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!

The cutest Annies!

Well Christmas has come and gone - it happens faster every year for me!  If you read my previous posts, you know that I had to get a new Christmas tree this year, and my angel didn't look too great on the top!  One day it hit me....I needed an Annie angel!  Nicole, from Raggedy Old Annies makes the cutest Annie dolls ever and she also makes Annie tree toppers.  I remembered seeing a few of them that had adorable aprons made from handkerchiefs.   I just happen to have some vintage handkerchiefs that belonged to my Mother-in-law and my Grandma and I knew there were a couple of Christmas hankies that would be perfect for Annie's aprons.  What a great surprise these would be for my hubby, Mom and Aunt!  I was so excited that I could barely contain myself!  I also went through some sheet music that belonged to my grandparents that was still in the piano bench, and found a couple of my favorite Christmas songs, and sent those to Nicole with the hankies (she uses the sheet music for the angel wings).  Each hankie makes 2 Annie aprons, so I had Nicole make 4 tree toppers.  Aren't they just adorable?  The hankie with the poinsettias belonged to my MIL, and the one with the little Santas was Grandma's.  Oh...I just LOVE THEM!!!!  I had already decided that I wasn't going to give them to DH and Mom until Christmas day.  I wish I would have had a camera when DH opened his.  He looked at it, with a confused look on his face, then slowly said...A doll???  But when I explained the details to him, he was really happy with it, and said it was the best gift he received (awwwww!).  

 Here she is on top of the tree - she fits much better than the old one!

When the box came in the mail, I could not wait to open it, but it was the day that we had our family Christmas, and everyone was here - we were making cookies, etc.  I finally locked myself in my sewing room so I could open the box and take a peek! That's when I discovered that there was a surprise in the bottom! I had told my friend, Nancy (the one who got me started on these cute Annies), about the tree toppers and she called Nicole and had her add a Christmas Annie for me!  She has a little metal, cookie cutter in her hand.  How sweet and how thoughtful!  Isn't she just adorable?  I LOVE the fabric of her dress.  It came from JoAnn Fabrics, but evidently I was too late, because they didn't have any at our "local" store.  

I think Mom and Aunt Nancy were really surprised and happy with their Annies too.  If you want an Annie of your own, just contact Nicole, she makes lots of special orders.  There are a few on her website, but they sell out fast.  Now she is making Valentine Annies, so guess what I have coming?!  I decided to keep a tree up year around, in my sewing room.  And believe it or not, it's all decorated for Valentine's. So my new Annie will be a tree topper and she will be the perfect touch!  I don't decorate much at all, so having a tree year around means buying and making some ornaments.  I would like to keep some sewing-related things on it all of the time, then add other things for different holidays/seasons.  Here are a few little ornaments that I made...they finish at 2 1/4".

 Then I saw some really cute garland on Pinterest and decided to make some of that.  It's just pipe cleaners (I guess they are now called Chenille Strips...lol!).  They were too bright for my taste, so I decided to give them a little spray of Instant Antique to tone them down.  While they were drying, Ozzie decided to take a little nap on them!  And when I was trying to actually string them together...Callie was having a blast (me...not so much!).  She saw them as a table full of fun!

My new Annie should be here this week, so then I will take a picture of the whole tree to share with you.

Back to Christmas...It was really nice to have our family Christmas the weekend before the holiday.  Everyone was here, and we had a great time. Then on Christmas day, just Mom and Dad came over.  We made a turkey in the crock pot (it was really good!) and all of the trimmings.  It was just a nice, quiet day.  We did not have a white Christmas, but since then we have had several inches of snow.  This is the view out of my sewing room window - isn't it pretty?  The pond is all covered up and the sun is just peeking over the trees.  So peaceful...

 And what better to do when it's snowy and cold outside?  Stitch, of course!  Here is block 3 of the Merry Christmas quilt.

Here is what Callie likes to do on cold, snowy days (or any day)...

She tends to make wool prep work interesting!

And just so you know that I really do work - here is a batch of scissor fobs that we recently finished.  I will be adding some of these to my website...

And speaking of work...I need to get busy!  Hope you have a great week!