Adios Amigo

 Yes! Adios. Good-bye.  Auf Wiedersehen. Au revoir. Sayonara.

We are saying farewell to 2022!

A new year looks bright and beautiful.

Here’s to 2023! Bring it on!

Countdown!

 It’s the countdown to Celebration of Jesus’ birth!  All our plans are made, family arriving from afar, some family traveling to in-laws; gifts are wrapped and under the tree—

why do we have a tree in the house!!??

The modern Christmas tree originated in Germany, where families set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve.

The smell of evergreen is one of the favorite odors in our household.  For years, we purchased a fresh cut tree or traveled to a tree farm to cut our own treasure.  As years passed, we got older or had too many accidents with the tree falling over or varmints jumping from the branches, we went to good old artificial tree from a box—it is beautifully lit with multi color lights—but the smell is gone!  Alas, customs change and we adapt to the change and move on.  I still wish for that smell of fresh cut evergreen—no amount of candles or spray can bring that to my nose! 

Moving on—my studio is less cluttered!! Yay for me!  Some UFOS are in completion—waiting for long arm is this one—a leader-ender project from 2020!

So happy to finally decide on a way to complete. 

 more blocks for sewcialites 2— my red, white and blue blocks are adding up! 

And have you seen the colors for 2023?  

Fascinating!! It will be a red year!

My brain is brimming with ideas of red tones for 2023!  I’m just waiting to add more UFOS to the list! 

It’s a Wrap!!

It’s beginning to feel like Christmas!  Shopping is finished! And now it’s time wrap all those gifts

Here we go……

 

Scissors, tape, pens are ready

Gift tags lay near by

Must have ribbon—yards and yards of ribbon

Gift paper

Gift bags just in case

All laid out 

ready, set, go!!

But! Why do we wrap gifts? 

What’s the history behind gift wrapping? 

Wrapping gifts date back to the 1600s in Japan with Furoshiki, a traditional wrapping cloth. In the west, using paper as a covering for gifts has been a longstanding, if largely luxury-oriented, practice. Upper-class Victorians regularly used elaborately decorated paper, along with ribbons and lace to conceal gifts. —okay, that’s the history

Gift wrapping serves as a garnish to your already wonderful gift. It adds an element of surprise to your present and makes the receiver feel even more special. With just a little more effort from your side, your present will be superior to every other present they will possibly be receiving. That’s one reason! 

Many ancient cultures celebrated various holidays that involved the giving of gifts. The desire to hide the identity of a gift until just the right moment led people to wrap gifts long, long ago. Historians believe wrapping gifts in paper probably started not long after paper was invented thousands of years ago.

Definitely! A Wrap!!

 

OH My!!

I love knitting while movie watching!  You never know what you’ll see! 

This movie satisfied my knitting side!  

Warm cozy setting, knitters throwing yarn around needles!

The movie is on Netflix-“Castles  For Christmas”

Look in the background!  Knitted pole wraps!! Yarn bombing!!

And they are really knitting! In the pub!  Don’t you love this sweater!!?

Still—I couldn’t mark off any of my bingo squares!!

But, fun to watch Brooke Shields in lovely Scotland castles! Knitting! 

I came across this Sunday Post article about the designer, who worked on the movie knitting scenes.  Di Gilpan is a famous Scottish designer who has written books on designing your own knitwear.  You can find out more about her on her YouTube channel. Below are two samples of her work.  Can I say WOW! 

Love this!  If only we had phone booths in US—I’d be ready to yarn bomb!

 

Oh Yeah!

 Want to make someone HAPPY? 

 When you are addressing your Christmas cards, send one or two cards to A Recovering American Soldier, c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20307-5001. 

Connie Resin has this lovely Christmas table runner to sew.  It will be in the gift for brown headed daughter as she requests table runners for her new house.  Well, this will be finished with an IOU for the rest!  Wonder if she’ll be happy with that gift?  It is a gift that will continue to give throughout the year!

Happy Quilting has this free scrappy quilt pattern—perfect to use scraps from the bin—easy peazy too!

Maybe, just maybe, this will be ready for great grandbaby who arrives in early March. 

I’ve chosen these yarns for my advent scarf—only because these were yarns in my stash.  I think I have a gold and a burgundy somewhere. 

I started with the first rows that began on December 1.  

I’m not a good intarsia knitter—at least, I think that knitting these patterns make for success!  Practice makes perfect!! My colors are subdued—when I find that gold and burgundy, the scarf will come to life!! That’s if I find their hiding place!

Update:: someone won our bingo movie contest!  It wasn’t me—we’ll begin with a new card to continue till Christmas 

Updates!

Christmas movie bingo is ongoing—it’s difficult to get a blackout bingo card!  Will continue Christmas movie watching and hope my card will be covered soon!  Knitting is also a top priority!  Advent clues went up on December 1–trying my best to keep with the schedule. 

Blocks from Sewcialities 2!  So far so good— some of these patterns are challenging which improves my method thinking on construction! 

Several quilts have been bound with more waiting in the wings to get that final stitch.  One was finished just in time to present to dear friends as a gift. 

I picked up an old knitting project—like from 2021–boy, I can’t figure out where I left off and where I should begin again!  I really shouldn’t leave projects to linger so long—why did I?

I’m thinking it is a pattern that was created in two halves

Because, I have

Two halves

And since I don’t know where I am in the pattern, I’m Just going to “ wing” it and start and finish when the two halves become long enough to make a scarf!

So, a new year’s resolution, which I don’t make—is NOT TO JOIN ANY NEW KNITTING PROJECTS!!!  I MUST finish the ones in the pile! 

Holy Jolly!!

 We are at the beginning of December!  Holy jolly!!  How did we get here so fast?  

It’s our granddaughter’s birthday! So one good reason to celebrate the start of Holy month.  

We kick off the day with reading of chapter one of the book of Luke in the Bible.  Each day this month, we’ll read a chapter.  There are 24 chapters, taking us right up to the birth of Jesus in chapter 24.

There are several textile adventures waiting for us  as well—maybe, we can finish by December 25 if other plans don't interfere.

Jen Daly Quilts once again is offering this special holiday quilt.  Her past designs have been added to my quilt memories.  So join in for this year's quilt.

The Glad Tidings Quilt-Along will begin on Monday, November 28th and will continue every Monday and Thursday until December 22nd. Here’s the schedule for your reference:
–  Monday, November 28th – Intro/Cutting
–  Thursday, December 1st – Rows 1, 2, and 3
–  Monday, December 5th – Row 4
–  Thursday, December 8th – Row 5
–  Monday, December 12th – Row 6
–  Thursday, December 15th – Rows 7 and 8
–  Monday, December 19th – Assembly
–  Thursday, December 22 – Finishing

The Glad Tidings Quilt-Along is free to all and there’s no need to sign up. As we progress, she’ll make each set of instructions available on the QAL page and on her blog. If you’re on her mailing list, you’ll receive emails containing links to each day’s instructions ). The instruction sheets will be available through the end of December.

And don’t forget this one!  The first clue went up November 25 and continues through December—be sure to download the clues for future reference. 

Fort Worth Fabric Studio has their new sew along begins December 19–Frozen Memories

Join  Artesanitarium Designs, Mary E Rose , Tanja Luescher on Instagram to knit these advent socks!

Once again, I'm jumping into knitting another advent scarf with Tricia Weatherstone.  The scarf will be a long rectangle shape and is a geometric design. The theme this year is basketweave stitches and using the intarsia technique to achieve the design wanted. 

I’m really punishing or is it pushing myself to think I can do all these projects at once!  This one is from Talvi-knits

After all, I’ll need something to knit while movie watching!

Today! Is The Day!

 Yes!! We have arrived! The day after Turkey day! While others are out shopping till they drop—Today is the day we begin bingeing on Christmas movies! Oh yes!! And we’re not just watching movies but playing bingo as well!  This game is called Christmas movie bingo!  Last year it was Hallmark Christmas Bingo but this year it is any Christmas movie since some of our participants don’t have Hallmark Channel. 

You generate your own bingo card from several different sites—e.g. Bingo Baker or https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2017/11/24/turn-your-christmas-tv-movie-binge-watching-into-bingo-game/892087001/

We’ll begin on this day to watch and mark our cards—hopefully! The stakes are high!  Losers pay winner 5 bucks!  

I’ve got my shirt from last year’s contest, which we cancelled when one of our friends became very ill—we just couldn’t  go on without her.  But, she’s  well and chomping on the bite to beat us this year!  

The first movie I want to watch—? So many to choose from, so many streaming services.  Where do we start? 

And I can accomplish some knitting or stitching as the movie plays on!  

Look at me—I’m multi—tasking!!

Maybe, I can shout “ BINGO!” Soon!!

Gobble! Gobble!! Gobble!

OH -- Junk!

 The other day, as we tried to tidy up the house in preparation for Thanksgiving (still no idea whose turn it is to host, but we’ll be prepared if it’s our turn) someone was looking for scissors--not my good sewing scissors please!!!  The voice could be heard from the other side of the house--"look in the junk drawer".   Pull out the designated drawer and there were the all purpose scissors--right there in the Junk Drawer!  

Doesn't everyone have a junk drawer?? What's a junk drawer, you may ask? Then you don`t have a designated place to put your odds and ends of small stuff—

Indeed!  A drawer filled with “junk”—odds and ends of stuff that we might need sometime in the future.  For instance, a padlock with no key! Flashlight, no batteries; glue (that’s probably dried up),  rubber bands—at one time there was a rubber band ball (wonder where that went!?) matches AND a fire stick, of course when one doesn’t work, there is the other! 

There’s string and wire, sticky things to hang pictures on the wall; and don’t forget the batteries!! Probably no good but we saved them in the Junk drawer!  And you can’t have a junk drawer without duct or packing tape! 

Not only do we have a junk drawer, the BOWL is ready to be nominated for the next junk location!  The Bowl, which holds the garage door opener, contains billfolds, keys, pocket knife, business cards, zip tie, reading glasses container—NOT reading glasses!! Loose screws, of course! Oh and least we forget, the car touch up paint pen! 

Every once and awhile, the junk bowl becomes over crowded and spills into the junk drawer. 

Heaven forbid, we get rid of anything or move to another location—we couldn’t find any of that junk—who knows 

When we’ll need a padlock with no key! 

Boy!  I thought we had a messy junk drawer.  Daughter has not one but three junk drawers!! 

WOW!!

Whew!!

 The wedding is over!  We sweated about the weather—but, thank goodness, there were no storms!  No rain! cool temperatures, which was fine. We had heaters for the outdoor ceremony.  It was a beautiful wedding under the oak trees, covered with twinkling lights! 

The wedding and groom cake were centered stage

Bride’s nephew carried this satin pillow that first used in bride’s great grandmother’s 1940 wedding

After wedding clean up, there is a let down feeling—all that planning, shopping, friends/family departing—it is time rest and be ready for another day. 

Life continues—always moving fast! Never a dull moment as we move through our days of adventures.  Here is a progress of my fiber creations.  I'm trying to keep myself grounded--especially, with the holidays fast approaching.  One day at a time, one foot in front of the other.  I'm deciding whether to start on Bonnie Hunter's 2022 mystery, which begins day after Thanksgiving.  The color selections are on her website.  I will save all the clues and decide in the new year.

Fat Quarter Shop is hosting Sewcialites.  Each Friday a different pattern is released from a designer.  This is second pattern--I'm trying patriotic colors for now.

This is the first pattern.

This stack of stars have been staring me in the face for months--finally, I did it!!

I started putting them together!

Scrappy Stars by Kathleen Tracy

It's a start--just need seven more stars to complete the last two rows. Not sure I like the green squares-- but finishing up will be a bonus.  Another thing off my table stacked high with projects!  

Log cabin blocks made with scrap strips—didn’t matter size of strip,  just started in the center and work out till you have at least 12” block. If larger just square up.  

Once the blocks were together, I thought it needed a border.  A friend suggested piano keys—back to the strips sewn and cut to 2.5” length. 

The top still needed something else to make it complete— 

4” black border and ta da!  Finished!

What you reading?

 

Shannon Bream has this lovely book "The Women of the Bible Speak".  A great read!!  She has also written

"The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak", which will be my next read.

I've always enjoyed Lisa See's books--this is interesting tale of how women can conquer the sea for their lively hood.  This book is about Korean women in their daily chores of the sea.

My Florida friend (formerly from Louisiana) has bragged about this book for months.  She says it is drop down hilarious—I finally succumbed to reading it—I’m not sure I would say hilarious, but it is light hearted enough to read between serious reads. 

Book one of three about Murphy Shepard—I’ve read “When Crickets Sing” by Charles Martin and found it to quite readable.  So, now I’m on the journey to learn about his character Murphy. 

Just finished listening to “The Hunting Party” guests arrive on a remote island for a wedding.  What can go wrong?  Many twists and turns in this one to keep you Interested.  When I do handwork, my ears are tuned to a book. 

Book sale!!!  OM!  Our local library had book sale one Saturday—would I miss it it?  Definitely NOT! Tables and tables of books!!

What are you reading?