MS. PATTERNS AT YOUR SERVICE

From the northern reaches of Alberta comes a Christmas Sparkler to warm the heart! Janet at Mrs. Sew 'n Sew created this little beauty. As you can see, Janet added a second blue instead of red. It is very pretty. I hope this picture enlarges so you can better see the lovely fabrics Janet chose.

I am happy to see these little quilts beginning to trickle in. Are you making one? Please share it with us if you are.

Also, I can finally show you the wool pillow that I made for my friend Joan. Her birthday was in October and we had trouble connecting. Joan loves acorns and anything pertaining to fall, so I knew she would love this pillow. If it looks familiar to you, perhaps you saw the larger quilt version by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings, in the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, October 2008 edition. Yes, I can see that it could have used a little more stuffing. Dang.

Running errands today I stopped at the bank and went in the drive-through to deposit checks in my Patchalot Patterns account. After sending me my receipt the teller said, "Thank you Ms. Patterns". Isn't that funny? I keep chuckling over that.

It is storming here in Virginia Beach again. I cut my running around short and came back to my warm home. I lit a vanilla candle and am now I am headed into my sewing room to work on Christmas Sparklers. You know all my kids expect their own and I aim to please!

P.S. Do you want to add the little Sparkler block to your sidebar on your blog? I would love it if you did. That way more people will notice it and news will spread. Here is my method.

Save a copy of the block picture from by blog onto your computer. Open a posting page in your blog. Add the picture of the block in the center position. click on the picture and reduce the size so you have a nice little picture like mine. Click on the picture and the link icon to link it to my website. (http://www.patchalotpatterns.com/)

You may also add words, as I did. Center them as well.

Now SAVE the draft, DO NOT publish. Next, click on the tab above that says Edit Html. Click on the mouse to hi-light the whole page of HTML. Right click and copy.

Click on the tab above that says Layout. Open the list of gadgets and select the one that says HTML. Paste the copied HTML in the box. Title it, save it, and you are all set.

It may sound complicated, but it is really easy. This way you only get a small block on your sidebar instead of a quilt size picture. Plus you have it all linked, as easy as can be!