It was a wonderful Christmas at our house even though part of it I consider the Christmas that almost wasn't! We were part of the power outages that hit Michigan after the ice storm. We lost our power at 6am on Saturday the 21st and stayed out all of Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday.

As you can see, the lack of heat and light had little effect on Clutch and Zoe. It did however have quite an effect on my Christmas preparations.

I managed to get one bath of Spritz cookies baked and we had most of our treats for Christmas dinner but I have supplies for lots of peanut butter fudge, three batches of cookies, sugared pecans and more that I'll be making the first week of January. It just stretches out the fun!

Have you thought about the quilts you want to make during 2014? I've been thinking about that for weeks now and fear my list requires more time than I'll ever find for sewing but I'm going for it! Even if I only gather and plan I'll be happy.

I haven't decided on all the Sentimental Stitches projects for 2014 but thought I'd share a few with you in case you want to add them to your list!

There are two new $5 Block of the Month quilts that were released a few weeks ago. The Cabot Cuties quilt has blocks the same 4 1/2" size as the Midget Blocks but the block designs are not the same. There's a combination of patchwork and applique blocks. You get 7 blocks each month for 14 months.
I'm making my blocks with Kaffe Fassett fabrics even though the designs were originally made in 1930s prints and solids. I love the way they're turning out.

The Scrap Savers Baltimore Applique quilt is a traditional applique quilt featuring 16" blocks. You'll receive one block per month and are encouraged to do what I'm doing - use up those scraps! Do you see the five different greens I used just in this one block?

I'm pulling all kinds of reds, greens and whatever I need from my stash to make the blocks. It's a challenge for someone like me who loves to shop for fabric but I'm finding I have some pretty cool stuff right there in my stash!
You can learn more about both of these quilts and hear how the patterns are delivered directly to you ready for stitching - HERE. These will be available at the special price for a few more weeks before they make way for the next two quilts.

I think you'll all agree it's time to put the Midget Blocks to rest. I'm not going to drag this out trying to put a new block up every week. I'm putting the call out for help from someone who has time to help me with the drafting in EQ7 and we'll get the last 28 blocks done. I know someone sent me a note a while back about helping but I can't seem to put my hands on it. If you'd be interested in working on this with me on this please send me an email. There's a link in the sidebar.

Can you believe there's only a couple of days until we start the new Just Takes 2 Benjamin Biggs quilt? Brenda is excited, I'm excited and from what I'm reading on the Yahoo Group and Facebook Page, you are excited too! Brenda will have the first block for you on January 1 at Dear Jane. We'll take turns presenting a block on the 1st of every month. Don't worry, you'll be able to find all the details on the Basic Information Page for the Benjamin Biggs Quilt.

With the Just Takes 2 quilt changing to blocks only on the first of the month I decided it would be a good time to have the Dream Garden quilt take the place of what you used to pick up on the 15th of the month. You can get the first block of the Dream Garden quilt on January 15. There are 20 applique with embroidery embellishment blocks, one embroidered block and the applique border. These blocks will always be there so if you miss a month or two it won't matter. You can just catch up on downloading them whenever you stop by. I'll put more details about the quilt on the Dream Garden page in a few days but you can add it to your list! Can you see me smiling? I know there's no way you could make all these quilts and still have time to feed yourself but if you're like me I can be pretty happy just knowing I'm collecting the patterns for future use.

That's all I can share for today but rest assured there's even more projects planned. It's going to be a fun year!