Ready for February

I was ready for February at the beginning of January!  February is my birthday month, and since my tree has been decorated, maybe I should have celebrated the entire month of January too!  Here is my adorable Valentine Annie, made by Nicole of Raggedy Old Annies.  Isn't she just the cutest thing ever?

 And here is the whole tree (sorry, it's hard to get a decent picture).  Hopefully you can enlarge it enough to see some of the ornaments and the garland that I made (with the help of Ozzie and Callie, of course).  My DH had the brilliant idea to put the tree in the bucket...I like it!

Even though my tree says Valentine's Day, my stitching still says Christmas!  I am still stitching on my Merry Christmas quilt from Heart to Hand.  This is block #4.  It didn't take too long, but I sure was tempted to add some red to it somewhere.  I still might - it just looks kind of blah. But the block next to it will be Santa with lots of red, so we will see how I like them together.  

I don't get to make nearly as many quilts as I would like (do any of us??) there just isn't enough time.  But...I am designing a new quilt!  I've just barely gotten started, and it will be awhile before it's finished - partly because I'm busy with jewelry and other things, and partly because I have so much help!!  Here is Ozzie, being his usual helpful self - he could easily lose a tail!  

 And Callie has decided that she would like to help in the fabric selection process...

One project that has been hiding in the closet for a long time are these bow tie blocks.  They were a leader/ender suggestion from Bonnie Hunter a few years back.  I have always done leaders/enders, but usually just use the blocks of the project that I'm working on.  But for some reason I decided to jump on the bow tie band wagon.  Not sure why, because I really don't love bow tie blocks!  But, I made a bazillion of them.  My friend, Yvette and I were Skype-sewing and I needed something to work on, and decided it was time to do something with these.  I sewed them all into fours...and then put them back in the closet!  

Have you ever Skype-sewed with a long distance friend?  It is so fun - almost as good as actually being together.  My friend, Nancy and I are working on Kim Diehl's What Nots 2 together, by Skype.  We make sure to have our cutting all done ahead of time, then we sew "together".  I paired my fabrics together before I started sewing (because I'm anal that way!).

 And here it is...all pieced...

 And it only takes a second, and this happens!

Ozzie approved!

And now it's time to get back to work!  I'm sending tons of jewelry to Lisa Bongean for her new shop (Primitive Gatherings) in California.  They open on Monday - sure would be fun to be there in person!  Here are some of the pieces I sent to them...

So now I have to get busy and re-stock!  

Have a great day!