Merry Christmas!

Wishing all my blog friends a very Merry Christmas.  Enjoy the season and hopefully get a bit of rest in between all the cooking and entertaining!

Christmas Mince Pies!

They turned out wonderfully and are delicious as well!  About to have one now with a nice hot cup of coffee!

The dough yielded about 31 pies!

Yummy!  Sweet and buttery!  

Celtic Solstice Part IV and Christmas Baking!

I am happy to report that CS IV goes together so nice and easily!  I even got my seams spinning (I've never done that before).    I have a helper who is impeding the progress!  So I have to wait for him to relocate himself before I carry on!
The darling daughter and I did some baking a couple of days ago.  Snickerdoodles - so Christmassy!  The wonderful smell of baking cinnamon is quiet divine.  I will be doing more baking really soon.  Christmas Mince Pies is next on the menu - a very British thing, so of course we used to make them in South Africa.  My Mom-in-law used to make the best mince pies ever.  If mine turn out half as well as hers, they will be delicious.

I have absolutely no idea why it is snowing on my picture!  Pooters and I are not friends so I really don't know how to fix it.  Anyhoo, my seams are spinning nicely!

Here is my first batch of the four patches!

Here is my little helper.  He is fast asleep on my strips now.

Waiting for the cookies!

Ah, Snickerdoodle Cookies!

Pinwheels for Celtic Solstice

I had a wonderful stitchy day yesterday.  I made progress on Celtic Solstice.  I have 40 Part II's done, and 160 Part III Half square triangles done.  I made up four pinwheel blocks last night before shutting down for the night.

I placed four onto a design board and them took them to the machine to stitch.  I have to keep my wits about me when doing pinwheels.  It is easy to flip those puppies the wrong way.  

Celtic Solstice Part Three Started!

I started with Celtic Solstice Part 3 yesterday!  Part 3 works up faster than part two - thankfully!  I am still working on Part 2!  There is progress which is the main thing right?  Hopefully I will get Part 2 and 3 done by Friday!  However my two sons come home tomorrow for winter furlough!  Sewing time will diminish a bit!  Lots of cooking to do you know!

I have 83 of the half square triangles done.

Got 27 of these completed!  Still a ways to go!

These are the two handsome gentlemen who I will be cooking for, starting tomorrow!

Two more Finishes!

A friend is having a baby on Monday!  I have been crocheting away furiously to get this blanket done in time.  I am so happy to have achieved that goal.  I have also finished another scarf for a gift.  Boy,  I am cranking these projects out at the moment.

All folded and done.

I started with the blue and decreased the blue stripe by two rows while increasing the white stripe by two rows.  

Here is the heavier on the white side.

Scarf  with snowflake brooch!

A Christmas Gift

I have been knitting a few Christmas scarves!  This one is for my daughter-in-law!  Ssshh, don't tell her!!!  This fancy yarn makes the knitting go really quickly!  Started it the evening before last and finished it yesterday morning!

Got a pretty snowflake brooch to hold the cross-over together!  Cute hey?

A Christmas Sack!

When my kids were very small, I made them each a Santa Sack!  This was in place of a stocking.  Let's face it, stockings are just awkward to stuff, and what do you do with a slightly bigger present?  Hence the sack.  Well my husband and I did not get one.  I either ran out of time or just did not think of making one for us.  So every Christmas we take our stocking stuffers out of a paper bag.  Well no more!!!  I made my husband his official santa sack yesterday!  I am happy with the way it turned out and he is thrilled with it.

I appliqued a deer head onto the front.  Used large Christmas bells on the ties!  

Here it is all cinched up with a few goodies inside!

It was early evening yesterday when I took this picture.  The sun was shining on the ice at the top of this tree.  Looked like thousands of sparkling diamonds.  So beautiful.  The picture does not do it justice though.

A Christmas Table Centerpiece!

Yesterday I finished part I of Celtic Solstice.  I also started a centerpiece on Sunday which I finished yesterday.  I dug through my stash and found what I needed.  I used my dresden ruler and cut 10 white wedges (the full length of the ruler) and 10 red wedges.  Stitched them together alternating the colors.  I put a red circle in the center and also red binding cut on the bias.  I am very happy with the results.  Truly festive.  Also a quick make.

Well here it is, looking like a large Christmas Mint.

With my little metal tree on it.

Celtic Solstice Progress.

I am almost finished with Part I.  Orange blocks complete.  Neutral blocks sitting at 70 completed.  I am so close I can  taste the finish to Part I.  I have started part two.  Most of the cutting is done and a total of six blocks are finished.  They are rather fun little blocks to make.  One must take care and sew accurately so that the seams make a nice join down the middle.  I am having so much fun with this mystery and can't wait to see the whole quilt.  Thank you Bonnie Hunter for providing us with another truly awesome gift!  You can find the link to Bonnie's Linky post here http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up.html

Here is a sampling of the blocks to date!

One of the Chevron Blocks.

A neutral and blue block.

An orange and blue block.

All the blocks to date!

A Whole Bunch of Decorating Going On!

Since we have been iced in all weekend, it was a great opportunity to finish that Christmas decorating.  I also finished a Christmas Hexagon Centerpiece!  It is sitting on my lounge table with a gorgeous little wire Christmas tree on it.

Getting ready to sandwich the layers together!

Complete!

On my lounge table with tree!

Sorry about the bad picture.  The light streaming in from the windows was playing havoc with said picture.

Celtic Solstice and Ice!

Oh I had a fabulous sew day being iced in all day.  It is 18 degrees F in Dallas today!  That is truly cold for us.
I finished my 92 orange/ blue blocks for Celtic Solstice.  I cut and stitched 60 blocks of the white/ blue blocks.  I could not resist trying at least one block from Part II.  Got most of the fabric cut for those blocks and stitched two together last night.  It is a cute, cute block.  What is tedious though is the marking of all those diagonal lines.  However take care to do it properly - it will only make the stitching process much easier.
I went outside  this morning and NO ice has melted because it is just so cold.  The plants look like they are encased in glass.  I took some pics to show you.  Non of this is snow.  It is all ice.

flower completely encased in ice.

It really is very beautiful.

Orange blocks.

Neutral blocks.

Two Chevron blocks and most of the cut pieces for the others.

Ice Storm and Celtic Solstice

I have been making progress on my Celtic Solstice blocks.  I am not done with Part I but am getting there.  Part II came out this morning so I better hove to!  Don't want to be left behind in y'all's dust!
We have had an ice storm in Dallas!!!!  In early December!!!!  The trees are groaning under the weight of the ice.  So far we still have electricity!  A couple of branches have snapped off of our big oak tree.  The dear sweet hubby and I are hunkered down and don't plan to leave the house today.  Stay safe if you are impacted by the storm.

At the time of blogging I have 50 blocks done.

A huge pot of thick vegetable soup bubbling on the stove last night.

My poor Cypress trees looking like peeled bananas.

A few downed limbs on my oak tree!

Celtic Solstice

I have NEVER made a mystery quilt.
I have NEVER joined in the fun of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME you may ask!?

I am happy to announce that I have jumped on the bandwagon and started Celtic Solstice.  My Tri Recs ruler arrived in the mail yesterday.  I wasted no time and got busy cutting a few strips to try it out.  I am very happy with the results.

My first three blocks!  Only about a million to go!

Another Christmas Tree

I put up the tree in our formal lounge yesterday.  The kids have been home so I have not wanted to spend the time decorating.  Rather visiting with them.  I will do the lion share of the decorating this week.  I need to finish a table runner to match the wall hanging in the kitchen.  I am busy cleaning today which is not much fun but there you have it.  It needs to be done.

Thanksgiving and Putting up the Tree!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family and my daughter in law's family!  We have gotten together for the last eight years!  The two Mom's cooking up a storm and a feast enjoyed by all.  Just wonderful!  Friday was tree day here!  We got the tree out the roof during the day and strung the lights. Come evening we decorated the tree.  What a privilege to have all the kids at home for the event.  They all came from far and wide.  Considering the winter storm we had, it was so good that travel plans went smoothly!  Today they have started making their way back home and tomorrow three leave to go back to college.  However, just a few more weeks and they will be back for a longer Christmas Break!

A Christmas Quilt

My second finish of Sunday is this Christmas Wall Hanging!  I had put it together about two years ago. I came across it accidentally while looking for something else so out it came and joined the pile of things to quilt.  I was smart enough to have bought the backing and put it in the bag with the quilt top.  It was fun to quilt it and got done quite quickly.  The Christmas decorations on the trees are fussy cut!  I think it is a cheerful quilt.

Fussy cut cardinals!

Fussy cut candy canes!

Fussy cut teddy bears!

Two Finishes!

Well yesterday was a bell ringer day!  I finished two projects which have been in progress for a fairly long time.  The first was the Christmas quilt which I started about two to three years ago and finished the top.  Of course the quilting was left to do.  I showed the basting on the previous blog post.  The other finish was the huge granny square afghan that I have been working on for a year.  Got that done too.  I am very happy with it!

Here it is spread out on the queen size bed!

Folded at the foot of the bed!

This is the reason for not getting the finish done earlier.