What have I been up to?

Rob's Mom has been in town this weekend.  It's been a festival of food around here.  We've talked and watched movies and we went antique shopping.  We've cooked and eaten and Syd and Grandma have played board games.  Today, I go back to work, but Syd has a choir thing where they're going to sing patriotic songs at a nearby big box store.  Grandma will get to hear her sing with choir. 

 

And, I've kept myself busy in the slow times by working on a new Christmas tree skirt.  I can't take credit for anything but the sewing.  It's an adaptation of one that a blogger I follow made.  I'm pretty sure she follows me, too, so please pipe up and tell us who you are.  I was sure I'd get it finished and remember who to give credit to.  Ooops!  I printed a picture from her blog and used it to draft the pattern.  Hers has an additional set of points that point outward, made of red and green strips, but I decided to leave those off.  This is plenty big at 48" across.  The outer border is a print of wrapped holiday packages, which is perfect for under a tree. 

 

I drafted the pattern to the size I wanted and then sewed strips of green fabric together into two large pieces.  Then, I cut the tree shape out of my paper pattern and used it as a template to cut the trees.  I laid it on the strip set and then added a quarter inch around all the sides and cut it out.  I was careful to lay the template on different sections of the fabric, so no two trees are identical. 

Now, I just need to find something big enough to use as a back and I can layer this and quilt it and get it ready for holiday decorating...

Or, I could fold the edge under and hand stitch it down with big running stitches and let that be it for this year.  Then, I'd have a whole year to quilt it before we needed it again.  You can translate that as, next November, I'll be trying to find time to quilt it again, before holiday decorating.

Oh, well.  I am what I am and what I am is way overly ambitious.  But, I'm never bored.

Everybody have a great Tuesday.  Celebrate the veterans in your life.  At the choir concert last week, they sang a medley that included the anthems of all the branches of the military.  They asked veterans in the crowd to stand when their anthem was sung.  It made my heart swell to see them, standing proud, many with hands behind their backs "at ease". 

For a few minutes, it made me proud to be an American.  I could forget the terrible mess we're making and just be proud for people that were proud to have served. I mean, for God's sake, I'm looking for anything to be proud of... and it ain't in the news.

Lane