Christmas is over...

We had a nice Christmas weekend, starting with friends on Friday evening. We did our annual ornament exchange/Chinese auction style.  Above is the glow-in-the-dark snowflake that I made for the event.

Ethan, Hope's boyfriend (below right) ended up with it.

After eating & exchanging ornaments, we played Pictionary-man. Much fun & silliness ensued.

The crowd left about midnight. We blew out the candles & crawled into bed until... (I'll finish this story at the end of the post.)

I wanted to share other things I've done for Christmas first. I got a blank PFD white silk scarf for one of my gifts from Jan at my Calendar Girls group. I used it to make a gift for my friend Kathy, who always exchanges with me.

I finished up a customer quilt for Tracy Trasky. This bear who I think should be called "The Guardian", because that's what he felt like to me, when hanging on my studio wall, waiting to be bound.

I also quilted the top that I gave to my DH for Christmas last year. I was a day late fining it, because of the rest of the story....

At 4 a.m. on Christmas eve morning, we were awakened by the electronic voice of the fire alarm screaming "FIRE! FIRE!" along with it's obnoxious alarm that even the hard of hearing can't ignore. I grabbed my robe & ran up the stairs, & found we indeed did have a fire blazing on top of the bookcase where earlier there had stood a candle. It was burning the cotton batting that was snow for the nativity. My first stuporous impulse was to smother it with my robe. Well, I found out that fleece burns quite well. Now I had a fire right by the Christmas tree, that was burning a package & a robe along with the cotton snow-batting... I ran to the kitchen & grabbed my tea kettle & a pan of water, & ran back pouring it over the fire, putting about 2/3 of it out. I think this is when I carried the flaming robe, & burning foot stool, which were melded together, out on to the snow covered porch, & got more water to put the rest of the fire out. Warren was working on damage control at that point, & I think that's about the time that I realized my hands felt like they were on fire. The right hand fingers got the worst of it. We went to the ER where they gave me drugs & attempted to bandage my wounds, but I couldn't stand having my hand out of a cold bucket of water for any longer than a few seconds before I had to plunge it back in again. It was about 24 hours before the fingers no longer felt like they were still in the flames. We felt very fortunate that so little was damaged, & we are safe, & healing. My hand no longer hurts.

The final photo that I am posting is another piece of silk that I dyed when I did the scarf. I think it looks like fire.

Christmas gifts

Here are all 4 stockings, finished & now shipped to the girls.

I free-motion quilted each girl's name into one side of the stocking, & then first initial into the other side, & painted the letters in, after the quilting was done. I used a white rabbit fur pelt that I bought from a local bead & leather shop. Yes, I know, poor bunny..but don'y you own a pair of leather shoes, or a leather purse or belt? Poor cows...

I put a glass bead on each one. For Alex's stocking,  I used part of a lambs wool collar that Aunt Ethel gave me years ago, "to make something with". Now it's heading back to Florida, where it came from.

On the back, there was an overlap, that I decided needed a button.

With satin scraps left over from the stockings, I made ornaments to put on cards. I used wire around the edges to give them stability & to make the hanger.

Another little project I did, was these wine bottles. I stuffed strings of lights into them, added a hair scrunchie around the neck & some tulle on top, & they are setting in Warren's bar.

Here is his wroght iron tree with his collection of Hallmark Eskimo figures. His art work is on the wall behind the tree.

The teddy bears are flanking the stairs again this year.

I've already received some great gifts too! My pal Judy Evans made this nice reversible bag for me.

My other friend Judy Wedeimayer made this great little wool felted bag.

This little gold zipper bag was a party favor at my Quilt Guild party today. It was full of all sorts of fun bits.

& this last bag was made & given to me by one of my best customers, Dr. Shirley Fraser.

Thanks for all of you kind comments!

&

Happy holidays!

Now I've got to go finish several more projects & the decorating, & cook, & get those holiday letters in envelopes & mailed....etc, etc..

Christmas stockings

My DD called me recently, asking if I might be able to make a stocking for her SO's little girl Sylvia. It reminded me that I hadn't gotten stockings made for 3 of my other DGD's either, so I after I finished Shirley's quilt, I decided I HAD to get these stockings made. I had a nice chunk of red satin fabric, that I loaded on to Lily, & made a pattern from a piece of newspaper. I stitched the outlines of 8 stockings first, then quilted them all today. I was fun doing a free motion job that I didn't have to worry about what anyone else thought!

Sylvia wanted pink, so I trimmed it in pink.  On one side I quilted her initial, & colored it with pink paint.

On the other side I wrote her name. The tassel sticks out in the photo because of gravity. I tipped the camera to get the full stocking in.

I added some pink bling with beads. I hope it's enough pink for her. I have a little hand work to do on the others, so I'll finish them & show them later. I just wanted to post this for my DD to see, & know it's on its way soon!

Here is Shirley's latest quilt. I quilted up fairly easily.

Here are a couple of group shots from our Calendar Girls Christmas party at Betty's house. Sorry you couldn't come Margaret & Jean, & Cheryl.

Betty made this pretty Jello dessert. Light & fun to eat!

Getting ready for the holidays

This has been an odd winter here in Alaska. The deep freeze came early. We got some good snowfall, for which I was grateful. I snapped this picture of a "snow snake" in my tree Saturday morning.  By that afternoon it had warmed up, a Chinook blew in, & the snake was gone. That night we had 118 mile-per hour wind gusts. It sounded like a freight train coming through the yard.  I spent half of the night camping on the floor of my studio because of the noise. Warren was working, so it was just me & Broc, & I couldn't sleep listening to the wind blow in the bedroom. Several people had damage to their homes. We had leaks in odd places. Water was being blown sideways, & it leaked where we never had leaks before. Now we have new leaky spots to add to the to-do list.

I made a turkey last week, & made a pot of soup from left-overs. It was yum-perfect.

In the studio, I have been working on Christmas, as well as 2 customer quilts. Shirley's is done, I just have to lint roller it, photograph, bundle it, & calculate the bill, & I can deliver it. Tracy's bear just needs border quilting, so I think I'll get it finished this weekend. Broc plopped himself down on top of the little ornaments I was trying to get finished for giving to the Calendar Girls, & for package decorations. I simply fussy-cut these from a print, layered them with bits of stiff batt (Timtex -like stuff), & sewed around the edges, with a string layered in the top edge. They can be hung as an ornament or pinned on & worn.

Now I'm heading out to the Calendar Girls, with my "White Elephant" gifts, ready for our exchange. It's always fun to see who gets stuck with the most junk! At least whoever gets mine will have a nice hunk of fabric.

In the Deep Freeze

We've been below zero for several days now. The Waxwings were gathered & looking extra fluffy in a tree by our driveway.

We had our traditional Thanksgiving at the Meyn's house. I made a cranberry jello-creme pie, yam casserole & pear salad for my contribution for the dinner. Brandon & Bryan came too.

On Saturday morning we met again at the Meyn's for breakfast. It may be bitter cold outside, but warm food & friendship indoors more than makes up for it.

Here's a picture for you Anita. Bryan using the Force to levitate the ball in the tube. He was very good at it.