Cold and Rainy Day

 So it's been very cold and rainy here today. High in the thirties and raining almost all day. We have gotten over and inch and a half in the last 24 hours.

The wind has been blowing from the north and it just feels cold today. So, what do we do on a day like today? We sew and we bake. And since it is December, we bake cookies!

These pictures were from our Cookie Sunday last weekend. We try to get together every year for a day of cookie baking and now the kids are old enough to be of real help.

I think it's safe to say we all had a good time and enjoyed some hot chocolate as well as cookies.

I made some tiny gingerbread houses to sit on the rims of our hot chocolate cups. These were so fun to make.

Sunday we tried making some jam thumbprint cookies. They turned out pretty good.

This is the Stollen I made from a King Arthur flour recipe. The blob in the middle is homemade almond paste. Less expensive than store bought and super easy to make.

This is a pistachio, chocolate and candied orange shortbread. Recipe came from the New York Times. It turned out delicious.

I had some extra gingerbread dough so I tried making gingerbread men to sit on the rim of a cocoa cup.

These checkerboard cookies are a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. The dough is made in the food processor, super easy. Putting together the checkerboard log for slicing was a little fiddly, but with a pizza cutter and my acrylic ruler it went rather well. Sometimes it helps being a quilter. My next post will be my finished Christmas quilt!

Even More Christmas Stuff

 I have more Christmas things to share this morning. I have been very busy, sewing and stitching and baking. More baking to come, as I am making Stollen today. The dough is in the kitchen rising even now.

First of all, my Christmas quilt top is done!!! It came out measuring 61 x 63.5 so a good lap size. I think I know how I want to quilt it and I am busy getting the backing together. The backing will be a Christmas Washi Tape fabric that I got from Cindy at Live a Colorful Life last year when she was destashing.

There are these adorable tiny tomte on the green strips. The pattern if from Moss and Lotus on Etsy. She has many cute tomte patterns. These littly guys finish at 2 1/2 inches.

I finished this stitchery from BeCo Productions.  Hers was  all green in ombre fashion. I decided to do the french knots in red and the stars in yellow and I am very happy with how it turned out.

Another picture of the tomte. I alternated one tomte and then two on each of the green strips you see in the quilt.

This is a mini quilt I made a few years back with the tiny tomte pattern. In this one each little tomte is wearing a different pattern. The tiny trees I drew up myself to fit the spaces. This is all paper pieced, but oh so very easy.

This is my French hen from the twelve days of Christmas patterns by Larissa at MmmCrafts. I haven't decided how many I'm going to try to make this year. So far I am happy with all the birds, as that is how I've chosen to decorate my tree, with most all bird ornaments.

I had some blank gift tags, so I am sewing scraps to them to customize gift tags. This is a very easy project. You can cut your own tags and use up some of those Christmas scraps.

Last one, the back side of the French hen. Those little chicken feet just slay me. So, I'm off to bake and sew some more. Have a great day and a wonderful weekend.

A Little More Christmas

 I am really starting to feel the Christmas season. It gives me a warm glow inside. I want to do all the seasonal things. We started last weekend by watching the entire Macy's Thanksgiving parade. I haven't watched the whole thing in years.

Here is the picture of our fully decorated tree that I promised to post. In addition to the birds, there is a Kansas City Chiefs snowflake ornament and my Santa that I made a couple of years ago from the pattern by Mmmcrafts on Etsy. I also hung my glass icicles that I bought quite a few years ago from Crate and Barrel. 

Here is an old wooden Santa ornament and new garland I made. The pompoms are from Benzie. You can find them on Etsy or at Benzie.com. They are so much fun to string.

I have a sort of addiction to bottle brush trees. I now have well over 100 in various sizes and shades of green. Last year I added a couple that have teeny tiny lights on them. I love those especially.

I decided to set them all up on top of the china cabinet this year. A couple of years ago, I got tired of them falling over all the time, especially the smaller ones. I had a bunch of old wooden thread spools which I wound baker's twine around, and I hot glued the bases of the trees to them and I love the look. The two tiny ceramic houses are a new addition from last year. Not bought as Christmas decor, but moved here to be in the trees for the season. Found them on Etsy too.

Also new this year, I am working on a Christmas quilt. I have been wanting to for a couple of years at least, but never got motivated in that direction. I finally pulled out all my Christmas fabrics.

I first decided to make strip sets and keep it to the mostly red and red and white fabrics. Then, I found some that the design was oriented the other direction. So, I made more strip sets with just them.

Then, I decided it needed something for visual interest. I needed to break up all that red and white a bit. So I pulled out my tomte patterns from Moss and Lotus that I bought a few years ago. I made the tiniest tomte in the bunch. And I love it.

This is going to be a great Christmas quilt for sure. I am hoping to get it done by Christmas, but we'll see. I don't really feel as stressed by the season this year. No deadlines to worry about really. I am trying to just enjoy the season. So far, so good.

The last thing on my list for today, is these pot holders. I have been meaning to make some for awhile now, so I decided to make these Christmas ones for now, and I'll make some every day ones real soon.

These are just made from scraps I had from other projects. I love having holiday pot holders. I hope you are all well and enjoying the season. See you soon.

We Need a Little Christmas

I was listening to that song just the other day. "We need a little Christmas, right this very minute!" Now, I have sort of a weird relationship with Christmas. I can't call it love/hate. That's too strong. But, when I'm feeling it, I am all in. When I'm not, there is nothing to be done but to fake it as best I can. The last few years have been more fake it than anything. Now, there are a few moments here and there that I feel good about it, but few.

This year, I seem to be all in. Part of it is just being home again. North Carolina is home and it feels right. The other part is being in our own apartment, with no other family member living here except the two of us. We see the kids regularly, but this is our space.

 This is a first for us. A small, 4.5 foot tree, artificial. It seems that we are finally ready to be done with the messy mess that comes with a live tree. To be sure, we miss the smell, but we plan to get a wreath for the door that is live, so that will help. An, I set this baby up before Thanksgiving. I have NEVER done that before.

I put just the white lights on it, and left it at that until after Thanksgiving. I had my hubby get down all the Christmas stuff, so I could go through it all. I had already given the girls all their ornaments collected over the years. But still, I have a lot of decorations. I spent several days pulling out an ornament here and there. I wanted to keep it simple.

I started making the MMMcrafts twelve days ornament series. I bought the pattern last year.

                                         This is the front of the Colly Bird.

And, of course this is the partridge and the pear. I put these on my tree first, and little else. I started going through and finding all the bird ornaments. I found quite a few. I decided to do a mainly bird tree.

I apparently forgot to take a photo of the full tree, but I added the bow from my Advent calendar to the top of the tree. I will get a photo and include it in the next posting I do. Much more Christmas to come.

Happy weekend.

Nap Blanket

 You know, as we age, we sometimes need a nap, just as we did when we were babies. And being a quilter, I have lots of quilts available for naps. But there are very few that I have made for my husband specifically. So for his birthday in late September, I decided he need a special nap blanket.

I went on line to Fat Quarter Shop and found some great blue flannel plaids. My husband loves plaid, and flannel. I decided to keep it simple and just do an easy patchwork. I cut up all the plaids into squares and began sewing.

I did make a slight pattern to the placement of the flannels. I decided to just quilt it simply in horizontal and vertical lines on each side of the seams. I wanted it to be sturdy but soft too.

For the back, I chose this buffalo check fabric. It's not flannel, but it was on sale so that's a win for me!

And the best part is that he loves it and uses it regularly, now that the weather has turned chilly. It is a very cosy blanket.

See you soon.

Advent

 Looking up Advent, I found all these words: arrival, coming, approach, dawn, looming, birth, origin, emergence. Advent means all these things. I had meant to write this post yesterday, but life got in the way. When my children were little, we had several Advent calendars. They were not from a religious need, but more a way get them to quit asking how many days until Christmas. I haven't regularly used one for years.

This year, after seeing the one my daughter bought for herself with goodies in it, I decided I needed one too. I received a post card from a chocolatier advertising their gourmet chocolates Advent calendar. Now this is not an advertisement, but this thing is so neat, I just wanted to share it.

This company is in the city where I grew up, Kansas City. My sister-in-law sent us a box of chocolates from them for Christmas last year, but alas, she sent them to California after we had left. It seemed crazy to have my sister forward them to us, so we told her to keep them and enjoy them. Y'all these are some seriously fancy chocolates.

Here is the interior of this seriously sturdy box, with all its little trap doors full of chocolates.

This first on is lemon in white chocolate. Very lemon-y and so shiny and pretty. Each little door will tell you the flavor of the chocolate. This is going to be fun! And just the right size for a bit of after dinner sweet.

So, even if you don't celebrate Advent, a countdown to Christmas calendar can be a very good thing.

Have a great Friday!

Let's Catch Up

 Time for a catch up, since it has been over a month since I have posted. It is so hard to make myself sit down and write these posts. Part of it is that I am struggling with blogger and posting photos. It's a drag.

Anyway, let's just go, shall we?

First, here is an update on my Pas de duex quilt that I am making with Rachel of Stitched in color. Some parts are joined together, but there is still much more to do and the December blocks as well, but I am loving how it is looking.

I have had an idea to make a beach umbrella quilt for awhile now and one day I just jumped in and did it. Now it waits to be quilted. It was kinda fun to figure out the angles. I am no good at geometry.

I made a minimalist wallet, pattern by Anna of Noodlehead. This was so fun and pretty easy. I have never installed these kinds of snaps and never sewn with leather, but it worked out just fine.

Nice to have a new made by me wallet. I look forward to trying more of Anna's patterns.

Working on another Kiriki Press little stuffed animal. This one is a level 3 and guys, it is hard! I chose it anyway because I love learning new embroidery stitches. It's taking awhile, but so far, so good. I have a few other things going on, and hopefully I can come back later this week and tell you about them.