Pickles Garden

Mrs. Pickles Garden is running a Blog hop starting Monday (the 31st). She has rounded up several talented quilters to share their secrets with you.

Mysterious Presents

So I opened the door today and out side was a package. No label, no stickers, no name. Kind of odd, there are 3 people living in my house.... ok. Inside is this....

Ok... Not someplace I usually eat at. Love the top, bottom is meh. Needs to go. 1/2hr later, a little bit of work and presto!

A beautiful 2013 Chinese Calendar.

Managed to finish a few Christmas presents in between classes.

Mostly make ornaments, their my specialty. Larger projects require more time then I usually have.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I Won!

So right before school starts for the fall semester I won a few prizes. @ Leona's Quilting Adventure I won an awesome book on making fabric flowers.

Thank you so much Leona!

Right before that I won at Suz-A-Palooza!!!
SuzGuz Designs runs an awesome event and I won this awesome layer cake by Kathy Schmitz for Moda.

Thank you Susan!

Also I won the new Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine at the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour from Cirlique Creations.

 

She also sent along a lovely block pattern she created =)

Thank you so much Jennifer!

On the U R Priceless! Coin Purse Blog Hop I won a 4 FQ pack of random fabrics from The Desert Rat Chronicles. Thank you Sheryl!

Thank you to everyone for the prizes. I learn so much on the blog hops and I love seeing what everyone makes. Maybe I will have time over Christmas break to participate in one.

Cakes

Bumped into this blog today. These sound awesome. I love chocolate =)
Chocolate cakes

Quiltiness

Obviously I don't update often. This is not because nothing is going on. The opposite is true. Things get done a little at a time and I post here when I feel ready.

This lovely is my applique quilt and my current large project.

Comes with a hot air balloon (me mums fav, she always wanted to go for a ride)

 and a kite. If you can get the pictures a bit bigger (they shrank when I loaded them) the hot air balloon has stitched basket weaving and the kits has pearl cross strings.

The argument I'm having with a couple friends is that no one likes my cloud. They think it looks like a lake when I was trying for a sky scene. So if anyone wants to give an opinion I'd appreciate it. It's almost done, but I don't want to be hearing about my sky lake forever. Esp once it's quilted and I can't fix it.

Summer of Stitchy Love

This was my entry for the Summer of Stitchy Love contest on Flikr. The contest has ended and I hope I get a door prize. There are 8 of them, so I have a decent chance. The patterns are from Hoop Love Vintage Transfers Flikr Group. You need to join to see them, but they have over 7500 patterns! I am planning on making this project into a tote bag, but that will have to wait until I get the other side stitched up. Currently deciding if I want to stitch up another flower bowl (since they came as a pair) or do something a little different.

Quilting

Working on an applique quilt, which is slow going. Still attaching many peices and working on a embroidered design for the Summer of Stitchy Love project. Might post pictures. I don't really like to show off my work for some reason. Quilt is a memorial for my mother, so sharing is difficult.

Cathedral Pincushion

Awesome! For Sew Mama Sews giveaway week Footloose and Fancy Free is giving away a copy of the cathedral pincushion pattern to everybody who wants one.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/fgd7gdgaaoxcjnh/Cathederal_Window_Pin_Cushion.pdf

Birthday Wishes

For my sister-in-laws' birthday, one of her gifts is a small crocheted gift bag.

This is a really simple pattern, made of single crochets and slip stitches. Very quick make. Some projects can take up some time when they switch stitch types many times. This pattern does not switch stitches at all and took just a couple hours for a first time. Normally I would post a link to the website I found the pattern on, but I have misplaced that Favorite. If anyone knows, please point me in their direction and I will include a link so others can make their own. If requested, I can make a few to post on Etsy. I tend to finish requests quickly before I find motivation for items that may or may not sell. Pricing would depend on size.

Lovely Embroidery Thread

A few weeks ago I received some silk thread from ArtNeedlepoint.com.

They graciously handed out these threads to many people like myself. They called it a giveaway, but just about everybody who posted received some skeins of thread. Unfortunately i have a collecting tendency, so I am not sure how long I will take to find a project to use these on. They are really really nice threads though and will be absolutely beautiful when used. Just a little thanks to ArtNeedlepoint.com for giving me some really nice silk thread.