Happy Monday, everyone! I thought I would start the week off with a blue Monday post! Shown is one of my favorite-st Spode Blue Christmas plates. The figurines are by the famed Swedish artist, Carl Larsson. I have had these knick knacks for years, but their charm never fades…

Have a productive week! I will catch up with you later.

Happy post Thanksgiving, everyone.  I hope you had your bellies filled with good food!

I am not a black Friday shopping myself.  I have preferred sleeping in in the past.  But this year, there’s no rest for this quilter.  No, no shopping for me… but working!

I got these sweet fabrics this week, and will need to work on meeting an early December deadline for the quilt.  The collection is Simply Sweet by Henry Glass.  Look for these sweetness to come to your local quilt shop next year!

Have a safe and sweet weekend – whether you are shopping or not!  I will catch up with you later.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!  May you have a blessed celebration.

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

… for now!   It was an uphill battle, I tell ya!  I feel like picture smocking and geometric smocking are two different animals.  Here is the progress on my Gingerbear Smocking so far.

Now, I just hope I can get the other two bears smocked without much trouble and heartache.  I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks for stopping by – have a lovely day!

Happy Monday! I hope all is well with you. We enjoyed catching up with friends over the weekend. My Christmas Cheer quilt is featured in the December 2009 issue of “Quilter’s World“:

I am super pleased with the photography of the quilt! It is a “One Block Wonder” quilt made using one gigantic Storm at Sea block! The finished size is 60″ square:

The quilt used fabrics from “Once Upon a Christmas” by Benartex. I love love love the Christmas tree print fabric, and I love love love love the poinsettia print as well!

Dear friends at Rogers Sewing Center gave me the dipping bowls – my early Christmas present! How sweet is that?! They go PERFECTLY with my quilt! I am truly blessed with sweet sewing friends!

The quilting was done with Aurifil Mako 50 Cotton thread, top and bottom on my home machine. The red solid fabric was the perfect background to show off some free-motion quilting:

Thanks for stopping by. I wish you a lovely Thanksgiving Week!

My giveaway post received 116 comments, and the winner is Barb (#89)! Congratulations! Please send me your address, and I will get the goodies out to you promptly.

On another handwork front, I worked on my Civil War Bride Quilt. Here is the snail paced progress. I liked appliqueing by hand, even though it is slow-going for me. Following you can see where I would like to get to
eventually, and where I am right now :

One of the fabrics I used for the leaves is a cactus print fabric:

But you can’t really tell the cactus once it’s being cut for leaves. Interesting, huh?

I hope you have a lovely weekend. I am going to enjoy it as much as I can before another crazy week is upon me! I shall catch up with you on Monday.

Good day, everyone.  I hope you are doing well.

I managed to work a little more on my Gameboard – here is the latest:

Two more new houses were added to the neighborhood.  I loved how the sun comes up behind this sun:

I sure hope that the squirrel won’t be tempted bother with the siding or the roof of this house:

Thanks for popping by.  I am off to getting a few things done and in order to check them off my to-do list!  We have a sunny day — YAY!

The weather at my end is quite chilly.  We are to expect some dusting of snow this week.  I don’t like the cold, but I do like the coziness of the cold weather.  Since I am enjoying a bit of a down time this week, won’t you join me for a cup of tea and some homemade oatmeal raisin cookies?

We might in time also pull out a couple of books, and read while we sip our tea.  I am currently reading The Last Wife of Henry VII by Carol Erickson.  I haven’t gotten very far, but so far so good.

Thank you for stopping by.  I have been working on some handwork projects.  I did cut out the pieces for another smocked bishop, but I figure you wouldn’t want to see just the fabric pieces until I have done more to them.

Have a great day!

The quilt is out the door, but not before I managed to snap a few shots.  This quilt is scheduled to appear in The Quilter’s May 2010 issue:

I had fun quilting this quilt, especially the outer border.  I forced myself out of my usual comfort zone used a contrasting thread for the outer border.  You see, a contrasting thread would show any mistakes 100 times more prominently.  Nonetheless, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I couldn’t do a good job in feather quilting by free-motion.  So here we are… Shall we take a tour of the outer border together?  Since everything was free-handed, nothing was planned.  So, no two sections in the outer border are identical:

I hope you have enjoyed our little tour today.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Please leave a comment so that I can visit you back.

Hello Everyone,  I hope you had a good weekend.  Mine was restful – I actually took a nap after church on Sunday!  I guess I have been pushing myself a little too hard in the past few weeks.   But I did get my Twilight Trails Quilt finish.  It is already on its way to the editor’s desk.  I will have some pictures for you later this week.

You know I have a knack for getting carried away!  Such is my Christmas dresses project for baby.  I am attempting to improvise on a pattern that involves picture smocking.  I have never done picture smocking in my life, and I am a little uncertain – but I shall try my best.  Don’t you just love the gingerbread fabric?

You also know of my clumsy sewing skills.  And of course I have never attempted to improvise on a pattern either, but I got carried away.  I hope this crazy scheme of mine would work out, and I can actually have something to show for by the end of the week.  Wish me luck.  Meanwhile, this is what (Gingerbear by Little Memories) I am hoping to smock to go on this little outfit for baby:

I wish you a happy and productive Monday!  Thank you for stopping by.