Holidays and other Preparations

My goodness - this message has been sitting in my draft box for a week! Life just keeps hitting me up one side and down the other, LOL. What a crazy time of year!   

As I mentioned before, I'll be participating in the Crazy Quilt Journal Project for 2012.  You may remember that last summer I found the needlepoint picture below at an estate sale.  It has lovely bright flowers with a black background. And I asked you, my readers, how you would frame it. In the emails I received, the majority of the responses agreed with my gut feeling, which was to piece black or mostly-black blocks to surround the needlepoint. Then, stitch the seams with the bright colors of the flowers to tie them all together, to complement the center without overwhelming it.

So, there will be 12 blocks pieced, each will finish to 8” square, although they are pieced about a half inch larger on each side now. The center piece will be trimmed to 16” x 16”, the length and width of two blocks.

As you can see, I am including some dark greens and reds in with the black, although the pictures make them look lighter than they are. In real life, they read very dark and will blend in nicely when stitched on. 

In Crazy Quilting International, we are also doing our annual Christmas Cracker Swap. These are the crackers I sent to my recipient. There is always such talk of anticipation, and ladies who don`t know if they can wait until December 24 or 25. So, I included a little “cheater cracker” - the white one - that my recipient could open immediately (which she did, LOL).

Christmas fabrics and trims were inside that one. The larger, main cracker, holds other goodies that are not seasonal, but will hopefully bring some smiles to her!

I have been meaning to post a picture FOREVER (well, at least two months) of this cute little vintage bicycle pin I bought on Etsy. It reminds me of the bicycle I stitched on my I Love Paris purse last year. Isn’t it just a simple, charming design? I am going to use it as inspiration for a stitched bicycle in the future.

“I Love Paris” Purse 2010

I had to laugh when my friend Connie Eyberg had a bicycle pin pictured on her blog. See her bicycle pin in her gorgeous Boho bag here. Great minds think alike!

And finally, I have snapped a few shots of our simple Christmas decorating this year, but they turned out awful. Yep, that’s what happens when you do it in the evening. Maybe I will remember sometime during the day when there is light enough to SEE!  What a concept!

Take care, and take time for yourself this season.