What's on the line?

If you live anywhere near Minnesota, you know that there are no leaves on the trees now and there is no green grass either. The trees are bare and the ground is covered with that white stuff called snow. Yesterday, there was freezing rain and ice! And winter hasn't even officially arrived yet!! I am so glad I took pictures for "What's on the line?" when the weather was nice. It would not be fun to trek out to the clothesline on these cold, snowy days!
This little quilt is another one from the series I designed in 2000 to celebrate the Millennium. Because November is usually a month to celebrate "giving thanks" here in the U.S. for Thanksgiving Day, one might think I should have had a big turkey on this quilt. However..... I like the idea of "counting blessings" and being thankful every day no matter where I am and so I wrote the little poem for this quilt. It's embroidered in black floss and then I just added some rosettes and little yo-yos with buttons for some extra detail. I hand-quilted the wallhanging and just folded backing fabric over for the binding. I like this little quilt and it's message. I have many blessings to count and am very thankful for them. It is hard to have one blessing mean more than another but I think having family and friends is one of the best. Without them even the blessings of home, food and such aren't quite as sweet as when they can be shared with family and friends. Or so it is in my book. :-)
This will be a busy week with preparation for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. My husband may be cooking the turkey that day but I'll be doing the pies and the rest of the goodies. In addition to preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday, I have some Christmas gifts I've been working on and once that turkey is baked and the clean-up is done, the Christmas tree is coming out and the decorating will start. I just love this time of the year. Got my Christmas carols playing in the background and I am singing along. :-)

I promised I'd show a little something I have been working on and here it is.........
This is the candlemat I made for my swap partner for the swap over at Michele's QuiltingGallery . My swap partner is a secret so I can't tell you her name. She does like 30's fabrics so I wonder if she will guess that this is going out to her?
I had so much fun designing the project for the swap and for my retreat friends. But what's been even more fun is seeing all the different variations of colors and fabrics that everyone is using. That's one of the fun things about quilting is how different one pattern can look when you change up the color or fabrics. If you'd like to see some of the variations just go here to the Flickr group and take a peek. I am looking forward to receiving a candlemat from my swap partner and can hardly wait to see what colors and fabrics she has used in it. Photo coming as soon as it arrives at my door! In the meantime, I am making more of these candlemats as gifts for some friends and family. I have to get out and do some shopping for candles to go along with the mats. That will come this Friday after the big Turkey day. :-)
Have a good Monday everyone!
Sandi