2011 Giveaway Winners and a Crazy Quilt

It's not long til Christmas now and I'm going to talk about two things tonight...my Christmas Giveaway and my Christmas Crazy quilt. (Sorry, the quilt isn't going anywhere...I may never get another one made!)

First things first....as promised, the 'old Navy man' has chosen two WINNERS!! Oh,my......there were sure a lot of comments on my last post....evidently you all want to win. Cool. I'm very lucky to have such nice blog readers and I appreciate each and every one of you. I hope the two winners will be very happy and all the rest of you will be glad for them. If it helps at all, I will be giving away 'more goodies' toward the end of February, so you'll have another chance to win something. That is my blog anniversary month.

Now for those Christmas Giveaway winners:

Jane S. wins the "French Inspired Home" book and a pincushion. And, Bonnie wins the "Somerset Holidays & Celebrations" magazine and a pincushion. I've just sent you two an email asking for your mailing addresses so I can send your 'goodies' to you. Merry Christmas!!

Being this close to Christmas, I thought I show you my favorite Christmas Crazy Quilt. If you visited my blog last year, you've already seen it and if you visit next year, you'll probably see it again....I seem to enjoy showing it to you all each year and that's about the only time it gets out of the quilt closet. I made this many years ago. The quilt was inspired by the backing fabric...it had such sweet images on it. And, of course....I had to over indulge myself in the beading of it.

You can't tell from the photo, but ALL the edges of the quilt are beaded. The bottom edge in a random length 'fringe' and the other three edges in what I call a 'handkerchief' edge. You can find instructions for that edging in Nancy Eha's book "Off the Beadin' Path." She calls it a 'three bead edging.' It's great fun to do and very simple to do. Maybe I'll show you how one of these days if you'd like. Everyone always asks me how long it took to bead the edges. Well, I hate keeping track of that kind of thing, preferring to 'just enjoy doing it.' However, for some unknown reason....I do know that it took me eight hours just to bead the bottom fringe. After that I quit counting. Hope you enjoy another look at this little quilt!

I sincerely wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too! Thank you so much for visiting my blog this year and I hope to show you more from the Nest during 2012! Please enjoy yourselves and stay warm, safe and cozy!! I'll post again early next week. Have a fantastic weekend!!! pat

PS. I just thought of something...maybe in February I'll show you how to bead that 'three bead edging' and those tiny embroidered hearts I promised you instructions on earlier this year (and didn't come through with). Yeah....it can be my Valentine gift to you...perhaps in conjunction with the anniversary Giveaway. Stay tuned!

Second Anniversary - Valentine Giveaway"

I have something to give away! Valentine's Day will be here soon...did you hear that?
I said SOON....wasn't it just New Year's Day a couple of days ago? It's disturbing to me to see the days just fly by...along with my life...just flying by and I can do nothing about it. I'd love to slow things down a bit, take more time to smell the coffee, the roses, etc. Oh, well, what's a girl to do?

Also coming up soon is the second anniversary of this blog. I can't believe it! Two years have come and gone and I still like having a blog. Can't imagine not having it, to tell the truth. Who knew?

Because a celebration of some kind is in order, I want to give my heart away, so to speak. So, what I'd like you to do is make a comment on this blog post. (Make sure I have a way to contact you should you win!) One of you out there will win the following "goodies" on Sunday, January 31, just in time to celebrate Valentine's Day:

1. The February issue of ROMANTIC HOMES magazine

2. One of my flea market finds salt and pepper shakers filled with Martha Stewart's "Garnet" glitter

3. Two silicone bakeware hearts (oven safe to 450 degrees)

4. Hershey's Bliss Dark Chocolate

5. And, last, but not least, one of my hand-embroidered, hand-beaded pillows (5" x 9") made especially for this occasion.

I always love Valentine's Day... mostly because I love sewing hearts. And I am especially excited to celebrate this blog's anniversary, so,please, do make a comment on this blog post and on Sunday, one of you will be chosen as a winner....daughter Kelly doing the honors, then I will happily send the goodies along to YOU. OK, comment away and stay warm out there! take care, pat

A Nice "Romantic Home" Surprise

We are almost finished with the year 2009 and this time of the year (the week between Christmas and New Year's Day) is, at our house, a time for some rejuvenation in expectation of a busy January. I like to think all kinds of GOOD things will happen and we must be prepared for them. Life being what it is....sometimes things aren't good, but we must be somewhat prepared for those too, I suppose. Well, as it turns out, today we are beginning early....with the good things, that is.

Earlier today, my friend Sherry called and asked if I had seen the new issue of Romantic Homes magazine. I had not, but I had visited one of my favorite blogs,My Romantic Home,and saw that Cindy, one of my favorite bloggers, was telling about appearing in the February 2010 issue of the magazine and showed one of the photographs chosen to be in the magazine. Earlier this year, I had made a pincushion for Cindy and there in the lower right hand side of that photograph was the blue silk ribbon pincushion I had made for her. Talk about excited!!! I had never imagined that one of my silk ribbon pieces (or anything else I had made) would be shown within the pages of Romantic Homes. It makes me smile.....

Cindy loves blue and so the pincushion I made for her is blue...you can see the whole pincushion - the silk ribbon roses, the beaded edge...all of it, in my blog post of January 21, 2009. And, now I am so happy to see it in the "Valentine" issue!

And, you know one of the most fun things? Well, my friend Sherry recognized my work in the magazine and called to let me know. Aren't friends great! So, here we are....having said this particular time of the year I spend preparing and rejuvenating myself for the coming year...a really NICE thing has happened to give me a little boost...how cool is that? Thanks, Sherry, for remembering, and thank you Cindy and Romantic Homes for giving me lots of inspiration! Take care and Happy New Year! pat

PS. I think it just wonderful that Cindy's teen-aged daughter took the photo of her mom for this article. She did a FINE job....Thank you too, Lauren!!