Last Post of 2023

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and some time to relax this past week once the festivities were over.  I have managed to do a bit of knitting this week as well as some un-sewing (more on that later in this post!).  During the month of December, I worked on knitting a new hat for my husband whenever he was out or otherwise occupied.  Despite my best efforts, I did not get it done in time and he ended up unwrapping an unfinished gift.  He was surprised and pleased with my gift to him, which makes it all worthwhile.   The hat features three colours of wool and 6 moose figures--I had to learn how to do colour work with the help of YouTube and my friend, Pat.  The pictures below show the hat in progress...

The hat pattern is from a book I purchased in Newfoundland when we were there in June.  "Saltwater Classics" by Christine Legrow and Shirley A. Scott.   We saw several moose while we were in Newfoundland.  I started doing the decreases for the crown of the hat earlier today but have to change to DPN's for the last few rows...I need to borrow these from Pat in order to finish the hat.  I should have it done in no time once I have the needles. 

I like to make gifts for family and friends.  This year, many of them received rope bowls.  These bowls are about 7" across and fairly shallow...perfect for some jewelry, a watch, etc.  I tried to make them in each person's favourite colours. The bowls shown below are a sampling of the ones I made. 

A few years ago, I started some cross stitch ornaments in a month by month stitch along with the intention of making all 12--well, I ended up cross stitching three of the designs and only one was ever finished and gifted to my friend Pat. This year, I finished off the last two and gave them to a couple of friends.  

I made pillowcases for my husband and my daughter.  The whale and blueberry fabrics were purchased in St. John's, Newfoundland.  I have fabric to make myself a Newfoundland pillowcase as well, but ran out of time.  This will be a January project. 

I unstitched the worn out binding from my daughter's quilt and will make and machine stitch the new binding to the quilt tomorrow.  I will get the hand sewing done before she goes home.  This will be my Slow Sunday Stitching!  You can see that the old binding has done its time!

Finn gave me a cute Sewing Store puzzle for Christmas!  He's a great shopper!

He also likes to be comfortable on a soft pillow for his naps...

We had butter tarts and fruit skewers for Christmas dinner dessert.  I purchased the butter tarts from our local farmer's market...they disappeared quickly!  Santa was keeping his eye on them!

I made my SIL a Christmas wall hanging at one of the retreats I attended in November.  I could not show it until now as she often reads my blog!

My daughter received a couple of counted cross stitch kits for Christmas and has started one of them.  

That's all the news from here for this week.  Happy New Year!  I will link up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching crew in the morning. 

Merry Christmas!

 Good Morning!  Finn and our daughter arrived last night for the holidays so the festivities can begin now!  I did a bit of cross stitch on my Christmas project.  The wreath is getting there!  I hope to have more time to work on this after Christmas Day!  

I have been sewing a fair bit this past week, finishing off gifts for friends and family.  While I can't show you pictures of my projects yet, here is evidence that the sewing machine has not been idle.  I use a make up brush to clean my machine--lots of fluff!  My sewing machine is much happier now!

Here are a few pictures of Finn to round out this post.   We are so happy that he is healthy and excited to be here!  You may remember that he was very sick last Christmas. 

This glowing collar makes him more visible in the dark when he's out for his walks.  

Our family has plans for reading and puzzle making after Christmas. I hope to have some time to sit and relax and enjoy some slow stitching and knitting over the holidays.  I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers now. 

Christmas Cross Stitch and My Scarf in Progress

I finished off the centre snowflake and started the wreath above it this week in my Christmas cross stitch project.  This pattern is called "Invierno" from Satsuma Street. It is made up of nine motifs with a purple frame around each one.  I have a ways to go but this will be my relaxing slow stitching project over the next few weeks.  I will have it framed to hang up before next Christmas. 

I've added several rows of knitting to my scarf.  I expect that it won't be done for this winter!  Good thing I have other scarves to wear! I have several projects on the go at any one time and like to do a bit of each, depending on what I feel like doing at the time.  

When our daughter went away to university in 2009, I made her a twin sized quilt for her bed in her residence room. It has a flannel back and binding.  A few weeks ago, she sent me a picture of a hole in the back of the quilt.  I brought it home when we were visiting Finn and our daughter a couple of weeks ago. After washing it, I noticed that the binding was worn thin in spots with holes in other spots.  Time for new binding.  I am going to use a light blue Kona solid this time, instead of flannel.  The fabric is purchased,  washed and ready to make binding. This will be an after Christmas project as I am still working on making some last minute gifts this week. I will also repair the hole in the back of the quilt!

When our daughter was little, we bought this book for her.  It is written in 24 parts, one for each day of December.  The author, Kevin Major, is from Newfoundland.  The story is woven around 24 hand carved Wooden Santas.  While in Trinity, Newfoundland, in June this year, I saw some hand carved Wooden Santas for sale and just knew I had to purchase one.  This week, my wooden Santa was put out onto a shelf in my living room.  The book is on the coffee table. 

The sunset on Thursday night was spectacular!  

Finn says "hello".  He tells us he is on the nice list.  With those eyes, I can do nothing but believe him!

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.  The secret sewing continues...

'Tis the Season of Secret Projects

Last weekend, we went to visit our daughter and Finn.  On the way there and back, I hand stitched the binding on two quilts, the nautical themed comfort quilt I showed last week and this Whistlestop quilt.  I am very happy to have finished this quilt!  I have two more lap quilts pin basted, ready for quilting but they will have to wait until after the holidays for I am in the midst of making gifts that cannot be shown on my blog until after Christmas. 

I did a bit of knitting most days this past week.  My scarf is growing, slowly!  It's not long enough to wrap around my neck yet.  This wool is very soft and very easy to knit with. 

It snowed while we were visiting Finn and our daughter and our visit was extended by a day to let the road conditions improve before venturing out towards home.   Finn was very excited to have us there.  He likes to look out the window at the squirrels. 

Finn likes to stick his face in the snow and run around in it but he hates his boots and coat that he must wear to protect his feet from the salt on the sidewalks and keep warm. 

The trees with the snow clinging to them reminded us of the opening scenes of a Christmas movie.  

There is not any snow where we live and I wonder if this is how it will be during the holidays. I will continue to work on my secret projects this week.  The big day is fast approaching!  I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers in the morning. 

My Second November Quilting Retreat

Christine and I attended the annual November Crafter's retreat at Camp Kintail this past weekend.  We both love these weekends away to get lots done on our current and new projects.  I just noticed that a lot of my projects are green in this post...  I made this I Spy HRT quilt top at the Oxford Guild retreat early in November and managed to get it quilted and bound at the retreat.  I finished off the hand stitching on the binding at home this week. 

I found this fun green and white striped fabric in my stash for the binding. 

The backing fabric was also in my stash, but as you can see below, I did not have quite enough of the dotty fabric so I added in a couple of strips to make the backing big enough. 

Christine also quilted a baby quilt and added the binding at the retreat.  With us is Mary, a knitter, who also attends the retreat each year. She was making socks for her brothers for Christmas. 

I made the last two pineapple blocks for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project...gold and dark green.  I have not sewn these blocks together yet but you can see my 12 blocks below. 

My green hat is just about done--I just have a bit of the seam to finish sewing up and then I can wear it!

I have started my scarf to match...I found an easy pattern on Ravelry.  knit 2, knit one in the back, pearl one.  Rinse and repeat.  I like the texture! The scarf will be a lower priority over the next while as I work on Christmas gifts. 

I finally quilted my Whistlestop quilt, a pattern by Christine at Tessalated Quilts.  I made the top a while ago and just never got around to quilting it until now.  Again, more green!

I chose to do some orange peel and straight line quilting with my walking foot.  I added the binding at home this week and will work on the hand stitching this weekend. 

Here is a cute picture of Finn as a brief break from all of my project photos!

Camp Kintail was decorated for Christmas, inside and outside.  This is the path from the building where we were sewing to where we had our meals. 

As I said in my last post, I put my sunflower cross stitch aside and have started a Christmas project.  It will not be done for this Christmas but it is fun to work on a seasonal project at this time of the year. 

My modern sampler quilt has most of the backing pieced with fabrics leftover from the front of the quilt as well as other fabrics from my stash. I have one more piece to add at the top and then I can take this to the long armer.  It is a twin sized quilt and too big for me to quilt on my DSM.

Another view of the path through the woods at Camp Kintail!

This quilt is an Elgin Piecemakers comfort quilt for a chemo patient at our local hospital.  Lynn put the blocks together and I am doing the binding.  I have lots of slow stitching to keep me busy this weekend!  I made the boat block in the bottom row of the quilt. 

I will be linking up with Kathy and the slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning, as well as the Rainbow scrap challenge folks on Saturday morning and at Frederique's blog too on Saturday.  I am off to work on some Christmas gifts.  Yikes! It is December 1st tomorrow!