Another Year Older!

Yes, that is me. Another year older and wiser I hope. It is my birthday today and I have turned 53. I know some women don't like to tell their age but we all get older so why be afraid of telling. I thought I would show you what some special people sent me for this special day in my life.

My mom sent me this wall hanging she made using some preprinted fabric that speaks of daughters. She thinks she got the fabric when she went to the Houston Quilt Show. Check out the border fabric. It has little fairies on it. Thanks mom.

Stephanie over at Loft Creations sent me this sweet package.
Inside this lovely kitchen towel...
was a baggie filled with these buckles and these very cute blue buttons and a wooden Bingo game marker... (sorry blogger flipped it)
and these wooden spools. She knows how I buy them up every time I see them at antique stores.
She also made me one of her crochet dish rags that match my kitchen. Check out the sweet bluebird stamp. A friend of Stephanie's makes homemade soap which she also sent. The soap smells like almonds. Thank you so much for the very thoughtful gifts, Stephanie. You make me feel very special.
Mary of Quilt Hollow send this very special card that speaks of fabric and patchwork. Very sweet! Thanks for remembering my birthday, Mary.

As I sit here writing this post I am sitting at my table by the sliding glass door watching big snowflakes falling from the gray skies. It is not supposed to accumulate and I hope it doesn't because my applique bee is supposed to meet tomorrow.

If it is your birthday today I hope it is a good one for you too.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Old age is always 15 years older than I am. Bernard Baruch

I was just piddling around doing some random things in my sewing room and trying to catch up on some blog reading. Not much to show today. I cut out some of the centers for my string quilt. I am going to work on getting some blocks done today.

I traced another of Dorothy's Sweet Nostalgia blocks. I will try to get it colored today too.
I had found nine plain white napkins really cheap at an antique store with the intention of doing some embroidery on them. I was waiting for the perfect design. When I saw the hearts thatStina has designed I knew that was what I wanted to put on the napkins. Only two done but maybe I will have them done by next Valentine's Day. I wanted to sew some rick rack all around the outside edges but it just was not working. Any other ideas of what I could do to the outside edge to dress them up?
Off to my sewing room. Oh, I almost forgot to share a blog with you. Rose Marie shares a technique that is a remedy for those wavy borders of a quilt. Go here and here. Pretty neat technique.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

A day patched with quilting seldom unravels.

Oh! Cherries!

Thank you everyone that took the time to give me advice and tips for doing the binding on my quilt. It seems that I am not the only one that has problems sometimes. Kim D. sent a link for an awesome You tube 3 part video. Sharon Schamber shows how she does the binding on her award winning quilts using glue. Hmmm! you say. Check it out.

Diane also send a link that shows binding being sewn on with a zig zag stitch.

Thanks Kim D. and Diane for sending those to me.

Oh, it feels so good to do some applique without much pain. I am still doing therapy for my elbow and it is definitely getting better. Yippeeee!!! I am working slowly and only doing applique for about an hour a day so that I can get this elbow healed. Look at my new cherries block. I really like this one. You can get this pattern at Linen Closet Quilts. If you look at her pattern you will notice that I left out some of the cherries. I thought it was just a little too busy for me. The next block is pineapples. I have the fabric traced and prepped ready to go.

Remember I told you that I was working on a birthday present for my future DIL. Here is a little book keeper. The pattern is made to hold the new Kindle ( a wireless reading device) but you could use it for anything. As you can see I added some cherries using the above pattern. Look Stephanie, my first string project for the challenge! Wait until you see what I am doing with the scraps. If you like this little book keeper you can get it from the Moda Bake Shop. The original pattern has a applique flower on it instead of cherries.
I had some fabric left over from the sewing caddy I made for my future DIL so I thought I would decorate some kitchen towels to give to her for her birthday also.
I just had to show you this new bird I saw in my Hemlock tree. No, I am just kidding! It is a possum. I just happened to look out in my backyard and saw it walking across the yard and watch it climb the tree. My dog was out side so I think that is why it climbed the tree. The possum had no worries because my dog is 13 years old and is almost blind and deaf. My dog did get a whiff of the possum but she didn't know where it went. We have ugly possums in North America but that pink nose is awful cute. Our friends in Australia have cute possums. I remember seeing pictures on Jenny's blog.
Have a great weekend. This will be our first weekend in a while without snow. I am looking forward to the sunshine and 50 degree temperatures.

With Passion,

Carrie P

A dog wags its tail with it's heart! Martin Buxbaum

Show and Tell!

I don't have much to show and tell but here is my block number eight. Just need to add buttons later.
Even though Valentine's Day is over I wanted to show you this table runner I put on my table for this month. I found it at an antique store a while back. The little pot holder/postcard was sent to me last year from Nanette.
Now before you go see the show and tell from my applique group I need some advice. I just got a quilt back from a long arm quilter and I am ready to put the binding on. I want to enter this quilt in the quilt show our guild is having in April. I want the binding to be great. Here is my problem. Sometimes my binding is fabulous, sometimes the edges are wavy. I do my binding the same every time so I need some advice on how to keep the edges from being wavy. What do I do wrong?
Check out these white yo yos and the crochet trim. Isn't it fabulous! It belongs to our fabulous facilitator, Kathleen. It was given to her and what a treasure. Each yo yo is about 1/2-3/4 inch across.
Old and new yo yos!



Same block but made by two different ladies. It is fun to see what fabrics they choose.



With Passion,

Carrie P.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. John Ruskin

V is for Valentine Winner!

Happy Cottage Quilter is the winner of my giveaway! Congratulations to you. Happy Cottage Quilter would really like some red roses for Valentine's Day. After reading all your comments it looks like the majority of you would love to receive flowers. Some of you might even go into shock if you were given flowers. I wish I could send you all a dozen of your favorite flowers but since I can't I will just wish you all the Sweetest Valentine's Day ever.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Love the one you are with.