It's beginning to look a lot like...

a Christmas quilt!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a repaid loan
(2) reloading your stapler
(3) a celebration with friends

Thanks everyone for your comments on my last post, I liked the idea of embroidered reins.  Debbra, I wish you could have embroidered them for me... when I tried my fingers were all thumbs so I took the "well phooey on it" way out and slung up some thick reins to hold those deer in check!  Doesn't look too bad though :o)

I've been busy making other Christmas blocks with no rhyme or reason except just because I like em!  Here are a churn dash and a goose -

the goose is right cute but I should have used a different background on the churn dash!  The jury is still out whether or not I'll use it in the final quilt.  I got both patterns from EQ.

I really like this one; it hasn't been stitched down yet but I still wanted to share it up close:

I based this manger scene block on a picture I found online about 2-3 years ago, I think it was a Christmas card. I might embellish it with a couple animals or a stable or a low wall in the background; we'll see.  Or maybe a bright star??

Will this block make my quilt look big???  ;o)

This block measures a whopping 12-1/2 x 26!  The size sort of got away from me, I started with the pot and it was sorta big.

I found the clipart online and adapted it to an applique block - clever, eh?  Actually it was fun making this block, despite the fact that my foot pedal seems to be going bad.  Sometimes I would have it pressed all the way to the floor and the machine would barely move - then all of a sudden it would take off like a race horse!  My baby, my Singer Touch n Sew, is only 41 years old, sheesh!  But I digress - I got the alphabets from Pat Sloan's web site, here (bottom, left).  I could have linked directly to the alphabet page, but I wanted to give you a chance to see all she offers on her great site!

So here are all the blocks that I've done so far...

The little "joy deer" didn't come out so bad!  I was deliberating over using it as a silhouette and if so what color.  I called Felicia, the Slow Quilter to ask her opinion about green and she said "sure, it'll look great!"  I said "okay, but if it comes out looking funny I'll tell everybody you told me to do it!"  Well, as you can see she was right, it looks great!  I just couldn't get the word lined up though, it wanted to twist for some reason.  Oh well.

Coming up soon I see trees, a house or two, more churn dashes, at least one more deer, Sue decorating a tree, more flying geese... all kinds of great stuff!  Stay tuned and see em all  :o)

Today we get to celebrate Pat's birthday a few days early, we're taking her to lunch at the Maryland Live! buffet; it's an international buffet with Italian, American, Asian and seafood, you gotta love it!  Have a great Veteran's Day everyone - sew forth and sew on!