Lookie, Lookie, I Can Sew

Last weekend and mid-week we got plenty of snow. The end of the week the temps rose and the snow on the roof of our building started to melt. Proof of that melting can be seen outside my studio window. See the size of those icicles? They are huge!

One of the on-line groups I belong to does a Winter Solstice Swap. Each year we are given a list of eight types of items to give to our swap partner. Here is what I got in my swap package yesterday.

• Something to Give Away to a Friend – Ghirardelli Chocolates, how cruel to have to give them away. But, I gave them to my DIL last night and we shared them for dessert after our Christmas dinner

• Something Only For Me – a “Sweet Pea” bowl. How absolutely adorable. It will find a special place in my sewing room.

• Something to Help Me Enjoy My Winter Celebration – Christmas Placemats and Napkins. I don’t have any Christmas decorations for the table so these are perfect.

• Something that is recycled, recyclable and reusable – a bag from Brevard County, FL. It says on it “I’m Reducing my Waste Line”. How cool. It will go with my growing stash of recyclable bags. Speaking of bags, I brought them in with me when we went Christmas shopping at Target the other day. The look on the cashier’s face was priceless. She didn’t know how to respond.

But I digress . . .

• Something that represents your own special Winter Celebration (sleeping the night before Christmas . . . Or not sleeping) - Christmas pillowcases. I’ll have to see if I can get DH to give up his Patriots pillowcase for one night.

• Something the represents the promise of a New Year – Tropical two year calendar. Just the right size for my pocketbook.

• Something to help with shopping for the celebratory feast – magnetic Christmas note pad for writing lists. Since I don't have to cook a big meal I will use for our next grocery list.

• Something quilty (also a Black Friday bargain) - The Quilter’s Palette, a tonal collection of 20 FQs from Joanne’s. This came in very handy yesterday. Just read what happened between DH and I the other night: Friday night I started my usual weekend thought process: “What am I going to work on this weekend? I can work on . . . Nope, it’s packed . . . How about this . . . Nope, packed already. . . That? Nope, packed up too.” I guess I shouldn’t have started packing so quickly last weekend. So yesterday afternoon I started working on a somewhat mystery quilt on one of my other on-line groups.
  

That's what leads me to say, "Lookie, lookie, I can sew!" I cut apart each of those 20 FQs and this morning started sewing blocks together. It was so much fun to sit at my machine and hear the whir of the needle and thread joining the fabric together.
This afternoon I started stitching a redwork angel that came in another Christmas gift I got (I'll talk about that one later). I also have all my stitchery projects packed away and was so glad when I got this angel. I spent about four hours stitching her and here she is fresh the embroidery hoop. I feel so much better now.

Just in case you're wondering, we are waiting on getting a signed P&S agreement on yet another condo. We have verbal agreement from the seller and we are waiting for their signature on the documents. The closing won't be until the end of February so I may end up having to unpack a box or two so I have projects to keep me busy. More details to come after we have everything in place.

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you have a wonderful day!