Hearts and Christmas Gifts

I don't really care for Valentine's Day but I do love hearts.  Daughter did give us chocolate cupcakes that she made with little grandson and I'm sure they helped Hubby on his road to recovery. LOL 

The internet teamed with heart themed projects and ideas to celebrate the day. And the topic of hearts brings me to this...

I now have made 50 blocks for my Farmer's Wife quilt so feel that is safely on its way to completion. That gave me the confidence to sign up for the Splendid Sampler QAL run by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson.  There will be 100 free block patterns created by over 80 designers from all over the world. The very first block designed by Pat is called Hearts Aflutter and is very cute.  This is the Splendid Sampler link  if you'd like to check this out for yourself.  

Before it fades completely away, I wanted to show you a few more gifts from Christmas '15.

Hubby calls himself an Old Git so naturally this belonged to him.

Wool Applique Folk Art by the talented Rebeckah L. Smith.  Examples of projects from this book are all over the internet.  People love her work.  It's a gorgeous book and if you have ever thought of working in wool or felt, this would be a wonderful resource.  I think Daughter got this copy from Amazon.

Another crafty item....the Cutting Gizmo for fast cutting of chains.  Daughters' gifts to me and the lovely quilt clips.  Such useful items and already pressed into service.  The Cutting Gizmo is super sharp and is far more convenient than using scissors, I'm finding.  So two thumbs up for that!  

And Hubby was very interested in this gift...a fitbit.  I knew the gadgetry would appeal to him and he has been wearing it ever since taking it out of the packaging.  It checks his heart rate, counts the number of steps walked and also climbed per day.  This model has a feature I knew he would be really interested in...it monitors sleep patterns and can supply information regarding length of time in the various levels of sleep.  Hubby has discovered he is sleeping a lot more than he had thought.  

Finally, in the middle of a snow storm it is especially nice to look at flowers.  I love when you can buy a gift that benefits a charity as well.  We buy these calendars every year and the photos are so beautiful I can't throw the calendars out.  

We are still digging out from a huge snow storm but the very bright sun is almost making up for it.