Thank you Linda in Italy!

The above gifts were my SSCS gifts from my swap partner Linda in Italy.
Everything came in this lovely covered Christmas box (I love boxes) and it was filled with Italian candies, a pasta kitchen towel, a beautiful wool (?) rose pin and a Museum book. Plus a fun Advent card which I had been opening daily!

What a fun swap...my partner is Sonia in Australia. So through this swap Elf Donna has connected people from all over the world. Amazing!!! Thank you Donna. And thank you again Linda. I love my gifts!

5 minutes to myself please!

That's all I need right now is just 5 little minutes...LOL My to do list is getting longer by the second because for the last several days I have been helping Emily, the oldest, put together a queen size quilt for her boyfriend. We finally finished the top last night at about 9:30pm and today we are going to pin it for quilting and then we are going to quilt the monster. It needs to be done by Wednesday morning (12/31) at the latest because she is flying to see him and they are exchanging gifts. LOL Is she MY daughter or what! Here is a picture of it layed out on my living room floor before the rows were put together.



I really don't mind helping her and I'm thrilled that she loves quilting and fabric as much if not more than I do, if that's possible, so please don't think that I'm complaining...well maybe just a little bit.

Also I've been listed on the Quilt Qua site which I looked at for a little bit and there are lots of cool blogs listed there and we all know how we love looking at each others blogs for inspiration! lol

Later,

Where has the time gone???

The last week has literally "flown" by. Whew, I'm glad it's over...lol

Kara had her foot surgery on Wednesday and is doing very well now. The first few days were extremely painful for her as I heard they probably would be, but yesterday she was up and moving around much more. I'm so glad she's better and we may even venture out to do a tiny bit of Christmas shopping today.

Here's a picture of the Christmas village that we always put up over my pantry. We actually did it last weekend but I haven't had time to post it.



It's a big job to put it up and take it down, so I usually leave it up until the end of January or so.

I did finish all of my Dear Jane triangles (yipee!) and I also made one kite/corner with another all ready to work on as time permits. I'm without and hand stitching right now, I'd better prep something today. I finished another Truly Scrumptious block and another basket block for my Mom's quilt. No pics yet, sorry.

My Mom and my brother, his wife and their daughter Jessica and her two little girls will be coming up for Christmas Eve. Mom will probably spend the night which kind of upsets her because that has always been a private time for my family, but I told her that this year is different and we'd adjust. It's the first Christmas without my Dad and it's been much harder emotionally than I expected. She's just devastated and very emotional. Anyway we'll have Mexican food and play with the little ones and it will be fun!

My oldest, Emily will be home from Lawrence today. She's the daughter that cherishes tradition and the Season. She loves giving, actually Kara does too. I think they get that from me, I'm a giver. Hopefully we'll get some sewing time in while Emily is here...wait I know we will, we have to finish the quilt she is giving her boyfriend for Christmas...lol

If I don't post again before Wednesday I want to wish all of my "blog friends" around the US and around the world a very "Merry and Blessed Christmas", may it be everything you desire and more!

I wish I could read Japanese

Look at these beautiful books by YOKO SAITO. She is a master at hand-piecing and applique. She also designs fabrics for the Lecien Fabric Co. I LOVE her work and while I will never be able to sew like she does, someday when I get time, I will try to piece one of her little blocks.

I also have her book Houses, houses, houses (didn't get a picture) and I'm totally enthralled with it. I love house quilts and maybe someday I'll do a series of them...in my dreams probably!!

The weekend was good and fairly productive. I've only got one more DJ triangle to do and then the four corners and I'll be done with my Dear Jane quilt. That will free up a bunch of sewing time for me and I've already got the quilt picked out that I'll be working on while hubby goes to Vegas in January for CES. He'll be gone for a week and that seems to free up a bunch of time for me to just sew. I do miss him while he's gone but why not make the best of it, right?!?

The weather has turned bitter cold and windy, with a high of only 22 degrees expected today. No snow or ice to speak of, so just a lot of bundling up.

Have a good Monday...

It's Saturday...yeah!

Good morning, it's the weekend and I'm glad. No really big plans except to putter around the house. I probably will do some cleaning (I had to let my cleaning lady go) and maybe a little sewing and cooking. I'm going to pester hubby to get my Christmas village set up, I think. It's quite a job to do, but I think that I'll miss it if it's not up this year.

It's supposed to be very warm and windy this weekend and then turn really cold again tomorrow night...yuck. My middle daughter is scheduled for foot surgery on Wednesday morning and we're supposed to have really bad weather which wouldn't be that big of a deal if the surgery were in Stillwater, but it's in Oklahoma City which is about an hour from here. Snow would be fine if that's what the weather guys were forecasting but it's not, they're saying freezing drizzle for 3 or 4 days next week. I guess we'll just play it by ear and figure it out as it comes.

Here's the little wall hanging that I made Sharon for her birthday.



It's my first time at needle felting and it was a lot of fun to do. I ordered the kit from Quilter's Station. Very prompt service and the people are terrific to work with. You should check them out if you like primitives!

That's all for now. Tomorrow I'll show you the new books that I've discovered. I think I'm in love...

More Christmas decorations

Here's some more decorations to share with you all. Here's a place mat (1 of a set of six) that I made years ago. These are fun because they are the "quilt as you go" method.


The Christmas ornaments are from my family tree when I was young and the "antique" bulbs are from my Mom's tree when she was a girl.





I love the cardinal bulb and the santa bulb. I'd like to light them up but I'm afraid that it would ruin them and plus who knows what kind of toxins they are made of.

Here's the stocking that I had as a child. My sister's also said Sister and of course my brother's was Brother. I think my Mom made these, she's not very crafty...lol



I'd better go now and get ready for work...Happy Birthday to my friend Sharon (she doesn't have a blog yet). Let's party!!!

Christmas decorating

I love looking at other people's Christmas decorating on their blogs, so today I am going to show you my Christmas decorating. I'll start off with my Christmas/Winter quilt.


I think I made it 2 or 3 years ago with whatever new Moda 3 Sisters Christmas fabrics were out at the time. I had a really dense batting put in this quilt to keep me warm at night as my bedroom is pretty chilly in the winter. And I'm happy to say that I haven't been cold at night since.

Here are pictures of several Christmas wall hangings that I've made through the years.




Here is the Eleanor Burns Diamond Log Cabin Christmas tree skirt that I made when my oldest daughter was 6 months old. I also made my Mom and my MIL each one for Christmas that year. I put ruffles on theirs and cut the holes out and put ties on them. On mine I just wasn't able to cut a hole in it, so I didn't. I have very rarely used it for a skirt and most of the time it is on a table or thrown on a chair.


I quilted all of these projects myself and I did it with babies and young children running around. Also hubby traveled A LOT during this time. I must have done it in the evenings when the kids were sleeping. I do remember setting DD #1 on a blanket next to me and sewing up a storm. LOL She loves fabric and quilting now so it must have rubbed off on her early!

I also have 4 trees up this year, 1 big and 3 small Charlie Brown like trees. The silver tree has vintage ornaments on it from when I was young. That's weird to think that I'm vintage.




I think I'm running out of room, but I'll continue tomorrow. Enjoy the day!