Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving wishes to all of my blogger friends and their families.  Thanks for your continued visits and support.

This is our first holiday season in Florida. Both of our families still live in the north east so there is no family to share the holiday with. Our wonderful neighbors have invited us and a few other strays to share Thanksgiving with them.

My favorite go to hostess gifts are dish towels and trivets/potholders.

I make the trivets about 10 inches square, big enough to put a hot dish on and still not to big if a pot holder is needed

The matching hand towels are made with plain white towels I picked up at BBB with a coupon.  They are my favorite  towel to work with.

This is a sneak peek at the dessert I am taking with me.  Can't show you the final outcome until Tuesday.   That's my day to be in the Virtual Cookie Exchange - see that button up there on the right, Yeah that Virtual cookie Exchange.

Here is a list of all of the participants. Hope you can stop by and visit us all, should be great fun.  

See you there.

December 1

Kris at Kris Loves Fabric

Selina at Selina Quilts

Karen at KaHolly

Deonn at 3^rd Degree Bakery

December 2

Colette at What About Rheema?

Carla at Creatin’ In The Sticks

Velda at Granny Can Quilt

Mary Ellen at That’s My Home

Karen at Sugar Free Quilted Designs

December 3

Beth at One Old Goat and Her Little Farm

Carol at Just Sew Quilter

Theresa at Bumbleberry Stitches

Brenda at Brenda’s Quilt Blog

Pat at Quilting Quietly

December 4

Linda at Food Storage Moms

Susan at Super Mom – No Cape!

Kathy at Just Quilt it

Lindsay at Lin's Kitchen

Carol at Just Let Me Quilt

Catching up with Post Card swap, Winning a Giveaway,Another Table Runner and a Snap Purse

I love participating in  Postcard Exchange s   .I recently participated in one  for fall.  It was coordinated by Sheila over at Sheila's Quilt World. I can now show a couple of pictures of my card since I have heard from the receiver that she has it in hand.

The pattern was designed by Michelle May at Raspberry Rabbits.  Her original design was much larger. I shrank it down to post card size.

I actually made 2, one for the swap and one for a friends aunt who made me a Christmas ornament.

Last month there was a Halloween blog hop and Brandy over at Pampered Pettit participated and  had her very own giveaway.  I was her  Winner .  Click on the link and see her wonderful work.

This is the wonderful assortment of goodies I recieved all in this terrific zip bag with the vinyl front.

Each piece nicer than the next.

See this box of candy, I had it finished by the time I finished writing my thank you note, it was delicious. 

And here is my 3rd Christmas table runner.  It is based on a free pattern by Lee Heinrich of 

Freshly Pieced.   The pattern 

My Holiday Forest pillow

is for a pillow but I made two and turned it into a wonderful table runner. Table runners are my home made gift of choice this holiday season.

And just in case the recipient isn't as crazy as I am about my purple trees

I backed it in Christmas presents.

And last but not least is my 15 minute snap purse.

Christmas Is In My Heart Blog Hop

Welcome to my  stop on the Christmas Is In My Heart Blog Hop and special thanks to 

Marian of Seams to be Sew

for coordinating this wonderful holiday event.

I make quilty gifts for several friends and members of my family annually. This is the beginning of this years projects. 

It was a bit labor intensive, it is made up of a bazzillion  1 1/2 inch squares.

It involved lots of organizing.  

But it was so worth it.

I love the shadow.  This was a bear of a piece to shoot. It measures in at 18 by 72.

I couldn't resist the picture with the palm trees in the background. This is my first winter in Florida which is a far cry from New Jersey weather wise

You really can't tell but the deer is really pixilated.

Next gift is the same size and not pixilated.  This one was a breeze in comparison.

I tried to get shots outside but they just looked washed out so I put it where it belonged, on the table.

Both of these table runners are rows from a quilt I made last year, the Fair Isle Quilt.  

This one is going to a friend who celebrates both  Chanukkah and Christmas so I thought I would make it so she can flip it over from one holiday to the next.

And yes I know that a Heart was to be incorporated in our work so I created a mug rug to go with the table runner.

and added a little stitching 

I hope your enjoyed your stop here  and I hope you get to visit all of the other participants to date.

Here is today's list 

November 19

Meadowbrook

Tea Time Creations

Selina Quilts

Living My Dream

Seams To Be Sew

Marian, our host for this blog hop, arranged for Fat Quarter Shop to sponsor this event and they are donating a $25 Gift Certificate every day of this hop.  And, this giveaway is open to anyone.  Just simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter the giveaway today

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Meet Gracie

I had a very fun filled week.  I have started to follow Massdrop  and a few weeks ago the Janome Derby sewing machine came up. I could have gotten one from Amazon or at Joanns for a comparable price but not with as large a color selection.

I loved the gray with pink, they call her Graceful Gray. I call her Gracie.

The big draw for me for this tiny machine is that it weights in at 5 lbs.  Yep, 5 lbs.

Exactly what I need to drag to guild meetings.  I'm really done with carting my bigger machines and tend to do nothing rather than bring one of them

I choose this 8 inch house block to test run the machine and to find it's 1/4 inch.  See that blue tape.

I figured that if I could make a 22 piece block match up I'm good to go.

I'm also well on my way to getting my Christmas list started.  I am making Christmas table runners using a row from the Fair Isle Quilt pattern that I made last year.  

This will be a very long table runner, about 72 inches.  See my little 8 in house block up in the corner.

I'll be traveling this week so will be doing some red work or crochet to keep my hands busy.

Swapping, Knitting, Crocheting, Keeping Secrets and Happy Halloween

I have been keeping busy these last couple of weeks with various projects. First I want to show off and thank Annette for the terrific postcard she made for me for the current Post Card swap.

I have it sitting on my desk for the remainder of the season. Who  better than Charlie Brown to spend time with.

Here is just a little of the back of the card.

I can't show you my contribution to the swap yet as it still hasn't finished making it's way to Canada. 

Happy Halloween

I thought I'd get this post done before Halloween.  I found Princess #1 had made herself at home on my Ghastlies quilt.  She seems to think it belongs to her and fights with Princess #2 whenever she dares to put her paw on it.  She will be very unhappy tomorrow when it's not back on the bed.  I'm pretty sure she'll take over a Christmas quilt in the near future.

I got a couple of helmet liners finished and on their way.

&

A friend sent me a pattern from Michael's for this tote.

It is done with a very bulky yarn.  When I went to Michaels they told me that they no longer carry it.

I picked up Bulky yarn #6 but it wasn't quite bulky enough.  I went with it anyway and added an extra round.  The whole thing took under 3 hours to make.

She loves it just the way it is so all is right with my world. tee, hee.  

This is my latest obsession. 2.5 inch tumbler blocks.  I made a couple of place mats for a friend last month and found myself hooked to the little guys.  I decided that they would make a great leader/ender project.  That was until I found myself making 3 instead of 1 after each section of a project.  I've gotten about 3 times the number in the picture cut and paired at least once.

Last but not least is a sneak peek at my current project.

I am participating in a challenge with my guild and participating in a blog hop, both in November. I will be using the same quilted piece for both. I have gotten further along than the bags of parts shown above. I'm actually to the sandwiching stage.  Please stop back on the 20th to see it completed. More info on the hop can be found on the link at the top right.

Be safe and be happy and enjoy life.