Karrin's Crazy World: December 2022

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Slow Sunday Stitching, Busy, Busy Weeks

It has been another crazy busy couple of weeks. Last weekend my daughter Katie, granddaughter Klara, and I went to see A Christmas Carol downtown. Scrooge was such and amazing actor, and I was impressed by the little guy who played Tiny Tim. He must have been about 3 but he got his line right, "God bless us, every one".

I was in the Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange Blog Hop last Monday, coordinated by the amazing Carol @ Just Let Me Quilt. My post was here. Last week was also our annual Christmas party at our guild meeting, and we had a potluck, and then we played Left Right and Center after lunch for Jelly Rolls of fabric which the guild provided. I was one of the last two people standing to win a jelly roll I loved in blues and turquoise batiks, when my co-chair of community service had the last winning roll!

That day also my granddaughter Kyleigh's boyfriend Drew graduated from nursing school, and his mother, who is also a nurse presented him with his hood. They didn't have enough tickets for everyone to attend, but I was able to go to the dinner at his parents house and met his other grandparents. I knew one set already.

Drew and Kyleigh

Drew and his mom

This week, a friend from guild and I went to see a production of the Nutcracker, which was quite impressive.

Also in the last couple of weeks I made and boxed up about 13 types of cookies, of which 2 kinds I made sugar free for my SIL Jeff, who was starting to have problems with his blood sugar. He has lost 30 pounds, and his sugar is in normal range now. I made these sugar free Peanut Butter Buckeye Balls. I also made these Sugar Free Thumbprint Cookies. He particularly liked the Buckeye Balls. I always make a little plate for my mailman and when I see that he is almost to my house, I will run out and put them in the mailbox with his name on them. This time, on the back of one of my pieces of junk mail, he had written this:

I saw a picture on Facebook recently my daughter posted of two of my granddogs. The pug is named Rigby, but everyone calls him Piggy because he runs around and eats out of everyone's bowl. The Chihuahua is Ronald. I go to their house and Piggy is scratching at my legs. I sit down and Ronald wants in my lap, then Piggy wants in my lap and they start scuffling around and snarling at each other. I have to watch out for Piggy because with my thin skin he can make me bleed. He's just over a year old I think and has a lot of energy.

Christmas-wise, in between a lot of activities, I have been making gifts. I machine embroidered a bunch of things, but can't share those yet. We drew names, and daughter Kristen wanted me to make her some Christmas napkins. I made 16, and gave her some others I had purchased a long time ago to embroider on, but never got around to it.

I also made the annual pillowcases for the grandchildren, plus girlfriends and boyfriend. They each get one in their Christmas stocking, along with some treats, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Fabrics vary according to their likes, we have matchbook cars, mystical cats, and a bunch of cats sitting on a fence, mermaids, moose, flying dogs, and pugs and elephants.

Grandson Jaeger, who just turned 20 last week, asked if I would embroider something on the bottom of the sleeve for him and his girlfriend Cali. I knew that Brenda @Songbird Designs would digitize custom quilt labels. I asked if she would make a motif for Jaeger's sweatshirt that I could stitch on my Bernina embroidery machine. She did, and I am very happy the way they came out. I did have to take the cuffs off, and rip out most of the sleeve seam so I could put the hoop on.

So it stands for Jaeger + Cali, and I guess 2/28/20 was when they first went out. They are sage colored hoodies but that color doesn't show through here. I now need to sew up the arms and put the cuffs back on.

Tonight, Saturday night I am going with my daughter and SIL to an annual Christmas party her neighbor throws, who is apparently a really good cook.

Sunday afternoon my brother Bill and sister-in-law Char will be arriving here for one night, and then heading up to Oregon a couple of days, and then back on the 22nd to spend Christmas. My sister Mary will be staying with Kristen, and my brother Allen will also be coming in on the 23rd for the first time to spend Christmas with the family. We will probably spend Christmas eve at my house and open gifts, and Christmas dinner at Kristen's house where there is likely to be a very large crowd.

What I will be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching this week is my Christmas Woolie Gnome. I still have a bit more to finish on this guy. I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. Be sure and check out what everyone has been up to.

I saw this on Facebook recently and thought it was hilarious!

Happy Holidays everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, December 04, 2022

Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange Starts Today

The Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange Blog Hop starts today and is also my day. This is hosted by the fabulous Carol @Just Let Me Quilt. This is the 5th year I have participated in this blog hop, and I think it is my favorite of the year. The entire line-up is at the end of this post.

This is the challenge this time:

Challenge: (recipes are optional)

You can share a recipe or not.

Share Christmas quilts or projects.

Tell us about your Christmas traditions.

Show off your Christmas decorations/tree.

Spill your funny Christmas stories.

If it's about Christmas, we want to hear about it!

Every year I make about 10-12 types of cookies and pack up boxes for my family and neighbors and friends. I like to try a new one each year. There are old family favorites that have to be made every year, such as typical Christmas sugar cookies out of a 1970's Family Circle cookbook. I never felt like taking the time to roll out and cut out the cookies. My husband John for many years made the sugar cookies. He made them with my daughters, and grandchildren. I took over when he was not able to do so any more. Jaeger is now going to college.

Another family favorite is fudge. My recipe can be found here on the Virtual Cookie Exchange from 2018. Another favorite is Crunchy Peanut Bark and the recipe can be found here. Another favorite is the Chocolaty Melting Snowmen, and the recipe can be found here.

What I made new this year are Andes Mint Cookies. Mine aren't as pretty as her picture, but they are very good. The recipe can be found here.

My house is all decorated with the help of my grandchildren.

I've made a lot of my decorations. The grandma and grandpa dolls I dress in Christmas clothes every year. The large Santa on the left and the dolls behind him I also made long ago.

I made the angel and the guy beside her and the big and little carolers I made long ago and sold at a Christmas craft fair.

I painted this sleeping Santa years ago too.

This was one of my first quilts, and I painted the angel ceramics above them a long time ago.

Be sure and visit the other bakers/makers below and see what everyone has to share. Thanks again Carol for hosting this wonderful hop!

Slow Sunday Stitching

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted. I got busy with preparing for preparing for Thanksgiving at my house, and having a house guest, my step-daughter Dawn came to spend Thanksgiving with us. Grandson Jaeger was home from college and his girlfriend Cali joined us. They also ate a second dinner at her family's house. Also joining us for the first time was my son-in-law Jeff's parents. His mother helped me set up the table the day before, and cooked the veggies and 2 pies, and a delicious appetizer. I usually mostly cook the entire meal myself, so this was quite a treat! Jan also brought 2 beautiful cornucopia flower arrangements.

I made some new napkins for Thanksgiving.

This was our entire group

Jeff and his parents

Keaton seemed to be loving his mashed potatoes.

Jaeger and Cali

My two daughters, and stepdaughter Dawn

My grandchildren

This is a picture of my driveway on Thanksgiving. Good thing it is circular and has entrances at both ends!

Anyway we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and much fun was had by everyone. Right after Thanksgiving my grandsons helped me get my Christmas stuff down from the attic, helped set up the tree, and get my Christmas houses down from the shelf in the living room.

Last week our guild had a 5th Wednesday workday, where we get together at a local church and either quilt community service quilts, put together tops, some people put together pillow cases which we distribute to children's wards of hospitals. I started quilting a small quilt, which I still need to finish. I wasn't able to upload my picture for some reason.

I also made some of these hearts. What these are for is for mothers of babies in the NICU to put against their skin to gain their scent, and then they put in the babies isolettes.

Also in the past couple of weeks I finished up these Christmas ornaments and turned them in to our boutique to try to sell. I found these mostly completed on the free table at a guild meeting.

This week I have done a couple of non-quilt related quilt projects. A friend of my daughter's and mine asked me to shorten and hem some drapes. Grandson Keaton asked that I put his new patches on his letterman jacket.

Friday night daughter Kristen's family and I, and Keaton's girlfriend Addie attended a Trans Siberian Concert which was fantastic and quite a show. We got back to town quite late, and had a delicious late night dinner at Mel's.

Next up in the coming week is to get my annual Christmas cookies made. I have my list made and my ingredients purchased.

I haven't had much time or energy to do any slow stitching lately, but hope to remedy that. For Slow Sunday Stitching this week I will be working on this Kathy Schmitz project that I seem to have fallen behind. The goal was to do one section a month, and I am a few months behind!

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. Head on over and check out what everyone has been up to.

Monday is the start of the Virtual Christmas Cookie exchange and also my day. Be sure and come back and check it out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, December 02, 2022

Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange Blog Hop Starting Monday

The Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange Blog Hop starts Monday, hosted by the fabulous Carol @Just Let Me Quilt. I can't wait. I think this is my favorite blog hop of the year. The updated line up is below.

These are the fabulous maker/bakers you'll meet: