Eleven on Wednesday

1.  My first bullet was going to totally be about whether anyone was enjoying my Crafty Advent Calendar since I hadn’t had any feedback, but then cia had to go and ruin it by commenting yesterday!  Ha!  Anyway, I’m keeping going on the countdown, even if sporadically, because I’m enjoying the chronicle of the crafts!

2.  We had Breakfast with Santa this past weekend.  Elena loved him and talked to him FOREVER.  Julia, well, you can see for yourself what Julia thought of the man:

The Santa was super-nice and I’m so glad we went.

3.  After Breakfast with Santa, we headed down to Evergreen Farms and cut down our Christmas tree!  Had a blast!  We’ve had a fake tree for the last couple years, but it’s nice to have a real tree again.

4.  Must admit that decorating a real tree is more difficult than the fake variety.  I have to search for branches strong enough to hold my heavy ornaments.

5. The girls have broken at least 6 ornaments already.  Superglue is my friend.

6.  The girls have been banned from playing with the ornaments any more.  I’ve always been fairly lax about them removing them and putting them back on, etc., but 6 was way too many casualties.

7.  Do not give your child roasted marshmallows if they’re wearing gloves. Talk about a mess of laundry.

8.  It snowed last Friday.  A very rare occurrence in this neck of the woods.  What, can’t you see the snow in my picture below?

9.  Yes,that’s as good as the snow got at our house.  The girls still loved it, and Julia kept repeating “dank ooo Mommy!”  I threw the girls outside, took 2 pictures, then ran inside and grabbed their jackets to dress them.  By the time I returned, the snow was gone.

10.  Since Elena was quite forlorn about not having enough snow for snow angels, instead she made leaf angels.  Julia joined as well as she could what with Elena kicking leaves up on her!

11.   My trees for my snowman quilt had to be put away.  I’m working on some sewing for Julia’s birthday, and only have a couple days to get to work.  Ack!  I’m thinking my Christmas quilts will not be getting done this season.  boo!

Crafty Advent Calendar: 16 Days

I know, I know.  I got behind on my calendar again.  Blogging every day is tough!  Can guarantee I’d never succeed in one of those “blog every day for a month” challenges!

And for your enjoyment today is a little quilt made by my Mom in 1999.  That year, everyone got a different little wallhanging, chosen just for their family.  I think my mom likes the variety because Oh My, wouldn’t we all get tired of doing the same thing 8 times??!?

Crafty Advent Calendar: 17 Days

Another Santa today!

Don’t you love the blush on Santa’s cheeks?  A favorite part of many of the Santas.

Made by my Mom, of course.

Crafty Advent Countdown: 18 Days

I *believe* this was made by my Grandma.  My Mom’s Mom.  If not that, then it was made by my Mom a long time before she got into quilting.  Mom?  you reading?  can you help a gal out? It was made by my Grandma!

I’m generally not that into vintage things, but I just love this.  My mom was cleaning out her Christmas decorations that she never displays anymore and I snatched this up before any one else got a chance – Yay for me!  (honestly, I don’t really think anyone in my family is into vintage, so probably didn’t steal it from anyone, but still…)

I like how it is so obviously homemade, with the blue lines for placement of the embroidered patches still showing.

Just such a happy piece with great bright colors and sparkles.  How could you not smile looking at those smiling angels or this happy little town?

Crafty Advent Countdown: 19 Days

Okay,  one more post tonight — I believe I have been off a day all along when counting down to Christmas here– this post should get me squared away, and it is a wonderful one to let sit for a whole day!

This is one of my favorite little quilts.  SO simple, yet so lovely:

My Mom made it for Elena for her 1st Christmas.  Here’s a flashback for you: Elena at 4 months showing off a couple of her Christmas gifts, including this quilt:

Awww, I wish I could munch on those baby toes still!

Do you think Elena would notice if I took the quilt as my own, and hung it in my bedroom instead of hers???

Seriously one of my favorites.  And proof that a quilt doesn’t have to be super-involved to be gorgeous.

Crafty Advent Countdown: 20 Days

My mom sent this Santa bear to me when I was in law school.

It certainly was nice to have this Christmas decoration to warm up my cold apartment!  (I really don’t know how I managed to survive 3 winters in northern Indiana!)

Doesn’t he have the cutest face?  And the girls keep thinking the pretend present in his bag *must* be a present for them.

One of my law school friends loved most the teddy bear in Santa’s bag.  Why? you ask.  Because my mom didn’t give him legs:

He would throw him around the apartment and tease the bear: “RUN AWAY BEAR!  Oh wait, YOU CAN’T!  YOU DON’T HAVE LEGS!”  Ha!  He thought he was hilarious.  He refused to understand how it was so much easier to make a teddy bear with only 2 legs when the other 2 wouldn’t be seen anyway!

Crafty Advent Countdown: 21 Days

I told you I would run into problems since I hadn’t taken photos of any more crafts!  I now have pictures for another week, but I still have not counted the total crafts so I’m not positive this advent countdown is going to make it the whole way.

Since  I’m going to do a couple quick blog posts to catch up, I’m now going to show off my least favorite Christmas craft. (yep, making it disappear quickly).

They are made by my mother-in-law, and I swear that’s not the reason they’re my least favorite!  (I also have a least-favorite Santa that my Mom made — she knows this too.)   My mother-in-law did them with love for us and her granddaughters, though, and for that they are beautiful.  And I do make a point to display them.

In fact, the girls each have their Santa wallhanging hanging on their bedroom door:

And our big family one is displayed in the guest bathroom.  (I know that sounds terrible, but it *is* a spot most guests will see!)

Crafty Advent Countdown: 22 Days

This skinny & tall guy you caught a glimpse of yesterday.  He is one of my all-time favorites!  He is 24 inches of cuteness!

I love the reindeer sitting on his arm. And OH MY, just look at those tiny seams all over the place. Can NOT imagine making 7 of these!  And in case you wondered, there are sticks in their legs and arms.

And LOOK at those great whiskers sticking out!  Such personality.

And of course, this Santa was made by my mom.

Now hopefully I will have another craft up tomorrow — I need to take some more pictures before I can!

Crafty Advent Countdown: 23 Days

So I figure I ought to explain a bit about ALL the homemade Christmas decorations I have.  When the kids in my family started moving out, my Mom started making them Santas each Christmas.  We are all out of the house now, and we all now get to look forward to a homemade gift by my Mom.

It has now evolved to Santas OR quilts OR pillows OR just whatever crafty Christmas-y thing she can make.  It seems good Santa patterns are hard to find, so if you know of any, let me know and I’ll forward them to my Mom!

OH, and when I say “kids in my family” and “We are all out of the house now,” I am referring to 7 kids!  SO, my mom has made 7 of these most years, and 8 on years she actually manages to complete her own too!

On to today’s Santa — a little more folksy today:

He has a silver bell that belongs on the end of his hat, but it fell off this year while unpacking and is sitting in the bear’s lap.  Hopefully I’ll get around to sewing it back on.

Here’s the side of today’s Santa, with a little sneak preview of some others you will be seeing soon:

Class Gossip

I just read a post on Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts about the reprint of  Susan Powell’s Celestial Dreams pattern.  Isn’t it a cool quilt?!?!

I thought of commenting over there, but didn’t want to dirty up someone else’s comments.  So I’ll do it on my own blog:  I’ve got a story about this quilt.

My mom made the top several years ago as part of a BOM program, and loves it!  However, she got totally stuck on how to quilt it.

Lo and behold, an opportunity arose for us to go to a guild workshop.  Specifically, we attended a “How to Quilt Your Quilt Tops” type class taught by the famous H.C. (has won major awards several times – don’t really want to bring over a lot of people googling her name so not mentioning it directly).  The whole point of the class was that you were to bring your tops and the class would discuss how to quilt them.

To say the least, we were extremely disappointed in the teacher.  She told my mom that it was quite the wild quilt, and questioned her on why she ever made the quilt.  (um, she likes it???)  She seemed shocked it was a block of the  month project.  She concluded that my mom should just be satisfied with the piecing of it, and that not all quilts need to be quilted.  No ideas were given for quilting.  She said that if my mom was bound and determined to turn it into a quilt, maybe she should just tie it.

We. were. mortified.

Sure, the quilt obviously isn’t in the teacher’s vein – she never pieces or appliques, just paints and quilts  – but to tell a quilter that her quilt isn’t even worth finishing, especially when the maker obviously loves it, when it is SO labor intensive and when it is well-made, was completely unnecessary, unprofessional, RUDE, etc.

And that’s my quilty gossip of the day!