A Cross Stitch tip

I thought I'd share a tip for those of you who cross stitch using black linen or aida cloth.  Use one of the little lights you tap to turn on and off underneath as you stitch.  The light makes seeing the little holes easy!  I use it with all dark colors of linen or aida cloth.  In fact, the light is too bright so I taped Kleenex over the light to dim it a bit.

Here are some pieces I made.

I made this one around our 20th anniversary.  
We've been married 36 year now!

I made this one when my daughter was 3 months old.  

She's 34 yrs old now!

 

2026 Christmas Drawing

 Attention all clients!  I have a set of tools from Missouri Star Quilt Company I'd like to give away at the end of 2026.  Everyone who brings a quilt for longarming gets an entry, 1 entry per quilt brought during 2026. This is a high quality set of tools all stored away in a metal tool box.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Durham Charter Academy

 A few of you know I am the founder of the first Charter Public School in NC. I wanted to let you know the school has added high school and also changed the name to Durham Charter School. My school opened in 1997 with K-3rd grade... and now it's 28 years serving children K-12! They also built a new school building which houses grades K-12. You can click the photo below to check it out:

Christmas Rush is winding down

 It's been a busy couple of months for me what with all the quilts needing longarming before Christmas!  Here's a photo of one quilt for a client.  She chose the Bossa Nova pantograph for her quilt.  This is one of my favorite designs.

Cricut

 I had a couple days off from longarming so I spent the time using my Cricut cutting machine.  I love this thing!  I made several cards, including 20 Christmas cards I plan on sending out this year.  

If you are interested in buying a Cricut cutting machine, this pdf booklet has ALL you need to begin right away.  I used this booklet and it was very easy to follow and understand.  It's written by Jennifer Maker.  Click here to see her Cricut Coach Playbook.

And the inside of this card is below, it's so cute!

New WIP

 I spent some time this morning, Small Business Saturday, and bought some patterns from Etsy.  This is one of them, and I pulled fabrics from my stash to make it.  I hope to get some time during December to make it.  It's a pattern I found on the CottonBerryQuilts sales page and the pattern is called Pumpkin & Bloom Applique pattern.

Ode to Sewing Machines #49

  Many of you follow my "Ode to the Sewing Machine" posts.  We've all seen the ads on craigslist, ebay and elsewhere.  The clueless sellers give those of us who sew a belly laugh, or two!  

Just when I think I've made enough Ode to Sewing Machine posts, I see another "can't believe this one" and I have to share it with you. Here's installment #49!  

The 1st one isn't a sewing machine but I had to post it here.  My jaw dropped open when I saw this...

This is the only photo of the machine!

And another one, it looks like she didn't have the time to take a 
decent photo as well...this is the only photo of the machine!

A winning quilt

 I entered my quilt in the Hearts and Hands Guild quilt show this weekend and it won a 3rd place ribbon.  The quilt has 560 HSTs in it.