Christmas Excitement

Are you starting feel the excitement? I am!

Thank you for the compliments on my Christmas version of the Schnibbles Paganini quilt. I can hardly believe I've finished a Christmas quilt already! I'm going to write up my adaptations to give to my Schnibbles class at the end of the month, and I'll post them here around then too if anyone's interested. I know it will be kind of late by that time, but you can get a head start by buying the Paganini pattern, collecting 5" green squares of fabric, and starting on the directions to make the version 2 blocks. You'll only need 13 blocks instead of 16, but if you want to make all 16, you can always use the extra 3 blocks for pillows or a tablerunner. You'll also need 1-1/4 yards of the background fabric. Finally, for now, when making the half square triangles, I sewed a scant 1/4" seam, so I was able to trim the half square triangle blocks to 4-1/2" rather than the 4" called for in the pattern, and my wreath blocks measured 8-1/2".

Have you checked out the Home for the Holidays blog hop? A different designer is featured each Tuesday and Friday, and that designer offers a project and a cookie recipe on her blog. Last week was Brenda Gervais of Country Stitches and Debbie Field of Granola Girl Designs. I've printed out their projects as well as their cookie recipes. I've already made Brenda's thumbprint cookies and I have the cookie dough for Debbie Field's cookies in the refrigerator. I thought that if I made a batch of each of the cookies and put two dozen away in the freezer each time, by the time Christmas gets here, we'll have plenty of holiday cookies to share with friends and family. Not only that, but the baking won't be a two-day marathon, and we'll have a few treats early--whatever's left after storing two dozen in the freezer.

Today's designer is Cheri Saffiote-Payne, and you know she's going to have some good stuff to share with those of us who enjoy her folk art style. If you haven't already checked out the Home for the Holidays blog hop, hop on over to Buttermilk Basin's blog to see what it's all about and what designers you can look forward to--after you've finished MY blog, of course!

Finally, I came across the link for this e-zine, Amy Powers' Inspired Ideas, The Christmas Issue, on Happy Zombie's blog and thought I'd add it here just in case anyone hasn't already read it. If visions of Christmas crafty ideas aren't already dancing in your head, they will be after you take a look at this. Just click on the title of the e-zine above, click your heels together three times, and fly off to visit the wonderful wizard of Christmas inspiration. Just make sure you come back and visit me again before too long!