The Letter M

M is for "Merry" Christmas? M is for "Michele?" M is for "many" projects? or M is for "May" you have a Happy New Year? ;) No, no, no....(but it does make me think of the Cookie Monster's (Sesame Street) "C is for Cookie" song....)

It could be that M is for "my" new/old project.....the Letter M fairy from Nora Corbett. She is the halfway point through the alphabet, plus she is at the"midway" point. ;)

Take a peek:

You know how it is with the New Year approaching...looking back, setting new goals, etc. I was trying to see what projects I had that I might be able to get done this year. Of course, I would like to be able to finish all the letters, but half way's not too bad.

BTW - this is another set of designs that I had originally thought of using in a quilt....the one for which I already purchased some of the fabrics....;)

Fabrics, Floss & Trim

That was part of my Christmas present from Isabelle. Beautiful fabrics (I love the toile), some Christmas colored floss, plus some DMC Satin floss, and a beautiful trim that reminds of icing on a cake!
But the most gorgeous part of the gift was a hanging ornament from the first block of Christmas at Hawk Run. Now - since my pictures are not usually the greatest...I am going to link to Isabelle's blog, where she has an absolutely wonderful picture.

Present (ooops! here's a link to the front page of Isabelle's blog....Isabelle

Fantastic, isn't it? Isabelle's work is always perfection (just in case you did not take a look around her blog.) I also want to take this opportunity to thank her for all the wonderful gifts she has sent me. All are truly appreciated. Thank you, Isabelle!

Now up next is another picture...this one really is not very good...but it is difficult to get a picture of a quilt. This shows more of the fabrics I used, plus the perfect fabric I found for the border at Bears Paw Fabrics (although you can only see a very little bit of it.)

Le Jardin

Bunny Hill's newest design - "Le Jardin", with very pretty fabrics from the French General line. This is the first block. Another Block of the Month (BOM). Hopefully, I will be able to keep up with this one. ;) The little bunny gets an embroidered ribbon around his neck, which also flows out into the background.

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas and received some nice "stitchy" gifts from Santa.

Three French Hens

Cross Eyed Cricket's Three French Hens from the Twelve Days of Christmas series. (I have completed - and gave away- A Partridge in a Pear Tree.) The tree topper and two turtledoves in also finished, and actually made into ornaments! Now to complete this one. At this rate it will be another ten years before the others are done.:))

I have been busy trying to get ready for Christmas this past week. There probably will not be much time left over for stitching, which may be the reason I become a bit scarce over the next few days.

I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for coming to visit and leaving me wonderful comments, which encourages me to keep going with so many of my 'various' projects. Thank you all for a great year of blogging! I wish all the best for a wonderful and happy Christmas for you and your families.:))

Glimpses

I have been working on my reindeer quilt. I thought it would be a lot more difficult than it has been (so far...knock on wood...don't want to jinx things now!)....That linen color (twilight blue) is a sort of gray blue...there's no green in it and it is not a true blue....finding something to match was not going to happen. So, I decided to try and focus on "similar" colors instead. The bottom is a bit darker, with the middle getting a bit lighter and some bits of "snow." After that it lightens just a bit, but becomes dark, once again. The red border actually looks great! I thought at first I must be crazy for even considering red. But I found just the shade of fabric in my stash. Now the only problem is the final outer border. I think I am going to strip piece some of the fabrics that I have already used for that one. But here are a few peeks at it so far....remember, most of it was done without a pattern, just a concept in my head.The bottom darker fabric has sort of an "aurora borealis" look to it...

**(edited for Missy Ann) Ok...I have finally picked myself up off the floor from laughing (at myself, mind you). I knew someone was going to ask me about a "pattern". Unfortunately, "by the seat of my pants" was literally how I did this one. Lined up the reindeer...put a border on the top...tried to line them up evenly...you get the idea, here. But there were a few measurements...basically the strips of fabric...cut into two inch strips out of the sections of McKenna Ryan's fabrics that I thought would work. I really only used two different fabrics for the blues. There are actual "sections" in her fabrics that allow you to sort of pick and choose which part you want to use. The outer borders were five inch strips...and the red one..another two inch strip. That's pretty much as exact as it got. I trimmed and cut until I could get everything to sort of fit. Now remember, too, I did not stitch the borders on my reindeer. Sorry for the rambling...but it was pretty much how it happened. Cut the fabrics, stretch them out with the blocks on the back of my sofa. If I liked it, I sewed it. It just sort of all fell into place by itself. I also know that I will probably never be able to do this again...although I am kind of hoping for my Nora Corbett Letter Fairies....I have had the fabric for that one since my older son was in his last year of college (going on two years now) ;o)

In the works

I pulled out all my McKenna Ryan fabrics today. I arranged and rearranged...thought I liked it....changed it...only about a dozen times. Well, I finally just decided to wing it (no pun intended). I started joining all those reindeer and the sleigh together. Nine reindeer and one huge sleigh. Not an easy thing to come up with a nice layout or plan for them. But I started anyway, sort of flying by the seat of my pants (with a little reindeer help, of course!). So far, so good.

Now this is not going to be your ordinary four by five block kind of quilt, mainly because of all the different sizes of the reindeer blocks and that sleigh. Granted it does have some sashing right now. But it is only half way there. We shall see....;)

Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?

Are you singing it??? Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose, and if you ever saw it...(which you can see here)....you would even say it glows. (I ran out of DMC 839, so there are just a few little stitches missing until I get another skein.)

Yep, the last one....all nine reindeer are done! Woohoo! Now Santa is another story....

The sleigh and the reindeer are ready....now what to do with them, what to do? I was planning on combining everyone into one quilt....Just have to figure out how I want that quilt to look first!

At least Rudolph is ready to lead the sleigh for this Christmas in all his sparkling splendor.

Well, that took a while

...didn't it? The "A Tisket, A Tasket" quilt top has been done for a few days. Things were a bit busy, so the pictures did not get taken. I was going to lay the quilt out on the grass in the sun to get a nice bright shot....but today....wouldn't you know, it's raining (again) of course! So the quilt got hung off the front of my refrigerator, hence the odd distortion to the shapes of some of the blocks. Anyway, without any further excuses...here it is:

A Peek

at the borders for my A Tisket, A Tasket quilt.....I put the inner borders and squares together after finishing the December block yesterday afternoon. ISn't the little snowlady cute?

I have to purchase more fabric for the outer border. The piece I have is too small, but I know this fabric is still available (thank goodness!)

For the first time ever, I had a piece of fabric bleed when I went to rinse out the water soluble marker (see that dark green candy cane?). This was an older fabric that I had...plus it is a Jinny Beyer fabric....so I was really surprised when I had blue/breen halos around it! Talk about panic....but then I did what everyone recommended when your DMC floss bleeds, soaked it and soaked it in cold water. There is still a very light halo effect around it, but it will be quilted around there, so will look more diminished.

November

...and it doesn't have a turkey! A little squirrel and a cute black crow. Now the little crow was to have a little hat....I didn't really care for the way it looked...so let's just say it blew away in the autumn winds! And....see the little squirrel's ballon? It was drawn as a leaf. But I think the little acorn balloon was just a bit more fun.
I spent some time today looking through my fabrics to see what might be suitable for the borders for all these little baskets. I think I have found just the right ones, too!

October

Two more to go! Here's October's Bunny Hill freebie A Tisket, A Tasket:

A little "sunbonnet" witch and her kitty.
I did use the word on the sign this time.

Next is the squirrelly Thanksgiving block. :)

I'll have to be thinking about sashing and borders soon!

Thanks for coming by and all the great comments!

September

Yeah!! My September A Tisket, A Tasket block is done! (Remember I said I was not stitching any words on mine?) This one originally had the words "school days" across the top of the basket handle. Plus the little dog had a blanket on his back with "A, B, C" on it. I decided after trying the little blanket on mine, that I liked it better without the it. Take a peek:I think this little block is one of my favorites. :)) The October block has a "sunbonnet sue" witch with a little black kitty (which I have already started.) ;)) Then it will be onto the "squirrelly" Thanksgiving block

The last block for December was released today....a little snowlady and a basket with candy canes! Getting close to the end!

May, June, July, August

Yep, four months....these are the four blocks for my Bunny Hill A Tisket, A Tasket freebie BOM quilt:This is not the layout for the blocks as they will be in the quilt. Plus....A few of the blocks have words that are part of the pattern to be stitched. I chose not to use the words in mine. One adjustment because of the missing words was to move my ladybug up a bit on the handle. And my July block needs one more little leaf that somehow got misplaced in the shuffle. Just have to cut out another one!

Some assembly required

No, no...it's not some toy for Christmas....:)
My Vintage Christmas blocks....they are fused together but not stitched just yet. Well, the sheep has her machine blanket stitching already. Now to finish the rest. After these two - only one more block to go...but it is huge.

I love this little guy!

How cute is this little sheep? He is a part of my July block for Bunny Hill's A Tisket, A Tasket freebie BOM.

OK - see those blue lines...those are a removable marker, by the way. I am trying to help myself regulate the size of my blanket stitches. I was having a terrible time, so decided to try anything. Blanket stitching is one of the few things I have never really done.

How about his face? Something I did not plan...those little blue polka dots were just a part of the pattern on the fabric. When I turned the fabric over, I had the perfect little eyes for my sheep!