Lone Star Quilt

I am so happy to be able to show you  this quilt today. It fits right in with the Christmas season but it was not made to be a Christmas quilt. I love red and green together, it is such a classic! It is not yet quilted and I am trying to figure out what I want to do. The center really does radiate!

The pattern was an antique quilt I saw in an old Fons & Porter magazines years ago. I tore out the picture and saved it.

The quilt did not have any instructions so I drafted my own pattern and tweaked it just a bit to work with my style of sewing.

The center was giving me issues.....I could not line up the center lines even though I tried 5 times. I gave up and used a solution my friend Suzanne used, put a circle on it. I think it draws your eye to the center. I like it better with it than without.

This quilt makes me happy every time I look at it.

Is it making you dizzy? You will notice I had to have some more red....

I also did some sewing for myself. I am having 36 people here for Christmas Eve. New potholders were in order!

I used up lots of scraps....

just had some fun....

and added a little bit of quilting.

A Christmas plate was used as a template to keep with my theme.

The back of one

So do you know what today is? Do you want some of my scraps that were used to make the potholders? Take a guess, leave me a comment and I will draw a random name on Monday and send them out.

Have a great weekend, we are getting snow again!

Kelly

A Little Sparkle

I am not a huge Christmas person much to the chagrin of my friend Judie. This year I decided to put a Christmas tree in my sewing room after my friend Barb sent me a picture of the one in her sewing room. Another friend, Lynne ( no blog but she really should start a cooking one! hint hint) has a pink Barbie mini tree. I had the room and thought why not.

Last night was Maddy's school Christmas concert. All she needs for Christmas is her 2 or 3 front teeth! It is so adorable to see little children sing and just be themselves. It puts you in the Christmas spirit.

Kelly

Seeing Red

I think one of the things I enjoy most about the Christmas season are the colors, especially red! It is so cheerful and just adds a bit of spark to the dreary landscape.

Last night we attended a Christmas concert. My granddaughter, Fallon plays the clarinet. It was so adorable.

It is snowing again today, we got about 4 inches or so. It is so pretty and quiet outside.

I was up early to use every single second of the day. I baked some cookies......

 sugar cookies spruced up for the season.

This tray of cookies is going to a super nice lady who is 86ish. My husband and I call her "the nicest lady in the whole world". No, she is not one of our mothers......but we have never heard her say a bad thing about anyone and would do anything for anyone. Her name is Mary....kind of goes with Christmas?

The smells of Christmas are also wonderful. I found these at Wegman's, the hand soap is called Mistletoe and the dish soap is called Frosted Fir, they smell so fresh and Christmas like.

They sit right next to my poinsettias that I bought from the Boy Scouts. I am going to try and keep this going after Christmas.

As I was finishing up my baking the snowing was almost over. My husband who plows snow came upstairs and said he was leaving and did I want to see a little sewing he did? The normal jacket he wears is in the wash, so he improvised with one that is a little too small in the sleeves.....more like cutting than sewing.

Now for some more red and white.....what can I create?

Kelly

Cozy Day

Our first snow fall which is so pretty.

An awesome and exciting  football game that the Eagles won!

I stitched the last stitches in this while we watched the game.

A really bad picture of my tree! This year I picked out only the red and white ornaments for something different and to make the take down a little easier.

A handmade tree topper. The perfect ending to a perfect day, the chili and home made bread are calling...

Kelly

Time

Where is time going? Why does it seem it goes so fast now that I am older? As a child this was the longest time of the year, would December ever be over?
I started this 2 years ago?  I think....not sure though. We were at my friend Sujata's house.When moving things  a few weeks ago, I realized this is almost done. I really love the pattern (Sujata's) but do not like how I set it. It is way too wonky, even for me and it does not lie flat.
All my pictures look very bad today it is raining and feels like night.

I also finished this one up, using a facing instead of a binding. Getting those UFOs done! Two down, how many more to go???

My friend, Cynthia sent this to me for my birthday which is next week. Yes I opened it before the day! I don't think I could have looked at the package for an entire week.

It is so cute and it is tiny, perfect as a party purse. Thank you Cynthia!

I have been decorating and cleaning out my holiday stuff at the same time. I found some of my kids' art and it gave me a chuckle. Colin not only has his name on the front of every piece he made but on a lot of them he wrote "good job". I think we were supposed to think the teacher wrote it? It was clearly in his hand writing!

I have seriously scaled back my decorating from years past.

This year I am taking pictures of what I did as a reference for next year to make it even easier.

Now that the house is decorated, the shopping is done all that is left is the tree. I should be back to a little bit more blogging in the next few weeks. They are even calling for a wintery mix this weekend! Let it snow!

Kelly

Gray Monday Morning

In keeping with my gray Monday I am going to be a little self indulgent. I am hard pressed to believe this picture was taken 48 years ago.

I found this picture a while back and when I went to take it off the sticky backed paper, it ripped in half! I was so sad. I came across it again and took it to a man who restored it for me.It is amazing how original it looks.

This is me in the middle, looking so holy.

I have gotten back to my Farmer's Wife blocks, they are so enjoyable to make. I am up to 20 with a lot more to go but I am learning to take my time. Which leads me to this......

book that was our book club pick for this month. I had the hardest time getting into it but am glad I stuck with it. Overall I am a fast reader. This book forced me to slow down and really read each word. The story was a bitter sweet one with lots of symbolism. I think I would give it 3 stars.

Kelly

Stuffed

Jim, Colin, Dylan and Johnson

The boys' side of the table.......

Caitlin, Jenny, Mary and Krista

the girls' side of the table......

Maddy and Fallon at the grandkids' table , well actually island.......

Griffin and Elliot looking cool.

Bob and I with the grandchildren. Griffin is so shy and really needs to come out of his shell.

There was talk of a football game but it was not to be.

Hope you all had a wonderful day as well.

Kelly