No one's missing.....

Do you remember a few weeks back when I was making the ladies?  Perhaps you've forgotten that we had two missing ladies.......#17 and #18.  Now, these gals weren't missing because of a postal glitch, heavens NO, but rather because #18 commissioned me in October to do two special quilts.  One for herself and one for her friend for Christmas gifts and now that Christmas is over, and #17 has gotten her gift of "herself" I can reveal them to you.

I am so pleased to finally introduce you to #17, Lynn:







There's a funny little story that I just discovered about Lynn's eyes.  You can read it on Mary's blog post.  First, you have to meet Mary, who was the sweetheart who instigated the whole surprise:





a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35289170@N06/6606241249/" title="#17 in the Ladies series - Mary by mamacjt, on Flickr">

And here is a picture of the two of them together with themselves:



You'll have to read Mary's blog to get the scoop on Lynn's eye color.  I was quite surprised when I read it....!!!!  LOL  And, I guess Mary thought her eyes should have been a bit browner too.  Hazel is tricky!  Everyone has their own opinion of hazel, I guess.  I'm sorry, Mary!

One thing though...... Mary is recovering from having her tonsils out right before Christmas!  Poor Mary!  I can't imagine not talking, can you?  Or eating normal food?  Especially around the holidays?  E-gads!!  I hope you are doing well, Mary, and recovering fast!  My best wishes to you and thank you again.  I had a ball making you both!  I hope Lynn loved herself.

Have a safe and marvelous New Year's, my friends!  I've had an awesome year full of surprises and fun!  I'm so happy that you have joined me on this journey through 2011.  I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring!

Can you say DOTS???

I always knew that I loved red and white together and I guess I always knew that I loved dots, but this year, I even surprised myself when I realized that I went a bit overboard.  First of all, I wrapped most of our gifts in this paper which I found at Target.......and was so happy when I discovered it:

Then, for our big family celebration of finger foods prior to the big day, I picked these to make my life easier so I didn't have to wash dishes:

Now, you'd think that would be enough.........ah....NOT!  When shopping at my favorite specialty grocery store one day, I spied this and just had to go back to buy it (even though I can't remember the last time I even drank tea!)

 Isn't it just the cutest?  Every time I look at it, I think of Alice in Wonderland for some reason.  It's just so happy sitting on my dirty stovetop (sorry about that...I should have made sure it was cleaner before I snapped this picture.)  Strange how things show up so much clearer in pics.....yikes!!)

Then, there's the tree.  Now you see it, and then you don't.  I already took it down, can you believe?  The temps have been so mild here that we figured we'd get everything put away before the snow falls....much easier that way since we store the tree in the garage off season and it's easier taking the outside stuff down without dealing with ice.

I decorate like I sew, I guess.....sort of funky!  So, another Christmas bites the dust!  I hope yours was happy!  I think the crowning glory of my festivities was making this:



Oh my, it was sooooooo good!  And sooooo easy!  But, now I need a 6 quart container......cause I surely will be making it again!

Pinterest.....have you heard of it???

Such interesting stuff!!!  It's amazing what I'm finding now that I've taken a sewing break......

How cool, huh?  And there's so much more.  Good thing I'm not going to get hooked into that too!  E-gads, if I spend any more time on this computer I'll never have time to sew!

I do want to wish you many blessings this holiday season!  Thank you for visiting with me! I appreciate each and every one of you and hope and pray that you all find peace and fun with those you love in these next few days of joyfulness.  Merry Christmas!!

Wow, you guys!!!!

It was just as good as Christmas.............no, make that BETTER than Christmas...........reading all your sweet and complimentary comments about my big news on my last post.  Thank you ever, ever, ever so much!!!  You are truly a gift to me!!

While many of us in the USA are waiting to see if our JoAnn fabrics really does carry Australian Homespun magazine, I've found some sources that are really reliable.

First of all, I was informed by a reader that http://www.zinio.com/ can provide a digital copy.  (In fact the editor of Homespun asked me to mention that too.)  So, if you like your reading material digital, that is the place to go and they already have it!!  If you're like me though, and like the paper feel in your hands, these two places in the US are available to order the magazine, BUT they don't have issue 12:12 in yet:
http://www.ericas.com/  and  http://stonehouse-publications.com/  (I'm praying that those links work??)

In the meantime, let me show you what I got in the last two swaps of this year.  Remember STUD?  by now you should surely know that it stands for Swap til you Drop.  LOL  I sent "momcindy" this, remember?  It was her dog, Sophie:



And she sent me this:



She named it, It's a Dog's Life" and certainly depicts my spoiled Havanese, Toby.  (Even though I haven't carried him a bag yet, at 7 lbs, I surely could.)  Actually, it looks just like him, don't you think?  Wow, such talent!  That's not an easy dog to copy!!!

Then, I got my quilt in the "Little Quilt - Sew, Vote and Swap" group.  It was my first choice:



How festive, right?  It looks like Lisa "incorigable2" made it specifically for me, it's so much my style.  I love it!

So, that's it for today, my friends.  2011 is winding down and that's a good thing.  Before you know it, we'll all be into the new year with sewing machines ready, but for now, it's time to take a break and reflect on the quietness of the season.  I hope you are winding down too.  Enjoy!!!  (And thank you again for making me feel like a superstar!!!)  Until next time...............

Tooting my own horn.....

Have you, ever in your life, read something or heard something and simply could not believe it until it was repeated at least 3 times?  Well, that was exactly my reaction when I opened my e-mail one balmy May morning and read a letter to me from the editor of Australian's Homespun magazine asking me if I'd like to be a guest designer for their upcoming December issue.

I think I sat with my mouth open for a full 5 minutes wondering all sorts of stuff, but especially how in the world they ever found me...although the editor did mention that she had seen this and loved it:

So......to continue.....I yell out to my hubby who was still in the bathroom, "Hey hon, wait until you hear this", and proceeded to read the e-mail again (and they as long as I was at it, printed it out so I could hold it in my grubby little hands).  Not only did they want me, BUT (get this) they were going to pay me to design it!!!  E-gads, can you believe???

Since the design was for their summer issue, the editor suggested a beach theme and after correspondence back and forth I drew 4 possibilities for their review:

I was delighted when they picked #1 which (all along) was my favorite.  It had to be fun and colorful and funky (after all, those are sort of my signatures I figured) so I started pulling fabrics (and buttons) and fusing my heart out:

Eventually, I ended up with the finished product:



And here are some close-ups:









And here I am with a nice profile story right in the magazine:



And here is the cover with my wall hanging on the top far right corner:



I'm telling you, this experience was one of the highlights of my year!  I LOVED it!!!  And how I shut up about it for 7 months I'll never know!  I usually can't keep a secret overnight.  LOL  And, for all of you in the US, someone told me that this magazine is available at the big JoAnn superstores, so in a week or two go get yourself a copy.  (It's not there yet...I checked.  LOL)  Guess what all my relatives are getting for Christmas?????

We have a winner.......

So, early this morning I say to hubby:  "Hey hon.....pick a number between 1 and 99, okay?"

And I get, "What for?"

"What? What difference does it make?  Just pick a number!  Really, it's no big deal!"

And then he says,"  Well, if it's no big deal, why can't you just pick it?"

E-gads, sometimes after 39 years of marriage, you just can't win!  In any event, after we went through this a bit more, Mr. Wonderful eventually picked #25.  And #25 is"

RobinLovesQuilting who said:  "I never did see a better excuse to make a table runner than a completely clear table.  Love the centerpiece, and thank you for the give away".  

I have e-mailed you. Robin, so please get back to me so I can send off your fabric pronto and thanks to all of you for commenting and being so wonderful!  I'm truly blessed to have so many wonderful readers.

On that note of table runners, look what I got in the mail from my dear friend, Rett:

Looks like I won't have to empty out my bins now to quickly make myself something.  Looks awesome, huh?  How cool is that?  Thank you, my friend!!!  Stick the centerpiece on top and wa-la!!!  (I do need some fresh cranberries though....those a looking a bit frazzled already from soaking for 10 days.)

On the sewing front, the only thing I have sewn are these:





I made two of each.  One for my granddaughter and one for my great niece.  The long sleeved will be for Christmas and since each has birthdays early in the year, I figured I'd make short sleeved ones (with biker shorts) right away as long as I had everything out.  The pattern (Farbenmix "Olivia") is simple, simple and goes together probably faster than tracing the size and cutting it out.  AND, most importantly, kids love it!  I've made them before!  Knits are sooooo forgiving and fun!

So, my friends, that's it for today!  I have a few more things to show you this year and then I'll have to mess up my table again, I guess.  LOL  Yeah!  I'm already thinking of cool neat stuff!  Have a great day!

Told ya...

I'm sure that you remember me telling you what a disaster I had waiting for me on my dining room table?   Well, I wasn't kidding:

It took awhile, and I pondered on where to put it all (since I already look like a hoarder in my bedroom with bins stacked 4 high), but I cleaned it all off and this is what it looks like now:

I think I could use a centerpiece now, don't you?  OR....(and e-gads on this one), maybe I'll have to dig out some of that fabric and make a table runner?????

In the meantime, let me show something else I did this week.  Remember when I showed you this picture that I stole off of pinterest?

Gorgeous, right?  Since I have no canning jars with wide mouths, and really didn't want to invest in any, I visited my local Joann Fabric store and came up with this.  AND, believe it or not, with the vase, cranberries, and package of floating candles, it only cost me $6.50.  What a deal!  ('Course, I had coupons too.  LOL)

Now, for the good stuff!!!!  Because I'm in the holiday spirit and bought this stuff specifically for this reason, I am giving away this awesome package.  You will get approximately 3/4 of a yard of these darling circle prints by Kim Schaefer, (22 circles in all), plus 1 yard of matching stripe (in case you want to do something on the bias), and 1 yard of a matching Kona red fabric.  Can't you just imagine the darling pot holders you could make for family and friends?

Here's a close up of one of my favorite guys:

So, no big deal.  Just comment here, if you will, and I will have my darling husband pick a number (since I don't know how to use that goofy automatic generator thing) on Sunday.  How's that?  Make sure I can get ahold of you, should you win.  It'd be awful not to find you!!!  Until then, happy sewing, or cleaning, or cooking or whatever else fills your day!  Love ya!

The cat's outta the bag, so to speak....

I have been dying to tell you about this, but this will have to do for now:

http://www.sameliasmum.com/2011/12/summertime-issue.html

Stay tuned for the whole story when I get MY issue.  (The Australian to USA mail does take awhile, so don't hold your breath!)  In the meantime......go sew!

A few things...

No messy dining room table pictures, I'm afraid.....and NO, I haven't even started tackling that job yet.  It's still on my list of stuff to do!  I'll get to it though....I really will!  Today I'm gathering things for Goodwill so at least I'll get some junk out of here before the snow flies.  (I hate snow!)  Why I live in Wisconsin, no one knows.

My boys graduated from obedience classes yesterday.  Seems strange that although they both had 6-8 weeks of training (I don't remember which), that neither one will still come to me when I call if I don't have treats for them.  So what's with that?



On the sewing front, lots of the swaps are coming to an end for the year.  Boo-hoo!  Yesterday, I got this darling package from Nannette:



It was from the QT Swap and the theme was "Windows and Doors".  She noted that I mentioned somewhere that I was in love with the newest Malka Dubrawsky fabric so used what she got at the recent Houston market for the mini.  So cute!  And the extras were marvelous too!

Then, this week, another one of my newest swaps (and fun one too, I should mention), finished the last round for this year.  This is a unique swap.  You make a doll size quilt, send a photo to the administrator and she posts it.  After the allotted time, everyone who submitted a photo secretly votes and then the administrator sends you the information on where you should send the quilt you made.  So.....you have no idea until you get a quilt in the mail on which one you will get.  It's very cool.  This was my submission for this round which had a theme of "holiday":



I went a little nuts!  I think there are 38 buttons and I quilted it by putting a french knot in the middle of each star.  Duh!  You don't think I was a bit crazy after that????  Actually, though, I liked it so much as I was making it that I decided to make three skinnier ones for my friends using only 3 trees (and, as it turned out,) made up a pattern as a give away for my local quilt shop for their Wednesday night demonstrations:

 

Needless to say that none of those 3 got ANY french knots!  LOL

So, that's it for today.  I hope that you are all well, and engrossed in lots of stuff too.  December seems to fly by around here.  Now, if I could only make the rest of the snowy months do the same thing, I would be a happy girl!  Until next time.............

Busy, busy, busy!

Busy seems to be my middle name lately, as I'm sure it is with all of you.  One holiday down and only about 5-6 weeks to go until normalcy returns.  Thank God we haven't had any snow yet, that always seems to hamper my plans.  It seems there is something I must have immediately as the days go on, or things I think of, or run out of, or something or another, and clear weather makes it easier just to jump in the car and go without thinking.

I do have a couple to things to show you today though.  I got my swap package from my partner, Laney (lrmcdonald2000) from the mug rug swap and the rug is already hanging in my kitchen for the holidays.  I adore it!  Simple and sweet and on a white background just like I like.  We agreed that we'd make each other's portrait style rather than landscape style just for this purpose since I have only a tiny wall space that needed to be filled.



If you remember, this is the one I sent to her:



Then, finally I had a chance to make something that I wanted to do for a long time.  Months ago I joined the Charley Harper quilt along.  I really wanted to copy one of his awesome works for myself, but at the time was just too busy with the "Ladies".  Finally though, I was free enough, and inspired enough by this print  to make this:



I really had fun doing it, and it too, is hanging in my house for the holidays.  I think I'll pack it away every year with the Christmas stuff just so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

Today I have to tackle the dining room table.  UGH!  What a mess!  Next time I'll show you a picture (not that I haven't done that already on numerous occasions.)  I was going to do it yesterday, but decided to go to lunch and visit with a friend instead.  (After all, aren't we supposed to be of good cheer this time of year?  Hello!  That's what I thought too!)  Take care my friends, and breathe.........