Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone,

 

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas on this wonderful Christmas morning.  I also want to thank all of you for your support throughout the year.  Your comments mean the world to me, and I really appreciate them.

 

Join me next year with some tutorials and online classes that I will have posted on the blog.  I have a few ideas brewing and I'm working on the details. I promise it will be a year of learning and creativity. 

 

I hope you have a blessed Christmas surrounded by loved ones, good food, good cheer and lots of laughter.

Soon,
Lynn

Christmas Came Early

Hello Everyone,

 

Instead of making Christmas cookies, I've been making blocks. I think they look good enough to eat. Anyway, if I make my cookies too soon, I'll eat them all before Christmas!

 



 

This box of quilted goodness arrived from Moda on Wednesday.  The box was full of Nancy's Needle fabrics by Betsy Chutchian.  I knew the box was in transit, and then it was delayed by two days.  When the box finally appeared on my doorstep, everything came to a complete stop at the cabin. I caressed it, then folded and refolded each and every piece.  It is delicious!  

 



I have big plans for this box!  If I start designing and making something now, maybe I'll have something done before the fabric is released in March.  It's really gorgeous and it is my style!

I have always loved Betsy's fabrics.  She has quite the eye for design and color.

 Just a hint.....this block is going to make a beautiful, and unique border. The yellow in the center is from the Sarah's Story fabric line from Betsy.  That line is available now.

Today I have to finish wrapping and make my annual Christmas sugar cookies. If I don't get the cookies made for the kids, I may be getting coal in my stocking. 

Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, so I'd better get down to the store early today before the shelves become bare.  Sometimes, if you go mid-day, the lines extend into the aisles.

There are three football games today.....a trifecta of football fun!  Cookie making and wrapping packages.....life can't get much better than this.  I know some of you are rolling your eyes about now.  I can see them from here.   I love to wrap presents, and I think the wrapping is all part of the gift.  I also love to watch football. However, I can't just sit and watch.  I have to be doing something, so wrapping it is.

I hope you have a great last weekend before Christmas.

Soon,
Lynn

Christmas Around the Cabin

Hello Everyone,

 

I'm sure all of us have been busy making presents, wrapping, decorating, shopping, and baking. I finished the pillows for the girls.

 

 I quilted the center section first, then machine appliqued the tree to the quilted fabric.  Then I put on the flange and the borders to finish this 18" pillow.  I took a picture before I wrapped them up.

Mazey has her own ornament.  Since she doesn't have thumbs, I had to place it on the tree for her.  I have several old ornaments that belonged to my grandmother.  I always display them front and center on the tree.

One year I made 14 stockings....one for everyone.  Each of them have a name tag.

We had just a dusting of snow the other night.  I went out early in the morning with my "grippers" on and enjoyed being showered by tiny ice crystals.  It's been in the low 20's every morning, and doesn't get out of the 30's during the day.  Our driveway doesn't get much sun, and it's treacherous.  I have some things to do in town this morning, which will have to wait until the spring thaw.

Today I'll work on my Christmas cards.  Tonight we are going to a dinner/dance sponsored by an organization that my husband belongs to called SIRS, Sons in Retirement.  We have a table with our friends, so it should be a fun evening.  The Wilder men in our family do not dance, except for our grandson Jess.  He's been known to "cut the rug" during dances at his middle school.   Jess certainly didn't get the dancing gene from his father or grandfather! 

Soon,
Twinkle Toes

Christmas in the Classroom

Hello Everyone,

 

Christmas was all over the classroom at In Between Stitches this week while the girls worked on their holiday projects.  Pat was working on my Homemade Holidays table runner pattern.  She is going to be done in time for Christmas.

 

Here are two little Checkerberry's!  They are so sweet.  Melody is going to make a couple more and turn then into a wall hanging instead of pillows.

 

This is my original Checkerberry pillow pattern.  It was fun taking this picture because it was snowing BIG FLAKES when I took it.  Perfect timing.

 



Here's a parade of Christmas projects the girls have been working on over the last month.

 

I stared a new little pillow pattern to give this year.

Very simple, and more modern for me....because it's not for me!

Here's a Lucy Boston block.

I'll finish by showing you Paula's October Magic wall hanging.  I love the night sky and all of the leaves on the ground. 

Yesterday, Mr. Joe and I headed to Jackson, CA to shop local, and tick a few more names off our Christmas list.  Jackson is a quaint, former gold mining town in the foothills. The local radio station pipes vintage Christmas music throughout the downtown area.  There were times I felt as though I was strolling through a Hallmark movie.  Christmas magic was in the air.

 

I pulled these images off of the Internet because I forgot to take some.  Use your imagination and super impose Christmas garlands hanging across the street.

 



Town wasn't very busy, in fact we were surprised how many stores were closed.  We all need to shop in the smaller, mom and pop shops in order to keep them thriving.  I must admit I do my fair share of shopping on Amazon, but I also support my local shops.......probably too much!

I said a couple of paragraphs ago that there was Christmas magic in the air.  The magic manifested itself in an email from Henry Glass fabric company letting me know I was chosen to be a brand ambassador for Henry Glass Co. because of my passion, talent, and engagement in the fabric/quilting/sewing industry.  As I hear more from them, I will let you know just exactly what my ambassadorship entails.  This was quite exciting news, and was the frosting on the cake of a fun day spent with my Christmas Sweetie.

Soon,
Madam Ambassador

Country Sunshine

Hello Everyone,

 

I only have time for a quick post this morning.  I'm off to spend the day again at In Between Stitches. I follow Scrap Quilt Enthusiasts on Face Book and saw this beautiful version of my Country Sunshine pattern.  It is very striking!  I contacted the maker, Susan, and she graciously consented to let me post a picture of her creation.  I love everything about this calming beauty.

 

 

Here is my version using Laundry Basket fabrics.

 



Here's another version that I made with Rachael Remembered fabric by Betsy Chutchian for Moda.

Here is a breakdown of the block.  Yes, there are quite a few pieces as you can see on the block layout sheet which is included in every pattern.  As you complete each component, you place them on the sheet.  So you can see immediately if you've made the component correctly, and put them in the proper perspective on the sheet.  This sheet helps you keep organized and lessens mistakes.

On another note, last week Mr. Joe and I did a little Christmas shopping in a neighboring town.  We always shop local first, before we resort to the Internet. 

As we were heading out of town on the way back to the cabin, we passed a "store closing" sign and the entire store was 50% off.  I went inside while Mr. Joe and Mazey snoozed in the car. The store was an odd, eclectic mix of people clothes and pet clothes.  It took me a minute to figure out that I'd started shopping in the pet section.  I was looking for presents for my 17-year-old twins who are a size 0-1.  I swear I was never a size 0, and that includes the day I was born! 

Anyway, the shop keeper came over to me and told me, the Diva sizes are over there on the wall.  Then she proceeded to direct me over to the Diva area. Thank God she didn't take me to the Saint Bernard section!  I came sooooo close to suggesting maybe that was why she had to close her shop!  But, I didn't, and chose to exit stage left.

Mr. Joe has been calling me Diva ever since, once he stopped laughing.

Soon,
A Voluptuous Diva

The Decorating Continues

Hello Everyone,

 

I've been moving quilts around to show as much red and green as I can in the cabin for Christmas.  My Heritage quilt is on display on a ladder in the corner of the great room.  The ice skates on the sled belonged to my mom and are circa 1930.  The skis on the wall are from the same era.

  

Mazey likes to curl up under the tree and dream of sugarplums, and chasing squirrels.

The House on Edgewood Lane is the quilt under the tree.  This was my very first design that started me in the world of quilt designs.  It will always hold a special place in my heart.

The center house section is a tribute to the little house where I grew up in Paradise, CA. The house was lost in the Camp Fire, but the memories of growing up there are forever etched in my heart.

I had a fun day yesterday at The Purple Orchid Inn in Livermore.  In Between Stitches hosted their annual Preview Party Christmas luncheon.  Here are some of my friends at the Grinch table.  These ladies are just the opposite of a Grinch.  They are the kindest, and most caring, creative women I know.  They would gladly fill up a sleigh full of toys and spread goodwill throughout the world.

Barbara and Melody decorated their fun table.  Their shirts had flashing light too.

I'll be at In Between Stitches for the next two days with my Sew'n Wild Oaks girls.  This is guaranteed to be a fun two days spent with friends while we quilt the day away.

Soon,
Lynn

 

Decorating for Christmas

Hello Everyone.

 

Let me set the stage. Christmas music playing, snow falling, lugging bins in from under the garage, getting soaking wet, adding extra lights, and making a complete mess of the cabin resulted in this ending scene.   

 

You can see during the daylight hours just how much snow was on the railing.  By evening we had considerably more snow.  During the process, all I wanted to do was sit in the chair and admire the tree.  I'm not finished with the decorating just yet.  I'm also going through the bins to see what I can pass on for others to enjoy.  I have enough ornaments to decorate at least four or five trees.  It is time to whittle this down to a manageable amount of plastic bins.

While I was decorating inside, Mr. Joe was decorating the outside. 

The snow has turned to torrential rain, and I think our fire season has finally come to an end.

I'm off to my guild meeting this morning.  I finished the binding on Country Courthouse, so she's ready to make her debut into society.  The binding is the same fabric as the flange.  My friend Lynnette, gave me a new thread to try called Invisafil.  It is a 100 weight polyester thread and I love it!  I'm anxious to give it a try on my next applique quilt.  You can't see a single stitch, and it doesn't knot.  It took me only three football games to get this quilt done, instead of the usual four games!  That is the metric I use for my binding gauge.  It would have been more enjoyable if my teams hadn't played so poorly.

I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods.  My neck of the woods is pretty soggy.

Soon,
Lynn

Toyland Tree

Hello Everyone,

 

I'll bet a lot of us are in full-blown decorating mode today.  I started the process last week......and so it continues.

 

I love putting out the Christmas quilts for us to enjoy throughout the season.  I put my Toyland Tree on display in our bedroom so we can have visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads.

 

The quilt in the foreground is Prairie Flower.  The two quilts compliment each other in our room.

 



 

It's a very rainy day at Wilder's Last Resort.  All of the snow we received last week is melting quickly.  It is a perfect day to stitch the binding on Country Courthouse.  Two sides are finished, two to go.

 

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  We had two dinners with family.  I didn't have to cook this year! That was a first, and I very much enjoyed this new tradition.  Maybe the torch has officially been passed on to the kids.  I can get used to this.

 

Soon,

Lynn