dinner with friends

Michael was up early on Saturday (12/30) for golfing and I hopped up to get a start on dinner.  After he finished eating his perfect swiss/mushroom/spinach omelet, 

he took action shots of me making an ice box cake for dessert.  

He already made potato/carrot mash on Friday, 

so we popped that in the crockpot and I got to spend a bit of time in my studio.  It is really a total disaster, so I made a start on cleaning and putting things away (pictures in the coming days) before heading back to the kitchen.  I put together roll dough and a green bean casserole and a glaze for the ham.  

I got the table set up early….last time for the Christmas plates (until next year) and first time for my gold flatware:  

And, I started to figure out when everything had to go in the oven.  Paula & Doug: 

and Ralph & Candyce: 

arrived at 6 PM and pronounced everything wonderful.  We played several spirited hands of PIT, then a rousing game of SHEIST and finally headed to the living room for a bit of talking.  When everyone left we had an easy clean-up because we just left everything to soak overnight  :~).

new quilt loaded, Christmas Steven

Michael headed out to a hearing aid appointment and then breakfast at IHOP on Friday (12/29).  I knew I had short changed you all with no review or rating on the THE LAST JEDI (thx MJ :~), so when Michael got home I asked for an update.  He said if you hadn’t seen the original movies (meaning IV, V and VI), it was a good enough movie, but if you were fans of the original, it was really just a re-hashing of the same old thing.  Since he’s well versed in the originals, his rating was 2-1/2 fat quarters out of 5.  

I spent the day in my studio, finding it hard to settle on just one thing.  I did get a quilt loaded:  

but was totally disappointed in how narrow this bolt of fleece is.  I have started to make sure when I buy it now that it is a full 60 inches, but I guess I’ve had this for too long and it is not wide enough….it’s going to be challenging to quilt this when I have less than an inch on either side and I have no idea what second quilt I can put with it.  I loaded a double length because I thought a fish quilt could fit with it, but the fish is too wide  

:~(.  Michael made popcorn in the evening and we binge watched 5 of our AS TIME GOES BY shows before bed…it was a wonderful evening.

I HAVE to share this picture with you.  My friend BG indicated that for YEARS her hubby wanted some kind of Christmas clothing.  She said every time he would see a woman in a Christmas type sweater, he would ask why they didn't make those for men.  Well, apparently he hit the jackpot this year and she found him the perfect suit:

You GOTTA make this picture bigger by clicking on it....I canNOT believe he is wearing this, but she said he was in his glory!  Hope you enjoyed it...it certainly made me smile :~).  I do have to say that that is a man who is totally secure with himself....what a good thing!

Clinton top finished, dinner at Paula & Doug's

Thursday morning (12/28) was all about packing up the car to get to quilting.  We only had 9 hard core quilters willing to brave the cold (and get out from under the holiday mess), but we all had a lovely time and still had some show and tell:  

Floy with a cute appliqued top

Linda with a jelly roll race quilt

Linda with a fidget quilt

I finally finished off a quilt top that I started at retreat this year (and guess what?  The binding is all made too :~):  

and managed to finish all 48 blocks for another quilt started at retreat (Michael laid these out on the design wall when I got home):  

This means I get to start a new project to take to Thursday quilting….YAY!!!  

I spent the afternoon cutting fish strips to put borders on the 3 Clinton fish quilts…that is the last thing I want to finish up this week, and then the rest of the week will be straightening up my studio so that I start 2018 with a clean slate  :~).  I finally managed to snap pics of Michael's 3 Christmas cacti, which are all blooming right on time:

We were invited to Paula And Doug’s 

for dinner, so we got there just before 6 PM.  Here’s how sweet Paula is….she heard me mention once that I liked chicken piccata, so that’s what we had for dinner and it was scrumptious!  

She also made yellow rice, buttered broccoli and a totally yummy strawberry/cream cheese/pretzel gelatin salad:  

It was a terrific meal, and she had the cutest homemade gingerbread men for dessert:  

We laughed a LOT while we played several hours of SEVENS and then a rousing game of SHEIST before heading home.  Doug was the big victor for all of the games  :~).  Michael and I read in front of the fire for a bit before heading to bed.

another QoV totally finished

I ran out to WALMART first thing Wednesday morning (12/27) and got everything I was looking for….without the horrible crowds I am sure were there yesterday  :~).  After that it was a quick stop at Joann’s and I was home by 10 AM.  My honey made me a smurfy breakfast:  

before leaving for errands of his own.  I spent the entire day and night in my studio, mostly working on cleaning up the second Quilt of Valor and getting it bound.  Michael left at 7 PM to pick up Larry to see the latest STAR WARS movie and by the time he came home at 11 PM, I had another Quilt of Valor completely finished:  

I also spent a good bit of time in the evening cutting additional strips needed to finish my 2 Scrap Happy Quilting projects.

totally finished QoV, pane bianco

Before I forget (as I did with all of the excitement of yesterday’s Christmas blog!!), I had several questions on my transformation from this: 

to this:  

I only had 5 inches left of a gold color,  so I cut 4 strips at 1-1/8 inches wide and got out one of my trusty bias tape makers:  

Making sure I didn’t put any curves in the fabric, I made non-bias tape and appliquéd it down on the top of the quilt.  Using the tape maker I got 2 finished edges, so that was great.  It took me a long time, but I think it looks a lot better, so that’s all that matters.

It was only 33 degrees when Michael got up on Tuesday (12/26), but he bundled up and left for golf.  I managed to get binding done for one quilt:     

before leaving for Pat’s.  She is helping me with a bit more embroidery, and I didn’t get home until just after 1 PM.  I called Jan and we met at the Lake House at 2 PM to go water walking.  I was home just around 4 PM and headed to my studio to see if I could get something going  :~).  I worked on applying the binding to my quilt and by the time I went upstairs to watch TV with my honey...I was done!  I stitched down the label in the evening and I’ve got another quilt of valor to donate: 

YAY!

My friend Arizona Mary is going to town with her baking...here's her pane bianco ready to go in the oven:

I was sad she didn't have a finished picture...but I'll bet they just ate it too fast as it looked SO yummy!!

Christmas Day!!

Merry Christmas!!!  

What a perfect day…..we opened our first presents in bed before we got up: 

from outdoor Santa & peanutty crunchy Santa

and continued to open them all day long, finally finishing around 8 PM.  

from already tested Santa & silly Santa

warm & snuggly Santa

TV watching Santa

fidget spinner in action

living/breathing Santa & SYFY Santa #1

not born free Santa, you must remember this Santa, SYFY Santa #2

putting the pieces together Santa, LLAP Santa, one of your very own Santa

solar Santa #1

what's cooking Santa

make it so Santa & NOT another one Santa!

put 2000 nickels in the nickleodean Santa & solar Santa #2

We drank champagne, addressed our Christmas cards, watched movies 

and had upside down dinner (waffles & bacon).  

Note Christmas china, finally making a re-appearance after a decade of being stored in a box....YAY!!

We relaxed and reconnected and just had a wonderful time.  

Speaking of Christmas presents, I have to show you this truly incredible sewn piece from my friend June.  June got a photo of her aunt’s house from long ago (on the right) and replicated it in fabric (on the left).  How she did this I do not know, even though I have watched her do it…it is a truly incredible feat and I hope you enjoy seeing it (you should really click on the picture to make it bigger):

June is certainly an artist with fabric!

And now...I thought I would leave you with the ULTIMATE in Christmas cuteness: