Christmas Cookies and Quilts for Vets

I'm very happy to be hosting Christmas Eve dinner this year yet I'm amazed that I'm not stressing at all over it. 

Today my granddaughters and their friend frosted sugar cookies for the holiday season. It's so fun to let them do their thing. It's also a tradition that Jeff gets in there too to help. It's his favorite Christmas cookie so he's always ready to sample a few - haha!

I bought the girls goody bags for St. Nick's day and there were suckers with handles shaped like lips. They just had to try them out. 

I grabbed some quilts from my Sweet Sundays quilt group for my husband to take to Zablocki VA Hospital for veterans. His Legion Riders group goes to visit at Christmastime and he likes to take quilts along to give away. This year my group had 18 quilts for him to take.

I didn't realize until I took the photo that the quilts are sitting on my new Ikea furniture purchases. I think I will take that as a hint that I better get going on putting it together. I love assembling Ikea stuff.

The Smith-Corona Typewriter

My granddaughter Chloe loved the series Wednesday on Netflix. She seems to like characters that are darker and more mysterious. This show really fit the bill for her. It was hard to explain to her about the television show The Munsters that we watched as kids and how this was a spin-off. Like something old can't be new again. 

In the series Wednesday types her stories on an old typewriter. After seeing that, Chloe was very interested in typewriters and she wanted one. Of course the one used in the series was an old antique that would be very expensive to find as well as harder to make work. But I started searching for one anyway.  After much research, I've found that it was going to be a tough find. I started combing Facebook Marketplace, Craig's List and Amazon. I found typewriters available but they were very expensive. After a few months of looking - I really wanted it for a Christmas gift - I put it in the back of my mind.

One day while on Facebook, I see an ad on FB Marketplace for a Smith-Corona typewriter from the 70's. It wasn't as old as the antique one Chloe saw on tv, but it was exactly like one I had when I was in high school. I contacted the seller and picked it up for cheap that same day. What a streak of luck.

I couldn't wait for her to get home from school so I could surprise her. She was tickled pink. We got out some copy paper and she started typing away. It's funny what you know that younger generations don't know. Like using the return carriage on a typewriter! I had to show her how to pull the lever from right to left to start a new row. She could not figure it out. I wonder if there's a YouTube video for that - haha!

                                         

Chloe typed and typed.

Chloe shows her sister Avery how it works.

Even Peyton had to see how it worked, I think she likes the sound of the clicking.

Chloe was generous enough to let Avery give it a try.

Her first letter was to her grandpa.

After making a bunch of 3-yard quilts for Quilts for Kids, I had a bunch of leftover scraps. I decided to turn the scraps into project bags and zipper pouches. It never hurts to get ahead before the next craft fair.

I dug through my giant collection of zippers and did my best to match them to the fabrics.

I used military themed fabrics to make some larger zipper pouches and lots of smaller scraps for 4" little pouches. It was a lot of fun matching zippers to lining and outer fabrics.

My Kitty Peyton

My granddaughter is part of her school's art docent program. Once a month she gets to take a trip to the Milwaukee Art Museum and learn about art. I am lucky enough to be a chaperone and I love it. It's an amazing opportunity to get to experience the art with a guide who is an expert. We all learn so much. These are all of the 4th graders who get to participate in the program from her school. 

While we were there we had some fun taking photos among the art. She is such a pleasure to be around. 

I was lucky enough to score some scrap batting from the quilt shop this week. We have so many samples made and there's always a little batting leftover from each project. If the batting scraps are big enough we use them for table runners. If they're too narrow for table runners I take them to my church sewing group. We sew the scraps together to make batting pieces big enough for our charity quilts. It looks like I have a lot of sewing ahead of me!

                                

My kitty loves to help me quilt. When I'm sewing she sits on the sewing table and when I'm planning quilt tops, she's right there to make sure she sees what's happening. When she rests in the sewing room, it's usually on a quilt loaded on the longarmer.

                      

                                         

I love hanging with her. She is absolutely delightful. She's just 9 months old and so much fun. Her energy level is through the roof. One of the funniest thing she does is she chases the ball on the television screen. Whether it's a Bucks game or in this case, the Super Bowl, she loves to go after them. Footballs, basketballs, and even baseballs are fair game for her - haha!

 

Since she's an athletic girl who was born in Denver, her name is Peyton Meowning. 

 

Peyton helps me iron table toppers.

 

Peyton takes a break in her hammock.

Peyton wishes she was outside.

On a fun note, my boss has a hot dog steamer and I borrowed it to use while watching my granddaughters. I couldn't wait to try it out and surprisingly the hot dogs tasted so much better cooked this way. I don't know if it was the steaming process itself or just the fun of thinking that it made a difference. 

 

My Other Projects

Last year my neighbor asked for advice on fixing some cushion covers for their camper. I gave them some advice on what to do however, I think they figured out that it was a bigger project than they could handle. I know he sews but I can't say I blame him for not wanting to tackle this project. So he brought me some canvas yardage and the cushions. I decided to reuse the zippers because they were the only part of the cushion covers that were in great shape. Plus they would be very expensive to replace and I am all about repurposing things. It wasn't a tough job, it only took one afternoon to complete. I hope they get years of enjoyment out of them.

I longarm quilted a charity quilt. for a friend from the quilt shop. It's very pretty and I recognize the fabrics because I used them in a quilt a long time ago.

I refused payment for the quilting so next thing you know, I get a Starbucks gift card from her for my efforts. It really wan not necessary. It seems now that I've learned to say no to most requests for quilting I really get to enjoy the process for the ones I choose to do. I love not having to stress about deadlines for other people's projects. 

My daughter is moving to a new place where my granddaughters will have their own rooms. They've shared a bedroom forever so we wonder if they will miss each other when they move. With more time to spare, Jeff and I volunteered to paint our granddaughter's new bedrooms. They both chose some interesting colors.

I guess after seeing this, they will be ok with being in their own spaces. 

I made some balsamic reduction. I think I should have used the entire bottle of balsamic vinegar considering how little is left after cooking. I don't know what I was thinking since I make this stuff all the time. We go through lots of it. 

Pencil Cases

I'm starting to get used to my new embroidery machine. This week I made some pencil cases using some new embroidery files I ordered online. I had two different bundles of teacher-themed fabrics so I decided to make some pencil cases using a little of the fabrics in the bundles. Thanks to ZipIt, the Etsy store that sells zippers cheap, I have plenty of zippers on hand so I can easily find one to match most projects. 

I didn't really follow any specific pattern or tutorial to make these pouches. I did look at the finished sizes of a few sewing blogs that had online tutorials and I settled on a finished size of 9" x 5". Here are the two I made. 

I discovered that I like the look of the embroidery on linen. Luckily, I have 10 yards of this good stuff. I washed it along with 10 yards of muslin to use as stabilizer on the back.

My granddaughters will give the pouches to their teachers during teacher appreciation week in April. I hope it is easy for the to decide who gets what.

A Christmas Wrap-Up

You would think that since I am retired from the workforce (well kind of, I do have a part-time job at a quilt shop now) that the holidays would be less stressful. Well, they are not. Maybe it is because I pile on more things to do than I did before or maybe it is because I am getting older and I can't get things done as quickly and easily as I did when I was younger. It is most likely a little of both. 

I started decorating my house sooner than in years' past and I loved the ease of getting it done. The outside of my house looks pretty good and we didn't break our necks to get the lights on. 

We spent an evening decorating cookies with our daughter and granddaughters. Chloe is not pictured since she didn't last long with the decorating - she hates getting her hands dirty. Avery chose to color the frosting in deep, dark colors. 

We also spent an evening walking through Oak Creek's city square. It was beautifully decorated. Since we had just finished Christmas shopping with our granddaughters with a stop for a scoop of custard, the girls had lots of energy to run around the square.

One morning, Jeff saw a story on the local news where Wisconsin State Fair was selling their famous state fair cream puffs in a chocolate whipped cream version. So we ordered some online and he drove down to pick them up. They were a fantastic Christmas season treat.

We dabbled with making old fashioneds. They seem to be most famous at bars and supper clubs here in Wisconsin so we thought we would try to make them ourselves. Since the pandemic, we've regularly tried our hand at mixing our own cocktails. Some turn out better than others. I think we will have to try again with this one, I'm not so sure I did it right.

One of the last-minute gifts I made was this bag with fabric from the television show The Office. My sister commented that her son's girlfriend would LOVE a bag from the fabric and I really didn't plan on taking the "hint" but I caved the night before Christmas Eve. I used the bag to put my nephew's Christmas gift inside. My sister was quite surprised when she saw the bag.

And today, I mailed out my last Christmas package to my son. The Oak Creek post office was so far backlogged that my postman suggested I wait until after Christmas to send the package. The package was going to my son in Colorado and I already sent him the most important gift which should have gotten to him on December 19th but arrived on his doorstep on Christmas Eve. So I had him and his fiancé covered for the holiday for the most part. 

It felt so good mailing that package this morning, like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. 

Yesterday we picked up my leftover crafts from the pop-up shop at Hillside Coffee House, it was nice to discover that some things sold there. I also finished another holiday table topper yesterday. I still have a few more works-in-progress that will have to wait until next year. But this one is done and it will get packed away for the next year's craft fairs. 

I sorted, folded, stacked all my Christmas fabrics and unfinished holiday projects and put them back on the shelf for next year.  If it weren't for my new embroidery machine, my sewing room would look pretty uncluttered and clean right now. Oh well. It feels good to wrap things up and I am ready to celebrate the new year.

Unicorn Pillow Cover

I embroidered a few samples just to try out my new machine. So now that I have these pieces, it seemed silly to waste them by letting them sit. I found some coordinating fabrics and the samples are now in the center of a pillow cover. I made the cover with a zipper closure so it can be removed and washed. Not that it's done, I wish I would have added a ruffle. I think that would have made it prettier. I think I will give it to Avery next time I see her.