Quiet time

Yes, over the 5 days we spent together, we actually ran out of stuff to talk about. So, yesterday was a very quiet day around our house. Just chores and junk.

And, I started a quilt for Sydney for Cmas. She desparately needs a new bedspread. When she came to us, she needed so much, so we bought one of those "bed in a bag" things that had it all; bedspread, dust ruffle, shams, curtains, valances and some assorted pillows and I think we paid about $30 so you can imagine the quality of the fabric. That was over 2 years ago and it is worn out, so she's getting a quilt. I'm using Moda's Wiscasset Layer cake and charm pack and making my own pattern. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's not an original. It looks like one quarter of a disappearing 9 patch block (thanks, Cheryl. I thought of it after seeing all yours). I used the dark square from the layer cake and the same dark square from the charm pack and I cut the light squares from the layer cake in half. I had to add 4 fabrics, but that's okay. I was trying to match a chair that we put in her room earlier this year and it has green and the fabric collection doesn't, so I got to add some of my favorite greens to the mix as well as some lights from the stash. I'll try to show a pic, but the only place I can lay it out is in the living room. She almost caught me yesterday when I was toying with where to put everything before she got up.

I also finished the quilting on the cmas quilt and got it washed and laid out to dry. Today, I started adding the beads and buttons and bells that will finish it. Well, almost finish it. I decided to try my first all machine binding to try to save time. And, I made a real mess of it. So, after the holiday, when it comes down, I'll fix the binding. It looks fine from the front, but the back of the binding is a real mess. I got frustrated with the time it was taking so I stopped part way and just basted the rest down. I can do better.

And, we put out the cmas decorations. It's a Friday after Tgiving ritual at out house. Reach and stretch, lift and carry. My poor back. This year, Sydney was a real help. She and I do the tree every year and this year, we did a swag over the windows in the dining room. Rob does all the village...and he has enough that it takes him longer to do that than it does to decorate the tree! And, Sydney has two trees that she put up by herself with help from us for the lights.

We spent a small part of our time cmas shopping. It feels so good to get that started. I'm not sure why, but we didn't encounter any crowds. I can only guess that the crowds came out as soon as the stores opened and we didn't get out until 10-ish on the days we shopped. Anyway, I hope none of the stores were counting on the customers we saw to put them in the black. The only place that was busy at all was Hobby Lobby and they were only busy in the cmas decorations dept.

So, that's our holiday break in a nutshell. I'll get some pictures on here starting tomorrow. Taking pictures seemed like such a daunting task that I never got to it and this morning, we had unexpectedly cold weather, so I had to spend my few free minutes moving plants inside the green house. Take care and have a great Monday. Lane