Some Stitching

The winter weather rages outside; I am thankful that I did not travel this year for the holidays. Instead - I've been inside, sorting through my projects. Sort being the verb here - as this top is missing 2 rows or so... some segments I had, the others... I couldn't find. So - it has sat - unfinished - with bits and pieces of the missing rows. After trying to figure it all out - again - yesterday, I decided to just call it good, add an inside border from fabric on hand and put dark blue yardage on my fabric shopping list for the other border. Right now it measures 72" X 81" and the final borders will probably be 8" so that will bring it up to a nice size. The photo is a bit washed out, but the light squares are all old pastel calicos. The squares are cut 4.5" and then matched with scrappy flying geese to get the pattern - really simple. The extra bits and pieces are actually enough to make a few scrappy star blocks - so that is what they will become!

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And here is a finish from November - actually the center I made last winter, but the borders went on last month and I am fairly sure I haven't shown a photo of it yet. My Scrappy Bargello - a free pattern over at Bonnie Hunter's site - http://www.quiltville.com/. It measures 90" X 82". I made this quilt from a PILE of BRIGHT 99 cent fat quarters. Then I had to figure out what to do with them all. This pattern was a perfect fit! Just ignore the fold line down the center - I didn't feel like ironing it for the photo.

Just for fun - I bought that zanny fabric for the border. I cut it both long and short ways to get the pattern to line up along the border lengths - see the photo? I was especially pleased with it! A bit of goofy-ness, why not? I like to add goofy-ness to my quilts. The binding will probably be an extra wide dark navy or purple for this one.

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It hasn't been all quilting on the sewing front... my serger is fixed!!! I threw it out of alignment by putting jeans needles in there - turns out you can't use such big needles on my serger. The needle hit the lower looper and that was the end of serging until the repair. After 5 1/2 years, I won't complain - this has been the 1st issue I've had with it. And why jeans needles anyway? I was making School Boy some corduroy pants and decided it would be a good time to change the needle and since it was thick cords - thought jeans needles made sense. NOPE! So - if you have a serger - take note! Since my serger is fixed I finished the cords for SB, plus a pair of fleece pants (the non-pill type because it holds up very well to repeated washing) AND a knit top for myself. I love my new top and it is worthy of its own blog post - so I will try to get some photos soon. In the meantime, I no longer have to do the laundry every 2-3 days because my son now has 2 extra pairs of pants. Whew - the pressure is off. EVERY pair of pants he wears (except the emergency pair) I've made. The funny thing is that he almost always picks orange fleece. I told him that people are going to think he has magic pants that keep growing with him as I seem to make them over and over again, each time in the next size up! The new pair has a red stripe on the pocket instead of yellow though - so they are a bit different than the last pair. And he loves them.

The NOT funny part was when I was fitting the elastic to his waist he puffed his belly out - just like a horse when you go to tighten the saddle strap - and I didn't notice. So - of course, the pants fell right down after I got it all sewn inside. I had to set it aside for 2 days before I had the heart to take it apart, but it is done now, yeah! The thing about sewing clothes for kids - you can not procrastinate because if they turn into a UFO - they simply won't fit.
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AND - just before Christmas I made SB 3 patchwork juggling balls... but only filled them with stuffing (no beans/rice) so they are light-weight and he has had a good time throwing them at a target taped to the door. Can you see the target taped to the door behind SB in the orange pants photo? The weather really is keeping us inside and I am TRYING to come up with creative things to do so we don't go shack whacky. I really mind the cold weather.

SB received a few gifts to keep him occupied - which gives me extra time to sew.

We do not put the presents under the tree until Christmas Eve. Amazingly - the gifts arrived by post just in time from Europe. SB asked me - Momma, did you get me a present? I told him that I had to go shopping and should leave so I could be back by the next day... he ran to the door and held his hands out wide... "Don't leave Momma, it is OK if you didn't buy me a present, Christkin (Christ Angel - as there is no Santa in Austria and this is my DH's culture) will come and Santa will come and my aunts and uncles sent me gifts. Stay home Momma!" But of course, I did have presents for him as well.

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We did have a wonderful Christmas - complete with a BIG fondu Christmas Eve fondu for all 3 of us (lots of salads and side dishes), Christkin came and we opened presents. Christmas morning SB ran to the tree and his face just dropped when there was nothing there, thinking Santa had missed our house. I very quickly reminded him that he put his stocking on the couch - the relief on his face as he ran over to the couch was comical - it was all I could do not to laugh because that would hurt his feelings. Last month SB was begging me for new winter boots and even after Christmas he is still ooh-ing and ahh-ing over those boots, so let me tell you - we had one very happy boy come Christmas Day - he even loved his new house slippers and is still thanking me everyday for them. We finished Christmas off with a very nice meal with a family that invited us for the 2nd year in a row to join them to celebrate. Not the Christmas I remember as a child (being from a big family), but the Christmas of MY child, and now also me. All in all, it was very nice.

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Here is a photo of our snowman family - all 3 of them/us! They are actually very pretty - a bit translucent and the glitter scarfs seem to change color from pink to light green depending upon the light. Today's light is... snow and freezing rain. Ah well, in anycase, I really, really enjoy my holiday decorations!