So Cute!!

I finished piecing this top together this morning.  It is so darned cute!!  The next step is to embroider the white stripes between the rows.  The pattern says to add the batting, but not the backing and embroider through that.  This will be a new experience for me.

I love the little touches of pink and limey green that add some zip to the color scheme.  This is a pattern from Jen Daly Quilts.  

I think my shopping and wrapping and mailing packages are at an end for this year.  Christmas cards and letters are next.  My list seems to get shorter each year as more people lose interest in sending cards and distance and time seem to drift us apart.

Our daughter is in Saudi Arabia this year and we will spend a day with our son and daughter-in-law to exchange gifts after Christmas.  We also plan to visit friends in my hometown in Indiana after Christmas.  Looking forward to some new traditions and time with loved ones.

Merry Christmas to all.

Christmas Sewing

Somewhere along the line, I found a nice blog called JenDalyQuilts.  Jen has some very sweet designs and has offered a mystery quilt-along the last 3 Christmases.  Her latest one just started this past week.  The good news is they are relatively simple, small and easy to fit into a busy holiday schedule.  I am making last year's mystery quilt right now, although it is not such a mystery to me as I have seen the finished quilt and I Love It.  Here are some of the pieces I have finished.

 A Little Forest

 Some fun ornaments

 Some pretty packages to put under the tree

And lovely pinwheels!

I have one more bunch of blocks to make this weekend and then it is time to assemble.  Much of this is done with paper piecing and goes very quickly.  Jen has  provided all the cutting instructions and made the pieces that are paper pieced slightly oversized so there are no mistakes and the whole thing goes together easily.  I am loving it.  It is fun to work with Christmas fabrics once a year.  

Lots more to do to get ready for the holiday, but we are enjoying the season so much.  Our first snowfall of the winter happened last night.  So we may just have a white Christmas.

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

I am getting excited for Christmas.  We spent the last two Sundays decorating the church and it is so beautiful.  I forgot my camera, of course, so I will have to show some photos of that another time.  I realized sometime in the last week that I don't have a Christmas quilt.  I do have one with winter scenes that someone gave me.  It is a store bought quilt with bright colors and I keep it out year round.  But I have never made a Christmas quilt and it is time.  So I got on the Internet and found one I really like and then I got busy.  I have been making lots of these....

 to make some of these ......

to eventually make this......

If all goes well I will have the top completed in the next week and soon I will have my very own Christmas quilt.

I hope your heart is filling up with the anticipation of Christmas and all it brings.

Be sure to stop by Judy's blog to see more beautiful designs.