Blog Hop Day 7

Hello, welcome to day 7 of the Cross Country Quilt Designer Blog Hop. My goodness the days are just flying by.

Kari Carr from New Leaf Stitches is the featured designer for the day.

I can't wait to see what she has designed. Hop on over and check it out.

Topic for today is: Decoration/ornament, something you love/loved or were given.

Waaaay back when before I designed greeting cards, patterns or fabric I designed and sold finished craft items to a few shops in our area. The Cottage in Ft. Dodge Iowa (a fabulous shop but no longer in business) and The Hen House in Spencer, Iowa - still in business. I did this "crafting" in the basement of our very old, cold and damp unfinished basement. Daughter Abby spent a lot of time sitting beside me while I made my products.

I made dozens and dozens of these little cuties.
Wood and calico.
It was the thing back then.

When Abby was about 10 years old she made this Santa all by herself.

I can still remember her drawing the pattern free hand on unprinted newspaper.

She hadn't quite grasped the concept of right sides together, stitch and turn.
I don't know if you can see in the picture
but she used a stapler to attach all of the various body parts together.
(Click on picture to enlarge.)



Now there's a face you gotta love.
She drew it with color crayons.


Abby's Santa has some neck issues - it is unable to support Santa's head.
He always has to sit in front of my little red cubby
so I can tack his hat to the cubby.

Every year I display this Santa with the rest of my Santas. Each Santa is special in a different way. Someday I will re-gift him back to Abby.

Although I do not do a lot of Santa dolls, (that is my sister's specialty) I have designed several Santa quilt patterns over my 15 years of designing.
Here are just a few.

#192 Santa's Christmas Card.

This pattern was designed in 2001

and it is still one of my best selling patterns.

Second only to #230 Trees Up! Lights On!

#155 All Things Christmas

#195 1890 Santa
I use this as a rug in my living room at Christmas time.

Now hop on along to the other designer's blogs to see what ornament or gift has found a special place in their heart.
GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,
Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono

Tomorrow Day 8 Terri from Whimsicals will be the featured designer.

Make sure you stop by her blog. Don't forget to leave a comment.

The topic for tomorrow is: First Christmas on your own.

Happy Hopping,

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 6

My oh my it is day 6 - the blog hop is half over!




Our featured designer of the day is Pam, from Pam Kitty Morning. Just looking at her cute photo assures you that whatever she has designed - it will be fun and fabulous.

Topic of the day: Family Tradition.

Can it be a family tradition if you once did something, but no longer do it, and it was a Thanksgiving tradition to make something for Christmas??? I'm saying yes.
The tradition would start by gathering at the farm for Thanksgiving dinner. After we had all eaten too much and the kitchen was cleaned up, the men would retire to the basement to watch football. We girls and mom would go to the sewing room to make a Santa.

Mom, Linda, Brenda and Me.

Lucky for us, my sister Brenda, of Country Stitches, would bring her newest Santa pattern and the supplies needed to make him. We all brought the fabric of our choice. We would giggle and laugh about how even though we all used the same pattern each Santa had it's own personality. My sister Linda is left handed so her Santa was always the opposite of the rest - his bag in his left hand instead of his right. Brenda's Santa would always have the best looking face - the eyes placed just right. Mom's eyes were usually too big. Mine always had some sort of a lump in his leg or arm, or a kink in his neck - I have always been very bad at stuffing.

When our Santas were finished,
we took them upstairs and set them on Mom's hutch.
We would sit at the table, eat Mom’s homemade pumpkin pie
heaped with whipped cream and admired our work.

Why don't we still carry on this tradition??? Well it seemed the older we became the slower we became. Each year it took us longer to get the project done.

We decided before we had to resort to a Popsicle Stick Santa
we should just quit. Kind of the "quit while you are ahead" theory.

However, we did make Santas long enough
to acquire quite a nice collection.
I display them on my antique counter each year

This guy fits perfectly in a grapevine wreath.

Be sure to hop on all of the designer’s blogs to read about their special tradition.

GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,

Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono

Don’t forget to leave a comment.

Tomorrow we start day 7 - all down hill from here.
Featured designer will be Kari from New Leaf Stitches.
Tomorrows topic:Decoration/ornament, something you love/loved or were given.

Should be loads of fun.

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 5

Hello, and welcome to Day 5 of the Cross Country Quilt Designer’s Blog Hop.
I must say I am totally amazed at how many people are following our hop. Do you enjoy getting to know us - or is it the prize you are after? Let me tell you I would be after the prize.

1st Prize A gift bag worth $250
2nd Prize A gift bag worth $70
3rd Prize A gift bag worth $40


To be eligible for the prize you need to leave a comment on all 12 designer's blogs.
Some of you have had trouble commenting on my blog, and others. Some of you said you can only do it anonymously. If you have to do it anonymously, please just put your email address at the end of the comment. That way if "anonymous" wins we know who to contact.



Today the featured designer is the very talented and pretty Heather from Anka's Treasures.
Hop on over to her blog to see the project she has created for you to make.

The topic of the day is: A Santa Story.

Santa Claus always came to Christmas at Hank and Evelyn's house. (Our surrogate grandparents.) We would have a huge meal with two kinds of meat and all the trimmings. The rule was all of the dishes had to be done before Santa Claus could come. (This was their way of getting us kids to help with the dishes.)

After what seemed like FOREVER

our fingers were shriveled and the dishes were done.

Now we could pass out the presents.

Suddenly there would be a rap on the big picture window.

All of us kids would run from window to window to wave at Santa.

He would go completely around the house before he came in the back door.

As soon as Santa came in I would run and hide.

I was really afraid of Santa Claus, therefore

we do not have any pictures of me and Santa.

It is amazing, as an adult, how often I need one.

I grew up, married, had children and started our own tradition. Every Christmas Eve we would go to the children’s mass where a story about Baby Jesus was read. After church we would drive around and look at all of the pretty Christmas lights. After the light tour we headed home for a light meal of soup and appetizers. (Served on my green plaid dishes.)
Then it was off to bed so Santa could bring the gifts.

All to soon the kids grew up and no longer believed in the big guy. They are now 29 and 27, but we still wait until they go to bed before we put the presents in their chairs.

We do not put the presents under the tree.

Instead I display my antique toys under the tree.

Bruce’s old train circles the tree.

The Krazy Ikes are the ones that Mom gave me.


Anthony meeting Santa for the first time.

Abby meeting Santa for the first time.

(When you are the second child there are never any pictures of you alone.)

Looks like Santa could use a brow bleaching.

Guess what Santa brought this year?
Oakley sunglasses - they asked - Santa delivered.

We had planned a Christmas ski trip and they wanted to look cool on the slops.

They look pretty cool standing in front of the Christmas tree.

Anthony looking very pleased with the digital camera that Santa gave him.

Abby looking very festive in her red and white polka dot pajamas.

She has taken the ribbons from her packages and tied them in her

hair and around her neck. Silly girl.

Even though the kids are all grown up, we still go to the Children’s mass on Christmas Eve. I never tire of hearing the Baby Jesus story.


After all, isn't that what Christmas is all about? - Baby Jesus and Children.

Visit all of the designer’s blogs to hear their Santa stories.

GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,

Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono
Don’t forget to leave a comment.

Tune in tomorrow when the topic will be: A Family Tradition.

The featured designer will be Pam from Pam Kitty Morning.

Happy Hopping

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of the Cross Country Quilt Designers Blog Hop.





Today’s featured designer is Pat Salon from Virginia. Stop by her blog to see what special project she has designed. Remember to leave a comment.



Today’s topic is A Christmas Tree story.
In my book the Christmas tree ranks second in order of importance - right after Baby Jesus.
I could go on forever about my Christmas trees as an adult. More than once we have bought more than one tree. (For future reference, Bachmann's in Minneapolis does take back trees.)

Since you have 12 blogs to visit today, I will not take up your time telling you my Christmas tree horror stories. Instead I will tell you about a special Christmas tree from my childhood.

It seemed that every Christmas when it was time to set the Christmas tree in the stand, my Dad would suddenly become crabby. (My husband has the same problem.) I never felt like he was a scrooge, except when it came to setting up the Christmas tree.

One year we had a particularly cold snowy winter. Mom kept putting off buying the tree - it seemed like forever. Finally on a very frigid, snowy day Mom picked out a tree. We couldn't wait for Dad to put the tree in the stand so we could finally decorate. Soon Dad came in the house, crabbier than before, to inform us that the tree really did not have a good side.

My Dad has always been very resourceful.
He simply cut the branches from the bottom, drilled holes in the trunk where there were bare spots and inserted the cut off branches.

Viola - a very special Christmas tree - although much shorter

than I had remembered it being at the tree farm.

Now hop on along to the other designer's blogs to read their Christmas tree stories.

GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono

Don’t forget to leave a comment.

Tomorrow the featured designer is Heather from Anka's Treasures. Stop by her blog to see the fabulous project she has designed for you.
Tomorrow’s topic is a Santa story.

See you tomorrow.

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of the Cross Country 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop.


Today’s featured designer is Terry Atkinson from Atkinson’s Designs.
Hop on over to her blog to see the fabulous project she has posted.

Today’s subject is: Favorite gift received or given.

Favorite gift received.

I really can’t think of any one thing. It seemed every year we would get the special thing we had wished for.
Well except for the horse- I never did get a horse

Even though I do not remember this Christmas,

it looks like we both received

new pjs, a doll and red slippers.
I don’t seem nearly as pleased with my slippers as sister Linda does.
Her shoe fetish started at a very young age.

Cottie
One of my favorite games.
The box says for all ages. ???

Krazy Ike
These were sort of the Legos of our era.
I loved playing with Krazy Ike.
A couple of years ago my Mom found a set in an antique store and bought it for me.
Every year I put them under the Christmas tree.

Both Linda and I had one of these.
For all of you young ones out there - yes that really is a cord -

yes it really plugged into the live outlet.
Miracle we all survived.

Dollhouse
I spent a lot of time playing with my doll house.
Although it really bothered me that I could not move the rugs.

Jell-O was not Grammies only talent.
She was very good at crocheting.
One year she made all of the granddaughters

this very popular (at the time) vest.
Mine was red, Linda’s was blue and I think Brenda’s was green.

As we become older we did not want toys anymore but instead the latest fashion.
One year we all received mohair sweaters.

Mine was like this only light blue.

And of coarse you had to have the stretch pants to go with the sweater.
I really did not have the body for stretch pants.
At that time I was tall and very skinny.
By the time the pants were small enough in the waist….they became very short in the body.
But they were “stretch pants”.
Just slip that little stirrup under your foot and stretch until they reach your waist.
Only problem was - the crotch was down by my knees.

The ultimate accessory to wear with the mohair sweater was a

baldy ring

to match your sweater.
So I had a blue baldy ring.
Linda’s was pink like this one.

I could go on and on - All of those special Christmas decorations that the kids carried home and so proudly presented to me. Every year they are placed on the tree - front and center.

I will blog more about the kids special gifts during one of my christmas blogs. (After I have time to take some pictures.)

Now for a favorite gift given.
On my side of the family we have always drawn names. But as the years went on we found we all had been blessed and really none of us wanted or needed a thing. It had become a flurry of everybody emailing each other item numbers from catalogs. Finally we said - this is silly

We decided we would pool the money we normally would spend in the drawing and adopt a family in need. We adopted a family with 4 children ages six, four, two and 16 months. My 2 sisters and their DH, plus Mom and Dad all met in Sprit Lake to shop. We divided up into teams. My sister Brenda was my teammate. Our subject was the 4 Year old girl. It stated that her favorite colors were pink and purple - gosh did we have fun. We also had enough money to buy each parent a sweater and gift cards for the grocery store and gas station.
We all agreed it was a wonderful Christmas. We are planning on adopting a family again this year.

There was one little flaw to our plan. We had set the weekend before Christmas to have our get together.
In the past we had never worried about a snowstorm moving in and preventing us from traveling home. We would just wait until the next weekend when the weather had improved.

Hmmm - Can’t do that when gifts need to be bought because….Santa is coming.
And wouldn't you know it, we woke up to snow - not quite a storm yet but it was moving in. It was quickly decided we would meet early to shop.
By the time we were done shopping it was snowing very hard and drifting quite a bit. (And nobody had a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.) :)
We caravanned and thankfully we all made it to the farm safe and sound.

So many Christmases… So many memories.

Now hop on along to see what the other designers are blogging about.
GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono

Tomorrow the subject will be a Christmas tree story.
The featured designer will be Pat Sloan a Virginia native.

Happy Hopping.

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 2

It seems we have a problem with the templates not posting the right size.

PLEASE FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO DOWNLOAD AND PRINT TEMPLATES:
Click on the link to open template. Mine opens up at the top of the blog so you may have to scroll up. At the top of the template screen there is an arrow. (beside the word share) Click on it and download file to your desktop. Then print the templates from your desktop file. The page is 12" X 18 " so if you are using 8 1/2" X 11" paper you will have to tile. The bulb should mesure about 7 1/2" across.
So sorry about this. - Falls under the " too stupid to blog" category. :)

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those of you who do not know anything about me - probably most of you, you can read all about me on my bio, to your right.
I am really in "busy" mode as far as designing goes. I recently finished my fall 2010 line of fabric named Awesome. I named it Awesome because I think Autumn is our most awesome season. Look for this to arrive in stores in August.

My newest line of fabric to hit the stores is Essence.

#468 Let's Eat.

You still have time to make these placemats before Thanksgiving dinner.
They are quick and easy, as they use a pre-printed panel from the Essence line.

#462 Wind Power
This pattern is really quick and easy as it uses the stack and
slice method of piecing and an Essence Layer Cake.

Next to arrive will be La'Mour.



Followed by Nautical and Nice.



Frolic was introduced at fall market. It will be hitting the shops in January.



I also introduced 9 quick and easy wool projects.
Go to my Website http://www.piecesfrommyheart.net/ to check these out.
They are posted under "What's New".

Today is my day to be Project Designer.

Since we are all blogging about Christmas it has put me in the gift
giving spirit. So today my gift to everyone visiting my blog is this tablemat - which my graphic artist named Bulb-a-licious.

Some assembly required.
Well maybe more than some.
Well okay, I guess you have to make the whole darn thing yourself.
But…. It takes just a few hours to make.
And….
The pattern is free. (Okay I guess my gift to you is the pattern.)
find the template here.



The instructions you will find below.

This projects uses fabrics from my Crazy 8 line of fabric.
Wool felt is used for the applique.

Finished size: 20" X 27"

Things you will need:
1/2 Yd. cream dot fabric (background) Moda #17460-13
1/4 Yd. green plaid fabric (borders) Moda #17458-26
1/4 Yd. red dot fabric (top border and binding) Moda #17460-21
Red wool (bulb)
Green wool (holly and dots)
Gold wool (bulb top)
7/8 Yd. jumbo off white rick rack
2/3 Yd. fabric (backing) Moda #17454-12
Embroidery floss to match wool
Freezer paper
Disappearing marking pen

Cut the following:

Cream dot - 1 pieces 14 1/2" X 16 1/2" (background)
Green plaid - 2 pieces 3 1/2" X 16 1/2" (side borders)
2 pieces 3 1/2" X 20 1/2" (top and bottom borders)
Red dot - 1 piece 5 1/2" X 20 1/2" (top border)

Embroidery
1. Using a disappearing marker, trace the bulb hook onto background fabric.
2. Using 6 strands of red embroidery floss and a backstitch, embroider hook.




Appliqué
1. Trace bulb, bulb top and holly onto the dull side of freezer paper.
2. Iron each object onto the appropriate color of wool.
3. Cut objects out one traced lines.
4. Cut a piece of rick rack a little bigger than your bulb.
5. Pin rick rack to the center of the bulb, turning raw edges to the back of the bulb.
6. Using three strands of red embroidery floss, and backstitch, stitch rick rack to bulb.


7. Pin all wool objects in place.

8. Using 2 strands of matching embroidery floss and a tack stitch, appliqué each object in place.
9. Using 3 strands of green embroidery floss and a backstitch, embroidery veins in holly.

Green Borders
1. Stitch a border piece to each 16 1/2" side of the background.
2. Stitch a border piece to the top and bottom of the background.

Red Dot Border and Rick Rack
1. Cut a piece of rick rack long enough to fit across quilt.
2. Pin rick rack in place over seam allowance.
3. Pin red dot border in place over rick rack. Stitch in place.

Back, quilt and bind your quilt as you please.

The topic for the day is: Special food/cookie you made as a kid or was tradition.

Every Christmas my mom would make "soft" popcorn balls. Other peoples were more hard and crunchy. (Oh no is this starting to sound like the Saturday Night Live "Schweddy Balls" episode???) I certainly hope not!

I preferred mom's popcorn balls and every year I make these popcorn balls.

Please read the recipe carefully. I have a friend who tried this recipe, but she misread the directions. She thought she needed to pop 6 quarts of popcorn. She had grocery bags full of popped popcorn sitting all around the kitchen. Just as she was running out of room to put the popped popcorn, her husband walked in and set her straight. I have always wondered how she thought one bag of melted marshmallows would cover all of that popcorn????

Mom's Popcorn Balls

6 quarts of popped popcorn
1 lb. bag of large marshmallows
1/4 C. sugar
1 stick butter
1 C. red and green M&Ms - Optional (mom did not do this - it is something I added.

Pop popcorn
Salt popcorn

Place marshmallows, butter, and sugar in a bowl. (Do not add the M&Ms)
Cook in microwave until melted, stopping to stir a couple of times.

Pour the melted marshmallow mixture over the popcorn and stirred until evenly coated.
If you are adding M&Ms you have to wait a little while before adding them.
This is where it gets tricky - do it too soon and your M&Ms melt - wait to long and you will have one huge popcorn ball stuck in your bowl. Good luck.

Wet hands with cold water and form into balls.
Wrap in cellophane and tie with a ribbon or fabric scrap.

Now hop along to the other designer's blogs - GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono to check out their special food or tradition.

Be sure to check in tomorrow. The Project Designer is Terry Atkinson. I can't wait to see what fun project she will be making. http://www.terryatkinson.typepad.com/

The topic of the day will be - Gifts, a story about a favorite gift received or given.

Happy Hopping.

From my heart,

Sandy