The last 2 days of my trip were without internet, so I will post about the 2nd half of my drive in another post. I wanted to send an update first, so you aren’t left wondering…did she arrive? Is she in a ditch somewhere? Lol! You’re welcome!
Yesterday was my first full day in my new home. What a wonderful day it was…yesterday just happened to be Open House day at the local wineries! Who cares about sorting and unpacking…lets go wine tasting! We visited three local wineries: Ovino, Larch Hills and Sunnybrae. We came home with 4 bottles of reds and 2 bottles of whites. Oh my, you haven’t tasted wine until you’ve tasted it right from the winery and from grapes they grew themselves!
Kelly did my homecoming justice. The house was immaculate. Freshly painted, freshly floored (see this post for before & after photos). We still have the bathroom, the entrance room and the Kelly’s den to renovate, but those can wait until spring.
Oh, my! I am really retired! At age 52! It hasn’t quite sunk in yet…
Here is my den. I’ve been living out of these two bins since the end of June! I can’t wait to unpack my sewing supplies and make this room completely my own. I still don’t know what I want to call it. I don’t want to call it my “sewing room” because a lot more will be going on in here besides sewing. It will be my sewing/yoga/dance/writing room. That’s a lot of activity in a tiny 9 x 11 room!
Studio? Office? Den? Suggestions welcome!
And here is my computer set up in my den 🙂
Good enough for now. Until I am quite a bit more organized and ready to decide where to hang shelves etc.
After we got home from the wine tastings, I decided that I wanted to put up the Christmas tree! I know, I know…I can hear what you are thinking! Crazy!
But it feels so much more like home now, with my own little tree and familiar family ornaments.
I like to make quilts and I like to give them to people. I like that feeling of giving someone something so special. Something full of my thoughts of them that is a reminder of me. Something that they can pull over themselves when they are chilly, put on the bed or the back of the couch for decoration, make a tent out or pull over their heads for comfort if they are young. Something for everyday use or something reserved for special. General purpose or heirloom, they’re all part of that lovin’ feelin’.
This Christmas I got to experience the feeling of being on the receiving end of such a special gift.
This beautiful quilt is called twisted tea time and was made by Danielle Marchewa (check out her blog!) She used a Hello Luscious jellyroll by Basic Grey.
I’m not sure how it got its name, but I love it! Dee and I don’t manage to get together very often – especially considering we live walking distance from each other – but when we do manage, we always drink tea. And, well…we both consider ourselves to be a little bit twisted…just a little (in a good way, of course!) Meaning that we aren’t ordinary, ya know? We’re….rock & roll girly girl meets vintage hippy biker chick. Or something like that. Yaaaah!
Well, actually, she probably called it twisted tea time because we like to have tea time together. And because of the way she twisted the blocks to make the neat patterns.
The quilt actually wasn’t a surprise. One day in October (I think), Dee came over for tea and brought it with her to show me what she was working on. After I oooh’d and ahhhh’d over it, she broke down and told me that it was for me. She was just bursting to say something! Lol!
Another reason this quilt is so special to me is because Dee was going to be having major surgery.
She told me that she was saving the hand quilting to do during her recovery time, so she would have busy work for her hands during the time she wouldn’t be allowed to do anything strenuous. Wow! Talk about meaning in a quilt! I am wrapped up in a lot more than fabric when I snuggle under this baby!
Dee is one of the most patient, generous people that I know. |She is always making things and doing things for other people. And even though she has often been in pain from chronic illness, she shows a brave and happy face to the world and always seems able to see the bright side of life. She’s just a genuine all-round nice person and I love her to death.
I took the quilt out to the cabin over the weekend and really lucked out on the weather. I wanted to take some good photos of Dee’s quilt and surprise her with this post.
I hadn’t been blogging as much as I’d like leading up to Christmas because I had literally been spending every single spare minute working on finishing a quilt for my son. Now that Christmas is over I can let you in on the secret!
It was in the mid -20s and windy on Christmas Eve when I took these pictures. We were both bundled up, but it was so cold, we had to work fast!
As usual, I had a little help. Sammy gave his approval on the blue binding, and had a little play of tug-o-war before I sewed it on.
I needed to have it finished, wrapped and under the tree by the time I went to bed on Christmas Eve.
I wanted to make as many of my gifts home-made this year, and from materials I already had on hand as much as possible. I had a bit of nice grey fabric that would make a good backing for a small lap quilt, and a few 5″ charm packs of Petite Odile by French General. Because I was short on time, I simply sewed them together until the size was sufficient for the backing I had on hand.
I bound it with a piece of French General Woad Blue, also from my stash.
Each square is hand quilted with red thread in an orange peel design. This is what took so long. I literally quilted until my fingers bled! Yiikes! But I got it done in time! Yay! And bonus…now I’ve got some good calluses on my fingers for more quilting in the new year!
I named the lap quilt “Mon Fils Bien-Aimé”, which is a lovely old-fashioned way to say my beloved son in French.
The quilt is sweet and cozy and old-fashioned and just the right size to snuggle under in a comfortable chair with a good book no matter how old or young you are, even if you are a young man of 27. (Santa also brought him “The Hunger Games” to read, a new mug and a selection of hot chocolates to enjoy with the quilt, lol!)
Outside my window…
Fresh snow fell overnight so everything is fresh and fluffy white. The sun is trying to come through a thin layer of cloud and the sky is a milky washed-out blue.
I am thinking…
That I would really like to spend the day in my pajamas, reading, knitting and quilting in front of the fire, but really should do some housework and try to cook a few make-ahead meals for the week.
I am thankful…
At this very minute I am thankful for my wonderful husband who made me a cup of tea and brought me an aspirin for this crashing headache that I woke up with.
In the kitchen…
A big question mark. What will I cook for dinner tonight? I might send hubby to the grocery store for soup fixings.
I am wearing…
My pajamas as I have not been up for very long. We played a dance last night so didn’t get home until the wee hours, resulting in a sleep in.
I am creating…
A home made Christmas this year! A rather frantic one, however. I have so many projects on the go that I despair of finishing any of them!(just kidding) Slippers and scarves on the needles, a lap quilt in the frame, the binding to sew onto a toddler quilt. I’m excited and happy to be doing a home made Christmas this year…it feels good!
I am going…
Crazy? Lol! Seriously, I am going to have a nice hot bubble bath. And I am going out for a walk with the dog. I’m not going anywhere that I have to get dressed up for…not today, anyway!
I am wondering…
If I should put up the Christmas tree today or wait awhile yet. It seems early, but Michael is coming over tonight, and that means free Christmas-tree-putting-up-labour, lol! And, Christmas is one month from today!
I am reading…
Knit, Pearl, Die by Anne Canadeo. Light, easy, fun reading.
I am hoping…
That this headache will go away soon. I’ve had it since last week. One of those squinting through the pain types of headaches that drags you down day after day. Maybe a type of migraine, new to me?
I am looking forward to…
Everything! Life is such an adventure!
I am learning…
How to be content doing less. That I don’t need to please everybody, and I don’t need to follow those old rules in my head that tell me that worth comes from how much I accomplish. Because it doesn’t, and it’s surprising how hard it is to un-learn that.
Around the house…
A tremendous mess that I am responsible for having created and must put to rights myself (in all fairness to hubby, who does the lions share of the housework anyway, and for which I am grateful…)
I am pondering…
Living simply. Frugality and what that means, because it doesn’t just mean spending less money (does it?)…guess that is why I’m pondering it.
A favorite quote for today… “These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):
1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don’t hit people.
4. Put thngs back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
7. Say you’re SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life – learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Stryrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first workd you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.”
― Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
One of my favorite things…
The first cup of tea in the morning. And especially when its in my “special” cup that hubby bought me years ago and is such a beautiful china cup with an English garden wrapped around it.
A few plans for the rest of the week:
Finish up two knitting projects and make some progress on the lap quilt. Oh, and do my homework for the Northern Studies class I’m taking and which I am woefully behind in.
Small Blog Meet is for bloggers with fewer than 50 followers. I definitely fall into that category! And Fresh Sewing Day is for telling what you’ve been up to the last month.
Sew…I’ve decided to have a home-made Christmas this year. And not only that – I have decided to have a home-made Christmas that involves buying as few supplies as possible. That means working out of my various stashes. And since I’ve decided this rather late, I’m scrambling to see what I can create in the little amount of time that I have (which basically means in the evenings after work).
slippers…
and the helpers had to get in on the picture-taking action of course!
and more slippers…
And yesterday I made a quilt top which will be for my son. (I won’t tell you how old my son is, but let’s just say he is closer to 30 than I am, lol!) I’m certain he doesn’t read his mother’s crafting blog, so I feel safe to show you! Now this is NOT the fabulous quilt I have planned for him. I want to make him a full-sized bed quilt with Little Black Dress by Basic Grey. And I will! As soon as I can afford the fabric! So maybe next Christmas? But for this year I want to give him a small little lap quilt that can be put over the back of a chair and pulled over the lap or shoulders when needed. 🙂 My problem was that I didn’t have anything in my stash that I thought he would really like! So I went rooting around in the bottom of the stash and found a chunk of grey. Where did that come from? No idea…I think someone gave it to me years ago. Now, I thought, this is something that my son would like! He likes grey! It would make the perfect backing. More rooting around ensued and I came up with 4 charm packs that I had purchased back when Craftsy was still shipping to Canada. And guess what…(no, they aren’t grey)…they are Petite Odile by French General! I love French General! Love love love. I know my son won’t love it the way I do, but the colours are nice for a man, and he does like vintage and whimsy and antique.
Being short on time, I took the easy route and simply sewed all the squares together. Three charm packs worked perfectly and I still have one left over!
It will be sandwiched today, and will finish at 41 x 55″. A bit of an odd dimension, but I’ll take it. I am going to call the quilt “mon fille” or whatever the French word for my child or my son is! (help! if you speak French!)
Anybody else doing a stash-busting home-made Christmas? Inquiring minds want to know!
And here is my computer set up in my den 🙂
