Merry Christmas

Everybody in blogland is posting their holiday wishes today, so I may as well join in. 

I hope I can be more productive in 2015 and that I’ll have lots of things to share with my readers.  See you on the flip side.

Liz

We interrupt this program . . .

Due to a variety of reasons – family issues, appointments, and . . . oh yeah!  Christmas! – I will be suspending the Silly Sunday posts for a couple of weeks.  Maybe Wednesday WOW, too – haven’t decided yet.

Never fear, though.  I will return after the holidays and we will get back on schedule.  In the meantime, here’s wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy Happy New Year!

‘Tis the Season

Bah, humbug . . . and all that stuff.  I’m not there yet, but here is a little vignette that may help:

Aren’t they sweet?  This is one of the Holiday downloads from Lisa at Ten Two Studios.  This is the sixth year she has provided great clips like this as a countdown to Christmas.  I subscribe to Lisa’s Monthly Muse newsletter and it is always packed with crafty ideas.

OK.  Maybe I’ll get into the Christmas spirit after all!!

Christmas in – er – May?

Let’s see.  If I can finish this Christmas piece before winter, will that make up for all the past Christmas projects that didn’t get done in time?  Oh.  I didn’t think so.

Well, this is what I worked on this week.  There are some hand embroidery details, but I have decided to wait until all the blocks are done.  I estimate I have about 2/3 of this project done.

Here is the first vertical row stitched together.   It’s kind of long, so the photo is distorted at the bottom.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get better pictures when it’s finished.

I’m really enjoying this project.  It’s full of fun fabrics, and all the favorite symbols of the season.  And there is enough variety in the blocks to keep my interest:  traditional pieced blocks, paper piecing, and appliqué.  What’s not to like?

Santa's Been Good To Me

The men in my life played Santa this year - and it was a good year!

Sarge is usually tuned in to my feelings and what kind of things make me happy.  He gave me this stained glass dragon:

I'm a major fantasy fan and enjoy doodling with dragons of various types. 

I've wanted to put a dragon in my blog header for a long time and this guy was just what I needed to get that done.  I plan to have lots of fun playing with photos - and watching him "fly" in my studio.

But wait!  There's more!

A day or so after Christmas, a large box arrived from Number-One-Son.  We already got gift packages.  Whatever could that be?   I was surprised speechless when I opened the box!  And it takes a lot to make me speechless.  LOL!

A Singer Model 66 "Red Eye"!  Manufactured in 1914 and used until recently to sew quilts.  It has pressure feet, needles, and bobbins.  And it works!  Well, the motor runs.  I haven't threaded it to see how it stitches, but I've been told it does a fine job.

I can't get over how beautiful the painting and ornamentation is - and how well it has taken the years. 

Even the wheel is decorated! 

Thank you, Santa - Sarge - and Number-One-Son.  I raised him right.  Yes, I did!

Super Saturday

Apparently, that is what the last Saturday before Christmas is called.  Sort of a final rush for shopping.  So, guess when this little country mouse decided to go to the City?  Yup!

A few thoughts on Super Saturday:

• I'm very glad I am not working as a clerk in any store this week!
• I'm thankful for the remote that allows me to find my car in the mall parking lot!
• I'm thankful I do not have young children who get tired much too soon, and want everything they see, which is much too much!
• I'm glad I have mellowed (can't be because I'm older!) and bustling crowds and long lines don't blow my cool anymore.
• I'm thankful it waited to snow until I got home (yes, flakes are coming down now!)
• I'm thankful for my warm, quiet home in the country!!!

And I think I am ready for Christmas now.   A little wrapping and a little baking - and all week to do it.  This is probably a FIRST!

Wow!  It's really snowing now!  We could have a White Christmas after all.  Are you ready for Christmas?  Or for winter?

White Christmas?

Well, it's not looking good for this part of the world.  This morning, we had snow - for about *this* long!  But then, we still have a couple of weeks to go.  It's not that I'm wishing for snow, really.  Not like some parts of the country have!  But - Christmas doesn't seem the same without snow.

So, I've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit.  Really!  Listening to the music and writing Christmas cards and all that.  Hunh. 

I think I'll take some time to play with Christmas graphics.  The ones in this post, by the way, are from Lisa at TenTwoStudios.  Specifically, the Holiday Countdown page, but she has lots more fun print/mixed-media items.  I'm off to explore!

Are you feeling the Christmas spirit yet?

Postcards for the Holidays - a little late

One drawback (minor) to being in postcard swaps is that I shouldn't post here until the cards have reached their destinations. When they go overseas, that can take quite awhile. And in the meantime, I've moved on to something else. And I forget. Not good.

Stir in the Christmas rush and stress, plus some postal strikes, and foul weather . . . and here it is mid-January before you get to see my Christmas postcards! (Unless you are one of the fortunate few to receive one, of course. ;-) )

OK, stop talking and start showing, huh? I made these to swap:

And here is what I got in return, from Gina and MaryLou:

[CORRECTION: Oops! I got that first postcard from Sheila in Scotland. I knew that! My swap with MaryLou was in October . . . wrong holiday! Thanks to Sheila for being so good natured about my absent-mindedness.]

MaryLou's is on the top. They are both really sparkly in real life! Now, don't you feel all Christmas-y all over again?

Then, while I was on a roll, I made some more postcards and sent them to some special friends.

I wish I could have sent them to everyone, but even good things have their limits.

I just sent out some postcards for January. But you will have to wait to see them. I think it's only fair for the person who it's made for to be the first to see it. Well, I think so anyway!

Stitching Fun!

I've been busily making Christmas postcards this past week or so.  Once they have reached their destinations, I will show you what I've been making.  We wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, would we?

But I can show you a little trick I tried with the edgings.  I have this cool little Bernina foot with a teeny hole in the piece in front of the needle.  You can see I have threaded something through it in this photo.

Bernina calls it an Embroidery foot, but I got it to attach wire to the edge of a doll skirt to give it shape.  Only a small wire fits through there, but this fits, too! 

By simply stitching a zigzag stitch, I attached two rounds of the Light Effects thread to the edge of each postcard.  You can see some of the sparkle here, although they look much more festive in 'real' life!

I used a heavier thread in the bobbin, so the back of the card looks neat, too. 

Isn't Christmas about pretty things and shining lights?

'Tis the Season

At least I am starting to feel a little bit Christmas-ish!  I was doodling in my photo-editing software and came up with this:

I used three pieces I got from TenTwo Studios.  Each year Lisa posts some free "printables" as a Holiday gift to her customers.  I love looking at the collection she provides!  If you do any type of artwork and are not familiar with this web site you need to go take a look!  Most of her offerings are perfect for ATCs or postcards as well as other mixed media work.  There are collage pages for any theme you can imagine. She also publishes the Monthly Muse newsletter which is crammed with inspiration!

I have been working rather sporadically the past few days, so this is really the only "finish" I have to show right now.  I am postponing my scheduled Goals posting, too.  I'll get my head on straight and be back soon!

Wednesday WOW - November 11

Today I actually started on Christmas projects!  It's not even December yet! 

Before we start celebrating, though, I must emphasize - it's just a START!  But, oh my.  It does feel good!

Christmas????

I know there are a lot of people who are making plans for Christmas now.  They are the ones who will have all the sewing and shopping DONE by the first week of December.  Don't you just hate people like that?!?

But . . . isn't this the cutest, happiest, coolest quilt for Christmas?  It is so yummy I could even imagine ME (!) working on this for six or seven months (it's a 7 month BOM pattern).   Hmmm.  I don't think I can see me actually finishing it for Christmas, though.  Let's not get carried away, shall we?

This quilt was designed by Helen Stubbings of Hugs from Helen and she is going to give away a copy of this pattern.  Oh, oh!  I've got all my fingers and toes crossed!  (Does that really work?)  If you don't feel lucky, there is also a link to buy the pattern.  Just click on my link above.

Good luck and Merry Christmas y'all.

Christmas in February?

I haven't bragged about my Christmas present!  Here it is February already!  Where has my mind been?

Sarge got me a Zutter Bind-it-All binder!

How clever is he to know just what I wanted?  Oh, OK.  I'll confess.  I gave him some subtle hints. . . like PRINTING OUT A FULL PAGE ADVERTISEMENT!!  (It was just a little hint.)

And here is the first project bound with my very own amazing Bind-it-All:

 

 

I love getting Christmas cards, and I can't bear to throw them away, so I took all the Christmas cards we received this year and bound them together into a little book.

 

 

I had a purchased set of covers that are 6" square, so I wound up cutting down most of the cards.  And some of them needed additional card added to one dimension or the other.

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, each page was sort of a collage.  I cut out some greetings and pasted borders, and so on.  On some pages, I trimmed shapes so that the pages aren't all square.  Then I used some wrapping paper to cover the front and back.  I also pasted a list of the people these cards were from inside the front cover.

The end result is I have a nice, handy sized memento of the Christmas season - instead of an unwieldy stack of cards & envelopes!  

Whew!

I made it!  The memory book is finished, wrapped, and under the tree.  They don't call me the Princess of Procrastination for nothing! (I wanted to be Goddess of the Last Minute, but Robbi Joy Eklow has already taken that title.)

So here is one last "teaser" photo.  My dad was a Shriner and I did a facsimile of his fez for the book.  Those french knots represent jewels on the original lettering and emblem.  I did - briefly - consider doing some beadwork.  But Jeez!  I need to retain some sanity!

Mom will receive this book tomorrow and I hope it is a good gift for her.  I'll have a box of kleenex nearby, just in case.  After things settle down I will share pictures here of the book itself.

Now, I am going to enjoy Christmas Eve with Sarge.  As a child I was eager to get to bed early so Santa could get here sooner.  Maybe we'll try it this year!

Merry Christmas to you all.

A Peek at My Current Project

Christmas is just about wrapped up.  I should get the last things done tomorrow and then there will be five days to finish up this project.  And high time, too!

Since June (!) I have been planning a fabric memory book to give my Mom.  She knows I'm working on 'cause I had to raid her photo albums (er, boxes!) to get most of the things for this book.  Then I rashly mentioned Christmas!  Crunch time!!!!

I have three pages DONE!  Fourth page was so-o-o-o much fun to do that I have to show you some of it.  Just bits and pieces, but it's the fun stuff.

I printed these wedding photos on silk and then stitched them to the background fabric.  That ribbon on the large picture was a real pain to stitch.  I used the sewing machine and I know it would have been faster to do it by hand!  Live and learn.  I haven't done silk ribbon embroidery for quite awhile and forgot how much I enjoy it.   And dressing up the corsage on the small print was so easy and looks so great! 

Gotta get working if I want to finish this book, tho.  Now, if we should happen to have a snow storm on the 24th . . . .  But I can't hope for something like that!

A Little Entertainment

I've been pretty busy working on Christmas projects.  But the other day I took some time out to play with Jake.  As I was digging through a box of holiday fabric and such, something fell out.  We had to take advantage of the distraction, didn't we?

This blog is supposed to be craft related, so I don't include Jake very often.  He is always helping me, though.  Some of the better ideas came from him!

If you enjoy looking at pug pix and reading about them, here are a couple of my favs:

Art is Life . . . Life is Art 

Clover's Adventures

Outside the Lines

Pug Network

The Pug Posse

We will return to our regular crafty posts next time.

The "C" word

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  That means that REAL SOON NOW we  will no longer be able to avoid the C word . . . Christmas!  Why is it that just the word itself raises stress levels?

Don't get me wrong - I love Christmas.  All the glittery things and toys and carols and fun stuff to make (and eat!).  I also love the true meaning of Christmas and think it would be wonderful if we could have "goodwill to men" all the time.

BUT - struggling through crowds to shop, sweating over who gets what, where will we go this year, when do the packages have to be in the mail.   Those are not fun things.  Necessary, but not fun.

I found something that does look like fun, though.  Lisa Volrath at Go Make Something will be posting holiday images for crafting each day in December.  How cool is that?  It looks like she will have tags and boxes and old fashioned images.  It's a techie take on the advent calendar.  Ooh I used to lo-o-o-o-ve those!

Drop by Lisa's Original Printables page to see how you can download these images.  Be sure to read the FAQ about how you can use these images - they are for personal use only - and get on her list.

Maybe having something fun to make each day will help prevent the Christmas Bah's.

Christmas in - er - September

Or . . . You Knew I'd Do It!

Yes. I'm sure no one was fooled by my hesitation in my recent post about looking at the new Berninas. Of course I decided to get it!

And, of course I had to get the Stitch Regulator. Actually, that was the piece I had to have. So, anyone want to take a guess on what I've been doing the last day or so? Ah, come on! It should be easy! Here's a hint:

Well, it is so much fun to work with! A little scary sometimes, but I will get used to it. I need a lot more practice to move the fabric at an even rate. That needle is really wicked when you move suddenly!

And this week there was another exciting addition to my workshop. I received my prize from Hoffman California Fabrics! Oh my! I will have to try even harder so I can get another prize next year. LOL! This is wonderful!

A whole range of Bali Batik fat quarters! These are just so scrumptious!!!! What will I do with them? Oh dear, I just want to look at them for now. And fondle them - and drool all over them! Er . . . ahem. Might have gotten a little carried away there. But, people, the photo doesn't do justice to these colors. I'm sure I will find something to do with these, but not yet.

And one more thing. Not quite as exciting, but I got a little stirred up anyway. What can I say, I live in a very small town. One must get their thrills where one can.

New filing cabinets! Yeah. Big deal. I know. But the old cabinet was a horizontal file and didn't hold as many files as I needed it to. Plus the drawers did not come all the way out, so there was always some jockeying to get to the stuff at the back. Then the drawers starting jumping the tracks. First one, then the other, until one day I couldn't wiggle it back on. Great! Bottom drawer was stuck at half way! Very convenient, that. Numerous attempts to repair or modify were unsuccessful, so today we took the truck to town. (And spent money again - I have got to stop doing that!) I got busy organizing files and putting them away - in alphabetical order yet! Oh, I feel SO organized!

Pretty cool week, all told. Almost like Christmas, huh? I feel so ready to create now.

Merry Christmas Sights

It's not exactly "visions of sugarplums", but my kitchen took on a very Christmas-ey atmosphere today. While the snow blew outside I baked cookies all day. Now, cooking is not really one of my artistic crafts. Fact is, I would be perfectly happy if I never had to cook again - as long as somebody feeds me, that is! But every once in awhile I get the urge to bake. I try to make that urge come out around Christmas because what would the season be without all these goodies? And then you have to wrap everything up in pretty ribbons. And I do love the ribbons!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.