Everyone has been showing Christmas tree skirts. Christmas tree skirts can be considered a tough call. You make this quilt and then you a hole out of the center.

A couple of years ago the LQS had a day-after thanksgiving sale. Fifty percent off of anyone item --- if you wore your PJ’s to the store. They opened with donuts at 6:am. I told Chelsey – 14 at the time---“ Mom we have to do it… You can wear some of my pajamas.” Does this mean—mine aren’t good enough??? We’re not even going down that road…. On with the story.

We got to the shop, took pictures even, as proof for the scrapbook that we did it. I purchased the kit for this tree skirt. It was a Thimbleberries pattern.
The fingerprinted picture doesn’t do it justice. Yes, there is a mistake in the green area of each snowflake. There is 1 half square triangle flipped the wrong way and it wasn’t until after the quilt was completed that I realized it. Keeps me humble….

When it came down to cutting the quilt after the quilt was quilted, I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t close the scissors. I figured if I ever decided to use it as a tree skirt, I could just wrap the tree trunk with it. I like the frame it makes on the table. Even though it’s red and green, it doesn’t scream ‘Christmas’ as I can use it after Christmas too.

P.S. We even wore the PJ’s to Wal-mart and Shopko on our next stop…. We still laugh about it…

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Pretty neat. I was born in Louisiana and lived there for 22 years. I've lived in the Upper Midwest for 20 years. I guess some things you never lose.

The Packers lost last night. I went to sleep and they were ahead 21 to 12. At least I got a decent night’s sleep, right?!?!? Win a few – Lose a few.

The journals. They were made from a pattern by Hedgehog Quilts, called Wrap it to Go. The pattern cover is on an earlier post. Tips for making it a little easier. I machine stitched the Velcro before attaching the pockets. Hand-stitching Velcro is no fun. Also on the binding around the edges, the pattern calls for a 2 ½ inch bias strip. I like ‘skinny’ binding, so I made my strip 2 inches. Then, you fold it in half and sew in on--- you know the drill….

I realize my camera has a fingerprint on the lens. But I think you can get the idea still in the picture. Here is my “Mitten” stocking. I made it a couple of years ago. It’s tons of fun. It’s a project that can be out until Valentine’s Day too. The buttons are made of whole cloves and the arms are pieces of grapevines that curl. The project didn’t take much time to make and I gave my secretary one for Christmas a couple of years ago.

I don’t talk about DH’s job much, but he said something I want to think on. This week he’s on a promotion board. People apply for jobs. Feedback is gathered from fellow employees and a council of people from different departments group-interview each person and choose the right one from the list of candidates. In a perfect world this sounds like a great process. Well, he’s been going through the steps. He keeps re-iterating ‘Let the process work.”. After many years in my field, Don has a pretty good idea who should receive the job. But, the ‘Process’ states otherwise. And you know what he said?

“ The guy comes to work. He does a great job. But he’s not well liked. They say he’s stand offish. Hey, he doesn’t gab in the control room. He doesn’t get caught up in the Petty.”

“He doesn’t get caught in the Petty”. Gosh, I wish someone said that about me. That statement has gone over and over in my head. I’ve even mentioned it to my daughter. Whether it’s family squabbles, teenage backbiting, coffee cup gossip at work, or someone stealing your parking place. Don’t get caught up in the Petty. Hey it’s not easy. It’s a lot easier to sit and listen. A lot harder to walk away. But at the end of the day you feel tons better not knowing garbage or waste anger….

Think about it… Don’t get caught up in the Petty…

I’m getting an early start this morning. I have to be at work for 6:00 am. I’m rested at ready to go at it after to week off. Usually I’m in bed between 8 and 8:30 pm. When you get up at 4:30 am, you crave as much sleep as you can get. I was off long enough to get my sleep turned around to where I was staying up till 11:00 pm and living like normal people. I’ll be paying for it come tonight. But Chelsey is working until 9:30 pm and the Packer game is tonight too.

I got more sewing done over the week. Here are the journal covers I made. They were easy and lots of fun to make. I even made size adjustment depending on the size notebooks I had.

Chelsey loved them.

“Mom—where’s mine?”
“Well, you can have one. Just pick out which one you want.”
“Mom, those aren't Cute Colors.”
“Cute colors, huh? Well, go pick out 3 fat quarters and I’ll make you one.”
“Mom, you don’t have cute colors. Can I go to Wal-Mart and pick something out?”


I laughed and sent her on her way. For $4.96 including buttons, she came back with this. So on Sunday afternoon I made two more covers--one for her and one for her best friend. It gave me much needed practice on machine meandering and quilting. I think I’m still going to make a couple more. Realistically, from start to finish, it took about 5 hours to make two covers. I love buttons too.

Gratitudes:
1. A job to support necessities as well as the fun things in life.
2. Eric’s safe trip back to school
3. No complaints over leftovers

The vacation is fast drawing to a close. But I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Thanksgiving was wonderful. Eric has had a great visit home. He been fighting a chest cold, but I even enjoyed mothering him with the Nyquil and Tylenol. It hasn’t slowed him down any. I’ve got 15 kids in my basement right now—home from various universities across the Midwest.

Here are some pictures of the project for the afternoon. After running Ransom I started working on some postcards for the Winter Season.

They are still in the rough stages yet, but I couldn’t wait to show you the progress.

The weather is still warm---warm for us anyway...40 and 50 degree temperatures. No complaints. We’ll have snow before you know it.

The game plan for tomorrow is working on my Sunday school lesson and to continue working on my cards.

Gratitudes:
Safe holiday travel.
Plenty of food for everyone, we don’t know what it’s like to go hungry.
Walks with Eric.

Happy Thanksgiving. Two years ago I put my Bunny clothes away and they have disappeared. I just did without last year. But Life has slowed down and I really enjoyed making them this year..

Eric is home and we’re all home for Thanksgiving—no working for anyone.

We always take a Christmas card family picture. We’re taking it today because Eric will go back to school until the 15th of December. No Snow, it’s suppose to be in the 50’s. Ransom and I aren’t complaining. Eric keeps saying he’s bummed. He said that he’ll Photoshop some snow in our picture. It’s ok with me to not have snow. People always assume we live in igloos and travel by dog sled. It’ll be good for them to see bare ground in November.

We all work on Thanksgiving dinner together. I had been married 2 years before I had ever baked a turkey so I want every one to know how around here. Cornbread dressing is a staple. The kids, since they were little, mash up the bread.

I’m glad we have a season to recognize, as we should everyday, the things we have to be thankful for…. Our freedoms, our homes, our health and our families….

…and our quilting.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I may not “tuck” Chelsey in every night, but I do go in there, make sure she's covered up, give Ransom a couple of pats and make sure the “I love you’s” are the last words spoken for the night. Last Wednesday night, we were going through our routine and Chelsey said,” Can you straighten my covers, I’m cold.” I paid attention. I started straighten the comforters and noticed she had 3 small quilts laid out in alignment to cover her body over the sheet and comforter.

“Chels, you should have told me you needed another quilt” I go to closet.

But upon inspection, I realized that every quilt was the wrong size.

There was 3 queen-size hand quilted ones. I bundled her up for the night.

But I realized something. This wouldn’t work. I’m a quilter--- with a cold daughter. This wouldn’t do. I needed a quilt—quickly that could stand a minimum of 4 teenagers crashing on it at any given moment. It had to be able to withstand wrestling matches with a “Sorta” lab dog in addition to regular teenage abuse. I took out my Thimbleberries Twilight garden quilt. I took it to a friend who machine quilts. Miss Bunny said she could put a pantogram daisy pattern all over for me and stay within my budget. I felt funny about it. I had such plans for the quilt, but I knew my schedule wouldn’t allow it and it was 72 x 90--- that’s a lot of bulk to machine quilt myself, especially quickly.

I picked it up in two days and completed the binding.
I still sort of feel like it’s not my quilt but I feel good that Chelsey is sleeping, warmly, under something I made. If I had a partner in the piece, I couldn’t imagine anyone more fitting than Miss Bunny. She told me I was ridiculous and that it was positively my quilt. Every piece was put together with love by me. It turned out great.


P.S. Bloglines users-- since converting to the beta version of blogger, I noticed bloglines isn't regarding my updates. You may need to go into bloglines, unsubscribe to my post and re-subscribe again and that should fix it. I miss talking with you.

I’m having a great week. I’ve been sewing everyday. Funny story--- DH and I went shopping out of town. Don only shops with a plan. He makes me have my shopping itinerary and potential gift list. It was a pain... but really a good idea. We pile into the car. Of course we have our”plan” and our jackets—it’s cold where we live. I have my hand quilting in my lap. We’re about 50 miles down the road and I realize I forgot my purse. So when it came to shopping and purchasing, Don and I were pretty much Velcro-ed together for the day as he had the credit cards. All he kept saying was “Hey—you remembered your quilting!!!!” I thought it was funny—he didn’t. But for the first time in years he was a participant in the gifts, rather than just paying for the credit card bill.

Me--- I think a therapist would say ‘You definitely are showing signs of a quilting addiction!!!”

Anyway--- A couple of things before I return to the sewing room. Pictures will come soon---I promise. Every year I give my Sunday school kids—4 year olds--- a book for Christmas. I search and research to find the perfect one. This is this year’s gift—Room for a Little One.
The Illustrations are beautiful. It’s a unique tale of Christmas through animal’s eyes. I think the kids will go back to year after year. Even my kids who are 16 & 18 go back to Christmas tales. We pile up the Christmas children’s books in a basket. They will be waiting for supper or a date and I’ll see them flipping through them still. Another is The Crippled Lamb.




Money Back Guarantee on this one. I had extra copies last year and brought as gifts in the Nursing Home. Adults love this one.

OK for yourself – on a clearance rack at Barnes and Noble on a College campus I found this book—A Barn in New England, by Joseph Monninger. It’s not a best seller nor will it ever be, I paid less than ten dollars for the paperback version, I’m entranced with it. I’m on the first 75 pages about a couple refurbishing an old barn into a home and their relationship. There's even a lab. I haven’t finished the book, but I’m decorating the barn with quilts already in my mind. It’s not heavy reading—I’ll keep you posted. But I wanted to mention it in case you’re ordering on line, treat yourself to a present for yourself this season…..

The coffee pot just beeped… Coffee is ready—then back to quilting….....

I have succumbed to pressure and swap to the blogger beta version. Other than pains of continuously signing in, I’m doing OK. At least I haven’t lost any posts.

I’m off of work for nine days. I had a good week at work so I’m glad I’m off. Chores and errands for Saturday morning and I hope I get to quilt some. We’re Christmas shopping on Monday.

I want to complete the journal covers I have cut out. They’re lots of fun. I want to post pictures. I want to make some Christmas post cards. I thought of all kinds of ideas, mittens, stockings, ice-skates, stars---all will make cute cards. If I make a bunch, when I have reasons to remember someone, I just pull them out and send. I’ve even kicked around making a few gift tags with the same principle as the postcards. I want to stretch and baste my heart crazies quilt and so the binding on a thimbleberries quilt I have completed. Maybe I’ll get lucky and get half of my list complete.

Eric will be home Tuesday night… He’s got three or four people riding with him. I feel better with him not traveling alone.

I think the main thing I want to focus on is to enjoy the holiday without getting caught up in the hype. Sometimes I worry about the holiday being so “special” for everyone that I forget to enjoy it. I’m going to slow down this year.

Gratitudes:
1.Learning that if I give criticism, I have to be willing to take it.
2.Spaghetti for supper.
3.Taking time to appreciate the little things-
a.letting someone else have the right of way---I’m not in that big of a hurry
b.Crackers and Diet Coke
c.Puppy tails wagging.

I had a great weekend. Friday ended a really tough week at work. I have to catalog every tool desk chair, adding machine etc. It’s a big and dirty job. I’ve almost completed so there is a ‘check in the box’ on the task.

I went to work with cloudy skies and came home to 8 inches of snow. It started about 8:30 am. They almost had to close runway as it was coming down faster than they could clean it up. It was gorgeous. I came home and Don and I shoveled our way out.

Chelsey had a birthday party to go to Friday night. Don said he’d drive; the roads were too bad for her. She never complains--- has a healthy respect for cars and weather. We caught up on some TV we’d missed and I sewed. Look-----


The buggy Barn Heart Crazies is complete. I told you I had run out green border fabric. I sent a swatch to the quilt store and they couldn't match it. It was a Moda marbles. Who knows what shade of green. It was my own fault…I got greedy. I decide a 2 ½ inch border would look better than a 1 ½.

Libby said doing something to aggravate the quilt police. I thought about it. I’ve been really looking at the Lynda Hall patterns and she does some great things with borders, so look at what I came up with. I even have a 12 inch piece of the green left over.

I didn’t tell Chelsey ---a tough critic----. I finished it and showed her, she thought it was supposed to be this way. Victory.

I made a journal cover from a previous post. It was easy and fun. Pictures, tomorrow. I’ve even got 2 more cut out.

I better get to work---

Gratitudes
1. Safety in the weather.
2. Time in my sewing room.
3. 12 kids in Sunday School.

Evidence…. You’ve seen it. I’m alive and sewing a little bit. These are the postcards I made 16 of my Sunday school kids. I mailed them yesterday. I tried to complete them last week, but it just didn’t happen. I almost put them away. But I stopped and said, ”No—they’re worth it (the cards and the kids).” It was some Wal-Mart fabric I had picked up a couple of years ago. I tea-dyed muslin for the back. The cards are an opportunity for Mom and Dads to read to their kids. You can never tell kids you love them enough times a day.

What’s been going on? The weather has been incredibly mild…. in the 50’s. Ransom and I have been doing lots of walking. Don’s been working some extra hours, but we’ve spent a lot of time together working on the house junk…cooking, and cleaning, laundry—this man irons and I hang up… is he a keeper or what?!?!. Chores aren’t quite as bad if you have someone to do them with.

I had no luck with finding the fabric matching for the buggy barn quilt. I’ve going to have to get creative with the OOPS in not having enough fabric for the border. Maybe I can work on it tonight. I’m in defiance mode now. We’ll get it worked out.

Here’s one last photo. Ransom came home a few nights ago after roaming in the woods. He had something all over his head. Truthfully, it looked like an elephant sneezed on him or something. There’s no way I was letting that dog in the house. So, Chelsey and a friend volunteered to clean him up. I took it as a photo op.

I have to get to work---quilt a couple of stitches for me.

Gratitudes:
1. Warm weather in November
2. Good grades for my Kids
3. Lots of Rest last night