Let Heaven and Nature Sing!

This quilt took quite a circuitous route from my original plan of simple, patchy table runner with holly border to vintage Christmas card-inspired wall hanging.  As I prepared the holly leaves and berries, I kept seeing in my mind's eye antique greeting cards with frames of holly surrounding snowy winter scenes.  That sent me on a goose chase researching vintage Christmas cards--the scenes, the borders, the lettering, etc.

I knew exactly what kind of winter scene I wanted.  It had to include a snow-covered cottage and pine trees, a winding lane, and singing birds.  More than that, it needed to show all of nature celebrating the Savior's birth.  As I worked with the blue sky fabric, I kept seeing the word "Joy" in the swirls.  And it fit.  The heavens and nature are both singing praises in this quilt!

Joy to the World!

Do you see where I faintly stitched "Joy" around the sky?  

I had such a great time stitching this wall hanging for one of you.  If you'd like to have it, just leave a comment, send me an email, or let me know on Facebook.  I'll enter you into the drawing which will be on Thanksgiving day.

Do you recognize the bluebird?  That's Piccolo, from my Christmas give-away quilt two years ago, returning for an encore visit on this quilt.  You could call him my signature blue bird!  His friend red bird needs a name, too.  Suggest a name for the red bird and I'll enter you to win a handmade Christmas ornament.  Whichever name Tom chooses will be the winner of the ornament.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!  

Let Earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing!


 

 Love,

I Let Kyle Chews a Winner

Gifty Taggy Cube and all the entries.

My eager assistant Kyle is ready to go.

He brings it in closer for a good look.

First one to the mouth!

Are you sure that's the one, Kyle?

Is that the one you chews?

Well, who did you chews?

Diane!  

It really was your name before he chowed down on it!

Hope little Miss Hallie likes it!  She's going to need to do a little growing before she'll find it very interesting, no doubt.  Soon she'll be chewing her very own taggy cube like a pro! 

As always, I wished everyone could win.  Incidentally, I'd be happy to create a taggy cube for a baby in your life.  I can do them in gender-neutral colors or specifically for a boy or girl.  Soft pastels, primary colors, whatever you can dream up... $5   Just let me know if you're interested.

Love,

Taggy Cube (or who needs Baby Einstein?)

The other day I said I'd show you the toy I made for Kyle.  So, here it is-- a little taggy cube, made from inspiration I found at this site.  Camille's blog is a treat for the eyes and is full of quilty motivation.  She chose to quilt her squares before she sewed them together to form the cube.  I didn't.  I just used six 5" squares from one of my favorite fabric lines--Pampered Pooch by Moda--stitched together as is.  

The whole idea is that babies love tags, thus the tags of various textures sewn into every seam.   For Kyle's I used satin ribbon, ric rac, grosgrain ribbon, elastic, velcro, and velvet ribbon.   And true to form, Kyle took to it like a duck to water.  Have I told you he's a fast learner?

I had so much fun making this that I grabbed up another set of squares, cut some more ribbons and ric rac, and started another one.   Is there a baby in your life who might enjoy a cute little taggy cube made from my favorite vintage children's prints?  If so, leave a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing to win the second one.  

Love,

Lazy Day

It's a crisp, chilly day here.  The temperature outside, barely nosing above 60 degrees, is doing its best to convince us that it really is Fall.  While Tom and Lacy are hard at work nailing down a new roof on a house across town, the rest of us are just enjoying a lazy day at the homestead.  I figured this was as good a time as any to update my poor, neglected blog.

The children are outside on the deck engaged in crafty pursuits.  Holly and Maggie are busy making patterns with perler beads and ironing them to make cool designs.  Maggie's wavy hair is a result of the French braids she wore to the daddy/daughter dinner last night.  Cute, huh?

Meanwhile, Caleb is busy coloring.  Incidentally, he's wearing three shirts.  Earlier he had on four.  It's not exactly clear to me why he thinks multiple shirts are better than one shirt and one jacket.  Not sure what's up with the charm bracelet, either.

Moving on...

Personally, I just think it's great to have a whole day at home with nothing at all that has to be done.  I'd have a hard time thinking of anything much better than being home with a sewing project I'm excited about and a whole day to work on it.  So, I'm occupying my time messing about with the Christmas quilt give-away.  This one has morphed into something completely different than I originally planned.  I keep tweaking it here and there, adding and deleting elements, my hands trying frantically to keep up with my ADD brain.  But it's coming along nicely and is possibly my favorite so far.  When it's completed this week I'll be sure to let you know.  Then, I'll draw a name for the winner on Thanksgiving Day, per tradition.  Holla if you want in.

Other than that, there are several other sewing projects I want to show you in the next few days.  I made the cutest toy for Kyle this morning on a whim--saw it on a blog and had to make one.  Super fun and easy to sew-- he's gonna love it.  I'll definitely snap a few photos of him when he sees it and will likely make another to give away.  Then there's the Christmas gift I've been hand stitching pretty steadily for the past few weeks.  Oh, my goodness.  I love it so much.  Well, as much as I can love something that can't love me back.  And recipes--got some photos chillin' in the iPhoto, ready to become blog posts as well.

I hope you're enjoying your Saturday as much as we are.

Stay warm!

Love,

'Tis the Season

I love days like this.  It's rainy and cloudy outside, so we're stuck in the house on this cold, cold wet day.  Truthfully, it's only wet, not cold.  We actually finished school before lunch, which is always the plan but rarely happens.  That freed us all up for an abundance of creativity all afternoon.   A rosemary/garlic roasted chicken is bubbling away in one crock pot, while green beans are simmering in another.  On the counter, a couple loaves of John's Easy Yeast Bread are rising.  The aromas wafting over from the kitchen are heavenly.

Meanwhile, from the sewing and crafting room, formerly known as the dining room, can be heard much buzzing and whirring of the sewing machine mixed with Christmas carols playing softly in the background.  Christmas carols, you ask?  Yes!  Abby and I are both working on Christmas projects.  I can't tell you how happy I am that my girl has been bitten by the sewing bug.  This is the child who grew up playing at my feet while I sewed and smocked a hundred dresses but who never showed any interest whatsoever in learning to sew herself.  So over the summer, deciding she indeed enjoys the art of putting fabric together in imaginative ways, she learned to smock and completed the smocking for Kyle's first Christmas photo outfit.  She now has another fun project in the works and is planning to offer her first give-away on her blog soon!  Be sure to bookmark her blog and keep your eye open for her give-away.

I'm also working on my Christmas give-away.  I challenged myself to construct this one completely from fabric I already have in my stash.  (You'd realize that's not a very impressive challenge if you saw my stash.)  The design finally gelled in my head last night.  This one is going to be in all traditional Christmas colors and motifs.  I will have dozens of hours for stitching during our fall mountain get-away to Blue Ridge in a couple weeks.

It's patchy; it's scrappy; it's appliqued; it's fun. 
I love it already.  And I hope that you will, too.

Love,

Bloom Where You Are Planted

 

I finished the little quilt last evening just in time to take it to Kristina this weekend.  It is my prayer that she truly will "bloom" here in her new home with her family.

The duffle bags are packed for Boot Camp.  I have some stitching loaded in the car, ready for the four-hour drive.  I'm starting my Christmas give-away, which will incorporate some English paper piecing, as well.

Remember: although you can not always choose your circumstances, you can bloom right where God has you today.

Have a blessed weekend, friends!

Love,

English Paper Piecing

 

The days seem to be moving at quite a clip this fall.  October could possibly be the busiest month for us in a long time.  We have an exciting family reunion with Tom's parents and siblings on tap this weekend in Dahlonega, up in the north Georgia mountains.  I promise you won't want to miss the photos from our Boot Camp weekend.  We are deep into costume, skit, and game preparation for that.

The end of the month we're taking the family to Blue Ridge, also in the north Georgia mountains, for a week-long get-away.  The countdown has begun!  Twenty-one days till The Glass Lodge!  Hot tub, here I come.

Meanwhile, the girls and I have completed eight great weeks of school since early August.  This is our ninth week and we're using it as a reading and creativity week.  We planning to pile the books, some projects, a big blanket, and lunch in the van and head to Hopeland Gardens in a little while to drink in the beauty of this crisp, autumn day under the sweeping live oaks.

Here is the project I'm taking.  This is a little something I'm making for a sweet someone special who joined our family by adoption about the same time as Caleb came home.  Tom's sister Beth and her husband Jack adopted their beautiful daughter Kristina from Ukraine in April.  This small wall hanging is going to be for her room.

The little flowers are made from an old classic quilt block pattern called Grandma's Flower Garden.  I decided to just appliqué three small versions of the block for the flowers and stitch some embroidery on it as well.  Maybe you'd be interested in seeing how English paper piecing is done? 

First you trace the shapes on freezer paper.  The paper has a regular side and a waxy side.

When the waxy side is placed on the wrong side of the fabric and pressed
down with a hot iron, it sticks to the fabric! 
It peels right off later without leaving a trace of residue.

You then trim with scissors around the shapes,
leaving about 3/16 of an inch seam allowance. 

Next, you baste the seam allowance over the paper, stitching right through the paper.  

These basting threads will be removed later.

You sew a couple of these together with a whip stitch along the edge.

 

And it looks like this when you flip it over.  

I have a whole stack of these shapes ready to take to Hopelands with me this afternoon.  It will be a glorious day, stitching in the garden while the children run as free as little lambs in the fresh air.  I hope you will find a few minutes or a few hours to spend outside today enjoying God's glorious creation.

I'll be sure to post a picture when I get this finished in the next couple of days.

Love,