All Things Christmas Sampler

"HAPPY HOLIDAYS" everyone!  It's Christmas Eve, is your shopping done? baking? quilting/sewing projects?

It's not quite finished and it's Christmas Eve!!!! This was supposed to be ready for last Christmas! Where did the year go??!! At least it is bound and ready to hang, but still needs lots of embellishments, especially the bottom row. Nothing like naked ornaments.

The tree has red beads and still need something to sparkle up the star, and the Christmas Pudding Cake has sequins and beads on the holly berries. This little quilt might be one that has something added each year until it says "enough, no more, you are done"!!

The pattern for this was a bom from Angie Padilla's website. She has a lot of really cute ideas and applique patterns. Some are free and some are for members only. It's a fun site to browse.

Maine Christmas Wreath

Each year, our niece who lives in Maine, sends us a fresh wreath with a little bag of balsam needles. Oh-h-h-h, the fragrance is so wonderful and always brings back treasured memories of when we lived there. Yes, our niece and family make and sell wreaths each year, along with some other decorative items. Aren't we lucky to have them as family!!

The bottom picture is a basket full of the little bags filled with balsam needles. Yes, I've saved almost all of them! The red one, lower right, is the fresh one. When you give it a little shake or squeeze, the scent just fills the room!

Thanks Louise and Tim. We love our wreath

Ravioli Day 2009

Yesterday was our annual "Ravioli Making" day. Every year the family gets together to make dozens of ravioli for Christmas dinner. The first picture shows part of the assembly line with Nicole, (a friend of the girls) who joined us for the first time, Alyssa and Taylor, waiting for dough strips.

Papa feeds the dough into the machine and Nicole tried her hand at cranking the dough through, while Alyssa gives her a hand with the final pass.

Kathy is in charge of popping the ravioli out of the cutting trays and keeping track of how many we make. We broke the record this year with around 26 dozen!! That's 312 ravioli, or about 156 cheese and 156 chicken/spinach!! OMG! No wonder we were tired by the end of the afternoon.

Last, but certainly not least, we have the "Ravioli Squad". Nana, Papa, Taylor, Alyssa, Stephanie, and Mom Kathy. It's a wonderful tradition, one that I hope will continue over the years to come. Our son lives in Kansas and he and his wife make ravioli, and our daughter who lives in Florida has started making them with her family as well, so we will all enjoy this tasty treat during the holidays.

Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season and a reminder to continue sharing the traditions you may have. They make wonderful memories to share with the generations.

Fun Giveaway!

Click on over to My Brown Bag Studio to enter Kimberly's delightful giveaway!  She's made some really cute holiday items.....a little pinwheel quilt, a very cute wooden sign, a wreath, plus more.  Leave a comment to be entered into the drawing on Dec. 13th.  Hm-m-m, the more that enter, the less my chances are of winning! 

Sam's New Stuffie

Yesterday, when I looked in the "doggie toy" basket, it dawned on me that everything left in it was missing half its stuffing, chewed up, stiff from slobber, or just worn out. And....only one still had a squeeker that squeeked!! Poor dog, no wonder he hasn't been playing much. He's been going over to the basket, looks in it and walks away. So, this morning I decided to make him one with some left over fleece, plus, I had some squeekers that I bought quite awhile ago (found 'em last night!). As soon as he saw the fleece and heard the squeek, he knew that whatever was on the table was HIS! When that last stitch went in, it was throw it now or be attacked! The whole thing only took 10-15 min. from start to finish, so off to dig out more scraps of fleece to make a few more. I used some odd strips of batting for some of the stuffing which makes it just a bit firmer for chewing.

Seasons Greetings

This little mini stitched up fast and adorable. The pattern is from Cheryl Goss of "Willowberry Designs" and measures 8 1/2" x 13 1/2" . The details really don't show up well on this photo, but you can click right on it to see the stitching and beads. The hanger loops are ribbon with small jingle bells. I used "tiger tape big stitch" as my quilting guide. It's 1/4" wide tape with markings for the up - down stitch length and makes it easy to sew even stitches.

Click on the title "Seasons Greetings" to go to Willowberry Designs blog.

Knitted-Beaded Necklace

One of my friends asked me if I had posted anything new since Taylor's big birthday. Now, I know she checks almost daily, so either my life has been extremely boring, or I've just been a bit lazy with my postings! Hm-m-m, might be a bit of both, lol. Anyway, here is a picture of one of my latest endeavors. Once I understood the sequence of where and how many beads to knit in, it only took a couple of hours (I'm a very slow knitter). One of my teen grandgirls oh-h-h-ed and ah-h-h-ed so much that I agreed to make her a purple one, which means the other two girls will want one. Sure wish I knew how to knit faster, 'cause I really want to make socks, but using 4-5 needles at one time really intimidates me.