I've been working on this quilt FOREVER.  Seven years.  I wanted to have it finished by the end of '06, but I sort of forgot that the end of '06, the whole final quarter of it, had to be spent making holiday product. 

So that didn't happen, but I'm now fantasizing about my next seven-year-long quilting adventure, and that means I need to finally finish quilting these hearts. 

I think I'll be really precious about it and try to be finished by Valentine's Day.  You know, twee as can be.

 My January partner for the Quilt Block Swap was the magnificent Diane of the CraftyPod, the coolest podcast ever!  And how great are these?

The ongoing swap is really yielding me a collection of really cute, traditional and slightly girly blocks, which I'm thinking of alternating with some stamped Sunbonnet Sue blocks I picked up on sale - only in hot pinkwork instead of redwork

My blocks to Diane went out today, so I'll post those next week so as not to spoil the surprise…. 

Maybe because of my love for all things Marie Claire Idees-ish, I wanted to integrate some embroidery into patch work in an unconventional way.  Normally, I embroider a whole design on some plain fabric,  and frame it with some print or other, but I really wanted to mix it up, and really integrate the embroidery into the design.

I love the pillow I just made, because the embroidery functions like a print, visually, but with so much more texture.

If you follow the links below my little mosaic, you'll find some tips on how to make one for yourself.  I'll grant that it's a few pics shy of a proper tutorial, but you should definitely get this gist… provided you want the gist, haha! 

1. start with, 2. crop with a pen, 3. Photo 15, 4. pillow finished

Remember my cute earrings from Totinette?

Get your own pair here.

I was going to post the exciting news that a forum had been added to the Brocante Home, but look what Alison has gone and done!

Thank you so much to my Heroine of Housekeeping!

I picked up this pitcher the Thursday before Christmas, but, for the usual reasons, didn't get a chance to photograph it till just now.  My apologies - this was a great find.

Granted, it set me back ten whole bucks, but that's what I get for living and shopping in one of the most chichi areas in the country, and refusing to do much driving outside of it.   And I am going to USE this bad boy, chickens.  I don't mind admitting it - Hambone and Jennicakes love cocktail hour.

The most fun thing about this pitcher are the recipes : Martinis for 4 or 8, Manhattans for 4 or 8, (nothing new there) and Highland Flings for 4 or 8.

Um, Highland WHATS?

Why have I never heard of those?  I thought I'd tasted everything?  And is it me, or are Scotch, vermouth, and lemon juice not exactly a traditional Scottish recipe?

No matter.  I love this pitcher.  I can't wait to try it out. 

At Hambone's suggestion, we spent much of New Year's Eve cleaning the kitchen(???).  We made wonderful progress, in spite of the fact that I am a terrible straggler.

It has become abundantly clear, for example, that if I'm to have the clean kitchen of my dreams, my apron collection can no longer be stored in a shapeless pile next to the washing machine.

Which leaves me with way more ironing than I want to do…