My Weekend Projects

This past weekend was a lazy one at my house. It was cold outside, so I spent a little time with my sewing machine once again. I pieced the backing for a quilt top I made several years ago. I really am trying to work on some of those UFOs I have in my sewing room! Now if I can just get the top, batting and backing layered. Since this quilt is a scrappy one, I'm planning to try my hand at machine quilting it on my regular sewing machine. I'll just be quilting in-the-ditch. Here's a pic of the top.

I also finished a pillow top that I had started for DD back in Nov. The pattern is called "Barrister's Block". I found the pattern on Marcia Hohn's Quilter's Cache. I really enjoyed making this block and just might try a scrappy quilt using this pattern....someday. I pulled the red, blue, and gray from my stash. Those are the colors from the college where she received her law degree. I thought the gray just made a nice background color.....and the dark charcoal borders just made the colors more vibrant. I had never tried using gray as a background color before, but I will do so again after the results of this project. I machine quilted this pillow top by stitching in the ditch.
On my to-do list for today is to clean up the mess I made in my sewing room over the weekend. I pulled several fabrics to find the one I used for the backing I pieced. I now have to put back everything I pulled

Does My Sewing Machine Work?

With the lack of posts about any stitching I have been doing lately...you would probably think my sewing machine no longer works. However today I sat down for a few minutes and sewed these pillowcases.
I bought this fabric when DD was in college to make a pillowcase for her and her roommate. They both liked coffee and they enjoyed getting the pillowcases. I've had the leftover fabric laying in a drawer for about 6 1/2 yrs. now and each time I would open the drawer....I would think that I really should make another pair of pillowcases with the leftover fabric. Today was the day.....I finally got it done.........and I found out that my sewing machine really does still work!

2009

Once again my nest is empty. I struggle as the kids leave and go their separate ways because I know it will be a long time before I see them again since one is in TX and the other in MD. I did get a little extra time with DD as we traveled to TX with her to visit DH's elderly parents who also live down there. FIL is 87 and not in real good health. While there we got to see a lot of family that we haven't seen in years. We all enjoyed the visit.

I was happy to come home though. After having lived away from the heat and humidity of south TX, I've become a softy. I hate that hot, sweaty feeling. Somehow, 80 degrees in Dec. no longer seems "Christmasy" to me. I've become accustom to having cold weather during the holidays....and I actually look forward to it each year. I'm one of those sick people who actually like snow and cold weather. Because I was gone, I'm so far behind. I still have outside decorations to take down....and decorations inside as well.

I've thought a little about what I want to accomplish in 2009. First of all, I want to work very hard on shedding a few pounds and doing the very best I can to lower those all important numbers associated with my diabetes. I am going to concentrate on completing some quilts that I have all the blocks complete, but not put together. They were BOM projects done through a local quilt shop. I will share pics as I work on those. I'm going to limit new projects that I start, but I will allow myself to start some new ones if I feel like it is something I really, really want to do. I want my sewing to be fun stuff! Since I am the "bookkeeper" in my family, I want to get my paper work in order and shred the unnecessary clutter that always accumulates. This spring there is also a little outside painting in my future. The porch rails need a new coat of paint. And then as spring comes on, I have plans for a small garden. I hope I can also do a little better at posting to my blog. Over these holidays, I put family first because they are important.

I'm hoping for a productive 2009!

The nest.....

Oh what a happy quilter I am! My nest is temporarily filled again with both of my little chickadees. DS home from Maryland and DD home from TX. All is well and I can relax and enjoy these holidays. The stress will return when both have to travel back to their respective states!

I've been sitting in my recliner this afternoon doing a little applique. Why? Because I deserve it after doing this!
Yep, that's right.....I cleaned the driveway so DH could drive right in tonight when he comes home from work. I did it with a snow shovel and my little muscles in my fat little arms! At least I can feel like I got a workout doing it. Now this guy who lives down the street from me.....he did it the lazy way. If you enlarge the picture, you can see him in the middle of the picture.
Bet he doesn't feel as good as I do after that workout I had!

This snow really adds to my Christmas decorations out front. I don't do a lot, but snow really adds the true seasonal touch.
I'm surprised the decorations are still there after all the wind we had over the weekend.

In my last post, I shared some pictures of ornaments and my tree. How about a look at some of my other decorations! I don't do elaborate decorating, just enough to make it feel like Christmas.

I collect Nutcrackers. None of mine are expensive originals. I just look for ones that I like and I look for variety. These guys sit in my entry.
I put the rest of the collection on my mantel.
My MIL always had what she called little pixies hidden around her house and on her tree. She had the kids look for them. Several years ago I found one just like hers at a little variety store, so I bought him. He sits on the railing at the foot of my stairs.









Later I found a couple more of the little pixies and they also help decorate the stairs.










See the blob of brown in the photo above....well, it's this guy.....hanging around on the railing opposite the pixie.
I've put my table topper on the dining table. I pieced and handquilted it several years ago. I won the centerpiece at a Christmas party last weekend. It's fresh greenry and smells so nice.
And DH brought me this poinsettia, so I set a few other holiday items on the counter with it.
Last year I found this wooden tree. I stained and finished it and this year put a few decorations on it. It sits in my sunroom.
I have this Norfolk Pine in my living room and each year I put bird ornaments on it. It's difficult to see some of them with the drooping greenry. This plant doesn't look so good this year. I need to give it some TLC!


And this year I found these bells and I decided they should hang on my backdoor.
I'm a fairly ecclectic person and it shows in my choice of decorations. I have one more thing to put out. That's our nativity scene. I'll share that when I put it up.

Life has been so busy at my house. We made a trip in mid-Nov. to Austin, Texas for the official swearing in ceremony for DD. It was so nice and DH and I are so proud of her.

We rushed back home so I could begin to prepare for Thanksgiving......and so DH could return to the deer lease for the last 5 days of the hunt. Hunting season here is 10 days and that swearing in ceremony was 4 days after opening day. He went and hunted 2 days, came home and we drove down and back (about 752 miles each way) over the next 3 days, then he went back and finished his hunt. Isn't he a good dad?? That's why I love him! Oh, and he did get a deer. We have it processed and I use it in place of beef in my cooking.

I made it past company over Thanksgiving, and I've moved on to Christmas decorations and preparations. I put my lights up outside the weekend after Thanksgiving before the cold and snow came our way. By the way, it is 9 degrees F here this morning and we have 4 inches of snow on the ground. It's bright and sunny, but yesterday the snow was coming down sideways and it was so dreary looking.









I put my Christmas tree up last Sat. We have had this artificial tree for 19 yrs. It is getting a bit shabby looking and I had thought about buying a new one, but decided to use it one more year and try to buy the new one right after Christmas....hopefully on sale! Here's my tree.









Hope you will not mind tilting your head as I'm not good enough with the computer to figure out how to rotate the picture. Looks like my kitty had fun last night. See the one ornament on the floor.

Since I've given you a look at the tree, I'll show you a few of the ornaments on it. I decided this year that I wouldn't get out the really nice ornaments. I decided to decorate with a few glass balls, all the homemade ornaments, and those ornaments that I used in the years when the kids were little and the ornaments were things that didn't matter if they broke. One of the first ornaments we hang each year is very old and is always hung high on the tree. My husband made it when he was a little boy. For those who may not recognize it, the ornament was made with one of the old rubber jar seals and a Christmas card. This has hung on every tree we've had in the 32 yrs. we've been married. It also hung many, many years on my MIL's tree until she gave it to me.






I've made several ornaments through the years. Here's a look at a few of them.
I really enjoyed doing the cross-stitch nutcrackers. I collect nutcrackers and made several of these ornaments when I found the pattern. I also enjoy crocheting. The snowflake ornament is made with size 30 cotton thread and is about 1.5 inch in diameter.

I made 28 of these little pony felt ornaments when my son was in first grade. The teacher asked me to make them and then she put a candy cane in them so they looked like a stick horse. She gave one to each child as a gift. The pony still looks good after all these years. DS is 26.









Since I like to garden, I couldn't resist buying this ornament several years ago. I hang it low since my kitty can't hurt it.











My kids often made ornaments at school and gave them to me as gifts. DD made the little wooden bear with her picture and DS made the gingerbread bear with wiggly eyes. That one still smells so good!









With my children both planning to come home this Christmas, I wanted our tree to be one with lots of memories for them. What better way than some of those hodge-podge ornaments....many of which they made! It's beginning to feel like Christmas.

One last thing.....I used multi-colored lights on my tree this year. One child likes white lights and one child likes multi-colored lights. I just felt colorful this year when I selected the tree lights. To be fair, all the outside lights are white.

I've not been doing much stitching lately. Life has just been too busy. I'm hoping things will settle down a bit after the first of the year so I can get back to my unfinished quilting projects....and maybe have some finished items to share on this blog.