Dear Santa, Please send me a nap.

I still can't get over the fact that it's just a day or so till Christmas. 

I thought that buying firewood would buy some free time this winter.  It did:  Free time to work on the zillion other projects I had been putting off.  I have been so busy that I didn't notice Christmas sneaking up behind me: sleigh bells and holly and candy cane wielding elves....yikes.

Now here we are, just one more day till Christmas Eve.  The shopping is done. The presents are wrapped, thanks to the girls.  The stockings are hung.  Baking? Nope, not even started.  And all I want is a nap.  I'm exhausted.

Quilts

I have issues.  Big surprise there, huh?  But yeah, I have major issues with following directions and doing things just the same as everyone else.  Especially when it comes to quilts. 

My grandmother made the most amazing quilts.  I don't think she ever made two alike.  My favorites were her Little Dutch Girl (Sunbonnet Sue) quilts, and her patchwork quilts.  Often, quilt pieces were made from old clothes, or leftover scraps from other sewing projects.  I have one quilt that contains pieces of fabric leftover from a skirt she made for me.  I don't have the skirt anymore...no idea whatever happened to it...but I do still have the quilt.  Another quilt contains many pieces made from her old dresses.  I can remember her wearing each of those dresses, and that makes the quilt even more special. 

When I mentioned making a new baby quilt, a friend of mine asked if I was going to buy one of those quilt making kits from a local fabric store.  Yikes.  I can't even imagine putting all that work and creative energy into something that...well...anyone could have one just like it.  I want my quilts to be as special to my loved ones as my grandmother's are to me.

The Cat Stairway To Heaven wall hanging is the only one that pretty much follows a pattern.  When I ran across the pattern online, I knew I had to make it for my mother in law.  She's an awesome lady and she adores cats.  She makes the most remarkable baskets, which have become family heirlooms already....maybe..if I ever pass them on to my kids.  For now, I'm hoarding them. lol

Cat Stairway To Heaven wall hanging


The checkerboards were inspired by something I saw in a catalog, and I made several for family members one Christmas.

Quilted Checkerboard

 The Fairy Dutch Girls were for Little Sis, when she still believed in fairies and adored pink. 

Fairy Dutch Girl Quilt

The hand print Christmas wall hanging was for my mom, who has made many outfits for my kids over the years, most of which I have put in a special box to be handed down to their own children.  I borrowed this back from her to make one for myself...eventually.

Hand print quilted wall hanging

I'm hoping to get a decent start on the new quilt once the holiday rush is over.  I have the design laid out in my head, but the fabric pattern changes with my mood.  I'll be honored if, one day, there's nothing left of the quilt but a worn out rag.  My grandmother made a pink quilt with bunnies on it, thinking that Biggest Brother would be a girl.  He wasn't, obviously, but he loved that quilt and drug it around for so many years that all the bunnies wore off, the filling wadded up in one corner, and it was ragged from end to end.  More than two decades later, he still has what's left of it, plus a lot of memories of his great granny. 

Quilts are really just warm hugs passed from generation to generation.

Lazy Sunday

All is quiet here at the farmstead. 

Outside, the snow is falling.  A heavy, wet snow; the kind that sticks to the trees and makes great snowballs.  Eöl and Little Sis have already had the first snowball fight of the season, during the morning chores.

Inside, it's warm and toasty.  Eöl is napping in his favorite chair with his favorite dog.  One of them is snoring, but I think it's the dog.

The girls are off in other parts of the house, napping or working on Christmas lists.  Or maybe designing elaborate Santa traps that involve guillotines and chainsaws (like mother, like daughters).  Whatever they are doing, it's quiet.

My big plans for the day involve laying out my newest quilting project and some basic tidying of the house.  Life in the fast lane, dontcha know.

Hoping your Sunday is a peaceful one.

Almost Christmas?? ALREADY!!????

I can't believe Christmas is so close!  I haven't even started shopping yet!! ACK!!! ACKACKACKACK!

Lucky for me, no one on my list really wants much this year.  Everyone has asked for practical things.  Times like this, no tv is a true blessing!  We are not constantly bombarded with ads and tv shows telling us our lives are incomplete and pathetic because we do not own Product X.

Oddly enough, Eöl was just having a conversation with co-workers about the evils of television advertising aimed at children.  Several co-workers were complaining that, thanks to tv ads, their kids were demanding expensive and hard to find toys.  Eöl's response?  Turn off the tv.  Better yet, get rid of it. 

The co-workers gasped in horror as one.  Turn off the tv?? Get rid of the tv?  Oh, that's right, they say, Eöl is the weirdo that doesn't have tv.  What, they want to know, do your kids do instead? 

With a shrug, Eöl answers:  Play outside.  Read.  Do chores.  You know, kid stuff.

Eöl tells me the looks of amazement were something to behold.  Imagine, kids reading instead of watching tv.  Wow.

Yikes..that's all I can say.  Yes, we have a tv set.  It's an old one...not HD or digital or anything remotely cool or high tech. Just a plain ol' tv with a plain ol' dvd player, and also a...can you believe it...vhs player. No cable, no satellite, no channels.  We rarely turn it on in the summer, when the days are long and we are outside until late.  In the winter, it's nice to watch a movie and eat popcorn by a cozy fire, especially since it gets dark shortly after noon.  (At least it seems that way.)

It amazes me that turning off the tv never occurs to people.

So...back to Christmas being so close:  ACK! I say again ACK!

We have the tree up and decorated.  That's pretty much it.  I've been so busy working on projects, and then daily chores (do a project, clean the house, do a project, clean the house, etc etc etc), that I haven't even had much time to think about it.

We have snow already...a tad early, I think...but it looks like we may have a white Christmas, instead of a wet Christmas, for a change.

Christmas muzac has been blaring from Little Sis' room and Eöl's car since at least Halloween...and yet I'm just not feeling particularly Christmassy.  I guess that will change once the baking starts. 

Two weeks til Christmas Eve?? ACK ACK ACK ACKACKACK!!!!!!!!!!!!