Christmas Events and Preparations!

This has been a busy week with lots of special Christmas events to attend and decorating being done at home. I added a few more stitches to my winter cross stitch picture, but not as many as I had hoped.  I don't have a deadline for this project so that's ok. 

Last night, the hiking club we belong to hosted a Spirit walk at a local conservation area.  My husband and I were tour leaders and lead groups of visitors along a candle lit path to see a magician, a children's choir, the Grinch, a singer, a hot chocolate and snack station and, of course, the jolly man in the red suit.  We had some snow this week so that added to the atmosphere! We were dressed warmly and enjoyed the evening.  

The sunset was spectacular last nigh--it looked like the sky was on fire!

We went for a walk one evening this past week to see the neighbourhood Christmas lights in the snow.  One of the houses had laser lights on a tree in their yard--I did a self portrait!

The snow is so pretty on the trees in our backyard. 

Our daughter is working on the next border of her crocheted Christmas blanket.  Finn approves!  He says its quite cozy...

I hung up my snowflake quilt in the front hall.  We have snow inside and out!

One of our favourite events at Christmas is the annual carol service at the Old St. Thomas Church.  It features church shaped cookies and apple cider, lots of singing accompanied by the Salvation Army band and a message from a local minister.  The church has box pews and the organizing committee always decorates it beautifully.  

After the church service, we went to Backus-Page house where dinner featured recipes from the 1850's served by appropriately costumed volunteers in the candle-lit dining room. Christine and her husband came with us.

The Elgin County Train Museum has a display of 300 Christmas trees decorated by local businesses and organizations.  It was spectacular! 

There was also a lego village featuring a train carrying gifts and Christmas trees, and of course, Santa.  

This week, I really must get back into my sewing room!  I still have Christmas sewing to finish!

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers as well as Frederique.  Have a wonderful week!

A Busy Week

 For many reasons, this has been a very busy week!  Today was our church Christmas Bazaar so I was adding some quilting to some placemats every time I had a bit of time to sew this week.  For this set, I quilted along the red stripes both vertically and horizontally, creating a grid. 

Wavy lines were sewn in the boat and house sections of these placemats. I though they might be nice for a cottage. 

These red and white placemats had a few rows of wavy lines added. 

Organic wavy lines were quilted onto these paisley placemats. 

Lots of people came to the bazaar and most left with bags full of items purchased from the various tables...knitting, crafts, Christmas decorations, baking, canning, wood working, books, puzzles and more. The sewing group sold a lot of items and we have some things left to store for next year's bazaar.  I also did some Christmas shopping...

For my slow stitching this week, I continued to work on my secret projects.  I heard from quite a few others last week that they were also making gifts. 

My husband and I are sleeping under our new Lupine quilt.  Warm and cozy and it looks great on the bed!

Finn got snow on his beard when he went for a walk this week. There is nothing like fresh snow to sniff!

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

Slow Stitching Report (and a couple of pouches)

I have been working on cleaning up my sewing room this week.  It is looking much better but there is still work to do.  I found this Christmas tree block in a pile and decided to make it into a little wall hanging.  I quilted it with wavy lines using my walking foot and some bright green thread, which doesn't really show up very well in this picture!  I have a bin with leftover binding in it and found this red and white striped binding.  I added it to the quilted block and will hand stitch it down this weekend.  The block was leftover from some pillows I made three years ago. 

I continue to make slow progress on my Frank Lloyd Wright Waterlilies counted cross stitch project.  I must admit that this part is a bit boring... for me to stitch and for you to look at.

My friend, Pat, came over yesterday afternoon to learn how to make a wide open zipper pouch.  The pattern is from Noodlehead.  A friend had given her the bee fabric and she purchased the other two fabrics to make the pouch about a year ago.  She made the large size so that she can use it for a knitting project case.

I made this pouch earlier in the week. It is a gift for someone who does not read my blog.

While Pat was making her pouch, I made this one to show her the steps in making it.

Now that I am retired, Pat and I walk for about an hour every day, usually at a local park.  Yesterday, we were greeted by this heron.

Have a great weekend!  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers on Sunday morning.

Winter Wonderland and the Tree Skirt is DONE

It snowed most of the morning Saturday--the type of snow that makes great snow-people and clings to whatever it falls upon.  I went outside with my phone to take a few pictures once it stopped snowing.  This is a Worplesdon Sweetgum tree seed with a snowy hat!

The tree below was a bare root twig when my daughter brought it home from a tree farm in Grade One.  It's quite a bit bigger now!

Last Sunday evening, I basted my new Christmas tree skirt and then did the quilting this week---it took three full evenings and some time yesterday to finish the machine quilting and adding the binding by machine.  I sewed a line of quilting along each side of every seam --this resulted in very cool six pointed stars at every intersection.

I used a light grey Aurifil thread for quilting.  At one point, the thread kept breaking.  I investigated why this might be happening...  LINT!  Even though I had cleaned the machine before starting, it was a mess again about 3/4 of the way through the quilting.  After a thorough cleaning, the machine was humming again and no more broken threads.

I still had some yardage of this red and white striped fabric so I decided to use it for the binding.  This is the same fabric I used to bind my recently finished Christmas quilt.  I have been spending every spare moment over the last couple of days hand sewing the binding so that the tree skirt would be ready in time for Christmas.

I used white thread and tried to keep my stitches in the white stripes so they would not be seen very easily.  The backing fabric reminded me of swirling snow.

Part way through the hand stitching this afternoon, the sun came out and our living room was quite bright--perfect for a picture of a completed section of the tree skirt under the tree.  I think that reindeer fabric is my favourite!

After I took this picture, I realized that all three ornaments in this picture were made by my friend, Pat.  The wooden spool with the cross stitch cover was one of three that she made for me this year.  The bird was knitted a few years ago and the "new home" ornament was made when we moved into our house in 1999.

I finished the hand stitching on the binding while watching a Christmas movie with my daughter and MIL tonight.   It is now under the tree and ready for Santa!

 I will be linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.   Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Cross Stitch Snowflake Ornament

I purchased a kit to make a snowflake ornament at Fabrications in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago.  This week, I made the ornament and it is now hanging on the Christmas tree!

The kit was designed and assembled by Diana Watters Handmade.  Here is a link to her Etsy site. (no affiliation--I just liked the kit!) It included everything needed to make the ornament: the wooden disc, thread, needle, pattern, instructions and the ball chain for hanging.  It was fun to make and did not take too long to do.

I started the stitching at my guild meeting the other night. 

I love the colours!

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers tomorrow.  Have a great weekend!

New Christmas Tree Skirt Pieced...

I have been working on a new Christmas tree skirt for our Christmas tree for a few weeks now.  I have been collecting fabrics for this project for a while and just love the variety of grey, red and white fabrics that I used in my tree skirt.  There are 360 triangles in this project!  It took a while to cut out all of those triangles and lay them out in each of the six sections so that they looked random.  This morning, I was up earlier than usual and found that I had time to head down to the sewing room before work to finish up the last section of the skirt and attach it to the skirt.

The skirt is large--63" from flat side to flat side.  The hole in the middle is large to accommodate our Christmas tree stand.  The tree was put up last week and decorated on the weekend.

The Christmas tree skirt will look better than the plastic sheet and towels I have under the tree now to save the carpet in case of leaks!

Last night, my husband and I added lights to a new 4' wreath for above our garage using zip ties to attach the lights to the frame.  Tonight, we hope to put it up and admire our handiwork.  Our old wreath was 19 years old and was looking a bit tired.

This picture was taken on the dining room floor.

Next, I need to buy some backing fabric for the skirt so I can get it quilted and under the tree!

I will be linking up to Finish it Up Friday with Crazy Mom.  There is a link in my sidebar.

Christmas Bow block

I have been making blocks for Lorna's "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" quilt along.  Every two weeks, another pattern comes out.  By Christmas, I hope to have a completed sampler quilt ready to snuggle up under on the couch in my living room.

Tonight, I made the bow block.  It had far more pieces than the first two blocks!  

Here is the completed block.  It took quite a while to make this block! 

I will be putting sashing between the blocks in the finished quilt.  Here are the three blocks I have made so far. 

I have another pincushion to add to my collection...this one was a birthday gift from my friend, Pat.

Isn't it cute???  I have a shelf in my sewing room where my pincushions are displayed and this one has joined the others on that shelf.  Someday, I will do a post about my collection! 

Bye for now.