It's gonna be a plain, simple Christmas this year....

They say that if you want to exercise your brain, use your non-dominate hand more often. well, I will be exercising my brain alot . Family & friends, hope didn't have your hearts set on something quilty for Christmas. I did have some grand plans, but the only plan now is PLAN B.

I had been having some shoulder problems in my right shoulder, and after exams & xrays, it was determined that I could come in and have some minor surgery done, removing some irritating bone spurs. That was to be a 45 min. surgery. 2 hours later, they were done fixing my torn rotator cuff (which had been damaged for years, they noted), and I get to NOT USE my right arm for awhile! Not what I had been planning on, didn't have much ready for Christmas, no baking either.... but I did get the tree up before the surgery, so we will just scale back on the plans. I am in a couple Christmas Swaps, so hopefully they won't mind if they are a little late!

Other than that, I think I will take it easy on this arm and not worry what didn't get decorated, didn't get baked or didn't get made! I hope the rest of all you busy people out there don't overdo it, and enjoy your own little Christmas in your own way!

Maybe in time for NEXT Christmas !

Well, it's December 27th, here's hoping you all had a blessed Christmas. Ours was a quiet one, with family all snowed in and not able to travel. They did get here on Saturday though, and had to leave again tonite. So, this blizzard we had is now being called the Christmas Blizzard of 2009. Lots of snow, although I haven't heard the total yet. Now that I found ( actually stole from my "flip" video camera ) some batteries, maybe I will snap some pics of our winter wonderland tomorrow.



Now for some "old business" . . .

Here is the picture of the table topper from the last post. It is laying on a reddish quilt, but what do you think? Red binding or Green ? Better let me know quick so I can finish it before NEXT Christmas !



"New Business" is. . . my DD was home for Christmas, and she is a stylist, and I finally did the plunge and had her cut my hair. It was once again almost to my waist, and is now the shortest that I have had it in the last 48 years. I don't remember how long my hair had been back then, but I do remember my Mom had it cut in a "pixie" style and I remember crying for days. Little did she know how much that would traumatize me and for how long. . . well, it is NOT as short as a Pixie, but pretty short for me. And how am I doing about it now ?. . . well, no tears, and so far no regrets. . .. . . . .

Storm Watch ( or Oyster Stew for Two on Christmas Eve )

Big storm's a'comin' or so they say. . . so I'm thinking our Minneapolis family won't make it home for Christmas. That means that the grandson won't be staying the week between Christmas and New Year's either ! Big Disappointment, but I am not going to dwell on that, I am going to be thankful that we have weathermen and forecasts so we know when bad weather is coming and can plan accordingly. Our current forcast is for snow starting here at noon, snowing through Christmas morning, with 12" or more of snow, then the wind comes up and blows through Saturday ( translation: BLIZZARD ) .

So, today's plan is to make a grocery list and get to the grocery store for the big blizzard rush. . maybe a couple movies too. Then we should get some more wood in for the fireplace before it gets covered up with snow. . . Then we can hibernate for a couple days.

Now, just so this post will have a picture, I will post a 24" table topper that I made ( to keep ! ). Not sure what color binding to do, I think it will be a scrappy binding, but green or red ? What do you think ? I am guessing I will have time this Christmas to get it done !

oops. . . sorry, batteries are dead in the camera. . . guess I will have to put that on my shopping list, then come back here and edit ! See you later. . .

Hi. .

I thought I would take a little time out from the LIST ( my quilting list. . . only 5 more customer quilts/runners to do before Christmas, and barring any catastrophe, I do believe I will be done by the middle of this week with them all ! ) to post. I saw this tree skirt pattern in a magazine- and it was so nice to find one that I actually felt like making ! - and thought it was so cute. I made this for my DIL for her birthday. Sure hope she likes it. She has her whole house decorated PRIM, and boy, let me tell you, it could sure be on a tour of homes ! So, that is why I used the muted prim colors in this tree skirt. Now, I never can stand to make the same thing twice, if I do it is under great duress. .. . . but I really like this pattern and I think I might need one of these one day too. I had better mark that magazine and put it in a safe place. I am not up to making it this year, but I think it will go on my WISP list.

I quilted it using Nested Hearts, and am really happy with the way it turned out.

In other news, it has been bitterly cold up here in North Dakota ( like below ZERO), and just a couple weeks ago it was up in the 50's . I did not get my outside lights up yet - I hope to be able to motivate to get something up outside this weekend. Of course that all depends on how much quilting I can get done this weekend too !

Mr. Stitches has been good about keeping the wood stocked for the fire in the fireplace, and cooking the occasional suppper ( ok, he has been making most of the suppers around here , however I do have them organized so he knows what to make. . .) so I can quilt in the evenings, and go to practices and gigs with the band. We have been doing a few Christmas gigs lately, and let me tell you. . .. all those Christmas songs you THINK you know ? well just try putting chords to them and playing them right and singing ALL the words right. . . and figuring out which Christmas songs you can bluegrass up. . . . well. . . it just isn't so easy ! But it has been fun, and exhausting ! Soon enough we will be back to the usual bluegrass songs that we play all the rest of the year.

Ok. . . I have another couple table runners to quilt out tonite. . .

will try and post more later. I have some really cute quilty items to show you all !

I hope you are all taking time out to enjoy the season !

'Tis the Season

I've been trying to hold out for December 1 to post this quilt, but I guess we are close enough now. Thanks, Georgeann for letting me quilt this ! She did a beautiful job of piecing, and appliqueing. If you click on the picture for a close up, you can see the white and off white log cabin blocks and if you look real close in the white blocks you can see the quilted holly and berries. She used many different white and off white fabrics for this quilt, and it really is so gorgeous. I'm thinking that someday, I would like to make one like this for our house !

This quilt sure put me in the Christmas mood.

Here's hoping all your Thanksgivings were happy, and that you all are getting in the Holiday Spirit !

Now I need to get a crackin' there's more Christmas quilts to be quilted !

Merry Christmas !

Just a little holiday post to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

This is a little wall hanging that I made a few years ago, B.A. ( before longarm ) so is not quilted. I would like to make more, and have a few ideas rolling around in my head, but I need to get all the pictures and other embellishments together. For any future ones, I think I will try to embellish more, but I do like how this turned out. This is just a little montage of some family pictures. I am the youngest, so I don't show up on ALL of them ! I am only on the 2 pictures in the lower right. I especially like the one of my brother holding his BB gun that he got for Christmas. . . it really reminds me of the movie "The Christmas Story" I wasn't around at that Christmas, but I just love this picture ! Anyway, I thought this would make a nice little Christmas "card" for you.

I hope you all have completed your Christmas projects and that you can share some peaceful blessings of the season with your families and friends !

Merry Christmas, Beth