Wishing You and Yours a Merry Christmas

Only a few more days until that special day is upon us.  In way of wishing you all a Merry Christmas I thought I would share a few of my nativites.

Hope all your preparation is going well.

That you are enjoying your time with family and friends

That fond memories of past Christmases are bring brought to mind through the traditions you enjoy each year.

That wonder and awe fill your heart at the good that is still among mankind

And that you are taking time to remember the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas!

God bless us everyone!

Oh Christmas Tree

In one of my bees this month I got to make these cute triangle blocks.  We used this tutorial from FITF. 

I thought they looked like the perfect little Christmas trees.  And I need to make a few pillows for and exchange.  So I grabbed some leftover strips of Ruby from I project I had made earlier.  Threw in a few others from the scrap bin and made a long strip that I cut the triangles from.  After adding the sides on my trees, I added a trunk and made these festive Christmas pillows. 

Yesterday I finished up my shopping.  I have a few things left to wrap.  So I'm declaring today a pajama day to relax.  And enjoy all my Christmas prep.  Hope you find a few moments to relax and enjoy this special season.

Exciting News

Thanks to the generosity of others the quiltometer is rising.  To date 346 quilts have been donated to Happy Chemo to be given to cancer patients.  And I know of several other quilts that are in the works.

In an effort to keep up with the generous donations of scraps and tops, I have now made a $1 down load page on my website.  All proceeds will go to buying background fabric, backing, and batting for more Happy Chemo quilts.

Thank you everyone for your generosity. 

Also in the way of good news, I'm a finalist in the Pink Chalk Homemade with Love Contest Doing a little happy dance here!  Head on over, see the other finalist and vote for your favorite.

Fabulous Festive Day

Yesterday was a fabulously festive day.  The Layton Quilters had their Christmas party and we celebrated the fact that we have been a guild for 20 years.  We had past presidents come and be honored.  There was a pillow exchange.   I received this cute little snowman pillow from my dear friend, Jean, one of your founding members.

 

  Gifts were exchanged.  I love this stitchery I received from Michelle.  Though it has quite a stir at my home.  DD asked me why it said sexy.  Her friend thought the same thing.  As did my hubby.  I guess I'm just a sexy sewer.  hee hee.

I also received this clever gift; a recipe holder made out of a spool.

And this gorgeous fabric.

It was a wonderful party.  I 'sew' enjoy my quilting buddies.

Then later that night I was invited to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert.  It was amazing.  The music, stories, and dancing made for an unforgettable performance.  There was an organ solo that I absolutely loved.  Watching the organists feet dance on the pedals on the big screen was delightful.  If you get the chance to go I would so recommend you do.  If you can't make a note to yourself to watch it next year on PBS you won't be disappointed.

I hope all your holiday festivities are going well.

Merry Christmas!

Em

Home for the Holidays

While perusing blogs I found the cutest little house ornaments at Pink Chalk Studio.  Pink Chalk is always full of fun ideas but this Christmas season they are especially loaded.  Lots of gift ideas along with fun decorations to make your home festive.  Make sure you stop by and get your creative juices flowing. 

Anyway back to the cute houses.  I fell instantly in love and knew I had to make some.  So I followed the link to a very well written tutorial by Retro Mama.  Grabbed my scrap bins and created a little neighborhood of my own.

They were fun and easy to make.  So if you happen upon a few extra minutes this holiday season and are in need of a few quick gifts or extra decorations for your tree.  I recomend these little cuties.

Christmas Quilts

One of my favorite things about Christmas is making and enjoying Christmas quilts.    Whether your curling up on the couch with a good book, cuddling with a loved one, enjoying a cup of cocoa while admiring the lights on your Christmas tree, or watch a classic Christmas movie; it is the perfect time of year to snuggle under a quilt made with love.

So without further ado I share with you a few of my Christmas quilts.  First, The Twelve Rows of Christmas.  Hung in my front window since I have no one to hold it up for me.  They have all left for their various activities of the day.

Next a Christmas Star, the week before Christmas everyone in our family will get a chance to sleep under this quilt to ensure all their Christmas dreams come true.

Then we have A Santa on Every Corner, made with blocks from Nanette's exchange a few years back.  A reminder of all my wonderful bloggy neighbors.

Next, Oh Christmas Tree with an added memory, DD signed it when she was four.  I was mad when it happened now it just makes me smile.

Mr. Snowman celebrating with his Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

And finally a group of his friends wishing for a white Christmas.

What Christmas quilts so you have?  Do you have special memories or traditions that go with them?  I'd love to hear about them.

Up Close

You all know of my talented sister, Julie.  What you might not know is that I have two equally talented sisters, Lori and Becky.  Lori is a fabulous cook.  Who, by the way, made a fabulously scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner for our family.  Becky is a very talented photographer.  Who recently did a segment on Daily Dish on how to use your point and shoot camera.  Following her very helpful tips I took these pictures.

Always and forever making scraps

Quilting on Chocolate Cherry Kiss

Binding ready to go on Chocolate Cherry Kiss.

Thanks Becky for the wonderful tips. 

A Little Chemistry

Julie's new line for Moda is called Chemistry.  It is full of pretty pinks, radiant reds, a beautiful brown.  Great for a Valentine quilt.  I know it's a little early to be thinking about that but this line caught my heart.  The ideas began to stir in my head.  There was a little bubble, bubble, toil and not to much trouble to create Chocolate Cherry Kiss.

I've been quilting it and soon I hope to have it finished. 

If you are here visiting from Julie's welcome.  Make sure you visit this post and this one to see other ways to use some of Julie's fun fabrics. 

Hope you have a lot of good Chemistry going on in your sewing room right now.  Especially with the holidays fast approaching and so much needing to get done.  What fun projects are you working on?  I would love to hear about them.  That is if they are not to secret.  I don't want to spoil any holiday surprises.

Working Together

Working with my sister, Julie, is something I truly enjoy.  Combining our talents and feeding off each other it is fun to watch a project come to fruition.  When we first started working with Julie's Salt Air line she sent me some quilt ideas.  The one below she liked but didn't know if we could make it into a quilt since she could not get everything to line up on the computer. 

I knew it was possible.  I had done something similar with a stack and whack a few years back.  But I thought writing a pattern for it might be difficult.  I asked her if we could simplify the background.  She gave the go ahead and Sea Stars was born.

I love this quilt! The giant stars just speak to me.  I love snuggling up in it. I so wish I could have got it done for market.  But if you remember from this post I was a little busy with the other quilts.  Well things have slowed down a bit and Sea Star is now done.  The pattern is now available through Untied Notions and on my website, along with the rest of the Salt Air quilts featured at fall market.

You may Have Seen Us In the News

You may have seen my little town of Centerville, Utah on the news yesterday.  It was a little windy here.  In fact wind gusts hit over 100mph in our neck of the woods.  Family and friends tried to get a hold of me but phone lines were down and the power was out and sadly my cell phone was dead.   So I was oblivious to that.  Instead DD and I watched out our front window while this tree blew over and our shingles flew pel-mel.  We also made bracelets from the previous post until we ran out of buttons.  And enjoyed sitting in front of the fire.

Just down the street this poor family's cars were covered by trees.

Trampolines went to visit the neighbors.  Sheds blew away.  It was quite a mess.

But as the winds died down my wonderful neighbors came out to check on one another and help with the clean up.  So despite the winds this is a pretty great place to live.