MERRY

Jesus says," I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in the dark."


I wish you all the Most Blessed Christmas ever and a Happy New Year.


With Passion,
Carrie P.
ps I will be back to blogging in the new year.

Sharing Random Stuff

 Remember some of the ornaments I showed yesterday. I have this feather tree that I keep up so that I can have Christmas all year round. It is full of Christmas ornaments that my blogger friends have made for me. I don't keep the chenille candy canes on all year. Every time I see the tree it makes me smile to think of the friends I have made through the years I have been blogging. Do you see one that you made?

 I visited some of the blogs during the Blog Hop Party that was hosted by Quilting Gallery. I won a giveaway from Eager Hands. I won the lovely table cloth, white handkerchief, a fat quarter of vintage fabric, trim and some buttons. I also won a hand made copper "joy" charm which I love. Lora sells many hand stamped charms and other vintage things on her Etsy. The way Lora wrapped the package was cute too. It was the tissue paper from an old Simplicity dress pattern.

 Look! I finished another Hop To It block. Three more to go. I changed this one up a bit. Made three circles on the outside part instead of two. Added another petal to the tulip looking flowers. Didn't like it with just two petals. And I added the center circles. Now I am happy with this block. Onto the next one.

 I went out to check on my garden. It feels like Florida weather here today.  Rainy, warm, and humid. It is supposed to get much colder by this weekend.
Everything in the garden is looking pretty good. I actually picked a bunch of Kale on Tuesday to add to some soup. I love Kale in soup. Some of the lettuce got a little rotten because I think there was too much moisture for those tender leaves. Check out the cabbage. It will probably be another month before I actually have a big head ready to pick but they are growing good.

Here is the garlic bed. No, that is not garlic growing. Just wheat grass from the bed of straw I put on top.
Tomorrow I will be putting some dishes together and making a pumpkin cheesecake for our Christmas Eve dinner. I will be spending Christmas Eve with my hubby, daughter, #2 son and DIL. My #1son and DIL who live in DC won't be able to come down this year. They will be missed.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Almost Christmas!

Hey Ya'll! Thanks so much for all your votes on my quilt that I entered the Quilting Gallery contest. I came in 20th place out of 67. Pretty good. I appreciate you taking the time to go vote on my quilt. It was fun. There were some fabulous quilts and those that won definitely deserve it.

 I wanted to share some sweet Christmas gifts I have received and opened so far. The first one is from Sue. She knows me so well. See those sweet birds. And look at that beautiful log cabin glass ornament. Thank you so much Sue.

 Simone sent me this sweet little baby Jesus ornament all the way from the Netherlands. It was the first gift I received in the mail. Thanks Simone for thinking of me.

Oh, look at this cute owl ornament made by Karen. Her and I are bird watchers. The funny thing is I sent her a different owl ornament too. Great minds think alike, right? lol Thank you so much Karen.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Vote for me and Winner of my Giveaway!

I have entered a quilt for the first time in the Weekly Themed Quilt Contest at the Quilting Gallery. My quilt is called Home For Christmas. There are some really fabulous quilts in the contest this time. Voting starts today and ends Monday evening. So if you like my quilt I would really appreciate your vote. Thanks!

Now the winner of the Sleigh Ride pattern: WoolenSails you won! Congrats! I have sent you an email for your address.

Thanks for sharing your likes and dislikes about snow. It was fun reading all your comments. I wonder how much snow I will get this year!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Sleigh Ride

I finished my working with wool project. Isn't it cute? I bought this kit created by Lone Star Mercantile when I attended the craft show at the barn. The kit came with the chenille trim which adds a nice touch to the pillow.

How about a giveaway? I will give someone the pattern along with the freezer paper pieces I made plus a piece of red wool for the star and berries. I will also include a small piece of green wool for the holly leaves. You will have to supply the rest of the fabrics and trim.
If you would like a chance to win this giveaway just tell me if you like snow and what you like about it. If you don't like snow, tell me why.
 I will pick one name Friday morning.

What is Christmas with no snow
No white Christmas with no snow
Snow

I'll soon be there with snow
I'll wash my hair with snow
And with a spade of snow
I'll build a man that's made of snow
I'd love to stay up with you but I recommend a little shuteye
Go to sleep 
And dream 
Of snow


(verse from the movie White Christmas with Bing Crosby)




With Passion,
Carrie P.

Christmas Pillows

Some of you might recall when these two patterns came out a couple of years ago. It was a free BOM from Esther Aliu. I was excited to start this BOM but alas other things came about which got me sidetracked. Needless to say I only did two of the blocks.
As I was making them I also hand quilted them. I was going to do a "quilt as you go" quilt. Instead of a quilt I made two pillows. I just put them in the mail yesterday. I sent the birds to my mom and flowers to my sister for Christmas gifts.

I guess I can say two UFOs are finished!

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Working With Wool

With Passion,

Carrie P.

How About Some Inspiration?

I went to my applique group this past Wednesday. The ladies in the group have been very busy.
Here are some of their Hop To It blocks.
Linda is almost finished with the snow man quilt. This was a free BOM from Bunny Hill. She is working on the binding.
Lois Jean has made this king size quilt for her daughter. This pattern is from a book by Blackbird Designs. The book is You're Invited.
Paula made these two quilts.

Carolyn made these two pieces.
Virginia put this top together. The blocks were made by someone she knows. She is going to hand quilt it for this person.
Now are you inspired to go get in your sewing room? Go!

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Re-purposing and Christmas Baking

I have been busy making centerpieces for our next Monday night quilt guild meeting. Since I am the VP this year it is one of my responsibilities. Every December we have a covered dish dinner together. So each table usually has some kind of center piece which will be a door prize. My daughter brought these vases and green ribbons home from one of her retail jobs. The store was going to throw them away so she brought them home. So I began to think how I could use these and save the guild some money. So these center pieces are what I came up with. Each has the shimmery silver flowers, candy cane, and two fat eighths of red and green fabric. I am pretty pleased at how they look. Too bad I can't win one. lol
I went to the grocery store this morning to get some ingredients to start my Christmas cookie baking. I am linked to Klove.com so I can listen to Christmas music while I do some mixing and baking.
I just had to show you all my newest Christmas ornament for this year. It is a Hallmark ornament. This is the third in a series. I have the other two. I wonder how many they will make in this series? Cute, isn't it?

I think my butter is soft enough to get started on my baking so I will talk to later.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Give Thanks!

With the help of my daughter who drew the little manger I created a new Give Thanks quilt. This little quilt is on its way to my sister to add to the wall hanging. Jenny had made a new little quilt which Give Thanks for homecomings which you can get from her blog now. It is so sweet and I will make it later. But I wanted to send one to my sister that spoke about why we have Christmas. I added one of Jenny's signature roses so that it will go with all the other little quilts.
I also wanted to share a giveaway that I am thankful for. As a quilter I am always glad to win some fabric. I won this from Sally back in November. Thanks Sally for picking my name. The fabric is called a Rollie Pollie which actually came from The Intrepid Thread. And thanks you Julie for sending the roll to me.

At all times and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. Ephesians 5:20

With Passion and a Thankful heart,

Carrie P.

Got Wood?

Yep! we got lots of wood. This is how I spent my Saturday and Sunday.

If you read my blog much you know that my husband and I have been clearing some of land to have a garden. That meant cutting lots of trees down, mostly tall pine trees. This weekend we had a sawyer come out with this big saw mill to cut the tree trunks into planks.
As you can see we have a pile in our garage now. It smells like Pine-sol. My #2 son came and helped on Saturday and then on Sunday it was just me and my husband rolling tree trunks onto the lifter, moving the planks off the mill, sweeping the saw dust off the planks and then carrying them to the garage to stack. The owner of the mill was controlling the saw blade as it cut the logs into planks.
Did you know that a fresh cut tree is 40% water until it drys out? So you can imagine how heavy those planks were. We stacked the planks with spacers in between so the wood dries out. It will take about a year for those planks to air dry. One day these planks will be a wood floor in our home that we plan to build in a few years.
This photo is all the outside leftover pieces. We will do this again later in a few months because we have more trees that we just haven't brought out of the woods yet. Ibuprofen was our friend this weekend. lol It was tough job but it will be worth it to see the beautiful wood floor one day.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Tuesday Sewing

This past Tuesday I did get to do some sewing. I made the new blogger's BOM which was designed by Stephanie. Here are my three blocks so far.
I also got to make my Quilts of Valor block which I made to be donated when I attend the Modern Quilt guild this month. This block is called Skewed Star by Toby Lishko. I got this pattern from Volume Three of the Quiltmaker's 100 blocks magazine.
With Passion,

Carrie P.

My First Christmas Gift

all the way from the Netherlands. Thanks Simone! "It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas."
Yesterday I was out shopping from 9:30AM until 4PM. I got everything done and found some great deals. There were a few things I could not find in stores but found on the internet which I also found some deals.

Now to get the Christmas tree.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

2011Christmas Quilt Show

I thought I would enter a quilt in SewCalGal's 2011 Christmas Quilt Show. You still have time to enter your quilt too. I have been visiting some of the links and there are some really fabulous entries.

My entry is a wall hanging that I made for my mom in 2009. It was a free embroidery BOM from Gail Pan. It was a fun project to work on. My mom keeps it hanging all year in her sewing room.

I pulled out some Christmas decorations this morning but have not really started putting them in their places. I also did get to do some sewing today. I will be prepping some more leaves for my Hop To It block while I watch TV tonight. Tomorrow I plan to do some Christmas shopping. Got lists from the kids. Maybe I can find some deals!

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Country Girl

Yes, there is no place like home but it is fun to visit other places. This country girl went to the big city. My oldest son and his wife live in the DC area. They both work in retail so they did not get much of a holiday vacation. They invited my husband and me to come visit them this Thanksgiving. This first photo is the highway as we got into the area. On the left hand side there were three accidents. Our side of the road was good but people slowed down to see what was going on over on the other side of median which slowed traffic way down.
We went straight to where my son works and got the key to his apartment. Before we went to the apartment we went into a Barnes and Noble bookstore. This is the view from the second story.
This is a window of the store that my DIL decorated which is next door to the bookstore.

My son had Friday off so he took us down to the waterfront of Old Town. It was very crowded with shoppers. Some of the storefronts had some really pretty decorations outside of their shops. The sidewalks were all made of bricks.
On Saturday my husband and I went to Annapolis, Maryland. I can now say that I have visited that state. We walked the Main Street which was also packed with shoppers. It was a warm sunny day.
I did find a quilt shop in Annapolis called Cottonseed Glory. As you can see they had a ton of fabric.
I didn't buy much fabric. I did but these fat quarters from a line called New London by Faye Burgos for Marcus Brothers. I took some handwork with me to work on. I got a little bit more appliqued on my Hop To It block.
Today was spent washing clothes, getting some groceries, and running other errands. I also went to check out my veggies. They are looking good. I will be picking all the kale in the left hand picture for dinner tomorrow. I am so excited to see how everything is growing. We are going to get some cold weather this week so those veggies are going to be nice and cozy in their little hoop houses.
This country girl is glad to be "home sweet home" from the city. I have nothing scheduled on my calendar this week so I am planning to get some sewing done. I will share later.

Now it is time to start the Christmas planning. I might pull out some decorations tomorrow too.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!...Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Psalm 107:1-2

Giving Thanks
For the hay and the corn and the wheat that is reaped,
For the labor well done, and the barns that are heaped,
For the sun and the dew and the sweet honeycomb,
For the rose and the song and the harvest brought home -
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

For the trade and the skill and the wealth in our land,
For the cunning and strength of the workingman's hand,
For the good that our artists and poets have taught,
For the friendship that hope and affection have brought -
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

For the homes that with purest affection are blest,
For the season of plenty and well-deserved rest,
For our country extending from sea unto sea;
The land that is known as the "Land of the Free" -
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

author unknown

Wherever you may this Thanksgiving I pray you enjoy everything about the day. We have a lot to be thankful for. I will be enjoying time spent with my family.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Teaching Classes

Look what I have to show you all. Some works from the students in my classes. This first photo was a 6 month BOM that I did with three students. This student finished her top and brought it to the shop when I was teaching on Saturday to show it to me. Check out the rainbow rick rack she is going to add to the top after she quilts it. The pattern is from the New Applique Sampler by Piece O' Cake Designs.
The same student got the four blocks done from a Celtic applique class I taught last month. She has some really great fabrics for her borders too.

This pattern is Celtic Sampler by Rosemary Kurtz. It is so exciting to see this student's finished tops. Well done! Debra!

One day this week I taught two classes back to back. One was the Celtic applique. The above photo is from three students. Interesting choices of fabric for their knots. Below is a photo from a student taking my pinwheel table runner class. The darker green and red are some of her blocks.

These photos are from five students that took my beginning applique class. We met a few weeks ago and they had homework to do. The homework was stems and circles. This past Saturday they made the sunflower, hearts, and baskets. It is always so much fun to see what fabrics each person will use. This pattern is Spring Valentine by Susan Brubaker Knapp. You can see my version up in my header.
Well done ladies! I am so proud of you all. Keep up the good work.

I hope these projects will now inspire you to go do some quilting for a while.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

ps I almost forgot to tell you about this awesome BOM that is from Dorothy Baker's pattern. If you haven't read about it yet you can go here to see the first block on Dorothy's blog that was made by Denise.