Phew!!

Since my last post (the one where I said I would announce the little quilt give away winner) I was slammed at work trying to get ready to be off for two weeks, slammed by the realization that on December 20 I had not begun to get ready for Christmas and slammed by Christmas cooking, wrapping and reveling. Now, I am done...phew!

Without further delay, I congratulate Jen from The Quilty Home blog who the random number generator selected as winner of the little quilt giveaway.

Above is a little of my Christmas decorating. Frankly, the little tree on the table was almost our family tree this year. Since I was so late in starting the preparation the tree lots had closed up shop. Luckily, Whole Foods still had trees on December 24 so we got a big one after all.


This is a close up photo of my Christmas gift to myself. A couple of red and green quilts. I thought I'd take a chance and pull out some of my antiques to use in decorating. Might as well enjoy them.

Son of House Block

House Block

Son of House Block

The house quilt currently in my blog header is one I've long wanted to reproduce but have only gotten as far as the single block at the top of this post. I was playing around with my red and green fabrics this weekend (cannot stop with those colors) and instead of making more blocks for my house quilt I decided to try the same block in a 3" version (oops, flipped the door piece upside down). So, voila, here is son of house block. Took me the entire evening last night so I won't be doing a whole quilt of these little babies. I think I'll check Pottery barn and see if they have a frame to fit it.

I also realized I never announced the day I am picking the winner of the little nine patch giveaway (see last post) so that will be this Wednesday, December 15. I will also be announcing my next giveaway and I think it is exciting so check back mid-week!

Guilty Pleasures mini quilt giveaway

I have a confession...in December my work gets rather hectic and prevents me from truly savoring the holiday spirit. So, sometimes I will stop at Starbucks before I head home from work and buy myself a peppermint mocha or a hot chocolate in their festive holiday cups and sip it as I listen to classical Christmas music on satellite radio in my car. Another little treat I give myself is to listen to the Harry Potter book series while commuting or cooking or sewing. Yup, books 1-7, in order. While they aren't Christmas books, they all have a special Christmas scene and the theme of magic lifts my spirits while I participate in drudgery (i.e., commuting or the dull everyday kind of cooking - of course, the sewing isn't drudgery).

What is your guilty pleasure? Leave a comment and I'll put you in a drawing for the mini quilt pictured above. To give you an idea of the size of the blocks, take a look at the rather blurry photo below.

Please Jo, may we have some more? (and giveaway winner)

My favorite remedy to stress is a session in my sewing cave with a good book on my ipod and lots of different repro scraps to play with. The result of such a therapy session is pictured above; my version of the Stacked Coins quilt from Kathleen Tracy's Remembering Adelia book. Most of the little rectangles are from the latest Judie Rothermel collection Civil War Chronicles. I think this is her best Civil War collection since her very first one. (IMHO) For the borders, I decided to finally cut into my fat quarter stash of Jo Morton's Crimson and Clover line from last year. Jo, if you happen to read this, I love, love, love this line and think it should be reprinted. To make you feel sympathy for my plight, picture me as Oliver Twist saying, "Please sir, I want more." I have three other projects in mind for these fabrics and I don't have enough. If any of you reading this have a local quilt shop that still has these fabrics in stock, please send me the name.

Loved how this one turned out so much that I have to include another shot of it. I also found this cute jar (at the back of the photo) at Pottery Barn and decided to capture a couple of my favorite little mini quilts in it.

And, finally, the winner of my mini quilt giveaway (it is the finished one above on the left) is DOROTHY from Dorothy's Threads of Life blog. Congratulations Dorothy!! Email me your address and I will send it off to you right away. Thanks to all of you for your nice comments and I truly wish I could send a mini quilt to everyone. What I can do is another mini quilt giveaway. Stay tuned tomorrow for photos of the next one.