Finished Four Christmas Ornaments

Last month I received a surprise from Julianne, my long time blogging friend.  She sent me Halloween ornament from one of my favorite designers: Prairie Schooler.  I wanted to surprise her with a little something so I stitched up this PS ornament...

2013 Gift 

Designer: Prairie Schooler

Design: O Christmas Tree ~ Book 183

Stitched for: Julianne P

I love the designs in PS Book #183 so much that I used the leaflet once again to stitch up this HOE Ornament Exchange for Becky K...

2013 HOE Ornament
Designer: Prairie Schooler
Design: O Christmas Tree ~ Book 183
Stitched for: Becky K

Such wonderful designs and what a great finish!

A few months ago Shirlee and I decided to do a Personal Ornament Exchange. We scanned through our many JCS Ornament magazines, came up with a list of about a dozen ornaments, and exchanged our list.  We were to select one ornament however, I wanted to stitch two for Shirlee and here they are...

2013 Personal Exchange
Designer: Little House Needlework
Design: Blue House in Winter
From JCS 2012
Stitched for: Shirlee H.

2013 Personal Exchange
Designer: Cathy Jean for Victoria Sampler
Design: Christmas Robin
Just Cross Stitch 2010 Ornament Issue
Stitched for: Shirlee H

The past three days I have been busy trying to construct a Christmas Wallhanging for a friend in Austria.  He works with my husband and I had the pleasure of meeting him when he came to our home last summer.  He often jokes with my husband about sending him a Christmas tree so when I saw this....

Pattern: Christmas Glitter

Designer: Susan Probst

Size: 19 x 28

I decided that it would be the perfect gift. This afternoon I completed the top, I just need to machine quilt and then embellish it ~ I will be busy this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by and...

Until Next time ~ remember:

The key to a happier and positive life is only surrounding yourself with those who appreciate you, talk kindly to you, love you, and make you feel better.

I surround myself with:

Back To Quilting

I have been quiet because I have been busy… QUILTING.  Yes, I have been spending more time behind the Bernina these days.  I recently completed a baby quilt for my neighbor, who will be having her 1^st baby at the end of this month.  I participated in a shop hop with some friends when I came across a pattern by Bunny Hill Designs titled, Binkies on Broadway.  Having recently seen the new baby room I knew that this was the perfect design. Fortunately, I was able to complete the quilt before the arrival of the new baby; that’s a first. 

Designer: Bunny Hill Designs

Design: Binkies On Broadway

Size: 52"x52"

Baby Gift



I am working on two other designs by Bunny Hill the first is Yoyoville. 

Designer: Bunny Hill Designs

Design: Yoyoville

Size: 69"x87"

I just love this quilt. I decided to stitch mine using a fall color palette and am busy making yoyo’s….lots and lots of yoyos!



The second design that I will be starting soon is called Little Friends. 

Designer: Bunny Hill Designs

Design: Little Friends

Size: 44"x52"

I am going to stitch mine in shades of blue, green and yellow and have put together this collection of fabrics…

I still want to “audition” a few more fabrics but I must get started soon.  My son’s friend will be having a baby in early November and I offered to stitch a baby quilt; what was I thinking???



A few weeks ago, our Quilt Guild held their first ever quilt show, and what a fabulous show it was!  Seriously, they had 200+ quilts on display and about 40 vendors, not bad for a local quilt guild.  I decided to enter my miniature quilt for judging and was very excited when I saw it on display looking like this:

Garden In Bloom

Miniature Quilt

Yes, I won two ribbons! I won 1st place in the miniature category and I was awarded a ribbon for Best Precision Piecing. The quilt measures 15"x18" and consists of 331 hexagons, all hand pieced.

I just mailed two exchanges so I should have some cross stitch pictures to share in my next post….whenever that might be.

As always thank you for taking the time to stop by.  I know that I have not been very diligent with my blogging but it always takes me SO long to create a post, sometimes it feels like a 9-5 job. :)

Until next time...

First Exchange of the Year Received

I arrived home after a fun filled weekend stitching at a Quilt Guild Retreat to find a package from Becky K. When I opened the envelope, I found this beauty:

Christmas Ornament Exchange
From Becky K.
Designer: Jeannette Douglas
Design: ’09 Christmas Stamp
2009 JCS Ornament Issue
Fabric: 28ct Opalescent

Becky stitched for me in the Christmas Ornament Swap. Wow, this is truly a gorgeous ornament. It has been beautifully stitched and finished and I simply love the Opalescent fabric; perfect for this holiday design. I love that the backside is personalized:

The beaded trim is such a wonderful accent! Thank you so much Becky for this beautiful ornament, I shall treasure it!

I recently attended a Saturday class at My Little House (Katy, TX) where we learned how to make this little Wool Feather Tree. The class was wonderful, probably because Jan, the instructor/shop owner, is a fabulous instructor and a wonderful person! When I left, I purchased some additional wool to make a few more of these; one will be a purple wool tree for Easter. I am thinking of making a larger Wool Feather Tree to display some of my cross stitch exchange pieces.

Wool Feather Tree

When I walked into My Little House I was in heaven! There is such a wonderful selection of gorgeous wool, a huge array of rug hook and punch needle patterns, as well as some beautiful shop models to inspire you. Not long ago I took my first Punch Needle class with Jan which I enjoyed. I am hoping to attend her regular Wednesday "Hook In" so that I can dedicate some time to my new punch needle project.

The deadline is looming and I am once again stressing over the completion of the next set of Pink and Brown Quilt Blocks! Although we have 2 months to make each set I tend to wait until the last minute to make the blocks. With only 7 more days to finish the 3rd set I am busy trying to complete 5 more blocks. Here is the block that just drives me crazy:

I must end so that I can head up to the sewing room and complete the remaining blocks. Oh, how I would rather sit down and pull out my PS Alphabet SAL or my HAED A Moment To Cherish!

Until next time...

Two More Generous Stitching Angels

Yes, I have been blessed by the generosity of two more stitching angels...

Three years ago, when I was venturing into the world of Blogging I was in need of assistance as I struggled to set up a blog. I am thankful that I met up with Vonna because with her help I managed to get myself up and running. She answered many of my “how to” questions and was always very patient as I stumbled. Fast forward three years and I am happy to say that I now know what I am doing (most of the time) but more importantly, I am still friends with this wonderful woman!

I recently received a package from this dear friend ~ Vonna bestowed this beautiful BBD Wool Appliqué Friendship Tree pillow upon me...

I love the design and the color selection matches perfectly with my flannel quilt. Thank you so much Vonna, your gift touched my heart! You will always remain a dear friend and I still hold out hope that someday we can be neighbors…I move a lot so there is hope. :D

Just days after Vonna's box arrived I received a package from another dear friend, CathyB. What a surprise to open it and find these beauties...

Yes, my mouth did drop open and does each time I pick these up…can you blame me? I do not know too many stitchers that do Hardanger work and I do not know any that do it as well as CathyB. I am thrilled and honored to receive the beautiful Fob and Doily.

I have a collection of small Limoges hinged boxes that I display in my coffee table, some have doily's under them and some do not. I knew immediately that this is where Cathy's Doily would go and I knew instantly that I wanted more so I have added "Hardanger work" to my 2010 "To Do List" ~ Wish me luck!

Here is a picture of the table display, I just love it! Thank you so much Cathy for the gorgeous gifts and for your gift of friendship. You made my heart sing and my display case look so much nicer! :)

I am participating in a quilting block exchange with a group of friends. Every other month we are to turn in a set of nine brown and pink block, the pattern is the same every month but the fabric selection is different. Here is a picture of the last set that I submitted...

We will each end up with 54 brown and pink blocks that I am hopeful will work up into a beautiful quilt top but we do not finish the exchange until September 2010 so it will be a while.

For the very first time I was able to meet a fellow blogger in person and it was really fun. I learned that Missy lives in a few short miles from me so we made arrangements to get together and stitch. I can't say that we got much stitching done but we certainly did do a lot of talking and I look forward to stitching/quilting with her again. Thanks for stopping by Missy!

I must end now so that I can do a bit a research on Hardanger. Thank you again to the two Stitching Angels Vonna and CathyB for the beautiful gifts!

Until next time...

Ambitious or Absurd? You Decide...

Do you remember back in January I set out on that endless journey to complete my first HAED titled, Wintery Heirloom? No need to get excited, I am not here to post that I completed that monster of a project. In fact, I have made very little progress:

January 2009

August 2009

What is wrong with me? Why can't I sit down and stitch on this?

Could it be that I was too busy contemplating my next HAED purchase?

HAED: Witches and Crones

Or, maybe this beauty…

HAED: A Moment To Cherish

Struggling to put needle to fabric on Wintery Heirloom one would wonder why I managed to press ADD TO CART becoming the proud owner of both designs!

Let me state this very clearly “I have BIG DREAMS of completing A Moment To Cherish before one of my sons decides to marry”~ With a 20 and 22 year old, I think (hope) I still have time!

But WAIT... did I have BIG DREAMS of completing that Folk Art Wedding Quilt for one of the boys? A beautiful block of the month by Robyn Pandolph. I believe I did, and over the course of about 4 years, I have managed to complete 4 of the 12 blocks…

Folk Art Wedding Quilt

Robyn Pandolph Block of the Month

This does not really qualify as “progress” now does it? Actually, I have not worked on this quilt for about 3 years. So much hand appliqué, so little time (or maybe interest)!

Much like the Bermuda Triangle many of my projects have become a modern mystery, disappearing into that “Stitcher’s Triangle” ~ a black hole that defies explanation.

So why, why, why do I continue to buy, buy, buy???

Blackbird Design: I Thee Wed
M Design: Family Tree

PS: Boo To You
PS: Christmas Eve

Ambitious OR Absurd? I will let you decide!

• Ambitious: Having or controlled by ambition
• Ambition: The desire for personal achievement
• Absurd: Ridiculously unreasonable, unsound

Yes, I do manage to complete some projects ~ usually those small ones. It's off to the Post Office with these two exchanges!

Until next time...

What A Treat...

To open a box from Paula C. and find all of this….

I could not get over her generosity. How lucky I was to win her Blogiversary! Would you believe that I remember reading Paula’s very first post? I have enjoyed it ever since! Thank you so much Paula for this amazing Give-A-Way, I especially love the stacked pincushion that you made and shall treasure forever.

Can you believe that I also won one of the 2nd place prizes on the Blackbird Design Blog?

Yup, I was one of the 133 people that entered a picture of my stitched Petites Lettres Rouges sampler and my name was drawn. Seriously, I can’t win a cake in a cakewalk maybe my luck has changed. Can you believe that 133 people stitched up this sampler? 132 of them probably linked to it from Vonna’s blog! Thanks for sharing Vonna; you are always so good about that. I shall post a picture of the card from Paris that I won when it arrives.

I am very happy to say that four of the stitched pieces that were almost accidentally discarded by my DH are now at the frame shop being framed. I decided that, for their protection, they needed to be framed and mounted on the wall. I still have about five more that need some form of finishing; they have been safely tucked away in my sewing room where no “man” dare enter!

There’s a new blog in town: Cross Stitch in the Garden by Beth…you may know her from Fanci That Designs. Actually, Beth is not new to blogging; she is returning to the blog world so stop on over and take a look... Welcome back Beth! :D

I was reading Heather’s blog and she mentioned that she has been doing far more quilting these days than cross-stitch…I remember those days, I had put down my tapestry needle in exchange for the tiny quilting needle and gave up on cross stitch for a number of years (so very hard to believe). In 2007 I switched back and have done very little quilt making, however, I am seriously considering starting this quilt:

Spinning Wheels Quilt

What is holding me back? Could it be the many unfinished quilt tops and bags of quilt blocks that I already have? Why YES! I don’t know, this quilt is calling my name and I am not sure how much longer I can ignore it~ time will tell.

Have you visited the All People Quilt website? There are some great quilting/crafting freebie projects, video instructions, tips, and much more. I have found instructions for projects that I can modify and use in my cross stitch finishing. I printed out the instructions for this Sewing Roll so that I could use it to finish one of my cross stitch pieces:

Instructions for Sewing Roll

Thanks to those that shared with me their “dog” stories, I found them helpful and encouraging. Lily now has her crate and does not seem to mind going inside when I leave but then again who knows if she is howling while I am gone…let’s hope not. As for the messed up wall ~ well, it is being fix thanks to my DH and his million gadgets and tools.

Have a great day!

Until next time...

Coffee Quilt

I love visiting Heather's blog because, not only does she do cross stitch, she is also a quilter! I too am a quilter and love collecting fabric, patterns, books and gadgets. I read quite a few blogs but Heather's is one of the few that also includes quilting. I love to see what beautiful quilt she has stitched! I kept telling her that I would post a picture of my Coffee Quilt, so here you go Heather :-).


For a number of years I spent the majority of my free time behind my sewing machine stitching quilt tops. About a year ago I returned to the world of cross stitch, entered the world of blogging, and became passionate about exchanges and round robins! So much of my time is spent stitching and visiting local (and not so local) needlework shops. I recently had a brilliant idea...I would go visit one of those "not so local" shops, a mere 3 hours way! I drove to The Stitchery/Needlearts, Keepsake Quilting in Center Harbor, NH. Yes, it was a long drive but worth the trip.

Although I have not abandon my machine it does get a lot more rest these days :-). While attend a quilt show in NJ, I noticed a great "Coffee" quilt displayed in a vendor's booth. I did what any true coffee lover would do...I rushed in, scooped up the last quilt kit, and paid for it~all in under 1 minute! Not a very difficult design at all, I pieced it in no time and sent it off to be machine quilted. No, I do not hand (or machine) quilt my tops. No time for that, my WIP list is much too long.

I am happy to say that my Coffee Quilt is hanging in my Vermont Kitchen. I should point out that my Vermont kitchen is in my VT house. One wonderful visitor to my blog read "my Vermont kitchen" and thought that I had more than one kitchen in my CT house (her comment made me laugh).

I am looking to post an online review of a Vermont Quilt Shop so if you know of a website please let me know~

Until next time...