The Amaryllis with the wax coated bulb is almost ready to bloom, probably 2 more days for all of the flowers to open.
I got some of the triangles for the border on the Flock of Geese quilt sewn.
I tried to take a clear photo of a baby in a new bouncy seat but this being the best of 4 photos is still a little blurry. He was really enjoying it. It is great to have some little children at the Christmas party again.
The 3 year old was trying on his new snow pants and coat and he heard me open a can of Dr. Pepper. I poured most of it in my glass and gave him the can with about an ounce left in it. Here he is getting the last drop out. He was such a good boy opening his gifts and really looking at and enjoying each one. He crashed about mid afternoon and took a good nap.
Merry Christmas! I know.....this Santa is pretty strange.
Now I can show what I have been sewing for Christmas. This stack of pillowcases went to the east coast.
This stack of pillowcases will go to the party today. I let everyone choose the one they want instead of deciding for them.
The top two in the stack above are shown here with the PJ bottoms I made for my 3 year old great grandson. Altogether I used 19 yards of flannel. My granddaughter used 4 yards of flannel on her sewing day with me last week. That still leaves enough flannel to make at least a dozen quilts and many more pillowcases. However I'm glad to have reduced the stash by 23 yards.
I delivered the newest Christmas stocking to my granddaughter yesterday. She had a hook all ready for it.
Here is a closer look at her stocking. I made it in the late 1980s when I was still doing a lot of counted cross stitch. It is the only all cross stitch stocking that I did. The next 2 grandchildren got cross stitch cuffs on their stockings.
I did bindings on mug rugs last night while I watched TV.
It took me a little over 3 1/2 hours to do 10 bindings by machine. That comes out to about 22 minutes each.
If I had finished them by hand they would have taken about 45 minutes each minimum.
I quilted 5 more mug rugs a couple nights ago so they will get trimming and binding soon.
It was -3 degrees when I went to bed late last night. Thursday is supposed to be the coldest day and then snow again.
I didn't accomplish much yesterday. I did quilt another batch of mug rugs. I'm using 12 wt. thread, a size 80 topstitching needle, and a 4.0 length stitch. The piece of fabric at the right is the backing on 4 of these. I have several batiks that never seem to work into a project so they become backings.
I don't do much decorating for Christmas because no one comes to my house to see it. I did get the box down with the Christmas dish towels and fingertip towels and table runners. This ornament never got put away from last year. My daughter gave it to me about 35 years ago. It is made of very thin painted metal and is one of my favorites.
This little handmade Santa sits on top of a Z for zebra block that a friend gave to me many years ago. The Laurel Burch lion stands behind it. I will put out a few more things tomorrow.
We got a little snow yesterday afternoon and more is expected today, maybe around 8". It is going to be warmer today, right at freezing after 20s for a couple days. I filled the bird feeders and put out more suet for the woodpeckers yesterday afternoon so I won't have to put on tall boots yet.
I finished my great grandson's stocking at 10:30 last night. His name is a little too high on the cuff but I doubt it will make any difference to him.
Finally I'm using some of this cute kid's Christmas print.
I got my gifts mailed to out of state family and baked a batch of Spritz cookies yesterday. Today I need to wrap gifts for the party tomorrow and bake some requested goodies.
We had our second monthly sewing day yesterday since the 4th Thursday falls on Christmas. My new project is a flannel quilt with 4.5" squares that I cut when I made the 4 flannel quilts at the beginning of this year. I cut a few more squares on Wednesday so I could make it a little larger. I will save this to work on in January at our next sewing day.
I finally made the decision that the Christmas stocking for my great grandson would be denim and machine embroidered. This design took over 2 hours to sew out. It had 22 thread changes so I was "on call" for a long time. I made 2 batches of Chex mix while it sewed.
I only have 3 days to come up with an idea for a Christmas stocking for the newest member of the family. The party is on Sunday. My two friends are coming over to sew today so I will play around with some ideas while they are here. I have a tutorial for making a Christmas stocking here. The one I was building in the tutorial was for this little guy's dad when he joined the family party.
One of my friends stopped by yesterday with this gift for me. We have had many discussions about brown sugar and storage and she has had good luck with this one. There is a terra cotta ring that you soak in water that goes in there to keep the sugar soft. This squarish shape will fit nicely on the shelf too.
Our church sewing circle supports the women's shelter at a mission in a nearby town. We give Christmas gifts in stockings that we make. I cut out 12 large ones for the children and 19 smaller ones for the ladies.
I stitched them with gold thread and a feather stitch by machine. The metallic thread kept breaking and finally the 4th brand is working, no shredding or breaking on 8 stockings so far. I have to have them done by Monday afternoon for our sew in at the church.
I went to Wal-m*rt yesterday morning and I checked to see if they are going to have Christmas cactus for sale this year. They had some and this is a new color that my 2 friends and I don't have. I'm calling it a champagne color because it isn't yellow or apricot. They were only $2.92 each, a steal!! I picked them up for my friends in case Wal-m*rt doesn't have any more of this color.
It isn't a white Christmas this year but it is a celebration of Jesus' birth, so whatever the weather it is a special day. I pray that everyone will have safe travel to family gatherings.
I have 16 more partial blocks sewn. See my new Bright Light on my machine? A friend sent it to me for Christmas. It makes a lot of difference with my night sewing.
I completed 6 more blocks before I started the last 16. I like the mix of batiks and Kaffe prints.
It isn't a white Christmas this year but it is a celebration of Jesus' birth, so whatever the weather it is a special day. I pray that everyone will have safe travel to family gatherings.
I have 16 more partial blocks sewn. See my new Bright Light on my machine? A friend sent it to me for Christmas. It makes a lot of difference with my night sewing.
I completed 6 more blocks before I started the last 16. I like the mix of batiks and Kaffe prints.