It's Going to be a White Christmas

 Little lantern light my way.

Well, I no longer have to dream about having a White Christmas, it arrived during the night and it really is beautiful and here are some pictures to prove it. It was a gentle and moist snow and it stuck to everything, bushes, trees, power lines, weeds, grasses and etc. The pictures above are my Redbud tree then and now, hmmm, I think I actually prefer the "then" but the "now" isn't all that bad, really!!!

Well, I just got a phone call from grandson, Nathan, and he thinks his sour-dough sponge needs some attention so I best go help him, hmmmm and pretend that I know what I'm doing..guess we 'might' have sour-dough bread sometime in the next day or two.. I'll let you know how it comes out.  I want to wish anyone of is reading this "A Very Merry Christmas Eve and Christmas Day". Until next time, I hope you will have a "Stitches" kind of day, they are the best.  Love

And the Stockings Were Filled

Here are the knitted stockings that I started making when our first child was born, for her first Christmas. And I made a stocking for each family member to celebrate their first Christmas in our family. Kids, spouses, and grandkids. I tell my girls that I am done knitting stockings but will gladly teach them how so they can make their extended family stockings. I haven't met with much enthusiam from them YET! My how time has flown, the first sock is 49 years old this year, shhhhhhhh!!  They are really big socks, I don't know what I was thinking!! So now I stuff the toes with plastic bags and there is still plenty of room for goodies.

Here they are all loaded with surprises, everything in them is really kind of dorky but I will add the gift cards and that will make it worth it for everyone, I hope..

Aren't they cute? I can hear them talking, "okay, now we can just lay around here for a couple of days before we get gutted". Whew, I'm glad that over!! I hope where ever you are, that you are having a "Stitches" kind of day.

Another Christmas Quilt

I just had to post a couple of pictures of another one of my Christmas quilts for you to see. It's called  "And to All a Goodnight". The designer is Sue Garman of Kinship & Kompany. I finished this quilt about 5 years ago and really like it on the bed, too bad, so sad, that it only gets to be out such a short time. I think I will start celebrating Christmas in July and December both, only without all the hoopla. Sue Garman is the designer that has done the Block of the Months for The Quilt Show (Alex Anderson/Ricky Timms) and it is free if you are a members. This next years BOM looks like a real dandy, lots of piecing but very pretty.

I hope you like looking at my pictures of the Christmas quilts. I have a couple of more and I might put them on in a day or two, in between batches of Nut Brittle and a couple of batches of cookies. I hope you are having a "Stitches" kind of day. Bye for now.

When you need a really good book.....

I just finished reading "Sarah's Key" and I thought it was a great book. I learned about the 1942 Paris Vel' d"Hiv" roundup of thousands of Jews by the French police and how heart wrenching it had to be for the Jewish families to live and die in those times. I had not read any books by Tatiana de Rochnay and I'm always looking for a new author to read, she did not disappoint me at all. This book is emotional, haunting and unforgettable. I finished it several days ago and cannot quite thinking about it. I highly recommend it to anyone. It would make a great book club choice.  Now I'm reading another book of hers "A Secret Kept" and it's been a good one too. I'll let you know more about it when I finish.  I just had to throw my 2 cents worth in about these books so you would know..I hope you have a "Stitches" kind of day..

More pictures of my Christmas quilts

I said I would post more pictures of the "Welcome to the North Pole" quilt but I got waylaided for a few days. Last Thursday, I had to have a new Pacemaker/Defibrillator "installed", the battery in mine was getting low and I was hearing an alarm every morning at 7:00. I am glad that it is done and everything went well and it's healing nicely. Anyway, enough of that and onward to the pictures. Like I said earlier, I love this quilt and only wish I could leave it up longer,,,well, I guess I could, it's my quilt, right? But it would probably look a little out of place on the 4th of July...enjoy the pictures..

 

I think I have a lot to learn about uploading these pictures and getting them placed where I want them. Sometimes they cooperate and sometimes they don't, oh well, I don't think anyone is looking at them anyway   :-)

It's been a while but I will try to do better!!

I was gone to Nebraska for Thanksgiving and just haven't gotten back into blogging since I returned. Christmas decorating is on my mind but I just can't seen to get into gear. I do have my Christmas wall-hanging up and it is one of my most favorite things that I have made. A friend, Phyllis and I decided in January 2007, that we would get together about once a week and make the Piece O' Cake "Welcome to the North Pole" quilt. We both made our own quilt but pulled our own fabrics and shared with each other. We had a lot of fun deciding on the fabric and doing our weekly blocks together. We worked on them until about October 2007, then they had to be quilted, then we embellished, wow, we were always on the prowl for embellishments to add to our finished quilts. I will try to post a few pictures and show you my quilt.

I used some of my grandmother's buttons for some of the door knobs, an earring from my grand-daughter,(she had lost the other one) and many beads and embellishments. I will post some of the other pictures later. I would highly recommend anyone doing this kind of a quilt with a friend or two. I am working on another quilt with 2 friends and will tell more about it at a later date. I hope you are having a "Stitches" kind of day.

A nice rememberance for me

This little cutie was given to me by my late husband's cousin, whose mother passed away several weeks ago. She was a classy lady and one of my favorite aunts. She was 94 and resided in a care center but always had her hair done, make-up on, wore great jewelry and loved her diamonds.  :-) I will miss her very much. The picture is a replica of a chimney flue cover and the print is by Bessie Pease Gutman. She always had this hanging above her bed and I have admired it for years and I am very thankful the family gave it to me. I treasure it.   
I spent so much time on the pc yesterday trying to get this blog up and going that today, I have got to get busy today. I need to make some little curtains for a grandson's house that he is moving into. The fabric is looks like a lot of antler's piled together..he is an outdoors man and I hope he likes my choice. I need to get them done so I can take them to him on Thanksgiving. Welll, I best get going. I hope you have a "Stitches" day.

It's been a long day!!

This has been a long, exasperating day trying to get this first post ready to publish. I think I have learned a few things..whew!!!  I am going to back up to Tuesday and tell you that I went to the Cottonwood Quilt Guild meeting and David Taylor was our program. If you aren't familiar with David and want to know more, go to his web site: www:davidtaylor.com
and check out his quilts. I think they are beyond words and he has only been quilting since 1999. I have been quilting since the early 1970's and I couldn't hold a candle to his quilts. This is a picture of one of my favorite quilts that he showed.

I know that I need to start thinking "outside the box" and try something new more often. 
On Tuesday evening, I went to my local guild, "The Piecemaker's". It was our Christmas meeting and we had fun and games and food.  I think this is enough for now but I'll be back with more later.