Merry December

WOW!! The Month is half over and I am writing my first post. Good thing its not my job huh, I’d be let go…….given the boot…..adios amigos!

Time just goes by and another day goes by and I don’t get this done. It is fun once I sit down and get going it must be the starting thing, unlike my quilting projects, there its the finish thing.

Anyway Thanksgiving was quiet and very nice……..gee I won’t go on about the last THREE weeks and bore you but it has been that long. Bad Girl!!!

Did you see the blocks on my header. I LOVE them, Kindra made them for me as a gift. Isn’t that just so nice of her. I have seen them around in blogland and spoke with her about them and she up and surprised me this week. I love surprises, they are so fun!! Thank you Kindra, I will treasure them.

Not to be to corny but our blog name kind of becomes our “brand”. It’s been fun this past year sharing my ordinary life like it was book worthy. LOL…….but really life is a big deal!!! I could get real philosophical about the whole thing but suffice it to say we all are worth it. Right…….I mean I spend hours reading all of your wonderful blogs and it is amazing how we all become so important to each other!! Where am I going with this? I have no idea……. but I know those blocks make me smile and blogging wasn’t even something I new much about 18 months ago.

I finished a fun project this week, I had to use a life line and phone a friend about the little noses! Yikes, I haven’t done alot of embroidery and this project had TWELVE noses……

As you can see they are somewhat of a focal point and I was wanting them to be perfect………well I got over that and just jumped in because my lifeline has her own life and has been very busy!!! She did call me today and reminded me we have a mutual friend who I could also have asked. Thanks for the call, it meant alot!

This mat is a Christmas gift and will be off Monday with the rest of the gifts to Omaha!! It is a Primitive Gatherings kit called “Love Ya Man!” It was so much fun to make, working with wool is wonderful.

We are enjoying a kind of heat wave today……..it is 50 degrees warmer than last week. We had more than a week of below zero temperatures and today we are 45. Its awesome!!! It is blue skies and sunny!! It’s almost like summer.. lol!

When we get cold weather we have the biggest icicles, they are pretty cool. I was loving them until I watched the news and they showed pictures of house with ice damns ruining there roofs causing $$$ of repairs bills. So I went out and knocked them down, changed the channel and watched something less scary. There were alot homes and businesses with broken pipes this week and I am so thankful we were not one of them. It kind of makes average temperatures something to be thankful for!!

A friend has started a new blog!!! Michelle of Mocha Moochell used to live in Bend and found mister wonderful and now lives in Portland! She has recently started quilting and is finishing up her teaching credentials. Go over and welcome her to blogging, she is having so much fun with her quilting and has some wonderful quilt shops to share with us!! I will get over to see you, your quilt shop sounds wonderful!

A little update on my boys……

Here they are with Mom at the piano. Krista is a music teacher, doesn’t she look happy!! We will miss them this Christmas, they are growing so fast!

Hayden is walking and is just adorable. They were so fun to shop for this Christmas. Look forward to more videos on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy all the festivities leading up to Christmas. My week is full of parties and decorating, I can’t seem to get it finished this year!

Prim Blessings,

Carrie

Tea Towel Embroidery, Sweet Spring Giveaway

Yesterday I spent some time going through my embroidery patterns, magazines and the web looking for ideas for my colorful tea towels. It was very fun and I think I found enough ideas to do more than three.
First I pulled out my Folk Art Friendship book, it is full of many varied projects. I want a vine to do along the bottom and something not to busy above it.

I found vines that I could repeat across, like some of these.

I like the dangling hearts on this one. And repeat the vine below it.Or Anne of Bunnyhill Designs has her A Tiskit, A Tasket BOM embroidery pattern.

I thought I had more Crabapple Hill patterns than I found so I went to Meg's website. I love this one. It is from her free downloads. It may be busier than I was looking for but it is perfect for my towels and just what I had in mind. May is Mother's Day and my birthday month. So I will do this on the turquoise towel.. using some brighter threads...... on top of the third vine, there are just X's, she has detailed instructions on some daisies free to download. So if you like this design go to the link highlighted above. You can see her new designs and she has a cute club you can join.

I shared previously about the Australian Homespun magazine. The have a lot of embroidery and here are three that I liked. A sweet house mini quilt, it would make a cute design, the trees are so cute, with Blessings and a heart.

This is to cute, maybe not for my towels, but it is part of their new mystery BOM, to support the National Breast Cancer Foundation. I would love to be doing this along with them, I am hesitant to start anything new. But these are really tempting me, it is block two of Breast of Friends, designed by artist Bronwyn Hayes of Red Brolly. This BOM will be revealed over the next nine months and there is a sneak peek of all the blocks in this issue. Are you as tempted as I am?

The link to Homespun for Breast of Friends: http://www.completecraft.com.au.

Well continuing in the same magazine is a project by Christine Book. I have a wonderful book by her, this basket of flowers is definitely jumping off the page for me. Very folky and just the perfect size. I love the tongues too, or the border pattern I could do as well.
Yes, I like this one very much as well. But maybe on some osnaburg, or some linen.

Well its always fun searching through patterns to find the design. It's part of the process of quilting that I love. Searching through fabrics is another. I have been going through my fabrics and doing some organizing a clearing out. I came along some 30's prints, I do not have alot of these but I have had some for a very long time. So I cut the 1/2 yards pieces in half and made fat quarters. While looking through my AP&Q June issue I came across this quilt.It really appealed to my desire for spring to get here fast. And I remembered those fat quarters. I made a couple stacks and I want to give one away. There are 16 pieces in the bundle. So leave me a message on this post and Sunday evening I will draw for a winner. That will give me time to add a couple things to juice it up abit.

I think these fabrics would work in this quilt, maybe you have your own idea. Its up to you, so pass it along to your friends, sharing is a good thing.

Thanks for stopping by and my very best spring wishes to all of you.

Carrie