Reading list

Ahhh relaxing after Christmas...................

1. Everything You Never Told Me by Celeste Ng dysfunctional family 
2. Christmas Bells by Jennifer  Chevarini each chapter is a character sketch of a character and their part in the events before the children's Christmas concert so ther is a lot of repetition.   The chapters in between tell the story of Henry Longfellow and writing the poem Christmas Bells during the civil war.
3. The Tour: a Trip through Ireland by Jean Grainger
4. Letters of Freedom by Jean Grainger
5. Angels at the Table: a Shirley, Goodness and Mercy Christmas Story by Debbie Macomber
6. Angels at Christmas by by Debbie Macomber 
7. Shirley, Goodness and Mercy by Debbie Macomber 

Relaxing some more........................

Happy New Year   

--Ann--

In a Stable

In a manger a child is born.......................
Peace on Earth
--Ann--

Christmas

There is my Christmas tree skirt and all the leftover yarn is now in my last needlepoint Santa.  My Santas are in front of the fireplace,  below the stair rail, on the window sills in the sunroom which did not photo well, in and on the secretary and sadly a few are still in boxes.  But this is a jolly bunch.      Merry Christmas.  --Ann--

Santa finish

Another Santa to add to the collection.  I would work on him a little bit at a time until my fingers would get sore from pulling the needle through the holes, the size of the needle eye and thread makes a difference in how easily it pulls through. I forget those little details when a project is 4 years in the making.  I was also having trouble finding a spot to sit with lots of light, I even moved a lamp closer to my chair and put in a working 3 way bulb.  But the real solution to being able to see the little holes was buying a pair of 3.0 reading glasses!  What a difference those made!!!  The fur trim is turkey work and after it is trimmed it feels almost like velvet.  I did a long and short stitch with an angora yarn in the beard.  Then I took him to my sewing room to turn and stuff.  This was first time I have had movers remorse because I threw away all the bags of batting scraps, you know the little 1 or 2 inch strips from trimming a quilt that everyone else throws in the trash as they trim the quilt.  I threw all those away.  What do I stuff him with short of cutting up quiltable pieces of batting?  Aha!! old yarn! I had yarn from a couple decades ago back when I made a cross stitch Christmas tree skirt on burlap.  Wadded up yarn is perfect for stuffing and no calories.  One skein of white was exactly the right color for the cording in combination with a fuzzy novelty thread.  Thinking about painting another Santa.........maybe next year.  --Ann--

Kaleidescope

That was fun! sewing Christmasy fabric just before Christmas.  It won't be quilted until next year. --Ann--

Kaleidoscopes

I gathered up all my kaleidoscope toys for quilting and never realized how different they are from each other. The two mirrors that are taped together are a great tool for choosing fabrics for a stack and whack quilt. The angle can be changed to see how many segments in a block.   It also reveals fabrics that might be a poor choice.  My original plan was to use the bird fabric but as you can see with the large areas of spruce green background there would be some blocks that were lacking in interest and probably very few blocks with whole birds unless I fussy cut and then I would have needed a lot more yardage. So I bought the coordinating flower fabric because the motifs were closer together.
The dragon fly eyes will repeat a motif in a side by side setting or turn it a little for an on point setting but they do not reflect the design like a kaleidoscope.  The red is a child's toy with six sided facets in the lens, the dark one has high quality glass with four sided facets.  The brass spy glass has a clear marble in the other end,  it miniaturizes the designs into hexagon repeats.  They are all fun to look through.  Sometimes I'm so easily amused.  --Ann--

Design Wall Monday

It was a snowy day on Saturday and a very good day to sew.  This quilt was started 15 years ago I'm guessing.  Sewing the kaleidoscope blocks was as much fun as sewing scrap blocks because the finished block was always a surprise.  The little parts would come together and make a new design in the center of each block. A few more seams and then to fussy cut the border to showcase the birds.
There is a good 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, today is calm and cold, the every green trees look like a Christmas card.  Another great day to sew. --Ann-- linking to Judy's DWM