Free Patterns, Friendship Stars Flimsie, Broken Glass Squares, Autumn Quakers

Both daughters and their partners went to New York City recently. They had a wonderful time. We got happily sidetracked from our usual routine while having  Robbie with the dogs, Abbey and Petey, here for five days. Robbie has a busy schedule counting all the hockey practices and games. And school of course, Grade 4 this year. Ned was completely in his glee to the point the first night he panted so much I was afraid he would have a heart attack! There was lots of ball playing to keep them busy. Petey, the most athletic of the three, does not have to work as hard to keep up. 

Yes, still no snow! Our kind Autumn has turned into a kind Winter-so far.

Robbie helped me decorate and this year we decided to put the Santas and Angels together on one big table for the first time ever. 

He saw his quilt blocks on the wall and liked them. One more row to sew on.

We decided together to make a border of the remaining bright fabric with black from a jelly roll I have. The black matches the small stars in the background material too which are hard to see in the photos. This hopefully will be ready for quilting this weekend.

Here is where my Autumn Quakers piece is now. See that circle on the right that I've stopped stitching. I've made a mistake there which isn't so bad but even with a ton of recounting, I can't find it. Grrr I just may have to take the whole motif out. SIGH

I have my tiny tree plugged into the computer again this year. It still works! Small things, Folks!

 LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week was our favourite Christmas cookie.  I don't have a favourite as such but I will share one that always appeared at my Christmases while growing up. Mom always did a lot of baking for Christmas and one of the favourites was the pan of Broken Glass Squares she always made. These were jello based and she would use red and green jellos with a dream whip topping. I don't think there was any baking of a bottom involved in hers.To a kid, with the glowing red and green, they seemed like the perfect Christmas treat.  Now would a square count the same as a cookie?

 I couldn't find a recipe just like what Mom made though there are many variations of Cut Glass squares on the web. Leigh making her Grandma's Broken Glass dessert here has my mouth watering while watching it so I thought I'd share this instead of a recipe.  Do you have a cookie you just have to make each year?

Free Patterns, Links and Tutorials

Nancy at Liberty Primitives and Needlework gave us this free cross stitch pattern that can be found on her Dec. 1, 2014 post. 

Amy Smart, the lady behind Diary of a Quilter collated more than 30 of her favourite Christmas Quilts, with links to patterns for all in that post. 

Here is the link to the tutorial for this one called Patchwork Plaid Christmas.

She also has the tutorial for these very cute Flying Geese Mini Tree Ornaments found Here.

Sherri at A Quilting Life offers 11 Favorite Christmas Quilts to Make and Love, also with links to patterns and tutorials. This one, Takes the Cake, caught my eye because it looks like it could be made with EPP. 

Ingrid at her blog, Joe June and Mae  has a post called Best Quilted Christmas Stockings with a free stocking template and tutorial to make a hexie stocking.

So pretty!

I'm noticing more of the teal/aqua greens and pinks in Christmas sewing in recent years. It is a fresh looking combination. 

I hope you are all enjoying your stitching, Christmas planning and anything else that strikes your fancy this week and have something fun to look forward to on the weekend! 
Happily linking with Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brian's Home Blog, Alycia Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Kathy's Quilts, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Wendy's Quilts and More.