New Halloween Goodies!

I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments and support. It means a lot to me that so many care and understand what I am going through.

Yesterday I also received two new wonderful items from the PAFA giveaway. The Scaredy Cat was donated by Donna of Countryside Cottage. He is a lot bigger than I realized and I love him. He is beautifully made and has a wonderful cinnamon scent. She also has him in her Etsy Shop and at a really great price.

The second piece is Pumpkin pie with a crow on him and I really love this piece too. I have seen these done by prim artists and have always wanted one, so I was thrilled that Ami of Folk Art Primitives offered this wonderful piece as a prize. She has lots of wonderful primitive pieces for the fall at her Etsy Shop.

I place them on my bench for the photo, but these two pieces are on top of an old wooden piece, way out of reach of curious kitties;)

Dora: ----2011

It is a sad day in our house.

Something I wish I had known before.

Halloween Goodies!

I received two more items this week and I wanted to share them with you. I think it is wonderful that these girls gave their time and a creation to support their PAFA Group and I hope you will visit their blogs and see their wonderful creations.

I love bowl fillers and when I saw Valerie's acorns, I knew I had to have them. They are perfect for my trencher on my dining table. Visit her at Yorkie's Primitives to see some wonderful primitive creations that she also sells in her etsy shop.

Carol of Firecracker Kid Primitives had a prize for the giveaway, as well. I have been the lucky winner of her rolling pin shelf and I love it, so I knew I had to have her newest item, a cat eared herb rack. It is so much nicer in person and I need to make some things to hang from it. The kitties on it now, are from my friend Joanne, she knows I love prim kitties. But my kitties love dangly things, so they will go back on the peg rack which is out of the real kitties reach.

I also went through my box of UFO's and found this punch needle, that I had forgotten about. I decided to put some double tape on the back of the folded over weavers cloth, not on the punched area. I learned the hard way to never do that;) Now I have a new piece to enjoy for now and then it can come down and  later I can make it into a permanent piece for next  year. The wonderful cross stitch piece, was made by my friend Sharon. I am truly blessed and hope that I can pay it forward later this year.

My lucky Week!

Sometimes on my worst days, something wonderful happens and it makes my day, so much brighter.
Sunday was one of those days, I spent most of the day in my chair, sewing and sore as heck from a long walk and falling on the path. But, that day I got an email from Brenda at A Rusty Thimble, telling me that I had won first prize in the PAFA giveway. Talk about being thrilled to win prim goodies, but I didn't realize as first place winner, I got first pick, of seven, of the prizes that I wanted.

PAFA is a wonderful group of primitive artists and it was hard picking out seven from all of the wonderful prizes.  Today I got my first prize in the mail and it is wonderful. It is a halloween potion bag and has a wonderfully wicked smell to it, lol. I picked this one, since it is something I don't make and it will look wonderful with a grouping of the other items I got. The bag was made by Brandy of The Lil' Prim Cabin. She did a wonderful job on the bag, love the materials she used and the fun label. I took a photo of it here, for now, then I can put my items in a grouping when they all get here.

Mini Tumbler Quilt!

I wasn't up to doing too much yesterday, so I grabbed my box of scraps and made myself a little tumbler quilt. I found a template online and used the inside dimensions of the 2", then added the quarter inch to make it smaller. I was looking for a one inch tumbler, but didn't see any. I sewed the pieces by hand, but decided to sew the rows by machine;) Also the border was machine sewed, but the rest I hand stitched with floss. It is a fun project to do and I think it would be fun to do in Christmas colors too. Great way to use up those scraps and great gift idea for friends. I do have a Go tumbler die and plan on making a large one for myself.

This piece measures a little over 11" x 8". I also stained it with walnut spray, after it was finished.

Hexagons, Halloween and Hokie Mokie!

I finished my hexagon topper, at least I think I did. Should I or shouldn't I, tea stain it?
 I hand sewed them together, so they are not perfect. I learned from making these, to mark my 1/4 mark on the back, so I could sew more evenly;) It is all hand sewn except for the border, which I attached by machine. It measures 22 1/2" from end to end and the hexagons are 1 1/2". This is a great lap or traveling project and by using smaller hexagons, you can make a lot of different design variations.

Here is a close up of the stitching. I used black pearl cotton and stitched inside of each hexagon. I used my new camera, so the colors are better, but I still need to learn how to use the settings to get true color shots. The feather stitch was done with some of my hand dyed floss, so it goes from dark to light green. I am not sure if I will use it for a topper, not sure if I have a table it will fit, lol. I think it would make a nice base for a prim, table top tree.

I took out some decorations and threw them on the table;) I took the rag balls I had and just added orange and gold fabrics around what I had, so they would be bigger and I could use less fabric, that way. Plus, when I am done with fall, I can take it off and they will be red and green again;) The wonderful candle mat was made by my friend Kelley.

And for the Moki fans, this is for you. Not sure where he was, but doesn't say much about my cleaning;)

Future projects!

 I am still working on my hexagons. I finished the stitching, but I decided to add a feather stitch along the outside border edge, so half way done on that. So, I thought I would show you some wonderful things that I received this week.

First of all I received a wonderful surprise today, from Barbara Brackman. She wanted to send me some "Stuff", lol. Well I think this is more than a few pieces of fabrics, it is enough to make a bed sized quilt for me. This is the new fabric, 1862 Battle Hymn by Barbara Brackman and Moda fabrics. I love this fabric, love the colors and love the prints. It is exactly what I was thinking of, when I envisioned a quilt for my bed. So now I need to decide on a pattern and I plan on taking my time and doing a nice job on this quilt. I have loved blues and tans, so with this color scheme, time to change my bedroom;)

If you have never been to Barbara's blog, please do visit, you won't be disappointed. She always has such wonderful quilts on her blog, with histories about the quilts and fabrics. A wonderful way to learn more about dating your quilts. She also has a blog with a block of the week for Civil War quilts, which also has history and stories of the era.  And if that is not enough, she has a new blog about Quilts from the war of 1812. You can view this fabric line at the Moda Website, it is truly perfect for those who love prim and civil war era quilting. They also have wonderful free patterns from the designers.

I folded some of the fabric over, on the layer cake, so you could see more of the patterns in the line.

A second surprise I got last week, was that I won the book, "Welcome to the North Pole ," by Piece of Cake Designs. I won the book from Kay Mackenzie, who has written several wonderful books on applique, herself. Kay has a wonderful blog for the applique lover, full of inspiration and tutorials, so visit Kay's blog to say hello, check out her great tutorials or be inspired by her quilting.

This is the cover of the book, it has a wonderful quilt with all types of Christmas buildings and appliques that you can use in different ways, to make the quilt your own.

I love the smaller pieces on the back of the cover, something I should be able to do before Christmas and I know my daughter would love one of these. I can even customize them, just for her. I had wanted this book and our library copy disappeared. But the great news is you can get it from Martingale & Company, if you would like your own copy.