Christmas open house

Yesterday, my MIL and I went to a quilter's open house. Sharon Wilhelm is a quilter/quilt teacher here in the Dallas area and she has this open house every year.If you take any of her classes during the year, you are invited to her house to celebrate Christmas. (I try to take one of her classes just so I'll be invited.) She decorates every room with her quilts and Christmas trees and makes some of the best cookies and candies I have ever tasted. Her punch is the best drink I have ever tasted. I limited myself to two glasses or I could have drunk the whole thing! She's sending me recipes and I can't wait! My MIL was so amazed at her house. Last year was the first time I had gone and I remember what I thought, so I know how she felt. Sharon does some amazing quilts and she's quilted since she was really young. She has accumulated some very nice quilts and decorations over the years and it is truly lovely. It is the hi-lite of the Christmas season for me to go here. She makes ornaments and gives them away to her guests and sends them in her Christmas cards and packages too. She made 350 little sleigh ornaments this year. Last year she made Christmas bulbs and they were cute too. She had 49 trees decorated throughout her house. Can you imagine that? It was lovely. Thank you Sharon for such a lovely treat at Christmas....

Christmas parties, Decorating and Survival

Woo hoo, today was so busy! I got up this morning and wrapped my gift to take to my Quilt Guild meeting. I decided to not bake and just buy some different breads at Costco. I was not disappointed. It was three different loaves, Pound Cake, Banana Nut Bread and Cinnamon Streudal. All were very good and it sure helped me not to have to take my time to bake. I went and picked up my BOM at the quilt store and listened to the monthly talk about the block then headed out for my Christmas party. We had a great lunch. Boy, do we have some good cooks in our guild! I think all quilters must know how to cook. Is it the nurturing gene or what? One of our guild members and her husband and friend entertained us with Christmas music while we ate. Thanks Donna and Mike. They wrote a very cute Christmas quilting song and we sang it to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas...I'll see if it's ok to tell you their lyrics and if so, I'll write them out for you...I had a great time with good food, good friends and lots of laughter. This is why the holidays mean so much to me! I love the fellowship of friends.

Today was my fourth anniversary of being a Breast Cancer survivor. I'm doing great and had a great check up last week. I'm thankful for my health this season!

Today was also the anniversary of my sweet Mother's death many years ago. My Mom has been gone now 40 years today. Some days it seems like just yesterday. I sure miss you Mom and I now know how truly wise you really were.

After the party today, my grandkids came over and helped me decorate our tree. Finally! I have been after my husband since Thanksgiving to get our tree down so I could decorate. Now, it feels like Christmas! My grandkids are so cute too. They so enjoyed going through my box of Christmas ornaments and saying, Grammy, I like this one. Did you make this one? Can you make me one like this? Grammy, who's this? Is it really my Daddy in this picture? Ah, sweet, fun times. I love this. For all my friends out there, I wish you sweet times with your families this holiday season. Remember, Jesus is the reason for the season...Share him with someone you love.

Julie and Julia

I just got through watching Julie and Julia. What a delightful movie. I now know why there was a surge in Julia Child's book sales after watching this movie. I want to go out and buy it too and I'm not that crazy about cooking! It really brought back memories of watching her on TV growing up. I know the PBS station has started running her show again and I've been watching that lately too. What fun.

I really liked Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci together as a couple. I think he is great. I liked hime in The Devil Wears Prada and they were together in that too. He's one of those sexy bald men, you know, like Sean Connery and Patrick Stewart. I never thought bald was attractive until these men came along...Oh well, I didn't mean to get off on that but the movie was really good. It's definitely worth watching again...til next time.

New crosses

I'm still not feeling good but I'm feeling well enough to tat a few items. I've been making crosses the last couple of weeks getting ready for Christmas....Here's two new crosses I enjoyed making...

Wendy Durell has a new cross out called the Split Ring cross and here is my version of her cross. Thanks, Wendy for the pattern, it tatted up real quickly.





This other pattern is from Gina Butler is Oklahoma City...it is her pattern called the Basic Ring-Chain Cross Bookmark. Her pattern comes with a spiral chain on the bottom of the cross. I chose to leave it off. This pattern is a variation of her other cross pattern I have been making...

ASG Christmas

I had a great time today at my ASG Annual Christmas party. It was alot of fun getting together with my sewing friends. We got to the Barn (it's a sewing barn) around 10:30 for coffee, donuts and catching up...We all chatted and looked around the barn to see what our hostess was working on. Lana is a recently retired person and is now pursuing Long Arm Quilting...She's been doing this for a while on the side and now can do it full time. However, you know how it is when you retire. Everybody calls and comes by because you have all the time in the world now that you don't work, right? She has a few quilts to work on now and a lovely work room(barn) to do it in. Her daughter came over and decorated for our function. We decided to play the Wright game with fat quarters. We then ate a wonderful lunch and exchanged gifts. We did the chinese Christmas game and several lovely items were stolen from me (Mary, you know what I wanted.) I ended up with a very nice Christmas gift. I got an Omnigrid Foldaway cutting board and pressing station...Not bad, huh? I needed a new one so, this will come in very handy for retreats! We played LCR (Left, Center, Right) for quarters. I didn't win anything but it was fun to learn this quick game...Before the party was over, I started getting a headache and came home and had to lay down. I was supposed to babysit for my grandkids but they were sick...I got up but was running fever and upset stomach..Oh well, I'm hoping it's not bad. I don't have time to get sick. I have too much to do before Christmas....til next time....

My Bernina

Well, my machine still isn't ready. The repairman called and said it was still acting up and he's got to order some parts or do more research on it. He will call me when it's ready...Oh my.

I guess I'll just keep sewing on my Pfaff a little longer and be patient.

Crosses, Stumpy and Spinning Wheel Tatting

I haven't posted in a long time. I just haven't been in the mood. I've been busy tatting and sewing and visiting with family and friends. Too much to do and not enough time for everything. I love the holidays but it sure is stressful at times. I have been really busy tatting away. I'm making crosses to give as gifts.

I'm also sewing to catch up on all my projects for the year. I have wanted to sew so much and I have really enjoyed it lately. I was busy sewing away and my Bernina just stopped. The screen froze up and the foot feed would not work. I turned it off to reset and it wouldn't come up all the way...I took it in to get repaired and it's been in there for about two weeks now. I am working on my Pfaff now and waiting for my Bernina to get out of the shop. I just found out today I can pick it up Saturday. Woo hoo, I can't wait. I have 6 machines and my Bernina is my favorite. I will take some pictures later of what all I have been sewing. For now, here's some pictures of my latest tatting. I haven't blocked any of these but wanted to show you these for now....

I have been tatting Crosses. So far I have 10 small crosses and 1 larger cross. The larger cross is for me. I'm going to make more but it will be later. I'm making the smaller crosses for friends at work and some of my quilting friends. I have alot more to make. The small crosses are off the Georgia Seitz website and is a Gina Butler pattern from 2002. It is a great pattern. It's easy and fairly quick to tat. I can tat this cross in about 2 hours now and don't need the pattern. The two other little bookmarks are Stumpy's by Kersti. I enjoy making this little bookmark and I've made several of these and given them as gifts. It's easy and quick to make too.



I really like this cross. The pattern is out of the book Tatting by Cathy Bryant. I love the colors. I have no idea what it's called. The thread was given to me by one of my tatting friends. She was tired of size 10 thread and gave it to me. I made the cross and of course, I had to make a Spinning Wheel Glass mat out of it...The Spinning Wheel mat is one of my all time favorite patterns and so far, this one is definitely my favorite.