Christmas day 2020

 There are two of us for Christmas dinner but a small, stuffed turkey is roasting and there are yams in orange sauce (thank you Betty Crocker), brussel sprouts, potatoes for mashing, and gravy will be made and, possibly, one more veggie.  

The baking is done and I forgot to take pictures but, we have decorated sugar cookies, Christmas cake (yum), brownies, Dot's cherry squares with fluffy icing, mince tarts,Grandma J's butterhorns (½ recipe) and shortbread.  And of course, sausage rolls in the fridge. Normally, at this time of year, I would have my 3 tiered cake plate on the dining room table full of goodies but with two of us, containers with lids is better for keeping everything fresh. 

So, am hoping that I will get a good week of stitching in from now until the end of the year?  I do have a few finishes that were close when I posted 10 days ago and are now finished. The first one is a quilt that I saw on Creatin in the Sticks and figured the block wouldn't be hard to make.  It had to be set on point because it looked "not so good" with a straight set.  This was a set of jelly rolls that I really didn't know what to do with.  If I did it again, I would leave out the outside white row on each block. This Jelly roll was quite old so glad to have it used up.

My cookie cut quilt.  I love this quilt... well, I love the fabrics! I used the "Carolyn" block of cutting and stitching fat quarters and had to add in a few extras to get to the right size.  These fat quarters were in a Fat Quarter Christmas box a few years ago so... counts as a UFO!

And, a stash buster quilt.  I had a few 10" Christmas squares and am sure that they were from 2009 or older?  They were part of the fabrics I brought to Arizona from home to stitch during the winter season and they just sat on my UFO list for a long time.  I had to cut more to get enough tumblers to make a lap size quilt.  A real jumble of odd fabrics but, scrappy is good!  Most of these are leftovers from other projects and I can pick out fabrics that are in table runners and toppers that I bring out every season.

One of the fun things I did this year was to purchase a Christmas Box from Missouri star.  The postage to Canada was really 'cheap' and I know their boxes are awesome... and I wasn't disappointed.  So many perfect and great gifts.  They put every gift for the month of December into a brown paper bag (there were a few exceptions) and the number for the day of the month is on them.  This year I was so good and am proud that I actually had patience and opened ONE a day.  A couple of my favourites were a huge ceramic button that is a mug coaster and perfect for me to put my mug on my cutting mat by my sewing machine.  The other one is a huge thimble that is a container and again, love it next to my sewing machine. 

I do have a picture of my mince tarts and my sausage rolls.  Will have to take more pictures before all the baking is gone!  Some of it hidden where I might even forget about it for a few weeks?

We did have snow but it meant sunshine and cold temperatures.  I loved it even though I had to shovel the driveway (because my husband had skin cancer surgery on the back of his hand a very large skin graft which is healing slowly). 

The snow is almost all gone with green grass showing and baking is done.  Christmas dinner will get eaten this evening and then... time for ME!  Sewing, cleaning, tidying and organizing my end to this year and being ready to tackle what 2021 brings.  I want to be ready.  This is such a different year for us and we are missing our friends in Arizona and the sunshine and warmth but, nice to be home as well.  However, it is an alone year no matter where we all are and I wish you a very safe day and hopefully, two weeks from now, we will find out that we did great keeping our distances and numbers for Covid are down.  And even better, us seniors will be finding out when our vaccination turn will happen.  And I am hoping for lots of sewing time and also being able to get together with my quilting friends, guild meetings to happen and sewing retreats!  All great things to be excited about.  

Merry Christmas from the wet (snowy) Pacific west coast. 

 

Mid December and hoping we are near the end of the Pandemic.

 I am struggling to get things done and daily, I have lists and at the end of the day I wonder where my time went.  It is most likely my age?  Time does seem to fly by with little accomplished yet, my days are full and busy. 

We are now walking daily at 1pm if we aren't heading to the tennis courts.  So far, we have only missed one day and we have a good excuse for that!  My husband had Moh's surgery on the back of his hand.  It sounds simple but it wasn't.  All the tendons, nerves and blood vessels run through the back of your hand and so it was a delicate surgery that took time and of course, his hand is sore (and it is his right hand).  He also had to have a skin graft and for some reason, decided in the crook of his elbow would be perfect, on his LEFT arm.  So, poor guy has a lousy hand and an elbow that doesn't want to bend happily.  Plus, another iron infusion so he is feeling a little zapped out. 

I have finally got Christmas cards and gifts mailed out to my family and friends.  That took me far longer than I remember in the past but then, I usually do my local cards in October, before we head south and leave them for my neighbour to mail for me.  And do a second batch while in Arizona.  

Now, I have great plans to bake cookies and treats.  One day at a time.  I also have 2 Christmas quilts to get quilted and bound.  It wouldn't be much fun doing them in January although I would be a year ahead? 

Three quilts were finished for donation to the Sto:lo nation for their newborn babies. 

My Christmas cakes are made and soaking in brandy.  One more week and I will bring one out and cut it and do a taste test.

Our house is decorated and I set up my porcelain village for the first time in 14 years!

Three finished quilts that I quilted in November but got the binding done in December.  The first is a 3 yard quilt that is fabrics totally from my stash.  Well aged fabrics!

This Ohio star is a true UFO.  It was started about 4 years ago and the blocks were large and I wasn't sure how many blocks to make.  My friends convinced me to make enough so it was 9 blocks.  Done and ready to be donated.

This is my Twizzle quilt.  It was an exercise in working with half rectangles and I now know how to make them efficiently and to heck with all the various rulers I bought and tried.

A few things made for around the house.  I needed one more pillowcase, a little larger and a table topper for the kitchen table.  All of my Christmas placemats are in my 'other' house so made two sets for us to use this season. The pillowcase looks funny... but it is folded in half.

I had purchased a panel of Christmas masks and the adult ones are made.  There are a bunch of them for children but I don't know any to make masks for... any takers? Free to a good home.

I am not writing a formal December list of things to do.  I should so my brain can slow down but, one day at a time here and am enjoying my decorated home. 

Surprise... we are spending our autumn and Christmas season here on the rainy wet coast.

 There is a first time for everything and is old is now new again for us.  I am dragging out my containers of Christmas decorations that have been stacked under the stairs for 10 years and before that, were in the attic at the farmhouse for about 2 or 3 years.  I did open a few last season when we were home for 10 days over Christmas, just make the house a bit festive.  However, last year, I did decorate in Mesa, Arizona and so we had our normal festive atmosphere there.  

So, Christmas season begins  and while we have enduring weeks of never ending rain, we have had some brilliant days where the courts were dry enough to get out on them and we now have a great forecast for this week, beginning tomorrow. 

This has been a typical day for us and we are determined to walk daily if we can't play tennis.  So, we walk by the courts.  UGH. One day when it was dry enough for us to use, a city worker showed up so we had a delay while he blew the leaves off the court. 

In the quilting world, I did manage to get my steps completed for the Meadowland mystery for November.  All done and ready for the next step this Thursday.

 

 

I added a stencil to my wall.  I found this while cleaning up and thought that it was rather perfect to see daily. My white board is full and have had a good challenge for November.  It is looking much better, 3 weeks later!

This quilt got finished.  These are bento blocks that I originally made for a quilt of Valour but, there was a need for a quilt for a Silver Mother in our community. That means that she lost her son while he was serving in the Canadian Armed Forces.  So, while not a QOV, it is similar and went to someone who really needed a quilted hug.

This was a quilt made from a 'bag' of fabrics picked up at the Fraser Valley Modern guild morning where we had drop offs and things to grab from community quilts.  Ready for quilting. I was not really happy with the outcome but, once quilted, it will add some brightness to someone who needs a hug.

And a hiking day where I looked up at the steep hill ahead of me and I just climbed up a good distance already!

This quilt was started during our September retreat with the Wednesday Divas.  It was a jelly roll of assorted colours and fabrics that seemed totally unrelated to each other so I started stitching and makes half square triangles.  It is now quilted and bound.

These are the leftovers from the strip sets made for the quilt above.  I used a white fabric for the half square triangles so interesting to see the difference?

The evening of the full moon... clear enough for us to see it.  A lovely break from rain.

Lights are up on our patio and the sky to the west looked promising. 

Two quilts made for the modern guild that are ready for quilting and binding.

This is the quilt made from the charm packs I had on hand.  The November challenge for Heartstrings was using charm packs. This will be a quilt of Valour and on the list for December.

A close up of the blocks all made using Northcott O Canada fabrics.

My Canada 52 weeks blocks are done... all put together and ready for quilting and binding... another December project.

There was a call from one of our Wednesday quilt group that the local native band needs some baby quilts so I decided to pull out some fat quarters and make 3 quilts.

And found these Christmas strips that I will be great for some projects. 

So, a few quilt tops ready for quilting and binding starting tomorrow.

And containers of Christmas decorations waiting to be opened and gone through.  It has been a long time since I touched these and am looking forward to a lot of memories that will come bubbling up.

Pile of quilts that are quilted and on the table ready for binding.  The bindings are all made and one a day will get them done quickly. 

November 2020

1.       Quilt 2 preemies

2.       Quilt Christmas tumblers UFO

3.       Quilt Christmas framed fat quarters cookie UFO

4.       Quilt child’s white/leftover hsts

5.       Quilt framed jolly bars  UFO

6.       Quilt Cdn squares 3 yd quilt

7.       Quilt Twizzle UFO needs binding

8.       Quilt Ohio Star UFO Needs binding

9.       Quilt gray/bright jelly roll hst

10.   Quilt hourglass jelly roll UFO

11.   Quilt Stepping stones   needs binding 

12.   Quilt fat quarters framed Heartstrings Jan

13.   Cdn Happy Blocks

14.   Solstice (UFO)

15.   Aunt Gracie’s charms (UFO)

16.   Mors bags: food  themes

17.   10 min tablerunner (UFO)

18.   Row by Row 2016 moose scenic (UFO)

19.   Hot pads – jelly roll/rope

20.   Mystery step 3 Meadowland

21.   FVMQG: Make #1 Nov  made 2

22.   FVMQG: Make #2 Nov

23.   Diamond tote bag

24.   Tshirt quilt

25.   Start an embroidery project

26.   Start a knitting project

27.   Heartstrings charm quilt split 9 patch QOV

28.   Stolo Baby 1 needs binding

29.   Stolo Baby 2  needs binding

30.   Stolo Baby 3  needs binding

31.   Bento box quilt for silver star mum UFO