A VIP BREAKFAST

I was treated to a very special breakfast this morning. Our 8 year old grandson Cameryn had a sleepover at our 4 year old grandson London's house last night. London's Mom Tasha invited me over to have breakfast with them this morning. I loved it. Tasha cooked sausage, potatoes, scrambled eggs and toast. It was delicious and so much fun to have some time with some special people in my life. Special thanks to Tasha, Cameryn and London for a perfect morning. I hope that all of you get to have some time during the upcoming holiday weekend to spend time with the special people in your lives. Happy New Year.

One more Christmas picture

I would like to share one more Christmas picture with you. I love all of our Christmas decorations. We are very traditional and use the same decorations over and over and love them. My favorite though is our nativity set. I bought our set many, many years ago from Home Interior. At the time it was quite expensive and we didn't really have the money but once I saw it I fell in love with it. As I remember it I had to work at the Credit Union on the Friday after Thanksgiving so decided I would treat myself to the Home Interior purchase. I have never been sorry. My sister-in-law Kathleen built the stable from barn board from Steve parents barn and gave it to us for our 25th wedding anniversary. The stable is perfect for our figurines. Usually every year about this time I think that perhaps we could leave the nativity set up all year. Since we don't it make it even more special each time we bring it out of storage. Do you have a favorite Christmas decoration? I would love to hear about it. I hope everyone had a very enjoyable and a very safe Christmas.

Merry Christmas

I pray that everyone has a wonderful Christmas celebration with family and friends. I absolutely love Christmas. I am the oldest of 5 kids in our family and we were raised on a small dairy farm. My parents didn't have a lot of money but they always made sure our Christmases were very special. One year we received a pony for Christmas and my Dad actually led her into the living room. You can imagine the squeals and giggles as we opened our eyes to see a pony standing near our Christmas tree. And I still have the Barbie clothes that my Mom made me many, many years ago. I have tried to create the same magic for our 3 children and now for our grandchildren. I have talked with 3 real close friends lately who said they were not looking forward to Christmas this year because of various situations. We have a couple of family situations this year and I could easily fall into that trap. It would be easy to pull the covers up over my head and stay in bed all day but I refuse to do that. I am so looking forward to enjoying Christmas morning with our children, daughters-in-love and grandchildren. We will have fun opening gifts (I love watching the little ones excitement as they open their gifts) and then enjoy a big Christmas breakfast. Then the rest of the day will be spent relaxing and enjoying each others company. Saturday we will head to my parents for a holiday celebration with my family. Over the years I have heard people talk about life changing experiences but I never really bought into that theory. But after I went through my surgery and recovery I feel I have made some major life changes. Life is way too short to waste it worrying and fretting over piddly little things. I wish all of my friends a very Merry Christmas. And don't forget to do a little sewing and relax, relax, relax!!

Are you ready for Christmas?

I am so ready for Christmas. The tree is up, the house is decorated and all of the gifts are wrapped and ready. I have never been this organized in my life! I think I like it. I don't usually do any holiday baking as we don't need the temptations at home. And usually there are enough temptations at all of the parties and events. One of my sisters (I have 3) owns and operates a bakery here in town. She closes it during the winter and has decided that she will not re-open the bakery in the spring. This afternoon we are going to have a family baking get together at the bakery. We will be using her equipment and helping to use up her left over supplies. It sounds like some of the kids in the family will be there too so it should be a very fun afternoon. We were all asked to bring along favorite recipes and when we are done we will all be able to take home a little bit of everything. I plan to make up a plate of goodies to take to my 92 year old grandmother. Unfortunately we are not real close and I haven't seen her in awhile. She still lives in her home but isn't real interested in attending family functions any more. Since Christmas is all about family this will be a perfect afternoon. Thanks Amy! PS - The bottom picture is from my BQ (before quilting) days. The blocks are counted cross stitched.

I FINISHED A QUILT LAST WEEK!!

I finished this quilt last week. The name of the quilt is Bunting and the blocks were recreated from a 1935 Baby Bunting Fan Quilt. I found the pattern in a Better Homes and Gardens book given to me by a very good friend for Christmas a few years ago. I hand pieced and hand quilted the quilt. I honestly do not remember piecing the quilt, although I do remember buying the green fabric in each fan. (How is that for a UFO project?) I started hand quilting this quilt last January but after my surgery in April I had to put it away for awhile. During the fall, as the weather started to get cooler, I pulled it out and finished hand quilting it. I am very proud of this quilt and am happy to have it completed.

I may be in trouble!!

I guess my husband does read my blog entries!! I had mentioned in my last post that I was hoping we would get our outdoor Christmas decorations out this year. After
Church on Sunday while London (our 4 year old grandson) and I were inside decorating our Christmas tree and the house Steve was outside putting up our outdoor decorations. The cows and horses were all hand painted by Steve, Heather and myself many years ago. I always enjoy seeing them in our yard. I was raised on a dairy farm and have always loved cows. Someday I will have to show you pictures of my kitchen and my Merry Moo's collection. Steve was raised with horses although he hasn't riden one in over 35 years. We feel our yard decorations combine both of our interests and loves. Thanks hon for all your efforts. I truly appreciate them.

A White Christmas in Hillman

Well, after the big storm this week it certainly looks like we will have a white Christmas here in Hillman, yea!!!! We had a major storm come through and dropped about 10 inches of snow here. I had hoped we would get more outdoor Christmas decorations out but that didn't happen. That is ok. We don't have our tree up yet or our inside decorations up yet either but hopefully today and tomorrow we will get that done.

Our Quilt Guild Christmas Party

We had our annual Thunderbay Quilt Guild Christmas party today. It was so nice to spend time with my "quilty" friends. I had to miss our business meeting last week so it was nice to see everyone and catch up on their news. We enjoyed lunch of soup and salad or sandwich and dessert. The dessert was either cheese cake or a warm apple strudel with ice cream, yum, yum!! During the month of November most of our Guild members made Christmas stockings and today we donated items and filled the stockings for local children. We ended up filling over 100 stockings. It is always so rewarding to do charity work and especially when you can combine it with quilting!!!

Hulbert Quilt Camp #3

I recently had a chance to enjoy a six day Quilt Camp with family and friends. Thanks Dave, Jane, Chris and Donna for sharing your beautiful cabin with us. We all managed to work on lots of projects, did lots of visiting, laughing and enjoyed lots of good food. We had some snow, those big flakes that are so pretty. I got the machine button hole stitching finished on 9 of my Guild's Blocks of the Month, put together a Tiny Miracle quilt and pieced the Stacked Four Patch Posey blocks that have been sitting in my sewing room for over a year and a half. Tasha was into making tote bags, then learned to make the knitted hats with the loom. Lana had her flip flop blocks all machine appliqued and learned how to make the log cabin blocks for the borders. Mom worked on re-doing her heart quilt and also did some hand stitching. Carol learned how to do some machine quilting (stippling) and was very excited about that. Karen learned how to machine applique and machine quilt on her cupcake wall hanging. She also worked on a table runner and hand quilting on a baby quilt. Again I had camera problems so I am not able to share all of the pictures with you. Maybe I should just stick with my sewing machine and forget about all of the other electronics. We all had a great time and are already looking forward to next years camp!