T'was a week before Christmas on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - t'was a  week before Christmas and all through the house, this old lady isn't stirring much...LOL...and I'm glad I got things done when I did.  I've done a little tweaking of my decorations and I think other than some gift cards which I can get online my shopping is pretty well done...however there are still a couple of small things I want to stitch up ... and I'm going to finish up my Christmas cards today and take then to the post office tomorrow... I always drag my feet over the cards... I've been making my cards for years... and settling on an idea takes me  a while... and then I need to do a sample and see how long it takes ... which I've done. Now some years I'm over the moon about the design I picked... this year it's just okay... I like it ...but I'm not up to doing as much as I have in the past. I  even considered not making cards at all... but so many of my friends tell me they look forward to my card every year that I making them again... I should get an earlier start on them... but I never do. 

Anyway, lets look at more decor... I'll start with the quilt on the wall...

The Santa panel from Moda a couple of years ago... the one that was suppose to be appliqued to a background of bajillion log cabin blocks, which was never gonna happen in my sewing room ... my technique was to apply  Heat N Bond to the edges of Santa and ironed him onto a large swatch of minty green Grunge ... then I machine appliqued him down... HO HO HO's came from the pattern Jingle Jangle... there are suppose to be a lot more HO's and even though there is a bunch of them cut out and in a sterlite bin these are the only ones that have ever seen the light of day.  I had the best of intentions to make the Jingle Jangle quilt back in 2018, but it has never happened and probably won't...oh well... moving on...

The tier tray has 2 different themes going on ... up top ladies and angels... below Santas.... I kind  wish I had more stitching and knickknacks to do either theme... I probably could do just Santas... and maybe I will... I could move the angel and ladies to the big display shelf unit... hmmm might do some tweaking in this before the week is out... anyway... sorry about that tangent... the ladies  on the top right and left are from Pineberry Lane ... and the angel in the middle is a snippet from WTN&T Peppermint & Holly....

Below a couple of Santas I needlepointed about 35 years ago and my finished WTN&T freebie from last year... Merry& Minty...  I pinned this to a piece of foam core board... I wanted to try pinning a piece and I thought this would be good practice. I may try to do some larger pieces in the future. I trimmed it with tinsel trim from the gift wrap department... I was able to pull up every other pin or so and wrap the tinsel trim around the pin and then push it back down as the tinsel trim has a wire core... easy peasy and I had the trim on in nothing flat.  The little boy holding the train is a needlepoint tree topper stitched waaaay back in the day... he looks like my older son when he was 4 or so... and now my older son looked at it and said "it looks like Elliott" which is does... there's no denying genetics.   The cookie jar is a Debbie Mumm piece... Elliott keeps checking to be sure there is nothing in it... so disappointing...LOL

Here are some close ups of the stitching pieces...

Now next to this display is the cabinet that has my TV... and I've definitely tweaked it. I'm still obsessed with Shiny Brite ornaments this season and I saw a display like this in a magazine. Basically a tier tray/tree  made from cake stands... oooohhh...I could do this... I have a ton of cake stands... so I put together this "tree" and filled it with reproduction Shiny Brites and topped it with a Christopher Radko tree topper... here's a couple of views...

And it is very pretty but the scale is off... it is too big for this space... can you see it is as tall as the TV?...not pleasing to my eye...  

So  I went with another arrangement I saw in a magazine... pretty apothecary jars filled with ornaments... and I like this sooooo much more!! Here's a pic of the whole arrangement...

I got the jars at Michaels with a 30% off coupon... and it is amazing how many ornaments can fit inside these jars... and the scale is in proportion for my little house... 

On the other side of the TV I have my December piece from Hands On Designs ... some pixies, the tree topper I used on the cake stand tree and a countdown calendar.

Below that is my needlepoint stocking... 

In the middle some knickknacks (this space needs some cross stitched smalls IMHO) ...

and to the right Nick's needlepoint stocking... 

these are LARGE stockings ... about 8" wide at the top and 23" long... when I started this venture I stitched 3 of these in one year and had a newborn... and obviously a lot more energy... I've stitched 6 of these stockings ... and unless Elliott get a sibling I won't be doing any more... my needlepoint days are complete...

Oh somewhere in the last year I'm pretty sure I said I was going to hang a different quilt on the wall.. the Bright Ornaments quilt that I finished in like January of 2023... well I changed my mind about hanging it on the wall but I did hang it over the back of the couch...

The ornaments are made from the Basic Grey Peppermint Bark collection and the background is Grunge in the Ale colorway... I like that one a lot as I used in the quilt I showed on Monday.  Anyway it looks nice here. I already have plans for another ornament quilt... saw a pattern from Lori Holt that I'd like to do but it doesn't get released until  August  2024... you can check out a kit of the quilt here.  I'm tempted to buy the kit, I don't think that is a bad price for a 80 x 86 " quilt... but I don't need it that big... I think I really only need a wall size quilt... which I will put on my list of things I want to do in 2024... and we will see how that turns out...LOL

In the hallway telephone niche I have another cookie jar (this was my score from my neighbors' trash a couple of years ago .. I really like it) and a new for this year cross stitch piece... the Merry String from Lizzie Kate...

I stitched the string on a piece of 32 ct green linen I had in my stash... don't know what colors I mixed for this but think fresh guacamole as the green... I LOVE it!   I finished in a kinda Christmas cracker fashion. I rolled up cotton batting and sewed it around the roll... just tied the ends with some string ... it fits perfectly in this spot and was an easy way to FFO this long skinny piece. I have more of this linen and I think I'd like to do another small with it... might get something done before Christmas... 

And speaking of things I got done... I FINISHED  the Remember Me sampler from Teresa Kogut!!

Here's a pic of it with the frame I chose... got a rustic finish in green an specks of a coppery peach that goes so well with this piece...

I went to a new framer and I really liked the guy... and he has TONS of beautiful moldings... I saw several that made me want to stitch some thing so I could use them... this is a big piece... the stitching is a little over 14 x 16 inches... so I knew it wasn't going to be cheap to frame it but the price was where I anticipated. Now to see how well he laces and frames it... he's been doing framing for 50 years so I assume it will look great. I have a couple of other pieces waiting in the wings that I'd like to get framed. 

It was my goal to finish this before the end of 2023...so happy happy happy to have completed this...now I'm contemplating what I should stitch between now and Christmas...more Christmas pieces?  start on some new snowmen? pick up an WIP and work in it?  Haven't made up my mind yet... I have thought about what I want to stitch overall in 2024.... definitely want to do a long narrow sampler or two or three... I have a couple of space in my house that format fits well ... and I'm running out of wall space ... lots of stuff that is a WIP I'd like to get back to... and I have no doubt there will be new stuff coming out that I can NOT resist!!

As for quilting I got a little bit of sewing done last Tuesday when Elliot was here ...while he played in an exploded bag of fluff as he calls it (actually a bag of polyester fiberfill)... 

and he worked on putting some fluff back in his lovey that he poked a hole in ages ago...

I sewed up some units for a Dorothy quilt using my Momo fabrics...

I'm glad I slapped these up on my design wall... I can see that I will need to pay attention and do some of the units so the directional fabrics are horizontal rather than vertical ... my OCD  would be very upset with items like those little deer on the green background. if they were facing the wrong direction... and I love this fabric for the plain blocks... that scissors print first appeared in a Momo collection... I have it in blue and pink... and I have been saving about 4 to 5 yards of this colorway forever in a day... WHY??  They actually still make it as part of the Muslin Mates line... although the background may be darker... anyway, this fabric isn't getting any younger and neither am I ... gonna sew the stuff that makes my heart happy!! 

 I feel like I have some quilting mojo back... I hope it lasts...might get a little sewing in on Monday... that would be nice. 

Well I realize that there is one more Sunday before Christmas... so I'll wait till then to show the big shelf display... I think I've overloaded you enough again this week...  I'm off to get my Christmas cards done today... going with Elliott  and his Daddy to see the giant train display at Cincinnati's Union Terminal this week... got dinner plans for a couple of nights...and will need to do a Kroger and Costco run for stuff to make appetizers with for Christmas Day... 

I will link up with Kathy's Quilts today  .. I'll be dropping by to see what others are up to ... I hope your week running up to Christmas goes smoothly... 

happy stitching-

carol fun