The end of 2015

Here's a better photo of the two baby quilts that Marg and I finished.

I decided I didn't like the night shot with a ceiling light so this one was taken in daylight.

This is the very last quilt of 2015.

I just finished putting the border on. I am delivering it to Marg and if she wants, she can quilt it in January. Since my family will be here for most of the month, I won't see Marg for several weeks. I thought she might like a little baby quilt to work on in the meantime.

The border fabric was a piece I cut up. After cutting the 2.5" border, I cut the rest up into 2.5" strips so that once it's quilted, it can be bound with the same fabric. That fabric is now all gone, as is the print in between the blue broadcloth squares. As a matter of fact, I was one square short and had to piece it. It's in the bottom right-hand row. Click on the photo to see it up close.

Done and done.

If you're going out tonight to celebrate, stay safe. 

Have a very Happy New Year!

Christmas activities and some sewing

Christmas day was a mild one.

My three middle children: Eric, Maili and Mark. These are the only ones living close by.

 They are all quite the posers. They went for a run on Christmas day. As you can see, there is no snow and the temperature was quite mild.

Little Teemu being read to by his daddy. The book is "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree: A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas. I bought it for me so that all the grandchildren can enjoy it.

"On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: five Stanley Cups..."

After dinner, Teemu helped the little girls clean out my tupperware (actually, just random plastic containers) cupboard.

Little Teemu with his mommy and daddy.

I don't know if I ever showed this before. It's Teemu back in September at a wedding wearing his all black suit with 'gold cufflinks' and gold bow tie.

And this was his second wedding outfit. I needed to make him a white shirt (I'm not a fan of black on babies) and this time, I thought a blue bow tie would look nice since he has gorgeous blue eyes.

 The brown corduroy pants are done. I really like them and hope they fit well.

I just sewed the binding on this baby quilt. Marg quilted it.

This is the one that I quilted. We decided that both quilts could have the same blue binding on them. It really simplified things and that scrap is now officially done.

The blue and mauve solid stripes were a perfect match for the print that we used in the middle. Marg really didn't want to chop up that print. 

She will hand sew both of the bindings. My job was the machine part. These are going to the Silent Children's Mission along with over 100 hats that Marg crocheted.

Mystery solved and other things

Many thanks to Trish in B.C. who emailed the name of the pattern and designer to me and especially to Karen who did the same but also found a link for me to order the pattern. It's called Christmas Tree Polar Bear Quilt by Paris Bottman.

I just received a call from the online store who had the pattern listed, but unfortunately, they no longer have it. The Bigfork Cotton Company is no longer in business and they are the ones who manufactured the pattern. So, it appears as if I am out of luck with the Polar Bear.

And now, on to more down-to-earth things.

 This is the second sleeve that I'm on. Just the back to do and then I can assemble the little sweater. The yarn is James Brett Marble Chunky. It works up so quickly and little Teemu's turquoise version has gotten many nice comments.

The cookies are baked. These are my extras. All the other children who live near got their cookie tins already. This appears to be an international grouping. The top left are Chinese almond cookies, the ones on the right are Swedish butterballs and the bottom are oatmeal. These are a melt-in-your-mouth oatmeal. Not hard and not chewy. They get rolled in icing sugar before they get forked. I think all of the recipes have been given to me by friends. The almond cookies may be from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook though.

These are toys that were in our toy box. I am slowly putting all the toys through the dishwasher. Most of them have been washed before but with little ones coming over, I just wanted to make sure that they were all OK to put in their mouths. These were just getting an extra drying time. Some of the toys were purchased by various family members from Value Village.

This is my latest sewing project. It's an old pattern and I have made it many times for my boys when they were small.

This is not a great photo at all. The fabric I'm using for the pants is a brown pinwale corduroy.

Well, now for the weather. It went to 10C or 50F today and there was a bit of rain. I walked over to the library, once it cleared up, to pick up a book that I had put on hold. I was definitely overdressed in my winter coat with a fleece under it. On the way home I saw a woman wearing flip flops, an overweight man in a wheelchair (a local fixture) wearing shorts and a tank top in red, and a mother pushing a stroller wearing a sleeveless top. It really did seem more like spring with the bright sun and warm temperature.

Stumped

Good morning. I'm asking for a little help here. I have seen this pattern at quilt shows (not lately but several years ago) and I was trying to find the designer's name. I cannot find it anywhere even though I have searched the net. Does anyone have this pattern? Who's the designer and is the pattern still available?

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I seem to recall the word Peace associated with this too.

Leading up to Christmas

No snow, only a wet drizzle at times.

Mrs. Snowman is up.

She is an institution. Made in 1980 when I first learned to quilt. This was the applique part of the class. We learned how to enlarge a pattern, drawing or whatever, using a grid. This lady was on the cover of Herschner's catalogue. I used what I had on hand. The background is a fuzzy piece of stretchy fabric similar to fleece, Mrs. Snowman is made of white flannel (needleturn applique), her cheeks are polycotton broadcloth, the hat trim is fake fur, the scarf is a remnant piece left over from a jacket I made and her polka dots are remnants from a dress my mom made for herself. The snowflakes and all the black is embroidery. Her little pocket is 3-D and every year she has a mini candy cane in it. As you can see, it's not quilted and the background is probably not even squared up but she gets hung up every year. I think I have only had to wash it once when the flannel started to look a tad yellow.

 

Just two of my favourite holiday creatures. The moose actually never gets put away.

Me and my little lumberjack.

I do hope you are not stressing with trying to get everything done.

Our house is not finished being decorated.

I'm off to make more cookies now, perhaps get some sewing done and a bit more decorating finished too. No stress. All in good time.

Almost done

The binding is on. This shows the backing I used.

The outside shot.

Flipped the other way. It just needs a label. 

I'm off to do that and then get some other sewing done.

There's a list. 

Not much gets crossed off though. It seems that more keeps being added.

One step at a time.

Great colours

My friend Marg finished quilting this quilt. It's for the Silent Children's Mission.

I love the colours. We will be making more simple quilts since we have so much fabric to use up. 

Green and white might be the next colour scheme.

Things

Oh look. I finally finished the other pair of leg warmers for the twins.

Here they both are together. I really do like variegated yarns.

Answer:

Apparently, this is a chair. Meant to be used by the little girls. The part in the middle with the lid is supposed to be for their toys.

Our son gave it to us and this is what he said. It has yet to be tried out but we'll see how good it works during the Christmas holidays. All the little ones will be here then.

I hope you're having a safe and enjoyable weekend.

What?

 My husband came home with this. 

It’s got legs and is an interesting shape.

It even has an indent or bowl in the middle with a lid.

The lid is reversible. Why?

I do not know.

I’ll tell you tomorrow if you can’t figure it out.

Greetings

This year, I wondered what I would put on my front door. I figured I had a wreath - somewhere. While I was waiting for December 1st to arrive, I came upon this little hanging.

It’s called Emma’s Tree. The pattern came from one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. One of the members, Miriam, lost her daughter (a mother of two little girls) to cancer. As a way to get through her grief, she came up with this pattern. She has given it away for free providing people attach a little note as to it’s reason for being. I have made several for family and friends in various colours. This one was made for my mom who loved the colour red.

Snow?

We are short on snow. It is December and all we had so far was a little dusting. 

However, Bob the Snowman is hanging by the front door just waiting to greet whoever walks in. I

didn’t want to hang him up until we had our first snow. Even though it didn’t last, Bob was ready.

Wooden snowmen?

Little Patric and Luc put these snowmen together and decorated them. 

Their papa cut the wood and put in dowels so that the pieces could nest.

I'd love one in my front lawn but these reside way across the country.

More seasonal decorating tomorrow.