All’s Right With the World…

Charming Chatter’s shop (Cotton Charm Quilt Shop) is having a Christmas Memories Give-Away….in order to enter you have to tell about a favourite Christmas memory! I have a lot of really good stories tucked away for another time…but the one I want to tell you about happened when I was about 7 or 8 years old.  First you need to know that I have a twin brother, Paul….(get it Paul and Paulette……I know, I know…ouch!) And you also need to know that Paul has always been a real character… and still is!

 

(Here we are at 7 years old…notice the matching jackets and look at the poor, pathetic Santa…it’s a miracle we grew up to be ‘fairly’ normal…. )

So the Story goes like this….

One evening, a few days before Christmas my parents were in the living room watching TV and Paul signals for me to come into our parent’s bedroom.  He had found my mother’s stash of Christmas presents still in their bags…but they were up on the top shelf of my mother’s closet. He wanted to get a better look and needed me to hold the chair so that he could climb up to the top shelf. So there I am holding the chair while he is standing on the back of it with his feet dangling out of the top of the closet…I’m sure you can guess what happened next!  Yup, the chair went flying and so did Paul… along with all of the unwrapped gifts!

My parents heard the crash and came running into the room to discover Paul laying on the floor clutching an unwrapped football!!   My Mom was so mad she told him she was returning the football to the store.  Paul was devastated as he REALLY wanted a football for Christmas! 

What did Paul find under the tree Christmas morning?… way in the back… under all the beautifully wrapped gifts….in the shape of a football…wrapped in brown butcher paper…yup, he got his football!…Touch down!  Good memory!

So Charming Chatter, if I should win your give away…I would LOVE to see this under my tree….Glace Fat Quarter Bundle by 3 Sisters for Moda…it would be WAY better than any football wrapped in brown butcher paper!

OR

Kansas Winter Fat Quarter Bundle by Kansas Troubles by Moda…I have a new Christmas quilt with your name on it just waiting to be stitched…

And as Bob Hope use to sing….thanks for the memories….Charming Chatter! Now it’s your turn….

On the home front~ Well the goodies are baked, the turkey is thawing, the house is clean, the dogs are shampooed and smelling mighty fine, the gifts are wrapped and under the tree, the house is all decorated and hubby is playing with his new iPod Touch, AND… all’s right with the world….Oh and I’m off to Hand Quilting! :o) We are true blue quilters…we quilt ALL year round regardless of the date…well maybe we would close down shop if today was the 25th but it’s not!  So see ya!

Have a wonderful Wednesday and Happy Quilting!

Singing in Harmony (by Moda!)

Look what I stumbled onto at Fabricland the other day….and for only $4 a metre (that’s 39 inches!)  I’m going to add it to my Harmony (by Moda) stash.

Then I popped into the Thrift shop on the way home and found this quilting book for only 50 cents.  I love the quilt on the cover and bought it just for that.  Did I mention it was only 50 cents…I mean really, what can you buy for 50 cents now a days?….think about it….NOTHING!…except this lovely little quilting book…

 

Don’t you just love thrifting…. :o)

Can’t you see this done up in my Harmony fabric?  I sure can….they’re singing in Harmony!

Christmas is only a few days away!  I hope your Christmas preparations are going well..and if they’re not…what the hey…no one is going to notice if the floor doesn’t get washed or the shortbread doesn’t get made.  The important things about Christmas can’t be polished or baked…

…put on some Christmas music, give those around you a hug  and all’s right with the world! 

Which reminds me – thanks to my blogging buddy, Julia from Julia’s Place, I have been listening to Christmas music all week - from my computer!!  If you are like me and are a computer moron, then maybe you don’t know about this site called Playa Cofi Jukebox.  It’s like a Jukebox and you select what you want to listen to…I love it!!  Thanks Julia!! I highly recommend the Current Top 20 – under Christmas…It’s a good thing! 

Today it’s grocery shopping for the BIG day and YIKES!  Got to bake that shortbread!!  To heck with the floors!

Have a terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting (if you have time)!

How many more sleeps…?

As I was putting new linen on the spare beds this morning it dawned on me that I haven’t shared some of my BEST garage sale finds EVER…

This cast iron bed…dated 1892 was 35 dollars!!  This elderly man was moving to a “Home” and needed to get rid of it as his children didn’t want it….it had been his Great-great grandmother’s when she was a child!…Sad when you think of it!  Imagine not wanting something that has been in your family for well over a hundred years!

The bed is so heavy you have to move it in sections….and there are no screws… it all fits together like a puzzle. 

We just moved this bed upstairs as we bought a Queen for downstairs…now that one of our daughter is married we had to rethink beds…if you know what I mean…I do want a grand-baby someday SOON!  No pressure or anything!   ( I remember my ex-mother-in-law did this to us when we were first married…kept asking when we were having kids….we out waited her eight years!  When she finally stopped asking was when we announce the impending visit from the stork….hmmmm maybe there is a lesson to be learned here….)

BUT…back to the GS finds….

Then I ‘stumbled’ onto this Queen size bed spread…it is hand croqueted in PERFECT-like-new condition…Again an elderly lady said her Aunt had made it while her husband was fighting in WW 2….He died so she put the bedspread in a trunk… never to use it.  Her niece inherited it and again didn’t have the heart to use it. 

Now it may sound like I am taking advantage of old people but it’s not like I am forcing them to sell their things…I just pay them what they ask and do a happy dance down their driveway. Have you ever seen the Ikea commercial where the woman gets her bags, looks at her receipt (smiles) and runs from the store screaming “START THE CAR!  START THE CAR!” –well that’s me…oh I can relate to the Ikea woman!  ;o)

I got this bedspread for $20!!  I almost felt bad…but the way I look at it I AM GOING TO USE IT AND I AM GOING TO ENJOY IT!! 

Don’t you love the hexagon shapes and the Dresden flowers in the middle…

 

See how you can see yellow in the little holes….well what you are seeing is this quilt underneath…another Garage Sale find.

This quilt is composed of handmade hexagons all hand sewn together…I found this in a huge black garbage bag of cotton scraps- which I bought for $4!  Imagine my surprise to find this quilt at the bottom of the pile!  I didn’t even know it was there until I got home and dumped the contents!  (the cotton fabric was a SCORE in itself!) The quilter who made this quilt had made it like a duvet cover so I washed it up and put a feather comforter inside…now it is so soft and poofy…very cozy and looks very homey!  Got to love it…SCORE! SCORE! and SCORE! (as we say in the Garage Sale world!)

  Top off the whole sheebang with a simple patchwork and we are good to roll….     Sleep tight….Santa will be here soon….!

Give Away Spotted!!  Look at what Mrs. Moen is giving away!  It’s the kit to make this lovely little Snow Village Runner….I LOVE this little village!In fact last Thursday I stumbled onto some black and white snow fabric – similar to this and thought of Mrs. Moen’s little village as I scooped it up and bought it!  So I am not going to enter this give away as I already have the snow fabric- It’s the snow fabric that really MAKES this runner sing!  I am hoping one of my loyal readers wins the kit so that we can both make Snow Village Runners together!  Thanks, Mrs. Moen….I think there are a lot of Village lovers out there!

Have a Merry Monday and Happy Quilting!