For you

No Reflections

No Resolutions

Just a wish for a very Happy New Year!

xo

Ooh La La... and Ta Da!

Yesterday was one of those days... you know the kind, when you start one thing and get sidetracked by something else.

I decided to do laundry. But then realized that I should change the bedsheets too. Then I figured if I was putting clean sheets on the bed, I should make new pillowcases.

Ooh la la. Now I will be dreaming of Paris while resting my head on Paris pillowcases. I love this quick and easy pattern from Sew4Home, but it took me waaay too long to finish these yesterday morning. Because, you know, I kept getting distracted by other things (like the laundry that I still haven't finished).

Once the pillowcases were on the bed, I turned my attention to the #1 priority, what I believe will be my Final Finish of 2010 - ta da! - the Checkerboard Quilt.

AbbyDog was trying to thwart my efforts to pin the binding. Are you going to move, Abby?

Nope, guess not. She was a bit too comfortable (but I was worried that she'd be poked by a pin).

She did eventually move of her own volition, so I was able to finish the job. And here it is:

It's a twin-sized quilt and not meant for our bed - I just put it there for pictures. The OnlyChild is thrilled that it will be big and cuddly and will be on the couch in the living room. I'd better not find it down in her messy bedroom... It's happened before that she's absconded with a quilt or two and I don't see them for weeks (until I muster up my courage and make the dangerous trek into her room).

I need to go and finish that laundry now, so I can pop this baby into the wash and have it all nice and crinkly for display.

What should I start/finish next? How about you vote?

* Snowman in the Woods (this one's been hanging around for a very long time)

* Green and White no-sew swap quilt

* More Christmas strings (for next year, I suppose)

* Dragonfly wall hanging for my sister-in-law

* French braid quilt

* Snowman wall hanging kit that my friend Kim gave me for Christmas

* Authentic quilt

Suggestions anyone...?

The Plunge

Santa came to our house.

He brought awesome presents for everyone (as usual). I asked for two things this Christmas: a globe and long underwear. I got both, plus some other great gifts.

The OnlyChild (a.k.a Santa's Helper) filled my stocking with sewing supplies, including these beautiful fabrics. She definitely inherited her good shopping genes from her father, not me.

Our dining room table was decked out in gold and red for the feast.

Everyone pulled their Christmas crackers and wore the silly paper hats (a family tradition). Here I am with my nephew Chris, who is staying with us for a while. 

Some people can't handle all the excitement so they need to nap.

Others head to the sewing machine at the earliest opportunity.

 I finally took the plunge and started quilting the Checkerboard. I was scared!

I quilted diagonal lines in pale gold thread throughout the main part of the quilt, but I'm stuck on what to do with the borders. I'd better choose a design soon because I'd really like this quilt to be a 2010 finish!

I also did a little embroidery Christmas day, while watching all three Shrek movies, one after the other. Who knew I could sit still that long?

This is a design by Tricia-Rennea, which she posted on her blog as a colouring page. I'm hoping she creates a few more Miss Daphne pictures. They'd make a cute wallhanging!

This holiday is just flying by, way too quickly for my liking. There's so much I want to do before I have to go back to work - Yoga and kettlebell classes, finish this Checkerboard quilt, make a dress with and for the OnlyChild, finish a couple of other 2010 WIPs, make my January ATCs... and I have a bit of planning to do for school too. But I am enjoying just hanging around, relaxing, sleeping in a bit, visiting. Ahhhh... good stuff!

How was your Christmas?

Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you!

I love having two weeks off at Christmas (at least this year I do). It's hard to decide what I enjoy more - extra time before Christmas or after New Year's. Getting out of school early has definite advantages, such as doing lots of Christmassy stuff in time for the actual day.

Yesterday, Kim and I helped her two adorable girls decorate their gingerbread house. We're not the famous Thimbleanna so our house was pre-made and our decorating was non-competitive. But it was still good, messy fun.

Very messy! Those little ones were covered in frosting by the time we were done, as were the table, the floor, the counter, our clothes...

And then we ate some of it. Kim's going home today and she couldn't transport it five hours in the car.

Last night, I finished the OnlyChild's 2010 cross-stitched ornament.

I love the lamb - but I'm not really happy with the finishing job on this one (which is why I didn't show you the whole thing).

I cut out more snowflakes too. These ones will be stuck to the big window on the stairs once they're ironed and starched.

This morning, I made mince tarts while listening to an interesting playlist of seasonal music that the OnlyChild put on my iPad.

We can't have Christmas without mince tarts. I usually make the first batch in early December when we make the meat pies, but I didn't have leftover pastry then.

I wonder if these will last long enough to put one out for Santa on Christmas eve. When I was growing up, Santa (or Father Christmas, as we called him) always got a mince pie and a small glass of liqueur. Cookies and milk? Ha!

Tonight is Mr. P's staff Christmas party. They don't do the typical office party; this year we're going out to dinner, then on a sleigh ride. Then we're all staying at a fancy hotel at Fort Edmonton Park (a heritage museum/park). It should be a good time...but I hope it warms up a bit. Brrr, Baby it's cold outside!

I'm going to take a very short break and try to stay away from the computer for the next couple of days so I can get the last-minute preparations done and relax a bit. I wish you all a very happy Christmas. XO

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

It's time for:

A little Christmas shopping. I'm all finished now (except for a few stocking stuffers), thanks to online shopping, short trips to the dreaded mall after school on weekdays, and handmade presents.

Wrapping presents and carefully placing them under the tree so that DerbyDog can step all over them.

Visiting with the neighbours, who loved the Snowflake table runner I made for them.

Cutting out paper snowflakes to hang from the lamp in the dining room.

Sewing a tea towel for my friend Sandi. A fleur-de-lis to commemorate our trip to Paris this past summer.

More sewing - back to the Christmas strings!

Visiting with my friend Kim who is up to visit for a few days. We decided to make mittens out of felted wool sweaters.

I picked up one sweater at Goodwill; she bought about a hundred. She has much more faith in our abilities than I do.

Am I the only one who finds it strange to sew on someone else's machine? Kim has a Janome that she loves; I prefer my own familiar Bernina.

This was a nice, quick project and fairly easy.

A little handsewing of the fleece lining completes the project.

New mittens! I can't wait to make another pair... back to Goodwill for more sweaters.

Oh... and I did some marking yesterday. Well, not just some marking - all of my marking! This is good for me, because I can now enjoy my Christmas vacation. This is also good for you, because you won't have to listen to me complain for two solid weeks, like last year.

Tomorrow, Kim and I are going to Costco. Yikes!

The OnlyChild picked out the pattern for her cross-stitched ornament last night, so that's one more project that will have to be done this week. There's always lots to do - I'm just thankful that I'll have some time to do what I love this year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

There have been some Christmassy things happening around here lately:

Tea towels made as gifts for my colleagues.

Sugar cookies made (but not iced - I ran out of time).

Some more Christmas decorating.

And present-wrapping.

But you're really here to find out who won the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway, aren't you? 

Now, I know some giveaways got thousands of comments, but I'm happy that there were 160 comments. That's waaayyy more than I've ever received on a post before, and some of these nice people even decided to follow my blog! Thanks!

I loved reading about your Christmas wishes. There were lots of people hoping for fabric, sewing machines and quilting supplies. Some wishing for family members to recover from illness or come home for the holidays. A few who asked for peace and quiet. There were also some responses that had me chuckling. The vast majority, though, wanted nothing more than to spend Christmas with their families and other loved ones. And isn't that what it's really about!

I knew it would be hard to choose a winner based on the comment, so I used the Random Number Generator:

The Random Number Generator says #9 won!

That is Jen, who wrote:

oh! I didn't know you were participating. Cool!

All I want for christmas is good weather so that I can go visiting to my extended family and EAT really good food! :)

Congratulations, Jen! I hope you will enjoy your little prize!

Thanks again to everyone who dropped by and played along. I do hope you'll return some day.

And, on another note:

WOOOOHOOOOO! Today was the last day of school! We are officially on VACATION!

Winter Wonderland

Are you here for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway? Go to this post.

It's an absolute blizzard outside my office window (yes, I'm blogging from work...). It's crazy! The snow has been falling since yesterday afternoon.

Last night, as I was walking home from yoga class, I wished I'd brought my camera along. All that snow. All those Christmas lights. Beautiful! Maybe I'll go for a little walk tonight and snap some shots so you all can share in the loveliness. (I think it's lovely now, but ask me how I feel about it in March.)

Anyway...

All this snow calls for BOOTS! How about PINK BOOTS? You can win a pair of the most wonderful boots from The Shoeologist.

But don't take my word for it. Go over and have a look for yourself.