Holidays - Minimalist Style

Because of this:

my Christmas decorating looks like this:

instead of this:

My darling grand-daughters (ages 6 and almost 8) came over, poked around my Christmas boxes, put out a few things, got bored and pronounced Nahn Nahn's Christmas decorating done.  And so it is what it is this year and I an blessed to be here to enjoy it. Seriously, this is it......no more no less.

.......because Jesus is the reason for my season.

On The Way To Holiday Lane

First things first........before I lose my copy.......ta da......paste the list for today.

Thursday November 29

Words & Stitches

Trying to Blog

Peanut's Patchwork

Moosestash Quilting

A Loose Thread

stitch, stitch, stitch

In Stitches and Seams

Hooked on Quilting

A Reformed Heath'n

Elaine - that other blog

As Sweet as Peaches

The Learning Curve Quilts and Such

Geema's Wonderings

now the explanation.   Please be patient with me.  I am typing with one finger of my left hand due to this:

So here is what happened on the way to Holiday Lane.  Knowing that I was leaving for a trip to Portugal and Spain, I began my project early.  I had the pattern from last year and was really looking forward to playing with embellishments to make one for me. So I sewed sewed sewed and went off to Spain knowing that I could finish when I got home.

On November 2, at a lovely Pousada in Evora, Portugal I fell while coming down a granite staircase. I will forever maintain that I was coming down carefully.  I will also add that the maid had been out damp-mopping the steps...........not such a good thing to be doing at 8:00 in the morning when guests are coming down to breakfast.

Sew.......after surgery in Portugal, 2 pins inserted, cast, and assorted pain issues I have realized (as have all of you by now) that my Holiday Lane Pillow will not be completed for this season.  

Fortunately I had taken a picture of its progress just before I left.  I present to you my well-intentioned efforts:

What you don't see is that I had added red beads to one the trees and little lights on one of the house eaves. 
Sew for now this is an UFO.  I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at everyone's creations.

A New Career?

Thanks to a member of my quilt guild who seems to be buddies with the Mancuso brothers, we get to volunteer to help out at PIQF (Pacifc International Quilt Fest) in Santa Clara.  This year I signed on to be a scribe for the judges.  It was so much fun and I learned a lot.  I was assigned to work with Frieda Andersen and we worked with another judge, Jennie Reyment to view the 92 quilts in the Wall Quilts category.  The Mancuso brothers even treated everyone to lunch.  Here I am with judge, Frieda.  I didn't make any decisions.  I just took down notes. 

The judging took place on Wednesday.  I went back down to the show on Friday morning to help sell raffle tickets for my guild, Amador Valley Quilters, raffle quilt.  At noon, I took a break, ate lunch and then toured the vendors.  I had already seen the quilts on Wednesday.  And then..............I met with several ladies and our "quilt diva", Karen to get ready to model for the garment fashion show to be held that evening.  What fun!  A little back stage look at modeling.  It was my first time, but thanks to veteran "model/volunteers of every size", I caught on to the routine and survived.  I intended to take more pictures but the time flew by as we rushed back and forth changing clothes. 

First up were the Cherrywood designs.  I really liked this jacket.

A glimpse into the dressing room that 4 of us shared along with our dresser/pressers and garments

We all called this "Little Red Riding Hood".  I had to be careful not to trip over the cape.

Another glimpse of the backside of the cape along with my dresser, Karen. 

The evening was quite fun and interesting.  If given the opportunity, I might sign up again.  Several of our model/volunteers have been doing the show for years.  There was lots of laughs going on.  One more life experience to add to my resume.

Just A Little Fall Fun

I didn't have anything to work on at Quiltinators last Monday so I brought along some fabric stash and began making strip sets.  Then I cut them into 2 1/2" strip squares.  I wasn't sure that my funky strip sets and squares were going to work well in some sort of order for a quilt top.  But I've played around with them and come up with: 

The dark squares are daisies on black.

I think this will work.  It has Fall/Halloween colors and if you study it closely, there is a repeating pattern in the rows.  I have plenty of fabric for wide borders so I'll make this the center.  

Next a sneak peak of a project that I'll eventually be putting up for a blog hop called Holiday Lane Pillow.  I'm only going to put a sneak peak here.  I don't have an assigned day for the official unveiling yet AND I still need to embellish and put the pillow together.

And that's what I've been working on lately.

A Little This A Little That

Here is a little something that I've been working on.  Thanks to the Sew Expo at the County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, I came home with a Sashiko project, needles and thread. 

Then there is this UFO that's been hanging around since January.  I've finally gotten around to meandering around the background.  I still have the borders to think about and then binding, etc.  Maybe (just maybe) I could get this finished for the AVQ Guild Show in April. 

And the finale for this post ..........today was a trip to the Alden Lane Quilt Show.  Unfortunately, there are no pictures of quilts but there are a couple of pictures of friends having tea at the English Rose Tea Room before the show. 

I take that back.  Here is Carol with quilts in the background.

A girls day out and the perfect parking spot in downtown Pleasanton.

It's good to be the queen on your birthday.  Happy B-Day Michelle!

The Queen's Tea

Michelle, Leslie, Sue, Susan.......enjoying the outing.

And why not end with a picture of my favorite girls who came over for dinner yesterday evening.  Love you M and V!

Decisions

One thing about a digital camera, it gives you opportunities to view and analyze projects quickly.  Just yesterday, I played around with these UFO strips in hopes that I might be inspired to make them into something.  It came down to two ideas. 
This: 

A little boring

Or this:

A bit more interesting though it needs some tweaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is also going to be smaller when everything is sewn together so more decisions will have to be made about borders.  For now, it is living on my design wall and marinating. 

Today - a Birthday Remembered

Today would have been Stephen's 36th birthday here on earth.  But he doesn't reside here among us anymore.  He resides in heaven with God.  We, his family, who are left here take this day to celebrate our son, our brother, our uncle.  We love you Stephen.  You are in our hearts forever. 

A footprint to remind us of how you have left footprints on our hearts.

Jon's family celebrating you.

Flowers tossed out to the sea in remembrance of you

Mom meditates and sends out her flowers with love.

Remember this quilt.  Mom made it for you in 1996.  You were in college at Sonoma State

Laughing and loving our family, knowing you are looking down from above.

Window Out, Window In

Today is the day!  We've had the faux stained glass window (with the crack) removed and they've put in our new window.  It wasn't a cheap replacement considering that the window has a slant at the top.  It's double glazed which will help with noise and heat/cold.  Now we need to measure and get a blind for it.  The ultimate plan is to get a real stained glass piece to hang in the triangle area.  As I write, they are also installing the bathroom window.  Now ALL the windows in this house have been done.  Yeah! 

Old faux stained glass....cute but had a crack and the faux stuff was looking a bit "faux".

Can't believe how fast they got that window out of there.

New window in place......lovely!

Borders On

I went to Quiltinators today and got the borders on my scrappy quilt.  I've given it a name......Just Scraps.  I literally was able to make this quilt from scraps and stash fabrics.  There is not one new fabric in it.  Now I need to raid the stash and see what kind of a just scrap/stash backing I can put together. 

I would love to get it sandwiched and quilted this week so I can take it to Quilt Guild on Saturday but that is not going to happen.  I have DGD duty tomorrow and then on Wednesday I am heading out for a girlfriend get-together with my "other mother" friends, Mary and Sandy.  It's been a reunion weekend.  Yesterday I spent the day with my BFF from High School, Andrea.  We just picked up where we left off. 

There is nothing quite like the blessings that friends from all aspects of your life bring to you. 

Last Chance Fun Before School

It is now an official tradition.....the DGDs get to go on a mini-vacation with Nahn Nahn and PopPop the week before school starts.  Anything we do twice in our family becomes tradition and this was our second before school starts trip.  This time we included two overnights.

The trip began with a day at our house with crafts, snacks, and a movie before bedtime.  I finally got everyone to watch Pete's Dragon, which was one of Stephen and Jon's all time favorites (by my recollection).  The girls enjoyed it and weren't even aware of how dated the animation techniques were from 1979.  Jim and I enjoyed the songs.  Remember "Candle on the Water" sung by Helen Reddy? 

The next day we were off to Santa Cruz and the Boardwalk.  We were a little slow getting going but it turned out to be a good thing because the Boardwalk attractions didn't open until 1:00 p.m.  We had time for lunch and then it was off to the rides. 

This train ride had a little bit of Disney influence but not quite as polished.  The girls loved it.

Look!  It's Pete's Dragon!

Makayla's all-time favorite ride.  She rode it 8 times.

What's not to be happy about?  We just finished ice cream cones.

PopPop got talked into riding in the front of this one so Makayla wouldn't get so wet. (Her idea.)

The DGDs made a friend along the way and shared a ride together.

Miniature Golf for the first time.  They LOVED it.

Heading back to the car via the Sky Ride.  A perfect day. 

 Our hotel was a very nice Fairfield Inn in Capitoal just down the road from Santa Cruz.  Along the way, we discovered a great Pizza restaurant for dinner.  The hotel included breakfast the next morning and the girls loved having all the great choices.  Then we were off to Felton to ride the Roaring Camp Steam Railroad. 

Embarking on more family fun.

Sunlight through the redwoods......stunning!

The Little Engine That Could......

Never saw a log I couldn't climb.

Happiness on a sunny day.

Returning back to the station.

It was a great mini-vacation!