A Busy and Productive Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope you, my faithful readers, had a joyous Thanksgiving weekend. My niece, Alison, invited the entire family for a Thanksfiving feast. The dinner and company were both lovely. I spent the long weekend stitching, quilting and decorating for Christmas.
I recently got my Flag Day Farm quilt back from my machine quilter, Pat. It takes me a l.o.n.g time to get that binding attached. 

Flag Day Farm by Moda

Fabric by Minnick & Simpson

Click on the snap to enlarge. Pat did a wonderful job with the free motion quilting of the stars and loops. The 1776 plate is by Ginger Cazan. Of course the posting of a new quilt would not be complete without a snap of Emma.

I stitched a bit more on Dorothy Ians:

On Thanksgiving Eve I started my 2009 Christmas piece:

Tis the Season - Blackbird Designs

40 ct. Lakeside Pear with Belle Soie

No weekend would be complete without some time spent at the sewing machine. I made eighteen of these blocks:

The 5 inch finished blocks will eventually become this:

Gettysburg by ClothslineQuilts

I also worked on these:

Yes...those strips are created with the selvages of  fabrics used in quilt tops that were constructed over the  past year or so. Stay tuned to see what will happen with those Selvage Blocks.

I got a good bit of exercise over the long weekend as well. Numerous trips up and down the attic stairs to gather some Christmas decorations. Corgi Cottage is starting to look very festive.I thought it would be fun to share a snap or two of the decorations with each of my December postings.

Let Thee be Grateful

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with good food and good company.Thanksgiving has always been a time of reflection for me. The year 2009 has brought joys as well as sorrows.

As we gather for the holidays there will be a very special man absent from our family celebrations. 

I think of you each day Dad and will miss you always.

I'm so grateful for the wonderful friends I've made through blogging. Thank you Mel, Words and Blooms, for honoring me with the:

Happy Thanksgving! Love Emma

My Love Affair with Adam and Eve Samplers Continues

I'll be leaving 2009 behind with a few additions to my A&E sampler collection. I started stitching Dorothy Ians, by the Sampler Dames, a little over a week ago. The original sampler resides in The Charleston Museum, Charleston, S.C. The sampler is stitched with a combination of AVAS and Soie de Paris.  I chose to stitch Dorothy on a piece of 36 ct BOAF Barn Owl linen. The kit came with a 30 ct. parchment linen which IMHO was blah.

Dorothy really liked the color forest green.... but I'm growing weary of the color, which had never been a favorite of mine.

That sure is some bodacious booty on Adam and Eve!

I've also spent a bit of time at the cutting mat and the sewing machine this past week. I figured since I completed one quilt I deserved to start at least a couple of new quilt tops. These darling little quilt blocks are all of 4 1/4". I've pieced five of these blocks and only have to stitch 190 more blocks for my quilt top.

Our quilt guild had a trunk show from a wonderful shop in Sun Prairie, WI - JJ Stitches. She displayed a quilt called - Dipped in Chocolate - and it was love at first sight. I  came home from that guild meeting with a lovely quilt top kit. It sat in my quilt stash closet for many months. I cut the hundreds of 1 1/4" strips needed to make the quilt blocks.... and then it sat in the quilt stash closet for many months. Finally, its time has come, and I will be piecing these 4 1/4" blocks, composed of 1 1/2" patches, for many, many weeks to come.

 I received a wonderful package in the mail yesterday from Ginger Cazan.She creates handmade American redware. 

The Tile will hang on the sunporch to welcome all who come to visit Corgi Cottage.Owen likes it too!

 

My Sewing Machine Has Been Humming...

Do you remember when a posted a snap of some nine patch blocks?

Well I turned those blocks and lovely bird fabric into this...

Of course Emma was right there making sure she was part of the action:

Heritage Birds Quilt

Country Sampler

This stripy quilt is constructed with three strips of nine-patch blocks, set on the diagonal. The strips are bordered with 2 narrow brown strips and a wider pink print strip. The lovely bird fabric is used in the two wide strips. I used fabrics from  the Collection for a Cause Heritage fabric line by  Howard Marcus Dunn for Moda. The proceeds from the Heritage fabric collection is donated to Gilda's Club, whose mission is to provide an emotional and social support community for individuals living with cancer. The fabric line was reproduced from a 19th century antique quilt.

This past week I also picked up my Christmas quilt from my long-arm quilter.

Cactus Wreath

Cozy Quilt Designs

 

Of course Emma had to pose for a snap on the Christmas quilt. The top was free motion quilted on a long-arm quilting machine. Carolyn quilted the top with poinsettias and holly leaves, using a Christmas red/green/white variegated thread. This quilt will go on my bed the day after Thanksgiving through the New Year.

Before the sibling rivalry rears it's ugly head... I'll leave you with a snap of Owen, enjoying his ride in my truck to visit Grandma.

Oops... I Forgot the Pinkeep Snaps!

Thank you Cyn for the heads-up about the missing snaps of the Quaker pinkeeps. Without further ado...

 

 

I have snaps of the back of the pinkeeps in my Photobucket alubum... nothing fancy, just some pretty fabrics.

There were a couple of questions about Distress It. I take the slow and easy approach when using this product. I give the entire sampler a light spray and then give a few areas an extra squirt. I thought the pink/peach color in Mary Corey's flower and name were too bright... so those areas got a bit of an extra squirt. Let the sampler dry. If you still would like a more distressed look just spray the sampler again, either all over or concentrate on certain areas of the sampler.

I have no idea what the long term affects of Distress It will have on your linen or fibers. So maybe using this product on your heirloom sampler would not be a good idea!

A blog post wouldn't be complete without a snap of my two best friends enjoying a nap in the sunshine.

I've been bitten by the A&E bug,.. BAD!

My plan was to return to stitching on Witches Hollow upon completion of Sarah Seifer. That plan went right out the window when the A&E's continued to scream at me from the WIP closet. So, I spent this past week stitching:

Threads of Gold

Mary Corey, 1809

36 ct. R&R Antique Cotton

AVAS,NPI, Belle Soie silks

I wasn't completely satisfied with the look of the finished sampler. I wanted a stored in the attic, neglected, run over by a truck look for my sampler. Out came my bottle of Distress It and here is the end result.

The most marvelous package arrived in the mail this past week. Deb, finisher extraordinaire,  returned my Quaker pinkeeps and BOAF ornaments. Don't you just love the fabric she chose for the ornaments?

 

 

 

Birds of a Feather
White Christmas

I wanted to take a minute or two to respind to some comments from my previous post.  Melissa.... I stitched the buttonhole stitch on my Bernina Aurora 440. If I had to do those babies by hand it would take me a very L...O...N...G time. I use the #46 buttonhole stitch, which repeats each leg of the stitch twice, giving it a handstitched look.

My dear friend Siobhan wrote:

"The circles... looooove them! Penny rug, right?!"

You are very, very close my dear friend... but you haven't got it just right yet.

I was so relieved to find out that I have lots of company with my ADD stitching challenge combined with the dreaded 'startitis' disease. I am NOT alone.

Thank you, my faithful readers, for visiting Corgi Cottage and taking the time to leave me your comments. I read each and ever one and they are all very much appreciated.

I've been busy at the sewing machine too.... but you'll just have to check back to see what I've been up to!

The End

A Gal Just Has to Have Options

 I'll be the first to admit that I suffer from ADD when is comes to my stitching. I am easily swayed by lovely stitchy snaps on blogs. After making great progress on Witches Hollow last week.... there was a nagging voice that I could no longer silence." Adam & Eve, Adam & Eve, Adam & Eve.... when oh when are you going to add more A&E samplers to your very sparsely populated Adam & Eve wall???"

Several friends are stitching Plum Street Sampler's gorgeous Paradise Lost.  Or how about Siobhan's PL, scroll down the page a bit.  Alas, I could not start PL because I failed to order the chart. I'll have to remedy that situation ASAP.

So I had to be content to select an A&E chart from my stash. This one was shouting the loudest to be stitched:

Sarah Seifer

The Goode Huswife

36 ct. PTP Heritage w/ NPI silks

You may remember these circles from a previous post:

Well, I've done a little something with those circles:

 

Check back to see what will happen with those circle next!

 Run on over to Edgar's blog and check out his Movie Giveaway drawing.