Happy New Year 2012

If it didn’t Bring you Joy,
Just Leave it Behind.
Let’s Ring in the New Year
With Good Things in Mind.
Let Every Bad Memory Go
That Brought Heartache and Pain.
And let’s Turn a New Leaf
With the Smell of New Rain.
Let’s Forget Past Mistakes
Making Amends for This Year.
Sending You These Greetings
To Bring you Hope and Cheer
Happy New Year!

Author Unknown

I wish you a safe, prosperous and Happy New Year!!!  Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day.....

Merry Christmas

It's going to be a great day here in Iowa, USA.  The sun is shining very bright and there is no snow on the ground or forecasted so travel will be good too.  I hope all of you have a great Christmas with your family and friends. Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day..

The Twelve Days of Christmas History Lesson

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas?

This week, I found out.

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.-

-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching,Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness,Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.'

Merry Christmas Everyone

A Christmas Postcard

Christmas Greetings from my house to yours!  This greeting is another old card out of my Grandmother's postcard scrapbook, it is literally falling apart but I don't want to try to put the cards in a new book so I handle it with care and leave it as it is..I hope to share more of these from time to time with you.  I am going to bake bread again today, the stockings are stuffed, the candy and goodies are made, at least all that I am going to do this year. It's time to get the house in order and have time to relax just a bit, and I hope you can do the same thing. Sew until next time, I best get busy and get that bread started.

My Tree is Not the Same Old Tree

My tree is not the same old tree that I have year after year..I decided that it was time to have a "themed" tree for once in my lifetime....so in September (believe it or not) I was at Hobby Lobby and they had a very good selection of ornaments and I decided I would have a silver, crystal (plexiglass), and white lights..I anxiously decorated the week after Thanksgiving and it turned out to be really glitzy and totally different for me...I like it but doubt that I will do it again next year, maybe every other year or so.   I feel so bad for all of my old family decorations, I can almost hear them crying and moaning about being left in the boxes..I missed going down memory lane when I put them on the tree. There are some very specials ones that have such memories for me and I really missed that.  I am thinking that I will have to put up another little tree and get some of the old decorations out of the box, just so I don't feel so guilty, my heart aches for them.  Does anyone else ever have weird thoughts like this??  I'm afraid that I am just going to have to do it!! In the meantime here are a few pictures of my 2011 tree, see what you think.  Maybe in a few days, I will be posting another tree with the other ornaments that are so sad, stay tuned!!!!

I think that next year I will have to have a Christmas quilt behind the tree!!!  I really like the dragonflies, they are so neat!!! And the pine cone, the cross, the swan, the bird, the heart and all the rest too!!  Gee, I think I like it better since I took the pictures!!  Well, I best go make another batch of nut brittle..I call it nut brittle because I make batches with dry roasted peanuts, cashews and smoked almonds..whoa, the smoked almond brittle is soooo good. I have made 4 batches so far and about 6 more to go..I will make a few batches every day until I'm finished.  I have GOT to quit eating it!!!!  Sew until next time, I hope you have a Stitches kind of day, fa la la, la la

A Quickie Doll Quilt

I have had two young men working at my house for the last week and they are really special workers, I think. They have been putting in replacement windows, fourteen of them to be exact. You get to know someone pretty good when they have been around that long, anyway I do.  They took all of my drapes, sheers, curtains and shades down so while I had the chance, I have washed and fluffed all of them. The "boys" have been troopers when it come to putting them back up and helped so much..I don't know many workers that would mess around with drapes and curtains like they did.  One of the guys has a little 16 month old girl, so I decided I wanted to make her a little doll quilt. after her Dad told me she got her first Barbie doll. Aaaagh!!!! That just didn't sound right to me for a 16 month old so the old grandma in me, came out..She will have a "baby doll" quilt now and I don't think Barbie will appreciate it one bit.  I'm going to ask if she has a baby doll to wrap in her quilt, if not, she needs one!!!!  I sure hope she likes her little quilt..I made it using the technique the Missouri Star Quilts had on one of their tutorials, called Summer in the Park. They used jelly rolls for their quilt but I just cut strips (1 1/2" wide) for the doll quilt. I made 2 strata's of each set, added a border and the quilt came out about 16 1/2" x 20 1/2" and I used the 30's reproduction fabrics..I can't wait to give it away.





The Back

I hope you are having a "Stitches" kind of day at your house,,,sew until next time, take care!!



Comment #5, Quilter's Delight is the Winner of my Christmas Blog Give Away

I want to thank everyone who left comments on the Christmas Blog Hop that I participated in, they were very appreciated. The winner of the 100 Blocks magazine was comment #5, Quilter's Delight and  I will be contacting her soon. Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of weekend.

Let the Blog Tour Begin!!!

I am participating in the 1st Annual Quilt Blog that was organized by Sally Johnson of Sally's Quilting Corner.  Our blog hop will be active from 7:00 a.m. (EasternTime) on Friday until Saturday at 7:00 p.m. (EasternTime), only 18 hours. There are just a few of us and we would love it if you would "hop" to our blogs and check the quilts that we have posted for you to look at.  I have posted some pictures of Christmas quilts that I have made over the years. I have a little "blog candy" to give away too, its the Quiltmaker "100 Blocks" Volume 4, a  special edition magazine. You will need to become one of my followers (if you already are a follower, great!) and leave a comment on this post. 

 

Here are some pictures of my favorite Christmas quilt. It is called "Welcome to the North Pole" and is a pattern from "Piece O' Cake" designs. It was so much fun to make and I made it with a friend and that makes it even more special. I hope you like it and don't forget that you can click on the picture and it should enlarge it. Thanks for looking and at the bottom of this post is the list of others that have participated so scroll down and check their blogs and pictures out too.

Mr. & Mrs. Claus' house

North Pole Bakery





Jerry's Cars & Trucks--------Sandy's Quilt Shop





The Reindeer Barn

Santa & Welcome---------The Marble Maker's

Wang's North Pole Carry Out





Royal Toy Works---Candy Cane Factory--Hats & Mittens



Elves Recreation Center

Welcome to the North Pole Quilt

Here is another one that I really enjoyed making several years ago, called "And to All a Goodnight" It is a pattern designed by Sue Garman and is still available.

And just a couple more items that I made.

Christmas Tree skirt, I made 3 of these for gifts for my kids.

This was a mystery quilt by Debbie Caffery

I wish to take this moment to thank all of the people who made comments and who took the time to come and visit us for out first Blog Tour of Quilts.  I want to especially thank all of the participants who took time out of their busy holiday schedule to make projects or just posted projects on their sites so we could enjoy looking at their wonderful creations.