Early or Late?

This is either too late for last Christmas or really early for Christmas 2017. But I just finished putting the binding on last night.

It was my first try at using the Quick Curve Ruler, which really does make piecing curves easy. It takes a little getting used to cutting in the ruler's slot. This is adapted from the Abacus pattern. I used a set of fat quarters and I wanted to make the most of each, so I cut the bead portions wider than the pattern called for. 

The prints feature a lot of pinks and lime green, so I made the background out of Kona Cerise, and the bars linking the beads a light green batik.

Santa Quilt Finished

Actually finished the binding on this one over a week ago, but I've been too busy with other things to take photos or blog it. It has multiple red and white fabrics in the coin columns, to look like candy canes. And separated by a navy print with 2" high Santas scattered on it, along with some small globes and holly. It's quilted in edge to edge echoed swirls, done in muted gold thread (not shiny or metallic). The less-dense quilting makes it feel soft and cozy even before being washed.

I took another Christmasy one off the frame this morning, ready for trimming and binding. 

January Projects

Since it may be a little while before anything else is finished, I thought I'd document that I am actually working on stuff. First off is this Stacked Coins quilt on the frame. It is multiple red and white prints for the 'coins' and a navy print with Santas for the bars in between. I pieced it before Christmas and got it loaded on the frame after New Year's. The quilting is echoed swirls in gold.

Then, if you can believe it, there is a hand-quilting project. This was the oldest thing on my UFO list, and really needs to get finished. I get frustrated trying to thread needles for hand quilting, but I found one that works. And after I finish the remaining blocks and sashing, I've given myself permission to machine quilt the outer border. 

A third project is in the piecing stage, and will hopefully be ready to go on the frame soon after the Coins quilt is done. It is also a Christmas quilt. So why am I working on 3 Christmas quilts in January? I've long had an idea of giving each of my nieces and nephews a quilt they can bring out each Christmas season. But what generally happens is that I think about it for a couple of weeks after Thanksgiving, maybe go through the stash of Christmas fabrics, then things get busy and I put it all away until the next year. But this time, I actually pieced the first one and laid out the fabrics for the third and just kept going. After these I'll be ready to move on to something else. 

Christmas Recap

Not many pictures to show from this Christmas. We went to an early Christmas Eve service at the community center, celebrated by the Rt. Rev. Cabby Tennis, and notable for its relaxed atmosphere including wandering dogs. Afterwards, Boo and Evan played guitar while Brent cooked dinner. Then we watched White Christmas, all of us on the sofa gathered around the laptop.

The stockings were hung on the closest pillar to the woodstove, and Christmas morning they were full! Brent and I use our childhood stockings, made by Mom. This picture was prompted by Ann sending a picture of her stocking recycled for her new grandson, Noah.

Boo has her childhood stocking made by her grandmother, and Evan has a patchwork one I made when he was a baby.

We opened present after present, ate lots of bacon, eggs and sweet rolls, and enjoyed the day. That evening, we had a wonderfully tasty and laugh-filled dinner at the Kings.

Merry Christmas

Starlight Mystery.

Not sure when I made/finished this, but I found it recently under a pile of flannels. It looks vaguely Christmasy, so I put it up on the wall and took a picture. I had been wondering where it was; my friend Trudy made one of the same design and finished it recently, which reminded me of it. I wrote mystery directions for it for the Safeco quilt group. 

I'm having a quiet, reflective Christmas Eve at home, and wish happiness and peace to all my family and friends.

Christmas Eve at the Cabin

I didn't take too many pictures this year - snow-covered cabin, Christmas tree, all about the same as previous years. But here are a few for future reference:

The tree at night, decorated and presents waiting.

The view from the river-side loft.

Brent in the kitchen. Wonder who took this one? Wasn't me...

Tree Skirt

There's still time to finish up a few projects before Christmas, right? After unpacking, laundry, etc following Thanksgiving, I got this little tree skirt bound and done. I think it's cute; not sure if it's the right size.

I have 3 more things quilted, but needing to be bound. No, they're not Christmas presents, but I hate to leave them in this almost-done state. It would be nice to get them into Completed status before the end of the year. 

Christmas 2011

Happy belated Christmas! I went over to Mazama and got back late last night. I was mentally preparing myself to drive alone, but then Boo said that Brent would be driving over on Friday, and I could get a ride back with Jeremy. It was quite a relief not to have to drive all that way by myself.

Brent's latest project at the cabin is building a sauna. He found a guy on Craigslist selling cedar boards, so we made a side trip to Enumclaw to pick up a load of wood, which filled up most of the inside of the van in addition to quite a bit tied to the roof racks. It certainly smelled good!

Little Sauna in the Big Woods

The cedar is to panel the inside and make benches. I think the outside of the box might get some finishing siding as well.

Christmas posting is not complete without a picture of the tree, even though it's mostly blocked by Brent, wearing the Santa hat to hand out presents. Evan and Jeremy on the couch.

Boxing Day

Even without the kid (Evan) around, Christmas is a busy day of presents and phone calls. It was memorable this year for skyping with Sweden and Iowa. We got a screen shot of Evan, Ann and Martin. Too bad we didn't capture Ketil in his tomte outfit. We later called Iowa and saw Mom, Jill, David and Annie.

Another topic of pressing interest was the impressive, growing snow overhang, and when it would drop. It finally did about 3:30, without hitting the windows at all. 

Boo gives Brent a Christmas hug.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve and nothing is stirring. Brent and Boo are off to Winthrop for a tree and last minute shopping. The dogs are pooped and finally crashed on different sides of the cabin. The electrically-heated concrete floors are malfunctioning and my feet haven't been so warm since summer. Meanwhile the snowpack on the roof is slowly curving under, preparing to slide. Aren't those icicles wicked looking?

Christmas Glimpses

An obligatory view of the tree, before all the presents made their appearance:

Evan in Santa hat and Christmas tie-dye, enjoying a cinnamon Twisp (cinnamon rolls from the Twisp bakery), before handing out stockings and presents. Unfortunately, a couple of brunch guests arrived an hour early, after only two rounds of presents, and the rest of the unwrappings were postponed until Christmas evening.

Brent and Evan determined that the ice on the river was thick enough to skate on, despite whitewater a hundred yards upstream, so Boo and Evan tried it out Christmas afternoon. Boo tried to recall moves from her figure-skating youth, while Evan was more cautious. He hadn't been on skates since cutting up his face 5 or 6 years ago.

It's Beginning to Feel Like

Christmas.
I made a limited edition of hand-made cards, for my team at work and a few friends and relatives. Last year, I made these fabric postcards, but too many people thought they were miniature pot holders or coasters or something. So this year I made some simply quilted trees from hand-painted fabric, glued them onto cardstock and added some stamping inside. The idea came from Pokey Bolton's blog.

I mailed packages on Saturday, finished some shopping and wrapped more presents today. Tonight I'm slowly getting organized for driving over to Mazama. The roads look good, but it's getting colder.

Lucia Day

I made a quick trip to Ikea a couple of weeks ago to pick up some things before the holiday rush. They did already have their Christmas decorations up, and I took a few pictures as inspiration. They don't seem to have as many of the little rooms decorated for the holidays as they used to. That may be because they've expanded so much and have many more rooms.

Anyway, it's Lucia Dagen, and the third Sunday in Advent, so time for a tree. I've been enjoying the evening walks without rain, looking at all the sparkly lights outside, and Christmas trees inside living room windows.

Endings and Beginnings

New Year's is one of those times given to reflecting on what has happened in the recent past and what you hope and wish for in the future. I don't usually do resolutions but I like Christine Kane's suggestion of choosing a word to live by for the year. But I can't decide on just one word. When I went to Diane and Jerry's for Christmas, they had a sign saying, Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much. Maybe my words for the year should be Live, Love, Laugh.

This is one of my Christmas decorations this year. I don't know what the base object is called, but it's a traditional Swedish decoration that usually has apples on the top and possibly at the end of each arm. I wrapped it in a tinsel rope and then hung Norwegian pewter ornaments on it with red ribbons.

A White Christmas

Yes, still more snow over night, and all morning. As pretty as a Christmas card, as long as you don't actually want to go anywhere. I don't need to, so I'm content to stay inside and listen to Christmas music and watch it snow.

I made a simple wall hanging from a Laurel Burch panel, bordered by one of her stripes from a few years ago. This is just the top, but I finished quilting it yesterday. I used an antique gold rayon thread and mostly followed the lines and patterns in the fabric. I'll try to get it bound before New Year's as my completed project list is pretty small for 2008.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Merry Christmas

A low key day. Present opening is a long-drawn out affair, starting with stockings. Then Evan puts on the Santa hat and starts distributing presents.

Later, he relinquished the Santa hat and duties to Boo.
Brent was the clear winner in the chocolate department.
Some of the opened gifts:
Last night we had a wonderful prime rib dinner, and a great time, at Paula and Andy's. Boo has invited some friends for Christmas dinner tonight.

Christmas Eve

The tree is trimmed and presents are starting to appear. Joy, Koko and Al stopped by. Al has been making these ice lanterns and brought some. It's about a foot tall.

Christmas Time is Near

Time to head to the mountains and snow country. We drove over on Friday; the roads were clear but the traffic on Snoqualmie Pass was horrendous. Blewett Pass was much easier. I met up with BT, Boo and Evan at Anjou Bakery in Cashmere for late lunch, and Boo drove the rest of the way with me. There was plenty of snow at the cabin, and it snowed another 5-6 inches on Saturday. However, it cleared off in the early evening and there was a beautiful moonlit night. At dusk, they went out to get a tree. Brent on snowshoes, dragging it back. The mound in the background is the snow-covered picnic tables.

Evan crawled through the snow cave created by the picnic table.

The moon coming up. Pictures taken by Boo.

It snowed another 5-6 inches on Sunday, but cleared off around 10 for another moonlit night. Walking the dogs then was amazing - the moonlight was so bright, everything had clearly defined shadows. It stayed clear into this morning, so we have a bright sunny Christmas Eve.

Nikki meets Santa

I've never had a pet's picture taken with Santa before, but... they were doing this at the pet shop where I took Nikki for her pre-Christmas bath, so we did it. What do you suppose she wants for Christmas?

The past week has been quite hectic with preparations for Christmas. Thursday night, a party; Friday, met a friend at Bellevue Square for shopping, lunch and a movie (Enchanted); Saturday, Nikki's bath and an oil change for the car; Sunday, met 4 friends at University Village for shopping before proceeding to Queen Mary's for hight tea; Monday night, wrapping presents for Iowa and Wisconsin; Tuesday, mailing those presents. Whew, no wonder I'm tired!

Christmas Wrapup

The actual Christmas celebrations began with Christmas Eve dinner with Paula and Andy and their two boys, featuring delicious ham, twice-baked potatoes, and a yummy salad. Oh, and prosecco, a $86 bottle of wine, and bean soup. Too much food, too much drink, too much laughter. No, there can never be too much laughter.


Since we were all up past midnight, Christmas morning was a little slow getting started. Boo and I had selected the tree from their property while out on snow shoes. Boo cut it down and we dragged it back through the deep snow.



First came the stockings, hung on the nearest post to the chimney?



Evan wore the Santa hat, and did his usual good job of distributing the presents. His definitely had a Tabasco theme this year, aided by Boo's trip to New Orleans in early December. The day was clear with a beautiful blue sky.

Christmas night saw Koko, Al and Joy bringing turkey, and Kent and Maria joined in for another festive dinner. The next morning, I had to drive back to Seattle, and it snowed the whole way.