Time together

This is the first year that we were not able to follow our family tradition of going to a Christmas Eve service and then out to eat afterward.  My husband didn't get home from work until eight and so the restaurant we have been going to for years had stopped serving by then.  So our son, Peter, stopped at the restaurant and picked up our favorite appetizer to go so we could share it together when his Dad got home.

We open our gifts on Christmas Eve and since there are only three of us, and we don't go hog wild, it goes pretty quick.   This is for you from me , this is for you from me , this is for you from me.  Zip!  That's over!  Thank you and hugs all around. :)

What we really enjoy is the time together.  It is something we don't have much of these days.

I cooked a huge meal for the three of us on Christmas Day.  The old fashioned kind; where you eat it, savor every bite, and don't care about calories. Afterward each of us found our own special place for a little nap....

Later, we had pie and ice cream to finish the festivities and Peter had to go back home.

All through the house....

....every one is busy with holiday preparations.  Enjoy the time spent with family and friends.

Be back soon.

Ukulele holiday cheer

I've decided to link this to Judy L's even though I don't have anything quilt related to post for this week.  I thought you might enjoy "seeing" the quilter behind my blog.

Here is a musical rendition of "Silver Bells" for you....

Ukester is playing a Kala resonator ukulele and yesterday he asked me if I would like to join him.  We haven't sang together for years.  Hope you enjoy!  

Be sure to watch all the way to the end.  ;)

Christmas memories

Here we have the latest in 1970's Christmas tree decorating.....

made by me when I was in Junior High or early High School (can't remember).  I used whatever my Mom had on hand left from sewing and crafting. It contains green corduroy, white denim, cotton/poly and regular cotton.  I remember cutting squares, sewing them in strips and just sewing the strips together.  Then for the circle I did the pencil and string thing. 

I remember thinking that it was pretty cool to iron on the letters that spelled "joy".  I think I was going to iron words into the other white squares but found that the letters didn't fit.  Oops. Also, we probably weren't going to go out and buy any more letters - whatever we had, we had.

There is elastic around the center in case one has a really big tree. :)  I put a red and white print on the back that works for those who prefer a little less patchwork and classy ball fringe around the edge to dress it up either way.

Now, for the best part?  We have used this tree skirt every year since we have been married!  The first few years we couldn't afford to buy a lot of Christmas stuff and by the time we could I had grown rather fond of it.  Now, each year I smile when I get it out and I just flip it over to the red side and tuck it around the tree all bunched up like a quilt. 

Thank You to my Commenters

Remember way back at this post I mentioned what my next little project was going to be?  Well, this week I completed it.  I am so happy with how it turned out and had such fun working with the Civil War reproduction fabrics.  The pattern is called "Jacassa's Journal" and was designed, I believe, by a store employee of a recently closed local store.

It has been nearly a year since I started my blog and I appreciate all of you who comment each time I post.  It is like getting a letter in the mail each time I open up and see a comment waiting for me. 

Today, as a way to say "Thank You!" to my commenters of my blog I decided to have my own give away.   I had the Ukester pick a number between 1 and 266 and I went and found that comment out of the 266 comments I have had so far this year.  It belongs to Patricia at Dogwood Lane Rambles!  So, Patricia, please e-mail me your address, I will send you the kit (as pictured in the first photo) to make your own little quilt like mine. 

Thanks again to all of you who comment on my posts.  I will do something like this again sometime.  Stay tuned! :)

I will be linking to Judy L's Patchwork Times tomorrow morning so be sure to head over there to see what others are working on this week.

Happy Stitches -

Bricks and Stepping Stones

My latest project has been one I have wanted to do for some time, Bonnie Hunter's Brick's & Stepping Stones pattern, and suddenly I had the perfect reason.  The black and white checkerboard was perfect for this occasion.

I needed a quick quilt for someone and I wanted to use something from my precut scraps.  So, I sorted through my large "bricks" and tried to pick out fabrics that didn't read too feminine - this is going to a male.  The hardest part about this quilt was narrowing down my fabrics. Flowers still crept in there; he'll just have to overlook them.  If I could have been more random (like I usually work) this quilt would have been a snap.  

Once I had everything sorted I was on my way....

I recommend this pattern to anyone looking for a fun, fast quilt.  I think it would also be fun with all the bricks being in one color family like red, or blue, etc.

The backing was another matter.  Doing this project made me realize my backing fabrics are really more feminine or geared to specific quilts that I have in mind. I also tend to buy backing only as I finish quilts. So I had to dig deep and I came up with this green homespun plaid that I think worked out fine. (It's much darker than the picture shows.)  Then I quilted it with an all over design called Spiral Path by Desert Stitches and you can see a bit of it in the picture below with the snowman.

The snowman has nothing to do with this quilt - I just thought I would add it to the picture to make it more interesting.  I purchased him at a quilt shop that was going out of business.  Isn't he cute?  I don't have the patience to make stuff like that.....just quilts.  ;)

I washed the quilt to take care of colorfastness.  Since I was using scraps, and some of them are fairly old, I didn't want to take the chance they would bleed when the recipient washed the quilt. Generally, I am not a pre-washer of fabrics, unless they are batiks,  and darks such as reds, blues, blacks that are going to be against lights. I have never (knock on wood) had a problem and did not this time either.

I will probably link up to Judy L's on Monday so be sure to check out what others are doing on their design boards.  There are so many wonderfully creative people out there and it is generous of  Judy to let us link up there.

Have a wonderful week and a great start to December - WOW this year has flown by!