Winter Solstice…the Grand Finale!!

Well…this is it gang…Winter Solstice finished or almost finished!  The Sew A-Long Gang all agreed that this was a fun, fast and easy project to make…and very of course, very SWEET!

So on with the show…

Here’s Glynis’ Winter Solstice…finished and gorgeous!

And it’s a finish for Claire’s!  Claire opted for a plain wide blue border and it looks striking!

Seattle Judy’s Winter Solstice is magnificent!

Sandy (no blog) added green checkerboard to hers and it looks wonderful!!  Doesn’t the green make the trees pop!  And I LOVE those pink polk-a-dot socks!

Here’s Julie’s (no blog)!  If you remember Julie was late starting her quilt but she is moving along at a nice clip and it is looking spectacular!!

And here’s mine…all done!  Now to figure out how to quilt it! I am so happy with it and certainly don’t want to screw it up now! haha

Another thing that  we agreed on is that having a Winter Solstice Quilt Along kept us motived and on track…and FIVE of us (almost six) reached completion!  Wow!  Those are pretty impressive odds!

Now let’s check up on the participating bloggers who are also making their version of Winter Solstice…come on how did you do?

So far, I have only heard from Stitching Between the Lines Blog and Tin TeePee/Log Cabin blog… but I’m sure that there are more ‘out there’??

Stitching between the Lines got her lambs done and man, are they  sweet! Pam is also saying that the border and quilting will be done by the actual Winter Solstice!  Can’t wait to see how she quilts it!!  So stay tuned!

Tin TeePee/Log Cabin Blog, Janna, managed to get her checkerboard border partway finished!  Right now Janna has been VERY busy flying here, there and everywhere!  I’m shocked that she got THIS much done!!!  Kudos to you, Janna!  Your quilt is on the home stretch and will be finished before you know it!  AND might I add, it is looking spectacular!!

A special thank you to those of you out in BLOGLAND who have been cheering us on each month as we continued to build and stitch our little farms…we really appreciated it!!

Remember, it’s never too late to make one for yourself…

You can find the pattern in this book…an oldie but a goodie!

And this is the pattern…

Have a FUN Friday and have a safe and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!~P

Be the Good…

Today it’s Glynis’ day to shine…and SHINE SHE DOES!!  Glynis has been busy stitching Primitive Gatherings’ Sunflower Summer BOM…Now, when you order the Summer BOM, part of the package deal is you get another FREE project kit!  This year the FREE kit was called “Believe”.

I mean, really, does it get much cuter? 

I think not…

Lisa Bongean from Primitive Gathering out did herself and Glynis, with her bits of wool and thread, did an amazing job!

The background and snowball blocks are made of soft PG flannels…the daisies and the basket are made from the softest PG wool…what a combination!  BAM!  For such a small mat it packs a whopping punch! 

Glynis changed the pattern a bit.  Instead of stitched daisies around the quilt, she stitched wee coloured circles of wool daisies for more of a colour impact!  They REALLY do POP now!

And the sentence stitched at the bottom of the quilt…

… “Believe there is good in the World”…with BE THE GOOD in red…sending out a subtle message.  LOVE IT!!

Yup, I BELIEVE Glynis outdid herself once again!  Love my talented, woolie friends!  Thanks for sharing, Glynis!

If you want your own kit then go HERE…I’m sending you to Primitive Gatherings’ Shop…it’s up to you to find it!  Yikes…I can never find what I am looking for when I go there!!  Maybe it’s not offered for sale yet?  IT’S BEEN FOUND…GO HERE!!  Would you BELIEVE that the kit is ONLY $22.50!!

WINTER SOLSTICE QUILT ALONG…our big reveal is TOMORROW so make sure you come back for a look-see!  You will be amazed…you will be impressed…you will be inspired…you will ready for Winter Solstice!!  Will I see you tomorrow….? 

Have a thrilling Thursday and Happy Stitching!~P

The Wedding Quilt…

With the rainy weather finally here, I can be found huddled up in my sewing room… attacking ‘The Wedding Signature Quilt’!   

You may remembered that my daughter got married this summer. 

 

Instead of signing a guest book, we asked the guests to sign scraps of fabric which would be added to the quilt blocks…

Maggie and Toby picked Kate Spain’s new line of fabric called “Horizon”…gorgeous fabric..It had all of the wedding colours in it plus a dash of the mountain views…greens, blues.  This fabric was so ‘hot off the racks’ that it wasn’t even out yet…so we pre-ordered it and it arrived last month…and let me tell you it was PERFECT!

So let me burst that wedding bubble and take you to mama sewing in the sweat shop…:o) where I formed the blocks…Maggie chose a simple pattern…

…and we let the fabric sing!  I absolute LOVE the fabrics…they are light and airy and happy!  (Could there be a modern quilter hiding in my soul??)

I have more rows to go but it is taking shape…and I think the newly weds are going to love it!!

So back into the sweat shop for ME!  And bring back that wedding bubble…

With lots of sweet, sweet memories…

of a very beautiful day!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday and Happy Stitching!~P

Claire’s On a Roll…

You can tell that two things are happening here on the West Coast of Canada…Christmas and Winter are fast approaching and our weather has been rainy and cold keeping Claire inside where she has been stitching her heart out!

Just LOOK at her latest creation!

Is this not the cutest!!  (And NO that is not a question…it’s a FACT!)

Would you believe that Claire used a needle punch pattern to make this sweet mat?   Shawn Williams is the designer of ‘Frosty Flakes’.  Claire took a green piece of Valdani thread and strung wee seed beads on for her illusion of lights!  Genius!

Here’s what it looks like as a needle punch…a totally different look!

Dang cute…but as Claire says, one hobby is enough for this lifetime!  Having said that…THIS IS stinking cute!  SEW…just in case YOU could use another hobby…or would like to make the wool applique version, you can find the pattern HERE!! :o)

It’s so nice to have talented, crafty friends!  They keep this ol’blog hopping!  I say, bring it on!  :o)

Have a terrific Tuesday and thanks for stopping by!  Happy Stitching!~P

A Christmas Quilt

I just finished reading ‘A Christmas Quilt’ by Sandra Dallas and I must say I was VERY pleasantly surprised!!  I loved the book!  It is historical fiction at its finest! 

Here’s a snapshot of what the story is about…

It is 1864 and Eliza Spooner's husband Will has joined the Kansas volunteers to fight the Conferedates, leaving her with their two children and in charge of their home and land.   Eliza is confident that he will return home, and she helps pass the months making a special quilt to keep Will warm during his winter in the army.  When the unthinkable happens, she takes in a a woman and child who have been left alone and made vulnerable by the war, and she finds solace and camaraderie amongst the women of her quilting group.   And when she is asked to help hide an escaped slave, she must decide for herself what is right, and who can she can count on to help her.

This is only a snippet of what the story is about.  There was so much more going on…and I loved the ending!  Sandra Dallas did a wonderful job of capturing the hardships and sacrifices made by the women of this time.  She captured my interest from the first page to the last!  And of course it didn’t hurt that these incredible women were busy making quilts while suffering through all the hardships and loss! 

If you like a good read, then you will love this book…SEW put it on your Christmas Wish List!

If you belong to the Heritage Quilt Guild than you can sign this book out of your NEW Fictional section of your lending library because that’s where this copy is going!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Have a merry Monday and Happy Stitching!~P

Warning! Stinking CUTE ahead!!

My friend and fellow woolie, Claire, has just finished stitching her little wool mat…soon to be pillow…and let me tell you,  it is cUte…stinking cute!

Claire took one block from ‘Winter Sampler’ by A Piece of Work and turned it into a piece of art…using bits of wool and her needle as the magic wand!  This is going to be a darling pillow…and you know how we WOOLIES love our sheep…just saying, we love our sheep! 

Have you had a good look at ‘Winter Sampler’ from A Piece of Work?  The possibilities for this pattern are endless as each stitchery block is sweet on it’s own but together…OMGosh!  Cuteness OVERLOAD!

 

Hopefully you can click on the picture and expand it…if not, go HERE!  You are going to want to see this pattern up close and personal!!  See if you can spot Claire’s wee lamb!

Thanks for inspiring us and providing us with the eye candy for today, Claire!  Your workmanship is out of this world!

Wishing you all a SUNNY Sunday and Happy Stitching!~P

Home For the Holidays…NOT!

I may not be “Home for the Holidays” this year but that doesn’t mean that’s it’s not PREPPED!! :o) I am talking about Lisa Bongean’s “Home For the Holidays”! This quilt has been on my ‘TO DO LIST’ since I first laid eyes on the pattern…I LOVE IT!!

While the sewing room was still a wool disaster, I thought I would just ‘get ‘er done’ and ‘get ‘er done’ I did!!

As you can see these wool appliques are much simpler than yesterday’s motifs so this didn’t take all that long to do…

Love the chubby thighs on the gingerbread boy!!

 

This pattern was a JOY to work with, as are all of Lisa Bongean’s patterns!  She gives you a cutting pattern, plus a placement pattern!  The BONUS is all of the pattern pieces are already reversed!  She REALLY knows how to design a pattern!

       

Now I just need to make the ‘snowball’ blocks, transfer the writing, (which will be a breeze thanks to  Lisa’s placement pattern) and glue down these motifs and I will be ready for stitching!!  I tell you, Lisa thinks of everything to make a project do-able and user friendly!!  No guess work with her patterns!

Today I am cleaning my sewing room!!  It looks like a WOOL hurricane with the wind velocity of 4 hit my room!  And of course my little furry helper has helped moved these bits and pieces throughout the house!  I have my work ‘cut out’ for me!  :o)

Have a SUNNY Saturday and Happy Stitching!~P

My Christmas Skirt…

The other day I was leafing through this magazine…it’s called ‘Magic Patch’…an older issue of the Australian magazine that I found in my ‘travels’.

Well…as I was leafing through it, I came to THIS PAGE…well the Heavens opened and heavenly music began playing…I swear!! It stopped me in my tracks!  I loved this table topper…I loved the shape of it and the ‘idea’ of the appliqued motifs (not necessarily THOSE motifs…), I also loved the multi coloured stars embroidered on the whole thing to tie each section together and the crazy stitching between each section!  I had to make this one!

It called for fabric that is already quilted…and I had a light bulb moment!  I had bought a bundle of pre-quilted fabric while at the Hemet ‘Boutique’ this year!  Do you remember their FILL A BAG FOR $1?  Yup…this piece got stuffed into my bag!  So I pulled it out of my stash and…it’s perfect!!…it was a HUGE piece and I liked it better than the magazine fabric!  Eureka!  But it is white…SNOW WHITE!  I did the burn test to see if the fabric was actually cotton and could be dyed…and sure enough it was the real deal!!

So I brewed up a batch of tea…

Ooops!  Get those tea bags out of there!  I also added our morning coffee left overs!

And then left it outside to set…

I LOVED the mottled colour but hated the tea/coffee smell…so off to the wash machine it went…then the dryer!

Here’s a picture before it got washed.  Perfect and the washing just softened the colour up a bit. 

I used the template in the magazine and cut out the wedges…don’t you love the subtle mottling…

The first one to get a wedgie is my Christmas Lamb…She will eventually have a Christmas wreath stitched around her neck…

The stocking was hung by the lamb with care

…notice the motifs are still on the Mylar (clear plastic) so that they can be repositioned later…)

I had to have Frosty!

And I had this sweet pattern with tumbling gingerbread men…

So of course they went on…(I will embroider the garland later…cute!)

And I gave Santa a wedgie too!:o)

It’s growing…

Next came a poinsettia… taken from a Primitive Gathering pattern!

And a Christmas Tree…

YIKES!!  SEE the spots on the blank wedge (upper left)…those are REAL PAW prints!!  We just got back from our hike and Rylie was inspecting my work!  It’s all good….the fabric IS mottled and a motif of Rylie is going on that wedge!  It’s only fitting that paw prints should grace her wedge! haha… I just need to take the pattern to Staples to expand it to the correct size! 

So there you have it so far…Last night I slid each motif off of the Mylar and glued them down, ready for stitching!

A giant star will be appliqued over the centre points and I’m sure more ‘stuff’ will be added as I go!

Like the HO HO HO…that got added as I watched TV last night!

This will be my hand stitching project while driving down south this Winter.  I am a nervous passenger(YIKES to those Freeways!!)…so this will keep my eyes off the road and onto my work and for this my hubby is VERY thankful! :o)

Have a FUN Friday and Happy Stitching!~P