mail call!

So I slipped into the post office yesterday afternoon to check our post office box and guess what I found???

A SURPRISE!!!

A package? For me??? Who could have sent it?

Hahaha! I've been expecting you, ma cherie! (Which is most appropriate, because my little package came from Calgary, AB, CANADA)! I got a package from Canada!! Well, Canada didn't really send it; it came from LEE in Canada!

It's a beeee-yooo-tiful fall-inspired mini quilt! And it really is quite charming.

I love the viney leaf pattern quilted in the borders! This makes me more inclined to get out my sewing machine and practice machine quilting. I love the things you can do with the machine and the look of it. But I'm a little ... afraid. And a LOT impatient!

And the title, "Fall View" is so appropriate, given all the wonderful colors that make this pretty topper!

Lee also sent me a little extra, "just because." !!! Isn't she *sew* sweet?!? It's a darling little zippered bag. I *love* zippered bags! :)

Lee, again and again, thank you! It's lovely and I love it!

Jour hereux!

:)

counting down . . .

Yesterday, my swap recipient, Sylvia, let me know that she'd received the fall table topper I did for her! Yay! I'm so impressed; I put it in the mail on Saturday, regular first class mail, and she received it on Tuesday. Way to go USPS! Considering Monday was a holiday, she got it the very next mail day. WOW! In retrospect, I'm really glad I didn't spent the extra $5 bucks and send it priority; I don't think she'd have gotten it any faster! Anyway, she was very sweet and she likes it!

So now the wait begins . . . I have a little feeling I *might* have guessed . . . but I don't know . . . all the completed swap quilts look so AWESOME on the flicker website! I'd be excited to receive any one of them! I hope it gets here before Thursday night, so I can take it to show & tell at the guild meeting.

I can't wait!

:)

and the drumroll please . . .

It is (finally) FINISHED!!!!

I was starting to get a little anxious with myself; I'm such a procrastinator and I know it. But last night, before nine o'clock, I stitched my last stitch, took my final pictures, wrote a little note, and tucked it into the envelope! I will feel much better when I've gotten it to the post office and it's out of my hands . . .

I was more confident playing around with the stitches on my machine for the applique part this time. I love the effects that it adds to the leaves and the acorns! I still hand quilted, so I could leave the stitches bigger and loopier; I wanted the quilting to have a more whimsical look. Well, like leaves floating down off the trees to the ground. :)

I was pleased with my tag on the back, too. Mostly because the name of the topper was inspired by our homesite, A-Corn Hill. All this picture shows is the name, my initials and the year, but I also used the blank space above to sign it (with the same pens we used for Joc's signature quilt at the wedding) and to put the occasion (Fall-Inspired Mini Quilt Swap).

Wanna know where it's going??? To ..... nope. It's a SECRET! But I will say that it's heading WEST! :) I hope my swap pal likes it!

We were to post on the flicker group when we'd sent it off. I noted that I needed to have deadlines imposed by higher powers on all my quilting projects; I'd have fewer UFOs!

Happy day!

:)