yes, I'm still here!

I know, I've been a bad blogger here!

But I do write the blog for Bear Patch, and that has been more of a priority lately!

So, I've neglected my little frayed edge account.

Today, Christmas Eve, I have some minutes available to update here!

First, I love this picture of my son-in-law, Ben, with Jack (left) and Ian (right).  They were visiting the Atlantic Ocean shoreline of North Carolina.  Baby Leo must have been napping.  It makes me so happy to see their happy faces!

Next, here's a big beautiful barn quilt hanging on my house.

Specially made by Jarry and Mary, my brother and sister-in-law.

They make quite a creative team!  I love it!

I got a new rug for my living room, after an unfortunate incident with some red wine on the old one.  I was really actually glad that happened, because I needed to replace it, anyway!

This turns out to be a good replacement.

And I've been sneaking in a little sewing, too, but not so very much.  I did make this contemporary Christmas wallhanging, called Shining Star, from a pattern by Sandy Gervais.  It's part of our Christmas display at Bear Patch for right now.

And here's my only other Christmas sewing, a runner called Crazy Christmas Trees.  It's one of the Cut Loose Press patterns and uses a special ruler called the Spiderweb.  I did a little tutorial on it last fall for a retreat group, and there were a lot of Crazy Christmas trees made that day!

I have been slowly working on some English paper piecing.  This is a block from Sue Daley's Round We Go block-of-the-month.  We're supposed to be making 4 each month, but I think I have made 8 now when I should have completed 16!  Oh well, I might be making a smaller version!  This block is a reminder of my recent trip to Kauai, with turtles, seaweed, bubbles and sunshine!

 This stack of fabric came home with me from Houston Quilt Market in October.  It's called barkcloth, a heavier fabric than our usual quilting cottons.  It's like the old curtains my grandma had, and usually had some large floral motifs.  Most of these prints are on a small to medium scale.  This fabric comes from a company called Ella Blue, and if you click on the link you can read a story about the designer and what inspired her.  I saw a quilt made from these with just a scrappy assortment.  Looking at them like this makes me realize I need to add in some lighter colors.