All Is Well

It's one of my favorite times of the year. All is well here and we even got a little bit of snow. Snow makes me happy. I know, I know, I'm not supposed to like it or even admit I like it, but I do. I still get that same giddy feeling as I did when I was a child and woke up to find it snowed overnight. Makes me all happy and eager to walk and play in it and lift my face up into the cold air and catch snowflakes on my tongue. (When no one's looking, of course.) When my daughter was young she used to say the snow made her feel all "glowy" and I always knew exactly what she meant.

 

I hope all of you have a wonderful and pleasant Thanksgiving holiday (despite the snow if you get any). We'll be home hosting a nice gathering of family and friends as usual. I've been so busy working on my new patterns I haven't even begun my Thanksgiving preparations yet. Other than food shopping. I'll have to begin the cooking and baking and cleaning tomorrow.

 

 

I decided to give you more than a sneak peek at the new patterns - If you can believe it, I have one all ready to go. I wanted to have it completed before Thanksgiving so you could order the pattern and make it for the holiday but time got away from me and I had so many other things I needed to do. Thanks to Sue Bennett, who graciously agreed to help me with the stitching on some of my wool projects, I was able to finish it up in time for MY own holiday table.  I'm feeling very grateful for your hard work, Sue!

 

 

I'm pleased at how this one turned out - so cute. I was going to make a penny rug out of the wool center that Sue stitched up for me but I thought I'd try combining the wool with fabric. You never really know how a quilt is going to turn out until you play around with it, isn't that true? I had no idea when I started out that it was going to have fabric borders and now I really love them. What can I say, it wanted to be a quilt instead of a penny rug . . . . The scrappy borders contrast nicely with the black I think and they give it such a festive, colorful look. The simple hand quilting lends a nice primitive touch as well.  I call it "Gather Together" because it makes a perfect festive runner for your holiday table as you gather together with family with hearts full of gratitude.

 

If you haven't worked with wool before, this little table runner pattern is a perfect way to begin. The  pieces are nice and simple and easy to work with. The pattern includes complete instructions on how to get started working with wool.

Order the pattern here.  Because of the holiday and the fact that I will be busy at Karen's craft sale for a few days after that, I'll ship orders next week.

 

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One other thing I am really grateful for this year is a healthy dog.  Puppy Ophelia (Lia) was sick last week and needed to see the vet twice. I was more than a little worried because she's never sick. It was so cold here for awhile that I propped her puppy bed up on the couch near me for a few days while I sewed because there was a nasty draft on the floor. Gotta keep my sick baby warm, you know. She's feeling much better now, thank you.

I don't know about all of you, but at our house we use the Squirrel as a stick for measuring wellness. I knew Ophelia wasn't feeling well for a few days when her interest in chasing squirrels (and birds) dropped down to zero. She'd go outside to pee and dash right back inside. Here's how I knew she was finally feeling better - that would be when I left the room and she jumped up on the top of the sofa and started growling and barking like a maniac when one of our "locals" came up to and sat on the window ledge to peek inside and taunt her. "Hey, Lia  - we haven't seen you outside in quite awhile, what's the matter? Nah nah nah nah nah - You can't catch me!"  So I gladly opened the back door and let her have a go at him. She chased him all over the yard for a few minutes until he escaped up a tree. Sick indeed. All is well. All is well.