Postcards From Heaven, Block One

Yay, it's time!  Are you ready for the sweetest EVER bom???  Jenny has uploaded the first block!

Shamelessly stolen from Jenny's blog, as her pics are so much better than mine.

"Postcards From Heaven" is a collaborative effort by me and Jenny Reynolds, of Elefantz fame.  We're tag-teaming designs - Jenny is January, I'm February, etc.  Each month you'll get a free design to stitch, and our hope and prayer is that it blesses you as much as it has us!

My big goal for the coming year is to walk closer with the Lord, to grow in grace, to know Him better - and to remember His promises.  This is such a fine way to do that!  Jenny has made her design into a small quilt, while I'll be adding mine all together into a bigger quilt.

Jenny has all the information on her blog, so please click over and see!  Click >>HERE<<.

I'm planning on doing all the designs in redwork.  I haven't chosen my sashing fabric yet - normally I choose my fabric first, then the floss, but I'm doing things backward this time.  One thing I'm doing a little different from Jenny, is that I'm using scripture from the King James bible.  Also, I'm stitching a border around mine - to look more like a postcard in the bigger quilt that I'll be making.  The frame will be on all of my patterns, you can use it or disregard it, your choice.

Please forgive the awful picture - it's winter here and there's no light!  See why I used Jenny's picture???

I've also chosen to stitch everything, while Jenny has left the small bits unstitched, but drawn on with a permanent pen.  [Tiny bits to stitch can be intimidating!]  I've used one strand of floss for the words, except "I" and "everlasting", one strand for the postmark lines, and two strands for everything else.

So while our projects may look different, they have the same heart.  We wanted to show you, also, that you can make this project your own, use your imagination!  Do send us your pictures, we would love to see them.

Also, don't forget, Jenny has another free BOM starting January 5th -

You won't want to miss that one either!!!

Happy New Year,

and

Happy Stitching!!!

Warming Up

I had some time today, and it was cold in my sewing room - so the obvious solution was to turn the iron on, and the sewing machine.  I've done so poorly with getting log cabin blocks done for my Scrappy Harvest, it was fun to make a few more.

And boy did it warm up my room.  But all that getting up to trim and press wore me out, I'm going to sit for awhile and hand stitch.

Nothing much happening at Casa Allie-oops - but get ready, there's a new BOM starting January 1st!  Jenny of Elefantz and I are collaborating, and Jenny will have the first block up Friday Australian time.  I'll let you know!

Happy New Year!

A Blessed Christmas

7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2:7-14

Wishing you all a very merry and blessed Christmas!!

Love,

Allie

Birthday Girl

Today was mum's [dare I say it?  Of course I do] 78th birthday.  She was already at my aunt's house, so we drove out to spend it with her.

No Cake?????

Of COURSE there's cake.

Mum had a great birthday, and it's not over yet, as we're taking her Monday evening to see Star Wars.  I'm not really looking forward to this one - if you've seen it, don't spoil it for me, but you can tell me if it's better than the last one.

It's been a busy few weeks.  I've been working feverishly on the new, free BOM Jenny and I will be doing next year, starting in January, Postcards From Heaven [there's a button on my sidebar!].  Unfortunately, I haven't worked on my Scrappy Harvest, there's always someone sleeping at my house [lots of shift work] and I hardly get to turn on my sewing machine.

Which brings me to next year's goals.

I've always wanted to learn needle-turn applique.  This is the year.  I gave myself an early Christmas gift, a one-month trial subscription to The Quilt Show.  [Can't afford a year of it.]  I'm watching all the applique shows, and am learning a lot.  I haven't started actually appliqueing yet, but I plan to after Christmas is over.  

Needle-turn is a slow art, especially when compared to fusible!  But that's another goal of mine, to slow down and really enjoy what I make.  I don't want to rush my projects anymore.  I'd rather count happy hours than finished projects, if I'm not going to enjoy the process, then why bother?  Plus, I can hand-applique quietly while others are sleeping.  

How about you?  Do you have any quilty goals for next year?  Anything new you want to learn?  I'd love to hear about it.

I'll leave you with a picture of a very happy Snickers - she was so glad to see me, she jumped up in my lap and hugged my arm.  AFTER we played "tunnel".

See you soon!

Scrappy Harvest Applique Block Three

Our third and final applique block - yay!

Again, you're going to make your base block, up to log 9, in neutrals.  Add your house and tree, and stitch them down....

This time, you're going to add your last four logs in darks before stitching the leaves down.

Add as many leaves as you want - over the seams of the darks, just scatter them.  Stitch them down and you're done with the final applique block!

For some reason my middle trunk of the tree doesn't go all the way to the top like it's supposed to, so I added a leaf there.  You can just make the trunk a bit longer if you'd like.  There will be lots more leaves scattered across this quilt, I just haven't gotten that far yet.  How are you coming on yours?

Free pattern is available in my shop, click >>>HERE<<<

I'll leave you with this pic of mum enjoying the biggest chicken pot pie I've ever seen in my life -

Isn't that amazing!  She was saying something there, I'm not sure what....something like "holy cats", lol!

AFK, AFH

Away From Keyboard, Away From Home......I'm at my second home, lol.  I'm having a little vacation at my aunt's house, she's sunning herself in Cancun and I'm babysitting....



along with Mum.  We're having a good time.



I've hardly been on my computer, there's nowhere comfortable to sit here while I compute.  I'll try to catch up on your blogs when I get back....meanwhile, I'm doing lots of this while Snickers keeps me company...



Thank goodness she doesn't try to eat my floss.





Back soon.  If you need me, I'll be here.