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!!