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!