Christmas Past

When I was wrestling with my Halloween mini quilt last week I remembered that I still had a Connecting Threads gift certificate Daughter gave me for Christmas last year.

 I've seen mini quilts on their website so I went to take a look.

 I hit the jackpot because they had one in a kit I loved. This is the photo from the kit. It's not mine. Not yet anyway.

 Looks like there is fussy cutting involved. That means I have to get those flowers centered just right on the itty bitty paper piece. Yikes.

I also added some tiny hexies in the order to make something bright and springy when the time comes. Wow. These pieces are small. Very small. This is going to be quite the adventure.

Something Big

 I'm still waiting for my big box of felt from Joann's. I haven't even got a shipping notice so in desperation I headed out to the store.

 Snow White's cottage needed to be built. I have a schedule to keep. All this mess has to be out of here by December so I can enjoy the holidays in peace.

 It took all day yesterday to get all the pieces sewn on. Because of the size of the backing, it all has to be done by hand. My fingers are a mess. If I poked myself once, I poked myself a hundred times.

The roof was a problem. It's too tall to work on when it's in place so I had to pull it off the frame and work with it on the table. It was the middle of the night when I finished this particular work session. The house is a wreck but I'll worry about it tomorrow. Today it's off to the rink to see if this baby floats.

Sock It To Me

 The other night I curled up in my stash room chair and worked on socks. I've got some nice things on the needles but no time to work on them. The socks I take with me to the nursing home to see Daddio have been languishing.

He needs a lot of direction these days to interact appropriately. If I color, he colors so we've been working our way through a bag of these holiday projects I found at Micheal's and Joann's.

 My mindless travel project looks like spaghetti. It's prettier in person.

 My Undines are at the heel. They are not so mindless so they stay home now. When I feel like lace but I'm too tired for the hard stuff these fit the bill.

 Believe it or not I even cast on another pair. I had this ball of Cascade Heritage Prints burning a hole in my stash pocket.  They won't be done this holiday season but I am still going to enjoy working on them. Ho, ho, ho.

Oh, Darn!

 My November card kit never came and when I contacted customer service yesterday they said tracking showed it was lost in transit-whatever that means.

 The Mister who worked for the USPS for 37 years said that means they never sent it in the first place. This particular company never gives you the tracking info or notifies you when they ship which I always thought was odd for something so expensive. Each kit costs me $31. Ouch.

 Problem is that the kit is sold out. They had to refund my money. I was not happy. I was not crazy about the kit but I always liked following along with all the monthly videos on You Tube. Oh, well. As you can see I have spent a lot of money in the past few weeks buying card making toys so I have enough to keep me busy through the holidays.

 This set is for The Mister. He sends more Christmas cards out than I do. He'll have fun with that little car and with those tracks he can make a snowy road.

 For my friends who celebrate Hanukkah.

 These were pricey but I love them. They make such pretty stitched borders on all the panels.

 Gift tags. I can make my own now.

After watching all the new kit videos that came out this week, I consoled myself with some of my toys last night. I can still follow along on You Tube, only now I can use the stuff I already have. It'll do.

Weaving in Reverse

 I thought I had it all under control and then disaster struck.

I thought it was looking pretty good-and then I saw it.

 There was an ugly scar running up the towel.

 Argh.....I had four ends in one slot. I've never done that before.

 The only way to fix it was to unweave it all, untie it all and rethread it through the heddle. Ugh...untying all those tight knots was no fun until I thought to carefully use a knitting needle to help loosen them.

 It took hours but it's finally ready to be tied on again. I worked on it after getting up at 5 am. I had been thinking all night about whether I should just ignore the boo boo and move on. I couldn't do it. It would make me crazy every time I looked at it so as painful as it was, it had to be done.

Speaking of boo boos. You know I had to pull that mini quilt apart and fix it too, right?

I added a few rows at the bottom and now it looks much better on the little stand. I'll be glad next Halloween I took the time to do it right.

The Quiet Before the Storm

 I've got so much to do. I don't remember if I already mentioned it but we have THREE skating teams this year. We had so many kids and adults show up to join we had to come up with two more production numbers all needing costumes and scenery. I got tired of hauling big bags of felt from Joann's so I ordered what I thought I needed to finish up online. The order got split up. The first box arrived Friday but I couldn't get started until it's all here.

A huge box showed up yesterday and I was ready to get going but.......it only contained two of the four felt orders I needed even though the packing slip said it was all there. I don't think so. After a lot of wrangling with customer service the other felt is coming-in a week or so. Grrrrrr......

Oh, well. I had other things to keep me busy. I spent the day putting away all the Halloween doodads and dusting off turkeys.

 I also finished my little mini quilt but.....

....when I hung it up I realized I had made a potholder instead of a mini quilt. It's a square instead of a rectangle like it should be.  Oh. Well. I'll know better next time and by next time I mean Christmas.

November

October was the month that was. Where the heck did it go?

The only way I got the October block done was to take it to bed with me. I stitched into the wee hours on this one. I stitched my way through Netflix's Stranger Things which I absolutely LOVED.

I did manage to also get a head start on November.

 The October card kit didn't get much more than a glance I'm afraid.

I made three so-so cards. This month's kit isn't here yet but it's not anything too exciting either. I'm hoping December hits a home run or I'm bowing out of this club. I think I'm ready to fly on my own.

 Yesterday's donut experiment was a big success.

 This year, I made apple cider donuts from the recipe I found here.

 They were delish. Much better than my usual Betty Crocker recipe. The secret is buttermilk and boiled down cider. Yum.

 While watching Hocus Pocus last night I started a mini quilt for my new buffet.

I have a little stand on it but I only have the tiny quilt I made for Daughter's wedding on it. My goal is to have one for every holiday-as if I really need another project.

No trick or treaters again this year in spite of decorating the heck out of the front window yesterday. Oh, well. I enjoyed it and I guess that's what matters.