Lots of Winter Woollies, and other festive things

This past weekend DH and I had a little overnight get away and I took a few wool projects along to finish the hand stitching. 

My Buttermilk Basin Mystery BOM is completed. Those who guessed that the blob at the bottom was a bell were correct. I was making a rather feeble attempt at replicating the bell from Polar Express. I even considered stitching the word "Believe" on the block, but decided that it wouldn't blend with the rest of the blocks in this mystery.

Speaking of which, those blocks are shown below. Originally I think Miss Stacy said there would be 11 blocks, but now I believe she said she would do a twelfth.

The Attic Heirloom Ornament of the Month patterns were, as the title states, for ornaments, but I made mine into little quilt blocks. I had chosen to just use the first 9 patterns to make a little holiday quilt, but before I could sew them together, I saw the gingerbread man pattern for November and decided to swap out the mitten and add in the gingerbread man. 



Here is the quilt top stitched together. I still plan to add a border or two.

The three cotton fabrics I have used so far are from thrift store shirts. I want to use shirts for the borders, too, but haven't taken the time to dig through the shirt stash yet to select anything.

I finished up the little HeartToHand Snowball block, too. The snowflakes and lettering don't show well with a flash photo, but without the flash it looked too dull. You can find the pattern for this here.

I'm thinking I should have doubled my floss on the branches and pine needles, but it is going to stay as is. It needs a border of some sort. I think I will audition some Snowman Gatherings fabrics for that job.

Most of my stitching took place in the car going to and from our destination, but I did enjoy stitching in our hotel room to Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in "His Girl Friday". It was showing on TV after DH fell asleep.

Can you tell where we were visiting? (I know a few of you will know.) Click to enlarge photos.
             

                                                                       








After some painful dental work today I have pretty much been a sloth. This evening I wanted to "do" something, but I was supposed to be taking it easy. So I pulled out my machine for the first time in about three weeks, grabbed some HSTs that a friend had gifted me recently, sorted out the red and green and just did some mindless piecing. 
 
 I stopped short of doing any trimming. Can't decide if I will trim these small enough to be ornaments, or leave them this size and make a small quilt. There are so many other things I should have been sewing, but those would all take effort, and I wasn't up to any exertion, mental or physical. : )

One last thing I want to share.
Last year I was awed by Pentatonix' version of "Mary Did You Know?" I still love it, but DD#2 just introduced me to this version last night and it is pretty incredible, too.

 

Hope I did that right--I have never embedded a video in a post before. Hope you enjoy it, too.
Until next time,
Janet O.

Slow Stitching

Over two weeks have passed since my last post, and my only stitching has been of the slow variety in the evening. I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family, spent the weekend following making my holiday soaps, and since then it seems I have just been putting up Christmas lights and decorations (shown here), and doing physical therapy for multiple parts of my body. : )

I have worked a little on this. It is a pattern called Snowball, from Kathi Campbell of HeartToHand for a recent Farmhouse Threads blog hop. Lisa Bongean also had a great block I hope to stitch up. They are blocks for a quilt, but I am making them as little wall hangings.

You can click here to see what this is supposed to look like. I still need to stitch down the hat, add the pine needles, snowflakes and words. I am removing Christmas from mine. I want it for January.


I've also got this prepped for stitching.

This is the latest Buttermilk Basin Mystery BOM. You can click the link to see what it is supposed to look like. Can you even tell what that blob at the bottom of the block is? Hopefully it will be more defined with some embroidery. It is my own addition.


And I actually made a little (very little) progress on my Stars in The Garden project. The first flower is made, and it gives you a taste of the fabric that will be the path between the stars and flowers.

That is one of my favorite tiny neutral prints. It is an early design from Primitive Gatherings.





And I have Skyped whenever possible with DD#1 so I can visit with this little sweetie. 

This is the granddaughter I have gone to visit in NH twice this year. The adoption is now official and I can finally share her photo with you! Isn't she precious? Of course, I am totally unbiased. :)





I drew the winner for my giveaway last Saturday, as I said I would. Sarah (sarahdidit blog) was notified of her win and the package was sent on its way to her, probably crossing in the mail with the package she is sending me, because I ordered some of her great zippered bags as gifts. 

Maybe by the next post I will have dusted off my sewing machine. I might even sew something with it. : )
Janet O.

p.s. So far I am liking the drag and drop feature blogger has implemented for adding photos.