Merry Christmas One And All!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day yesterday. I think this was the busiest one I had in I can't remember how long! Growing up as an only child, I didn't experience alot of the whole sibling Christmas of everyone opening their gifts all at one time and the noise and happy screams of excited children all at once. Mind you I did do a bit of my own shouting during my childhood over some amazing gifts my parents and Santa gave me :)

Trevor and I got up around 8:30 that morning, brewed up some coffee then sat down to open our gifts to one another. He gave me a gorgeous watch, Guitar Hero guitar and the World Tour game for the Play Station 3 (yep I have a little bit of rocker wanna be in me )!!! LOL. He also gave me a beautiful black wrap around blouse, the movie Moulin Rouge, some chocolate and smelly stuff for my bath and much more!







ooh while taking these photos a moment ago I took a little photo of Trevor playing one of his PS3 games and relaxing on the couch


After we unwrapped our own gifts, we got ourselves ready then headed to his Sister's home for Turkey Dinner #1. It was delicious. From there we exchanged more gifts. Trevor got a gift certificate from American Eagle (one of his favourite clothing stores), and I got a gorgeous blue and brown bowl for my kitchen and pretty pair of brown knit gloves. By 3:30 that afternoon we were off to his parent's home where more gift exhanging went on, and the grandkids opened their gifts. His parents gave me a huge tin filled with chocolates, truffles, shortbread cookies and more!! whew I'm gonna be fat by the end of the holidays LOL

Then from there we headed to Mum's place for Turkey Dinner #2 !!! Whew.. by the end of that meal I felt like I was stuffed like a turkey!!! Then, yep that's right, more gift giving! Mum and I normally spoil each other crazy over Christmas. Even Trevor was amazed over how many gifts we had for one another!

Mum is not one to get her photo taken so Trevor had to sneak a few photos in... so those of you that know Mum.. shhhhh don't tell her we got some photos!!! Here are a few photos of us opening our gifts. I will take more soon as most of the gifts are still down to Mum's place. We are going down there again for supper this evening, so I will try to get a few more pictures.


Mum gave me a gorgeous 3/4 length tweed coat. She also gave me a beautiful shirt and jacket set for work. Mum has great taste in the clothes I love and she knows all my favourite shops!! She and I have such wonderful times shopping together! We can't WAIT for the sales after Christmas to come!


Again, Mum hates her photo taken, so she hid behind her knew jacket I gave her!


Me by the tree, stuffed from two big turkey dinners!


In my stocking I got this great machine quilting book


We give each other a recipe book every year, this is the one this year all on meat and wine! ooh and these gorgeous spreaders came from my friend Marsha. THANK YOU!! I also love the coffee cup sleeve you made me. We had a great laugh over that one! I'll post a photo soon!


I especially love this stocking stuffer and it will be going in my future sewing room for sure!


Well I wanted to post a few photos of our day yesterday. I will post more over the next few days! I have to go get ready for another great meal down to Mum's.

Until Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen!

Yep... so I'm taking a break from the kitchen for a few minutes to post this thread. I decided to take the full day to make up some casseroles and more cookies and another batch of jam for the holidays. So far, I just took out a big pan of lasagne, and I have a big pot of chili simmering on the stove. Once I clean up the next stack of dishes, I will tackle the jam. I am hoping tonight to have my jam ready to decorate in their packages and ribbons so I can give them out tomorrow to some friends and family.

So far, along with the jam I still plan to make hermit cookies (those are one of Trevor's favourites), mice cookies, and biscotti. I have never made biscotti before, so I'm anxious to start it!

It is good to have the computer back after a week without it! The computer tech guy said the dust around the fan caused it to seize up, so we decided to get it cleaned. Actually a new and better power supply was installed. It is good to be back among the cyber world again! I was starting to get withdrawls!!! LOL

But I kept myself busy and managed to finish up sewing the rows of my crumb quilt. My next step is to sew the rows together. I might take a day over the holidays to work on it again.

I received a beautiful package from my Secret Santa this weekend. I still have no idea who sent it to me as there was no card in the package. I would have loved to have sent an email to my Santa to say thank you. Here is what my Secret Santa sent me!







I will have to make up something very pretty with these beautiful fabrics!

On Friday night past, the sewing girls got together to exchange gifts with one of our friends who left yesterday to spend Christmas with friends and family in San Antonio, Texas. I hope she got out of the airport when she flew to Toronto, they had nasty winter weather up there the last few days resulting in cancelled flights. Anyway, she gave all of us these adorable little tea cup ornaments as part of our gifts. She said when she saw them it reminded her of us and how we always stopped for tea and dessert after our night of sewing! We all received the same ornament except each one was a different shape. Mine was square!



We put our tree up last Sunday and I thought I would share a photo of how it looks right now.



I can't believe Christmas is this week coming!! The time has been flying by so fast! I still haven't wrapped any of my gifts, but I hope to get a start on that either tonight or tomorrow night. The big thing for me tonight is making sure all my jam jars are ready and decorated. So with that being said, I best to get back into the hot kitchen to turn the stove off as my chili has been simmering the last hour. Next is to cut up all the fruit for the jam. Once that is done I start in on the cookies and biscotti! I'll be posting photos of my kitchen adventures soon!

Til Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Short Delay

Hi all

I am sorry I haven't posted anything this weekend, but the computer died. I think its the fan. Anyway, we hope to have the computer back this weekend. In the meantime, I am using a friend's computer, and I can't seem to be able to upload photos. Sigh…

Since last week I am filling two more tree skirt orders. I hope to have them completed by middle of this week. I promised my two customers that they would have their skirts in plenty of time for Christmas. When I came to work this morning I had another individual wish to order one. I told him I couldn’t have it completed before Christmas as I was filling a couple other orders, and well I still have a few more things to complete for Christmas myself. He was fine with that.. whew!!! So I’ll get a start on it right after the holidays.

Tonight after supper, I plan to attempt making biscotti. I have never made it before, but if it turns out edible, I plan to give them as little gifts to attach to some of my gifts. Not to mention my Mum loves biscotti and I would love to make some for her to add to her stocking.

Can you believe there are only 9 more sleeps to Christmas!!!!!!!! Where has the time gone at all!!! Trevor and I put the Christmas tree up in the living room yesterday while watching the Santa Claus parade on tv. We didn’t bother cooking supper, and instead ordered out to Swiss Chalet. The tree is up, the place is looking a little more Christmasy.. I hope to start wrapping gifts in the next couple of days. I really want to finish the tree skirts first.

Well lunch is over and its back to the office I go. Hopefully the computer will be back and healthy again early this week, and I will post more photos! And if the biscotti recipe turns out alright, I will post that too!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Blowin' a Gale Outside!!

I better batten down the hatches here tonight and make sure I have a good supply of candles on hand. The wind is blowin' a gale tonight! No rain, no snow (thankfully) but the wind is sooooooo high! How high you say? Well I'm sitting here and I can feel my chair shake from the wind! But then wind is a part of living here on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! I'm just glad there is no snow or we would be snow bound for days!!!

I am happy to report that all my Christmas gifts are completed! wooo hoooooooooooooo!!! This is the first time this has ever happened. Usually I keep telling myself I will start my gifts earlier and still I manage to find myself completing the last of a gift Christmas Eve. One year I even found myself wrapping a gift in the back seat of the car on the way to my friend's house only to have the gift opened 10 minutes later! Now I am thinking okay.. surely I am forgetting something or someone and need to rush at making another gift! NOPE!! I am in shock and two weeks from Christmas Eve too!!!

So Trevor decided to get me feeling like I need to have SOMETHING finished by Christmas so he suggested we have a new set of placemats made for Christmas! He would like something with stripes in it. Since I have no stripe fabric in my stash, we will be heading to the fabric shops this weekend to find a funky cool stripe for his placemats.

In the meantime, I continued to work on my crumb quilt again. I managed to get a few more rows completed Sunday night. I also got back at my Victorian Grandmother's Garden hand stitched project. I should have block #7 of 25 completed by tonight!

I also had two other people at work ask if I had any more tree skirts to sell. I sold out of what I had made, but realized I still had two more tops not layered or quilted. So I will take them out and work on them over the weekend. I hope to complete them by next week. Hopefully they will still want them by then :) Otherwise, I will just hang on to them until next year.

I managed to get another batch of Christmas jam made last night. I now have 16 jars of jam. I am thinking I might want to make another batch, as my list is growing. I plan to get down to Michaels in the next few days to hunt for some nice organza ribbons to decorate my jam jars. Also if time permits I will make up my tags. I am also going to attempt making biscotti this year. My Mum loves biscotti and I would love to put some in her stocking this year. hmmm I'm starting to think its a good thing that my gifts are made.. my list of things to do before Christmas is starting to grow more and more LOL.

Last night I also made up a big carrot cake for the annual Christmas potluck at work. We have over 250 employees and needless to say there is ALOT of food. I remember seeing it for the first time last year and oooooooh the spread of food. The cake turned out really nice. I am just waiting now for the cream cheese to come to room temperature and then I will make the cream cheese frosting. When it is done and frosted, I will take a photo and post here with the recipe. This is one of Mum's recipes and its a delicious one too!

Well I should post this now (sorry no photos tonight) I want to make sure this post goes through just in case the power does go. I will post here again soon!

Also for those of you who were interested in what pattern I used for the Turtle pincushion, I will post that soon too. I will go look for that pattern again as I put it away with the rest of my patterns. I do know it is either a Simplicity or a Butterrick pattern.

Happy Quilting!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Another Productive Day!

I have to say I was on a good roll this weekend with completing projects and getting a little baking and making jam!

Today I managed to finish another Christmas gift. I have one more to finish and all I need is another hour or so to complete the binding and that one is done! I actually even managed to get three more rows of my crumb quilt sewn up.

Last night I mentioned how today we had our Secret Santa gift opening on www.quiltingboard.com well this is what my Secret Santa gave me!

The fat quarters are very pretty. I will have to find something really nice to make out of these. The snowman card actually plays the song "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives


I love snowmen!!! This little darling measures about 12" high. I will have to find a nice spot to play him over the holidays


I will eventually make this panel into a wallhanging to put up to the summer cabin.


I haven't heard from the girl I was a Secret Sister to, so hopefully her little gift arrived safe and sound.

I was involved in another Secret Santa swap, but I haven't received any parcel yet. Once I do, I will certainly share with you all what I received.

So I woke up this morning, looked out the window to a winter wonderland. There wasn't much snow down, and I thought I would take a little walk this afternoon to take some photos. After lunch the rain began and it hasn't stopped. In fact, the rain has got alot heavier. We have been getting so much rain here lately. It seems all it ever does these days is rain. Last Saturday over 90 millimetres of rain fell. Trevor's sister and husband had close to $20,000 in damage to to their basement. His Brother in Law went to his waist in water. All their kid's Christmas gifts were hidden down there too. There was a lot of flooding everywhere. The rate this rain keeps coming down we are going to have a green Christmas this year.

Well it's back to work in the morning, so I best be heading on to bed.

Til Next Time! :)

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Getting Ready for Christmas

Its been a busy weekend so far. Last night the sewing gals met up at Mum's for our annual Christmas shopping excursion downtown St. John's. Every year we meet up around supper time where Mum makes this AMAZING supper for us and then we all pile in the car and head downtown to look stroll in and out of all the nice little specialty stores. One of my new favourite stores is called Posie Row. They have the coolest and stylish hats in there. Not to mention awesome bling!!! yep I love jewelery! I found this sweet little red stone ring and it was calling my name!!! So of course, had to buy it!


I also found some really nice stocking stuffers for Trevor's. I can't say what they are right now, as he has been known to visit my blog from time to time.

So we haven't put the tree up yet and it won't be this weekend either. This is Trevor's weekend to work 3 overnight shifts in a row. When he gets home he tends to nap for much of the day and just relax before having to work again. He will be off next weekend, so more than likely we will start setting up the tree and decorating. I can't wait to get the place looking Christmasy!

But I did start making my Christmas jam tonight. I make this really yummy jam every Christmas to give out as little gifts to co-workers, and close friends and family. I made one batch tonight and got 8 1/2 jars out of it. We will keep the 1/2 jar for ourselves. I will try to put on another batch sometime this week. I don't really have a recipe for it as I haven't looked at the recipe in years and don't even know where it is anymore! I tend to use my own measurements in my head and it hasn't failed me yet! There are only three main ingredients, strawberries, cranberries and the biggest navel orange I can find. I chop up my fruit and let it boil in a pot for a while until the fruit begins to mush and then I throw in some sugar til I get it the right sweetness I like and the fruit pectin. They are now cooling on the counter in the jars. Eventually I will decorate them with pretty Christmas ribbons before giving them away.





I also made another batch of my cheese/herb scones to have for breakfast in the morning. Trevor loved them so much the first time I made them, I thought I would surprise him with some for his breakfast when he gets home from work. I posted that recipe last month sometime. We love them and I know I will be making them many many more times!

During our sewing night Thursday night past, I never got to stitch a single stitch. I spent the evening sitting on the floor with the two quilts that I'll be teaching after Christmas and writing out the fabric requirements for each project. I had to have them typed up with photos attached to pass into the city community centre as registration begins on Monday, Dec. 8th. So for any of my students out there reading this, don't forget if you wish to get into either of those classes, registration is Monday! You know how to get in touch with me by phone or email if you have any questions!

Anyway, so as I laid the quilts out on the floor to take measurements and count squares for fabric yardage, THIS is what I had to put up with!!! Lil Miss Mew just has to have her paws into everything, quilts especially. She is of the understanding that all quilts are hers!!! She gives her paw of approval on every piece I make! She turned 15 back in September and she is a spoiled old cat! She is the queen of my Mother's household, and Mum is her main servant! She is a tiny little thing and light as a feather. She is not one to be picked up, in fact she hates it. But we do manage once in a blue moon to get her in our arms.









This little girl has to be in the middle of it all when it comes to quilts! And of course you can't possibly take a photo of a quilt without her stretched off! Lil Queen Sheeba herself!!
Ohh, this is the Double Irish Chain Quilt I'm teaching.





I plan to post again tomorrow evening. Tomorrow I get to FINALLY open my big parcel from my Secret Santa! I have had this package sitting looking at me for about a week now. Although I managed to save myself from some insanity as I left the parcel down to my Mother's home therefore the temptation wasn't too much. I knew I would just tear that sucker apart! I took the parcel home with me tonight after spending the day grocery shopping and other errands. I have to wait a few more hours until we all meet in the quilting forum I go to, www.quiltingboard.com, where we all open our gifts from our Secret Santas together!! I'll be taking lots of photos!

So until then, its now just after 1:30am and I am dead dog tired. Not to mention I think I stood for too long in the kitchen tonight and my back and neck muscles are screaming at me to rest them! I should listen to my body! So I'm off to bed for a few hours. I also hope to get in a few hours of sewing Sunday.

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Tired of Taking Med

I am having another bad day of pain in my right shoulder and arm. Yep all from the accident! This will be a shorter note today as typing is a bit difficult, but I knew I probably wouldn't get another message on here for another couple days.

I felt the pain coming on yesterday, but just took things slow at work and continued working through all the paperwork and pushing papers from one pile to another pile. I felt okay this morning on my way to work and seemed okay working away. But by lunch time I could feel the pain getting a little more intense. By end of day I was in agony.

When I did get home, I was at the kitchen sink fillin it up with water to clean out a couple messy dishes from this morning, then went to drain it.... seems the pipes decided to stop working. I had to clear out everything under the sink and clean up all the water dribbling down from the pipes in floods! Needless to say, it hasn't been a good day. :(

I plan to put some heat to this neck and shoulder after this posting and take it easy tonight.. That means no pulling out the sewing machine or any hand stitching.. sigh..... I'm pretty much up to speed on my Christmas gifts and only have 1 1/2 left to complete. After that I can just sit back and get back to working on my other projects including my crumb quilt.

Last night I taught my last quilting class for the season. My students were working away on their Christmas tree skirts. Two of them managed to get their quilting and binding sewn, one gal managed to layer hers and then decided to start making a second one. My other two girls were still sewing their skirts together. They had a couple slight hiccups, but they are back on track again and working away happily on their tree skirts.


I thought I would also share with you the classroom I teach from. I work with the City's Recreation Centre. I have been teaching with them for the last 4 years, and lovin' it. After everyone left, I took some photos of how my classroom looks. I put away all the ironing boards, irons, cutting mats and electrical extension cords, so it wouldn't look so messy. I also took these photos so next year someone will be setting up my classroom before my classes as there will be other courses going on in this room next year. I am unable to set up the classroom myself with an injured back and neck, so I will send these photos to my supervisor so she knows how I like to have my room. Anyway, here it is. We can sit about 10 of us quite comfortably. Each person has their own 6' table to work on, and we also have a little tea/coffee station set up for anyone who wishes to take a little break.






oooh I also managed to finish this little cutie. I decided I am going to make a different and cute pin cushion for Mum's stocking every Christmas. I thought I would start it out with this little turtle pin cushion. He was so much fun to make!



He is about5-6" in length. He also has a cute teeny tiny tail!

Well as much as I would love to ramble on more about what I have been doing in my projects, I will have to keep it for another post. Right now my shoulder is screaming at me to stop typing and rest! I had a very productive weekend past and finished a couple more gifts including this turtle. I hope to be back to my sewing very soon again!

Til Next Time!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea