Designing Monday

Seems like forever since I have sat down to blog.  Our Christmas season has been so fun thus far.  Our kids are not coming home this year, so it will be a lot different when Dec. 25 rolls around.  Our son and his girlfriend came to visit in early December so we exchanged gifts then.  We finished our shopping for other family and got their packages mailed off before the deadline.  That has left us with time to enjoy events in our area -- concerts, lights, evenings with friends.  I also have had time to quilt and sew whenever I feel like it.  Here are some photos of what I have been doing:

My first Christmas quilt:

This is from a pattern called Pretty Peppermints by Gigi's Thimble.  I just love it!  I am not sure when I will get it quilted, but I just love to look at it.  Be sure to hop over to Judy's blog to see more quilts.

I helped with decorating our church for Advent on two consecutive Sundays.  It is a big job for our little crew.  This is about half of the decorations.  This year our theme is The Wreath and our focus color is red..  So we have about 12 wreaths placed around the church celebrating our theme.

We took in the local Botanical Garden  on a Friday night when then temp was in the 40's - a real unusual event in Wisconsin in December.  Their annual fundraiser is a Christmas light display.  Photos can never do justice to such a fun exhibit, but it was truly magical.

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas.  May all your days be filled with joy and lot of stitches.

Designing Monday

Here is my newest project.  It is block # 341 from Vol. 4 of the 100 Blocks series.  I am making a 12 inch quilt to hang for Christmas.  I love to do simple embroidery so this should be fun.

I made the same little quilt last year for a friend and ran into the same problem.  This little block includes a small Dresden plate.  The instructions call for 16 blades for the plate.  When I got them all sewn together, they would not lie flat, so I took out one blade.  Still wavy, so I took out one more and now it works fine.  I had forgotten about this little dilemma that I ran into last year.

Hope you are enjoying your days of Advent and looking forward to the season as much as I am.

Stop by Judy's blog  to see some beautiful designs today.

Advent Celebration

Each December our church holds a service just for women to welcome Advent.  It is a time of reflection and preparation for the upcoming season.  A time to slow down and a time to remember why we are celebrating Advent.  It was a beautiful service by the women of the church including musicians and singers, gifted speakers, and even some of the junior high youth.

After the service we gather in the Fellowship Hall for a tea.  The younger girls serve refreshments to the women and they are so excited.  Each table is decorated with china brought from home and inventive centerpieces.  I decorated a table again this year and took photos in the afternoon while the hall was empty.  Thought you might enjoy seeing a few of the tables.

 This is my table. My centerpiece is white taffeta with a white candle.  Then I added gold mesh ribbon, gold floral picks and bleached pine cones. I also used two margarita glasses filled with snow and gold beads.   I put green snowflakes on the plates to add color to the gold and white.

 No decorations on the table, but the dishes are so adorable.  Each piece has a different line from The Night Before Christmas.  Down the middle of the table are all the serving pieces for the tea set.  Really lovely.

 Cute hearts.   This was really cute from across the room while sitting at the tables, because all you could see is red and white.

 Each napkin had a beautiful Bible verse and the little tents on the table had verses as well.

 I love these Hadley dishes.  We had a little child's tea set of Hadley dishes when I was growing up.  The centerpiece was the cone below.  I don't know what it is for.  Any guesses?

Santa's Toy Shop

The Nutcracker Ballet including a Green Bay Packer ......

and a toe shoe.

Sparkly Poinsettias

Precious Moments Angels

 The lady who decorated this table told me her friends got together and bought these lovely holly dishes for her as a wedding gift.  What a fantastic idea!

 This table had 3 of these cute lanterns and a burlap runner.  Burlap is so big this year.

 She used alternating polka dot napkins and gingham napkins.

Each plate said 1776.

Designing Monday

I love how these blocks turned out.  I remade the template for the white background in order to get the required 10" finished block size that the pattern states.  I discovered once I started putting the blocks together that the star points would not meet.  I can only guess that all the pattern pieces were  too small.  I downloaded the templates from a free pattern provided by All People Quilt.  There was no gauge on the pattern, so I couldn't tell until it was too late that they are the wrong size.

I guess it doesn't really matter.  I think the blocks look great and the fabrics were fun to choose.  I like that there is so much white space available to quilt in.

Next comes the borders, so that means this top will make at least one more appearance on the blog.

I also took some photos this morning of our church sanctuary.  I am on the decorating committee.  We decorated for Advent a week ago and I forgot to bring my camera.  We like to keep a photo book of or work so we can make remember what we have done from year to year.  Thought you might like to see what we have done.  It is always fun to share ideas.  The star banners on the far right and left are ones I made last year for Advent.  I am glad the committee decided to use them again.

Hop on over to Judy's blog  to see more great designs.

Advent Tea

Last night our church hosted an Advent Service and Tea for women.  The music was wonderful and the guest speakers did an outstanding job.    The theme was Follow the Star.  The first speaker talked about following God's plan for her to open a home for teen mothers and the second speaker started a business for developmentally disabled employees.  They make gourmet popcorn.  She had popcorn available and with every sale she is shipping popcorn to troops in Afghanistan.

After hearing such inspirational stories, I was wondering why I had spent even one minute fretting about my table setting and decorations.  It is always so uplifting to hear how God works our lives in such a powerful way.

Here is a photo of the table that I hosted.  We had peppermint ice cream and Christmas cookies and the servers were the daughters of the planners, ranging in age from 4 to 12.  They all did such a great job.

Advent Banners

I was asked to make some stars for an upcoming Advent service at our church.  The theme is Follow the Star.  I wasn't sure what was needed, so after some discussion I decided to make banners for the pulpit and lectern.  I found a paper pieced star on the Internet that measured about 6 x 9 and I blew it up on my printer to the size I needed.

The Advent service is sponsored by one of the Women's groups in our church and is just for women.  The organizers asked the quilting group to make the stars for decoration during the service.

I am also on the Decor Committee which decorates the church for each church season.  This year the theme is metallics, so I made my star banners in gold and silver.

I have also been asked to host a table for the tea that follows the Advent service.  That means bringing dishes from home as well as decorations, tablecloth, etc. to make my table unique.  This is the 2nd or 3rd year for the tea.  I have been to the service, but not the tea.  The thinking is that many people have sets of Christmas dishes and decorations and get so little use out of them, that this tea is a fun way to share and enjoy each other's stuff.  I don;t happen to have any Christmas dishes, so I am improvising.    I made a trip to Stein's this week as well as Hobby Lobby and Joann's looking for ideas for decorations.    The lady at Stein's who makes up their displays spent some time with me showing me how to put together a neat table arrangement. So far I have only spent around $10 and have a good start.  I got more than $10 worth of advice from her.  I will try to remember to take a photo of the table when I get it all set up.  Should be fun.