Celebrating Christmas 2014 In Our Own Personal Way

Rejecting the commercialism of Christmas I have come up with creative ways to celebrate and give gifts to the family.

Perhaps you have seen some of these quilts on my blog before.

These are all quilts I have made. I decided this year I would share a quilt with my children and grandchildren.

Jessica wrote the numbers on slips of paper. Each person drew a number and they chose the quilt they wanted in turn.

Jeff Jr. got first pick and he promptly chose the Santa Claus quilt with all the grandchildren’s names on Santa’s list.

Married couples shared a pick. Blake and Stephanie chose this hand painted hand appliqued silk quilt.

Cooper quickly chose the light house quilt to match his bedroom.

Jessica chose this quilt made from my hand dyed and shibori fabrics.

When Jared went to pick a quilt he actually got the other quilt too. These are negative positive quilts in a style I love to create.

Kierstin chose this quilt made from hand dyed fabrics. These are the extra fabrics from the quilt on my blog header.

Greg and Julie chose this quilt which was dye painted, painted with paint and then painted some more with paint.

Nick chose this nature themed quilt. I’ll bet he thinks there are frogs hiding somewhere in it!

Jeff Sr chose this quilt which is a spontaneous fused floral arrangement I made.

Heidi chose this freeform pieced quilt made from hand dyed fabrics with a definite southwest feeling.

I am so glad I had enough quilts to give them all their own personal choice. I was surprised with almost all their choices.

This was just one part of the Christmas giving this year.

The Sock Secret Can Now Be Told!

Last night we celebrated our family Christmas. It is hard to get everyone together and we were only missing Dana as she was working.

You’ve seen me post knitted miniature socks on my blog several times.

I was knitting them for a family tradition.

Each person gets 5 coins each Christmas from Grandpa Jerry.

I have to come up with creative ways to give out the coins.

All 12 stockings were hung on the wall and numbers were drawn to see who got first pick.

I told everyone that this would be a serious picture.

I think they have all been taking lessons from a family in Florida!

I took 13 pictures to get this one SERIOUS one!

Nicholas Will Not Be Going To London With The Rest Of The Family!

We’d have to reroute the duct work for him to make the trip!

I Wish You A………..

This year I chose a quilt for my card. In the past I’ve shown decorations or family.

May your holidays be Merry and BRIGHT!

Sock Around The Clock Tonight!

One, Two, Three O'clock, Four O'clock sock,
Five, Six, Seven O'clock, Eight O'clock sock.
Nine, Ten, Eleven O'clock, Twelve O'clock sock,
We're gonna sock around the clock tonight.

We're gonna sock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna sock, sock, sock, 'till broad daylight,
We're gonna sock around the clock tonight.

With apologies to Bill Haley and the Comets!

My Family Will Be Enjoying A Trip To London!

The boys who use the shower can pretend they are in a phone booth in London.
If they slide the curtain to the right they can see Big Ben!
I have good things to say about Amazon and USPS. The package was scheduled to be delivered by 8 p.m. this evening. It arrived at 10 AM this morning so it is now ready for showers!
Isn’t it nice when things work so smoothly!

Shower Finished!

The shower was finished early this afternoon.

It is going to be perfect when the family gets here this week.

There are a few places where Mr. Fixit wants to trim it to make things look even better and he can do it at his leisure.

It’s all set to work now and the shower curtain will be here before the family arrives.

He set the shower so it will not spray all over outside the stall unless someone is careless with the telephone shower part.

Construction Zone

With 7 adults visiting for the holidays I came up with what I thought would be a good idea.
With only one shower/tub in our guest bath the line to use it can get long.
We had a shower under the stairwell in the lower level which hadn’t been used in probably 20 years since it leaked.
My first Idea was maybe it could be fixed….NOT.
So when I arrived home I went on line and we found this shower that would fit the space and was available as component parts at a local supplier.
It is under construction and will not only be convenient, but will be an asset to the area.
It is being done right by my expert Mr. Fixit who can fix anything or build anything.
I think it will be finished in one or two more days and be ready for company.
Stay tuned for the finished project!

10 More Days Until Christmas

Santa has left Florida and is back up north working hard to be ready for his yearly trip.

My quilt is proof of that!

He’s checking his list to see if your name is on it!

December 9th–Nine Socks

I have now finished nine of these socks.

Could I be making an Advent calendar?

Are these a birthday present for my son Greg whose birthday is December 9th?

Why am I knitting single socks instead of pairs?

Time will tell!

Christening The New Lanai Décor Party!

This picture shows most of the family who were here. With that many people it was hard to get everyone in one picture.

Sorry Sean I cut your face off in the picture.

Andy’s new defense every time I point the camera at him is to do the same with his Note. What a nice picture of Sally. She looks like she could be Andy’s sister!

Laney, Tucker and Drew were missing from my Thanksgiving pictures.

Like father like son when the phone come out for photos!

Ryder is the newest member of the family and what a happy baby.

Uncle Tucker is holding him and Grandma Lauren is enjoying being a part of the scene.

It was a chilly afternoon and evening but the afternoon and evening was spent on the lanai almost the whole time.

Everyone appreciated all the work Andy and Drew did putting the furniture together.

We started off with snacks: Cheese and sausage, artichoke dip, crackers, a fruit plate and meatballs. there were only a few morsels left.

Dinner was Taco soup with cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips for garnishes. A big pan of Mac n Cheese was devoured. And of course: Homemade bread with butter and black raspberry preserves.

Dessert was pineapple Mexican style, ice cream and a variety of cookies.

Laney loved to help and kept asking what else she could do. Drew and Tucker were the table setters…..Drew’s job anytime he’s here.

Sally and Lauren were the clean up crew and everyone pitched in too.

And of course I can’t forget to mention Andy…..when food is needed for a party he’s the go to guy and get’s it done!

He has a unique cooking style that no one can ever forget.

Accessorizing The Lanai–Finished!

These chairs are very comfortable but for those of us without long legs the seats are a little too deep.

I made pillows for each one that match the chaise lounge.

I purchased the fabric years ago with no idea what I was going to do with it.

I am proud to say I made each one of these in record time and achieved my goal of IMPERFECTION!

Please don’t look at them closely when you come to visit, just enjoy the comfort.

With one exception all the accessories I added to this area were things I found when I shopped my home.

The exception is the rug on the floor.

Would you believe it popped up on the right column on Facebook?

I guess I now realize they do profile us correctly and somehow they knew I needed this particular rug!

There is just one more thing I will be adding. I found a red hanging lamp which is similar to the pink one I had before. I can’t wait until it gets here.

Today we will christen the lanai. I have invited a group of my best friends for the occasion. We’ll have appetizers, homemade soup, homemade bread and dessert. Thanks Andy for taking care of the cooking for this party.

Preparing For Wisconsin vs Ohio State Game Tonight!

I put Brutus in a time out.

I expect Wisconsin to win and I’m doing my part to help.

Ladies Who Lunch At Eaton’s Beach

I had heard what a neat place this was and was so impressed.

This is just a small part of the restaurant and the graphics on the wall feature feature Jersey Champion Cyclist Jay Eaton.

Wonder if he ever raced at the Velodrome in Kenosha?

I didn’t expect anything as large and open as it is.

One long wall has overhead garage doors installed and they were opened to the lake..must have been 6 or 8 of them.

Even though we ate inside we felt like we were outside on the patio.

There really is a huge sandy beach and a place to dock if you come by boat. I never realized how large Lake Weir was as my previous visits to the lake were to Bird Island.

The large bar area featured these pictures of MY team and my favorite quarterback.

There also is a beach bar on the lower level but we did not venture down there.

Loved their Christmas trees!

The food is excellent and although almost all the tables were full it doesn’t feel crowded. Our server was excellent.

Sally and I each saw someone we knew which always makes it even more fun.

After lunch we came back to my house and I helped Sally get started on her first ever quilt.

Another perfect day in paradise

Negative Positive Quilt Is Quilted

I was able to do the quilting on this quilt in two sessions, even with the problems my sewing machine was throwing at me.

Because of the busyness of the pattern it is hard to even see the quilting.

You are seeing the backing and batting and some Wonder Under around the edges. That will be trimmed away and I will finish the edges.

You may be able to see some of the quilting on this close-up.

This close-up features some of my favorite blocks. Again, because of the busyness it is very difficult so see the quilting.

Santa Is In Florida

He figured if he wore his blue suit he could blend right in with the other residents of this over 55 community.

So don’t tell anyone where he is as he needs a little break and some warm weather to recharge.

He left capable Mrs. Santa in charge of the workers and she just  tweeted “Everything A OK- enjoy your trip.”

I really think he’d blend in better if he wore shorts and a golf shirt.

My Negative Positive Squares Quilt

Before I shared this technique with our quilt group members I played with the idea myself again so I would have something to show them.

I got a little carried away and cut almost all of these during a one hour TV show and cut a few more after the mini demo.

When I counted the ones I had made there were 56 so that was a good stopping point as I could make a quilt 7 x 8 squares.

The colors are not real accurate in this photo as I took it at night inside.

When I get it finished I’ll take the photo outside.

Can you find the matching images?

Some of them are easy to spot and others are not.

The different backgrounds can make two similar squares look totally different.

Quilt Group Mini Lesson

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving our quilt group has usually had only 5-8 people attend.

I came up with an idea to hopefully get more people to be there.

These are a few of the 40 people who were there.

This is another view of the blocks the participants created.

I had prepared 4 1/2 inch squares for people to work with.

Some of them had Wonder Under on the back and others did not.

Using one of the WU backed squares and cutting it into strips or some other shape, and fusing it to two different background squares participants were able to create two blocks that gave a totally different design.

Everyone enjoyed the exercise and they now can use the idea in their own work.

Saturday Sock

Another sock finished.

Hope to finish many more by Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2014

It has become my tradition to make a set of BIG potholders as a hostess gift when I am invited to someone’s house for Thanksgiving.

I choose fabrics that best represent the host. I debated between golf and money fabric and chose the money. Everyone agreed I nailed it.

I also made a money bag and in it are two bottles of wine.

Andy hosted the family in his beautiful and comfortable newly decorated home.

Older brother Ted is finishing carving one of the turkeys.

Drew and Sarah were so happy to see each other since Sarah has grown up and moved away.

Sally and her favorite son in law Sean.

One of my goals was to get a good picture of Sally and her three children. It is not an easy task as they all love to act for the camera. So with that being said I’m going to share several of the 10 I took and you are going to have to decide! I will have to say I am laughing as I look at and edit these pictures. And yes, I was laughing as I took the pictures!

Too bad I got Lauren with her eyes closed.

Sally and “the boys”!

More clowning around!

And last but not least Time Flies When You Are Having Fun!

Sally never takes a bad picture.

I enjoyed the company and the meal was absolutely delicious with any food one could want.

I didn’t get pictures of the younger members of the family as they were so busy with their activities.

It was fun seeing the young members of the family as they have really grown up since I last saw most of them.