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What joy the gospel gives me. I can approach the throne of God with confidence, not because I've done a good job at my spiritual duties, but because I'm clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. ~ C.J. Mahaney

Ode to Joy


There once was a girl with a pen,
Who wanted a cute next-of-kin.
She spied this cool bloke
And (this is no joke)
The contest determined to win.


Thank you to all six creative ladies who churned out poems in an effort to win this little snowman wall hanging.  All of them were very well-written; Tom had a difficult decision to make.  I heard him laugh out loud a few times.  Then he became very quiet.  He took his job very seriously and spent a lot of time making his choice.  We had fun with this and hope you did, too!

In the end Tom chose Joy's poem, a rollicking limerick which was successful in producing a hearty chuckle.  So, now I'll share it with you...

 
There once was a woman named Temple
Who thought sewing was really quite simple,
She made something pretty,
We wrote her a ditty,
And all of us smiled with a dimple.

When the chilly and blustery winds blew,
Crafty Laura knew just what to do,
An old dress and two bows,
And three socks without toes,
Soon became a quilt shiny and new.

While others would ski, skate and sled,
Thrifty Laura would make her own bread,
Then out of the blue,
She'd whip up a stew,
So her family was warm and well-fed.

When the snow piled higher and higher,
Laura's brood would be warm by the fire,
At her feet would be Bella,
By her side her fine fella,
What more could her sweet heart desire?

So remember this lesson, my dear,
Winter isn't the worst time of year,
Come to Laura's-it's nice!
While you scrape off the ice,
She'll quilt you some new winter gear.

Great job, Joy!  Once I get the binding on, I'll have your quilt in the mail to you.  I hope this chilly fellow will warm your heart and home for many winters to come.
Love,

So, You Want to Wait Till Tomorrow, Do You??

Just teasing!!  
Our sweet little red bird has an announcement to make.  This little birdie is all decked out in his best velvet finery to make such an auspicious declaration.

  He will use his strongest, most vigorous and robust voice to tell you that....

 ...this morning, Maggie drew a winner for the quilt!


 Look who it is!!


 Cheri Wheelon!!   

You told me you wouldn't give up until you won a piece of Laura Lee stitchery.
And now you have!!  How about I bring it to you at church on Sunday?
I hope you enjoy displaying it in your home for many Christmases to come!

And guess who won the little embroidered red bird ornament?  My sweet mama did!  Grandmama suggested the name "Robusto" for the cardinal on the quilt, and Tom chose her name. You probably think he was trying to make points with the mother-in-law, but he had no idea who submitted which name.  I promise!


Have a beautiful Thanksgiving Day and a great holiday weekend!

Love,

But As Long As You Love Me So....


Sometimes I get these crazy notions, and I should probably just let them pass instead of acting on them.  Like yesterday--as I was working on this wall hanging, from parts and pieces of the original Christmas give-away quilt that I didn't end up using--I got the ridiculous idea to offer it as another give-away, this time as a contest.  So I threw it out there on Facebook to see if there were any takers and got a fairly decent response.  Several folks thought my suggestion of writing a poem or short story was a good one, so I'm going with it.

Here are the guidelines.

  • Write a short original poem or story-- humorous, serious, whatever you want--with a winter theme.
  • If it's a poem, it needs to be 8 lines at least.
  • Send it to me by email or as a message on Facebook.  Don't post it to my wall.
  • You may submit one or two entries.
  • Try your best not to reveal your identity in your poem or story.
  • Deadline is next Monday, November 28th, by 6PM.
I'll post the winner on Tuesday, November 29th.  The winner gets this little wall hanging of a snowman.

Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!

Love,

Let Heaven and Nature Sing!

This quilt took quite a circuitous route from my original plan of simple, patchy table runner with holly border to vintage Christmas card-inspired wall hanging.  As I prepared the holly leaves and berries, I kept seeing in my mind's eye antique greeting cards with frames of holly surrounding snowy winter scenes.  That sent me on a goose chase researching vintage Christmas cards--the scenes, the borders, the lettering, etc.

I knew exactly what kind of winter scene I wanted.  It had to include a snow-covered cottage and pine trees, a winding lane, and singing birds.  More than that, it needed to show all of nature celebrating the Savior's birth.  As I worked with the blue sky fabric, I kept seeing the word "Joy" in the swirls.  And it fit.  The heavens and nature are both singing praises in this quilt!

Joy to the World!

Do you see where I faintly stitched "Joy" around the sky?  


I had such a great time stitching this wall hanging for one of you.  If you'd like to have it, just leave a comment, send me an email, or let me know on Facebook.  I'll enter you into the drawing which will be on Thanksgiving day.

Do you recognize the bluebird?  That's Piccolo, from my Christmas give-away quilt two years ago, returning for an encore visit on this quilt.  You could call him my signature blue bird!  His friend red bird needs a name, too.  Suggest a name for the red bird and I'll enter you to win a handmade Christmas ornament.  Whichever name Tom chooses will be the winner of the ornament.



Joy to the world, the Lord is come!  
Let Earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing!


 

 Love,


I Let Kyle Chews a Winner

Gifty Taggy Cube and all the entries.


My eager assistant Kyle is ready to go.


He brings it in closer for a good look.


First one to the mouth!


Are you sure that's the one, Kyle?

Is that the one you chews?


Well, who did you chews?


Diane!  

It really was your name before he chowed down on it!

Hope little Miss Hallie likes it!  She's going to need to do a little growing before she'll find it very interesting, no doubt.  Soon she'll be chewing her very own taggy cube like a pro! 

As always, I wished everyone could win.  Incidentally, I'd be happy to create a taggy cube for a baby in your life.  I can do them in gender-neutral colors or specifically for a boy or girl.  Soft pastels, primary colors, whatever you can dream up... $5   Just let me know if you're interested.

Love,

Taggy Cube (or who needs Baby Einstein?)


The other day I said I'd show you the toy I made for Kyle.  So, here it is-- a little taggy cube, made from inspiration I found at this site.  Camille's blog is a treat for the eyes and is full of quilty motivation.  She chose to quilt her squares before she sewed them together to form the cube.  I didn't.  I just used six 5" squares from one of my favorite fabric lines--Pampered Pooch by Moda--stitched together as is.  


The whole idea is that babies love tags, thus the tags of various textures sewn into every seam.   For Kyle's I used satin ribbon, ric rac, grosgrain ribbon, elastic, velcro, and velvet ribbon.   And true to form, Kyle took to it like a duck to water.  Have I told you he's a fast learner?

I had so much fun making this that I grabbed up another set of squares, cut some more ribbons and ric rac, and started another one.   Is there a baby in your life who might enjoy a cute little taggy cube made from my favorite vintage children's prints?  If so, leave a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing to win the second one.  

Love,

Lazy Day



It's a crisp, chilly day here.  The temperature outside, barely nosing above 60 degrees, is doing its best to convince us that it really is Fall.  While Tom and Lacy are hard at work nailing down a new roof on a house across town, the rest of us are just enjoying a lazy day at the homestead.  I figured this was as good a time as any to update my poor, neglected blog.



The children are outside on the deck engaged in crafty pursuits.  Holly and Maggie are busy making patterns with perler beads and ironing them to make cool designs.  Maggie's wavy hair is a result of the French braids she wore to the daddy/daughter dinner last night.  Cute, huh?

Meanwhile, Caleb is busy coloring.  Incidentally, he's wearing three shirts.  Earlier he had on four.  It's not exactly clear to me why he thinks multiple shirts are better than one shirt and one jacket.  Not sure what's up with the charm bracelet, either.

Moving on...


Personally, I just think it's great to have a whole day at home with nothing at all that has to be done.  I'd have a hard time thinking of anything much better than being home with a sewing project I'm excited about and a whole day to work on it.  So, I'm occupying my time messing about with the Christmas quilt give-away.  This one has morphed into something completely different than I originally planned.  I keep tweaking it here and there, adding and deleting elements, my hands trying frantically to keep up with my ADD brain.  But it's coming along nicely and is possibly my favorite so far.  When it's completed this week I'll be sure to let you know.  Then, I'll draw a name for the winner on Thanksgiving Day, per tradition.  Holla if you want in.

Other than that, there are several other sewing projects I want to show you in the next few days.  I made the cutest toy for Kyle this morning on a whim--saw it on a blog and had to make one.  Super fun and easy to sew-- he's gonna love it.  I'll definitely snap a few photos of him when he sees it and will likely make another to give away.  Then there's the Christmas gift I've been hand stitching pretty steadily for the past few weeks.  Oh, my goodness.  I love it so much.  Well, as much as I can love something that can't love me back.  And recipes--got some photos chillin' in the iPhoto, ready to become blog posts as well.

I hope you're enjoying your Saturday as much as we are.

Stay warm!

Love,