12 Days of Christmas

No, I couldn't help myself. In the middle of binding Tiny Tree ....

I've started another tiny mystery. Called 12 Days of Christmas, it's being brought to us by Suzn Quilts. There will be twelve 3" blocks given out daily. It started on December 26 so it's not too late to start. My blocks ....

If you'd like to hop into this 12"-ish project, you can find directions on SewingWithSusan  on Facebook or on her blog Suzn Quilts. It's fun -- join us!

Linking up with Angela on the last Scrap Happy Saturday of 2019!

Tiny Tree Update

Short post here. Need to make some cookies and hope to finish this up!

Needs a little trimming. I laid it on the red tablecloth to audition a red binding .... what do you think? I'm thinking I might like that! Thoughts appreciated.

Still Scrappy!

Amidst all the hustle & bustle of the Christmas season and celebrating the final days of 2019 while looking forward to what 2020 will bring, I've managed to stitch very little. Surprised? I'll bet not.

My Tiny Tree has grown. All 10 tree blocks are done and the 11th block (the trunk) has been cut out, ready to sew. Then decisions will need to be made. Here's a picture of my completed blocks.

They're not sewn together and they're not going to be necessarily in this order ... except the star block goes up on top. I was thinking about redoing that one, making the star yellow? Any thoughts? Maybe if/when I make another Tiny Tree quilt? It was fun and all scraps!

My morning walk on the bike trail with Gracie was very cold yesterday morning. Here's picture of the sun just coming up across the field and another of the frost on the bushes. Just looking at the pictures makes me shiver again!

The weather folks are predicting near 60 on Christmas Day. Sounds like time for a cook-out! Lol!

Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Angela on Scrappy Saturday! Plenty of fun stuff to look at over there!

My Turn on the Blog Hop!

Today is Monday, December 16, and it is my turn on the 2019 Holiday Favorites Blog Hop. It's Day #8 which brings to mind "Maids a-Milking" and makes me laugh. If I was a maid, this maid would turn that milk into ice cream! Haha! Enough of that ... let's see some Christmas quilts and take a trip down Memory Lane! Isn't that a big part of Christmas, after all?

Hanging in our den, this quilt seems to explode Christmas although it is actually just a beautiful red & green quilt that I made in the early 2000s. The lap quilt on the back of the couch was  made using two Moda Turnover packages. Do you remember those? I don't think Moda makes them any longer.

This little snowman loves his tiny tree. It looks like the star he hung on the highest bough is a bit too

heavy!

My mother sits in the recliner with this "quilt-as-you-go" quilt behind her. Puts her in the holiday spirit!

Our Christmas tree is decked out with a quilted tree skirt. Pieced in the center, it has holly leaves & berries appliqued all around!

This is not a quilt but a "favorite" I'd like to share from the den also. It is the nativity that I place on the mantel every year. Way, way, way back in the late 1980s my next-door-neighbor & best friend Vickie and I made this plastic canvas needlepoint nativity together. She still teases me to this day about the camel --- I think I tried to cut it from the canvas at least three times and failed. I told her there would be no camel in my nativity so she cut this one out for me! That is truly a good friend!!! Lol! Christmas IS friends!

The detail on this is amazing and we searched all over to find the right yarns, threads, and beads to make the perfect nativity.

The next Hop stop is the bathroom. Everyone needs to use it so let's really dress it up for the Holiday!

My BFF Vickie made this for me one year for my birthday. I looked at the label and it is dated 1994!! This quilt is 25 years old! She'll be upset to see that I still haven't put the bows on her wreaths that I promised to do for her since she forgot them! Oh my! But she managed to get the bow on the black cat and a beaded collar on the striped one.

This is my "12 Days of Christmas" and it always gives me a chuckle. While making it during a QAL with Temecula Quilts I didn't catch on until about Day 6. Here's the skinny on it: Starting in the upper left, the first block has 1 piece to it. The next block has 2 pieces to it. The next block has 3 pieces to it. Are you getting the picture now? That last block does in fact have 12 pieces to it. Besides a good laugh, I just love that cardinal border fabric!

This corner piece also has a couple of nativities on it. The cross stitch one in the middle was given to me one year by my favorite cousin. Christmas IS family.

Our holiday wouldn't be complete without decorating the house. Here's Gracie assisting my husband Fred with the lights.

A little more progress .... Fred is hanging the bells on the porch light. He hates them but hangs them every year because I love them. Thank you, Honey! Christmas IS love!

Ta! Da!

Here are the links to the others on this fabulous Holiday Hop. Catch up if you missed the first seven days and keep on hopping until you get to Day 12!

Dec 9- Lori, humblequilts.blogspot.com

Dec 10 KatyQuilts, katyquilts.net

Dec 11  Beth, lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com

Dec 12 Diane, butterflythreadsquilting.com 

Dec 13 - Kyle, kyleredente.blogspot.com

Dec 14  Kelly, pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com

Dec 15  Juliann, chasingstories.wordpress.com

Dec 16   Knitty Quilter, suehoover.blogspot.com

Dec 17  Lizzy,  gone2thebeach.blogspot.com

Dec 18 Barb, funwithbarbandmary.blogspot.com

Dec  19 Judy, smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com

Dec 20-  Kevin, kevinthequilter.blogspot.com

Thank you, Lori, for putting this hop together and for asking me to join you and the others.

And thank YOU for making it through to the end of this post and allowing me to share some of my quilts and my Christmas with you. May you find friends, family, and love this season and throughout the upcoming year!

2019 Holiday Favorites Blog Hop & More

Have you been following along on the Holiday Favorites Blog Hop 2019 with Lori from Humble Quilts? We are well underway and the first five posts have been so inspiring. Lori kicked it off on Monday and today is Day #5. Check in daily as we share with you our holiday favorites and our quilty holiday decorations! (As you can see, I'll be Monday's child. Lol!)

Dec 9- Lori, humblequilts.blogspot.com

Dec 10 KatyQuilts, katyquilts.net

Dec 11  Beth, lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com

Dec 12 Diane, butterflythreadsquilting.com 

Dec 13 - Kyle, kyleredente.blogspot.com

Dec 14  Kelly, pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com

Dec 15  Juliann, chasingstories.wordpress.com

Dec 16   Knitty Quilter, suehoover.blogspot.com

Dec 17  Lizzy,  gone2thebeach.blogspot.com

Dec 18 Barb, funwithbarbandmary.blogspot.com

Dec  19 Judy, smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com

Dec 20-  Kevin, kevinthequilter.blogspot.com

For several years now I've participated with Temecula Quilts's holiday sew-a-long. This year's is Tiny Tree and here are my tiny blocks so far:

I've got these four done, two more cut & ready to sew, and three four behind ... until today's #11 comes out. These blocks measure 2-3/4" unfinished. When they're put together, they'll be 2-1/4". How do I keep getting involved with these teeny, tiny blocks??!!??

I've been using the black String-X segments for my leaders & enders. I'm making progress!

Believe it or not, I've actually got a finish to report. I started this cute little pillow a while ago but recently got it done. Sherri from A Quilting Life posted the free pattern on her blog. Didn't it turn out cute?

Front

Back

I usually fall short on the extra fluff on my handmade items because I don't have the confidence to sew anything more than the main part. However, I decided I'd try sewing on this tiny pompom trim. The pattern used lace and Sherri used larger pompom trim. Although it's not perfect, I think my tiny trim adds just the right amount of prettiness to an already pretty pillow!

There's secret sewing going on under my needle.

I still haven't started the Bonnie Hunter 2019 Mystery but I have been collecting the clues. I must be nuts to be even thinking about jumping on board! (And I may not!)

Have a terrific weekend and don't forget to follow along daily with the 2019 Holiday Favorites Blog Hop!

Leaving you with a picture of the glorious sunrise in Illinois this morning.

Linking up with Angela for Scrappy Saturday!

Blog Hop & Kyoto

Waiting for my mother to arrive so I can take her to a doctor's appointment. I believe it is a recheck at her dermatologist today. Thankfully no biggie. She's 86 and really has no health issues. I hope I have her genes!

Wanted to give you a quick heads up. Lori from Humble Quilts asked me if I'd like to participate in a blog hop that she was wanting to run. I hesitated because I've never done this before but then I thought, how will I ever learn to do this if I never have a "first time"? So I accepted. She's calling it Holiday Favorites Blog Hop 2019.

Starting next Monday, December 9, Lori will kick the Hop off followed by 11 other fellow bloggers. More details will be forthcoming but you can probably guess from the title that we will be sharing some of our holiday favorites.

Quick update on Kyoto:

I'vve got the center star put together. It needs a good pressing. I've started putting on the outer triangles to get some corners on. Then only needs borders. It's really getting large!

I'm happy to be making such great progress!

I'll leave you with this last picture of my sweet Brody. Have a great week!

Thanksgiving Family Post & Scrappy Saturday

I realized today was Saturday when I saw Angela's Scrap Happy Saturday post this morning. I sat down for a bit and did the final assembly of my Sting-X block for October. I really like the brown strings but, then again, I love the color brown! I have a lot of chocolate browns (no surprise there! Lol!) and I think I made a beautiful block.

This was block #10. I need two more String-X blocks for a 3X4 layout. I know I'm going to make a black block but what should the other color be? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Already did a red, pink, orange, yellow, light blue, dark blue, aqua, green, and purple one. Is there another color???? Maybe gray? or dark cream/paper bag brown? Help!

We had a quiet Thanksgiving here, just Fred, Mom, & me. Because it was just us, I asked the gang if it would be OK to have stuffing on Thanksgiving and then mashed potatoes on leftover night. We all decided that was a great idea. We didn't really need both all on one night.

A good dinner was had by all. Then we had pie with whipped cream. I made pumpkin and apple.

Gracie wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. She was grateful that we don't eat giblet gravy and all the goodies go to her. We stagger it out over about a week because we don't want her to get too spoiled! Ha!

And Polly liked that it was just us. She really doesn't appreciate company.

I'm watching over the cat next door while the neighbors visit family in Mississippi. Kitty is VERY old but she can still jump up into a lap ....

.... and onto the couch for a nap.

My niece  came home on Wednesday from UNC-Wilmington to have her wisdom teeth removed. I think she'll be in pretty good shape by the time she leaves tomorrow for class again on Monday. Here's a picture of her applying a lot of ice to keep the swelling & bruising down.

Speaking of Wednesday, we had a horrible wind storm run through here Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Gracie & I took a walk Thursday while the turkey was in the oven and we across this tree down on the trail plus lots of leaves, twigs, and branches.

And to help support small businesses, Mom & I shopped at The Chef's Shoppe in Edwardsville where I got an early Christmas present -- Le Crueset Dutch Oven. Got a good deal plus I got to use an almost-$20 rebate that I earned from last year's shopping!

Next stop was Allison's Shoes in Glen Carbon. My Birkenstock clogs were worn smooth on the soles and the leather was all cracked, peeled, and yucky in general. Got me a new pair and Mom got herself a new pair of Naot shoes. We certainly helped the economy this afternoon!!

Polly approved my purchase.

I will be linking up with Angela HERE in case you missed the link at the top of the post. Anybody diving in to the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt "Frolic"? Will you be using the same color combo Bonnie used? I'm still on the fence if I'll jump in.

Have a great weekend!

Progress & #41

My hand piecing saga continues and, I'm happy to say, Kyoto is coming right along. Clue #7 is all about making the center star.

Two more points to go for this and then come the Clue #6 parts from this post to get sewn in between the points. I hope the #6s are as easy to sew in place as these points have been!

Last week I managed to get the quilting done on this patriotic wall hanging. I'm happy with how cute it turned out and will be happy to show this one off at UFO Group on the 10th.

The pattern is "Liberty" by Kathy Schmitz and most of the fabrics are by Primitive Gatherings. It might be their Patriotic Gatherings line? Anyway I love the red rockets and the navy sheep!

Today I want to wish my husband a VERY HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Today marks 41 years of our  marital bliss! It's a wonder that we've put up with each other all this time considering all we've been through. But we've done it together and that's the cement on our marriage. Think we've got another 41 years in us??? Lol! I love you and am looking forward to our dinner out tonight!

I'm still on the trail with Gracie each morning but haven't been going as far as before. We're closer to two miles or just under. The hip is better but not 100% .... yet! I'm feeling confident though! This morning we went 2.03 miles and it was a beautiful, crisp morning. The sky was so blue and the sun was shining so brightly. Really put a spotlight on my favorite tree on the trail!

Have a great week!

Normalcy Returns

Things are finally getting back to "normal" around here. The laundry is caught up, the house was thoroughly vacuumed, and the bedding changed on all of our beds. No guilt getting back to my hobbies!

No pictures of Kyoto this time but I am 100% finished through Clue 6. There are only 8. I viewed the video tutorial for Clue 7 and it looks pretty complicated. This will take some major time. When I get the six wedges completed, I'll have to audition to see what setting I want to go with. There are 18 different ways to sew this one together! From the video however, I've already nixed twelve so that helps narrow down the choices.

Before leaving on vacation, I picked out some yarn that I had purchased during the Summer's Last Blast Yarn Crawl this year. On the drives to and from, I knitted my heart out on a scarf. I plan on gifting it to my neighbor for Christmas and as a thank-you for taking such good care of Miss Polly this vacation and the last one. I blocked it the other day and, now that it's dry, I only need to take care of the loose ends.

I hope she likes it! (The colors are a bit brighter in real life.)

Before going on vacation, I had finished off a pair of mitts. The yarn for these was WONDERFUL to work with -- so soft! This yarn was also purchased on this year's yarn crawl and the pattern was a freebie from Knitorious. (If you're a knitter and in the St. Louis area, this is a shop worth visiting!) Anyway, the mitts were blocked and also need the ends tended to for the final finish. These are also a Christmas gift for someone special.

This morning I prepared this wall hanging for quilting. It is a Kathy Schmitz pattern that I sewed up a long time ago. I listed it on my UFO list at my local quilt shop. It has to be finished by December 10 to qualify. Will probably take care of it this weekend. I need to buy some matching thread and I'm not going anywhere today. Maybe tomorrow ...

That's the end of the crafting portion of this post. If you don't want to read on, feel free to exit now!

Monday I went to the orthopedic doctor. Remember when I fell on my hip due to the ice last February? Well, I decided I'd waited long enough for it to heal. My PCM earlier had taken an Xray and declared nothing broken yet I was still limping and it was only hurting more. Turns out I've been living with traumatic bursitis. I was definitely NOT looking for hip replacement as so many of my friends have been having lately. Just wanted a shot and to get better. So ... I got the steroid shot and it felt better immediately. Turns out, it was only the lidocaine working. When it wore off I was in worse pain than before I went to see the doctor! Yesterday marked 48 hours and it was certainly better, practically 100% right. It was the last day before expecting rain and Mom had loads of leaves in her yard. Hubby & I raked and then I raked, and raked, and raked some more. I didn't even stop for the blister on my thumb!

Front Yard Raking in Progress

Back Yard Raking Ready for Hubby Part 1

Back Yard Raking Ready for Hubby Part 2

Suck It Up, Hubby!

We finished the job after a little bit over three hours. Rushed off to buy a jug of milk and make it home for Jeopardy. We are true fans!

Sorry to end on such a sour note but I have to say one more thing. I started raking between my mother's house and the neighbor's but had to stop. Apparently they use the side yard as an ash tray. So many brown-colored cigarette butts buried in the leaves! Can I get a big, fat YUCK here! See them in the leaves? Too bad you can't smell what I smelled while uncovering them. 

Several times while sucking up the leaves we stopped to pick the butts out and toss them back over their fence. Didn't want to stink up our blower/sucker! So nasty!

And on that note, I'm off to get properly dressed since of course I walked Gracie. Have a fabulous day!

Linking up here with my friends around the world that share their love of quilting, in particular scrappy quilts. Thank you, Angela, for another Scrappy Saturday!