Giveaway Winner!

I am still working on the new piece, it should be ready by Wednesday. Today was a down day, I spent it on the couch, so didn't get much done. I decided to go through old photos and I mean old. And I can't believe I am showing you this photo, what was I thinking with that hair do, lol. This is in the summer of  1984, my son was 2 and I was a few months pregnant with my daughter. It was when my dad was still able to do things and we took my nephews and camped out with my parents in New Hampshire, wonderful memories.

And now for the winner..... lucky number 7, Sandi! Sandi, you can choose any epattern that you would like, then email me with your choice. Congratulations!

New Stitcheries and Weekend Giveaway!

First of all, I want to thank all of you who helped to contribute to Kelley's fund for her friends. I am amazed at the generosity of those who helped in any way they can and it warms my heart to know that it will help a family who has been through so much. Not only did she reach her second goal, but it is still going up, the boys will be so surprised and it will take a little bit of the burden away from them as they make the transition of living without their mom.

I finally finished the next set of my stitcheries for my prim quilt group. We are using designs from Primitive Blessings and we are doing them in wools and stitchery, it is our choice and we redo them a bit to make them our own. I messed up a bit on these, but once I am done, I will use black stitching for the quilting and antique it, that hides most flaws;) The blocks are 6" with the sashing.

With the humidity and then rain, it is prime season for bugs. I found this guy on my screen tent, he makes a nice art piece.

And now for the giveaway contest. Yes, I am going to make you think and give me a funny;) There was a bird having a blast, taking a bath and chasing the others away, he thought it was his, but he left before I got back out with the camera. Once he was gone, the gang came back and had the bath all to themselves. Your job is to give me a funny saying for this photo or from one of the birds in the photo. The winner will win their choice of one of my epatterns or booklets. I will draw a name from the comments on this posting. The contest will run through sunday at midnight and I will announce the winner on my monday posting. You can choose my new one or if the winner would like, you can choose a new one that I am working on now. Hopefully I will be finished punching and have the pattern ready for monday.

New Epattern and Help a Friend!

I have made my newest punch needle piece into an epattern. You can also use it for rug hooking or as an appliqué piece, whatever  you would like. As with all of my patterns, you can make them for yourself or sell them on ebay.

This week, from now until sunday at midnight, I am going to donate a dollar for every pattern sold, to help a family of young boys who have recently lost their mom. The oldest boy came home to take care of his brothers who are still in high school. They work during the summer doing odd jobs and are always there to help others in need, so we want to help them by giving them a gift certificate to help them while they go through this transition. I will tally up sales from any pattern sales, a dollar for the 3 dollar patterns and more for the higher priced patterns and booklets. So, here is  your chance to have a fun pattern to create with and help others. You can see the full story at Kelley's blog.

This pattern will come in two files, one with the finished piece, the second with the design and color choices. You can buy this pattern, directly, with the button on the left, of visit my ecrater site for more pattern options.

Antique Dog and Bird Punch Needle!

I finished a new piece today, this is based on the design I made for my quilt. I wanted to try it as a punch and I really like how it came out. I do plan on making a pattern for this piece, just didn't have time tonight, so hopefully I can have it up tomorrow.

This piece was based on an antique quilt block. It measures 6" x 5" and is a mix of Valdani and dmc floss. The dog the the red shades are valdani and slightly raised in height. The green is dmc floss, that I over dyed myself. The piece was antiqued after I finished it, but it is hard to show the true prim look with a camera. For some reason, my new flash isn't working, so I had to lighten them with photoshop which makes the colors appear brighter. The edge is a combination of new and vintage wool yarn.

Lighthouse Quilt!

I wanted to use some of the jelly roll strips from the 1862 Battle Hymn fabrics by Barbara Brackman. I was thinking of doing a flag, using the blues instead of red and white. Well, I got stuck and forgot what I planned on making, so I came up with a new idea. I used the lighthouse from an old Jan Patek book, Ships Aweigh and then started changing it, bit by bit and adding a few of my own touches and came up with this piece. Something fun to display for the rest of the summer.

The quilt measures 27" x 15". I used walnut ink, watered down, to antique it. I lightened it up a little so you could see it better. The border is circles with stars in them and it says, From sea to shining sea.

So Many Blessings!

This month has been filled with wonderful giveaways and I have been the lucky recipient of a few. I wanted to share my wonderful prizes with you and the wonderful people who have made the giveaways possible. Winning such great prizes allows me to enjoy quilting and eventually make charity quilts with the money I save, I have been stocking up on batting.

One book I have always loved was Jacquelynne Steve's book, Fruitful Hands. I fell in love with the pineapple quilt, a simple but fun piece and something that would look great as a wall quilt for my dining room. The book also has recipes and patterns for quilts and smaller items that would make wonderful gifts. You can visit her blog, The Noble Wife for inspiration and she also has some wonderful freebies.

This is on my to do list. The giveaway was sponsored by Henry Glass Fabrics. If you love quality fabrics and giveaways, be sure to sign up for their blog.

Another giveaway was hosted by See How We Sew. I won the book "Quilting 101", by Sue Rasmussen. It is a wonderful reference guide for quilting and it is definitely something I need lol. I am always forgetting the basics and what types of needles to use for projects, so now I have a reference that I can refer to, as I quilt and things I can learn to do better.

And today I received another fun prize, something I can make for myself and as gifts for my friends. I was able to choose any pattern from Cath's Pennies. I have always loved her designs and not only does she make wonderful patterns, but she gives directions with photos on her blog to help  you in creating your own pieces. 

It was a tough decision, I love all of her designs, but this one is perfect as a gift too and I have gingerbread buttons, so they will be perfect for this design. You can see this and many more at her website, Cath's Pennies Designs.

Reproduction Block Quilt!

Recently I saw a posting on Barbara Brackman's blog about dogs in quilts. I loved one of the blocks with the polka dot dog and bird and had to try one for myself. Of course I wanted to make it into a mini quilt, so I added my own touches. My brain was off this week, so things didn't all come out as planned, but it was fun to make and gave me some practice with hand quilting.

The piece measures 20" x 16".

My bunny buddy has been visiting me every day and night, he knows a good thing when he sees it;)

All Creatures Great and Small!

I think the word has gotten out, my yard is the place to be, lol.
I went out onto my porch and looked out and this is what I saw, they usually never come out during the day, isn't she a beauty.

I sat down and watched her and as I was looking around the yard, I saw a brown spot under the tree. Someone was enjoying a rest in the shade, he is my new bunny buddy and visits me during the day and night.

And if that wasn't enough, a bird was squawking at me. She wanted to add onto her nest and her nest is under my porch. I guess she is adding water proofing to her nest, but doesn't look like it will be too comfy.

Giveaway Winner and my Win!

I really enjoyed reading the comments and the fun quips to go with my photo. I do feel blessed that I live in an area where there is so many beautiful natural wonders to enjoy. The winner of the giveaway is #9, Sue Tokash! Please pick a free epattern from my ecrater site and email me with your choice.

I also have been blessed with so many wins this year.  The giveaway was hosted by Patti of Patti's Patchwork. It was an extra giveaway along with the 100 blocks tour and I won a fat quarter pack of Northcott's Stonehenge Stars and Stripes. The fabric is gorgeous and a really nice weight, so much better than a photo can show. It will be fun coming up with a pattern to use them in.

Sunday Paddle and Caption Giveaway!

The weatherman said that it would not be as humid today, but I think he lied, lol. It was a beautiful day and a nice breeze on the bay, but still hot and the type of heat that you do not notice until you are done and totally exhausted;)

This weekend was the art festival, but I had a choice and I wanted to paddle, so I decided to go into town to check it out. 

Going into the town's harbor, we were greeted by feathery fowl.

You can see the artist's tents, over 200 artist's displayed their work, this year. 

Way too hot to sit in the coves, it was time to leave and head for the bay. We went out and straight for our town beach, the perfect place to go for a swim.

That helped refresh me, so back out on the bay and down the coast. Blue skies and blue seas, is the only place for me.

Around the next point, the water gets rougher, wind, tides and lots of boat swells, better than a roller coaster.

With high tides, we can go into coves that are normally cut off by land. Usually the island to Bill's right, goes all the way across during low tide.

In the cove we paddled down the river that runs behind the old mill.

And now for the contest photo. As I was getting this one ready, I noticed some funny things, sooooo, give me a caption for the photo and I will put all the names into a drawing and one lucky winner will receive one of my epatterns or booklets. I will draw a name on Tuesday night and announce the winner on my blog post. I will be doing a traveling box, just need to decide on a box size and what I will put in it, so stay tuned for that.

What to do on a hot day!

It was much too hot to go paddling and I am sick of sitting in the house, so we went to the mall. I haven't been in years and I needed some sweat shorts to wear around the house, so we went shopping. It was nice to walk around in the air conditioned mall and one place we made sure we stopped in was Jordan's furniture. The boasted of a light show and it is free, so we got a free laser show that is shot through water, talk about a cool place to visit;)

Hard to get shots since the lights were flashing and strobbing so fast, but here are a few that I got, was fun to watch along with the music.

On the way home we stopped at the flower shop. While I was looking, a few monarch butterflies kept flying to these flowers, so I just had to get some to plant in my yard. Hopefully they will attract butterflies to my yard.

I saw a large pot of flowers and jokingly said to Bill, there's some flowers we can put on the new porch, should have known better, lol. I was being sarcastic, but he insisted they weren't too big for the porch, so there they sit;) Hopefully tomorrow will be cool enough for a paddle. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

I was thinking I could get a small prim stool to put them on, for now they are on a crate.

Table Runner and Thrift Goodie!

It took me most of the week, but I finally finished the quilted piece that my friend Kelley sent me. I decided to make it into a table runner and with the red and white it works well for americana and I can use it for Christmas too. The photo makes it look square but it is actually 34 1/2' x 23". I used black pearl cotton and hand stitched around each block, then an X across them.

I wanted to get out today and decided to hit the local consignment store, it is like a thrift, except they have antiques and vintage goodies. I was hoping to find some nice wood items but nothing today, so I got myself a fun item that I can put on a shelf. I might decorate around it and add pieces to make a whole village or maybe a sea port scene for the bathroom shelf. The angel is something I carved years ago and the cat is something I found in a gift store. It could also be decorated for the holidays, so fun for halloween and Christmas.

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe fourth tomorrow. I have been working on my projects, a bit slow this week. I hand stitched my table topper, but my hands were too sore to finish the binding tonight. My husband finally finished the front of the house, all we have left is to stain the porch front. I treated myself to a new decoration this week. I saw this ladder and loved it, and I received a coupon from the store for 30% off one item, so I had to go back and get it;) Now we need to make a prim bench to put on the side.

The flag is aged, but the photo lightened everything up.