The Day After

Another holiday has come and gone! I guess the older you get time starts flying by. It certainly does seem that way to me.

We had a fairly eventful year and I am praying this coming new year will be less stressful! 

Remember when it took forever for Christmas to finally get here? My sister and I used to mark the days on the calendar, making our lists, and trying to be good so that Santa would stop by and leave our gifts.

All of our children are grown now, so we look forward and count the days until our grandbabies come for a visit. We were not disappointed this year! Our daughter had an emergency appendectomy last week, so we had grandkids for days! I spent the morning, picking up toys, snippets of wrapping paper and tape stuck everywhere. I took the Christmas tree down at 2:30am this morning and took it to the curb. It had seen better days and I decided to buy another one for next year if I can get one on clearance. I still have some more decorations to take down and put away tonight, but I'm looking at them with a critical eye. I need to dispose of some things that are just not worth packing up another year.

I hope your holidays were wonderful and that you have a very blessed new year!

Images From My Childhood Christmas

Courtesy of Pintrest

Quilt Cabinet!

 Santa brought me the perfect gift this year! I love love love it! Every year my husband tells me he bought something red and sparkly. Its been our family joke, you never know what he will come up with,  but its red and sparkly. This year we spotted this cabinet at an antique store when we were picking up my Hoosier cabinet. I thought it was beautiful and would be the perfect place to display my quilts. The owner builds cabinets out of reclaimed wood and windows. I came home late last night and this beauty was in my entry way!

I moved it into my sewing room for now. I hope to find a place for it after Christmas.

Ive been inspired this week to join the Crossroads sew along via Fat Quarter Shop. If you haven't seen it hop over to their site and check it out. Wonderful soft colors and it benefits an organization to help children.

Wonderful Goodness

My day started at 5am this morning and I finally got home around 9pm. Really long day, sat in meetings, had to finish several reports and I'm tired! I came home to find all of this gorgeous fabric on my doorstep! I was tempted to unroll a jelly, but decided to just take a moment to look at all the great new colors and imagine how wonderful my weekend will be! I will be daydreaming about which fabric to use first  and what pattern to choose all week. I cant wait until Saturday!

Christmas At Work

 I had a very talented co-worker who volunteered to help decorate our office doors this year. That was an answer to prayer since I was behind after being out for a few days with a cold. Pinterest came to the rescue and we printed off a few ideas. The Christmas tree door won 2nd place in our hospital contest! It is totally made out of green construction paper, hot glue , some mini lights and ornaments! I have had a lot of oohs and ahhs this week when they stop by my office. Thanks to my Santa helper!

Another door in our department was Rudolf's Stable. This represents our Director of nursing, nurse manager and administrative assistant. We had several other festive doors and a few ideas, that I may use next year at home. I love it when the staff participate to make our facility look Christmasy. We spend more time at work than we do at home, so it helps to brighten our day!

Hope you have a merry week!

Wish I was Sewing

Have a Happy Day

Projects for the Weekend

My Black Friday purchases are finally arriving in the mail! I came home today and found these goodies on my porch. I have wanted one of Lori Holts Design boards forever and finally decided to get the 18x18 pink board . Along with the new Sew Emma pattern book, I bought a box of wonder clips and a Fig Tree quilt kit. Although the weather here is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow, I'm not sure I can pull myself away from my sewing machine. I still have some purchases on the way from Craftsy's 12 Days Of Christmas sale that should be here soon. There will be plenty to keep me busy for the next few months!

Have a Happy Weekend!

Peppermint Patty Quilt

I am working on another Christmas Quilt for my sister tonight. She loved this quilt that I recently finished, so I decided to surprise her with one for Christmas. She will be staying with us overnight during the holiday. I plan to put this on her bed before she arrives! Hope she likes it.

Have a good week!

New Projects

  I am always on the lookout for cute new projects and I fell in love with Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt. My fabric is on the way and last night I purchased a few companion blocks from Fat Quarter shop to use. This quilt is going to be awesome! I love the colors and the great memories this stirs up for me. I was a farm girl and many of the images bring back great times spent with my Granny in the kitchen. I love the milk can block and the red barn. I hope to get started on this next weekend!

Bonnie and Camille will be introducing a new line of fabric in the spring and I have reserved this quilt kit to make for my sister. She lives in a really cute farm girl house and will love these colors! This will be a birthday gift for her. Never fear, she doesn't read my blog so it wont spoil the surprise.

I hope you have a great week! My vacation is over and have to start back to work Monday morning. Blessings!

Black Friday Finished

 I had made a cute little Christmas pillow last year that was inspired by Nana Company and decided to make a lap quilt that would go with it. I used various Christmas prints and mixed them up with some Bonnie and Camille fabrics by Moda. I used a cross hatch technique to quilt the blocks and am satisfied  with how it turn out. I'm still trying out new things with my machine, I really want to learn more about machine quilting. I have used the straight line quilting for years, but would love to learn the various other methods that I see online.

I have spent the afternoon browsing the Black Friday sales and spent more than I should at Fat Quarter shop! It's dreary and wet here in Texas, so we did not get out of the house to attend the big sales. I have already bought all of my gifts for the family and they are wrapped and ready to go! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

My New Hoosier Cabinet

 YEAH!! For many years I have been searching for a Hoosier that met the qualifications that I had set. Number 1: affordable  Number 2: No refinishing on my part

We have a super cute new flea market a few miles away and one Friday night I just happened to be on Facebook when they posted the picture of this cabinet. They are only open during the weekends, so I was up at 5 am, pacing, waiting, watching the clock, drove to the shop prepared to fight off anyone that made it in the door before I did. They just happened to be open 30 minutes early, so I was in the store, bought the cabinet and on my way home within the hour! This Hoosier is so wonderful, it still has the original parts including the flour sifter and spice racks. The Slag glass is perfect and the finish untouched. The enamel top has a couple of scratches, but nothing big. I was thrilled to pieces that I finally found one after all this time. In fact, I'm going to make homemade pie crust on this enamel top with my  cutest little country apron on! Can you see the little red sign above it? That is our motto around here "We Love You Like Biscuits and Gravy"  Yes maam we do!

Stacking Pennies

 Stacking pennies is a wonderful little pattern for a quick baby quilt in a pinch! One day I will learn to make a few extra quilts to keep on hand for new babies. Nine months just flies by whenever its not you! My sister has a new granddaughter and it seems that she just told me this a few weeks ago. Avie was born last week a healthy and happy little girl. It sent me scrambling to get a quilt to her for a homecoming present! I had made this little quilt one weekend while practicing my machine quilting and applique. I love to hand quilt but I certainly love the time saving method of the machine. This was just a simple straight stitch and wasn't hard to make in an afternoon. I am practicing free motion quilting on small projects right now and my new years goal is to quilt a queen size on my machine. I usually send my larger quilts out to have them quilted on a long arm machine. I have watched tutorials galore, but decided that practice is what it takes to get the hang of it. If you have any tips for machine quilting, please share!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and safe travels!

Quilt Crumbs

I save every bit of scrap when I cut into a bundle of fabric and can't seem to part with any of it. After watching Lori Holt's method of organizing her scraps, I was converted! I now keep a basket of my smaller scraps beside my cutting table and spend a few hours a month cutting them into sizes that I frequently use.

I have a template to cut Dresdens as small as one inch, but more frequently I use the 2 1/2 inch to turn my smaller scraps into a scrappy quilt that I absolutely love!

I spend several hours a week at the machine when I come home at night. Whenever I have a few minutes, its easy to sew a couple and place in my basket to applique later. I have precut layer cakes of Moda white #98 that I buy from Fat Quarter shop. They are so portable and I keep a small kit with me everywhere I go.  Its an easy way to turn all those small bits and crumbs of fabric into a beautiful quilt!

Cute Christmas Wreath

I am blessed to have a talented daughter, who is a florist. I am tempted to send this over to her, maybe she will make one for me! My cousin posted this on Facebook, so I do not know where it originated from. Would love to have a great big red barn door to hang this on! 

Have a great day

Cozy Cottage 2016 Calendar

 I fell in love with Lori Holt's Cozy Cottage Calendar the minute I saw it! All of my favorite colors and the cutest quilt designs! Not to mention Lori's home is so cute! I have followed her blog for several years and she always has the most wonderful ideas.

 I purchased my calendar from Fat Quarter Shop. Hop on over there and buy one for the new year! I'm torn whether to keep it at home or use it at work. It would certainly brighten up my days! Hmm, maybe I need two of them!

The Jolly Jabber Baby Quilt Hop

I'm so excited about the Jolly Jabber Quilt hop! The quilters are each creating a quilt from 20 new designs by Sew Emma! Take time to stop by this week and take a look at the wonderful baby quilts. They are so cute, you can find them here: http://www.fatquartershop.blogspot.com/

Have a Wonderful Day!

Nick and Nora Sew FUN!

 I was shopping at Target and found these adorable Nick and Nora pajamas. I simply could not resist buying a pair to lounge around in. With a pair of these you will have sweet quilt dreams!

Today on the Target website, if you buy one pair get the second half price! That is a great deal!

My Christmas Dresden

It's looking a lot like Christmas here at Cute As Pie Cottage! I have always wanted to make a red and white quilt for the holidays and love this beautiful Dresden Plate pattern. In fact, this is my sixth quilt using Dresden's this year. There is something so calming about hand applique! Its a very portable quilt block that you can work on just about anywhere! I travel frequently and carry a little sewing bag with me. If I am waiting in the airport I can whip up a few blocks to occupy my time. There is always someone who stops to ask what I'm working on, so I can share my love for quilting and listen to some wonderful stories that people share of their quilty memories.

Have a wonderful week!