The Stockings Were Hung?

The stockings were laid on the pool table with care. Brad & Heather just moved into their new house. We had to improvise!



Maybe we'll put this picture of Casey on our Christmas cards next year.

Travel Photos

We made our almost-annual trek to Phoenix for the holidays. Some pictures I took on the way.....


Anyone interested in a 1946 fire truck?




Overpass art in Albuquerque, New Mexico


San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona

More Christmas Stockings

I've used my sewing time to make a tree skirt for my oldest daughter and stockings for two granddaughters. My original plan was to do alternate wedges in the crazy quilt method used on the stockings in a previous post. Time dictated otherwise and I went with solid fabric wedges. The visible quilting around the outer edge is done with glow-in-the-dark thread. DD's reaction to the tree skirt was "PERFECT!", which is the absolute perfect ego stroke for me! Last year, she used her quilt as a tree skirt. The back of that quilt is the darkest snowflake fabric in the tree skirt.













Zoe and Kyra will have Christmas stockings. I used just a few chile fabrics from my huge collection. Most of my family has cross-stitched stockings. I started making quilted stockings for my grandchildren.

Almost An Ordinary Day

December 5, 2007. updated my website. dusted family room. washed my cell phone. sold some fabric. ate cookies. colored my hair. washed dishes. wrote checks. cleaned litter box. sewed. read email. drove carpool. made doctor's appointment. updated palm pilot. watched the news. read a book. made a list. mailed letters. took out trash. brushed the cat. shredded papers. folded a quilt. talked to myself. woke up girls. watered cactus. had sex. did a load of laundry. called dh. listened to dd read her essay. ate crackers. drank diet pepsi. ignored the bathroom scale. was rude to a telemarketer. found the new box of frosted flakes in the pantry for dd. listened to voice mail. brushed my teeth. drove to tkd studio. hugged dh. uploaded photos to flickr. urged dd to get out of bed set timer. got the mail. sent email. turned off lights. washed my hands. fed cat. walked upstairs. walked downstairs. ironed fabric. smiled. emptied lint trap. checked size of furnace filter. measured and cut fabric. wrote notes on quilt construction. talked on the phone. sat quietly. took a shower. searched for my cell phone. soaked spaghetti-stained spoon in bleach. put neighbor's trash can by her garage door. recycled paper. talked to the dog. listened to the wind blow. sang along with the radio. gave the dog a treat. cooked supper. saw christmas lights. listened to book on cd. lit a candle. watched the weather channel. loaded the dishwasher. waited for dd to get out of dance class. drank water. mourned for the 8 victims of a senseless shooting spree at westroads mall.

Christmas Stocking

I do two things every year in late November. I avoid shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, and I make a stocking for the Omaha Quilt Guild's Stocking Challenge . This year, I sent my family off to a movie without me on Friday afternoon and made my stocking. Photos show front and back of stocking.

The orange fabric was the challenge fabric. I chose snowflake and sky fabrics to be a background for my free-hand cut star.

I like to try something on a small scale that I am thinking about for a larger project, so this stocking has crazy-quilted patches. The stitching was done by machine and I didn't fuse the patches onto the background.

I'm happy with the stocking and what I learned: It is easier to start at an "end", rather than work in a circular pattern around a middle.

I hope the child who gets this stocking enjoys it for many years.

One Less Plastic Bag

To publicize my environmental action today is somewhat embarrassing. I rummaged through the bottom of the coat closet and found the cloth shopping bags I haven't used in 10 years. Why have I let them sit unused, while I've contributed umpteen thousand plastic bags to the environment? Oh sure, I've soothed my conscience by re-using them as garbage bags and for packing material, recycling hundreds more. But the reality is that I took the most convenient path and used the plastic bags.

Today, I took those cloth bags to the grocery and used them. I'll keep them in my truck and use them again later this week. And next week, and the week after that. And again, and again. Not just one less plastic bag, 1000 less plastic bags!

Tomorrow is recycle day in my neighborhood. I will pat myself on the back when I put out a recycle bin that is twice as big as our garbage bin. And then I need to work on reducing the number of plastic bottles in that recycle bin.

Silk Noil??

An identification crisis! I acquired a bag of fiber that I *think* is tussah silk noil. There are four distinct "pieces" - two are light brown and two are white.

There are burn tests for cotton/poly/wool fabrics. Is there one for silk? Can you help me ID this fiber?