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After 11 months of blogging I'm so pleased to have a custom banner, courtesy of Mike from Roxy Graphics. The image inside the main font is a Photoshop layer of my crumb blocks, and the buttery color of the subtitle bar makes me extra happy. Thank you, Mike. You're brilliant!

Granny Square

I can't take much credit for this, because the colors were preselected as part of a kit, but I'm posting it because it's the first full-size afghan I've ever made. And because I adore it.















Those colors! Next crochet project: another kit. I just can't pass these up. Lion Brand, you're awesome.

Heirloom

Imagine my surprise, delight, and honor when FedEx brought me a big box containing this!














It's the sewing basket that belonged to my friend Elizabeth's mother, Katie. She made clothes for her daughters when they were little, and she continued to sew, cross-stitch, and create as a grandmother. When Katie passed away last year, Eliz and her sisters gave me the sewing basket she had used all their lives.














The basket holds a smorgasbord of color, with vintage trims, pins, thread, embroidery floss, tools, and a needle booklet just like one my grandmother used to have. It's one of the most wonderful gifts I've ever received.

Embroidery

I went a little overboard placing orders for flour-sack towels after being inspired by Posie Gets Cozy's free patterns for "Pleasant Kitchen Dishtowels." Not only are Alicia's designs charming, but I love her idea of edging the towels with homemade binding. I ordered from Posh, Colonial Patterns, and Sublime Stitching, and I also picked up a batch of tan-colored organic cotton towels from Target. The towel from Sublime Stitching is by far the nicest and sturdiest, but the Target towels will work well for the state flowers pattern I have on my list. Virginia's flower, the dogwood, is white.

Apparently everyone I know will be receiving an embroidered towel for Christmas. Here's my first project, using Cat-A-Rama from Sublime Stitching.

Runner

Today I finished my Anna Banana table runner from Pink Chalk Studio's pattern. I adore this funky floral fabric, and it's all the sweeter having won it during a Free Fabric Friday at Sew, Mama, Sew!
















This was my first foray into free-motion quilting. I took the "easy" way out and went with a simple, wavy checkerboard pattern, but even so I ended up removing quite a few jagged lines of stitching. Mid-way through the project, a friend's visiting mother gave me a free-motion pep talk and a pair of garden gloves with little gripper dots all along the palms. Those, as well as a hint from Elizabeth at Oh, Fransson! to set the stitch length to zero, made a world of difference.