Saturday Morning Wanderings

It was off to breakfast this morning with a friend and we were headed to one of our “usual” breakfast spots.  She’s very predictable; she always goes the same route to certain places from my house.  We headed off in a different direction — still a correct way to go just not her usual way.  We were busy talking and all of a sudden she realized where we were and asked “why did we come this way?”  ROFLOL  I was NOT the driver but she knows I take perverse pleasure in waiting to see how long it takes before she realizes what she’s done.  Yes – it is not the first, nor will it be the last time that happens.

Eventually we got to the restaurant and then  to the german bakery (yum). They actually had some of their oh so delicious christmas cookies out so we sampled our way through the store but I didn’t come home with any.  A great crusty loaf of black forest sourdough and some baguettes (since they were two for one). I’m going to have to chop the baugettes in half so I can get them in bags and stick  them in the freezer.  The across the street to the Bruce Company, a greenhouse that turns most of their patio furniture part of the store into christmas wonderland with more decorated trees than I cared to count.  We go every year to pick up a few new ornaments and comment on the really bizzare ornaments.    So later I’ll take a picture of my new additions for my tree this year — three new ornaments crept into my bag.

Then on to the quilt shop followed by the grocery store.  The blue fabric I bought last week is just too bright and I have a certain shade stuck in my head and nothing else seems quite right to me.    The flash is lightening them a little but that’s the blue I wanted for one leaf quilt (the larger one I want to make) and the other two fabrics are for the smaller leaf quilt I’m working on and I should have left overs to make a few blocks for the Batik Block Swap too and once again I just remembered I forgot to pick up the background fabric for that block swap. Dang!  But did earn a new gift certificate at the quilt shop so that was a bonus!

I’ve still got Madison Square Garden laying on the sewing table about half pinbasted so I want to get that basting done this weekend so I can get started on the quilting. and have room to work on some other stuff.

But I’m getting closer to finishing that first Candlepower sock and really want to work on that instead this afternoon so the pin basting will wait for a while.

These are the socks I put on this morning and whenever I wear them they make me laugh.  The legs of both look like one another because there’s a different stitch pattern on them that stopped any pooling.  But I do like that bright blue sideways vee on the other foot. 🙂

The lonely Snowglobe

I have vowed to get some sewing time in today!  So far, laundry and decorating the Christmas Tree has been taking up my time but the tree is nearly done.   I pulled out my Snowglobe kit which I had worked on a little while on vacation last fall — very little in fact since there’s only this one little lonely snowglobe finished.

It needs 8 more blocks before I can start setting them together but several more have the pieces all cut out and ready to go and they are pretty quick to hand applique so I hope to make some progress on those this afternoon.  I had hoped to have it finished and hung by Christmas.  I don’t see that happening but hope to get it finished and quilted while on vacation the end of the month so it can hang the rest of the winter season.

Each year I usually buy a couple of new ornaments to add to the collection for the tree — or sometimes more than a couple! 🙂  This year so far, only two cute little birds that clip on.  The clip on ornaments fill in those spots where a hanging one just won’t fit.  Here’s one of them – a little bluebird only about and inch and a half long.

So many ornaments bring back fond memories of past Christmases.  The most precious are the old ones.  I have about a half dozen  that were my Mother’s grandmothers.  More than a 100 years old now.  They are flaking paint, a little more each year, but the still sparkle on the tree.  Then there’s another group that my parents got when first married that I remember from our trees growing up – they’re now over 50 years old.  There was one disaster tho as I was unwrapping them.  A large – nearly 5″ in diameter pretty ball that when I went to pick it up, popped into pieces.  Luckily still in the tissue paper so there wasn’t a huge mess (or an cuts to my poor fingers) to clean up.  Just one more box of ornaments to go and I can get all the boxes off my couch and stored away again. 

Here’s another favorite, my star for the top of the tree.  All the ornaments are European glass style and sparkle and shine so nice against the white tree.

And clearly I’m drawn to pinecones and acorns since there’s no less than a dozen different ornaments that are one of the two styles.

Time to finish getting those ornaments on the tree and then to some sewing.

Denise

Baking Day

Today has been baking day so far.  A batch of cutout sugar cookies is baked and awaiting icing.  Plus four small loaves and one larger of pumpkin/pecan bread just came out of the oven.  Another batch of sugar cookies is mixed up and chilling to bake another day.  Then of course discovered I didn’t have all the ingredients needed to  make the other things I wanted to bake so will have to wait and get those tomorrow.

The last pair of mittens is finished so all gifts are now done.  Here’s a photo of a couple pairs of mittens, hat and scarf.  These were the ones I’ve finished this week and were laying out yet when I had the camera out.  The scarf is not yet finished since it’s the one I need to get another skein of yarn for but that is not a gift so no rush to finish it.  The hat has a neat sort of open flower design on the top.    The scarf – tho hard to tell in the photo – is a little scalloped design that is quick and easy.  It can be found on the Bernat website and is called Cot’n Corn Lacy Scarf. You have to register for their website but then you have access to lots of great free patterns.

But now it’s time to finally pull out my mystery fabrics and decide what size quilt I want to cut out.  Hopefully I’ll get that cut out this afternoon/evening.

Oh and I put the new ornaments I bought yesterday on the tree.  Here they are.  I love the hedgehog best but the little chocolates are so cute!