Santa Baby Delivers

Well, Santa certainly came through in a big way this year so me thinks that I must have been a very good girl. He started out by filling my stocking with a few tempting goodies.

Our stockings made by Betty, complete with a jingle bell in the toe

Our spectacular stockings were a gift several years ago from Betty and make the tradition of hanging them each year very special; just look at the amazing fabric combinations, cross stitch and special trims. We absolutely love them. This year my goodies included several quilting treats that promise to take me in a few new directions.

First I found the fabulous pieces of fabric in blue and yellow that you see in the photo above...then bias tape makers in two different sizes from Clover. I've been toying with trying my hand at applique for a long time and I'm thinking that these will be the incentive to get me started. They are designed to use with fusible tape but I tend to avoid fusible anything as much as possible so I'll be going au naturel with them. And, to top it off, I got the pack of tiny 3/4" Clover applique pins from my sister Anne for Christmas that you see in the bottom of the frame, so I think that there's a message here. I use Clover's silk pins on a regular basis and they are fantastic - they move through fabric like 'buddah' - so I expect that these will be a delight to work with as well.

Berries and Buds

I've long had my eye on a pattern called Berries and Buds from the December 2005 edition of American Patchwork and Quilting but debated ordering it until I was ready to start because I've been wanting to finish off a few projects. As it turns out I waited so long to decide that I don't think it is available any more. Well, here if out of the blue my sister Dori doesn't recently send me the pattern and instructions. She'd filed it away a few years ago but recently decided that she wasn't going to make it so she sent it along on the off chance that it appealed to me. It seems to be destined to be started, don't you think? The pattern is square (3 blocks wide x 3 blocks high), which is not a format that I am keen on - I like to have a quilt large enough to fit at least a queen bed - so the 400 purple berries that the quilt calls for will likely be somewhere over 750 by the time that it's finished (and that's just the berries!) as it will likely be 4 blocks wide x 5 blocks high when its finished, but I'm trying not to think of all that. I still need to find the background fabric before I get started so that will give me time to finish off one or two WIPs.

Fig Tree bundles

The second bundle of happiness didn't arrive until two days after Christmas but Santa is a busy guy so I can understand...especially if the package is coming from Fig Tree Quilts (I think that Joanna Figueroa might be one of my favourite fabric designers and when I discovered that one of her favourite holiday treats is sitting in front of the tree with a cup of tea and just the tree lights on listening to Christmas carols, I was hooked - this is one of my all-time favourite holiday treats). So what to my wondering eyes should appear but a box of goodies containing 3 beautiful bundles in blues, yellows and reds/greens. The red/green combo might be needed to top up a Flying Geese pattern that I'm getting ready to start and I'm thinking that a yellow and blue quilt is somewhere in my near future, I just have to find the right pattern.




And, just to make it that much more fun, there were 3 grab bags of remnants included in the parcel. They required a bit of ripping since some of the remnants were from samples, but that's all done, and with Anne's help, ironed as well so everything is ready to go. I'm having so much fun just imagining what they might become.

Wonky Stars

The pieces are really varied in size because they are remnants so I'm thinking that I might make tiny 3 or 4" stylized Log Cabin blocks, or maybe Wonky Stars - I just love these posted by Laurraine at Patchwork Pottery. We'll see. ....M