Family Card

Scarlet Script Frame Christmas 5x7 folded card

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Merry Christmas to All

Tonight we mixed things up a bit.  You see my neighbor found some reindeer food at Michael's and purchased some for my daugher.  It is said to bring the reindeer to your house pronto and that they can smell it for up to 500 miles!  Now I'm pretty certain if I leave the empty container of reindeer food Santa will fill our container back up for next year.  Or at least that's what I'm hoping!

Here's a peak at my little right after she dusted around outside our entire house.

From our home to yours we wish you a Bright and Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good night!

Handmade Birthday

My husband made these for my sister's birthday!  Aren't they beautiful?  I was inspired by the beautiful blue of Dream Agate that I picked up last summer.  The chain is sterling silver with a lobster claw clasp.  From it hang five blue Dream Agate stones which range in color from rich royal blue all the away up to aqua.  The stone in the bottom right even had a bit of a geode in it.  Each stone is strung with a sterling silver head pin and two spacer beads.  The head pin was then hand wrapped back on itself several times to give each one a true finished handmade look.

The earrings are dangling posts that each have two dream agates held apart by another bright silver spacer bead.  It was hard to select stones that matched for this, but luckily I had enough to do so.  Over all the entire chain is nearly 19" long with the earrings dangling just about an inch total.

Believe it or not even this photograph taken in full sun does not reveal the true luster of these stones.  Hope she liked them.

Both Win

If you were wondering; I think it's always best to sew first and then clean - that way you can get all those little threads cleaned up and you don't have to be very careful when picking out stitches.

Homemade Lounge Pants

These are lounge/sleep pants that I made for my bothers.  I made using "medium" measurements and I'll just add elastic and cuff them to suit their sizes.  Don't have those yet so these aren't quite done.  I made the salamander pair back the day before I made the teacher's tote, and then the little pine trees with reindeer (moose?) I made today.  While sewing I found myself in a nice rhythm so I went ahead and made a long sleeved flannel shirt for my daughter.  Now you can really see how little she is, that is a size 6 top and to me it looks like she dug through someone else's clothes.  Oh yes, I made the skirt she is wearing as well but that was some time ago.

That empty plate did have an overly large (for dd) sized portion of my meatloaf along with everything else I served for dinner.  Wolf Gone!  I did get to my cleaning - those dust lions needed evicted and shortly after I finished I dropped the bird food container and it hit the floor in a nice mess so I cleaned that up too.  I think I'm done cleaning for a day or three.  

My Girl

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Gingerbread Tree

Earlier this month my daughter asked for a Gingerbread house kit.  So yesterday when I was out and about, I stopped and looked over the choices.  First up was a Gingerbread house - Traditional, but upon reading the "you will need list" my eyes glazed over and I knew that wasn't the answer.  Considering all the effort involved in a single house I knew the mini village wasn't for us either. After all we're first timers!  While it might be odd the third choice of lollipop style cookies didn't sit well with me.  It's not that I'm anti-lollipop but I'm not really pro-lollipop either.  Guess I just never cared for them as a kid.

What a smile for our Tree

Then came the Gingerbread Tree.  Sure we can make the tree!  After all there's no math and as trees lean you don't have to be perfectly careful so that's all good too.

Firstly I didn't read the directions.  Hey I read the box in the store that counts for something right?  After all I'd had a long day and my leg was angry enough that even my knee was hurting so we dug in and got started.  The first batch of icing I made per the directions but it was more like dried toothpaste than icing, so "I fixed it" and then didn't bother being so careful with the second bag of frosting.  Of course my thinning down made the frosting run, so it doesn't look like the picture but we had a good time.

This morning I even had one of the cookies.  I thought I was going to chip a tooth so I dipped it into my coffee biscotti style - now that was good.  Today I need to clean and I have a pair of lounge pants that need made for Christmas - wonder which will win my attentions?

Zaphod's 12th birthday

My all time favorite famous Meerkats had a bit of a celebration the other day.  Zaphod just turned 12!  That is a wild accomplishment for a wild meerkat. Everyone is now looking forward to his continued health and well being for if he lives to be 4448 days old  (Feb. 12) he will be the oldest Meerkat ever to be studied in the Kalahari Meerkat Project - Go King Zaphod!


Yes Zaphod is still the dominate male of the Aztecs with Monkulus (Maybelline to you North American Animal Planet Watchers).  You can read all about Zaphod's birthday here.


Now here is the heart stomping news Caroline Hawkins and her Oxford Scientific film crew who brought us Meerkat Manor as well as Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins has been back to the Kalahari Meerkat Project and has been filming for a 3D Movie! 3D Movies give me a headache, but I think I'll take a Tylenol when this movie releases.  National Geographic plans to air it in 2D so I'll be able to watch it then too.  Of course the best source for all this info is the Friends of the Kalahari Meerkat Project.

Good Morning Florida!

This morning I turned my back for a moment to check on a fabric measurement and when I came back to the kitchen window it was Grand Central Station at my bird feeder.  These are red wing blackbirds (all males on the feeder) that I know from experience migrate through here each year.  My mother lives about 20 minutes North East of me and she had red breasted robins that visit her.  What do I get?  A Hoard of Red wing Blackbirds.  LOL our feeder has been so lonely for birds even an occasional dove has been welcomed.

Some couldn't stand to wait their turn and began picking ravenously at the ground.  Now will you believe me if I tell you these two pictures combined only show about half of the flock total?  When I noticed some were sitting on an empty bird bath I thought they might like a drink to go with all that food so I went out and filled it.  Being a flighty bunch they've left but I'm sure they'll be back.

Santa Claus is Coming!

Have you hung your stockings with care?  Just this morning my five year old started screaming "11 more days until Christmas" when she spotted the construction paper ring garland she made in class at the beginning of the month.  Of course by this time on the 25th I'll be enjoying the hearty brunch that my sister has planned for us.  For dinner our numbers will swell and I'll have 8 so I'm planning on a nice smoked ham along with a couple of other things I can shove in the oven and forget about.

Our Tree

Our tree is decorated and most of the presents are wrapped.  The elves will round those up and place them under the tree on Christmas Eve so no need to worry about anyone snooping under the tree.

New Stocking

I even made a stocking to hang up with the others.  Nothing fancy just some beautiful fabrics from my friend Vicki, sewn double layered with french seams and then hand stitching the name.

Hung with Care

Do you have any family specific traditions?  We are a one present at a time house.  That means the presents all stay under the tree and are removed one gift at a time and given to the recipient to open.  Are some of you thinking how long your Christmas would take to do something like this?  Well DH and I love it as it allows us each to enjoy each moment.  Besides my favorite part is seeing the joy of someone receiving my gift (even if it is a fake smile the size of the Gulf of Mexico that looks like it was taped on with packing tape) and I'd miss that if we all ripped everything open madly.

I love the tranquility of the Christmas season.  It's hard to find in and among the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but you can smell the crisp clean love if you stop in the snow for just a moment (yes you have to forget about being cold for a moment), you can hear the peace as you pause in front of your Christmas Tree.  Don't believe me?  Close your eyes and breathe.  Ah now there it is.  Or was that the cat box you forgot to scoop?  Either way from my home to yours I wish you all the love and joy this holiday season has to offer.

Old Style Christmas Cards

Merry Christmas!  I love this time of year.  Here in Florida we don't often have snow or even cold weather for that matter but this most recent cold front has me thinking of Christmases gone by.  Year after year my mother would dig out boxes of Christmas cards.  Different themes for different people and then she would sit down with them all in this lid+box system and hand write each and everyone on her list.  Before I could write cursive myself I recall letters arriving to the house filled with cursive.  Each letter from one of her dear friends or relative.   A good part of the time the cards were so filled with writing it went well onto the back of the card.  

I knew that when I grew up I wanted garlands filled with notes from friends and sure enough when I set out off on my own they came.  A trickle at first but then more and I discovered even more came when I sent my own cards out as well.  So I bought boxes of Christmas cards jimmy rigged a lid and box writing system and wrote my Christmas cards. Each card I wrote something different that I thought the person I was sending it to might like to hear about. Years have gone by and the response cards have gotten shorter and shorter I have understood each time and even sent found wishes and prayers to that busy person.  Sometimes the notes changed into those dreaded newsletters.  You know the ones, they're fine and all but in world where everything in the mailbox is mass printed junk and bills there is just something a little lack luster about it all.  But still I cherish each card.  I happily hang them on my garland and even as my own hand aches with tendonitis from writing I still try to send cards out each year.  This year I'm half done and have come up against the harsh reality of having not purchased enough cards last year.  Now would you believe I ran out of return address labels on my very last card?

Enter Shutterfly.  They had the best deal going on some custom mugs I made that I can't show you yet.  Now I know what you're thinking something custom will never get here in time much less to write all that I do and get them sent back out but I think you'd be wrong.  My mugs were ordered Black Friday and where shipped out the very following Monday.  I'm still amazed that my custom order arrived before the prints that I also ordered.

So now I can order my holiday cards and my labels and have everything sent out in time to keep my in-laws happy.  Who knows I might even do something kookie and make them match!

The Cute is in the Details

Today I made this little tote for my daughter's teacher.  I started out with the hint of an idea on Stephanie's Blog which you can see here.  I knew I wanted to make mine with the dashed lines but I wasn't really sure about size until I sat down with the scrap of Warm and White batting that I'd planned on using and found a scrap of white about the same size!

Teacher's Christmas Tote

From there everything was easy.  First I basted and then sewed.  Yep quilting first!  Then after I did the blue quilting lines I went back and added the red as sort of ah opps I forgot!  Then I hand - yes hand stitched the dashes.  After I squared that up everything came naturally.  I really wasn't in the mood for making straps so I pulled out a cloth tape that had seen better days (like the days before I cut it in half with the rotary cutter!)  I saw those numbers and thought perfect Math!  So they became the straps.  It really helped that when I cut it I cut it around 28 inches which makes a nice drop.

Detail of Quilting with Tape Measure Strap

I knew I needed to add a way to close it but the french seems were already looking thick so I thought a toggle would be great here.  Didn't have any toggles on hand but I did happen to have a button with the liberty bell on it so that added the final touch.  Not bad for a teacher's Christmas tote if I do say so and better yet that I made it from start to finish in one afternoon!

Liberty Bell Button

And the Winner is:

The winner is #8 Liz!  I bet right about now she's really glad to find our little corner of blog land.  Happy holiday spending Liz we'll be looking forward hearing from you again.

All Caught Up

I am now all caught up with the Freemotion Quilt-a-Long.  I hadn't realized I'd gotten so far behind!  So I happily stitched scallops, vines, meanders, and attempted some feathers.  I did not do the echo work except to embellish within the quilting I was practicing because I feel quite confident with echos.

Random Vine grows a nice flower!

 The best part about the vines was putting flowers on the end.  Some of these turned out quite nice even if my brain panics a bit at having to quilt a flower?!?!?!

Puzzle Piece Quilting

Next I made these little puzzle pieces.  On the front size the strip is just the width of those pieces so they really look like a line of pieces running the length of the strip.  These little pieces are a meander variation, I think they would look quite nice on a baby blanket, stitched row after row would add the tops and bottoms that appear to be missing in my strip from this backside view.

Meandering around the butterflies

Remember those butterflies that I stitched around?  I wasn't sure what to do with the empty space so when it came time to practice my meanders I went ahead and added them around the butterflies. The effect is nice.

Currently the quilt is about 2/3rds quilted.  At one point it was mentioned we should have our quilt halfway quilted at that point, but as I was never certain in the beginning where to stitch what I just sewed things where I thought they fit and looked good.  I wish all of you could cuddle this quilt the quilting makes it so inviting.  I have it positioned where I can see it often and the way the quilting pops is really nice.

Don't forget you still have a bit of time to get in any extra entries for the giveaway.  All of my non-Canadian non-US followers can feel free to enter as well, because I have a plan for you if you win!  ;-)

Gift Certificate Giveaway ~ Happy Holidays

Yes, you read that correctly, thanks to our sponsor CSN I'm hosting my first giveaway.  It is a $35 gift code good on anything at their 200+ sites.

Here the Rules:

• Leave a Comment to this post for a chance to win.

• Go to any of the CSN Websites and find something you'd like to buy from them could be anything from TV stands for flat screens, cookware, or even something you forgot to buy this past weekend. Return here and tell me about it for a second chance to win.

• If you blog about this giveaway on your own blog you'll have third chance to win.

That's all there is to it.  Their website is already decked out with snowflakes, each one indicating items that can arrive in time for Christmas.  The giveaway ends next week Wednesday on the 8th so our lucky winner will have enough time to spend their gift certificate on Christmas presents if they'd desire.

Best of Luck to Everyone.

A Box of Knitting

Today I started and finished the final blue dishcloth, all that knitting all at once and my hands are protesting a bit, next time I knit I'm back to a little at a time!

These will be joining the wrapped presents awaiting their debut under the Christmas tree.  They are made with 100% cotton yarn and all have a loop at the end for hang drying.

Hawaiian Ocean Applique Progresses

One of 12 of my Turtle Blocks

I've been working on the applique turtles, currently I have five completed blocks and three blocks that are just appliqued turtle bodies awaiting their shell pieces.  It seems silly to me to take photos of what I have already showed you, so today I'm going to dream about another similar quilt with you that while I had it in the back of my mind for quite a while this change of color and place came roaring out at me the other day.

Approximation of Reverse Image

I call it the Reverse Applique Turtle Quilt.  I'm planning on using all of the leftover cut out pieces from the Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt and putting them into this second quilt.  As the back of my green fabric is covered entirely in Wonder Under and my husband and I planned it this way; all of the leftover pieces will be usable in this second quilt.  No waste not even one small scrap.  Off to the left you can see how it will work.  In case you are wondering the pattern was redrafted from a needle turn applique method to allow us to do this.

The background of this layout is white on white, but for the second quilt I plan on selecting a tan/sand batik for the turtle bodies.  I think using the sand color for the turtle bodies will give them an on land appearance instead of the swimming in the water look.

Neatly saved but never zipped in

Yes, Yes, I'm saving everything and in case anyone is worried the bags are merely for keeping everything together.  Here in Florida I wouldn't dare zip them up, locking in all that humidity?  Eek!  Or perhaps Eeww is a better word.  I promise there are no Ewws or ewes here for that matter (wool allergy).

Now I just have to keep my eyes pealed for the perfect fabric.  Whoa darn fabric shopping. LOL.  I hope everyone found what they were looking for on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Or perhaps you simply found a lot of what you weren't looking for?  I my case I did all of my shopping at the computer. Because no matter how fast I make that scooter go, you'd all still beat me to the sale.  That's why DD and I say "Wheee, and Zoom," as we shop with the scooter.  It helps to give the illusion of speed!  Now why not drop me a note and tell me how your shopping or lack there of went and why, I'd love to hear about it.

I just wrote a letter to Santa!

I just wrote a letter to Santa!
What do you tell the man in the red suit? What do you say when your daughter wants you to write a letter too?
Just like last year Macy's is giving away $1 to the Make a Wish Foundation for each letter recieved and they are only about a quarter of the way now, so no matter what you write why not drop a note? Don't forget they need a stamp.


For every letter received, Macy's will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $1,000,000. Help make wishes come true by writing your own letter to Santa!

Christmas Quilt-a-long Wrap Up

Sue's Christmas Quilt-a-long ended on the 13th which was a little sad, but what you don't know is that I won something!  Sharon at Daisy Cottage Quilting Donated a Lollipop Oopsie Daisy Kit and she is the sponsor of my win.  How wonderful is that?  Beautiful Moda Fabrics make up this charming little quilt.

I'm not all together certain why the pattern picture of this quilt don't like to be photographed.  I noticed the same trouble when I looked at the kit online, but as you can see below the colors are quilt bright.  While it is a lollipop theme the reds and greens remind me of Christmas.

Yes I already made the little buttons that are the flower centers.  I couldn't resist, aren't they they cutest little things?  Warm Thanks to Sue and Sharon and while I will miss the Christmas Quilt-a-long I heard through the grapevine Sue might be doing something after the first of the year.  Perhaps a Mystery Quilt or another quilt-a-long?  Only time will tell!

Sweet Lemonade

Last March I started something I called my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt  through my practice with that I was able to make and donate my Turtle Applique Quilt.  I made these using Wonder Under a heat activated adhesive product and then blanket stitching over the raw edge.  Right in the middle of making these blocks my fancy sewing machine lost all will to sew after coaxing and numerous trips to the repair place I now have an oversized paperweight that is begging for the day I will trade it in for something else.

Luckily I have the Little Elna sewing machine which I had forgotten how much I love to sew on it.  So now that you're up to date, I want to say that yesterday I figured out how to make one of the 18 stitches that the Elna can do look like the blanket stitch the Brother was making and because it is a compressed hem stitch it sews out nice and quick and I don't have to be so careful about counting the stitches for making my turns.  Bottom line: Yesterday I had 2 completed blocks and 3 blocks with no shell pieces on the turtles.  I now have five completed blocks for this quilt (I will need 12 plus my dolphin center) of course I also have the one I'm detailing to be a matching pillow as well.  I think it will end up making a nice euro sham.

Turtle Applique Blocks awaiting thread trimming

I have now prepped three more fabric blocks so they are ready to be cut out with the rather detailed cuts of the turtles and their shells.  I am looking forward to making more progress on this quilt.

All Stitched Up With Somewhere to Go!

Yesterday I did all of the hand work labeling on the block for Myra and today I dug out the cutting mat and trimmed it up to 6.5".  So very soon now I'll be sending it off.  It's only a 6.5" block so even International I'm certain it will be no big deal to mail.

 On a different note I started cutting the pieced for the back of the Snake quilt and would you believe I don't have enough fabric?  I had enough fabric if I just sewed it together but because I just had to piece it.  Oh yeah, so I'm going to be sorting that out over the next couple of days.  Really makes me question what the quilt is asking of me!

My five year old hasn't been feeling well the past two days so while I'm always happy to take her picture her request that I take this one pulled at my heart strings.

Cherry on Top Blog Award

My friend Heather, whom I've known since my marriage and ideals were young has given me a blog award.

Here are the rules to this blog award…

1. Thank the person who gave it to you.

2. Put the award on your blog.

3. Share three things about yourself that you enjoy doing.

4. Pass the award onto five people.

Heather is a dear friend to me and she is a truly amazing scrap-booker.  When ever I mention her to others their eyes bug a little bit and their mouths drop open slightly in amazement.   She might not believe me when she reads that but it's true and she should take it to heart, because she truly is wonderful.  Thanks for the award!

Three things about myself that I enjoy;  shesh that one seems like it should be easy, but the easy stuff you already know anyway.

1.  I love to curl up with a good book.  Books I've read before are like old friends waiting for me to return to them.  My favorite books I have read so many times I can pick them up and open the book at any point read a sentence or two and know exactly what is going on.  I so love rereading books that I made my DH buy me a box of old Anne McCaffery Books that I had already read at least 80% of.

2.  I thrive on spending time with my DH, even if he's sitting in the next room watching tv and I'm doing something on the computer and we're not even bothering to talk - it's like the house is filled with good vibes.

3.  I'm not certain this last one counts, but it's my blog so I'm going with it.  I love compliments.  It's like I'm a cat being petted.  It is so wonderful to hear when I've done something good or helped someone.  That's the good stuff.  It goes straight to your heart and warms you from the inside out.

Now I read a great group of really awesome blogs and I'd hate to single out five, not to mention what of the others that I momentarily forgot?  I'd wake up in the night worried someone felt slighted so I think your all great and that's that.

A block for Myra

Have you heard about Myra?  She is a quilter in New Zealand who is currently fighting her own battle with cancer.  Now the way I read it her friend Karen also went through the same thing a couple of years ago and all of their quilting buddies collected and made an applique heart quilt to for her.  So now Karen is putting it all together to make one for Myra as well.

Are you in?  If so all the details are here at Selvage Blog it is requested that all blocks be applique hearts.  Any form of applique and any embellishments you want are fine.  It's only a 6.5" block on white on white or cream on cream so even if you do hand work it sews together in a jiff.  Hearts can be pastels of pink, purple, or blue.

Heart for Myra

So here's mine.  I started with a scrap of paper as I really wanted it to reflect who I am.  First I thought perhaps I could do something with water and a palm tree within the heart, but then when I stumbled upon the idea of a Bandaid I had to do it.

My heart is white on white with a blue heart that has a little Bandaid on it.  The Bandaid is a tube of floral fabric that I managed to find a spot of plain print just big enough to make the Bandaid and then I hand stitched the little dots over the padded area.  For the applique I took two pieces of the same fabric sewed them together cut one side open turned it and then carefully stitched the hear down so that my stitches only show on the back.  If you know what method that is tell me and then we'll both know.

I still need to add my name and location and then true the entire block to 6.5" but after I do it will be off to Karen in New Zealand for Myra.

Red Star Quilt Extension Update 1

The Red Christmas Star Quilt is such a heavy quilt!  I made it with Warm and White originally and it makes my muscles protest every time I move it around the machine, a big round of applause to people who make quilts this size on a regular basis!  So far I have attached all of my extension strips both to the front and to the back on all sides of the quilt.  I have also quilted two of the sides leaving me half done with the quilting.  Here's how it's looking (full of pins and only close-ups for now)

Before Quilting

After Quilting

 I was inspired by Sue's Swirls so much I tried to apply it to the red quilt.  I knew before I started the quilting would be demanding but I felt it would be worth the efforts.  Somewhere along the way I lost a bit of the wind look to my quilting as I thought more about my mother and her likes and dislikes.  She has never done well in cold climates so my swirls look a bit more like crashing waves.  To move over the quilt I found sometimes I had gaps in my quilting - tiny ones to small for a swirl but a little bit bigger than I'd like to leave empty so I started filling those with a bit of flame work, nothing complicated and perhaps nothing very noticeable but to me it created a fire and ice theme.

At this point the quilt has many pins.  I remove the pins as I quilt but there are always stray ones that stay in, so I try really hard to place a pin cushion like this away from cats, children, and grownups alike.  That has always worked out well in the past as I seem to be the only one that gets poked by the pins.  This is the biggest quilt that has ever been in my house and of course it's willfully working on being even bigger so it's harder to keep out of the way.  As you can see my efforts to keep family members (or meowbers in this case) from harm haven't worked out so well.

Perhaps Tiny thinks she knows best!

SewCal I can Do it! Christmas Quilt Show

LOL!  When SewCal did her pets on quilts I was so fussy over my photos that I couldn't just settle and enter already.  Well she's doing it again.  This time is a Christmas Quilt Show and that I can do.  Sheesh how many Christmas Quilts have I made!?!?  Wish I'd been keeping track after almost 3 years of quilting I can't even tell you how many I've made.  Opps!  I'm bird walking aren't I?

I highly recommend you visit her blog and check this contest out because the sponsors she rounded up!  WOW!

Row Robin Front

Now on to my entry!  This is the Christmas Row Robin Quilt.  I hosted Jan. 2009-July 2009.  The theory was that would allow more than enough time to get it quilted in time for Christmas.  Well I the hostess missed it and my quilt wasn't ready for Christmas 2009.  That fact must have put a bee in my rear because I did finish it for this Christmas.

Quilting Detail

This is freemotion quilted with Hearts and Loops in blue thread.  I should have gone with white or at least a thinner thread but I didn't so look out 40wt blue because it showed all of my flaws, but I think that's okay.  I loved putting it away with the other Christmas things this past summer and am looking forward to putting it back on my wall shortly.

Back Before Quilting

I never took a picture of the back once it was quilted so here it is not quilted.  It is a reversible quilt and the missing picture surely must mean I was embarrassed by the quilting. Silly me.  Oh yes and that line of teal in the bottom row I fixed that before I basted it together and matched the seam because I knew I couldn't live with the strange miss-alignment there.

Reguardless of what my memories tell me about the quilting I am really looking forward to getting this quilt out along with all of my other Christmas items.  I decorate nearly every room in my home so I have at least two or three things that go in each room, I can hardly wait to see what this quilt looks like all decked out in the living room.

As a Lover of Christmas I joined in Sue's Christmas Quilt-a-long this year as well; I think I only missed one month and that was due to the crazy kind of headache that messes with your equilibrium.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the Show.

Christmas Quilt-a-long Session 4

Yesterday was Sue's Quilt-a-long and even though I sort of knew that fact early last week I spaced it until about 11 am yesterday.  I had fully planned to make Christmas gifts - I even knew what I planned to make but a bag of fabric waiting by my sewing machine distracted me and I ended up making this Christmas dress for Jessica, I used bits and pieces of different patterns in order to achieve the look I was going for.  The back has two little horizontal strips which I think are just adorable.  Of course to see them DD would have to wear her hair up which she never does but that's okay.

I also made this little pencil skirt as far as kids go something like this is a huge piece of cake.  I looked at the fabric and it looked about right so I sewed it together made a self casing for the elastic right from the top of the fabric and then hemmed it.  I have to say I'm a little jealous over it.  Would have loved enough fabric to make this for me but alas not enough fabric and to many curves.  LOL!  Something for me would have surely needed darts or some other horrors so I got off easy making this for my five year old.  Both items are stretch fabric so I think I'm one step closer to getting over my issues with knits.  Sheesh that's a lot of cat hair.  Oh well truth be told she liked both items so much she wore them from the minute they were finished until she woke up this morning.  She wanted to wear them to bed to and I figured why not?

Golly look at the hem on my pencil skirt.  You'd never have guessed how much fuss I had to go through over these two items!

I hope everyone had a Happy Christmas Quilt-a-long Day I know my daughter and I did.  For dinner I took out leftover Chili and made Chili Mac out of it, I was actually quite happy with how yummy it came out!

Boot Straps

I guess I've been in a bit of a quilting funk lately.  The Red quilt is coming along just as I'd hoped and I'm in the process of quilting it, the tutorial will follow it's completion.  The weather has turned colder here and that has me in the mood for Christmas shopping. 

Do you know how hard it is to Christmas shop only to come up against a shipping cost total to put your entire purchase on hold?  I know it seems so strange but it's okay to pay $30 something but it's not okay to pay $40 something for the same items.  My family comes from all walks of life so not even Amazon or ebay or Kmart can be my one stop shop.

So I gave up on looking for a while to dwell.  When I dwell I clean.  It's a nasty trait I picked up from my mother during my childhood.  I remember the days of look out mom's cleaning - oh so very well.  Lucky for my family I was home alone at the time.

Because of my disability I clean while sitting on the floor.  I start by cleaning a patch to sit and then sitting there while I clean outward from that spot (and you wonder why my DH doesn't like me to clean?) it works for me but when I'm already a bit sad about what I can and can't do being on the floor makes the perfect place to get down in the dumps and really start feeling sorry for myself.  The "I hates" started in my head started when I was nearly done in the kitchen.  I then made my unhappy way with the vac down the hallway and by the time I got to the bathroom door I'd pulled myself out of my funk.  Thankfully!  It's easy when you come to the end of a lintany and say to yourself  "So what are you going to do about it?" and that's when I decided. 

Oh now I'm nearly teary to admit what I did.  I listed all of my quilts that are finished that don't have owners on Ebay!  I know!  It's sad, but isn't living hidden away in a box sad too?  Isn't it sad that four quilts selling at $25 could help my Christmas?  I listed them and I stand by my listings. 

In case you're wondering my ebay name is jcelestesewingmom; that's "J Celeste Sewing Mom" all smushed together.  The quilts I listed are Christmas Hodgepodge, Patchwork Swirl, Feathered Star and Buckeye Beauty.  I hope they sell well for I'm going to use every last penny earned on our Christmas.  LOL, sort of makes me wish they were bigger! 

The First Act: The Pain

This is the quilt I was working on for the "What would you look like if you were a quilt?"  Yes, clearly I missed the deadline.  But somewhere along the lines this challenge became more than a challenge and thereby more than fabric, thread, and a deadline.  After all it's the quilt of me and thereby no matter how deep the river once you start to swim you must continue.

The Red of this quilt is my chronic pain.  As you can see it infiltrates through everything I say do and touch.  But while a part of me it is not me and thereby the red and the blues never blend only intertwine.

The Dark blues are my core the deepest part of me and yes I feel pain there too, but just like an ocean current I move through it living with it as it ebbs and flows.

That's all for now future acts will include The Snake, and The Meerkat.  Did you think maybe for a second my pain was over this border?!?!  Oh yes!  I counted all of the pieces before starting (hundreds) and my husband color coated the "segments" so I could make them "block style", man oh man flannel is not seam ripper friendly!  Thankfully I put the sides together first and then moved on to the more complicated top and bottom, can't imagine if I'd started there.

If anyone is looking for updates on the Red Star Extension I'm waiting on the fabric and plan to be starting that within the week.