multishoppe: A wonderful surprise!

Hello everyone. I received the most wonderful surprise and personal gift in the mail Saturday from Connie and have to share it with you. She stitched and finished this Notforgotten Farm design from the winter issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine. I am so thrilled! Connie left the strap very long so I could adjust to my display (and the buttons holding it are so sweet) and it worked perfectly.

It will hang on my window trim in the family room but for the holidays, I decided to hang it in the dining room with my orange slice garland and my five foot tree decorated with dried citrus. The colors are perfect and Connie, thank you again, I so love it!

Here's the third and final finish for the PA Redware, now hanging in the kitchen. I was not real happy with the mounting, but kept my mouth shut because I like her and it was a slippery day. Some days I let things slide off my back, and some days it's like flypaper, sticky from a flash, the smallest irk trapped, held there, grinding away, digging into my back, until I have no choice but to rip it to shreds. Today was her lucky day. I also finished all the little Santas with the stiff interfacing and am very pleased. SO much easier since Vonna's site showed me how foolish I was in rushing and not evenly trimming the piece at the start. My presser foot rode along the edge and I wasn't concerned about following the weave.

I purchased small rusty looking jingle bells today and may outline the edges with a few, or just the corners, or use a homespun strip for garland and attach to the top corners with big buttons, or not, just use big rusty jingle bells hanging from the homespun between the Santas.....OK. Strip of homespun, very large rusty bell between each, medium bell hanging from the bottom of the pillow.....no. Oh hell. Never mind. Whatever I do it won't be the end of it anyway.

And as for trees, I bought another small one, a three foot that is the same style as the two foot I showed last post. I have enough trees in my attic to open a Christmas shop, but I can't help myself. With so few shops around here and even less that offer a more primitive tree, I grab it when I see it or it will be gone.

This is a another three foot and one of my favorites that will get tiny lights with tin and pewter ornaments..... or not.

Maybe just nut garland. Yes - nut garland! And tiny lights. Silicone dipped lights! Originally, the Santas I just sewed were to be ornaments but the older I get the smaller my trees get, and they are too large for a small tree. I would love to have a large sampler tree like Linda Wallace's tree on Mary Beale's site. She notes that some of the designs are parts of a larger sampler. Neat idea - I never think to do that.

And finally, here's Junior. Dad is still watching over him while he plays with absolutely nothing.