In the Quilting Studio!

 

I am enjoying my vacation.  Still need to rest nonstop, but I can sew here and there and so far that is about all I have done besides read.  Whipped up a few trivets for Kathy's nieces for Christmas.  We have not been exchanging gifts with them, but her brother in law is dying of cancer so all the kids and their kids are in town for what is likely his last Christmas.  We gave him the Patriots quilt I had quilted for Kathy for Christmas.  She is going to keep her En Provence Patriots quilt instead so it is ready to be longarmed.  Kathy gave me this cool sloth mug for Christmas and I am working on book 53 for this year.  Not nearly enough reading this year for me, but more than the average ready anyway.

 I finished putting the binding on Kathy's On Ringo Lake.  This one will soon be gifted to Sam and Ashley on their wedding next March.  Baby boy Barrett due this March so wedding was delayed a year!

 Ros did a great job quilting it.  I was going to link to it on her blog, but I cannot find the post on it. 

 Since I (and Kathy!) are all caught up on the clue, I sewed, ripped paper, ironed and organized a ton of HST's and other random blocks we had so they might be more usable.

 I dug out this long ago given to me "Buttermilk" UFO.  Someone else made the cute little nine patches and I put them together in this little quilt.

 I really want to do a New Year's Eve or New Year's Day mystery, but so far none have caught my eye.  I may just work on UFO's or something instead.  Kathy has to work.  I am planning on joining in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again this year on SuperScrappy's blog.  I was trying to decide between these two patterns but think I have opted for the easier one so I am able to actually get it done each month. 

Bonnie has posted clue six for Good Fortune, so now it is time to get to it!

Crafty Sewing of Last Minute Gifts

My Winter Wonder Pal (Secret Santa) at work saw that I had always wanted a sewing room Christmas tree so she made me a kit to put one together.  Super thoughtful gift!  Then after work Friday I went to sew with Barb and she gave me one she had from a guild tabletopper.  I took off a few of the things on it (they had paper quilts that didn't do well with time) and started throwing a few things on it.  I plan to get out the hot glue and really do it up right, but most likely not this year.

Barb also made and gifted me these cool handtowels.  I buy a few each year at the craft sale so I am well stocked now.  I brought over the two cool, old red buttons (and some others for the other towels she was making) and she put them on.

Today I woke up and thought I should whip up some of the Simple Bags for Suli's twins who are now three!  I love my little tool for making the handles.  I have lots of tools and gadgets that I never seem to use, but this one has helped me alot!

 The pattern for this bag is in this book. It is my favorite go to bag and I put crayons, color book, and a deck of cards in the bag and it makes a good gift.

 Ollie (twins' older brother) already has a bag so I made him (and Colton) a pillowcase with hot wheels and flames on it.  They are folded up here but you get the idea.

 We are going to my brother Sam's tomorrow for the Christmas Eve festivities.  I made a TON of chex mix for us to eat and to gift to everyone today.  I overdid it a bit as I am still easily tired.  We had to go to Costco and Fry's Grocery so it was more walking and standing then I am good with now.  By four-ish I was in bed and planning to take it easy tomorrow. 
Every year Kathy and I bring a puzzle to work on at Christmas...my family winds up stopping over to help and eventually they all get really into it.  This year my sister was all excited to tell me she found a Packer puzzle for us to do.  Then a week later my mom said she found a puzzle with three different size pieces to the kids can help too.  Cannot wait to see which one we wind up doing!  I sent Coleman and his family in Ohio a puzzle with a camping theme so he can continue our puzzle tradition.  He called to thank me and seemed excited about it.