Oops....

I cannot believe I posted today and forgot to mention a give-away! Go see Melanie at Kimono Reincarnate and enter her give-away - oh my gosh she makes the most gorgeous things!!!!!

Oh dear that means this is post 95. Only 5 more to go til my give-away!

Now What?

A very sweet friend recently sent me a pattern, all the way from Tasmania. She showed a picture of this quilt made up on her blog, and I fell in love with it. Thank you Bell, I can't wait to make it!







What I love about this pattern is that the daisies cover any points that don't match. *G* They don't call me Allie-OOPS for nothin'.



And I won a give-away over at Jan's blog:







The cutest towels with stitcheries, cookies for Santa. My mom is going to love these - she once spent $300 at a home party for Christmas decorations. The woman goes all out. She usually has her tree up until June.



And I finally finished Jenny's In My Garden stitcheries. Oh my gosh do I love these.







Hold onto your monitors, I took pics of them all.



















I guess I should've brushed the lint off first. Please disregard the awful job I did on the binding....I love pieced binding, but it's a bit tricksy. I dug into my vintage button stash and had so much fun. I want to hang these on a clothesline with vintage clothes pegs. They are really going to brighten up my sewing room!



So, the title of my post - now what? I have so many projects ready to start, that I don't know which one to pick up! The Gum Tree designers have been so busy, I want to make each project there, of course the towels and the quilt I showed at the beginning of this post, the stitcheries of Jenny's that I haven't started yet, all the bom's I've been saving, and dh's quilt....sigh. AND - my up-coming give-away project! This is post 94, there will be a give-away at number 100. I guess I'd better start with that! This will be only for my regulars followers - you won't be blogging about it. I'm very excited to finally have my own give-away! I've been so blessed by all of you in blog-land, and at last I can give back a little.



I have so much to do, what am I doing sitting here? See you soon!

A Thankful Heart

Colossians 4:2 tells us to have a thankful heart. Sometimes, that's a struggle - I've done my best, in good times and bad, to cultivate a thankful heart, by counting my blessings, by thanking the Lord for everything. It's easy when things are going well, not so much when everything looks bleak. But it never ceases to amaze me how the bleakness lifts when I do it anyway, in spite of circumstances. The joy of the Lord surely is my strength!

This week, it's been easy to cultivate a thankful heart. Thanks to blogland friends who reach out and pray, or just email to let me know they're thinking of me, I appreciate you all.

Today, I recieved a parcel from Niki at Pumpkin Country, just because. Just because she is sweet and lovely, and one of my favorite people. Niki knows all about struggles and her sweet spirit shines right through them.



Is that not too darling for words? I wish you could touch these, they are so soft, and I can't stop. Look at these lovely little pennies:



You know you'd be petting them too.



And CROWS. I have nothing with crows on them - and I love them! Niki, you are too sweet - I opened the package and went running for my camera, I couldn't wait to show everyone. Now if I can just keep my mom from seeing them.....she can't have them! Thank you, darling Niki!

Last week, I showed you the latest stitcheries I'm doing, from Jenny of Elefantz - her design set called In My Garden. The designs incorporate rick-rack and buttons. I didn't have any rick-rack - and Carrie from A Passion For Applique emailed me and offered to send me some of her vintage rick-rack.



I don't know how, but the colors are PERFECT for these stitcheries. Carrie, I appreciate this so much! Look how well the yellow goes -



And the other colors go perfectly as well! I was dreading doing the rick-rack and Carrie, you took the dread right out and turned it into joy. Thank you dear heart! The next one to use it will be this one:



I want to get all the stitching done first, then the rick-rack, and then I'll pick out buttons - I'm looking forward to pulling out all my vintage buttons for this stitchery. I don't get to play with them nearly enough. Most of the stitching on the others are done, I'm saving the rainbow for last so I can use all the colors of floss I've used in the other stitcheries.




Aren't they sweet?

One last but not least thing to tell you - Sue over at Blueberry Buckle Quilt Studio is having another give-away! Go vote on which fabric you like best, and tell her what fabric you use most. She's giving away a jelly roll of Objects of Desire by Sandy Gervais for Moda!

And just cuz, one more shot of soft woolly goodness:



Go find something or someone to be thankful for!

New Give-Away Alert

And boy is it a good one! A new-to-me blog, Pumpkin Patch Primitives, you need to run over there and take a peek. I read about it on Terry's blog, and if you go and enter, please give her Terry's name instead of mine to give her more chances to win it, ok? Three prizes and boy are they wonderful!

Something For You, Something For Me

First, something for me - all the way from Australia! Dawn from Dawn Hay Designs sent me the most darling little parcel, just because -



Dawn, you are just the sweetest, I adore this fabric and can't bear to cut it until I find just THE right thing to use it for - and would you look at that lovely koala? Isn't he sweet? And the floss - oh how I love floss, and this is a lovely color! Now you know I'll be using an Australian design for this! Dawn is a member of the Gum Tree designers, and she is FABULOUS! Go see!

And now, something for you - I made a design for my partner in the Hug Swap, Dawnie from Itching for Stitching.....and I promised to make it available for you. I also created another to go with it, and you can get them here. I call them Wee Roses.



Now I must go cut my boy's hair, since he has tried himself and it's a little ragged. Seems like I had more to say but I'm being pestered. *G* Have a wonderful day everyone!

Stuff - Lotsa Stuff

I've been kind of busy. Mostly reading blogs this weekend - the Blogger's Quilt Festival is so fun. But I've also done a few other things recently.



I was honored to test a pattern for Linda from All Stitched Up. She makes really lovely bag patterns, and this is the one I made. This is the Uluru Sunset Bag, and it's available in her etsy shop.









It has two large pockets inside. I use it all the time - even used it for the Sewing Expo instead of a purse, it held all my goodies!



Remember the Hug Swap? Scroll down a bit to see what Dawnie made for me - this is what I sent her.











I made a cover for Granny's sewing machine.







I'm sending that out this evening. Click on Granny's picture on my sidebar to go visit her - she is precious. She has a birthday coming up, she'll be 96, and she makes a quilt a week. She's my hero.



I also mentioned last post that I started on Jenny's In My Garden pattern. I used mainly Moda Recess for the applique, but also a little bit of a 30's charm pack.











And woohoo, I'm using the variegated floss I got at Expo! So much fun. These stitcheries will have lots of stitching added, some rick-rack if I can find it, and some vintage buttons. I'm making each one seperately, so I can be diverse in hanging them up.



The design I did on Dawnie's mug mat is one I created for her. I made another one with the same style rose, and both will be available later this week as freebies from me to you. I'll let you know when I get them up.



Now I'd better get over to the library - I have a whole shelf of books on hold, waiting for me! Yippee! Have a great week!

She's At It Again!

Sue at Blueberry Buckle is having another give-away - she seems to do this a lot, so I urge you to become a follower, lol - I did! Eight fat quarters of the new Shade Garden line is on the table for this one. Lovely stuff!

Have you seen the new free pattern by the Gum Tree Designers? It's from Joy at Joypatch and it's darling!

I've been busy working on Jenny's In My Garden designs, I used a Moda charmpack of Recess for the appliques - OH MY I love it - can't wait to show you! This week, Lord willing and the batteries don't fail!

The Quilt Show Is Here!

Amy from Park City Girl is hosting another Blogger's Quilt Festival, lots of wonderful eye candy [do you remember how big the last one got?] This quilt is my entry.



I made this for a friend's daughter who was getting married. It was the biggest machine-embroidered quilt I had made to date. It seemed endless! It was also purple, which is really not my favorite color - quite the contrary - I have a hard time working with purple. But it was her favorite color so purple it had to be. Which is a good thing, because if it had been any other color, I would have been tempted to keep it, lol! The designs were all freebies I found on the net and I really loved them. I totally underestimated the time it would take and it didn't arrive until after the wedding, but they loved it.

Head on over to Amy's for the huge show - and keep checking back, it'll get bigger as time goes on! Don't forget to enter your own!

Give-Away Alert!

One yard of Kona cotton solid in color of your choice - go to Blueberry Buckle and leave a comment, and tell everyone you know! I love love love the Bubblegum!

Over The Moon

In a vintage balloon! The mailman came yesterday. Don't you just love the mailman? I do. He brought me two packages!

The first was a give-away win from Jan at Just-A-Mere. She was downsizing her apron collection and look at the beauty I won!







Mustard and grey. With black rick-rack. GORGEOUS.







Looks kinda blue in that pic, but it's grey. And she sent a card that matched perfectly - not intentional, she says, must've been her unconcious artists' eye!







Thank you Jan, I love it! That pocket will come in handy for holding my phone!



The second package was from Dawnie at Itching for Stitching. She was my Hug Swap partner, and am I glad. I only hope she likes her gift I made for her half as well as I love mine. Dawnie says she had a hard time doing pink, and retro, it's not her usual style, but I think it should be - she did a fabulous job on this!







Look at the sweet little label she made too!







She even drew a mug on the letter she sent. This girl has it going on.







Needle-turn applique heart on the mug hug. *swoon* And her stitching is exquisite.







Dawnie, I love it so much, and I think it's the best one out of everybody's - thank you dear one!



And now for something I need help with. I made this block for Terry's quilt.







The long-armer says she's going an all-over quilted pattern, and it will go over the lettering, which is kind of dense - I'm a bit worried that her needle will get stuck in the lettering. I'm thinking of making something different. What do you think, ladies? I could do a different block with handwritten lettering instead, or just make a normal block. Any input is welcome!

Halloween Give-Away

Sweet Niki from Pumpkin Country is giving away a lovely little cross-stitch pumpkin she made - go see, it's darling!