Christmas Time is Here!

 I have been busy. I haven't done any sewing because the renovations we have been doing on the house are ready for our part to be done. This is our bedroom. Through the doorway is our bathroom. As you can see I have been painting boards. I am getting these boards ready for Mr. P. to put up some wainscoting on the walls of our bedroom. The bathroom was gutted. My #2 son and his boss have been doing some of the work in it. Mr. P. will have some days off next week so we will be busy with all of this.

So I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Blessed Christmas! God is good!

For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be upon His shoulder;
and His name shall be called,
Wonderful,
Counselor,
the mighty God,
the Everlasting Father

(Handel's Messiah)

For those of you participating in Nothing But UFOs I am going to add the link today. You will have plenty of time to add your blog post to it. 

Merry Christmas! See you in 2014!

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Modern Quilt Therapy

My quilt group met last week. We had a lot of fun year together. We will be meeting again next year. Here is my finished quilt top. I wanted to do a post a lot sooner but this quilt is too big to hang on my design wall. Mr. P. doesn't get home until dark so I couldn't get a good picture. Today it is really windy as you can tell but I think the quilt looks pretty blowing in the cold breeze. 

 The group always has show and tell. I was able to show my quilt since I got it done in time for the meeting. Here are some of the other great quilts. These were made by LC at the May Chappell blog.

 Here is a close up of the feather quilting. I just love this quilt.

 Laura made a quilt using the same fabric line.

 LC also showed us her cute bag and...

 another quilt she made.

This is a Christmas string quilt made by one of the other group members.

 Karen Gray, our lovely leader of the group, had doorprize drawings where everyone won a prize. How nice! I won this pattern and a fat quarter.

 We also had a Christmas gift exchange. We could bring whatever we liked as long as it was handmade. I received this folder from Amy. This is the outside...

 Here is the inside.

 I made the embroidered hoop on the left which Amy got from me. I also made our leader, Karen, one for a Christmas gift too. If you want to embroider this saying you can get the pattern here.

Stop by Beyond the Reef for a Countdown to Christmas giveaway. You might win. I did!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Just Sharing

I thought I would share some fun stuff with you all. I visited a store in my  town called Marshalls and found some spools of velveteen ribbon in red, green and a bright blue. I picked up a spool of the red. I also found rick rack made out of burlap. I am going to use some of it to trim a lamp shade.

 I did get my last three blocks done and I have been sewing up a storm trying to get the top finished. I think I will get done in time to share with the Modern Quilt therapy group that is meeting tomorrow.

 Have you ever wanted to make a perpetual calendar? If so and you like to embroider you can get free instructions from Crabapple Hill Studio. I have been collecting patterns all year. You still have time to get them before the year is over if you click here. Don't wait to long because I think they will be gone the first of the year.

Have you ever signed up for a class on Craftsy.com? I am on their email list. A week or so ago they were having a sale on a mystery crochet workshop and yarn to go with the workshop. I read the description and thought I could do the stitches so I joined in. I got my lovely skein of yarn. Mr. P. helped me roll it into a ball so it was much easier to work with. I love how it is looking so far. It is called a shawl but I would call it a scarf. Since I am a beginner it took me about 7 tries to finally get the directions. It wasn't the directions it just takes me several tries to get the pattern down. I have done that for every "easy" crochet project I have started. I am really a visual person and need more pictures. I am pleased with the workshop and the instructor has been great about answering all my questions. She has been real quick to answer them too. I think I might try another class later.

I have been busy making cookies for my kids. Even though they are adults they still expect cookies this time of year.
So that is all I have to share this post. Hope you are finding time to do things you enjoy this busy season.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Quilt Block Trail and November UFO winner

The day after Thanksgiving Mr. P. and I drove to our North Carolina mountains to a town called Sparta to pick out our Christmas tree. As you can see it was a beautiful day. 

 Along the way we spotted quilt blocks on different building.

 In this picture there are two building with quilt blocks on them.

 This white barn and way out in the distance you can see a red barn.

 I zoomed in but you can not really tell what the block looks like but there is one on the front of the red barn.

 We stopped at a couple of antique stores and I found this round vintage Christmas table cloth. Be still my heart!

 I also found this vintage Christmas tree ornament.

 One shop we stopped in had pottery and a few water color pictures. I bought this brown and blue nine patch water color. I found the wood frame at Target which looks pretty good with the browns in the quilt design.

The link for sharing your UFO finishes has closed. Time to announce the November winner. Tracy from Fibber Babble is the winner. Congratulations!
There is still time to link up your December goals here.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

My Inspiration

 This quilt was on my design wall for 2 months before I actually started putting these blocks together . I had asked your advice on how to set the blocks and what the border should look like. I do appreciate all your help.

 As I was contemplating how to do this quilt I got out the pattern that started it all. This was an e-pattern from Piece O' Cake designs. When I joined this block swap in 2010 we could pick a theme. I picked Christmas trees.

 This tree was my starting point. As you can see I did mine just a little bit differently.

 So the blocks sat in a baskets until I decided to work on UFOs this year. Next thought was how to do the borders. I was thinking about how I decorate my Christmas tree. When I was young our tree had the colored lights on it. So when I pulled out the pattern again I saw the lights and knew that it would be a border.

  I don't put colored lights on my tree. I use the tiny white lights. One thing I do put on the tree ever since my kids were little are candy canes. So I thought how can I do a candy cane border. I started looking through my quilting books. This is one of my favorite books.

 Check out the back cover. This was my inspriation. The candy cane border is made from half square triangles. Sometimes it is a good thing for blocks to stay on your design wall for a while so that the perfect idea comes to you in time.

 So that is how my little quilt has come to what it is today. Now to get the applique done! :0)

Be sure to link up your UFO finishes here and your new UFO goals here.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

It is beginning to feel like Christmas!

I have been busy the last two days. Yesterday I did my Christmas shopping. Today I am beginning to bake Christmas cookies for the kids.

 Has anyone ever made Biscotti? It is my first time. As I was cutting into the first baked section of the Biscotti into slices parts started to break off.  I did use a serrated knife to cut the pieces. So needless to say not all of the pieces look pretty like you would buy in the store. Plus when I started to turn the Biscotti during the second baking some started to fall apart. I think the temperature might be to high(350*) for the second baking because some of it is burning. I turned the oven down to 300* so the Biscotti would dry out and get crunchy like it is supposed to.
Can anyone give me any tips?

Finally I am getting around to letting you know what the giveaway is for this month for those of you are going to sign up for Nothing But UFOs.

If you reach at least one of your goals that you list on your blog you will win this book.

 Some of this vintage Christmas fabric. It includes two of the Santa designs.

 And this bag with surprise goodies in it.

 My goals for this month are to make the last three blocks of this quilt and to put the top together. I would love to have it done by next Wednesday for the Modern Quilt Therapy group I go to once a month but I just don't know if I can do it.

 Remember last month I mentioned these blocks for an exchange my mom and I did several years ago? I pulled out twelve of the green blocks. My plan is to get them sashed this month.

So that is my goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. If I get the border on even better.

I am not going to list a third UFO only because I have a couple more small Christmas gifts to make. I am already feeling a little overwhelmed by all the stuff going on this month. I hope you have a good month. Be sure to link up your UFO finishes here. You still have two days left.

Link up your UFO goals for this month on this post. You will find the link at the bottom of the post. Can't wait to see what you do this month. I can't believe the year is almost over. I really appreciate the participation. It has been great incentive for me.

With Passion,

Carrie P.