Merry Christmas Season!

 

 The big day has come and gone, but for us the Christmas Season 

lasts until Jan.6, the feast of the Epiphany.

So I am wishing you all a very blessed Christmas season!

xx

~Annie

Prepare the stable of your heart for Christmas

Yesterday my daughters and husband and I went 

into Chicago with the youth group from our parish 

to work in the soup kitchen of the 

Sisters of Charity.

These are Mother Teresa's nuns, 

and the kitchen was opened

by Mother Teresa herself.

(That's my hubby up there on the right.)

I can't tell you what this experience has done for me, 

to take me away from the cares and silly concerns of my everyday life,

and help those who are truly in need.

(Thats one of my daughters cheesing on the left.)

It really put things into perspective and I had the anticipation

of the coming of my Lord Jesus on my mind all day.

I felt so close to Him while I was there, 

and so thankful for everything He has done in my life 

and the wonderful people He has given me to love!

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas! 

I hope you feel the joy of Him in your heart always!

God Bless You

and 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Angel on Ebay!

Here she is all finished and I just love the way she turned out, don't you?

She is up for auction on ebay, a quick little auction ending on Sunday. If you would like to win her, don't hesitate, she can be shipped out first thing Monday morning!

Click Here!

Merry Christmas and the most wonderful of Holidays 

to you!

xx

~Annie

Angel progress

Her dress is made from an old cotton slip. I am still going to add some wings and some beading on her gown.

Pay no attention to the mess that is my desk! LOL!

Little Angel I'm working on

Been feeling the sculpting muse lately...

Some Christmas sewing

I am making this for my brother Gil.

He LOVES Christmas and begins decorating BEFORE Thanksgiving.

This is going to be a pillow.

It is rectangular. 

It is from a pattern by Bareroots.

I just love Bareroots patterns, don't you?

Hopefully I will have time to snap a picture when it is done and before I give it to him. He always hosts our family get together on Christmas eve. He is a fabulous cook, and we get fed something wonderful every year.

I tell ya, I am the most spoiled little sister in the WORLD! 

My brother Gil always cooks on Christmas eve, and my brother Edward (thats Fr. Edward to you, cuz he's a priest) always cooks on Thanksgiving and Christmas day.

Can you BELIEVE that? 

I NEVER have to do the cookin'!

BELIEVE ME!

 I am THANKFUL!!!

xx

~Annie

2 New patterns!

House #6 in  my Quilty Neighborhood series! 

Only 1 more house to go!

To order a chart click here.

Here is the entire piece so far:

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And a new PDF stitchery pattern!

Home Sampler

To order a PDF (instant download) of this pattern click here.

xx

~Annie

Home is wherever my family is...

I guess this year with kid #3 off to college, 

and just 1 more chiilun at home to be raised,

has got me feeling all sentimental about my family.

I have spent the last 27 years of my life dedicated to them. 

And as one by one they move off to begin their own lives I feel happy and satisfied that my hubby and I have done a good job with them.

Every one of them is a well rounded interesting person with a good set of values and a love for God.

Each one of them is a light to the world as they move out their to live their faith. It is wonderful to see. 

And no matter where we are, 

when we are together we are "Home"

I'm sure you feel the same about your family!

xx

~Annie

I'm still here!

I haven't posted in a while because our lives here went topsy-turvy for a couple of weeks! 

My husband lost his mother rather quickly and unexpectedly. 

We had a couple of weeks of hospitals and relatives and a funeral. 

We had the boys back and forth from college twice in a week and in the middle of all of that,

my brother, who is our very close to our family and our parish priest, 

was yanked out of our parish and transferred to another town. 

I was not ready for all of this, but I don't think this is something you can be ready for.

Life goes on.

So my great plans for releasing 3 new patterns have gone astray. I am chasing them down as we speak! LOL!

In the middle of all of this it was applesauce making time. This was actually a blessing, something to concentrate on while waiting for the funeral to happen.

My sister in law and I put up a few quarts.

I made some more yesterday, and some applebutter,

which turned out delicious!

I hope to be back at the end of the week with some new patterns. It is great to get back to work, which lucky for me is really play!

xx

~Annie 

Color tinting

I am doing a sort of study on color tinting. You know, its when you add color to your stitchery with either crayons or colored pencil. This is a design by

Meg Hawkey of Crabapple Hill. 

It was lots of fun to do!

Then I decided to try it on a design of my own.  I began with crayons, coloring in the whole background with white and then adding the color.

Then I added the stitching and some colored pencil detail. I couldn't stop there and ended up using watercolor pencils.

When I am finished the whole thing will be heat set with and iron, pressing from the back onto a piece of scrap muslin (in case some of the color comes off)

What do you think?

My friend Jenny is having an awesome giveaway!

Jenny has a great blog in Australia,

and she publishes a monthly little digital magazine called Elefantz Home 

which is all about beautiful stitchery and also lots of tips and inspiration.

I "heart" Elefantz Home,

AND

I have been invited to be a guest designer in a future issue!

Yay!

ANYHOO!

Jenny is having a really great giveaway to celebrate 

1500 followers

 (Wow! check that out!)

Among the PRIZES is a $50.00 gift certificate for 

FAT QUARTER SHOP!!!

So hop on over to Jenny's blog and check it out!

Quilty Neighborhood #5 and peek at house #6!

At long last the 5th installment of the Quilty Neighborhood series is here!

Only 2 more houses to go, and House #6 is almost ready as well!

Here is a sneak peek at the whole thing so far, WITH a little peek at house #6!

Its coming along, don't you think?

Available at your favorite Needlework shop or at my website here!

On TDIPT tonight!

 Ophelia the harvest gatherer!

And Happy Jack!

A tabletop pumpkin!

AND, during the month of OCTOBER, my pattern 

DOROTHY and TOTO is 

ON SALE 

at my website and my Etsy Shoppe!

How to paint a pumpkin head!

 When autumn comes I always feel like making a pumpkin head doll! I love to work with my favorite colors of paint, deep green and olive green, yellow ochre, burnt orange, some pretty reds!

Oh its so much fun!

So I thought I would show you how I do the underpainting on one of these dolls, to get the wonderful depth of color and tone that every vegetable girl should have!

LOL!

The idea is to under-paint highlights and low lights. The cheeks and forehead I have painted with yellow, then I have come in with deep green where the shadows might be.

Here is the face and shoulders:

The side and back of the head:

Coverage is not important. 

You will worry about coverage when you do the top coat.

Right now you are just getting in the highlights and low lights.

The same goes for the arms and legs:

Next,  you will  go over everything with a top coat. I used Terra Cotta. I am just using the 2 oz. cheap paints from the craft store.

First you block in the color, the eye whites, the color of the irises and pupils. When this is dry, sand it all over with 220 grit sand paper. This is what brings out your underpainting, and give the doll that aged patina-almost like leather!

All of the details are done with colored pencil:

Here is another one-just the head!

Beautiful Wools!

 

Aren't they yummy? 

xx

~Annie

Baskets and Wreaths

Here is a sneak peek of the project I have been obsessing about lately!

Each block will be 8" square. I think I will sash it with a batik fabric, but I'm not sure yet. I have changed the flowers so many times to get them to coordinate,

I could probably make another project just out of the rejects!

 

These are all wools, and once I get them all set I will begin to 

sew them down with Valdani's #12 perle cotton. The background is a lovely faded-out looking black flannel that I bought from Connecting Threads (love the lower prices there, perfect for staple fabrics like that). Click to enlarge the photo and you can get a better idea of the background fabric. This photo is a little dark, I apologize. I was playing around with the tungsten setting on my camera!

Sew what have you been doing?

xx

~Annie

New Pattern and a PDF BOM!

 

 Remember this guy? Well it is now available at my Etsy Shoppe as an instant downloadable Block-of-the-Month! You can download 1 pattern or all of them right now! And best of all, no shipping!

 I love that, don't you!

And Pumpkins and Squirrels is now officially a pattern. Available on my website today!

SO...after a busy week of pattern writing and PDF converting, I am now ready to start a new project. Hmmm...what will it be? Probably something quilty, but I am also thinking about Halloween home decor. 

What are you working on this fall?

Three Tokens and crushed walnuts!

Happy Fall!

Three Tokens is a quick and simple little pattern consisting of 3 designs that you can use however you wish! Stitchery, embroidery, wool applique, punchneedle, the sky is the limit! This is an instant download available at Etsy and on my website.

And...

 If you decide to make yours into a pincushion, I am also offering crushed walnuts for your filling! Crushed walnuts make the *BEST* filling for pincushions! It is heavy which gives such a wonderful vintage feel, plus your pincushion stays where you put it. No more traveling around your sewing table! 

Crushed Walnuts come in a handy 1 cup size, the perfect amount for a 5 inch pincushion.

I am offering them here at Etsy.

Enjoy!

xx

~Annie

New Autumnal Offerings!

Finally! LOL!

Sorry if the title seems hoity-toity! 

I just love using the word"autumnal"!!!

Any-whooo! Here are my 2 newest offerings on TDIPT this month!

First is a little pincushion that I designed. It is actually a proto-type for a new pattern that will have 3 pincushion designs in it. The pattern should be ready some time next week.

It is all made of wool-do you like it?

And next is an awesome table runner, also soon to be a pattern. I am super excited about how this one came out! It really was fast, I did it in like 2 days! The pattern should be out week after next. It is called Squirrels and Pumpkins.

Isn't it great! To see more details visit the TDIPT website.

Thanks for looking!

xx

~Annie