I'm a Winner again!.....

I know the drawings for the "Among the Gum Trees" designers isn't until midnight tonight (which was actually 7 minutes ago! their time) but I just had to brag that I won Paula's giveaway!

She had to go to hospital to have an apparatus with pins removed from her leg.  She had it there for the last 3 months.....along with designing patterns......and participating with the Gum Trees designers......and having 3 small ones under 5 years old!  What a brave soul.  Anyway, she had her giveaway early and I won!!!

And here is what I won.....

A Hatched and Patched Christmas pattern.....and we all know how I love Christmas.  Paula had even visited my Christmas blog the night before she pulled names so imagine her delight when her Christmas win went to a Christmas nut! 

And I won.....

this little Chickadee pincushion pattern with the wool and everything!  Look familiar, Mary?  Can you believe it?

I told Paula to please take her time and get over the surgery first.  I just can't imagine having all that on my plate.  Hope you have a good day and remember there are 8 more drawings sometime today!

Blessings, Cathi

So close yet so far.....

I have gotten so much quilting finished this past week and I can't show any of it!  I am really close on several projects. 

* I spent the entire weekend working on a baby quilt that is supposed to go to the new Mommy-To-Be this coming Sunday.  The top is finished and hope to layer it and start quilting this evening. The Married One reads my blog and works with the new mommy.  I don't want her to accidentally show it to her! I'll post it after the baby shower.

* I only have the binding to go on another quilt.  Gotta find the fabric I bought for the binding first.  Sure hope I didn't use it for something else!

* I have only a square foot of quilting to do on another quilt then the binding!  What am I waiting for?!

* Finished the Gail Pan Christmas Wish blocks but didn't take a picture yet. I'm pretty sure how I am going to finishe this one but it will take a good bit of prep work.

*Cleaned the sewing/dining room so well that if we wanted to eat dinner at the table, it would only take me 10 minutes to get the sewing out of there.  I couldn't say that before!

Here is a picture that I can show.  I finished the first month of my Thoughts of Christmas BOM that I received from Paula the Quilter.  The next two months will be a little rough with two rows of paper pieced trees and houses with a gazillion pieces to each house!  But it's a good start.  I am making it with all Thimbleberries fabric.  I have so much of it!  I have all the backgrounds picked for each month and a stash of red, greens and golds picked out for me to draw my other pieces from.

Blessings, Cathi

I'm ready for Fall but the weather isn't.....

We had a cool week a few weeks ago here in the Piedmont of South Carolina (just below Charlotte). But the last two weeks have been rather warm and balmy. The humidity is horrible. It feels like July/August.

I feel sorry for all of those in Georgia with all the rain. We didn't get any of it. Our yard looks like a giant red clay brick. I haven't even cut the grass in over a month. Even the Married One had rain just about every day. She lives in Charlotte. TurfBoy is 2-1/2 hours west of us and had rain every day. I think all the rain just parted like the Red Sea around our little town and went right around us!


I usually don't put out the fall decorations until October 15th but it may be even later this year if the weather keeps up like this.

In the meantime, here is a pic of a woolie I made two years ago from a Buttermilk Basin pattern. It's not made into anything yet......just a rectangle. Maybe when it turns cooler I'll be in the mood to change it into something cute! I'm thinking maybe a pillow cover for one of the pillows on the couch.


Blessings, Cathi

What?? Free Christmas patterns??.....

Jenny of ELEFANTZ has gotten a group of Aussie designers together and started a new blog called the Among the Gum Trees.

Beginning Monday, October 5th and every Monday through October and November, they will be making available a free Christmas-related pattern for us to enjoy. How sweet is that!?

Wait! there's more! Starting in January, on the 7th of each month, they will be offering a free pattern from the 9 designers in turn.

Wait! there's even more! Each of the 9 designers will be giving away a great gift before the end of the month to kick off the crazy "nutters" new adventure. So pop on over to

Among the Gum Trees

And see what it's all about!

Blessings, Cathi

My Saturday with my Stitchin' Friends.....

This past Saturday was our monthly group meeting with my "Stitchin' Friends" hosted by Teresa of ....what else....Stitchin' Friends!

This month, Teresa taught a new-to-us technique from Helen at Hugs 'n Kisses. It was great fun.


After this step, we are supposed to outline all the coloring with embroidery but I like the black outline so much, I may leave it.


I happened to trace my pattern with a black pigma pen with every intention of stitching it. What do YOU think?

Blessings, Cathi

Some quilty pictures.....

Here is a picture of my Charming Girls Challenge all laid out on the bed.


Most of the black "logs" have disintegrated. Not all of them are the same width, just made the size needed to make the blocks the same size.


The yellow that you see a lot of in all the pictures is the backing showing through.


The backing is so thin that I will have to replace it also.


But I think it will be beautiful when I am through with it and hopefully last even longer.


And another little project I have been working on.


Can you tell by the colors what it is going to be?

Blessings, Cathi

Charming Girls in September.....

Nothing like waiting until the last minute to post my September Challenge for Kelly!


Do you remember my little rant last November about never volunteering to fix an old quilt? Well, regardless of what I want to do, I still owe this guy his quilt. It was part of a barter with him and my Dear Hubby and I. He has fulfilled his end of the bargain and now I have to hold up my end.

I didn't take a new picture but will soon. I am just throwing this one in from the other post to make the deadline for the challenge.

Blessings, Cathi

Half-Pint and Me.....

Didn't want you to think I was totally uncrafty this week. I finished stitching my Petites Lettres Rouges that Blackbird Designs first came out with WAY back in April. Not too far behind, am I? I've narrowed down the way I want to finish it. Still thinking.....


So Arline Clause in the stitchery is my paternal grandmother.....or more affectionately known around our house as HALF-PINT. She was rather vertically challenged......but she is the one that taught me handwork. She did amazing work. She could knit, crochet, cross-stitch, needlepoint, even dye wool and hook rugs. I don't remember her quilting, though.

Funny story about her name. I was named after her, at least my middle name was. When Dad filled out the paperwork at the hospital for my birth certificate, he inadvertently misspelled it. Hers was Arline with an "i" and mine was spelled Arlene, with an "e". When she found out that her own son didn't know how to spell her name.....well let's just say I think he was left off the Christmas card list that year!


She was born and raised in Staten Island at the turn of the last century in a very proper, fairly wealthy, Victorian-era house.....hence the handwork. She had a married sister and two spinster sisters and one lone brother. This is a picture of Half-Pint and my grandfather at Metedeconk River, NJ sometime in the 1930's I think.



And here they are again in Ocean City, New Jersey in 1980. I had never seen two people so in love in my entire life. Grandpa always called her "my bride". Grandpa died in 1983 and Half-Pint a few years later......I think of a broken heart.


Blessings, Cathi