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.

T Stands for Tuesday Craft Projects & Tamales & a Bit More

    Hi everyone,

       Happy T Stands for Tuesday where we gather over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog for T. You are most welcome to join us just share a drink related photo in your post and link up. Have fun visiting everyone

    Last week I ended up getting some things done-at least it feels like I have been busy-haha.

   I have not yet started weaving-sigh, I am too tired to concentrate in the evenings, or my days have been busy it seems-a good thing though.

  I did grab my big Yellowstone inspired quilt I made last year to try the hand quilting again. I had made the wool quilt, two gift quilts, and this very large one last year. I think by the time I got to this one I was "quilted out" for awhile. I made the  quilts--3 completed plus this one in less than 2-3 months.

  I tried using the three different sized wooden hoops I kept, but none were comfortable for me to hand quilt, and this is a large and thick flannel quilt so I had a hard time getting it tight top and bottom in the hoops. I did figure out simple line stitches as it was hard for me to manage curves for animals on this thick quilt. My hands are not as good as they once were either. So, I made room for my vintage Sears quilt frame-set it up and it's ready to stitch now. That took me a bit to remember how the frame went together and which was the right direction to work at as well.  I ended up re pinning the quilt on three times to get it right-I am getting too slow these days.

  After my Yellowstone trip back in 2017 I collected these fabrics over several years. they are quilt quality flannels or brushed cottons and I love the flannel wide backing that is all one piece and I put in a wool batting. This quilt will be warm and cozy.

and I took this photo from behind the loom--so this room is quite full now-my vintage oak desk with computer and printer are to the left of these photos and to the right are vintage cabinets, dressers, book shelving.  This room is off the kitchen and I think originally the previous owner said this was a porch of some sort that they converted to a room with a large closet-which is to the left by my desk-this room has no venting for heat or a/c but it is always comfortable to work in. It also has a door to the outside of the house-which I thought would be perfect to store firewood, when we get the woodstove working 

  I also ordered the oblique calligraphy pen, two nibs and india ink to teach myself calligraphy-wanting to be able to address pretty envelopes in the least.  The pen and nibs arrived Saturday but still waiting on the ink.  So as you can see I am set up for a few months ahead with fun craft projects.

  Saturday, we finally had no wind so I could start the long process of burning leaves. There are soooo many here for such a small lot. In the woods I only raked away from the house and never burned them.  Here, I need to burn them or figure out a way to compost them-but then we have allot of black walnut trees and those are not good for the soil-so I need to research that out if after burning or composting if safe for the garden or not. Do any of you gardeners know? Black walnuts have something in them to prevent seeds and plants from growing around them, but not sure about the leaves

A friend gave me these, and I thought they were the strangest thing-but they work sooo well scooping up lots of leaves to put in above burn pit

My water bottle

  

    Friday, My  husband finally got brand new tires-his were bald, two needed to be aired up frequently, and when he had gotten a flat-I said that 's it please order tires-so he has safe tires now. 😀 My car is really old and has some issues and living so rural,  we need one very reliable vehicle.  

   I made tamales one day last week. We really like them but they are time consuming to make. I made around 30 and then froze the rest to make later.

I also made a batch of Chex mix with all gluten free cereals, crackers and pretzles, and I use less salt-I don't add in the salt that is in the recipe except for the Worchester sauce.

Pre sunrise photos over the lake this weekend

Sunday morning early, I did a big food shopping trip and saw these amaryllis bulbs and brought one home with me. I love them and haven't had one in awhile This came in a pottery pot too. They either had red ones or Minerva I chose the later as it looked like a more interesting bloom color.

    My herbal tea cup is in front. I have been adding a Bigelow green tea and lemon tea bag along with the two herbal teas which makes a delicious tea.

Happy T everyone.

  and Update Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the USA

Thread Finally Arrived and Lemon Meringue Pie

    I was happy happy to finally to see the thread in my mailbox for the flannel quilt

I thought I came pretty close with the color having to choose colors online. I wanted the color to blend in a bit for the backing, and not be to dark to use on the blocks with white backgrounds.

I also got the needles in last Saturday. I have allot of needles in my stash, many I picked up at garage sales or resale shops but I didn't have quite the right ones for this project or for wool applique. These are Sue Spargo's smaller collection of needles  and hoping one of the chenilles will work for this quilt.

  I have not made us a from scratch lemon meringue pie since we moved to the lake house. I really like baking this in my dutch ovens outdoors over a fire but haven't got set up for that yet here.   For some reason the meringue did not want to get super stiff like it should but I think it will still be good. I baked a ground almond crust.