Santa, I've been pretty good finishing things this last two weeks...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2091745&id=1562000351&l=485a89be38   I finished a commissioned quilt for a friend's granddaughter. It is for her first Christmas, and has her complete name and birthdate. Since I don't want to help anybody whose hobby is identity theft, I deleted the portion of the picture that might help them.

The quilt looks even better than it does in the picture. The back is the same purple fabric that you see in the binding, and has a couple of pieces of her clothing cut into a heart (pink onesie) and an oval(embroidered portion of a bib) layered as an applique. Sorry, didn't think to take a pic of that, and the quilt had to be delivered to leave grandma sometime to wrap it. She'd purchased a Glowworm that actually had matching colors to the quilt. I had fun figuring out how to combine so many bright and diverse colors.


Livvie's Christmas dress turned out great. She is somewhat engulfed by it, but as it is a twirly dress for our twirly girl, that is fine. The poinsettia fabrics caught my eye when I was in buying fabric for the quilt. I behaved myself that day, but went back later for the fabrics I needed to make the dress. It is my goal to have made a willing sacrifice of sugar and spending this last week on the Solstice. Excess is out in my goal. Balance is in. :)

I doubt there will be any more posts for the next couple of days. So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Good Yule, to any readers who wander by. Hope that you get to spend some wonderful time with family and friends. Our family was enlarged by one beautiful baby born on the Solstice. Her parents are in Alaska, and I won't post pictures of her either, but I'll think of her as a light bringer. Each day will grow longer until the summer Solstice.

Craneyolla ?

Today our granddaughter showed how much she is trying to read. :) She commented to me, "That word is craneyolla"   Hmmmm, craneyolla?  Wonder if you can guess what she was pointing to...


If you are the first to guess correctly, I'll split my values strips of blue violet that I'm hoping to dye during the week between Christmas and New Years! Leave your guess, a way to contact you, or just come back to find out who is the winner. My plan is to mail out the package before New Years' Eve.

A Wonderful Animated Card

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=2007134554829&source=jl999

A friend sent this to me, and I hope as it was okay for her to share it with friends and family, that it will be okay to post it for you to see as well.  We've been enjoying her Advent Calender this month, found here:
http://www.jacquielawson.com//advent/landing  

We got one for our computer and another for Livvie's as well. Some of the best $$ spent this Christmas. :)

Livvie's Birthday rug is Finished, Bound, Whipped and Steamed!

With still 2 months and one half I have finished completely the rug I'm making for Livvie's 3 birthday. It is a design by Karen Kahle, Primitive Spirits. The rug is called "Waterlilies", and I fell in love at first sight with it.
Maria helped me to find lots of luscious blues, lavenders, and heathery purple tones when I was at rug camp last May. To that I added a variety of colors from my TX palette, mostly the shades found in the blossoms. The sky is one of my jam jar dye jobs, using my reformulated blue.

The largest frog, closer to the blooms has a number of shades of green. Sadly, I'd run out of most of them when it was time to hook the other two croakers. .. So the rug sat for awhile then at the Kirby Hookin last July, I found the perfect blending green and purple wool. That worked both for lines of water, and for the submerged bodies of the two frogs poking their eyes above water.

Didn't make too many changes from the way the pattern was drawn on Monk's Cloth. Added the little rainbow shapes at the sides, and although it is difficult to see, I used the adjacent colors changing as I moved along the sides. There is also some type of insect, that froggie 3 has captured with his long sticky tongue. Like my rugs to have some science in them. At the bottom, I hooked Grandma Loves You, as my way of signing this rug. The outside of the rug was zigzagged about 1.5 inches from the edge of the design, wrapped around large soft cotton cording, and then whipped with a luscious yarn that is hand painted in Peru. The blues, purples, oranges, and browns blend well, and I think set the rug off perfectly!

This year's Baking Day was a Super Sucess!

Baking Day is over, and we baked several dozen cookies, and decorated Livvie's first Gingerbread house. I truly earned my nickname of Swedish Chef, during the construction of that house! But when it was finished, we all agreed it had been fun!

Grandma is super exhausted, grandpaparazzi needs to download the photos/ videos of the day so just this short update.

Lemon spritz cookies-melted in your mouth but still a flop because the cookie gun was having a bad day.

Gooey butter cookies -  DELICIOUS!

Super sized sugar cookies - good but just big sugar cookies, no complaints from anyone

picture cookies  snowmen and reindeer ala Pillsbury  hey, they help fill up a cookie plate and add some zing. Nobody's gonna think I made these myself...

frosted bar sugar cookies simple and fun to decorate with Livvie...yes her hands were clean...all the way up to the elbow! :)

Still have gingerbread train cookies to make for Papa, and Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies with chile in the mix... an experiment, but maybe a repeater next year.

Jen has a couple more she wants to make too.

Missed Stash Sisters, and wished for not the first time, I had a clone. But the clone would never get to do the family part. Hope I remember today when I'm in the home or heaven!

 Hmmm, the directions didn't say anything about this.... would you have evicted the home builder(me) about then?

 Jen called this one the money shot! LOL this was after the "royal icing" had made a puddle in my hand out of the top of the bag.

 When all was said and done, it stayed together and we had a great time putting on the candy, frosting, and sprinkles.

 Jen our beloved daughter who put up with all the craziness and mess sent these pictures of the construction and final gingerbread house. This wasn't her first rodeo with my creativity and excess of confidence. In the end it usually does turn out fine. Leap without looking into what you desire...

Remember the disastrous beginning and that the main decorator is less than 3 years old and I'm sure you'll agree it was a miraculous finish. ♥ If not, remember beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder...