What's on the line is taking a vacation........

and will return on Monday, January 2nd. Between now and then, I'm going to share a few photos of Christmas decorating and other projects. I have been busy the last few weeks decorating all about our house because ...........well, I'll tell ya tomorrow. :-) Until then, here's a little something that I included in my decorating scheme this year..........

this little stuffed dog is one I got when I was in junior high. He's been around a lot of years and looks pretty good for his age.  LOL!  You can comb it's hair and it looks so cute. It reminds me of the real dog we had, a pomeranian named Henry the Eighth. What a cutie he was!  Ah, yes, Christmas certainly conjures up lots of fun memories. Well, some are not so fun. I remember the year that we got our son a model train for Christmas. My husband was cutting some piece of it with a sharp knife as he worked to assemble the set. He managed to cut himself so badly that he had to go to the emergency room to get stitches. One year a snowstorm kept us from getting to Iowa to visit our folks. We were in our four wheel drive Blazer and my husband was sure we could get through the snow drifts. Finally, he gave up and we turned around to go home.  It was not a good night to be on the road. We've never been caught in an airport or had anything worse happen so most of the memories are, in fact, fun or at least........memorable. :-)
Busy day today.........working on some gifts for friends and then helping another friend with a gift project. The Christmas tunes will be turned up loud today!! Have a good Monday. Back tomorrow with bunches of pictures of Christmasy stuff!
Sandi

And the winner of my sleigh full of goodness is.....

Angela Moore!

She is the lucky winner of the prize I offered.....my "sleigh full of goodness".....in Michele's Quilting Gallery Blog Hop.  So many bloggers participated and I was amazed at the number of comments. Wish I could send everyone who commented a little something but that can't be. Just one winner and I've sent the winning e-mail message to Angela and just wait to hear from her! You can find Angela's blog here ........ Angela*at*Home !! 
Congratulations to her and a big Thank You to all of you that shared such wonderful Christmas memories. Angela shared this memory......

"Gosh so many but most memorable was the piano and that's when I discovered santa was mom and dad."   Made me smile. Almost all the comments made me smile and a few brought tears to my eyes. Reading some of them brought back memories of dolls and toys that I had forgotten about. Again, thank you so much for sharing!

And now, if you are reading this, take note........come 2012, I am making a challenge to myself and at the end of each month, I will be offering a little prize package to one of my blog readers. So what is my challenge? Wellllllll...........gulp........I am not going to buy any quilting fabric for the entire year of 2012. Yep, I really mean that. I'll have more details on this challenge and a chance for a preview prize package giveaway on December 31st. Be sure to stay tuned or pop back then and find out what you might win and just why I would challenge myself to not buy any fabric for a whole year!

It's a busy time right now and I have barely managed to blog but soon that will change. Lots to blog about and this week, I will share some fun stuff. Off to work on some Christmas gifts now. Have a great Sunday!!
Sandi

What's on the line? Oops......nothing.......

That's right, there is nothing "on the line" today. I didn't have a photo of a Christmas quilt so I thought I'd share a couple of creative projects. The weekend after Thanksgiving, my daughter and I did some crafting. I had purchased some various sizes/shapes of glass globes at the Dollar Tree store and we decorated them with ribbon and those foam glitter sticker things you can get at craft stores (Michael's was the source for the trees). This is the candle globe that Collette made...........

You could use any container and glue ribbon in place and add stickers. I have some that are in gold and white. Photo coming later. :-)  They were easy and fun to make!!!
The other project we did was decorating glass and plastic tree ornaments. We added pizazz with some glittery fabrics and ribbon.  Here's the mess/creativity pile we were working from...........

I'll show you how to make these in a little tutorial this weekend. In the meantime, I am busy this week with a number of activities.  Singing "fa la la la la" and all sorts of Christmas songs as I decorate! :-)

And, speaking of Christmas songs..........yesterday afternoon, I got another early Christmas present when my son, Devlin, treated me to an afternoon recording session. I sang, he did the recording. When I was "flat" he told me so and I would sing the song again. I like an honest critic. :-)  He's going to create a clip of a couple of the songs so I can share it before Christmas!  I had so much fun singing. I wish I could do it more often!!

Could be freezing drizzle in our area today. Glad I have no place to go. I'll be busy decorating and glad to be warm and cozy in the house! Have a great Monday! And, if you have not entered my giveaway for the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop, please check my last post. There is still time to enter!  I have loved reading all the comments that tell of favorite Christmas gifts. They are so, so sweet!

Sandi

A sleigh-full of goodness!

Michele over at Quilting Gallery is hosting a Blog-Hop Party and oh, what fun you all are going to have as you visit all the blogs that are participating!! There are over 200 blogs that you can visit!  The list will be available tomorrow, December 10th and you'll find it here...........

And what do I have for you? Well..........I have a sleigh-full of fabric goodness to share with you all that will take off from Minnesota and land in your driveway, maybe in time for Christmas!  The fabrics are from Jacquelynne*Steve's Christmas line called "Peace.Joy.Love.Noel!"  There are six fat quarters in the sleigh and you also get the fabric panel that the sleigh is sitting on!

Just leave your name and e-mail contact and you can have a chance to win it! And you know how I love to hear a story in your comments. Please share the best gift you ever received as a child. :-)
A lucky winner will be drawn on December 17 at 6:00 p.m. CST.  If you are the winner, you will have two days to reply with your name and address. If I don't hear from you, I will draw another name.
Comments begin now!! Remember to leave your e-mail link so that I can contact you if you win!!
Sandi

An early Christmas Gift!

Yesterday I took a little trip to St. Peter, Minnesota to visit this little shop.......... Knit*&*Sew*World  ...........

Just look at those machines in the window with bows on them. Don't you just love a good window display?  I headed through that green door to pick up my own little sewing machine gift.  As I mentioned before, my husband bought me a Laura Ashley Innov'is-2000 by Brother for a Christmas/anniversary gift. I still can't believe he bought it but then again, I have been making a good case for a new one for a couple years now. I guess he was listening better than I thought. :-)
So, here's the new baby in the house.....

I named her Mazie, short for "Mazerati" because she is truly like driving a Mazerati after sewing on my basic White sewing machine for years. Actually, I haven't a clue what it would be like to drive a Mazerati but I don't even care. I'd rather have this sewing machine! We took it out of the box, read the instructions, and we both tried out the machine. It sews so smoothly!  My husband was impressed that it can thread the needle. So am I because ye olde eyesight isn't what it used to be!  I am definitely going to enjoy working with this machine.  I'm so happy, I took another photo so you could get a good view of her long, sleek lines...........

My son asked what my first project will be..........I told him that I'm pretty sure it will be new kitchen curtains and then after that "the list is really long". And on that list will be a project with this fabric....................

All of this pink deliciousness was in my mailbox when I got home from picking up my sewing machine. I ordered it from Hen*and*Chicks*Studio, Heidi Kaisand's new shop and retreat center in Conrad, Iowa. I shared a photo of these fabrics a few weeks ago but when I opened the package..........they were even prettier than in the photo. And there was a nice thank you from Heidi for making the purchase. She's designed her own line of greeting cards, very cute!  I was also surprised when I saw who the designer was for this fabric. It's Lori Holt over at Bee*in*my*Bonnet blog. I love all her designs but I have been so busy that I've not done much blog reading lately and so had no idea this fabric was her design. I'm going to have fun with a spring project that I have in mind for all this pinkness.  Watch for it to reappear sometime in February!

Here's something that won't last til February...........Ferrero candies.............

Our kids, Collette and Devlin surprised us with an anniversary gift..........that sweet treat and a gift certificate to Charley's in Mankato, MN. We're going to wait til after Christmas to use the gift certificate but we are enjoying the chocolates now. I thought I really loved the hazelnut ones but those silver ones are coconut and they are ....... to die for!! I put dibs on them and let Steve have all the ones with the dark chocolate and the almonds (his favorite). Thanks to our kids for thinking of mom and dad!

So, are all of you ready for Christmas? Our gifts are ready but not wrapped. Plenty of time for that. The decorating is more than half done but still lots to do. I am busy trying to finish a couple of trees and other projects because a local Minnesota magazine will be taking some Christmas decorating photos in our home next week. I'll share more on this project later. Right now.........I'm off to hang more ornaments on a little white tree I set up in our dining room.  Singing Christmas tunes as I work.......... "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas............."

Oh, and be sure to stop by on Saturday for a visit. I'm participating in Michele's Quilting Gallery Blog Hop.........check out the info here.  I've got a sleigh-full of something special for one lucky winner. Oops......that's a clue. Come back Saturday and find out what will be in that sleigh.............

Have a great day!

Sandi

What's on the line at Christmas time?!

An upside down quilt, that's what's on the line this Christmas time! Yes, my quilty friends, I designed it, I hung it, took the picture and now quite sometime later I go to post the picture and here it is ..........upside down!

I took this picture more than a year ago when I decided on a nice "end of summer" day that I would take pictures of all twelve of the quilts that I designed in 2000. This was the twelfth wall quilt in the series called "The Millennium Quilts".  This one is called "Holiday Memories". I just can't believe I hung it upside down! I plan to hang it this Christmas and I can promise you that it will be hung right. I'll even take a picture and share because I have some plans for that plain wreath part on the little quilt. Give me a couple days, though. It's a little busy here. Lots to do with company coming again at Christmas, decorating to do for a special event, Christmas cards to write and toss in a couple doctor appointments. And then........that new sewing machine my husband bought me should be here any day now and I can hardly wait to get it. I have several gift projects that need to be finished before Christmas. Oh, how I would love to finish them on that new machine!
So are any of you feeling like you could use one of Santa's Elves if they were "for hire"?  I think I would like one that would follow me around and when I go from one room to the next, the elf would tell me what I came into that room to get. LOL!  No elf here so gotta run.............
Have a great Monday!
Sandi

A very special Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was very special at our house. My brother, Doug, his wife, Sandy, and their daughter, Sue Ellen came for Thanksgiving. And they brought my mom, too!  Our kids were here, too........ Collette, Daryl, Devlin and grandson, Jacob. We were so fortunate that the weather here in the Midwest was so mild because it made travel super easy! While I was happy to have family, I think Kaiser our Wonder Beagle was even happier. He was very fond of Sue Ellen and she was fond of Kaiser. She has a feather in her hair and it's hanging in Kaiser's face and he doesn't even mind!

Here's part of the crew after they arrived on Thanksgiving Eve. Chatting around the kitchen table are my mom, brother Doug, husband Steve and son-in-law Daryl..........

and chatting in the living room were sister-in-law Sandy and daughter Collette (I was looking down from the upstairs landing when I took this picture).......

There were lots of folks who needed a bed and we managed one for everyone except grandson Jacob. I asked him if he'd mind if I made him a bed of pillows and quilts in my sewing room.  He likes my sewing room because it's cozy and it has a TV and my computer is in there so he didn't mind a bit. Here he is ready for bed watching some sports program as I took this picture.

Husband Steve got up first and started the turkey. He took over the "turkey baking" duties several years ago. I like this a lot as I prefer to bake pies and make sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. Don't ask who forgot to make the gravy. Daryl made the green bean casserole. What did people eat with their turkeys before green bean casserole became a staple in a Thanksgiving menu?

While the turkey was cooking, we enjoyed visiting. Jacob was on the computer and so Sue Ellen needed something to do. I found her something she thought was fun and it saved me time! She is adding decorative glitter highlights to my Christmas cards!! How cool, right?!!

Turkey was ready so we all sat down to dinner..........son Devlin, then Doug, Sandy........

my mom, Mary, me, Collette and Daryl........

then Steve got his camera and took some pictures...........

And where are Jacob and Sue Ellen? They ate in the kitchen and were finished almost before we started. :-)
Collette and Sandy did most of the clean-up which I thought was great!
It was a toss-up for an afternoon movie.........."It's a Wonderful Life" or "Christmas Vacation". You can see on the TV screen that "Christmas Vacation" was the winner. That movie is so funny!

And what about Kaiser? Well, he was searching for crumbs underneath the dining room table........... LOL!

It was really great to have family spend the holiday and for everyone to travel safely. This mild weather we are having is really not that common for Minnesota in late November.  I wonder if it will last til Christmas? One can hope............
Next post.........good news!
Sandi