I was so happy to receive these hostess gifts over the holidays. Just look at that lovely fabric. I think it’s all Civil War reprints. Wonderful fat quarters to add to my collection. … And the beautiful candy dish is another favorite. It’s not hard to find sweets to fill it up.

My friends and family have blessed me abundantly. The note makes me smile and smile until my head spins.

I’m still sewing away on my Orca Bay mystery quilt. I’m about to finish up the Ohio Stars. One thing I changed from the original directions was to make the black blocks with blue centers instead of red centers. Since the finished quilt has been revealed I thought maybe a blue center would help bring out a diagonal look a little more.

My sister Polly & I talked about swaping the dark Ohio Stars with the light Ohio Stars in the final layout. Can you see the difference it makes?

We had a lot of activity at our house over the holidays. The young people had fun singing around the piano & guitar.

Laura came to teach kindergarten for our church school. She is boarding with us and graces us with lovely music often.

My sister Coleen swinging with Ashton. “Put your right foot in, put your right foot out …. and shake it all about …”

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching these two friends develop a close relationship.

Two Katie Jo(s) at our house at one time. One a Schrock and the other a Clugston.

Jason & Karla Schrock, Katie Jo, & Lia along with Audrey & Krisi Dickerson.

Neil & Shelly Clugston with Katie Jo.

Amy & Ashton check out a deer that Paul shot.

Ashton helps Grampa fix his crib into a toddler bed.

When my sister Coleen and her daughter Claire Bleu had a ride to Mississippi they jumped at the chance to come for 2 days and sew with me.

Claire is making 2 dresses.

Coleen is working on a quilt, getting it ready for our sewing retreat in January.

 Claire worked hard with my EQ7 program to get the placement of the value of the fabrics and width of the strips just the right size.

She helped pick out and fine tune the fabric palette.

 These are the rejected fabrics.

Dustin decided to see if he could still fit into Ashton’s hot rod. 

He needs his head and feet in there yet.

Joel gives it a try. 

Oops, not that way! 

Almost, but not quite. 

If only I could …. 

Just a little more and you will fit!

Piece of cake!

 Yesterday we had our family in for lunch. All our our grands were here.
 

We opened our gifts in the afternoon.
 

McDonalds was a great hit!
 

Even the adults enjoyed the children’s play toys!

Aunt Evie holds teeny, tiny, Tina for the first time.
 

Here’s Paul showing my wonderfully whimsical quilt from Laura Wasiloski. http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/2011/12/surprise-for-one-lucky-quilter.html  If you haven’t read the story behind this quilt you may do so here. http://juliagraber.blogspot.com/2011/12/housing-department-20-and-orca-bay.html (Why doesn’t my “select” button work to make links?)
 

We fixed pizza for supper and had Angie’s family, the Greg Martins join us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I got a few more stringed triangles done on my Orca Bay Mystery Quilt. After trying out 2 different techniques of sewing the strings I resorted back to Bonnie’s telephone book pages for foundations. It’s working great for me. I also got my 56 red squares cut out for the centers of the Ohio Stars. I just need more time to sew!
 

1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. –Matthew 2:1-2

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of the one true Lord, Jesus Christ.

Dustin came home from Northern Youth Programs in Ontario, Canada yesterday. He met his girlfriend, Gina from New York, in Atlanta and they flew the last leg of their flights here together. We’re so glad to finally meet her in person and learn to know her better.
 

It is my week to clean the church house and they were great help.
 

The other evening we had a most beautiful sunset.

I think it was the prettiest I have ever seen.
  

I’m not good at photography so I kept changing the settings on my camera and just snapped lots of pictures in the ’folige,’ ‘kids & pets,’ ‘underwater,’ or ‘beach’ settings. I don’t know. I just picked the best ones to post here.

Just look at this wonderful little quilt made by http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/  Laura Wasilowski. It is her Housing Department #20 which now belongs to me. How did this all happen? You see, last evening I was rummaging through the mud room trying to find some cardbord and padding for a Christmas gift I was wrapping. There, among the used envelopes and boxes I found this flat padded bag with Paul’s name on it. It was stapled shut and I wondered what could this be? So I opened it. (Whatever belongs to me belongs to Paul and whatever belongs to Paul belongs to me. So you see, I had every right to open that bag!) And, oh my, I was so startled and delighted and happy. I couldn’t figure out how such a lovely little quilt would have gotten into my piles of discarded envelopes and bubble wrap. And here it was signed by Laura especially to me.

I ask Paul about it but he didn’t know anything and thought it was some sort of poster I was so excited about. He couldn’t figure out why I was so happy. So I thought I need to blog about this and see if anyone knows what it’s all about. Then Paul thought maybe it was some sort of mistake and I should wait a while. So I ended up calling my sister, Polly. http://pollythepatchworker.xanga.com/  She couldn’t talk long and at first she tried to fake innocense, but then she finally said that she and Barbara http://quiltingal.blogspot.com/ had made arrangements with Paul way back in July while we were at the AQS Quilt Show in Knoxville to purchase the quilt for me as a gift for Christmas from Paul. They somehow got the quilt to Paul and he stuck it in the mud room where I’d never find it and then he promptly forgot about it.

Then when I told him all that Polly said, he kinda stared and jumped and caught his breath. It all came back to him. We laughed and laughed and now I smile and smile that I have a lovely little quilt from him from Laura.

My Orca Bay mystery quilt is getting pushed aside way too much. I’m still lagging behind and haven’t even finished step 4 and we already have the directions for step 5. I decided to try sewing strips together and then cut out a 3.5″ strip horozontal from those strips. Then I’ll cut my triangles from that strip.
 

Paul and I are grandparents again.

This time to, Tina Sue, born to our youngest son, Craig & Ang.
 

We took lunch to them after church today soon after they arrived home. And I got to hold her again.

Julian & Jodie left yesterday morning. I was glad that we got her ”Disappearing Nine-Patch” quilt finished. She was so tickled and now I think her friends are quite envious.
 

Recently I found an older quilt top in a local antique store. I didn’t purchase it right away because I just wasn’t sure that I wanted to quilt it. After I got home and thought on it a while, I decided that I really should go back and inspect that quilt top and really see if it would be worth the time and effort to quilt. So I did.  After considering that it was hand stitched and in very nice shape and only cost $27.50 with a 10% discount, I purchased it. Now that I have it home, I feel like I really found a treasure. Unfortunately I don’t have any history of who made it or how old it is. If anyone can help me on dating it, I’d be so grateful. I put it in the quilt frame yesterday so as to have some had quilting available for over the holidays and this winter.
 

My nephew Julian and his wife Jodie are here for a week.

He is helping with concrete work for a local farmer. We are also keeping Tony, another fellow that is helping with the job.
 

While the men are off working during the day, I have been helping Jodie make a quilt.
 

We used the “Disappearing Nine Patch” pattern which is turning out marvelous. She is doing a great job!

My http://quiltville.blogspot.com Orca Bay Mystery Quilt is coming along very slow. I’ve only made 14 of the 128 triangles.

But now that I have found http://solvi01.blogspot.com/2011/12/orca-bay-4.html  Solvi’s way to make the units I think I’ll be able to tackle it much faster. So, you see, there is a benefit in not trying to be the first one finished. (I’m sorry that I can’t get the links right.)

The other evening our whole family with Paul’s folks went to Gordo, AL to see “Christmas Comes Alive.” We waited in the church’s auditorium until it was our turn to get on the wagons.
 

It was a chilly evening and we were glad to be bundled up warm.
 

The first scene was Isaiah giving the prophesy of Jesus birth.

Then there were the shepherds, the inn, the angles, the wise men, and then we were ushered to the barn where we found Mary, Joseph, & baby Jesus. We sat on hay bales and listened to the Christmas Story read from the New Testament and heard a few carols and …
 

… enjoyed the Nativity Scene.
 

They didn’t stop with Jesus birth but went on to tell about his ministry, ascension, and His coming return with emphasis on salvation through Jesus. “Come unto me all ye that labour and are are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” –Matthew 11:27

Then we were served hot chocolate and cookies in the church basement. It was a lovely evening.