Winter is finally in southern Indiana. It is cold!! I have been so spoiled with not feeling the chill too much. But nope, no more. The furnace is running all the time and I keep fretting about our gas bill. We ARE blessed though with the warm weather we have had. So I need to remember that and be thankful. In all give thanks!

Here is a lil' patriotic wall hanging I finished up last week. It measures 13-inches. And contrary to my wonky photography skills, it is square. All Civil War repro fabrics on the front and red toi'le on the back. It looks big hanging on the wardrobe.

This past weekend, I have felt in a fog. Not accomplished anything but a bit of crochet work and alot of sleeping. I think it was the change in the weather maybe? Tonight I did go out to my playhouse and sew on dollie dresses. My girls are needing Valentine dresses you know. :o)

Everyone stay warm!

Wool and homespun coasters are all done. I made 24 total. The black wool is 5" single layer (I started with 6", but it was too flopsy looking.), then a double sewn circle of homespun(4" sewn together. Cut a slit through a single layer. Turn right side out. Iron flat. Place slit side to the black wool.) Hand dyed wool for appliques. I used black pearl cotton #8 for the stitching. Fun and fast!

Update...thank you everyone for the emails and comments. I have placed these coasters for sale on my website. Angela

Two finished wool applique projects. Both are actually approx the same size 26 x 32-inches. That pillow took a ton of stuffing. I did these two projects earlier in the month and forgot to post pics. Am still working on my coin purses. Started 22 wool and homespun coasters too. Simple and primitive. I like to have a lot of hand work in my to-go bag. Take it to the hospital and dr office while I am waiting on my treatments and tests. Makes the time go so much faster. I read sometimes. But NEVER anything found in a waiting room! There are sick people there you know with their own cooties. LOL I have enough of my own. So always have something at the ready to take with me.

I changed up my page again. I enjoying doing the html part of it. As soon as I found the stitching girl, I knew she was going to be my logo. Am planning new changes on my website, The Country Cellar, next. I have had the same web design for about a year now, so time for a change. I am trying to get my sisters to blog so I can make up their pages too. LOL

We have sunshine and blue/grey skies today. But sunshine is a very good thing! I stirred about and did some housework today it made me so happy. Mark said he knew I would be up and going when he got home just because the sun was out. :o)

Have a sunny day wherever you are!

Aaaah she loves me again! Last night I went out to sew and she was ready to play. Not one problem! She just had to show me who was boss I reckon. I am making these lil' quilted coin purses from an Indygo Junction pattern. Will post pics when I get the 10 that I am making done. Thank you everyone for the suggestions and encouragement.

My sewing machine is mad at me. I think she is trying to go on strike! Was birdnesting horribly tonight. Then that stopped and the tension went all wonky. Then that stopped and it started birdnesting again. Her insides have been cleaned, oiled so much it took 2 days to drain, and new needle. I am sad cause we usually have a very nice relationship. I never bang her or thump it. Yell or talk rudely. I tell her all the time that I am happy with her. That I dont need a "big girl fancy smancy machine". We have the same simple tastes and are perfect for each other. I shined her up nicely and came in from my playhouse. sighhhhhhhh I hope she misses me and will play nicely with me tomorrow.

Something to dance about?

LOL Beta here we are! I was terribly afraid I would lose everything or my archives would be gone. Makes me wonder what else I miss from being afraid. Hmmm...

Anyways, now let us see if I can do those comment replies eh?

Thank you for all the birthday wishes in emails and comments. Family and friends were so good to me! Much too good I am sure.

To Beta or not to Beta. I would like to be able to reply to comments. Sometimes it shows up anonymous with no email :o( Does Beta allow the comments? I have sent out an inquiry, but no reply from them yet. That is the only benefit I would see from all the bother. Appreciate any feedback on this one.

I am in baking mode. Well actually in eating mode I guess! LOL Mixed up a batch of sourdough bread starter tonight. I actually do not need another pet or dependent, but it just sounds sooooo yummy. Had thought to start Amish Friendship Bread also, but then came to my senses! I will be doing good to remember to feed and walk(stir) one starter, let alone two. This bread is just so good with soup and we eat lots of soup. Tomorrow we are having chili actually. My sis Debbie made broccoli/cheese/potato soup for my birthday party. Very yummy.

Everyone stay dry and warm.

Here are some picks of my booth. I got a couple different angles. For some reason the colors are very vivid. Too bright actually. My stuff is actually a tad "dirtier" in person. LOL I do the drag it in the mud and run over it look ususally. It is sadly lacking in goods right now. But I still took in 2 totes full today. So you can only imagine how poorly it was before. Here is a funny. A young friend(25) asked me if my quiltlets were supposed to match. She didnt get the concept of the scrappy look. I know now to make sure anything I do for her coordinates. I loved it. I explained the scrappy idea and she said, well you are there then. LOLOL Made me laugh, AFTER she left! I took out all the snowman stuff. No one is interested in snowmen when all we are getting is rain. Not a dab of snow yet in southern Indiana. But we sure have had the rain!!

And tomorrow is my birthday so that is my happy thought for today. I get another one, praise the Lord!

My sweet baby niece Shayla just spent a couple of days with us. She is 3 going on 13! Such a funny girl and with a "tude" of a typical 3 yr old that is for sure. We love her so much and dont see her near as much as we want to. When her parents came to pick her up, we were sitting in the floor with her jumbo lego blocks building castles. She said she wanted us to be princesses not boys but we didnt have long enough hair, cause they have to have reaallllllllllllllllllly long hair. So, we had hand towels on our head for pretend long tresses. When she comes next time, I will have princess stuff at the ready for us. Have already popped a couple of items in her lego box I have found for our next round of fairy land. Big sigh....and then they grow up.

I am back! LOL Not that I have really been gone. I gotta went into my "winter cocoon" after the Holidays. Maybe you take spells like that too? When you just kinda burrow in and arent as social as usual. Nothing is actually wrong, you just feel kinda wonky for a bit. Anyways, that spell is over. I wasnt in bed with the covers over my head the entire time! Been spending quite a bit of time in my playhouse. Here are some pics of the lil quiltlets and table mats I have made since Christmas. My plan is to set up a clothes line in my booth to display some of the on. I have some of the old clothes pins without springs I am going to try to use. I use brass mini safety pins on the back for hangers. This makes it easy if someone wishes to use them as a table/or candle mat.

I made a total of 13 for starters. None hard, just fun stuff. I am moving on now to work on dolls I think. My booth in the antique mall is quite lacking in merchandise and I am working towards a spring craft and folk art show also. Will bounce about in my crafting and quilting. At least we never get bored eh?

I wanted to thank everyone who has sent me emails about my health. That is so sweet and appreciated. I am off chemo now, so yay for that. Just take everything a day at a time.

~The merriest of Christmas to you and your's~

Mark and Angela

Winter storms are hitting so many areas, I thought this postcard covered it all! The girl has snow falling but is carrying an umbrella. :o) Hope everyone is safe and warm. We are having sunshine most days and I so appreciate it. Tuesday was the worst day this week and of course the day I was mucking about. I have been working on gifties hit and miss. Completed 3 today. One more very important one to complete, it is started though. Also finishing up a short chemo round. Last treatment is next week, so Merry Christmas to me! Is it too early to be making cookies for Christmas? I thought maybe so, but hear of others doing it now. We have many tins to put them in, but didnt want them to go stale and yucky. My goal this weekend is to make some candy for Mark to share at work and us to take about with us. I know the candy will be fine, but still wondering about the cookies. If anything is to be made, it must be by Monday night. Tuesday is "yucky day". And the rest of the week will be pretty much shot. Appreciate any thoughts on this. My Christmas card supplies are sitting here looking at me. I honestly think I will set them aside for next year. Had high hopes of making some cute scrapbooky looking ones, but just didnt make it. At this late date, I am thinking a hug and kiss to all those in the family and an email to everyone else! :o)

No peeking allowed! LOL All of my friends and family are "peekers". I cannot post my current projects since I am wearing an elf hat these days. They are all smart girlies and would start talking amongest themselves. I can only imagine the chatter. :o So I am taking pics to post after the holidays! Do you have "peekers" in your lives too? How do you hide your projects and keep your secrets? I am always hiding things when we think we hear car doors slam. I always want to give the gift as sooooon as it is completed. Just cannot wait til the occassion! Good thing I am being last minute this year or I would probably have nothing to give. Even Mark is making presents this year. If you had looked at my blog yesterday or today, well it had been hacked or something! I have no idea what that was on it. And it made my page all wonky to boot! Changed my passwords and reported it. Sheesh!

I love buttons. And sure hope the person receiving this pillow does also. The center is a ecru wool star. I stitched it down with pearl cotton and then overlapped the offwhite buttons all around. Sewed them on with the same pearl cotton, knotting every other button "just in case". I worked out of my scrap stash for the scrappy block. The finished pillow is 10-inches. I was asked how I painted the snowman spoons. First I bent them. If they are going to break, I want to know BEFORE I paint them! Using acrylic paints I basecoated 2 light coats. Gave them a mist of acrylic sealer to hold the paint on. Then completed the painting. Gave them a nice full coat of acrylic sealer to finish them. You can purchase spoons of all sizes, singly at dollar stores. The ones I used were mismatched, antique silver ones. But the new ones paint up nice also. I have painted folkart scenes on these also and they come out pretty cute. Here is a closeup of the snowmen.

Here is the quilted scrappy square in square mini.

Holiday photographs of the house. The grapevine tree is ususally in my playhouse aka studio. We opted this year to bring it as our Christmas tree in leu of a "real" tree. Mark said he would decorate it and promised to use only a few favorites. Well, all I can say is he has alot of favorites! The lights barely show on it cause it is so full of ornies! But he did it and well pleased with his handiwork. The tabletop tree has my painted spoons. The little ones are vintage ice cream spoons. Prob a crime to paint them, but I did it anways. The larger ones are mismatched silver spoons I found along the way to paint on. I would like to find a few more and paint St. Nicks on them. The paper mache boxes are my Christmas gift from Michelle last year. It has turned very cold here but no snow. Mark hung lights outside and about froze. I havent sewn or crafted for a few days, but will get into it this week. I finished my square in the square mini and a couple other projects last week. The hand quilted on the wall hanging about did my poor thumb in! It is still and gnarly and swollen. I am getting old it is a fact. We posted new swaps at Backporch Friends. Scrap Bag Swap and a Pincushion Exchange. You must be a member of the yahoo group to play. More swaps are in the works for 2007.