I am so pleased to have one more quilt UFO finish before February's end. It is a doll's quilt. My mother had bought this flannel toile fabric for me and I made this little quilt from it. The entire quilt is made with flannel fabrics and it so cuddly-soft.
Here is a view of the hand quilting on the back of the quilt.
And, last but not least, the quilt label to really finish it off!
I love Susan Branch! I collect her cookbooks and have quite a few of them. A number of years ago, she brought out a quilt fabric collection and I never was able to find any of the fabrics. I just saw that she has once again designed a new collection while is coming out late spring. I also discovered that Fat Quarter Shop.com is already previewing this entire collection along with two adorable patterns. I pasted the 'What's New' page from Susan's website for you to see. Click on each picture to view it in a larger format which makes it easy to read. If you are not familiar with her site, I would highly recommend going there to see how beautiful it is!
My stitching list started this sampler as a SAL at the beginning of February. I am only just starting on mine and will have to work hard to try to catch up with them in the coming couple of weeks. Roberta is leading this one and is giving us easy assignments so I think I can be on track with them fairly quickly. I decided on off white farmer's linen and DMC 919.Whenever I do a historical sampler, I like to read a book that pertains to it, if possible. This is easy with such a sampler and I am reading "The Tale of Beatrix Potter" by Margaret Lane. This book was published three years after Beatrix Potter's death in 1943 and has been rereleased. Here is a wonderful excerpt from the introduction which the author wrote in her diary after visiting the widowed William Heelis in Sawrey:
" 'The imprint of her personality,' I wrote in my own diary that evening after my long hours with Mr. Heelis, 'was on every chair and table. Her clothes still hung behind the door, her geraniums trailed and bloomed along the window-sill, her muddles lay unsorted at one end of the table while he took his meals at the other, even a half-eaten bar of chocolate with her teeth-marks in it lay among the litter of letters on her writing-table.' "
This morning, my mother and step~father left for home again. They will actually arrive back in the States in the next hour. This day has flown by despite it being the first one I have had with some hours alone this month. 
This photo of our cat, Dagi, was taken yesterday. My husband put down his laptop for a minute and when he came back, the cat had curled up for a catnap on it. He is such a cutie!
It seems I have not had many finishes this month. Having visitors has meant not sitting and either stitching or quilting as much as normal. I did sit and talk to my mother while quilting this UFO though and can now happily say it is finished today. 
This pattern is called 'Pioneer Braids' and it was really a fun piece to sew together. I titled it 'Homespun Braids' because of the beautiful homespun fabrics I used for this piece. I accented the braids with the hand quilting which you cannot see so much in the photos so I took a photo of the back also.
For me, a quilt is not finished until it has a quilt label. I love making labels and do them with calligraphy which I learned to do when I was quite young and draw accents freehand. They really do finish off any project as well as serve to remind you when and where you made a quilt. 
I was teaching my mother how to make penny rugs and she choose to make a series of snowmen ornaments.
She decided that she wanted to use two of the ornaments sewn together to create a scissor fob. She collects snowmen. Here is the results.....
