Sharing a Few Christmas Items & Quilting

            

  Hoping all of you that celebrated, had a wonderful Christmas

   Since we are older now, with no close friends nearby anymore, my slow mail friends have been a real blessing to me this past year, and I have become closer friends with two especially. They feel almost like sisters to me now. 

   I have so enjoyed all of my slow mail writing friends-surprises in my mail box-I really enjoy that.  So I wanted to share a few surprises found in my mail box this past week.

     My friend Debra sent me one of her fairy dolls-she is sitting on my craft room desk-watching me practice calligraphy and other craft projects Isn't she sweet? Excuse my cluttered desk it is a bit too full at the moment.

    I think she needs a name too, so I decided on Molly which for elves means "Of the sea" and her name is of English origin

I love Molly's quilted wings The little stuffed dog is happy he has a friend now too

   From another special friend I received more books. She knows me so well. She had also sent me the book about a woman living in remote Alaska that I shared in a previous post. That was a special book to read, so if you can find a copy it is a very inspiring read. Nothing in life will seem all that difficult after reading her story.

   From photo below-The book on the bottom-Billy Joe Tatum's Wild Foods Cookbook & Field Guide-is all about foraging with lined sketches and lots of good looking recipes. I will enjoy reading through this one.   The three book boxed set I was not familiar with either-the first book was excellent so on to the next.  

      From Amazon-Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods—all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever.

   I want to thank those of you that sent me Christmas cards this year-I really enjoy them-and a few of them were handmade. The pretty one to the left is from Lisca in Spain, the one to the right is from Bleubeard and Elizabeth, and the postcard in front is from my author friend Peggy Henderson that writes time travel romance novels in the Tetons and Yellowstone Park. One of her sons designs a different card each year that she hand writes out and sends to her readers. This author also writes a novella to expand the stories of her beloved characters at Christmas time. She emails out a chapter each day for advent with the conclusion of the story on Christmas Day-that was fun to look forward to each day.

  I really loved and enjoyed receiving the many cards this year-Thank yous to all of you that sent me a card-many will get reused for journaling challenges.

  This past week we have had beautiful sunrises, and all Christmas week my Amaryllis has bloomed-now 4 blooms total. photos here if you missed that post and here is a photo I took today showing the 4 lovely blooms. To be able to get all 4 blooms in the photo I placed it on the floor so I could take a photo looking down on the top. The first bloom is still very pretty too.

  

    Friday I finally figured out how I want to hand quilt the Yellowstone inspired quilt. I tried for straight lines opposed to the curvy animal motifs-as it will be easier and faster for me to quilt.  In the 4 patch blocks I thought I would like quilting two of them with diagonal lines and two down and across lines.  I am realizing that quilting all 4 blocks the same with down and across lines will be faster to do and I like the look better as well. So am seriously thinking of taking out the stitches in the other two blocks.

  Instead of trying to mark the lines this painters tape works out better for me. if you click on the photos they will enlarge to see the stitches better.

   These two fall leaf blocks I did the diagonal stitches. I thought it would make the blocks more interesting-but I don't care for these now.

    Usually when I hand quilt I have always stitched up the small stitches-so I am needing to remind myself to make larger stitches and also even same size stitches.

      Enjoy the rest of your Holiday weekend.