Christmas in July Swap & Birthday Presents

Today is CHRISTMAS IN JULY! What a fun way to start the day, opening presents. My partner was Sharon over at Quilting With A Marmalade Cat. These are my Christmas in July presents from Sharon. Starting with my card on top

From there we move on to the delightful quilted bag that held all my goodies. The pockets held more surprises.

We have patterns, doll and quilt, tiny Claus note cards, coffee from a NY coffee shop, buttons (I love buttons), a recipe for pear salad, a flag rubber stamp, tapestry patch, Mary Engelbreit journal, notepad and Kleenex, a fat quarter in turquoise blue (my favorite color), a fabric panel with Christmas labels, Christmas Kleenex and a delightful hand stitched Christmas ornament. I have a small tree in my sewing room and the ornament will reside there until the big tree comes out in December. The bag is nice and large and will hold traveling stitching very well.

Everything is great! It was a fun swap to prepare for and just as much fun to receive. Thank you Sharon!

Monday was my birthday. I received a box from my secret stitcher. Another fun surprise.

A piece of 28 ct. linen, a fat quarter with cute sheep, an awesome thread winder - I don't have any of these so I can't wait to use it, a cute note pad, stitcher's lotion, a Kit & Bixby 'Thankful Wool' pattern and the cutest pin cushion fit into a silicon cupcake liner with over one stitching of my initials with tiny flowers and an even tinier bee. Thank you secret stitcher.



Here we are celebrating my birthday. It was a gorgeous day with perfect weather, good food and the wonderful company of family.




.........and there goes Evan, off to collect lightening bugs

What a great birthday week.

(Hint: click on the small pictures if you want to see them larger)
Marsha

This past weekend I went to an all day stitch-in with the Tiara group. I don't get to stitch with them often so it was a nice change to sit and stitch all day. We had lunch at Max & Erma's and then right back to the clubhouse to stitch some more. A shout out to Pam for hosting us. Here are some of the finishes

Pam stitched this Quaker and the cat. Isn't it great?! She's working on Mary Wigham and Spring Ritual. She loves those quakers.

Look at this awesome Santa Claus. It's even more impressive in person. She plans to have it done by Christmas.

And here are a couple more.







With My Needle pieces, done by Lyn. A Just Nan piece (in pink) by Rita. I don't know who did the quilt piece or who it's by but it's beautiful.


I keep writing that I'll show my WIP. I finally took pictures yesterday. Sorry they aren't the greatest. The main piece/s I'm working on are for my class in July. This is what it will look like when completed

It is slow going. Lots of over one. Here is some progress.
We don't have to have it all complete. Once we put the button box together, we'll know how to put the toy chest together. It will be really nice when done. Other projects I am working on are Sarah Owens

From Sea to Shining Sea
Beneath the Sunlit Sky







And when I need some easy stitching, Joyful Summer. If you're familiar with this pattern you can see the big mistake, but I refuse to rip out that huge green leaf at the bottom. I'll fudge the chart a little later. I love the colors in this one.

Two more days and I can share the Christmas in July swap. I can't wait to open the package sent by Sharon over at Quilting With A Marmalade Cat.

Today's my birthday so it's particularly hard not to open it.
Marsha

The blueberry house that Rich built is doing a great job of keeping the birds out. Only 3 bushes out of 9 are ripening so far, which is normal. We have two different kinds necessary for good pollination. There are some HUGE blueberries. We celebrated Father's day a week early with a rained out picnic. Our dessert was 'Blueberry Boy Bait' with ice cream and 'blueberry sauce' pictured below.

Next time I am going to try substituting cranberry juice for the orange juice in the sauce. The recipes are here Blueberry Boy Bait - All Recipes and here Blueberry Sauce - All Recipes.

Here is another sneak peak of my Christmas in July swap. Just another week and I can mail it off to my partner. Hope she will like everything. What could it be?????

If you haven't heard, N e e d l e p r i n t is offering free downloads of an Ackworth School sampler. The Mary Wigham sampler. Look in the right sidebar for the Mary Wigham sampler and click on it. It was charted by someone else without permission or license so the school is not receiving money to upkeep the collection of their samplers. Since they will not chart it as a Needleprint design for sale in shops, they have opted to have it available on the blog. It's free and being offered in 9 installments. There is a donation button on the download page to Ackworth. A $1 donation per page is suggested. Do yourself a favor and only make one larger donation, instead of $1 per week. (If you so desire, but really, your helping preserve in perpetuity, a real gem of a collection of needlework) Installment three should be up sometime today. I got my gratis linen of the month #6 from Vicki Clayton Hand Dyed Fibers and ordered her set of silks for Mary Wigham. I think they will be perfect for Mary.

I've been delaying those pictures of WIP long enough. I will show them later this week.

Keep stitching.

Marsha