Christmas Wrap Up

Here are some of the craft related things that I got for Christmas.

This yarn is from Val complete with a hand made cloth gift bag.

This Sweets bag is from Hanne. We used it to hold our chocolates on Christmas Day.

Mary Ann knit these fingerless gloves for me.
I knit a scarf to match the fingerless gloves.

My son and daughter-in-law bought me this quilt book.......
and this one, too.

And, I am still sorting and organizing and trying to find a place to put my yarn and fabric.

Hope all of you are finding some time to stitch or knit today.

Window of Opportunity

I'm back. In the last 5 weeks, I've made 2 trips to Huntsville, Alabama and 7 trips to Lafayette, Indiana. I stayed a few days on both of the trips to Huntsville and two of the trips to Lafayette. My daughter is totally moved from Alabama and into her apartment up in Lafayette, and she is in her second week of classes to get her Masters in Statistics at Purdue University. Her apartment in Lafayette wasn't ready in time, so we had to move all of her things into our house for about 10 days and then move it back out again into a u-haul and up to Lafayette to her second floor apartment. She has downsized to a smaller apartment so she left a lot of her things here to store. This is what happens when you mix fabric, yarn and genealogy all together in one room.

I started cleaning my sewing room today, and when I made enough room to get to my sewing machine, I remembered that I saw something in an email from Back Door quilt shop about having a sewing day to make pillowcases. So I grabbed some fabric and made these:

I know I have a bit of ADD, but I hadn't sat down at my sewing machine since before the Dear Jane retreat in Shipshewana in November. I have been doing some knitting and crocheting. More later. Hope you are finding some time to take a few stitches today.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful day with family and friends.

Another Visit to Alabama

I flew to Huntsville, Alabama, last Friday to help my daughter pack her apartment. She is moving to Lafayette, Indiana, to attend Purdue University to get her masters degree in Statistics. We drove back here to Indianapolis yesterday and brought a car full of her things including Squeaky, her cat. This is the huge tree in Indianapolis International Airport. While we were in Alabama, we took a break from packing to make a last walk through Bridge Street and enjoy the Christmas decorations there. It was warm enough on Monday evening that we sat on one of the benches next to the tree and ate ice cream.

Here is the sunset over the lake our last evening in Huntsville.

In the evenings we spent time knitting and I finished the pair of Malibrigo worsted weight socks. I got this yarn from a friend for my birthday in April so this wasn't a speedy finish - but a finish nonetheless.
Hope you are finding some time this holiday season to do some stitching.

Christmas Decorating

I'm still getting out the Christmas decorations. This is an afghan that my Mom made for us many years ago. She passed away in 1996, and we enjoy using it every year. This is my Dear Jane Christmas swap quilt. I made the center feathered star to use in a round robin but changed my mind and didn't use it. So it made the center of the quilt surrounded by my swap blocks.Since my knee replacement, I was able to get up in the attic....a place I hadn't been able to get to in years. I found this breadboard in a box. I had forgotten I had it and don't know how old it is. I haven't done any cross stitch in several years.

Here is a close up of the house.

This is a crocheted ripple afghan that I made several years ago.

I hope that you are all finding some time to do some Christmas sewing, knitting or crocheting and enjoying the holidays.

Thanksgiving Revisited and Christmas Decorating

I am going to try and update my blog more often in the New Year, so I'm trying to get a good start now. I found this photo of the dinner rolls from our Thanksgiving Dinner in my camera. This cross stitched breadcloth was made by my friend Sharon from Michigan, and I use this breadcloth every year. Sharon and I used to be avid cross stitchers, and we have exchanged a lot of cross stitched things over the years. Sharon and I have been friends since we were in grade school, and still keep in touch. I have a breadcloth from her for every holiday where we have a big dinner, and I always think of Sharon on the holidays.

This is the Christmas pillow that Sharon made me several years back. I checked and there is no date, but I've had it for a lot of years.

I haven't done any sewing since the Dear Jane retreat, but I went to knitting down at Mass Ave Knits the other night and worked on my Mitered Square Sock Blanket. I've traded a lot of sock yarn with others that are making this blanket, and I have a great assortment.

Also, November was National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO), and I finished my 50,000+ word novel on November 30. That is always a fun diversion from the other projects that I do.

Hope you have some time for stitching today.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hope all of you are having a Happy Thanksgiving and are having plenty to eat. My daughter, Kim is here this week and is helping in the kitchen which I think is just great!!!

I spent most of last week up in Shipshewana at the Dear Jane retreat. Here is the fat quarter boat at Lollys. This is one of the sample quilts hanging in Lollys store located in the Davis Mercantile building in Shipshewana. The quilt is called Eldon, and the pattern is by Edyta Sitar.

Shipshewana is like a wonderland after night. Most of the buildings are decorated.

This is Rebecca Haarer's store on Morton Street.

These are just some of the quilts for sale at Rebecca's.

I think this is my favorite show and tell quilt. This was made by Prue and the blocks are from the book When The Cold Wind Blows. She used by fabrics by Kaffe Fassett, and it was striking.

These are the 3 inch blocks that I made for our swap at the retreat.

The rest of my retreat photos are posted on my webshots page at

http://community.webshots.com/user/luann426

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Hope we all can find some time to stitch this weekend.