A teeny bit of progress

Not sure if this is actually progress....or something more suited for the nearest garbage receptacle.  At this point in the process I wonder why I'm even attempting to make something that looks even remotely like the original.  As you can see, this is the photo I'm working from...

....and this is the way it looks at the moment...

Dog's breakfast?  

Maybe.

Another anonymous quote..."The things you take for granted someone else is praying for"

A new beginning

You can never say that I'm not willing to try new things - or at least new applications for things I already do.  I love crazy quilting (imagine that!!) and I love old barns....so.....why not combine the two?  Not at all sure if the concept will work, but here you can see the beginning....

Is it going to turn out - or is it the beginning of the end??

Another anonymous quote..."Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, and brave enough to ask for it"

Done!!!

I suppose I shouldn't tell you that I have all of these done for my Christmas box for next year....that wouldn't be nice would it?  Methinks I can feel the hatred for starting so soon flowing in my direction already!  So....I won't tell you that they're for Christmas and just tell you that I finished a whole funch (hah - I was going to type 'bunch' and it came out 'funch'....just as my brain was wondering what you would call a whole lot of mittens.  Funch it is!).  Wonder if I should submit my new word to Funk & Wagnall's??

Ten for women and six for men

Pattern can be found HERE.  

NOTE:  I enlarged the pattern to make the mens

Another quote from an anonymous source..."Friendship isn't about who you've known the longest, it's about who walked in to your life, said "I'm here for you", and proved it"

Crochet? Who knew?

My sit-in-front-of-the-tv project for the past few weeks has been to create an afghan for a wedding gift that is upcoming in June.  There's no particular pattern....I just repeated the same 6 rows for each colour and then cobbled together a border.  It's quite large - might even cover a double bed if that's what they choose to do with it.

It's hard to get a picture of something that big - and it's dull here today so pictures are not the best quality.

A close-up showing the pattern and the 

edging.

Another anonymous sourced quote..."When thinking about life, remember this:  no amount of guilt can change the past, and no amount of anxiety can change the future"

Excitement reigns at Chez Magpie!

Many of you will remember when I showed you the photo of one of my barn landscapes....this one....

It was only my second attempt at this art form and I was surprised when my friend wanted to take it, along with the other one I just finished, to the local quilt guild meeting to show the members.  She was hopeful that someone might want to commission me to make more.  She wondered if I would like to set a price on this one (the other one is spoken for) and I gave her a number that I thought was quite steep.  Well, right now I'm bouncing off the walls because it  SOLD!!!!  Even more exciting is that the guild itself is buying it and will be using it as one of their raffle prizes at their next quilt show being held in 2019.  I am blown away and still can't quite believe it!!  

And, just to prove that something else is happening here at Chez Magpie....the pile of mittens is growing!

The pair on the left is for a man and the rest are all for women.  I still have to add the buttons for additional pizzaz on each one.

Planning ahead?

I have been enjoying making a bunch of these....

Men's on the left and a women's pair on the right.  They're made from recycled sweaters and lined with recycled velour housecoats.  Really fun to make and cheap too!  They will be going in the Christmas box for next year (at least 14 pairs!!).  Will show you a picture once I have them all finished.  The pattern is from HERE  (with some adjustments by me).  

And just for the sheer cuteness factor, have a look at this....

Today the quote is from Abraham Maslow...."In any given moment we have two options: To step forward into growth or to step back into safety"

Ask....

....and you will receive!

(mainly because I have nothing else!!)

A couple of people have asked to see my button collection so here you go....

Sorry about the glare!

My buttons are guarded by 'Elyron' my sewing room dragon, who oversees all that I do.  The shelf they're on runs almost the entire length of one wall of my room.

The reason for all this downsizing of buttons was not only to get rid of w-a-y too many, but also to make room for this....

I received this wonderful hand-made magpie for Christmas and needed a place to put him/her.  Getting rid of four of my button jars gave me just enough space to display my magpie.  A win/win!

Another quote from an anonymous source.."Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around"

14 + 1 - (4 +1) = ?

I'm a day late in posting this AND (maybe worse!) I don't have any pictures for you.  You DON'T want to see my cleaning/purging efforts in my sewing room which is what's been happening behind the scenes here at Chez Magpie.

Many of you will remember my true confession earlier of having FAR to many buttons for any person in this world.  Fourteen (large!) jars AND a nearly full shoe box (see what I mean?  Too many!).  So....I've been spending my evenings sorting through them and....drumroll.....I am now down to *only* 10 jars! 

Ten jars that look like this....

The only problem is that, although my plan was to get RID of the empty jars, they have now been snatched up by my DH for use in the kitchen.  Drat - I almost had them out the door.....

This is another quote from an anonymous source..."The quieter you become, the more you can hear"