To all my blogging friends

As many of you know I have not posted in quite a while. I am going through a difficult time with a serious medical issue with my sister. In addition I am amidst the Christmas rush as I am sure most of you are also. I hope to be back blogging soon.

I would like to wish each and everyone of you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year. I will chat soon.



Hugs,

Pat

Works In Progress

I have been working on a few things for my friends and family for Christmas. I can't show everything because I am not sure if they have found out about my blog yet. I feel like an undercover agent-having to be careful of what I say and sneaking away to blog. First this pillow is for my granddaughter. I just love the fabrics which are by Buggy Barn. I’m pretty sure she will love it too.

I have never attempted machine applique before, but there is a first time for everything and I'm going to try it on this project. Wish me luck! I am going to use invisible thread and one of the million stitches I have to choose from. Does anyone have advice? Jump in here whenever- I would appreciate it!

The next project is a little stitchery that I just love and is so fitting for most of my friends. The pattern was on the back of a cross stitch book from several years back. I think it may have been" Sisters And Best Friends" but I am not sure. As you can see I still have to frame them. I will post a picture after. The frame is cute.











The next project is a pattern from a Nancy Halvorsen book Santa's Coming. These are" just in case gifts." -Just in case I have forgotten someone or someone unexpected stops by during the holidays.

I think that this is enough for now, and I really must get back to my other stitching. I am also trying to decorate our home for Christmas tonight. I hope to have it all done by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

I still have room for one more in the PIF if anyone is interested.

I will chat later.

Pat

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year my family goes to my brothers for Thanksgiving. . This year I will be making a new salad at the request of my niece. The recipe follows:


Red Grape Salad

8 oz whipped cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 t vanilla
8 oz sour cream
1 large bag of red seedless grapes
brown sugar
walnuts chopped

Wash grapes
Mix cream cheese, white sugar,vanilla and sour cream together. Add red grapes. Cut up a few walnuts and mix with some brown sugar. Sprinkle the sugar and nuts on top of salad just before serving.

I hope that however you spend your day tomorrow, it will be wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Pat

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

I saw this sign 0n Hanne 's blog today, and found that maybe I was one of the first to leave a comment on this post, so I thought, why not play along! And so I did! I've seen PIF's on other blogs, but never early enough to sign up, until now!

Come join the fun and make the world a happier place :-) So this is how it goes...It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based of the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on.

You all know I’m already a PIF type of person. So here’s how it works:I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange.I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise!

What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Please come join the fun!

Pat

Off To The Closet!

I really enjoy working on my Primitive Garden block of the month quilt, but Christmas is coming faster than I can stitch. This is a block of the month from Primitive Gatherings which has a great website. If you would like to visit the site, the address is http://www.primitivegatherings.us/shop/. I have finished Block 1, and I just need to stitch Block 2 down.





I have also received blocks 3 & 4.

As much as I would love to be working on these, they have to go off to the closet until after Christmas.

Hope everyone is having a great day. Will chat later.

Pat

365 Day Challenge Quilt

I started journaling on my 365 Day Challenge Quilt on August 4, 2007. It was just a regular old day, nothing special happened. I was waiting and waiting to start, but I am not sure for what. So I just started on that day. This is a Challenge Quilt that I am sure most of you know about. For the one or two of you that don't know, I will tell you. Leanne Beasley from Leanne's House (Love Her!) started this idea this year. She has a tutorial on her blog to help you with making the quilt . You journal everyday for one year and then you make a quilt from your daily journals. I have journaled every day, and I have my background fabrics all pulled. I have my freezer paper and my marking pens also. That is as far as I have gotten on it, so I guess that I have most of the hard work done. I believe that I will continue to journal and hold off on the cutting of the fabrics until after Christmas, which is really coming quickly. I thought that I had a good hold on Christmas this year, but I am not sure what happened. (Did we miss a month or two?) I have fabrics picked for fall, for the start of winter, the holidays, birthdays, and I have some small embroidery patterns picked out to use on some of the blocks. I can't wait to start them. But I must get going on my Christmas, so I will be done in time for Santa! If anyone is making this quilt, I would love to hear about it. Are you doing anything special on it? Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. I would love to do one of these quilts for each of my Grandchildren. They are six and ten years old. Some of the things that they do, say and come home from school with are so funny I must capture them.

I think this project is on its way to the closet.

I hope everyone is having a great day. Will chat later.



Pat

A Cute Fall Decoration.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Mine has been busy. I know that it is quite late in the season but I wanted to show you a cute decoration for fall. I purchased this kit at the last quilt show that I went to. It's a quick project that is easy to make.

You need :

a fat quarter of fabric

a brown lunch bag

a roll of toilet paper

enough batting to wrap around roll

small piece of jute

artificial leaves

Roll and twist lunch bag and wrap with jute. Wrap toilet paper roll with batting (not to puffy). Set it in the center of the fat quarter right side down. Draw the short sides of the fat quarter up and hold in place. Take the longer of the ends and tuck them into center of roll. Push lunch bag into center and lastly add leaves into center. Place it on the back of your toilet or any place that you would like. Enjoy!

I will chat later.

Pat

Gift from market!

Loose Threads (my lqs) went to market. One of the owners (Jacquie ) brought me back a gift. I believe that I said how much I enjoyed reading Quilters Home magazine in a previous post. It is a different quilt magazine and I read it from cover to cover. I have a lots of laughs and learn something in each issue. Some of his articles are a hoot. Jacquie has borrowed some of my issues to read. Wellllllllllll guess who she saw at market? MARK. Right! This is what she brought me .

I love it! What I would really like to know is how he knew how I quilted?? I love Mark! Thank you Jacquie. I will chat later.

Pat

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone! I hope that everyone has a fun and safe time trick or treating. The weather here is beautiful in up state NY. The children should have a wonderful evening decked out in their costumes getting their treats. BOO! Will chat soon.

Pat

Card making day

On Saturday some family and friends planned a get together to make cards.I had never done this before but I thought that it would be fun. After purchasing card stock,ribbon,punches,
buttons,stamps,paper cutter,chalks,dabbers,colored pencils,markers and a carrier (I am well over one hundred dollars by now). I was off to a friends heated garage to make a few cards. Temps were in the low 40's and lots and lots of rain all day. There were 10 of us making cards and 1 cross stitcher. I did more visiting and eating than anything else. We had great snacks and drinks. We were there from 11am to 7pm. When I returned home I had two partially finished cards. It was a wonderful day spent with family and close friends. We really should plan to do this more often. So many times we regret that we didn't make more time for family and friends until it is to late. Everyone had a great time. If I ever finish a card I will post it. Have a great day. Will chat later.

Pat

Sorry no pictures!

I am back from a wonderful weekend. The craft fair on Friday was nice. It was a typical VT fair. There was a lot of pottery, jewelry,dips,clothing,weaving and fleece. There were a few booths that were very nice. I did buy two new dips. The first I will take to Thanksgiving at my brothers house is Pumpkin Patch. The second is Vermont Maple Cranberry. I will keep this one at my house for Christmas. I will serve them both with the honey graham cinnamon sticks. I tried them at the fair with pretzels and they were both delicious. I also bought a small fall and a small Christmas plaque and some Christmas ornaments. I am very sorry to report that I was not allowed to take pictures at the fair. Rules you know! After four hours there, we went to Strawberry and Rhubarb (a small quilt shop) where I purchased some fat quarters, a pattern book and a carrier with wheels for my new Bernina. I also bought material for another sewing basket for a gift.(I forgot my camera in the car so again no pictures of the shop.) I really have to get use to blog land. I am going to start carrying my camera around my neck. I have a much smaller one that I want on my Christmas list that I could keep right in my purse. ( Santa are you listening?) The first picture above is my "Bernie" carrier. The second is the rest of my purchase at the quilt shop. Lastly the things that I got at the craft fair. I hope that everyone has a great week. Will chat more later.

Pat

Craft Fair

Today I am off to the Vermont craft Fair. Two friends and myself will take a ferry ride across Lake Champlain over to Essex Junction VT. This is the largest one of its kind in this area. We will spend several hours looking and buying. There are two nice quilt shops(very small) that I hope to have time to get to. It will be a fun day just to get away with friends. Hope everyone has a nice day . Will chat soon .

Pat

My new BFF!

I would like to thank Margaret (my new BFF) http://asamplerofstitches.blogspot.com/
For helping me download my pictures. What a nice lady she is. She offered to help and sent me an email from Spain with great directions. Thank you Margaret.

Pat

Basket pictures

Here are a few pictures of the basket I made in the class on Saturday. The class was bases on a pattern from Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine March/April 2007. Coiled Fabric Bowls is the name of the pattern. The instructor that I had made one like mine and called it a casserole carrier. I do embroidery and hand applique so I am using mine as a sewing basket. It was a nice class. The instructor was great and it was a nice change from regular sewing . You wrap 1" pieces of fabric around welt cord or cotton clothesline,coil it and zig zag stitch it together.It went quickly and I had a finished product in two days. I love it!

Summer is back!

A beautiful day here in the north country. Sunny warm temps in the high sixtys and it is going to be 78 here tomorrow! This is very unusal for us. But i'll take it, its not snow. My class went very well yesterday and I will post pics soon. My son is going to show me how to post them, but he is very busy you know! It is hard to believe that the weekend is over already. I hope to get some stitching done this week. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Will chat soon.

Pat

I am so happy ! People are finding me in blogland. I have so many blogs that I love to visit each day and I heard from two of them yesterday. Today is a cleaning day for me so that I may take a basket making class tomorrow. Not the usual basket weaving kind of basket, a fabric basket. It is where you wrap fabric around a cording and then zig zag stitch it together. Will let you know more and show pics after the class. Thank you to Darlene over at http://quiltingdaze.blogspot.com/ and connie over at http://simplyquilted.blogspot.com/
for stopping by and for the nice welcomes. Hope everyone has a great day!

Thank you!

I had my first comment on my blog today and I want to say thanks to Cindy over at
http://wwwcutepinkstuffcom.blogspot.com/. She left me a very warm welcome to blogland.
Thanks again Cindy. Hope everyone is having a good day. Will chat soon!

Pat

MY very first time!

I have been reading blogs for several months now and I am addicted! I have decided to start my own. None of my friends blog so I am not sure who will read it but I am off anyway. I can't wait to make friends from all over . If you visit Joni over at http://jonipossin.blogspot.com/ you will see that I am a WINNER !!!(I won her 100th blog give away). I am working on several projects now for friends for Christmas so there won't be alot of pictures for a while. I have quilting , cross stitch and crafty projects on the go. I will take pictures and show them later. Today I got my copy of Quilters Home magazine (http://www.quiltershomemag.com/) I love it!! Can't wait to read it. Well I am off to work on something. Get ready blogland here I come. (I hope)!!



Pat