A Few of My Favorite Things.............

I have a new favorite thing this year. My sister is
a talented pianist and has played around the world accompanying the local high school choral groups. She has played several times at the White House during the Clinton and Bush years. She has made many trips to Vienna and has just returned home after being snowed in for a day. She said it was absolutely beautiful. They all went shopping down in the Village Christkindlmarkt and she bought me my new favorite thing--it is a wooden Christmas tree that is also a music box. My Christmas china is the


Christmas tree pattern by Cuthbertson
so I thought the perfect spot for the
tree was on the kitchen table. Below is
a story book from the Bush years . This
was also a gift from my sister when she
performed at the White House.





















The little Noel train was at home when
I was growing up. The Mr. and Mrs. Claus
kissing and the little girl bell are gifts given
to us by our next door neighbor who has
since passed away.












The Mr. and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers are from Hallmark and are probably at least 30 years old.









The cup with the note and tea bag were given to me by
a special friend the year before she died. I place it on the
table each year with the book - A Cup of Christmas Tea.

The table set with the Christmas china and
a pineapple pattern table cloth that I crocheted.

I placed some of my Santa ornaments and tatted snow flakes
on this tree in the bay window in the kitchen.















Clare Becky, always gets dressed in her Christmas dress and gets her special place at the
table. Our children say that I love her more
than I love them. Ha!

I keep my Santa cabinet out all year long because I like the spirit of Christmas all year long. To the right of the cabinet on the wall you can see my Christmas wall-hanging quilt. To the left of the cabinet, in the hall, you can see some of my L&L angels that I have cross stitched.


The snowman, three Santa's, and the winter scene carved in a nut shell were done by Jerry, the husband on my long-time internet friend, Kathi. They will always be some of my favorite things--they are special!

I cross stitched the Nativity on the candle stand.
The stand was made by an elderly man and I
was lucky to be able to get one before he
passed away. I love my candle--a gift from a
long-time internet friend, Kathi.

Another Nativity that I cross stitched and it is over the mantle and I have part of my angel collection sitting below it.

Now, it Christmas can come! This little paper mobile was bought in the 1960's before our son
was born. It always hangs here between the kitchen and den. One year we had trouble finding it. You know how you put things away where you will know where to find them. Well, we looked and looked and our son said Christmas could not come until we found. Thank goodness it was found just where we had put it. Ha!

Knitted Shawl

I had been looking at this pattern on line for a while and could not decide if I wanted to try it or not. I had some left over yarn and finally made the decision to plunge into it. You can find the pattern by going to Google and searching for Traveling Woman Shawl. There is also a free spread sheet to download and print. Boy! That spread sheet is wonderful--you check off the rows as you finish and you know if you have the correct number of stitches. This is not a difficult pattern, you just have to be sure to keep the correct number of stitch. This thread was too soft and did not hold the points when I blocked it. You will see this pattern done in some wonderful yarn. Good luck if you decide to try it. I had my friend, Naydine, to model it a couple of different ways. The view below can be moved off the shoulders and be more of a cowl.

Bye, Baby Bunting........

The popular thing today is..swaddling the baby. I went on the internet searching for buntings or cocoons. There are all kinds of patterns...knit and crochet free that you can download. The pattern I chose is from Bernat. The pattern is shown in stripes but when I went to Michael's, I saw this variegated yarn that I like. The girl that helped me is expecting her first baby in January and she really liked this yarn. I thought it turned out pretty.








I like to give receiving blankets
as a gift and the mother's have said
they have been perfect for swaddling.
I usually buy the blankets at
Target--I found they have a great
selection. I add a crochet edge to
the blanket to fancy them up a bit.
I try to keep some for girls
and some for boys on hand because they make
an inexpensive and useful gift.

My Try at Making Window Stars

I saw the beautiful, colorful stars that my internet friend made. Before I ordered the colored kite paper, I wanted to try my hand with some copy paper. I thought it came out pretty good and I placed it in the bedroom window. If you are interested in making some, go to The County Blossom blog--her link is on the left side of my blog under Favorite Places to Visit. She has really good instructions and where to order the papers. Have fun!

Knitting

I have been busy knitting prayers shawls for our church ministry. Before I started knitting them, I did not realize all the prayers and love that go into each shawl. Prayers are begun when the yarn is purchased and then as you start to knit and as you knit. We make the shawls and they are given to the person without them knowing who made it and the person making them does not know who receives them. An internet friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer and had surgery. Before she started chemo, the prayer ministry mailed her one. She said she cried when she got it in the mail and took it to her chemo treatment. They nurses remarked about it and she told about it being mailed from a prayer ministry in North Carolina.
I am not showing pictures of the shawls but the above picture is a pair of wrist warmers or fingerless gloves that I knitted for our daughter-in-law. I did not do a thumb and have done these for her to see if they fit. She is tiny and I tried to make the pattern smaller. You can find the pattern on line here.
Love,
Marie

Decorating for Fall

This is a cross stitch pillow that I made. I have patterns for one for each month.

Out kitchen table decorated with a Hallmark pumpkin that I had bought when the kids were little. It is still holding together enough to still use it. The other little pumkins and decorations were gifts from friend.

These jack-o-laterns are made from some gourds that we grew a few years ago. I placed them in my grandmother's dough board.

This is one of the boxes that I am fixing to go on the front porch rails. I still have some more arranging to do when I get them placed out front. I love the pumkins and they were a find at Dollar General last year. We have a new Dollar General near by and I hope to get there to see what they have neat for this year.

A fellow blogger, Faye, Behind My Picket Fence, had some of the wooden box Jack-o-lanterns

for sale last year. I loved them and asked her if she would mind if I made some and she gave me permission because she said the postage would have been expensive. We went to a friend's house that has a work shop and they had the wood stacked up. We had a great morning of cutting, painting, eating, and fellowship. We didn't make them to sale but just for us to enjoy. Thank you, Faye!

I wish everyone a great Fall!

Love,

Marie

Where did the summer go?????????

It was so hot here in the South so we spent most of the time indoors working on projects, reading, or watching movies. Below are some of the dishcloths, dishtowel, and pot holders I made. I found my patterns by going to Google and putting in "free dishcloth patterns".

Below is a pillow that I say was done by a "village". My husband and I need help when we go out because of our wheelchairs. So our friends were involved in getting this pillow together. One of friends had a yard sale at their church and there were crochet pieces and doilies there. Celeste knew that I loved things like that so she got them for me. I thought this collar was so pretty and decided to make it into a pillow for one of my friends birthday. Last week we got together with two other couples and went out to celebrate a birthday and our 49th wedding anniversary. After we finished eating, we all went to Hancock's Fabrics to look for material to make the pillow. Here are all six of us in Hancock's looking all over for what was needed. My friend, Naydine, always has a sewing machine up and she was going to sew it together for me. My husband kept telling me that he had found just the pillow form that we needed and I told him that was not what we were going to use--we planned just to stuff it. Well, after Celeste found the material, my husband continued to mumble that he knew the pillow form was just the thing. To please him, we went to look and guess what--it was the perfect thing!!!!!!!!!!! My friend, Naydine sewed the pillow together except for one side and then we put the pillow form in and I whipped stitched it together. I had a jar of old buttons that I bought at a yard sale years and years ago. I placed them down on the lower corners and then tacked the collar in place. My friend, Nova, that received the pillow for her birthday was thrilled by the pillow and the story behind it.

Below is a twelve week project. I have made several of these tablecloths and the pattern is easy. The only problem is that when you get way out on the rounds, it takes a long time to do just one round. If you make a mistake and have to unravel it, there is probably 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours of work lost. I got this finished on Saturday and I think this will be the last one. I don't know what my next project is going to be except to do some prayer shawls for the ministry at our church.

Love,

Marie

Backyard Scene

We had been having temperatures in the 90's with heat index up to 110 here in the South. Last week we finally had a few days of more comfortable days heat wize and with less humidity. I took advantage of this by having my lunch on our screen porch. I love it out there where I can enjoy our flowers and listen to the birds sing. As I was eating my lunch, I noticed the butterflies on our butteryfly bushes. They were really enjoying their lunch too. After lunch I went out to try to capture the beauty. Of course, as I was trying to take pictures, they would fly from flower to flower and be upside down or their beautiful wings turned away from me. I wish I had gotten a wing spread of the black butterfly--it was beautiful!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures that I was able to get.

Love,

Marie

Peach Tart

My cousin went to the Sand Hills of NC last week and brought back some peaches. I froze some and then we have had them cut up on cereal each morning. I decided to make this tart. Believe me, it is easy or I could not have done it. It worked out good for me because it was done in layers. I cooked the crust and rested while it cooled. Then I made the cream cheese mixture and put it on the crust. I placed it in the refrigerator to set up while I rested some more. Then I did the glaze. I sliced just enough peaches to make a layer and then poured the glaze on top. I did not cut it for about 3 to 4 hours. I think it is right pretty, if I must say so myself! Ha! It sure was good.

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup cold butter, cut up
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
1 pkg (3oz.) Jello-O Peach Flavor Gelatin
1/2 cup water
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1 Tbsp. peach marmalade
1 cup thawed Cool Whip topping
peaches, peeled and thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS

HEAT oven to 350 degrees F.

MIX flour and brown sugar in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, knead mixture well to form dough. Press onto bottom and up sides of 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown; cool completely.

MEANWHILE, bring 1/2 cup granulated sugar, conrstarch, gelatin mix and water to boil in saucepan, stirring occasionally, cook and stir 2 minutes. Cool 20 minutes.

BEAT cream cheese, remaining granulated sugar and marmalade in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Whisk in Cool Whip; spread onto crust. Top with peaches and gelatin glaze. Refrigerate 3 hours or until chilled. Remove tart from pan before serving.

I hope you enjoy it!
Love,
Marie

For My Love of Quilts....

I love quilts and collect them. I wish I was physically able to make quilts, but I am not. These quilts were placed on the rungs of a ladder that a friend made just for me to display quilts. Would you believe, my neighbor did not want these quilts and thought they were dirty and she was going to throw them away. Her aunt had died and she was cleaning out her house. I told her not to dare throw them away--to me they are beautiful! There is a lot of time and love worked into these quilts. I also have a collection of quilt tops my grandmother made and never got them quilted. I have these packed away. I guess I should have them finished.

This is the first quilt I made and this was done in

the 1960's. I did the stamped on cross stitch and

then a group of ladies guilted it one summer for

me at The Sword of Peace, a local out-door drama.

They had it set up as a demonstation as the people came for the drama each night.

Then I did this candlewick spread in the 1970's. I bleached muslin, cut it into large squares, and then copied my pattern onto each square. When I had finished the squares, I had them sewn together. I had planned to do a crochet edge around it and never did. I went to the International Quilt Show in Greensboro in the mid 1990's and met a lady that did long-arm quilting and she took it to Virginia and quilted it for me. I love the way it turned out.

My yo-yo quilt is done in shades of pink and greens. I designed it to resemble Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt.

The Catheral Window Quilt. It is done with un-bleached muslin from JoAnn's. My daughter went with me to a local quilt shop and we picked out this fabric of flowers. I did the whole quilt with just this one fabric and I think it came out beautiful, if I must say. Ha! This will be my daughter's quilt when I am through enjoying it.

This a a baby quilt

that I did to go in my

Grandmother's Box. I

bought the panel at Hobby Lobby. I sewed a border on it and did a binding. I quilted each block and then on the border, I drew letters of the alphabet and quilted them. I scanned some of the fabric and then designed this label in my PSP and placed it on the

back of the quilt.

I started paper piece quilting. This is my first attempt. I made these crazy patch squares and then I embroidered stitches on the seams. I made these into pillowcases to use on the backs of the rockers on our front porch.

Below is a Hunter's Star square that I did by paper piecing. I did some others and made them into throw pillows.

This is a paper piece log cabin block that I made into a Christmas wall hanging. Below is the label I created for it.

I hope you have enjoyed viewing my quilts.

Love,

Marie

I am now a published author!

I had been looking for a while about getting my blog published into a book. I would look and then not be sure if it was worth the money or not. Well a fellow blogger, Katy at County Blossom, shared her book published from her blog. If you have never visited her blog, you should! So, I made the decision to order one done of mine and I placed the order on July 5, 2010. My husband announced this morning that I had a book in the mail and I thought it was a Miss Julia book that I had ordered. He opened it up and yelled that it was my blog book--boy was that fast! If you are interested in publishing your creativity, go to Blog2Print and check it out!

The cover of the book is basically what you see first as you visit my blog.

Our son is the person that encouraged me to start a blog. He had helped me around 1997 to get started with the computer and I develped a website on Geocities with the same title, Marie's Home and Hobbies. Geocities was ending their free websites last year, so with the help of my son, while he was home from CA on vacation, I began this blog. Below is the dedication to him in the book.

Below are a couple of pages from the book to give you an idea of what to expect. I had mine done to inclue all comments because they meant so much to me.

Above, show some of my husband's wonderful flowers. Below is a trip we took to Mt Airy and Mayberry during the Fall when the leaves were at their peak.

Good Luck with your book if you decide to do it. It was a bit pricy doing it hardback, but I think it is worth it.

Love,

Marie