Pre Christmas Preparations, Projects of Christmas Past

Lots of dillydallying going on here this morning...and coming right on the heels of the lollygagging mentioned in the last post. We had snow again but rain has wiped it out...again. Such strange weather so far this winter.  Meanwhile  I'm lingering here at the computer just writing away which is not an awful thing as sometimes my blog/writing ideas come to me in spurts and I can get a number of ideas recorded to be fleshed out later.

The whole place needs a good scrub...two old people, two big dogs. Fridge needs some deep diving cleaning attention too.  I'm still so happy we bought a new stand up freezer when we moved here. I could literally hug it...oh how I hated trying to clean out the old majorly deep box that was a freezer at the farm.

 Grandson loved the way the lights puddled more at the bottom of the tree. When I see that now, I think of him.

We had a grand day together and he really is a help and ever so careful unwrapping the ornaments. He also was instrumental in putting together this little tree for the tv room.  He figured out how the stand should go when it was totally stumping Nana because he looked in the box and saw it on the
"structions". :)
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 Here he is taking a break in his hidey nook behind my stitching chair and eating his fairy bread.  At least it is whole grain, :)

I've stitched two strip borders on the Santa Snowman piece and hand quilted it this way.

 Thought I would mimic the cross stitches with a little motif.  I have the backing material picked out so it will be a cushion top very soon.

When I opened my little Christmas fabric box, I found the fabric I had bought in a bundle from the thrift store. There was more of this particular line than I thought, unfortunately cut into shapes.  While metallic designs are not what I would buy, it is beautiful fabric. The best I've seen. Tried to find a name and it seems to be a Moda line, Robert Kaufman, Holiday Flourish perhaps.

  So too pretty to give back to a thrift store, I set about using some of it.  With some tricky strip stitching and cutting, I came up with this piece that I'm making into a little table topper.

This was fun to work on and I wondered for the umpteenth time why small projects don't appeal to me.

Meanwhile time for the hangings of Christmas past to come out.  Here is Scandinavian Christmas I finished last year. Funny, I see it now and I think it's okay...I'm not as focused on the little problems I might have had during the stitching.

While I was flirting with being in the woods after dark one day, I was rewarded with a glimpse of this fellow.  The resident Barred Owl and so happy to know they are still around. I hadn't seen one since July when he had flown across my path on route to the pond.

Sadly I don't have the equipment required to get a good photo in such light conditions.  But it gave me a thrill to watch him just the same. I soon skedaddled though because there is something about the woods in the dark...Hubby lived at the old farm for over 40 years and had never once set foot on the trails after dark.  I did venture a little distance a couple of times trying to capture stars with tree tops.  At the very least, there were lots of skunks there and that's something you really don't want to surprise.
I hope your pre Christmas preparations are moving along.  I'm reading about some great cookie baking happening and secret gifts being sewn. Such a wonderful and fun time of the year.
So fun to link with Not Afraid of Color, Quilt Fabrication, It's a Small Town Life, For the Love of Geese, The Inquiring Quilter, My Quilt Infatuation and Paying Ready Attention.