Saturday, December 18, 2010

Ain't It Sweet?

I actually have gotten a few things done in the past week or so. Here's proof...

I made a sweet little cupcake pin cushion from Pieceful Designs (www.piecefuldesigns.com) called "With a Cherry on Top." I used embroidery and beads to decorate it.
I also made eight little picture holders called "Wee Memories" from the "Quilting Arts Gifts Holiday 2010" issue. I followed directions in an article by Melanie Testa. Melanie suggests that we "tuck little photos of memorable moments inside." These little gems turn out to be about the size of a match book cover. Each will hold two small pictures. I think they'd be really nice to tuck away in a purse or pocket to pull out whenever I might need a pick-me-up.
No, Lisa Kudrow and Patricia Clarkson are not my close friends. I don't have MY "memorable moments" cropped to the proper size yet!
I've made some "Stack and Whack" Christmas cookies. One batch started as Christmas tree cookies; the other batch started as reindeer cookies.

I've also been busy looking through my new book by Jane Dunnewold. Did I mention I get to take a class from her in January?
It seems I also spend quite a bit of time observing the birds in my yard; I sure enjoy that. We've had some pretty nasty weather here in southern Indiana this past week. First, we had snow; then we had ice on top of that. I recently purchased a bird bath heater to keep the bird bath water from freezing. Since then my birds have a virtual bird spa in my back yard. I took this picture of a couple of birds enjoying the "spa" this afternoon. (Notice the water that has "slopped" over the edge from the little bird on the left. The one on the right was just venturing in.)
Other birds spent their afternoon eating at the "buffet" and...
slipping on the ice!

11 comments:

Melly Testa said...

So glad to see you made some Wee Memory holders! I am going to post this on my Inspired to Quilt facebook fan page! Yeah! They look great and I am happy you decided to make them!

Anonymous said...

You have been busy..they all look great. Love your stack and whack cookies.

Jane LaFazio said...

love the wee memory holders of Melly. You may recall, she put MY photo in hers! :-) love all the projects and the sweet bird photos.

Lyric said...

I love the memory holders (and the cupcake!)
I hope you have a very blessed Christmas full of friends and family and joy!

Karoda said...

Hi Beth, the exercises in Finding Your Own Visual Language are becoming creative staples. I'm taking the workshop with Jane on screen printing am I'm pretty darn excited about it breaking my winter rut.

Anonymous said...

Hi- small world. I had checked out your blog this morning because of the Wee Memories linked from Melanie. The Wee memories are very cute- I will have to make some too.

I have posted the link to Melanie's pinbook tutoril on my blog as a reply to your comment.

I love the little birds you photographed- do you know what the little black and white on is?

I also love the stack-and-whack cookies. What a great idea.

I hope you have a lovely Christmas

Robin Walston said...

And you say you don't get anything done. Hah! The cupcake is adorable and the little wee memory holders are cute.

Quilter Beth said...

Marshaleith...I did find the pin book tutorial through the link you sent me. It definitely is a small world. I enjoyed making the "memory holders" so much I thought I might like to make a pin book too. Thanks for the link. I don't know what kind of bird the black and white one is.

Also, thanks to you all for the kind words.

Quilter Beth said...

My sister did a little research and has told me the little black and white bird is a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.

Laura McGrath said...

Hi Beth, you've been so busy! The cupcake pincushion is just adorable. I've been waiting to see if you are going to post any pictures of your dyeing experiments--did you take the plunge yet??

k.somerville said...

Oh just look at that fat little gnatcatcher. I love him! I'm also in love with that kickass pin cushion.