Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like....

 

Hi, all!

Guess what?  It's Friday again!  And not just any Friday, but the second Friday in December - only two more until Christmas!  And Friday means that it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on - are you ready?  Let's go!

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It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!  Let me take you on a tour and show you some of my decorations...

As you come up to my front door, you will be greeted by a cute little wooden reindeer standing in a grove of trees!  I found him in a gift shop in East Tennessee for $11 several years ago, and he's one of my favorite decorations!

The beautiful wreaths on the front doors came from the tree farm where we got our live tree!

When you come through the front door, this tree stands in all its glory. (There's a wire to the wall that makes sure it stays standing!)  It holds our collection of official White House ornaments, which my husband receives each year from a business contact.  This year's ornament smells like gingerbread!

The dining room is just off the entrance, and I have my favorite Kate Spain table runner on the table.  It just makes the room so festive!

Our living room has buffalo check pillows in red and black with big white snowflakes on them, and the hurricane lanterns hold little snow scenes with gnomes, tiny bottle brush trees, and kosher salt "snow"!

On the other side of the living room is our piano, where our nativity scene resides.  I made the creche from an old pallet we had lying around, and I'm pretty proud of it!  It took me forever to take the pallet apart - don't let anyone tell you it's easy - but it was worth it for the rustic look it has.

Just past the piano are the stairs.  This is a new place for me to decorate, and I wrapped the handrails with strings of poinsettias in red and white and tied a big bow at the bottom.  (Excuse the gate and items on the stair steps - this is pre-party mode!)

Before we move into the den, let's divert to my bedroom and my Christmas quilt!  It's made of Kate Spain Christmas prints and has a wool batt, so it is super light but very warm.  This year I added a wonderfully soft and warm blanket for those super-chilly nights! The quilt on the headboard is a Christmas Trip Around The World that I made many years ago to "use up all my Christmas fabrics" but even that didn't do it!

Next up is the breakfast nook and table, where you will find this cute little gnome, the newest addition to my Christmas crap!  I love that his hat is an Advent calendar - there's a tiny snowflake on a ribbon that you can move from pocket to pocket to mark the days!

This fun wreath hangs on the door to the porch, right next to the breakfast table!

This little tableau is my grandkids' favorite part - aside from the presents, that is!  The teddy bear will read the entire "Night Before Christmas" poem if you press his hand, moving his head and mouth as he reads.  Emmy made sure that Nathanael learned how to make him do that this year!  The little gift bag is one of my favorites - it has a note to Santa on it - and I use it to hold the Christmas cards we receive.  

Here's our fireplace with the handmade cross-stitch stockings that I've made for each of us over the years.  I love bottle-brush trees, too, and you can see more of my collection on the ends of the mantle.

And last but certainly not least, here's our second tree, which is where all the presents will reside.  I don't dare start wrapping them yet, though, because we're fairly certain that Bree will discover the joys of un-wrapping them!  So in the interest of wrapping them twice, we are holding off until much closer to Christmas to add the presents!  This tree holds our family ornaments including the ornaments I've bought for the kids each year.  They love to look at the tree and see which ones I've hung up each year!

So now that the house is all decorated, just in time for the parties to begin....

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

Make-A-List Monday - Wow, Am I Out Of Shape!

 

Hi, all!

Ouch!  I have definitely gotten out of shape in the past year - dragging Christmas boxes out of the attic has worn me down to a nub!  But I have crushed my exercise minutes every day this week, so there's that. Let's take a look at last week's list...

1.  Quilt Lilli's quilt if the batting arrives.

The batting came on Saturday, but I didn't have a chance to load the quilt on the frame yet. More about that below!

2.  Keep working on the scrappy ministry quilt top.

Done!  This one is ready to be quilted too.

3.  Keep cleaning up the studio.

Still a work in progress. I'm not sure it will ever be completely finished!

4.  Package up some Christmas gifts for my sewing sisters.

I've got all my parts for this project in place, just need to sit down and assemble the packages!

5.  Pull out the Christmas decorations and start setting them up!

Oh my, have I been working on this - and I am sore sore sore!  Let me explain...

Remember the beautiful tree we got at the tree farm?  Well, I spent a good day decorating it to the nines, and here's the result...

Isn't it beautiful? All that hard work was so worth it - and we enjoyed it for that evening and most of the next day.  So imagine my surprise when, while I was sitting in the den recuperating from dragging tubs of Christmas crap downstairs, I heard a horrendous --WHOMP-- in the living room!  I rush in there, only to see....

...the tree had hit. the. floor.  We have no idea why it fell down - Bree was outside in the back yard, and no, there wasn't an earthquake - but we proceeded to mop up the water on the floor, get a new and larger tree base, and put the tree back upright.  So then I spent another day RE-decorating it, swearing that if it fell down again, I was going to just chop it up for firewood!  My husband wired it to the wall, though, so I think we're good now.  But oh my gosh - that's the first time in 43 years of marriage that I've had a tree fall over!

With all the drama, I haven't taken too many pictures yet, but I did get a nice one of our nativity set.  I've got the artificial tree set up in the den, and a box of decorations all ready to go on it after I finish writing this post, so maybe this will be my whoop whoop for Friday - finishing the decorations!  We shall see....

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

1.  Finish the inside Christmas decorations.

2.  Decorate the front porch.

3.  Quilt Lilli's quilt.

4.  Package up those Christmas gifts for my sewing sisters!

5.  Make port pads for a local oncology office.

Definitely enough to keep me busy and more than busy!  If I get all this done I'll be tickled pink!

Oh, and I did one more thing today - built a piece of furniture - and I had a supervisor.  She was definitely way more help than I needed or wanted, but it's so much fun to see how curious she is!

So now, I really want to know - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - How Can It Possibly Be Thanksgiving Already???

Hi, all!

Oh my goodness - how is it possible that this Thursday is Thanksgiving??? Time sure flies when you're having fun!  But it's time to put the pedal to the metal now, because Christmas is just around the corner....

Let's take a look at how my list from last week went...

1.  Quilt Nathanael's annual quilt.

Done!  It's so nice to have two of the annual quilts finished and ready for labeling.

2.  Quilt Lilli's annual quilt.

Not done - but for a valid reason!  I was ready to load it on the frame, but realized I really wanted to use a wool batt, and of course there aren't any in town, so I have one on order.  Hopefully it will be here this week!

3.  Start cleaning up the studio before my quilting sisters descend on my house for our Christmas party in December.

A work in progress!  And no, I'm not sharing pics of the mess....

4.  Pick up and set up our big Christmas tree!

Done!  Lots of pics below...

5.  Start piecing a ministry quilt top from my scrap stash.

Oh, I'm having fun with this one!  I've got about two thirds of the blocks done, plus a lovely stash of 2" HSTs piling up! (Ignore the Postcards from Sweden at the top - that's a work in progress too!)

And now, here's the skinny about our trip to the tree farm!  Our friends built a fabulous, HUGE barn/event center on the property, and they had all of their Christmas sale goodies inside.  It was sent up so beautifully!

There were trees with ornaments...

Lots of pretty decor items, and food too!

And look!  Even more!!

We picked out a beautiful tree for us (and one for our daughter, too!) and a couple of wreaths for the front doors, and the guys helped us load them into the truck.

And now Bree wants to know why we have a tree in the house!  I haven't decorated it yet - I'm waiting for the branches to relax a little bit - but it's going to be gorgeous!!  I'll share more pics when I get all the downstairs decorations in place.

Now it's time to figure out what I need to do this week - a strange week, because my husband is off for the week and hanging around the house.  We'll probably go see a few movies, too!  But here's what's on my to-do list for the week...

1.  Quilt Lilli's quilt if the batting arrives.

2.  Keep working on the scrappy ministry quilt top.

3.  Keep cleaning up the studio.

4.  Package up some Christmas gifts for my sewing sisters.

5.  Pull out the Christmas decorations and start setting them up!

I can't wait to put the Christmas quilt on my bed later this week - I'm trying really hard to wait until after Thanksgiving, as my husband really prefers that for all the decorations.  And I've got enough to do this week to make that work!  

So now, I really want to know - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? A Big Christmas Project Finished!

 

Hi, all!

Well, it's Friday again, and we all know what that means - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!  I know the holidays are coming up in a hurry and you may be doing a lot of secret sewing - but I hope you can still find something to share that you feel is whoop-worthy!  Let's get started!

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A few weeks ago, my husband asked me if I had time to complete a special project for him before Christmas - and of course I said yes!  You might remember seeing these on my design wall just before we left for New York City...

Then last week after we got home, I spray basted all of them onto scrap batting..... 

And this week, quilting began!  A simple cross hatch design, marked with a hera marker...

Once I had finished the quilting, I realized that the letters were still going to need to be stitched down, so it was time for a little raw edge appliqué....

That step actually went a lot quicker that I thought it would, and it was time to move on to the next step - backs and binding.

I had a great piece of Christmas fabric on hand that I used to make envelope backs for all eight pillows, and more of the glitter fabric I used for the appliqué to use for the binding. A little assembly line was set up, and binding began...

...and voila, all eight pillow covers are completed!  I'm still waiting for my pillow forms to arrive, but as soon as they do I'll be packaging these up for gifting!

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?

Now that's a blast from the past! 
They're a lot bigger now!

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.... But One Less Scrappy WIP!

 

Hi, all!

One day not too long ago, a kind reader asked if I was ever going to start posting again on Scrappy Wednesdays.  With a request like that, how can I not?  I had stopped for a while because I was so pushed by commission work, I didn't have time to do any scrappy sewing and very little surfing for inspiration.  But it's better now and I promise to be better about posting regularly!

And today I have an actual scrappy finish to share!  First, a little history.  In November 2019, I made this fun quilt using Amy Smart's Patchwork Forest pattern....

I used a fat quarter bundle of Sugar Plum by Heather Ross, and when the quilt was finished, I still had a good bit of scrap left over. Rather than throw it into the scrap bins, I decided to cut it all into 3.5" squares so I could make a snowflake quilt.  I'm pretty sure I started it in late 2019 or very early 2020, but unfortunately life got busy and it ended up tucked away in a project bag on a shelf.  

When Leanne (@devotedquilter) started her WIPS-B-Gone 2021 challenge, this was one of the projects I pulled out and put on my list - and today I finished it!

I had to make some adjustments as I laid this quilt out, because it turned out I didn't have quite enough print pieces for the original design.  So I made it a little smaller and I think it looks just fine!

Have you tried using the portrait mode on your iPhone to take quilt shots?  It can really give some interest to your pictures!

I had a pretty piece of sparkly snowflake fabric tucked in that project bag for the back, too!   It makes a nice counterpoint to the front of the quilt.

And I finished it off with a pretty aqua binding from my stash.  Not a typical Christmas choice, but it goes well with the colors on the front!

So I finally have a scrappy finish - the first in a long while!  What have you been working on while I've been slacking off?

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