Closing the book ....

....on 2018 I am.   It was a year filled with highs and lows and decisions and I for one am ready to move forward into a shiny new year.

Before I share my recent stitching, I need to share my trip to visit my son and his family.  First, if my son had anything other than a Griswold Christmas we would all be in a suspended state waiting for the other shoe to fall.   It starts that he had to work and couldn't come home and he had a house full of in-laws instead for the holidays.   Someone, or perhaps the fridge itself, didn't shut tight on Christmas eve and they woke up to defrosted freezer and warm food.   But is gets better......time to put the turkey in the oven and their stove does not work.......not to  be discouraged, they are going to modify dinner and cook on the grill.......hmmmm, someone left the propane open and the tank was empty.........so, you guessed it, Chinese Restaurant for dinner!   My son had the right attitude, the stove could be fixed and there was no point is getting upset and it wouldn't be long before Christmas 2018 became a Thompson legend.   Breakfast on the 26th was done on the grill and the hat on William just seals the whole Griswold adventure.

By the time I arrived, fridge issues were resolved, the in-laws gone, a new tank of propane was bought and a new ignitor was installed in the oven and there was nothing for me to do but enjoy my daughter-in-law's finally cooked delicious Christmas dinner and enjoy my son and his family and a bit of wassail!  And boy did I enjoy my little Willam opening his Christmas presents.

Of course, Damma buys the bests presents.   He loved his little tee-pee I got and even slept in it that night.



























Before I left for my son's on the 28th, I tried my hand at something different........and as always, there's a story.    I saw this pattern at quilt show years ago, long before the red 50's truck was popular.   Every year I went back I looked for the pattern.   I searched the internet for the pattern but none were the one I remember.    Imagine my surprise and embarrassment when searching through my quilting fabric I find it all kitted up!   The embarrassment came when I told my daughters to stop looking for the pattern because I  had found it.....conversation goes, "Wow, what store/site did you find it?" ..... I reply. "..um, in my stash".....silence and then "just more evidence for us give to the home when we check you in"......children!   On to the stitching...

I didn't quite like the plainness of the truck and tree so I got out my box of 64 Crayola crayons.    I shaded the truck and then using paper towels, I ironed and melt/set the wax.

I did a section of wrapped backstitch but I pulled them out because I liked the more primitive look without it.

 Since I changed the color of the truck, I think I will have to change the color of the coordinating greens.  It was fun to stitch and quick....only two days......now how long it takes for me to assemble it is a whole other story.

I also stitched these cuties up.  Hard to believe that I finally made Christmas ornaments for myself!   Hopefully there are more ornaments in my future.

 I think the red bird may need an eye added.

 And here is my progress on my EGA Challenge piece......not so much stitching on it but I think I can make progress before my January EGA meeting.

 I just love the colors and think the tassle is too cute!

 So that's where I am project-wise.  2019 holds more stitching in my future.   I will be heading to Cape WannaStitch in mid-January and have a few other stitching related events on my calendar for 2019.   It's going to be a good year!

Wishing all my friends and fellow stitchers a bright and happy New Year.

Happy Holidays

Well I am finally able to stop to squeeze in a blog post.  On top of the normal heavy workload I have been covering for a girl out for surgery and an extended leave, I am training two people and have had the supervisory responsibilities expand to eight.    It has been exhausting with non-stop 10 hour days.   The most stress comes from the back-log of my work that is accumulating.  Add that to the holiday stress of shopping and decorating and house parties.  Although I am tapped out I have been able keep up with the bare minimum at home but I can tell you thoughts of delaying retirement are waning.   I am tapped out.   But after leaving work on Friday, I am now off until after the first of the year.......a well deserved rest which I plan to make the most of.    But enough......

I finally finished the last of the decorating yesterday morning and then started with wrapping.   My saving grace is that I won't see my son and his family until the 29th.   

As for decorations, I didn't put up as much as I have in the past and what I did  put out, I changed up a bit.  Take this corner of my kitchen......I put my snowman baker in a a red ceramic pie plate, added greens and a little wrapped package. I like it better than just plopping him down.  Got some ideas from staging from watching Priscilla! 

I added a metal cardinal for my brother to the top of my package display on the front steps.

My living room shelf is filled with holiday stitching and bits of greens and holiday things.

Not a original idea.   I copied how designer Patty Yergey of Samplers Revisited displays her samplers in office.

A table top of Santa's

I love my Lefton ware.  The relish is under the creamer and sugar is new this year.   A gift from a friend.  I need to get back into some consignment shopping and see if I can score some new pieces.

Another Priscilla idea.   I put this miniature tree on a cake stand, using a gingham trimmed tea towel and added smaller wrapped packages.

 A setting of Byer's Dolls

All kinds of bits and bobs added to the shelves of my china closet.

 A second setting of Byer's Dolls.

My hoosier in the kitchen.

My kitchen Christmas Tree and the wooden angel from my brother's house.

 Greens and sparkling things on top of the Hoosier.

 My mantle display.  Of all the places for Buddy to decide to lay.....

 He doesn't look too happy that I woke him up.....well I'm not happy he keeps knocking over the blocks.

And now for stitching.   One thing that has helped me stay sane through the overtime is carving out 20 minutes or so at lunch each day to stitch.    Usually when I have this bouts of overtime, I get angry and snap when I can't do the things I want to.   Stealing a few minutes each day at lunch time it helping me stay sane.   Stitching really is therapy.

 Above, is one of the block party series from Hands On Design....this one is called Mend.

 I love Kathy's designs and this was a really quick stitch start to finish.

My current work is progress is another Hands On Design piece.    A limited edition collection of smalls and the box as part of a exclusive set from Hands On Design and Elegant Stitch.

 I fell in love with the colors which are not showing as nicely with this cell phone photo.   It is an easy, fast stitch and my EGA monthly challenge piece.  No guarantees I will be finished by next meeting by here's hoping!

Well thanks for stopping by and indulging my Christmas Tour.    Merry Christmas to all and a bright and shiny new year to each and everyone.

Catching up....

This could be a long one, so put your feet up, get your Christmas Cookies and cocoa.....

So what's been going on with me.   Earlier in November I took a 5-day weekend trip to Massachusetts to visit my daughter for her 40th birthday.   What!  I have a 40 year old kid! and she is not the oldest.   Argh!

Alright get over it and suck it up buttercup timing is marching on.

From start to finished we had a great time.

This is just MY stuff all queued up to load in the car before work on Wednesday morning.

(take notice of the large steamer trunk to the right.....more on that below)









Thursday morning, Heather and I left Philly at 7:50 and sped north ahead of a nor-easter all the way up to the Boston area.   Looks like I've got a little bit of room for Heather's things.  In my defense, some are presents being delivered and a couple of boxes from my brother's estate for Amy.

We stopped at Rein's Deli off of 84 in CT for a special lunch.   Special indeed, my PenPal and I got to meet.   Shirley was even more lovely in person.  It was so nice to put a face and smile and hug with the person I have been emailing for several years.   We truly are kindred spirits and she is definitely one of my 'tribe'.  I am so lucky she reached out to me and we started corresponding.  As we drove away I realized we never took a picture of us together.   Bummer!    Well I guess I will just have to meet up with her at Rein's Deli on another trip north.

Before getting to Gloucester to the house Amy rented, we stopped to visit friends in Peabody, shopped at Wegman's and hit the liquor store.   We finally arrived, were unpacked, had a slice of pizza and glass of wine in our hands before the first snowflake fell.

In Peabody, at Staci's house, she had a wall full of potholders.

 She is the ultimate, most fabulous crafter.   She sees something and then reverse engineers it to create it.

She crocheted these potholders.

There was also a stained glass window which she would like to commission a companion window from me.   What year will I fit that in?!?!?

In Gloucester, we had the cutest little in-law apartment with living room, kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms and two baths.   This was how I watched the world come alive each morning with my cup of tea.

The owner, "the Gloucester Quilter" and her daughter were  crafters too.  Mom made all the gorgeous quilts on the beds and around the house.   The daughter made the macintosh rose glass inserts in the china closet.  (hmmm, maybe I need to put her and Staci in touch with each other.)






















This was one of our work stations for the 5 days.   Cutting, ironing and another machine were on the kitchen counter and table in the living room area.  You can get so much more done if you have a work area you can leave 'active'.

I did mainly finishing work.    I deconstructed this finish from several years ago and put it back together nicer than I had originally finished it. This is an oldie, Witchy Washy by Raise the Roof.

I finished these three Halloween ornaments.   The designer is Tiny Modernist.  Looks like I am already for next Halloween!






























I finished this EGA project into an easel finish.

More finishing re-dos.    For Uncle Sam, I took him apart to give him a better base and attached his flag.   For the two pillows, I downsized the red portion on the Bent Creek Uncle Sam and the blue portion on the Little House July.   I like the proportions better.   Doing this re-make I barely removed any stuffing so they are now nice and tightly packed.   These re-dos have been on my to-do list forever.  I am happy with the results and it feels good to cross these off my to-do list.

For William, I made these happy pillow cases.   Not necessarily the 15 minute pillowcase as described on the internet but EZ-PZ just the same.

Here's a quilt top that Heather finished piecing and assembled.

On Sunday, friends came over for wine, cheese and a big pot of chicken chili.  We caught up and laughed and just enjoyed each other.  Staci treated us all to a English paper piecing project.  This is from Lucy Bolton from Alewives.com    She made us all templates for a bit of fussy cutting to yeild cool results.  I need to add the lower left and lower right 'petals'.   Moving and arranging the pieces remind me of playing with a kaleidoscope. Working with the paper piecing really got me wanting to dig back into my hexagon quilt.   It could be the perfect lunch time project or work in the car.










Amy worked on her whimsical wildlife quilt completing the hedgehogs and she started the fireflies.  II think they are butterflies.)  The last of the animals.   Next stop, assembly, probably on the next girls weekend.  In addition to our annual 4th of July sew-a-thon, we are thinking of a long weekend in the Rhinebeck, NY area.   I'd love to visit that area and check out Hyde Park, FDR's home, The Culinary Institute,  as well as a the Hudson River Valley.

Here's the pattern she is using.  

Sunset in Gloucester, Mass

What's girl time without animal face masks?



















Then home and quick turnaround for Thanksgiving.  We had a great Thanksgiving with Mr. William and his family.    I know I have so much to be thankful for and I am....family, health, friends, bills paid,  good job and so much more.

We made cookies

 ...and practiced our 'angry' and 'happy faces'

And I'm Irish!   I never knew this.   I was excited to find out and may have an excuse for green beer on St. Patrick's Day.   There is no confusion on my mom's side, straight from Scandinavia.  I always thought we were Scotch/English on my dad's side.   If I would have thought about history and Robert the Bruce it seems unlikely to be Scotch/English.   My son is super into Ancestry.com and we did a bunch of input over the holiday using papers I found in my brother's things.     It started after we noticed the name stamped on the end of the steamer trunk in the foreground below,   F. J. Ramage.   I recognized the name as it was my father's middle name.   We sat around the dining room table with the laptop and started noodling around.     We found out my father's family was from County Derry.  The trunk was my brother's now has a place of honor with my son in State College.   BTW, this is Etta patiently waiting for her master to return.   Well, maybe not exactly patiently.

My Thanksgiving cactus is blooming like crazy.   Did you know there are Easter Cactus, Thanksgiving Cactus and Christmas Cactus?    I did not know this.  The shape of the leaf will tell you what kind you have.  https://www.hortmag.com/weekly-tips/qa/christmas-cactus-thanksgiving-cactus-and-easter-cactus

I created this needlework accessory for our holiday exchange at EGA.   The design is from this year's  Christmas edition of Just Cross Stitch.  The intention is to use it for the exchange but I just may keep it myself!

I also finished my Thanksgiving piece from Summer House.

I redid the year "1621" in a brown instead of the green.   I ironed interfacing on the back to firm it up.








I also lined the shaker box and finished the turkey to for the top.  I didn't want to mark up the beautiful shaker box so I cut out a circle in the center of the mat board that I use to mount the turkey.   I set the magnet into the hole in the mat board.  Now I can change out the top of the box. (Really?  Am I really going to create something for each holiday?   In what lifetime?  Let's be honest here.)

 Check out Mr. LeHays' website.   He is a one-man operation in Maine.  He takes you through cutting the trees, drying the wood, assembling and painting or staining.  It's no wonder the shaker tray I ordered in June at PSS has an approximate delivery date of December or January.

And I finished up this oldie.   Stitched years ago but never finished.    I got the idea of using the nun stitch and fraying the edges as done on the  Thanksgiving piece to make it look like a bedspread with fringe.


One thing for sure, that basket of items to be finished items has gotten smaller.


Better get the iron out and press the 'wild' fringe into place.

For my current stitching piece, I have been concentrating on Hands On Design Mend pin cushion.    I have finished the sides and am working on the top.   I have buttons and charms picked out to attach.   I stitched this on 28 ct Maritime White from Lakeside rather than the called for 28 ct dusty miller.    I changed up some of the floss colors to better suit the linen color.  This is my #2 project for my EGA Monthly Challenge.   I just may finish the stitching before the next meeting!

Lot's of busy times ahead between now and the first of the year.  And a big decision needed after the first of the year.  My retirement plans have hit a speed bump.   Mr. W. will loose his company sponsored insurance January 1 when he goes on MediCare.   I've got to decide if I will continue to work or go on COBRA or get my own insurance.   In a perfect world if I could work a 4-day work week, work 8 to 4:30 and not 7:30 to 5:30......I might be convinced to hang in another year.  Sounds heavenly but a fantasy for sure.    I'll keep you posted on my decision.

Thank you if you have hung in long enough to get to the bottom.   Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching and have a blessed holiday season.