Rainbows and Winners!

This time of year is always so BUSY!!!  

I know you all know what I mean, right?  Getting ready for loved ones and grandbabies coming to visit.... putting up the tree and decorations.... Christmas parties and pot-luck luncheons with friends and guilds.... shopping for the perfect gifts.... putting the last stitch in this year's newest Christmas quilt... the list is endless.

It's a lot like babysitting the grandbabies - I love it, and it's always fun, but I'm always glad when it's over too :)  Frankly, at my stage of life, fun can be exhausting!

Of course, quilters cannot live by family and responsibilities alone, but by every stitch they can sneak in when no one is looking!  Am I right?  And I seem to remember that I did promise you the 9th Hootie recently, didn't I?

Well, wait no more......

Introducing Rainbow Hootie 

and boy, does he have ATTITUDE!!!!

If the sun ever comes out, I'll get some better pics!

Rainbow Hootie is the Hippee Flower Child of his family LOL!!  I've decided to name this quilt, "Whooooo's Your Daddy?"  I mean, can you see all of the other owls looking anywhere but at Rainbow?  No one wants to claim him as family LOL!!!  Not that it seems to bother him any - he's chillin' and sportin' that whole "Make Love, Not War" attitude :*)  He's just happy to be hanging out with the crowd and doing his own thing!

I'm almost finished sewing all the feathers down, and next I will assemble the "limb" sashing strips and the tree trunk on the left.  I'm having second thoughts about the brown - it makes the whole quilt look dark I think.  I hate to say it, but I just may have to go shopping!!!!  Eeeek!!!!

I have no idea right now how I will quilt it, but I just can't wait to finish it now that I'm this close!  Everyone doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at SoScrappy this year is trying to finish up our projects for the end of the year, and this will be my second finish if I can pull it off.

And speaking of finishes, did you notice my Partridge in a Pear Tree table-topper in the blog header???

Oh, I really love how this turned out!

It dresses up the fireplace area nicely, and adds a pop of color :)

I think the partridge turned out really nice!  The striped batik worked perfectly for his wing.  I re-designed the black striping around his face from the original pattern design (you can see the original pattern picture here if you are interested).

 And the pears cut "broderie perse"-style also worked perfectly.  I used this fabric....

Ironed light fusible on the back, and then cut out the pears and fused them to the background.  Then I just did a simple straight stitch around all the edges.

I even used some of the leaves from the fabric (the ones with gold in them), as well as the ones I cut from my own green scraps.

Don't you just love that red print for the border???  To me, it looks like bright red Christmas bulbs :)

I'm very happy with it and look forward to many years of enjoying it during the holiday season!

♥♥♥♥♥

And now to take care of a little business .... 

I really want to thank everyone who came over to visit during the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day :)  So many lovely comments!  And I have some new followers too - Yay!!!  Welcome aboard :)

And so, without further ado.....

    ♥  The WINNER of the 100 Blocks Volume 4 issue from my Giveaway Day with Sew Mama Sew is - Cathy who blogs over at A Quilting Chick!!!  You should pop over and visit her blog - she is making Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion mystery quilt and I just LOVE her colors and fabrics!!!!


    ♥  and - I realized I have never officially announced the WINNER of the Sew Sweet Simplicity Giveaway (my bad!)  Congratulations to - Kathy E!  Kathy blogs over at Sparkles, Sprinkles and Everyday Crap - cute name huh?!?  She's a fairly new quilter and has challenged herself to make the SSS blocks - and doing a great job of it too!  Kathy has already received her pattern package from Jacquelynne Steves :)

Now don't despair if you didn't win - there will be several more prize packages to come in this fun BOM before it's over!  Be sure to go to Jacquelynne's blog to sign up for the free patterns if you haven't already HERE!

And I know you want to grab a copy of the Christmas Edition of her E-magazine!  I just received mine the other day in my email inbox - wow!!!  Such lovely inspiration!!!!  You don't want to miss out on that either, so while you're there, sign up for the FREE e-magazine too HERE :)

And for those of you who act fast, Jacquelynne is giving away a FREE PATTERN right now on her blog HERE for this oh-so-cute and classic Red and White quilt...

Photo courtesy of Jacquelynne Steves Facebook

Now I'm going to watch some football with My Guy 

and play with my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks for a while.

Today is Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy's Quilts after all :)

Also linking up with the Tuesday Linky Party at

Wishing everyone a lovely Sunday!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Design Wall Happenings!

Last week I told you I'd be AWOL from Blogland because I was going to Runaway Retreat -
      Well, I'm back!!!

And I had a wonderful time!!!  I'll share more about the retreat in a few days, but for now, I'd like to share some of the things I worked on while there.  It's exciting to see projects taking shape.  I have a combination of new and old projects going on .....

New.... Bargello Tree Skirt

Two sections of this hexagon-shaped skirt assembled.

I was TOTALLY excited when I got these two sections sewn together and saw a glimpse of just how amazing this tree skirt is going to be!!!  It is not an easy project, and I was worried that the sections would not line up correctly.  I had to get two complete sections done and trimmed with the oversized triangle template I had prepared before I could tell for sure that it was working - so you can imagine how delighted I was when they lined up perfectly!

When I put it up on the design wall at retreat, everyone said it is too striking to be stuck under a tree and that it needs to be a wall quilt.... hmmmm..... that's definitely a possibility - we'll have to see! :*D

My original intention was to make this in blues and whites to look like a snowflake, but then I went shopping for fabrics and fell in love with this focus print.....

It is a Jason Yenter Wintergraphix print and I just loved the colors!  I added in a wonderful bright blue, a nice spectrum of greens, and some golds......

 But then I ended up taking out the lightest gold and adding in the black instead, and I think it was a good choice.  You can really see the black add some definition in the first picture above.  The light gold was just too mushy and died out when put in the bargello spectrum with the deep colors.

I've had these fabrics for this project for quite some time, but as usual, the project got pushed to the side for more urgent projects.  Then as I shared in THIS POST, I decided that I really want to get some of my Christmas UFO's done so they can decorate my house rather than a UFO box this Christmas.  I joined up with Needle, Thread, Happiness for her 2013 Christmas QAL in order to have some accountability to get them done :*)  This will be my second UFO I've tackled so far.  The August project - Midnight Runner - is complete - quilted, bound, and ready to be proudly displayed this Christmas!  Yoohoo!!!  You can click on the quilt name if you'd like to read more about it's progress :*)

So far so good!

I also began another NEW project while at Runaway - a small quilt for my mom to fit in her tabletopper frame I gave her last year.....

She asked for a Vintage Valentine block to switch out with the Sonshine sunflower table-topper quilt I made for it last year, so I got it all ready for stitching down while at Runaway.  All the button-hole stitching was completed at retreat, so I just need to quilt and bind it, and then add the little hanging sleeve for the frame.

I hope to have this ready to take to her when I visit at Thanksgiving :*D

As for OLD projects on my design wall, I still have to get Genevieve's Banners sandwiched and quilted....another project that needs to be ready to go with me at Thanksgiving!

and I'm hoping to get the appliqued border for Amish Beauties applied and stitched down soon....

And don't forget....
              Today is the first day of the Crazy About Wool blog hop over at Pieced Brain!!!

My day is Thursday so be sure to come back and see what I'm playing with.... here's a sneak peek....

Hmmm..... what could it be?

Here is the Blog Hop schedule for today:

CJ Stitching and Blooms

Negligent Style

Sweet P

Reluctant Quilter

Racie Baby

Patchouli Moon Studio

The Raspberry Rabbits

Hope you have a marvelous week!  Here in Nashville, we are enjoying fall-like weather and it is gloriously cool and crisp - yum!!!  I don't know how long it will last, but I plan to enjoy it while I can.  Mornings will be pleasurably spent on my side porch with a little stitchery =^..^=

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Linking up with ....
Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times
Christmas QAL at Hazel's Quilts
Tuesday Linky Party at Freemotion at the River
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced