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!