I’ve made a couple of Ann Hermes small quilt patterns in the past and enjoy her designs. Here is another one, 23 inches square, with rolling stone blocks, that I finished last night.
A perfect addition to my ever changing little quilt wall.
I’ve been spending a some time on my applique block for Florabunda.
…and bits of time here and there on those addicting Dear Jane blocks.
…but most of my time with these two.
And loving every minute.
I sat down to make a Dear Jane block…or maybe two… but found I just couldn’t stop there. Before I knew it I had ten blocks finished and several more cut out and ready to go. I’m loving this project.
Our new little granddaughter is here and she’s such a sweetheart.
We’re all feeling very blessed.
The latest American Patchwork & Quilting magazine came and inside I found a sweet little bunny quilt designed by Anne Sutton and Vicki Bellino. It didn’t take long to make one up in my daughter’s nursery colors. It is now ready and waiting with the rest of us for the baby to arrive
…which is any day now.
I spied an awesome BOM called Florabunda beginning over at One Piece at a Time. Next thing I know, I’m rummaging through my stash looking for the perfect fabrics for my new project. And getting more and more excited about working on it.
To balance things out, I completed another project the other day. This little quilt is 20 inches square and used up some of my very tiny scraps. It’s a Moda Bake Shop pattern by Sheryl Johnson.
Hurray!! My machine is home again and running better than ever. It didn’t take as long as I worried it would and I was able to finish the baby quilt just in time for my daughter’s shower.
The shower was great. It was hosted by her sister. Instead of a game, everyone decorated “Onesies” and had fun being creative. Then there were cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, which was very appropriate for this cold and snowy day.
I also have another quilt in the works for our new grandchild that involves a lot of hand stitching. I’ve been trying to get it done before the baby arrives but I’m quickly running out of days.
Argh! Throw myself on the floor, kick and scream, moan and groan! At least that’s what I feel like doing. Mostly I just feel blue. My BFF is broken. It’s basically the end of the world.
I was stitching along last night on this little project…
Almost had the top finished. It was quite late and I was tired, but thoroughly enjoying myself and having so much fun when all of a sudden the thingy that holds the needle came down on my knuckle. There was pain and some bleeding but nothing compared to what it did to my machine…it won’t sew!! It moves up and down but won’t make stitches. Cry, weep, sob.
It is going to the sewing machine hospital and I will miss it. I hope it comes home very soon because...
…I have till Saturday at 1:00 to have this finished, borders, quilting, binding and all in time for my daughter’s baby shower.
This little one (complete with her sock on her head) and I had great fun opening packages today after our mailman came by. It was almost like Christmas all over again.
First was a pretty package filled with sweet fabric and a darling quilt pattern. It was sent to me from Kris for the One Project a Month challenge. My name was drawn from the list of those who hung in there all year long. It was such a good program that I have signed up again for another year. Thank you so much Kris! You are very thoughtful.
Inside another package was a book. My name was drawn for a gift certificate to Cottage Quilts from the One Year of Schnibbles group. I have been admiring this book by Kim Brackett for awhile and knew that was what I was spending my certificate on. Watch out, my huge bundle of scraps, I have big plans for you now!
And last, but not least, ….My favorite TV series of all time…..Columbo! Every year for Christmas my dear Mr. Sunshine gives me the latest Columbo series that’s been put out on DVD. This year we both kind of forgot about it until afterwards. But he sent for it anyway because it arrived in today’s mail. Just a couple more years and I will have collected all of them. I never get tired of watching this guy solve the mystery! I’m really looking forward to this evening when I settle down in front of the TV with my hand stitching and Columbo!
Now that Christmas sewing is over, it’s great to be back at work on my Dear Jane blocks. They are such sweet little things. I started to plan my progress for finishing them all but quickly put a stop to that kind of thinking. Instead, I am going to just relax and enjoy my time with each block, love the process and not worry about anything else. So far they are fun and I want to keep it that way.
Much of the blog talk these days is about New Year’s resolutions. I gave that up a long time ago…instead I have a Word of the Year that I keep in the back of my mind and use to inspire myself. I started in ‘07 with “seed” which worked out pretty well. So then came “laugh” (appropriate, as it turned out, for a year with cancer) and last year was “heart”. These words have had deep meaning to me. Now my word is “reaching”. I found it in the Bible and when I read it, it just seem to apply. It goes with so many things coming up in my life.
And speaking of reaching, last year I participated in Kris and May Britt’s One Project a Month Challenge. It was great!! I finished 27 sewing projects and 15 of those were quilts! The OPAM Challenge surely helped me with that and kept motivating me along. So a big THANK YOU is in order to Kris and May Britt for their awesome idea and so much hard work.
Kris and Peg are hosting it this year and I hurried to sign up again. That means I better get busy so I’ll have a finish for this month.
Here’s to another great year!
Christmas is over and it was wonderful! Family, friends, smiles and laughter, gifts and giving and delicious food. Lots of work and lots of joy.
Tons of thanks to Teresa for the Advent Swap. So many pretty fabrics and fun surprises. And the best of all on Christmas morning….a beautiful sewing case to keep threads, scissors and needles. It is just amazing to look at.
I finished my Schnibbles for December and they became gifts…
And now the cleaning up and putting away. It puts me in the mood to straighten and organize. I’ve been busy rearranging my sewing space. It will be nice to have things ready for a Happy New Year of projects!
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