Loving my Gap-Tastic Cowl!

Started last year, put it down, and finished it at the weekend,

 the amazing Jen Geigley's lovely gap-tastic cowl!

In progress pics - 

It's made using an absolutely lovely, soft and warm, alpaca yarn.

One quilt top done.....

So, out of my many wip's I actually got a quilt top almost finished,

all the blocks and sashing are there, but i'm going to do a kind of stacked coin border

to go around it.

It's made with Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers line, and since we have

both cats and a dog in our family we thought it was a cute

fabric line to go with.

All the blocks, except for two, were made by the lovelies in the Sew Fun Quilt bee,

thru' Flickr, I have a few more coming, but will use those on the back and for pillows.

Soon it will be a fully finished lap quilt for the cat to sit on soon.

Happy Quilting ♥

So, today.....

...as if I don't have enough wip's already ( note: deep sarcasm ), I bought these -

and with them, I'm going to make a bunch of these -

and then, I'm going to turn them into this -

I'm so excited, I can't wait to get started!

I was inspired by so many people posting pictures of these little cuties

 - known as granny squares! -

but also a lot by this QAL group

which has lots of advice and link to an awesome tutorial.

Here's to finding the time and energy in one place,

Happy Quilting ♥



more farming done today....

 Got a few more of these little gems done today, I was hoping to get four done, but oh well, it was dinnertime! I love paper-piecing, and these are a lot of fun. I was being a bit of a lazy farmer's wife though, and I've been skipping the freezer paper step of paper piecing, and I paid for it on the "Bat Wing" block, don't look too close to the edges!

 { Block #3 - Basket }

 { Block #4 - Basketweave }

{ Block #5 - Bat Wing }

now, a Farmer's Wife too....

 { Block #1 - Attic Window }

{ Block #2 - Autumn Tints }

So, after watching everyone's pretty little blocks popping up all over Flickr, and my fave blogs, I had to give in and become a Farmer's Wife too! I joined the flickr group and the Yahoo group and got started.

I decided to paper piece all the blocks if I can, much less scary than using templates, and the patterns for those are posted in the Yahoo group. I'm so far behind it isn't funny, but that's okay, they are a lot of fun to make, and I forgot how much I enjoy paper piecing, that I'll just plod on at my own pace, and enjoy the inspiration that everyone else provides. So much fun! ♥

those darn wip's!

I have too many wip's, it's official! Something must be done!

My { pitiful } excuse for this behavior is mostly that I hate basting, but hopefully I have found a solution to this problem - basting spray! I now have all the blocks back from the above quilting bee, they're just waiting to be sewn together and then let the basting begin!

If it works as well I hope it will, the many quilt tops I have laying around will be made into real finished quilts lickety-spit!

I love this particular quilt and I'm so excited to finish it. I love the way the "Tufted Tweets" pops out of the kona coal background, so fun. ♥

I ♥ love

{ images courtesy of WeHeartIt.com }

Are you ready for Valentine's Day?
Are you feeling inspired to make handmade lovelies?

I'm thinking of making pretty paper garlands to decorate, and I always make a handmade card for my sweetie. This post is also about things I love, like Blythe dolls and Alice in Wonderland, constant inspirations.

What do you love? ♥

the art of joy

This months featured Etsyblogger is The Art Of Joy, and what an awesome shop it is!

It is the creative shop of Joy, who lives close to my neck of the woods in the Capital region of Upstate NY. It is full of really lovely stationary just waiting to be personalised, anything from calendars, to invitations, to notecards. My favorite is the kokeshi dolls, but there's something for everybody, check it out!

Joy also has a supercute blog, where you'll find some lovely free printables, I can't recommend it enough, so go see already! ♥

Meet Amelia ♥

Shamefully, I've had her almost a year, but only displayed her out of the box prior to last week! The reason for my hesitancy was my fear of washing her hair! She came to me as an ADG Roaring Red Blythe, who has very tight ringlets piled up on her head, not an everyday look for sure. Last week I read through the 'This is Blythe' forums, and braved it! It went much easier than expected , and worked very well. Her hair is long and a little wild, but I'll brave cutting it later I think!
Yesterday, she braved the snow outside, but decided that she'd really rather be quilting, haha!

Have a wonderful weekend! ♥

{ holiday traditions }

{ building snowmen }

{ putting out favorite decorations }

{ mixing handmade and bought treasures }

{ wreath, birds and jingle bells }

{ the best tradition of all, decorating the Christmas tree }

There's nothing like the tradition of decorating the house and tree in preparation for the holiday, especially with small children, their joy and delight is a pleasure to watch. We got our tree yesterday, and tonight we will be getting out all the familiar ornaments from years past to trim it with. Another tradition is receiving a new ornament each on Christmas morning that can then be added to the tree, fun indeed to see what Santa brings.

Here's to the Holidays, whichever one you celebrate, it certainly is a magical time of year! ♥

It's my turn again, woohoo!

It's my month in a quilting bee, and it's soooo exciting! It'll be like Christmas all month long, watching the lovely members of the Bee-Stitched quilting bee posting my blocks. I decided on a simple, but lovely, nine-patch half-square triangle block, using kona espresso as my background, and the lovely Innocent Crush in Petal palette from Anna Maria Horner's latest line.

I'll post another picture when I've got them all back. It's going to be a huge quilt, for my hubby and I's bed, the first one I'll have made that size! I may have to pay to get it quilted, we'll see.

I'm also making two more quilts, one for each of my sweeties. My son's is also a half-square triangle quilt, in kona ash and various green prints, and is looking lovely so far. My daughter's is going to be a pink and orange fairytale quilt, but haven't yet decided on the perfect block.

Happy Sewing! ♥

Scrappy Mug Rug rec'd!

Rec'd my holiday time mug rug from the lovely Anita {aka - rhubarbpatch}, along with yummy fabric and holiday tea, and how cute is the postcard she sent too, lucky me!

The scrappy mug rug swap on flickr is such a fun swap, you get to use up some of your smaller piece scraps to make what is effectively a mini quilt, then you get one back to put your mug on! Got to love that! If you're interested check out the link to the right ----> and sign up for the next one, in the new year. ♥

Featured Etsyblogger for December is...

...Pruitt Hand Crafts!

Congratulations Linda! Not only has Linda got an Etsy shop, but three no less! There's PruittHandCrafts, where you can find "all things fabric and fun", like ornaments, aprons and cup cozies. Then, check out her jewelry, like the pieces featured above, in her second shop, PruittDesign. And, then last, but not least, is PruittSupply, a shop absolutely chock-a-block with all the supplies you could need, like paper, beads, yo-yo's and fabric, a treasure trove indeed.

Linda is a lovely and supportive member of this team. She lives in the very creative Portland, Oregon, and is a breast cancer survivor, and a Grandmother to an amazing 24 grandchildren. An amazing lady indeed! So go check out her shops and then her blog and stay awhile. ♥