Happy New Year

Professor, Chatterbox and Little Person

would like to wish you all a

Very Happy and Prosperous New Year,

and so would I.

A White Christmas

We had a white Christmas this year, and here is a photo to prove it.

 

This is the view from our drive..  It's all very nice, pretty, and so on, but the snow's been around for over a week now, and that's quite long enough in my opinion.

Wishing you.........

............. a happy Christmas, and a wonderful 2010.

We have had a white Christmas this year, which is actually very unusual, but it has been snowy for a week now, and enough's enough I think.

I will try and post a photo of our "whiteness" later.

The First Noel

This wallhanging is my entry in SewCalGal's Virtual Christmas Quilt Show.  If you go to her website here you can either join in, or just go and look at loads of lovely Christmassy quilts.

This wallhanging is applique'd, which is unusual for me, and shows "pictures" of the carol, The First Noel.  I sort of designed it myself, in that I found various pictures of things such as the angels and Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus, which I turned into fairly simple applique shapes.  Then I embroidered words from the carol on each panel.  The idea of the separate panels was taken from another wallhanging I had seen somewhere in the past.  I can't remember where, so if it was one of your quilts, I apologise for not crediting you here.

This quilt is way out of my usual comfort zone in terms of techniques, design and even colours, but I love it and it hangs over my mantelpiece every year.

That, together with the advent calendars I made for Professor and Chatterbox, all have to come out every year, and they all have their own places where they must hang.  I think the kids would be most annoyed with me if I tried to change any of it!

I nearly forgot to mention the quilt on my sidebar, called Sister's Christmas Braids.  I make my sister a quilt almost every year for Christmas, and this was made a couple of years ago, when Jelly Rolls first appeared, but was only quilted and finished this year.  I have just today posted this to her, so she will get it in a couple of days.

One of our "traditions" is to go out for lunch on Christmas Day with as many of the family as can be around.  There are usually 4 generations, and up to 11 of us.  The hotel we go to every year has a lovely lounge area with a big open fire, and Professor loves that we sit in one corner, near the fire, and all chat together before and after the meal.  I think it's great that a kid of 11 thinks that is the best part of the meal.

I hope you like this quilt, and that you will go and look at all the other fantastic quilts people are showing.

What's the silliest .........

..........mistake you've made in your "quilty" life?

I started thinking about this after I read the comments when I wrote about my stupidity with the backing for One Day Wonder.  Go on, I dare you all to 'fess up here.

I'm still here ..............

....... even if I have been a bit quiet.

Last week I had the swine flu jab, and that gave me the most awful headache which completely knocked me out for about 3 days.  I think I'm OK now though.

This morning I decided I needed to have a "paperwork" day.  I have now done all those horrid official chores like filling in and filing my tax return which is due by 31December at the latest.  Phew, made it!  I also had some insurance paperwork to deal with, and various other bits of "official" paper that needed my attention.  I did it.  All done.

Yesterday afternoon  I decided to just piece the backing for the One Day Wonder, then the sewing machine would be put away till after Christmas and the conservatory reclaimed as a room, not a sewing area.  Good idea?  Nope.  I cut the backing, and cut it in half as I was going to insert a strip of the coins in the middle.  I made the stripey strip, started to sew it to one side and realised it wasn't long enough.  In my usual stupid way, I didn't think to check why, just added more coins so it was long enough, and finished sewing it all together.  Pressed it.  Ta-dah, all ready for quilting.  Went to fold it up with the top and realised something was wrong.  Why was the top wider than the backing?  That's when I realised I had sewn the wrong edge of the backing to the strip!  So I then had to cut more backing and put a piece down either side.  I could have undone it all I guess, but I was so annoyed with myself I didn't think of that until it was too late.

About 5.30 this morning I had a thought.  You know my sister's quilt has been finished for quite a while?  I even bought a box to post it in.  Perhaps it would help if I put the quilt in the box and posted it?  Duh!

Traditionally in our house we don't put the Christmas decs up till the last weekend before The Day but today  I decided I need the cheering-upness they can give.  I don't think I told you that I bought another small fibreoptic tree last week?  We have a small one in the bay window in the lounge, but I have taken a dislike to it.  It was a multi-coloured one, and I prefer a one colour version.  I also bought a red tinsel pop-up tree to go on the dining room table.  That is definitely not "me! at all.  Mr Fix-It has not been well lately, so I haven't asked him to go up in the loft to get the lights etc down, so the big tree isn't up yet - that will happen hopefully one day this week.

Tomorrow I am going to Mrs PennyPot's for our version of a Christmas party, ie some sewing, some chat and some food.  Should be good.

During November .....

....... apparently it rained every day, and it has also rained each day in December so far, so what are we doing?  Having our back garden completely re-landscaped.  Of course we are, that's logical isn't it?  Unfortunately for the gardeners, our garden is on solid clay, so they are slip-sliding around in a positive quagmire.  So this is what it looked like yesterday morning:

YUKK!  Can you imagine just how squelchy that is to walk on?