2020 Strikes Again!

 

Hi, all!

Well, if you didn't hear yet, we had a bit of excitement here in Nashville on Christmas morning - an intentional bombing from an RV parked on historic Second Avenue downtown.  Everyone I know is fine - there were only three injuries reported for reasons we won't go into here (you can read them on CNN!) but because it happened right across the street from the AT&T hub, internet, email and phone service (and TV!!!) are all totally disrupted and we don't know when it will be restored to any semblance of normalcy.  I am writing this from a local MacDonalds - the only place I could find internet service at all - but I don't know how easy it will be to get back, or if the service will be reliable enough to hit again later in the week.

So in the meantime, bless your lucky stars if your e-services are working properly and say a prayer for me, stuck inside and remembering how to turn on my own lights (Alexa has spoiled me mightily!)

If I don't see you before then (heaven forbid!) have a happy and safe New Year's Eve celebration!

Hugs!

Sarah

And the Angels Sang Hallelujah.....

 Tonight we celebrate a miracle.  

It's easy to forget that, as we get caught up in the glitter

and hustle of modern-day Christmas.

So take a few minutes and remember what happened

so very long ago,

An event so momentous the angels sang

HALLELUJAH

The seemingly insignificant birth of 

a seemingly insignificant baby

that would change the world.

For unto us a child is born,

Unto us a son is given.

And the government shall be upon his shoulders.

His name shall be called

Wonderful Counsellor

Mighty God

Everlasting Father

Prince of Peace

Merry Christmas, and may you always remember 

the true reason for the season.  

Hallelujah!!

Make-A-List Monday - Taking a Week Off For the Holidays!

 

Hi, all!

It occurred to me this evening that this is a very short week, as we will be celebrating Christmas with our young'uns on Thursday and then the holiday is Friday - so - - - I'm giving myself the gift of a week off!  I'll be back next Monday with an update on last week's list and a new list for the last week of the year.  And maybe some goals for the new year!

So have a wonderful week celebrating in whatever way you can in this weird weird year of 2020....

See you next week!!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Chasing Squirrels!

 

Hi, all!

It's Friday again - and only one more week until Christmas!!  I'm sure there's lots of secret sewing going on everywhere - but I hope you'll have something you can share.  Maybe, like me, you've chased a few squirrels this week!  So let's get our whoop whoop on!

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This week I managed to get every. single. bit. of my Christmas shopping and wrapping finished!  I've never been all ready for Christmas a week ahead of time - and it's a great feeling.  I actually had time to chase some squirrels today!

As I was cleaning up in preparation for the next project, I came across these pretty super-skinny strings in my tabletop trash can.  Now, I love Kate Spain fabric, and throwing away any piece of it, no matter how small, hurts my heart.  So I found some clothesline and decided to make a rope bowl!

It turned out really nice, I think!  It's been a while since I made a rope bowl, but I've still got the knack, apparently.  

After I finished it, I laid it on the kitchen table so my husband could see it. Apparently he liked it, because he immediately put something in it and claimed it for his own.

Looks like I stopped at the perfect time on that bowl, too - I wasn't aware I was playing thread chicken, but at least I won!

If one squirrel is good, then two is even better, right?  I tried out a great technique I saw on TikTok for making snowflakes out of paper bags - super easy and, if I say so myself, really cute!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Tripping Down Memory Lane.....

Hi, all!

Welcome to something a little bit different today - I am a participant in the Holiday Tales & Traditions blog hop hosted by the fabulous Bernie over at Needle & Foot!  Bernie decided we all needed a bit more Christmas cheer in this weird year of 2020, and asked several of us bloggers to share some holiday memories with you all.  Sounds like fun, right?  Here's a list of the other bloggers who are participating...

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts

Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl

Mari of Academic Quilter

Carole of From My Carolina Home

Sandra of MMM! Quilts

Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts

Leanne of Devoted Quilter

Jan of The Colorful Fabriholic

Julie of Me & My Quilts

Kathleen of Kathleen McMusing

Sarah of Sarah Goer Quilts

Bernie of Needle and Foot

So grab a cuppa, snuggle up in a comfortable chair and cruise down memory lane with us as we share our Christmas memories....

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This beautiful old home is the focus of many fun Christmas memories for me.  It belonged to my great-grandmother, who lived to be very nearly 100 years old, and actually welcomed my husband into the family, telling him she was glad he was a Grady now!  Every year the entire family would convene here at Christmas - and what a family it was!  She had six children, most of whom lived very nearby, and they all had children, who also had children, so on Christmas morning her home was overrun with cousins!  

But before we went to Gran's house on Christmas, we would have Christmas at my grandmother's house.  My grandmother instilled a love of handmade gifts in me from an early age.  She would always make us matching nightgowns and bathrobes for Christmas, and it was tradition that we would open them up on Christmas Eve as we prepared for bed.

That's me in the background, with my show-off little sister hamming it up for the camera.  I was probably about 7 here, as I recognize those cat-eyed glasses!  Then we would troop upstairs to bed, with the traditional "butts going up to bed" picture...

....which I can prove was traditional because here's one from a later year!  I swear, I don't think my grandmother ever threw a picture away, because there were tons of these in the boxes in my attic.

Another tradition that I wasn't as fond of was the bedroom slippers that my grandfather would always get us as his part of the annual ritual.  They had sock uppers and leather bottoms and I always felt like they made my long feet look even longer. He used to tease me about my height and feet, singing, "I've got a gal, she's six foot tall, she sets in the kitchen with her feet in the hall!"  But as you can see from this picture, I adored my granddad (that's me on the left) and even when he annoyed me, he could do no wrong.  I also found tons of pictures just like this one, with both of us draped all over Granddaddy.  He must have been a very patient man!

One of my favorite Christmas memories was Don, the Borden milkman, delivering eggnog.  I don't know if it is still available, but I remember Borden eggnog being a beautiful yellow shade, creamy and heavily flavored and specked with nutmeg.  It's still my hands-down favorite eggnog!  Don delivered that eggnog every year that I can remember and was definitely a holiday fixture.

And here's a funny story about eggnog.  Each year as the young men in our family got older, they would reach an age when there would be a drinking straw in their stocking.  Why?  Because when we would go over to Gran's house for the big family celebration, she would have a huge punch bowl of eggnog.  Now, I helped my great-aunt make the eggnog one year. My job was to read the recipe to her so she wouldn't miss anything.  When I got to the part for the liquor, I handed her the cup measure.  She refused it, and just poured straight from the bottle into the mixture.  And poured.... and poured.... and poured.  Now that was pretty potent eggnog!  But as the day would go on, the eggnog would tend to separate, with the liquor going to the bottom of the punchbowl.  The purpose of the straw?  To reach the liquor quicker!  Yes, my family is a bunch of heathens, but it certainly was a unique rite of passage!

And I just had to laugh when I saw this picture (among many others very similar in one detail).  That's the five of us first cousins - from top to bottom, me, my sister Cathy, my cousins Leslie, Jennifer, and Kristen.  My grandmother was the photographer of the family, but could seldom take a picture where she didn't cut off someone's head!  As the tallest of the bunch, it was usually me.  Oh well, small loss there - but it does make me laugh!

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We also had a favorite holiday dessert that my grandmother would make every year.  It does have alcohol in it, but according to the recipe, you are supposed to make it a couple of days ahead and leave it in the fridge so the alcohol can evaporate off, leaving just the flavor (it never lasted that long around our house!)  I don't have a picture - haven't had it in a long time - but I remember how she made it.  Bake up a yellow cake mix, then crumble the cake.  Chop up some pecans, and mix them in with the cake crumbles.  Keep aside a few whole pecan pieces to decorate the top of the cake.  Next make whipped cream - a lot of it - with applejack brandy mixed in.  Now put down a layer of the cake mixture, top with the whipped cream, and repeat for several layers until you've used up all the cake mixture.  Finish with a layer of whipped cream and decorate with the whole pecans.  She called this Tipsy Cake and it was SO good!  I remember she used to make it in a rectangular clear Pyrex casserole dish, but it's also beautiful in a trifle bowl.

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I hope you've enjoyed this little walk down memory lane - I know I have!  It was so much fun looking through old pictures and remembering fun times.  I hope you'll visit the other participants in the hop and enjoy their memories too!

Merry Christmas!!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Ready for Santa!

 Hi, all!

Well, it's been a quiet (and busy) week in my hometown!!  I've accomplished lots and now have time to play over the holidays.  That's a first!  Even my husband has finished his Christmas shopping and wrapping.  We don't know what to do with ourselves!

So let's take a look at my list from last week and see how it went...

1.  Wrap Christmas presents.

Done!  Our tree looks so festive! And we've never had the packages all wrapped this early before...

2.  Make four buffalo plaid pillow covers for my living room sofa.

Done!  I really like the way they dress up the room for the holidays.

3.  Make a bolster pillow for my Christmas bed.

Done!  And I actually got it all done BEFORE Christmas...

4.  Finish up the little bit of Christmas shopping I have left.

Done!  I'm waiting for one more package to arrive, but I'm finished shopping - even the stocking stuffers!

5.   See if I can take that "aha!" moment and turn it into a quilt design for the String Therapy quilt.

Done!  The design is drawn, and I've taken my tub of Kate Spain Latitude scraps and cut 2.5" strips in preparation.  The gray will coordinate with all those beautiful blues and greens.

And the sad part? Even after cutting that enormous stack, I had all of this left over still! (Although with Kate Spain fabrics, I'm not sure that's a bad thing...)

So that's what I did last week!  And today, Lilli and I had a baking day date, our last while she is still 12 years old.  It's hard to believe, but she turns 13 on Wednesday.  We had a blast, making some unusual cookies she and I had both wanted to try out (lemon rosemary shortbread and our own creation of peanut butter shortbread with chocolate drops). My husband is not sure about the cookies, as he is a firm believer that there is one great cookie, shortbread, and all the rest are just second-best pretenders. But they actually turned out pretty good, and we were proud of our efforts.

So what am I going to work on this week?  Something tells me I can find some things to get into..

1.  Keep working on the String Therapy prototype.

2.  Quilt some tops for the quilt ministry. (We thought we were stocked up for the holidays, but we gave away 9 quilts last week!)

3.  Re-arrange and organize the laundry room.

4.  Bake some more no-knead bread.

5.  Chose the next String Therapy design.

I have to say, it's really nice and liberating to not be scrambling to finish things the last ten days before Christmas!  It may never happen again, so I will enjoy it while it's here.

So now the question is - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Christmas is Just Around the Corner!

 

Hi, all!

Does it seem like Fridays roll around faster as the end of the year approaches?  Today we are two weeks from Christmas, and three weeks from the end of 2020!  Hard to believe, but true.  And with it being Friday, that means it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on - are you ready?  Let's get started!

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It's been a busy week around here, but I managed to knock two things off my to-do list, both of which REALLY needed to be finished before Christmas!  First up was this bolster pillow that matches my new Christmas quilt...

I love the way it finishes off the bed - and it used up the last of the postage stamp blocks, too!  Nothing to add to the orphan block tub, which is definitely a win.

And then I finished the pillow covers for my living room sofa!  These were so simple - some red and black buffalo plaid fabric, fusible fleece cut into snowflake shapes, and the perfect backing...

Look at those fabulous birds!  And the colors were absolutely spot on. Canvas weight made this the perfect backing fabric.

Doesn't that look pretty?  I love the little pop of Christmas color it gives the sofa, and by making them as covers, I can take them off and store them away at the end of the season, and the sofa returns to normal.

And my last fun thing for the week is our new time-sucker....

 My husband got these VR (virtual reality) goggles as part of his work, and while I would never have thought to buy a pair on my own, I have to say they are a LOT of fun!  I've found an app that is fun to play, yet gets my heart rate up, improves my eye/hand coordination and concentration, and works the muscles in my arms, back and core, all of which is a win in my book!  

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's making you whoop it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

I May Have A Scrap Problem.... Let's Play A Game!

 

Hi, all!

It's been a busy week around here as we get ready for Christmas!  I did manage to finish a scrappy quilt this week...

This is my Plaid-ish quilt, the one I made this summer on vacation, and I decided it would make a great Christmas present paired with some cocoa, cookies, and a couple of mugs.  I was so excited about finishing up the present early that I packed it up and mailed it before I took any pictures of the finished product!  Bummer....

So no great pictures to show off, but I do have something special for you today.  My friend Bernie, who blogs at Needle and Foot, has collected up pictures of bloggers, and you get to guess which is which.  The catch?  They are all pictures of those bloggers when they were about 5-7 years old!  Just a little Christmas fun, and a great way to get to know us all a little better.  And who knows? You may find a great blog or two that you didn't know about before!  So click HERE to hop on over there and see how many you can recognize.  You may just see a cute little 5-year old who looks a bit like me!

And here's another little Christmas gift, from nerdy me to you!

Have a great week and hopefully I'll have some scrappy sewing to share next time!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Christmas is Coming!!

 

Hi, all!

My goodness, how time flies when you are having fun! It seems like can't possibly have been seven days since last Monday, but here we are again.  Eighteen days until Christmas, and I have almost finished my Christmas shopping, and I HAVE finished my Christmas gift-making! I still have a few things I'm working on, though, that I'll share in a few.  But first, here's how last week's list went...

1.  Make the labels for the annual quilts and attach them.

Done - and of course, I didn't take any pictures before I packed them up and wrapped them!

2.  Quilt my Christmas quilt.

Done, and on my bed!  

3.  Quilt a gift quilt.

Done, and in the mail!!

4.  Finish up the Christmas decorating and put the storage 

tubs back in the attic.

Done!  And now I can sit back and enjoy it!

5.  Start working on the next String Therapy quilt.

I didn't actually start on this one, but I did have an "aha!" moment so I know exactly where to start now.

So I made some good headway last week, and I have a few special projects for this week, like using all of these...

...to get a jump on my Christmas wrapping.  I don't know about you, but just as we all have least favorite parts of the quilt-making process, wrapping is my least favorite part of Christmas!  But I figure doing few each day will get it all done in plenty of time.

So here's my list for this week...

1.  Wrap Christmas presents.

2.  Make four buffalo plaid pillow covers for my living room sofa.

3.  Make a bolster pillow for my Christmas bed.

4.  Finish up the little bit of Christmas shopping I have left.

5.   See if I can take that "aha!" moment and turn it into a quilt design for the String Therapy quilt.

Enough to keep me out of trouble (I think) so now the question is - - -  what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? My Christmas Present to Me!

 

Hi, all!

Friday again - and not only Friday, but three-weeks-until-Christmas Friday!!  Oh my!  I'm sure most of you are working on things you can't share, but I hope you can join in the fun and whoop it up a little bit - so let's get started!

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I decided this year that I was finally going to use the three jelly rolls of Kate Spain's Solstice that I had been hoarding saving for the perfect quilt - and because it's Christmas fabric, I was compelled to finish it in time for this Christmas!  I wanted a king size quilt for our new bed, and not just a king size, but a huge one, with plenty of "drop" on three sides so that rolling over wouldn't leave anyone short of covers.

Because this quilt was going to be so big, it wouldn't fit on my quilt frame in one piece, so I quilted it in two long sections.  My original plan was to use a layer of wool batting and a layer of cotton batting, but when I started quilting it, I found it to be too puffy, so I took out the cotton batting.  The wool batt gave just the right amount of loft!

Here's the first half fresh off the frame!  Then, second verse, same as the first, I quilted the other half.

Then came the fun and adventurous part - joining the two halves!  I found a great tutorial that covered exactly what I wanted to do, and if you are interested in doing the same, I highly recommend that you check it out.  She did an excellent job of explaining how and I don't think I can add much here.  So - I trimmed one side through all the layers, then pinned it to the pieced top on the other side, folding back the batting and backing.

Once the two pieces were joined, I pressed the seam allowance towards the pieced side, trimmed the batting to meet the edge I just pressed over, and trimmed the backing to 1" beyond the seam allowance.  Then I folded the seam allowance on the backing under to just cover the seam stitching and pressed it down.  And this is the only thing I did differently than the tutorial - I hand stitched the seam down rather than stitching in the ditch as directed.  I did that because the wool batting has so much loft, I was afraid I would end up with a very visible line down my quilt that was quilted everywhere else with swirls.  Oh, and one last thing I did was lay the quilt across the rollers of my quilt frame, pin it to the leaders just to hold it in place, and quilt across the space that remained unquilted above the joining of the two halves.  I had to shift it down a little bit at each end to get all the way to the edges of the quilt, but it's all good - it worked!

Then I located in my stash enough of this red stripe to make binding!  Is there anything prettier than red stripe binding?  And, as a friend on Instagram said, shouldn't all Christmas quilts have red stripe binding?

Every journey begins with a single stitch, right?  More than four hundred inches around this quilt, so it took a while, but so worth it...

...because, isn't that the prettiest thing?  And even more so because it's all finished!

And here it is, in all its glory!  Notice the drop - plenty of roll-over room with this quilt.  And it's even prettier in person.  The camera doesn't do justice to the beautiful colors in this fabric line.  Of course, that could partly be that I didn't finish it until after the sun set, so I may be able to get a better picture by daylight.  We shall see!  I also have a long rectangular piece of the patchwork to make a bolster pillow, which hopefully will happen in the next few days.  It would be a shame to have to wait until next Christmas to use it!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share! We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah