

They are cookbooks filled with yummy recipes, pictures of quilts and heart-warming stories from quilters around the world! The one on the left, is the 2009 Edition has 119 recipes and is called "Quick and Easy Recipes So We Can Get Back To Quilting!" That's awesome....we all love those fix it and forget it type meals, don't we? More time for quilting! The 2010 Edition has 135 recipes and is called "Holiday Traditions." Great festive recipes for parties and family get- togethers! FYI, one of my very own recipes is in the 2010 book! You'll have to check it out! :)

Michele from Quilting Gallery has professionally compiled these books that can be downloaded instantly! They are really easy to navigate through as well. You can click on a recipe in the index and it will take you right to the recipe.

These cookbooks would make great last minute gifts for your quilty friends or anyone who loves to cook! Click HERE to check out how to buy these cookbooks for yourself or a friend.

Here's the great part! To celebrate the release of the 2010 Edition, Michele has generously donated TWO sets of cookbooks for me to giveaway on my blog! TWO lucky winners will receive a copy of BOTH cookbooks! Isn't that exciting! This is going to be a quick and easy giveaway...I know none of us have much time with Christmas right around the corner, so...all you have to do is leave a comment! What could be easier than that? Of course, I have to say it...if you are set to "no-reply," you must leave an email address for me to be able to contact you.

The contest will end on Tuesday, December 21 at 6pm. That way I can choose a winner and Michele can get the books to you. Hopefully there will be enough time for you to try some of the delicious holiday recipes!

By the way...have you checked out the Quilting Gallery website? It's a great site for quilters with tutorials, a quilt blog directory, and a quilt shop locator, just to name a few of the features! The Quilting Gallery is celebrating their 3rd Anniversary and they are having a HUGE giveaway party. You must go check it...just click HERE!

Don't forget to leave a comment to enter to win the cookbooks! Good luck and thanks Michele!

Happy Quilting (and cooking!)

Making progress!

With all the Christmas sewing and preparations going on this time of year, I had to put the Mystery quilt on the back burner for a while. Yesterday, I was finally able to get back to making the string blocks and now I have a total of 37! I'm so excited...the task doesn't seem so daunting anymore. I know I can get the next 23 done, lickity split! :)

So...I'm two steps behind...what-ev! What's 600 HSTs, anyway? ... pshaw! I can do those in my sleep. LOL (ok...someone smack me!)

Remember a couple weeks ago I posted about the 12 days of Christmas gift exchange I am part of. We've been opening gifts for a few days now and I just had to show you these! Day 4 was "something in holiday style." Aren't these slippers adorable? I'm definitely styling it up wearing these babies. :) I love 'em! They even have little skids on the bottoms, so I won't go slipping and sliding. All the gifts have been great so far!

Hope you are all happy and healthy and enjoying this blessed holiday season!

Get out and vote...again!

I'm taking one more shot at the quilt contest over at the Quilting Gallery site. This time it's a Christmas Quilt theme and I entered my Busy Little Christmas Elves quilt.

If you want to take a look at all the beautiful Christmas quilts, click HERE. If you want to vote for me, I'd be most appreciative. :)

edit: some were having trouble with the link...try clicking HERE! You may have to scroll down to the Christmas Quilt voting post.

Happy Quilting!! (I have no idea why my text is underlined here, I can't make it stop!! LOL)

Cookie update. :)

The cookie exchange was fun...only 8 participants, but we each brought 4 dozen cookies, so that made the math easy. We brought home 6 of each type of cookie.

Got milk? :)

Happy Quilting (and cookie eating)!

'tis the season....

I've been working on a few quilting/sewing projects the last couple weeks, but can't share pictures just yet. 'Tis the season for suprises!! :) I'm taking pictures though, so I'll share after Christmas.

And since I've been working on gifts, I haven't made much progress on the string blocks for the mystery quilt...I have seven blocks made. I'll be able to get back to them in the next day or two though, so I'm not worried at all about being behind. I'm not going to stress about it...I'm just curious how all the units are going to fit together!

I'm going to a cookie exchange tonight and I'm trying a new cookie recipe. Kinda risky, huh? I got lucky this time though...these are DELICIOUS!! The are called Snickers Cookies and the recipe can be found here. I can't believe I haven't heard of these before. The recipe called for the chocolate drizzle and I added a bit of Christmas flair by adding the sprinkles. I think they are perfectly fine without the chocolate drizzle though. The dough is wrapped around a bite size Snickers bar. The cookie and the candy inside stays chewy. Yum!!!

Happy Quilting,

Getting the hang of it...

Step three of Roll, Roll Cotton Boll mystery is a bit daunting to me! But there's no whining in quilting, so the only option is to just buckle down and get 'er done! I don't really have "strings" so the first step was to cut the neutrals I had pulled into various size strips.

I think this is a good start, don't you:

I may find myself in a bit of a predicament because I cut ALL the fabric I had pulled into strips...which was a good chunk of the neutrals in my stash already. If we need them for another step, I may need a trip to the LQS. Darn.

I have never made string blocks before, so this is my first attempt. I think they turned out just fine! It's yet another therapy lesson for my OCD tendencies...I'm trying not to worry too much about putting similar colors/widths, etc, next to each other. LOL

It was actually quite enjoyable to make these first two blocks...only 58 more to go!

Happy Quilting!

12 Days of Christmas

I'm part of a 12 Days of Christmas gift exchange with a quilting Yahoo Group. It's also sort of a "Secret Sister" type exchange, so I don't know who has my name. We are to pick out or make a gift for each of the 12 days leading up to the 25th...one present to open each day. Each gift had a theme, such as "Something Green, Something for the Spirit, Something to Make you Laugh, etc." It was a lot of fun deciding on the perfect little gift for each category and I'll admit, a little challenging. I hope my recipient is happy with her goodies! I'll post an update when my package arrives too.

Happy Quilting!

p.s. did you SEE the next step in the RRCB Mystery???? Wowsers, this one will be a challenge for me. But I'm up for it! :)

Busy Little Elves

It's finished! And I love it! I started the embroidery on these little cuties back in July '09...so not too bad, huh? I wish the colors came out better in these pictures...it's dark in the house because of the storms outside, so I had to use the flash. The pattern is by Gail Pan. I changed the pattern a little by adding the scrappy piano key border.

This was the first time I have ever attempted to quilt something with embroidery blocks...I used a clear nylon thread and just went for it! I did a medium all over meander. (Double click the blocks for close up pictures)

These blocks show the colors more accurately.

Don't you love the candy cane binding? I do!! :)

Love. Love. Love it!!

I pieced the back from leftover border strips and some stash fabrics. I want to put a label on this one too...I just couldn't wait to show you the quilt!

Now I need to be a busy little elf and get to work on Christmas preparations!!

Happy Quilting!