The Reindeer Clan

 I managed to get some stitching done on the Christmas table runner.  I won't get it finished by this Christmas but it will be for next Christmas.

Here are the cute reindeer.

This is Chad.  He has a sense of rumor and is quite loveable.

This is Declan.  He likes to think he is in charge but usually is a middle of the road type of reindeer.  He has your back so you don't have to worry.

This is Hiram.  He will be stitched down this week.  Hiram holds a special place in my heart because of his namesake.  Don't trust those innocent eyes though.  He likes to get into trouble.  He won't blame other if he gets caught but he won't be too repentant either.  LOL.

The sweetheart of The Reindeer Clan is Suzie.  She is a sweetie and the rest of the clan look out for her.  She has them eating out of her hoofs and knows it.  

There is one more Reindeer that I will show when it is his turn for being stitched down.  So if you see reindeer flying unsupervised this year, it is probably this clan.  They like to sneak away from Santa and go visit the Queen Elf.  Perhaps it is because they know she'll feed them stuff that Santa and Mrs. Claus don't think they should eat, or at least not that much of it. 

Have a great day and watch out for Reindeer Crossings!

Another finish for 2020

 I couldn't stand it any longer.  The three quilts/wall hangings that came back from the long armer (why do I always want to type long armor?) gave been staring me in the face.  To shut them up, I picked one up to finish.  All it needed was the binding so I did that this week.  It was the hexagon heart which will go on the wall in February.

It will replace my hexagon snowflake that is above the dresser in the living room.

I put two crocheted snowflakes on either side of it.  I might have to make some hearts to go on either side of the hexagon heart.  I'll see.  I have time to do that.

That's not all that I worked on.  I also pulled out one of the log cabin kits from Jordan Fabrics that I've had for a couple of years.  I wasn't sure if I would like working on log cabin blocks so only ordered one kit.  That gave me 12 blocks.  They suggested a couple of different layouts.  Their suggestions were:

Layout 1

Layout 2  

I might play with different layouts but these aren't too bad.  Which one do you like better?  Layout 1 or Layout 2?  Do you have any other suggestions?  I did like piecing these blocks together.  I decided, after making 2 individual ones, that I could chain piece them.  That speeded up the process a lot so even though I started these last night, I finished them around 11 a.m. today.  I can see that I might have more log cabins in my future.  

That's about all I have for this quick post.  It is cold today  and will be for the rest of the week.  I am cozy warm, almost too warm, so that's ok with me.  The range of temps for the rest of the week are highs  between 41F - 51F and the range for lows are 26F - 38F.  If the temperatures are below 32F, I let the cold water faucet drip.  Been doing that for years and it works pretty good.  At night I also move my electric heater into the laundry room and aim it towards the bathroom.  It just takes the chill off and helps keep pipes from freezing.  Besides I don't like to sit down on a cold bathroom stool in the early hours.  LOL.  I will admit that I'm a wimp.  

I hope you have a great day.

Stay safe and well.

Hugs to all.

Kona Color of the year for 2021

 It's hard to believe 2021 is right around the corner but Kona is here to remind us.  They have picked their color of the year for 2021 and here it is.  It's a beautiful sky blue called Horizon.

Sometimes I'm not that fond of the Color of the Year but I can get into Horizon.  I might even have to order some of it but not for a long time since I have enough blues for now.  Still.......

<grins>

Have a great day everybody.

What's Cooking?

 Whew!  I don't know about you but my brain hurts as well as my hands because of trying to get all the projects done that I need to.  That means this post will be more about what I plan on cooking this week as well as introducing you to my friends new blog.   Susan (Susie) has been talking about journaling/blogging for a bit and I am so happy to see that she started.  You can use the link below to check it out.  She has just started so there isn't much to show yet but bookmark it to go back to later.  I will put a tag in the next day or two on the side of my blog so you can just click that.

Quilting Susie Blog

It is cold here today.  I shouldn't be surprised since it IS December so I sat down and made a list of what I would like to cook this week.  So far my list consists of:

apple butter or apple sauce, I'm not sure which yet

white lasagna

ramen noodle chicken soup

cookies - chewy ginger molasses; peanut butter (hopefully to put in the freezer for closer to Christmas and the New Year)

Cupcakes and frosting - not sure if yellow or chocolate 

That's all on my list so far but I feel like I am missing something that I had thought to add.  Oh well, sooner or later I will remember what it is...Oh..I just remembered!   Rice pudding.  I have a lot of rice and raisins so a nice rice pudding sounds good.  I will have to double check on how many eggs I have.  With all this cooking I might have to get more eggs before I can make everything.  LOL.

Now it's time for me to get my bible and do my daily reading challenge.  That is to read a chapter of Luke each day in December leading up to Christmas.  

The bible that I am reading out of was presented to "Mom Chamberlain" on December 25, 1953 by Anita and George Chamberlain.  In this case, Mom Chamberlain would be my grandmother and was given to her three years before I was born.  It is the King James Version "The text conformable to that of the edition of 1611 commonly known as the authorized or King James Version".  I have to be careful with it since the binding is coming off.  I need to get some glue or something to put it back on. 

I hope everybody stays safe and well.  I thank you all for reading and hope you have good holidays.

Peace to all.

The Day After!

 Whew!  Welcome to the day AFTER Thanksgiving.  Are any of you taking advantage of Black Friday sales?  I probably won't but I will still look online and see if I need anything.

I had a great Thanksgiving.  I talked to my sister in law.  She does cross stitch and dried flower arrangements etc. so it is nice to hear from her.  It was also my friend Dan's birthday so he came over.  He almost missed it since he hadn't been feeling the best before (shh.  too much cheese in his diet -- been there before) but by six he was feeling well enough to come over.  That's only 4-5 hours later than planned.  I think we need to invent time stop or something even if nothing else for cooking.  You know, after the turkey goes in to be done between 1-2 p.m. and you find out your company isn't going to be there until 6 p.m.?  The turkey refused to stop cooking!  It still turned out great and since it was a small turkey, I gave Dan the rest to go back home with him.  I actually gave him around 90% of the leftovers to take back home with him.  LOL.

As you can see we didn't go hungry.  Dan took these pictures.  This was his first plate of food.  He stopped at two plates.

Having limited room to set things up, I decided to recruit my ironing board to put some of my crockpots on as well as the gravy, dressing, cranberry sauce.  The pies and biscuits were on the card tables.  Dan discovered if he leaned slightly to the right, he didn't have to get up to get the biscuits.  :)

The menu was:

Turkey (10 pound)

dressing

gravy

fresh cranberry sauce 

green bean casserole

party potatoes (new recipe for me this year --- will definitely make it again)

biscuits (hot out of the oven)

apple pie

pumpkin pie

Blackberry Honey Wine - Thank you Dan for sharing your birthday gift with me...Double thanks for leaving it for me to finish off.  :)

I even shared some of the turkey with the outdoor cats Tangerine and Orange.  They used to belong in the house but the former residents kicked them out.  The neighborhood feeds them as does the mail lady.  I don't normally feed them, but did find an animal house in the back yard that was brought up front to put in the trees in case they want to shelter in it.   I noticed that somebody put two small animal beds in there now.  I wonder if they will ever use it.  I have seen them checking it out by sticking their heads in but that is it so far.  Animals adapt to their surroundings so if the weather gets bad enough I'm sure they will go in it.

Today is back to a more normal day for me.  I've done most of my dishes from yesterday.  My roaster is still soaking but everything else is done.  I have the laundry out of the washer and in the dryer.  That is the laundry from yesterday.  The towels, dish clothes, etc.  In a little bit I will put regular laundry in the washer.  No need to start it now since it would have to wait for the dryer anyway.  

This week is start to address Christmas cards.  I'm debating if I will type up a "what's changed" letter in them or not.  I don't normally do that but 2020 has brought a lot of changes so it might be nice to recap it. 

Time to get back to chores.  Have to finish them before I can get back to stitching on Christmas in Jacksonville.  I'm on the last of the embroidery blocks for that.  I do not think I will do the log cabin/courthouse steps blocks that the pattern calls for.  I might, however, look up some more Christmas themed patterns that I could embroidery in blocks to add in instead.  It was the embroidered blocks that caught my attention and what I liked best about this pattern.

Everybody have a great day and stay safe.

Hugs to all.

Another UFO came back from the long armer

 This is just a short post to show you my final UFO that came back from the long arm service.  It has a teal Minky on the back.  I didn't know it was Minky until today so it will be interesting to see how I'm going to put the binding on.

That's it for now.  Time to check on the apple pie in the oven.  :)

UFO's ALMOST finished

 Before I post up some pictures of my UFO's that are almost finished, do you know what this picture means?

I put my scraps to use and cut them into 2" strips.  Then I sewed them all together and ironed them like I would for binding.  It's not binding for a quilt though.  I'm using it to "bind" my aida cloth so it doesn't ravel when I do my cross stitch.

It's not the only binding will I be working on.  I need to do my binding for two UFO's that are now quilted.

The first one is the top.  The material shown in the lower right corner on the front is the backing material as well as what I think I am going to do the binding in.  

Here is a close up of the quilting done on it.  I sent it out to Missouri Star Quilt Company to quilt.

The other wall hanging that I sent MSQC to quilt is my hexagon heart.  The backing material  is the pink swirl material in the lower right hand corner.  They quilted it in pink thread so you can see the swirls nicely.

I will bind it with the backing material.

That's it for now  Christmas Chronicles: Part Two is out on Netflix now so it's time to watch it.  I will also be watching Iron Mask on Vudu today.  

Bread is in the bread machine for tomorrow (if I can resist it).  I will be making some other of my side dishes for tomorrow today.  Things are starting to come together.

I hope everybody has a great day today as well as a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Tooting a friends horn!

 Hello my readers! 

It's a mid month check in but first of all I wanted to toot a horn for my friend, and reader, Susan Smith.  Susan is a quilter and has just recently been accepted as a pattern tester for The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  As most of you know, I love that magazine and test their patterns whenever I can.  Susan just got permission to tell and show people her first test pattern that she did.  She doesn't have a blog but I am more than happy to support the crafting community so here is a picture of the top of her test pattern.  It is called Boxed Dutchman by RaeLyn Boothe.  

As she stated "This quilt is multi purposed, it is Red, White, and Blue for the Fourth of July as well as able to be used for Christmas due to the Red Poinsettia fabric, the Blue Crackle and the White with Roses". I also think that it would be good for any of the patriotic holidays. So many uses and times where she can show off her talent. Well done Susan!

I am working on multiple projects myself but since most of them are for presents I can't share the pictures.  Still I am thinking on what to work on in 2021 and I'm getting excited.  2021 will be my year for working more on cross stitch patterns.  I will be quilting too but cross stitch, hopefully, will be featured a bit more.  Of course lots of times my plans get changed so we'll see what 2021 brings.

I hope everybody has a wonderful day.  I'll be doing a post before Thanksgiving so watch the blog for that.  

Hugs to all.

I'm making progress....

 It's nice to be able to report that I'm making progress on another UFO.  This one is a Christmas Rail Fence pattern from Jordan Fabrics.  The pattern didn't call for a border but I put one on anyway  I'm liking it a lot better with the border.  

In between working on the UFO, I also finished crocheting the pot holders for a birthday present  for Dan later this month.  I have four of them that I'll be giving him.  

I haven't stopped there.  I also am on schedule to finish up the 3rd (of 4) tulip block for Simple Yet Block this week.  I only have 6 more leaves to stitch and I'm pacing myself to do 2 every day.  That way I can pace myself and not get tired of working on it.  

With the colder weather, I also have picked up on cooking a bit more.  I got three Diabetic Living cookbooks and they look like they have some nice recipes in it.  I'm not diabetic but that doesn't mean I wouldn't benefit from eating a bit healthier.

I am almost done eating my savory onion bread.  It is great toasted!  I'm not sure what bread I'll make next.  A cinnamon bread might be next or just another white loaf.  It is so hard to decide.

With the cooler weather settling in, I also want stews and soups.  This one is a lentil stew and I served it over a garlic and pepper rice.

It was nice to have waiting for me after I raked the leaves.

It's time to get back to my stitching.  I have two blocks fused for LeFleur and need to start on them.

I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll post again in a couple of days.

Welcome to November!

Sorry for not posting in awhile but life has been busy for me as I'm sure it has for most of you.  Now it is November and time to turn our clocks back since Daylight Savings Time is ending in 45 minutes.  Where DID time go.  With thinking about where time went, it reminded me that I need to be a bit more structured so that I'm not wasting time and spinning my wheels.

When I first retired, I made lists and semi keep to them.  It was good to look at the list to see what I had wanted to accomplish.  I didn't get everything done but it was good to see all those check marks in the "finished" column.  I've slacked off on that during COVID and realized that I need to get back on track.  That is my goal for November...to get back on track.

With that in mind, what will be on my list?

I finished the test pattern that was due by November 9th so that can already be crossed off.  The other things on the list are:

Le Fleur - I pieced together two 9 patch blocks that are the background for the applique.  I have one fused on and probably tomorrow I will probably fuse on the second one.  Then I will hand stitch them down.

Christmas in Jacksonville - I will keep working on the embroidered blocks.  I'm not sure if I will do the pieced blocks.  They are a log cabin/courthouse steps type block and while I like them something is telling me not to do them.  If I don't do them, I will have to fill in with something else.

The House blocks for COVID - I need to applique trees on some blocks and then put them together.

Simple Yet Elegant - I am behind on my blocks but will keep working on them.  I am almost finished with a third (out of four) center tulip block.  I have been postponing doing one block.  A bird block.  I think I will do that one next just to make sure that it gets done.  I have another block that is fused on that needs to get stitched also.

Finish a rail fence UFO.  The top is done except that it has no borders.  The pattern didn't call for it to have a border but I think that I will put one on.   It's a smallish wall hanging so it could use a border.

Cook Thanksgiving dinner for Dan and I.  

That's what my list looks like.  Do you have a plan for November?

 

Be more like a Flamingo

 I know...a flamingo?  Not my first bird of choice to look to as a role model but hear me out.  

I was given the October-November 2020 issue of National Wildlife so I was looking through it and found a short piece on "Birds of a feather...".  The first sentence caught my eye and it really made sense. "For the first time, scientists have documented that flamingos consistently spend time with a handful of their close 'friends" while avoiding birds they don't get along with."  

Doesn't that sound like something we should do too?  I'm sure that most of us don't go out of our way to hang out with people we don't get along with.  In our Covid world that we fid ourselves living in, it makes more sense than ever.  "When unfriendly birds get too close to each other, on the other hand, they joust with their necks and beaks to determine dominance, with the winner most likely to be the individual with the longest neck...flamingos that regularly sat or stood less than one neck away from one another were classified as friends."  

Let's be more like flamingoes and hang out with our friends.  Stay a safe six feet away from our friends (a much longer distance unless you are Pinocchio) but still within talking range.  

Be like a flamingo and keep your friends within a safe but sociable distance and try to talk about pleasant things instead of all the negativity that is in the world today.  Need an ice breaker to start a conversation?  Use this post.  Who knows, after a couple of drinks the new drinking game could be "who can stretch their neck the farthest."  If you do use that for a drinking game, don't forget to add another element.  Perhaps standing on one leg while doing it or when taking your next drink.  Don't forget to have cameras ready when others try this.

Enjoy.