Long Live the Queen!

Our darling little Gypsy passed over the Rainbow Bridge today. I am pretty sure that right about now she is letting all the others there know that The Queen Has Arrived =^..^= 

We are at such a loss. She was with us for 18 and a half years and filled such a huge place in our lives. She felt it her duty to keep me company, no matter what I was doing. Always a faithful companion and ready at a moment's notice for a snuggle in my lap. 

There are so many things I'm sure I will not know how to do alone now..... drinking my tea in the quiet time with the Lord each morning with Gypsy in my lap....  winding down at the end of the day, watching a favorite show on TV with Gypsy in my lap....  watching the Panthers play football on Sunday afternoons with Gypsy at my side as I stitched....  she was even an excellent traveler!

I think the hardest thing for me will be when the Spring finally arrives.  She and I are always so excited to be able to get outside again.  We sit on the side porch in the early morning hours and welcome the warmth, grateful for the passing of winter and our enforced captivity inside.  I sip my tea and talk with the Lord, she sits beside me and listens, ever watchful for birds and intruder neighborhood cats, sniffing the air in appreciation.  We sit in companionable silence and watch the world come alive.  I'm sure I will have no idea how to do that alone this year.....

She may have loved my stash almost as much as I do!!!

            I am glad our sweet girl is no longer in pain or suffering, but we miss her terribly.....

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

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

=^..^=

Hooray It's Giveaway Day!!!!

I have to admit, Giveaway Day almost slipped up on me!

Thanks so much to Sew Mama Sew 

for sponsoring this fun blog hop once again!

I am so happy to join in on the fun!

And you will be too when you see what I'm giving away :)

How about a really nice copy of Volume 4 of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks?  These are SO HARD to find once they are off the shelves!   Volume 4 came out in Winter of 2011, and the only copy I found online was digital.  Somehow, I ended up with two copies of this one (and none of some of the others - that's how it goes sometimes, right?).  This copy is in great condition, very clean, unread, and all patterns are intact :)

If you're not familiar with the 100 Blocks issues, they come out about twice a year, and they contain 100 original blocks by some of the most exciting designers out there today!  This issue has blocks by Bonnie Hunter, Crabapple Hill, Kaffe Fassett, Kim Diehl, Weeks Ringle & Bill Kerr, Jan Krentz, Pam Kitty Morning, Camille Roskelley, Denise Russart - and so many more!

The upper right block in this photo is Bonnie Hunter's block, and look at that adorable Lil' Monkey block by Sonja Callaghan!

Here's a closer pic of some of the others that are shown on the front cover....

I'd love to share my bounty with you, so if you'd like to win, just leave me a comment on this post telling me which quilting magazine is your current favorite.  I have to admit, I love Quiltmaker!  I also usually enjoy McCalls, especially their Christmas issue :)

No hoops to jump through to win!  You don't have to follow, but if you are a follower, thank you!  You may leave a second message letting me know that you follow, and I'll put your name in for a second chance to win!  Now, remember - I MUST have an email address in order to award the winner.  This giveaway is open to both domestic and international readers, and I will keep it open until midnight Friday, December 12, 2014.

BEFORE YOU GO .... you might like to see what I've been working on lately :)  I'd love to have your encouragement and input as I work on these fun projects!

My favorite current project is finishing up my Hootie quilt!

This is a block that I got from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 7, and it is designed by the very talented Shayla Wolf of Sassafras Lane Designs.  I made one of these blocks each month along with the Rainbow Scrap Challege hosted by SoScrappy.  I eventually decided against the gray Hootie in the bottom right - and went with just a little different look for the 9th Hootie - here's a peek....

Today I spent a good part of the day preparing pieces for my newest project, Patchwork of the Crosses - these are my "slow down and relax as I piece by hand" blocks :)  Here are the blocks I have finished ....

And this one is in process....

During my Thanksgiving travel, I picked up a few pieces that I thought might work for this design.  Here are a few of them ...

.... and I think they are going to work very well ....

Oh yes, I'm excited!!!!

I hope you'll come back after you have visited all the other fun blogs during Giveaway Day.  You just never know what we might get up to here at A Quilt and A Prayer =^..^=

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Also linking up with:

Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Design Wall Monday

Tuesday Linky Party

From NewFO to UFO .... and hopefully soon Done!

It's SOOOOO nice to be home again after traveling for well over a week!  Thanksgiving with our family was amazing - it always is!  But My Guy and I both brought home a pretty nasty cold, so we've been taking it pretty easy since we got home.  This is my medicine of choice....

Picked this up yesterday at Tuesday Mornings - I love it!!!!!

So, I'm taking it a little easy on the sewing front.  Just a little light prepping and stitching as I feel like it.  I came across an old UFO yesterday - looking for something else of course! - This was a NewFO Challenge project linking up with Cat Patches waaaaaayyyyyyy back in October 2012!

The pattern is from Pearl P Pereira's Baltimore Christmas - Partridge in a Pear Tree.

A local quilt shop, The Quilter's Path, featured this cute little block as a standalone quilt, using that wonderful pear fabric above for the pears - and it turns out SO cute!!!  Well, it did for her anyway.  I haven't touched it since then :(  I consider this one of my Dinosaur UFO's, even though it's not listed over there in the sidebar - I had actually forgotten it, that's how neglected it was!!!

I decided it needed to be worked up quickly and displayed this Christmas on my hanging Ackfeld Wire table stand frame.

Somehow, the Cottontail Bunny quilt seems a little out of season LOL!!!  I think my little partridge has waited in the "wings" long enough - like that pun, did you?

I love using my scraps for applique - all those small pieces of lovely leftovers are simply perfect for this type of project!  I pulled out my greens and chose a nice range for the leaves.

Then I took quite some time choosing the right gray-browns for the partridge.  I don't believe I've ever seen one in real life, and I had to pull up some pictures from the web.  Apparently they come in all kinds of colors - from grays to browns and everything in between.

I decided these were the most common coloring.  The example in PPP's cover is very gray with no stripes on the wing, but I felt these pictures indicate some brown in there and a definite striping design in the wings, so finally I pulled these fabrics ....

The soft brown is a scrap that I think will be perfect for the body, and I still need to choose between the two striped ones for wings.  Of course that little black scrap in the upper right from my crumb jar is perfect for the black stripe on it's face.  On the left is the fat quarter of dark brown I pulled for the tree stems.

All the pieces are drawn on fusible, so I just need to spend this evening finishing up with the fusing, cutting and placement.  I doubt I'll actually get to stitch them down tonight, but hopefully it will be done by the weekend.  Like I said, I'm taking things a little slow :*)

I'll be linking up with SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week - we have Angela's full permission to play with whatever color scraps we like this month - woohoo!!!!

And as promised, I am steadily working on my other RSC project - Hooties!!!

These are all getting their feathers stitched down so I can begin letting them nest comfortably on their limbs :)  Come back in a few days to see my progress!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Happy Thanksgiving One and All!!!!

I love Thanksgiving, don't you?  

It's the one day of the year that my entire family drops everything 

and gathers together in one place -

one big, loud, raucous, ravenous, hugging group of people, 

who love each other and accept each other as we are - 

MY TRIBE!  

Yes, it is good to look into my mom's eyes 

and see the love that has been there since the day I was born, 

to feel her hug and eat her mashed potatoes!  

Every year I am reminded of just how blessed I am 

to still have my mom with me here on this earth.

It is such a joy to behold sons and daughters and grandchildren, 

to see them growing up strong and true, 

going out into the world to make their own place, 

to become who they were created to be.  

Is there anything in this world quite as lovely as the sound of a grandbaby's laugh?  

..... the first steps of an almost-one-year-old?  

..... the excited, magical joy of a three-year-old's birthday?

.... the happy chatter of cousins at the "kids" table, 

as though they haven't been separated for months?

.... the softness of a mother's cheek? 

..... the joyous shared hopes for newlyweds and new babies to come?

..... the satisfied faces of everyone as the table is cleared, 

the last bite of apple pie is devoured, 

and football becomes the topic of conversation in the living room?

I like the fact that our country has a day set aside each year 

with the intention of encouraging all of us to "Be Thankful" - 

I don't think we do that nearly often enough 

in this crazy, roller-coaster world we live in today.

And I love that I have a Loving Father

Who is the Creator of all that I hold most dear!

And I am content knowing that

His LOVE is Undying & Eternal........

So today as I gather with my loved ones and remember how grateful I am for each and every one of these many blessings and more, my heart is also full with the blessing of wonderful friends and the gift of creativity - and I am thankful for each of you and the joy you bring to my life through your comments and inspiration and encouragement every day!

May you and your loved ones be blessed in every way!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=