Old is New Again!

Cockscomb and Currants. Grapes and Oakleaf. No matter what you call it, these are very old blocks. From the 1800's.

I own this book and I have wanted to do this pattern for a while. I wanted to make this old pattern with the new fabrics that are available instead of the red and green that was so popular a long time ago.



Here it is. Old is New Again! You have seen little bits of it while I have been working on it. The top is finished and I am happy with the makeover.
When the quilt is finished it will hang in Karen Gray's quilt shop. She sells lots and lots of these bright and cheerful fabrics. She just celebrated her one year anniversary. I went to the celebration and she was having little make it/take it projects that you could pick to do. I chose to do this cute little pincushion.
Easter Blessings to you and your family.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

He Is Risen! Matt. 28:7

Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who came by and left such nice comments and Easter greetings. You all know we can only have one winner and that is:
Robin, at Crafty Musings. Congratulations Robin! If you haven't been to her blog yet, take a minute and see the fabulous applique she does. She has also been working on a Jane Stickle quilt which is coming along quite nicely. Congratulations Robin and Happy Easter to you and your family.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life. S.D. Gordon

Easter Is On Its Way!

Yes, Easter is on its way and I finished a UFO just in time. I only had the eggs in the basket and some flowers to finish embroidering. But now I can say one more UFO done, how many more to go? Whose counting?!!
Look what the Easter Bunny left in my mail box! He brought a box from Candace which had this cute little fabric bag full of chocolate and taffy which were the colors of dyed Easter eggs. So yummy! She also sent a little pad with my initial on it and a sweet card. Thank you Candace and Happy Easter!
How about a one day Easter giveaway? You could be the winner and the Easter Bunny could deliver this package to your mailbox.
You could win the pattern for the pillow that I made in the first photo and a little bunny rabbit. You could also win the spring time towel with some vintage crochet lace that I found last summer at an antique store and some charm squares. You will also get this premiere issue of Quilt Life magazine if you win. So all your need to do is say "Happy Easter" in the comment box. I will draw a name and announce the winner tomorrow morning.
Now I would like to thank Miriam for thinking of me and giving me this award. It is given to bloggers who inspire others with creativity and positivity. I love what I do and if I inspire that is an added bonus to blogging and quilting. All the blogs on my list do the same for me and you all deserve this award too.
Thank you Miriam. Miriam does the most fabulous quilts and she has the greenest thumb ever. She always has the most beautiful photos of flowers on her blog. If you haven't visited her blog yet I encourage you to check it out.

Don't forget to leave a "Happy Easter" comment for the one day giveaway.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Easter says you can put truth in the grave, but it won't stay there.

Clarence W. Hall

Applique Addicts

Applique Addicts. That is our official name for the applique bee now. After meeting for a year we decided we needed a real name. We truly are addicts too. Applique is just something we have to do. So now you can see what some of the ladies just had to do. Just a few things this time.
These two wool applique pieces are made by Marlene. She will be making pillows out of them to donate to Habitat for Humanity. They will be for a fund raiser that goes on each spring. I love the wrens in the basket. The goose is not finished yet but it will be donated by the next time we meet.

This AMG work in progress is made by Beverly.
Jane is working on Country Sunshine. Notice the way she has her basket blocks all facing toward the center. The original design has them facing like the top basket. I like this look. She is now working on all the applique borders.
I just had to share a little story with you. I had just finished washing 5 yards of flannel for the back of a quilt. You can imagine how much lint it creates. Since it is spring I decided to put it outside for the birds to use in nests.
No sooner had I put it outside, pulled the flannel out of the dryer, and turned around, there was a female bluebird sitting on the wood. I wished I had my camera. I stood there looking out the sliding glass door not moving because I did not want to scare her. That little comma shape was where she had pulled some of the lint and flew back to the bird house to line her nest with it. After she left I got my camera and sat inside waiting for her to come back. I sat for a good 15 minutes but I guess that is all she wanted at that time. Later when I check the bird house to count eggs I will be able to see how much she really got.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Keep your love of nature, for that is the way to understand art more and more. Vincent Van Gogh

Thank you all for your kind words and Congratulating me on having a picture of a quilt of mine in the new Piece O' Cake pattern packet. I have been so excited about it.

I have been working on lots of little different things. I got some muslin yesterday to put sleeves on some quilts for the show. So now I need to make them. I decided to do some hand quilting on the flowers of the quilt I posted here .

I finally got around to finishing up the pineapple block from Linen Closet Quilts. The next block has come out so I need to get busy prepping the pieces for it. I am happy to say this is one BOM that I have kept up with so far. I am prepping circles for the mystery quilt I have been showing little parts of to you in past posts.
Check out the label I am going to put on my son's wedding quilt. I saved the selvages and top stitched them to some muslin. Then I took the Porthole designs of Allie's and combined them and embroidered them on the label. Now I will fill the rest in with the historical information and embroider it too. You can see Allie's Portholes quilt at Candied Fabrics. Allie was the featured artist on this blog. You can read her interview and see more of her great works.

My applique bee is meeting tomorrow so I am sure I will have some great applique to show you all in the next post.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. ~Charles Richards

A Year Later

Some of you who have been following my blog for a while might remember this table topper I made a year ago. Piece O' Cake Designs was having a contest.
They had a copy of this block on their site and the object was to use it any way you like.
So I repeated the design four times. I put mine on a circle. I used wool for the applique flowers. My husband got on to something called Google Sketch-Up. He figured out how many prairie points I would need to put around the circle. I have a tutorial on my side bar that explains how to make the prairie points if you want to give them a try.
Piece O' Cake Designs has come out with their newest pattern packet called "my whimsical quilt garden". I was sent a copy because my quilt was one of the winners of the contest.
On the last page of the instruction booklet there is a page called "More Inspiration." You can see my quilt and the other winners. How cool is that?

Congratulations to the other winners too. They made some fabulous things. I am so excited to be a winner and to see a picture of my quilt in their booklet.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Springtime!

Can you feel springtime in your town? I sat out in the sunshine yesterday and it felt so good. Then I began to spy little shoots coming up in my yard letting me know that spring is coming. Spring in all its glory.


Spring is even showing up in the last two heart designs from Stina. And check out my matching embroidery scissors and fob. The scissors were from Rae Ann and the fob was Stina. Thanks again ladies.
I just love the new green of the leaves that come out on the trees in spring. These bias stems remind me of the leaves. The Clover bias maker is one of my favorite applique tools for making stems.
Springtime showing up in my applique.
Happy First Day of Spring! enjoy your weekend.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Spring shows what God can do in a drab and dirty world. Virgil A. Kraft

Stringy Pot Holders

More string things. I made some pot holders for my future DIL and ...
my daughter. Both girls love the ocean.
For "Marcab77" and "crmanina", you can go to this site to get all the directions for the spider web string quilt done by Bonnie Hunter. Have fun!

With Passion,

Carrie P.

The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. Jacques Cousteau

Stringing Along Part 2

Triangles ready to be trimmed.
All trimmed and ready to sew together.
Chain piecing, chain piecing, chain piecing.
Four more blocks to add to the others.
Here is what I have so far. I think I am going to make two more rows which will make a nice lap quilt. And you can be sure I have a lot of fabric to pick from those two paper bags I put it all in.
With Passion,

Carrie P.

May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, And may trouble avoid you where ever you go. Irish Blessing

A New Week

This past week and the weekend were very busy for me but in my down time I did manage to get the binding on my quilt. I did use the binding technique by Sharon Schamber. I am very pleased with how my binding finished up. Now I just need to get the sleeve and label on and it will be ready for our local guild quilt show in April.

This past Friday night my husband and I volunteered at our church as it held a preview of the movie called Letters to God. The movie is based on a true story about a boy named Tyler with cancer. All the proceeds from the ticket sales that night went to Cancer Services. We had a very good turn out. The movie comes out April 9 and if it comes to your city you should check out. It is a very sweet movie and it will touch your heart.

Yes, it is a new week and I have things I want to accomplish this week. I know you all do too and I hope it is a very good week for each of you.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

"Optimism is a cheerful frame of mind that enables a tea kettle to sing though it's in hot water up to its nose." Unknown

What Have I Been Up To?

I have not been up to much as far as quilting goes but I have decided to do some deep spring cleaning of my home. I blame it on the beautiful weather we were having. The next few days we are going to have rain. I have the kitchen left.
I have started a new applique project. Like I don't have enough to do already! but this is just a wall hanging so it shouldn't take too long.
I am having company this weekend too. So with all that is going on I will be back to blogging next week. Talk to you then.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is what are we being busy about? Henry David Thoreau

Stringing Along!

Hit the pause button! to finish two more of Stina's little hearts and to get the binding on the quilt I just back from the quilter. Three more corners to go.
With Passion,

Carrie P.

Before the reward there must be labor. You plant before the harvest. You sow in tears before you reap joy. Ralph Ransom