Just one more!

One more finish for 2010!  I started these courhouse blocks at a retreat in February.  It is finally quilted and bound!  Yippee!  Now I am wishing I had made it lap size, but it looks great hanging on the wall in the foyer.  I started cleaning out my closets in the sewing room...oh my!!!  I have way too many WIPS!!! and lots of quilt tops waiting to be quilted.

Maybe one of my New Year resolutions should be to finish a WIP once a month, and not start any new projects...but what's the fun in that?   Maybe I could compromise and tell myself that if  I drag out a WIP and finish it,  I can start a brand new project, and finish it as well.  It seems that I have made that resolution many times in the past...a few get done (quilted and bound), so that is the main thing. 

Praying that God will give you joy to fill your days, peace to fill your hearts, and love to fill your lives.

May your new year be blessed in every way! 

The Amazing Grace Christmas Light House - Official Version

Follow the Christmas star to the place inside your heart where hope shines strongest and where peace and beauty live. A wish that God's peace and beauty will bless you always.

Merry Christmas!

Hunting for the pickle ornament

Does anyone else play this little game at Christmas?  We have done this for several years, and much to my son's delight, he usually has the sharpest eyes and finds the pickle.  I can only think of one time that my daughter actually found it in the tree!
It is a quaint tradition that nobody wants to claim.  Some say it is an old German tradition.
The Christmas pickle is not really a pickle at all. It is a pickle-shaped ornament that is the last one hung on the tree on Christmas Eve. The first child to find the Christmas pickle gets an extra gift from Saint Nicholas. Or so the so-called legend goes.



Hunting for the pickle ornament



This year, Jordyn found the pickle ornament, Jack and Caleb could not be here on Sunday due to that darn tummy flu!  Our little Christmas celebration was on last Sunday, so that the kids could travel this coming weekend.  It will be very quiet around here on Christmas day!

Santa in my mailbox!

Lucky me!  My Secret Santa is the very talented, creative 

Madame Samm!

Look at the sassy little mug rug she made....just too stinkin' cute!  It is going to work with me tomorrow, it will brighten everyones day, mostly mine.  Everyone can just drool on it ....just a little bit.

The stitchery is divine...cardinals are one of my favorite birds, so this is just perfect!

Thank you so much, Madame Samm! 

Rejoice!

Jack and Caleb

Where is the joy?  Where is the party?  Where is the enthusiasm and celebration of faith?

Truthfully, I am struggling to find the joy....fatigue has set in, now apathy.  Juggling a busy December schedule is overwhelming and stealing my joy.  In this season that celebrates the Christ child, why am I not finding the joy?

It's time for me to push the "pause" button....stop and listen,  stop and look around....the joy is there, I am just to "busy" to enjoy it.  Joy is everywhere I go...it is in the ringing bell outside the department stores.  I hear it in the giggle of children as they stand in line to visit Santa.  It is present on the faces of  loved ones as they gather around the holiday table.  It is present on the faces of the less fortunate that we give to.  It is present at every Christmas pageant and in every Christmas carol we sing.  It is in every reading of the nativity story.

"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

A big hug to my friend Sandi, for her reminder to me yestereday of where the joy is...it is right here, right now!  Hope all of you are pushing the "pause" button at least once a day and not losing the joy. 



Hallelujah!

Today was my day to hide in my sewing room and play! Made a few of these little mug rugs for gifts. I plan to put some goodies in the cup, like hot chocolate mix, or tea bags...maybe some sweets! These are certainly fun and easy to make...very relaxing! Love listening to Christmas music, lighting a pine scented candle, and sewing away.....bliss!

I might go to the mall if I thought this would happen while I was there!

May your walls know joy,
may every room hold laughter,
and every window open to great possibility

.

A bit of Christmas cheer for you...Enjoy!

Secret Santa

Secret Santa Table topper or wall hanging.

This is going to the post office today...hope my secret pal enjoys using it as much as I enjoyed making it!  This has been a fun swap...thank you to Joan and Kelly!  It is fun to see all the beautiful Secret Santa gifts that are in Santa's sleigh all ready!

We got back from Dallas on Sunday morning, and as soon as we got home and unpacked, started putting up the Christmas tree.  This Thanksgiving was spent in Dallas with my sister and her family. It is so much fun to be able to spend the morning in the kitchen with my sister and my mother, cooking, laughing, sampling the food....good memories! 

After five days off...it is hard to get in gear and go back to work!  Especially with so much that needs to be done here at home!  Tis the season to get stressed out...I am trying very hard not to! 

Monday musings

Can it really be mid-November????   Remember when we were children, and time seemed to just crawl at a snail's pace until Christmas?  My sister emailed me with some instructions for Thanksgiving last week, and said ...see ya in 2 weeks!  I hit the panic button, thinking my time is running out on all the things I want to accomplish...guess I need to remove a few things from the list!

Today, I plan to quilt my Secret Santa gift so that I can cross that off the list.  It has to be in the mail in 2 weeks, and I will be traveling for Thanksgiving, so today is the day!  I love Secret Santa projects!

Friday night, I went to my friend's Stampin' Up crop...we made 20 Christmas cards!  It was loads of fun and so nice to have them made.  Hoping I will have time to make a few more, as I bought some new ink and stamps.

Since we will be out of town for Thanksgiving, my children and grandkids, and other family members are coming on Saturday for our non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  The kids requested Mexican food, so that is what we will have!  Anyone have any favorite recipes for Mexican dishes? 

Guess I better get off the computer, and get busy at the sewing machine! 

What a great way to spend my day off!

Monday musings

Halloween has come and gone, the decorations are put away for another year!  These are a few of our costumes for this year. Jack did NOT want to put on his monkey costume...thus the crying fit.  But once he was out knocking on doors and got some candy, he decided it was fun.

 Jim dressed up like the Headless Horseman....some of the little ones were a bit unsure about him.  Our church sponsored a Trunk or Treat on Saturday night...lots of fun seeing all the cute little costumes! 

Today I started on my Secret Santa gift....here is a sneek peek!

Off to watch Dancing with the Stars...although I am a bit disapointed in it this year!  Cannot figure out what is going on with the voting and the eliminations?????

Click for your Mama @ The Breast Cancer Site

The tints of autumn

Last weekend, we headed south for a short weekend trip to South Missouri.  The skies were cloudy, but the rain held off until evening.  We visited Dogwood Canyon outside of Branson, Missouri....absolutely beautiful!  Jim and I hopped on bikes and rode for 2 hours through the beautiful park.  Here are more pictures from our trip...it was just too short!  Hope to go back next spring when the dogwoods are in bloom.



John and Jenny were also celebrating their wedding anniversary...
good times with good friends!

Happy Fall!

       

Yellow mellow, ripened days... Beauteous, golden Autumn days.

Jim and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary yesterday.  It has gone by so fast!  Next weekend, we are celebrating by taking a weekend trip to South Missouri with some friends.  The fall foliage should be beautiful!  Hope this fantastic fall weather we are having holds out for next weekend....Jim wants to drive the Mustang convertable one last time this season.  

I have not accomplished much in the sewing room...but I have been sewing on a wool wall-hanging. It is going to be cute...hope I get it finished this week so that we can enjoy it for Halloween. Fortunately, it will be ready for next Halloween for sure!

Gourdy's Gang

And here are a few more fall decorations in my house.....

Have a wonderful week...hope you are enjoying some of the beautiful autumn days!





Dancing at the Movies - Music Video

Ok...I admit I cannot dance, but I love to watch anything that has to do with dancing. Yup...I love Dancing With the Stars, and I am a Gleek. This video has so many of my favorite dancing movies and is set together so well.

So take a break, and enjoy!

Back from AQS quilt show



I love this one because of the scriptures quilted into it.  I know you really cannot see it, but it is wonderful!





Love this use of strings!





I thought of all of you bloggers that have been making hexagons when I took this photo!



The AQS quilt show in Des Moines was wonderful!  Lots of beautiful quilts and 197 vendors to intice me with all kinds of new projects!  Here are a few pictures of some of the quilts I drooled over.  And I got to meet a fellow blogger, Carolyn from Lee Prairie Designs.  She is adorable, and so sweet....just like her blog. 

Well...I am off to decide which project I want to start on!  Hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful fall day!

Broken Pottery

I finished my little broken dishes blocks, and sewed up this little quilt.  It is hard to decide what to name it...so I decided on Broken Pottery for lack of a better name.  The blocks are finished at 3inches, so the quilt measures out at about 24 inches square. I machine quilted it with a cross-hatch  and put a vine in the border.  It does not show up at all, but I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  Sometimes it is fun to just start sewing blocks with no idea of what I will do with them...play time!

And the quilt below is a better picture of the quilt on my dining room wall....Starry Night from Jo Morton's book Hearthside Stars.  This was a project at a quilt retreat a few years ago.  Perfect for fall decorating!

On Friday, I am off to Des Moines to the AQS show.  Anyone else going?  It would be fun to meet up!

Looks like another beautiful fall day...enjoy!

Autumn is the hush before winter....

I love to decorate for fall!  Probably more than Christmas....I have started to pull things out and hope to add some Halloween this weekend.

Wish I could take "magazine" photo shoots....oh well.  This is our dining room. 

Today, I am spending most of the day in the sewing room...machine quilting.  Trying to decide if I like using the nylon invisible thread...it hides a multitude of mistakes, but I am not sure I like the look.  I think I will do my next one with some other thread...any suggestions?   Hope to have a picture at the end of the weekend of the little quilt I made with the Broken Dishes blocks I made.  It turned out better than I had originally thought!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic fall day...there might be a light frost on the pumpkins tonight!

Vacation is over

Bummer...vacation is over!  We visited Disney World last week...a first for me! We stayed at one of the Disney resorts, Port Orleans.  It was a lovely place, and it was great to be able to ride the bus or the water taxi around to whatever we were planning to do.  Favorite rides...Tower of Terror,  Aerosmith rollercoaster, and Soarin'..... I loved it, wore myself out and managed to come down with a cold on Saturday.  So today is going to be a quiet day for me...maybe get a little sewing in once my headache calms down. 

This is what is on my sewing table, a small quilt using 3"  Broken Dishes blocks.  Hope everyone is enjoying a nice fall day!