Christmas Scandinavian Stitching, Norma Whaley's Silent Night

Old St. Nick, a Kathy Schmitz design for A Patchwork Year

Happy December!  On December 1, the sun shone all day like a bright shiny gift to us so welcome after the endless greyness of this year's November.

The tree is up and all ready to be decorated with the help of our special little elf, 5 year old grandson, Robbie. This is just 6 feet, pure fake, but enough to satisfy my Christmas tree need.  Yes but oddly sheds the fake needles just like a real tree.  And I really shouldn't complain about this once a year chore of sweeping them up.

I'm almost at a point of not knowing what Christmas means or doesn't mean to me anymore. This may be a consequence of not attending church regularly or maybe just my age as I move further and further away from the intense belief and joy in everything Christmas that meant the world  to me as a youngster.

Meanwhile in the sewing room...
I looked through online Scandinavian motifs and settled on hearts for the border for my Redwork Blocks. I used freezer paper applique...the red on light grey and stitched 32 of them while watching t.v.

And pulled out a few choices for fabrics for edgings... creams, greys and reds.  I think the grey patterned one on the right looks suitably Scandinavian, however I only have a small amount of it. Drats!
 I'll have to wait to decide if this all coordinates with the embroidered blocks. Or I just might have the fixings to cook up a completely new project!

My After the Snow panel has not been neglected. I am using the walking foot on my machine to outline all the straight edges- I'm finding out there are a lot of them so it's taking a surprisingly long time; as well I have my machine on a slow speed to make me mindful and hopefully do a good job. Photos soon.

On my wish list (for a couple years now).  My quilting group facebook friend and a most wonderful quilter, Norma Whaley, designed this quilt called Silent Night. I love the use of log cabin blocks to edge this one. I love Norma's style, kind of primitive but yet not. Norma is noteworthy for her constant encouragement and praise for all our efforts.

The pattern is for sale as a PDF digital download at Norma's site Timeless Traditions Quilts. Digital downloads certainly seem to be the way to go especially for someone like me who often has to pay shipping fees when ordering from Canada.

Here is a brief video of Norma discussing her quilting.

Hope your week is off to a good start, everybody.
Happy to link up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, What a Hoot Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Bambi's Show and Tell Monda, Free Motion By the River, Esther's Quilt Blog and Cooking Up Quilts.