change of plans

Yesterday, it was a beautiful morning...
Big, fat flakes of snow,
gently floating down to the ground.
I was awake early, and I got to see this
spectacular snowfall as the sun rose here in central Ohio...
as I awakened at 5...
YES, FIVE A.M.!!

I'm not usually that early of an early bird,
but if that wasn't bad enough,
I was up that early...

because of and with

chills and headache...

Thank you very much, Sweetie!
(He brought it home from work, we're thinking.)

So my quiet days between Christmas and New Years Eve
have been spent in the lazy-girl chair, covered in a quilt,
drinking my Airbourne and hot tea.
A total change of plans!

Not much stitching, as planned.

I got a couple more Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses

blocks bordered with muslin/paper-pieces.

And, I finally got the newest grandson's quilt bound.

I'm so bad -

the quilt was wrapped & gifted 

with the binding only machine sewn,

not flipped to the back and hand-stitched. 

I guess at just a month old

that Sawyer won't remember that

his first Christmas quilt was

un-bound & unlabeled, will he? :)

I'll leave you with a picture of the big brother...
after visiting family left he was told it was nap time...

he grabbed his new quilt and pillow from GrandmaB

and when his head hit the pillow, he was fast asleep:

j.r. - Christmas 2013

A grandbaby fast asleep with a special quilt...

Doesn't that just warm your heart?

Hopefully your days are going as planned,
but if not, that something warms your heart, too.
Wishing you a happy & healthy New Year!
May 2014 have more quilting time (and quilts) for each of us!

The stockings were hung...

To all of my friends near and far,

I thank you for your friendship.

Thank you to those that read and follow my blog.

And a big thank you to those that take the time to comment.

Although I try, I don't always get a response out to those that leave comments,

but I'd like you to know that I do appreciate you!

 

I wish you a very Merry Christmas

and great health, joy and peace -

today, tomorrow, and in the New Year!

 

Our weather here in central Ohio is

very cold and snowy on this Christmas Eve.

It sure is nice to be inside, beside the fire,

watching the lights twinkle on the tree.

Midnight has come, and

my preparations are as complete as they are going to be.

I did finally finished this quilt:

It was only a top for a few years...

and I finally quilted it last month

so I could hang it for this Christmas.

 

While I was stitching binding on gift quilts,

(yes, I always seem to be just making it under the wire :), 

my daughter

made the wrapping happen in a timely manner:

It looks like the two older grandchildren

love their new quilts:

Time for me to settle down for a nice winter's nap!
Merry Christmas!
I hope your holidays are wonderful!
Debra

brrr... and taking stock of LUCY

Although the calendar

doesn't yet say it's Winter,

the weather outside says differently!

 

With the snow falling, I decided to take stock of my Lucy blocks:

Though the cable and internet was
almost non-existent this past week,
I sure am thankful that the electric has been on
the entire time!
Along with the abnormally below-freezing temps,
there has been plenty of accumulation of the white stuff.
Here's a picture of this week's snowfall:

So, with no internet or cable

to distract me this week,

I pulled out ALL of my

finished Lucy Boston

Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.

Key word there is FINISHED.

 

Guess what I found?

 

This entire stack of blocks...

THAT. HAVE. NO. BORDERS!!!

That doesn't look like many blocks without muslin borders, does it?

 

Oh, I knew that I had a 'few' blocks without

their borders.

I just didn't know that the number

of incomplete blocks was

twenty!!!

Here they are,

all spread out:

All spread out it looks like I still have a WHOLE bunch of bordering to do, doesn't it?

Though they sure are pretty, if I do say so myself,
they would be prettier if they all had their borders. :)

I hope your 'Winter' weather is good,
that your heat is on if you need it,
and your needle is flying.
After I throw some more wood into the stove,
that's where I'm heading -
to make my needle fly!

snow sew day yay

Big weather systems are converging over central Ohio today...

That means snow is coming - only a half foot or so.
Yay!!
Also means it's a snow/sew day for me!
Yay again!!

Good timing, too,
'cause I have Christmas quilts
for the grandkids to finish up!
Here's a peek:

Flowers, footballs and ducks.

Hope to get them all to the binding/hand stitching point today
so that tonight I can cuddle under them as I finish them up.

What are your plans today?
Hope you can enjoy the weather and stitch a little, too!

Happy December & meanderings in thread

Now that the 1st of December has come and gone,
I can start my decorating for Christmas...

My daughter's birthday

is on the first of December and

we've always waited until after Thanksgiving

and her birthday to start our Christmas decorating.

She'd tell you it's her rule -

no Christmas décor or wrapping paper!,

but really,

it's been that way since before she had any say in the matter

and for over three decades. :)

Happy Birthday dear daughter!

So, back to the getting ready for Christmas...
I'd love to drag out the Christmas décor boxes
and throw the garland around...
I'm ready, but I'm not.
Too many things to do, not enough time!
Do you know what I mean?
I still have my Halloween quilt hanging in the great room!
Yes, I do have a Thanksgiving quilt - paper-pieced pumpkins,
but it hardly ever makes it to the wall.
(And it didn't make it to the wall this year, either.)

And, truly, the quilt I hang for Christmas is
a redwork and pieced, red & white quilt called
"Walking in a Winter Wonderland"
(Crabapple Hill pattern)
and it stays hanging all Winter, not just for Christmas.
I have a couple of Christmas quilt tops finished
to quilt for myself,
but that didn't happen again this year!

I have been doing quilting for others, though.
So someone will have Christmas quilts to hang or gift -
it just won't be me!  :)

This is Joell's - a gift for her sister's friend:

Joell always make LARGE quilts, and this is no exception.

(Big quilts are so much fun to quilt!) 

Besides being a beauty of a quilt,

it was very graphic and bright!

 (: I live vicariously through Joell's bright quilts. :)

Next, I quilted two tree skirts that Janet made.
Here's a picture of one of them:

Isn't it adorable?  Can you see (bottom right corner) the great candy cane fabric that is the backing?  Janet always has perfectly matched seams and has her tops so well pressed.

Since both tree skirts were the same, I took the second tree skirt picture while it was on the quilting machine. Check out the great border fabrics that she used.  Those fabrics really were great choices in my opinion - totally tied the charm squares together.

Looking back at these pictures,

I guess at this point they really weren't tree skirts yet.

They were not split to the center or circle center-cut yet. 

But there are some lucky people getting these for Christmas, too!

I'm off to start meandering the next quilt/Christmas gift!

Maybe tonight I'll throw some garland around  do a little decorating, too!

Hope you are getting some stitching time in

during this wonderfully busy time of year!