The Past

Another year has come and gone. They just seem to be going by faster each year I get older. Do you have big plans for the new year? I have thought of things I would like to accomplish this year but I will share them later.

If you follow and read my blog you know that I have been working this year to finish up many of the UFOs that I have accumulated over the many years I have been quilting. I was so glad that many of you join me in this endeavor. It was fun to see what each one of you were going to try to accomplish each month. Some of you including myself had good months. Some months were not so good for us but we kept on trying to make a dent in our UFOs. Thanks to all of you that joined in. So today I announce the final winner of Nothing But UFOs for the month of December... Kim of One Krafty Kitty Momma is the final winner. Congrats to Kim and to all of you for accomplishing so many goals this year.

 Since I was working on finishing up UFOs I wanted to keep track of all my finishes this year. This is the first time I have actually done this. I think I might have missed a few but these are the ones I remembered to put in the folder. I made the two table runners. The pink one was a UFO but the other one was a new start and finish/a gift.

 Here are some of the big quilts I finished this year.

 Two pillows I made for my daughter-in-law.

 I re-taught myself to crochet again this past year. So these weren't UFOs but new things I crocheted this year.

Some small quilts finished.

These four UFOs ended up being donation quilts.

Small gifts made.

 One punchneedle UFO completed.

 My green bowl quilt which hangs in my kitchen. One of my favorite wall hangings.

 This is still a UFO but I did add lot more flowers and green hexies to this project.

 This was a quilt made by my guild. They gave me the top for serving as president. I had it quilted and I bound it to use this Christmas.

 Here is another quilt that is still a UFO but I am getting closer to having it done hopefully by next Christmas!

 Two more tops to be quilted and bound this year too.

All in All I think I had a pretty good year. Melissa and Shanna also were very encouraging to quilters to reach some goals too. I would link up to their blogs to participate each month. Each of the photos that have a snowflake on it show the quilt that I linked up reaching my goal. They are doing the same thing this year. I am going to participate again. Be sure to go by either blog to get the information if you want to participate this year.

 I look forward to the new year of finishing some UFOs, creating new quilts, and learning some new things. I wish you all the very best in 2014!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

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.