Merry Christmas to all!

Here are Quinn & Cullen with their brand new Red Ryder BB guns.  They're supposed to be posing for a poster and weren't supposed to smile or laugh - which of course made them want too.

They were given the guns by Grandpa and a detailed lecture on gun safety starting with "Thou shalt not shoot thy brother, no matter how much he annoys thee!"

The guns are, of course, locked up unless there is an adult with them.

And I just had to take a picture of their dad, Max, in his awesome Dr. Who scarf that his soon to be stepdaughter, Kylie (red Mrs. Santa suit) knit for him.

Kelly, Jake and Zoie were here too as well as my sister Nancy.

Brian and Shannon and their 4 come tomorrow.

What a great Christmas!

Now for a little nap and then some quiet stitching.

Wishing you and your the best of holidays.

Big House tutorial -

This is Block # 1 of Pine Tree Ridge.  

As most of you know by now, I really like House Blocks  - and quite often I use large house blocks.

This tutorial focuses on making the pattern pieces, windows and doors and then getting the block to lay flat without any wrinkles in the background.

Usually we offer a discount on the pattern or kit only the day the tutorial is posted but we had trouble with the link in our email so it went out late.  (Have we mentioned that we're a lot better with quilts than with computers?)  

Anyway, since the email went out late yesterday we extended the sale on Pine Tree Ridge through today.

Hope you enjoy the tutorial and the sale.  :)

Mark Dunn - the Father of our company

and a general all around wonderful  person.

It has been an honor and privilege to work with and for him all of these years.

To read more about him click here.

Happy Holidays….

It was a busy, busy weekend.

First, due to the weather, Cullen and Quinn were here for 3 days instead of their usual 2 - that always makes it exciting.  Max brought them up Thursday night after he got off of work so I wouldn't have to try to drive to Liberty in the sleet and snow Friday.

We were going to go cut our tree (we grow our own Charlie Brown Christmas Trees just for us - here at the farm) on Saturday but it was simply too cold.

We decided to wait until after our trip to Uncle Brian's on Sunday.  If you wonder why the tree only has lights on it (and no decorations) and Cullen and Quinn, Jake and Zoie aren't in the picture, it's because Grandma was a bit tired and she forgot to take pictures.  Aah well.  But the boys definitely stated they wanted to be here to help get the tree and lots of memories were made.

The decorations will go on slowly this week.

This is my 3 Cabins Quilt.  It's part of my Happy Holidays You Tube thingy - not a tutorial - just a message.

From our House to Yours - Happy Holidays.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like ………..

Christmas -----

Outside . . .

and inside.

I decided to hang Folk Art Favorites in the foyer this year.  It's not strictly a Christmas quilt but it's rich colors and imagery just said Christmas to me right now.  It was designed by me and my friend Sandy Klop, now known as Moda's American Jane.  And the books are on special this month.   

And Jake's Rudolph quilt is on the back of my quilting chair.  It's in the book Up on the Rooftop.

(And for some reason the book pages come up really slowly - but they do come up.) 

So slowly but surely the house starts looking like Christmas and winter.

Only about a week and a half ago, this is what the living room looked like - not for long - but periodically through the day.

(Need I say it was deer season and the girls made it safely through again this year.)

Which made me think of showing you this.  This is Block #1 of the 2014 Mystery Quilt in progress - parts still missing.  I don't think showing you just this will spoil the Mystery.  The quilt is called "Fall Festival" so that and the pumpkin should give you a hint.  

If you're in the club now, you're automatically signed up for next year so you don't miss a single block. If you don't have time right now to do another BOM, please email Tori at janpatekquilts@yahoo.com and let her know so we can open your slot for someone else.  We usually have a waiting list.

Tori has asked me to say that if anyone is missing a block to please let her know now.  We're shipping out the end of 2013 and would like to get everyone caught up.

We also filmed another tutorial last Friday so it should be going up sometime in the near future.  

Busy, busy, busy.

Saturday we go cut a Christmas tree - it's coming!