Christmas Tree Haven

Wow! Almost a whole month has gone and I have not posted.  I better start taking pictures to add to those posts waiting in my drafts box! I have been up to a lot, I promise.  Take this past Saturday morning, I had some time to kill before Michaels opened and I went to Sunset Nurserys to check out the Christmas Tree display.  Wow, happy jumpy claps at this place, let me tell you.  After you clear the front lobby and go into the main nursery, you are bombarded with Christmas. Ah it is wonderful.  I broke out the Christmas music last Saturday, the 16th.  I know a bit early but I love Christmas music. 

Anyways back to the Nursery.  They had so many neat displays.  I was very impressed. We put up three trees every year.  A kids tree with child like ornaments, a bright tree and a small tree in our room that is turquoise and purple. After my visit to Sunset I have some ideas I want to add to our trees.  The MR. is telling me the puppies would destroy the trees if put them up, but I think that we can have one that will be okay if we put it on a small side table. I like to fall asleep to the lights twinkling. 

Pink purple tree- perfect for a 10 year old girl

 This was the first tree that I saw when I came into the room. Very pretty and feminine. This was followed by some more very feminine and pretty trees that would look amazing in my front entry. I love the sparkly stars with sprays of white.

Trio of Trees.

There were lots of trees that were unusual too.  Like an upside down tree with elves on it, a harlequin tree in black and white, a owl tree that would freak me out to have all those eyes staring at me, and so much more. 

Owl Tree

Harlequin Tree

  I wandered a bit more and came up to this tree.  Reminded me of the Coke commercials in the '70's and made me want to teach the world to sing! And the Sock Monkey Tree, I wanted to take them all and set it up in my office at work.  If you have a chance to check it out take the time to spend an hour there wandering.  I can't wait to check out the trees at the Empress Hotel this year.  People are always so creative.

Sock Monkey Tree

Coca Cola Tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Preparations

Well Christmas is drawing closer and I am in a slow frenzy finishing up some things for year end at work and cleaning the house in preparation for company during the Christmastide. Unfortunately I haven't got a lot of time in quilting land, but come the 28th I am putting the pedal to the medal and working on finishing up some projects that I have had on the go way too long.  Yeah like since 2000.  

I hate to admit how long some of these projects have been sitting.  I either lost interest or the reason for making the quilt initially has changed, not to mention my style preference has really changed as well.  I am sure that a lot of crafters have projects like this.  And  you hate to throw them out, wasting fabric and the time you spent making them.  In the past I was lucky to be involved in some great guilds so I could bring it there to them and donate it as a comfort quilt and someone would take over finishing and quilting it.  Great deal all around I think. 

 I was able to get the quilted coins top done.  This was a great tutorial by Don't call me Betsy that is perfect for showing off all the fabrics from the Dr. Seuss line.  Arlene did the quilting on it, a simple double stipple that is fairly large in yellow thread.  I just love how it looks. 

One plan for the new year is do a big purge of fabrics and craft supplies.  I need to whittle things down to a manageable size, which means making up a lot of little projects to use up bits and pieces.  Right now I am loving the zip bags.  I have so far made two in different sizes and colors. I see a lot more just to use up some fat quarters and a big box of zippers that is threatening to spill over its container.

Christmas in July

So its the 25th of July and before you know it is gonna be Christmas.  So keeping that in mind I wanted to show you what I have been up to.  During my Christmas leave ( yes back in Dec and Jan) I spent the time sewing Christmas stuff.  I got some great deals on various Christmas fabrics and some patterns to fire up the creative juices and away I went. 
I decided that many of my friends will be getting tree skirts for their presents.  I also have been making runners and place mats as well and have a few stockings and pillow cases on the list too. 
Without further ado here are my Christmas projects ( or at least some)!

The table square just started out as a large Dresden that I was playing around with to use up old Christmas fabric.  The photo doesn't do it justice - showing off the contrast of creams, whites, golds and fossil fern red with the Christmas print. 

Dresden table square

 I also purchases some strips from Connecting Threads, that I decided to make into these really easy place mats.  Arlene the long arm quilter, did a fantastic job with an all over loop patterns. Using a meter of fabric  and batting, she puts the place mats on top of that on her frame and away she goes.  I find its also a good way to use up some fabric in the stash with out have to piece backs. 

scrappy place mat green edge

scrappy place mat brown edge

 I also purchased this sleigh riding print, a LONG TIME AGO that I decided to use up.  Also practicing my flying geese I added a strip up the side to make it a bit more interesting.

sleigh ride place mat

 As you can see I still had fabric left over from the Dresden above and used it to make some small tree skirts, 30" across.  My parents use a small tree so this will be perfect for them or even a senior in an apartment or nursing home with only a tiny tree.  Tree skirt # 2 has the lovely floral Christmas print as its backing.  I just love that fabric. 

tree skirt 1

tree skirt 2

 So that is my Christmas in July so far. I have a stocking that I need to unearth and complete, along with a few more tree skirts to complete.  We have three trees so far and I have to get at least one done for us before the end of the summer.  Well, what about you?  How is your planning for Christmas going? 

Hurry up Sew Faster

I am in the thick of it now.  I have a few presents that I need to finish off, but despite ordering the patterns early and starting them, they are the last of the Christmas gifts to complete.  I don't know if its the grey of winter settling in but I'm feeling draggy and not wanting to sit at the sewing machine.  I would much rather sit in front of the fire, with the Christmas tree lights on reading the latest JD Robb book.  I have been waiting since the beginning of November for it to come in only to have it be late hitting the Canadian bookstores.  GRRRR.  But soon it will be in my hot little hand or as soon as Chapters can put it into a box and send it to me!

one of many runners

and a few Christmas Cards ready to go

In the meantime I continue to work on binding Christmas runners,  this is about the only time of year that I start to hate hand sewing binding on.  My middle finger is starting to look like a pin cushion.  But it is great for stress relieving!  Now to sit down and write the Christmas letter about all our adventures.  Perhaps the husband can write that up while he watches hockey!  Hmmm.  Now how to get him to think its his idea!

Christmas here I come

So I have been thinking a lot about Christmas, at work, at home, in quilting and scrap booking.  For work, its planning for Advent and Christmas and thinking about what new things would be meaningful in worship.  I have been listening to Christmas music on my i pod.  Okay it wasn't intentional, it somehow got mixed up in my play list so I just listen to it rather than press skip.  Strangely enough I find it calms me down.  Who would have thunk!
I have started quilting Christmas presents or should I say piecing tops with Arlene quilting them.  So much easier than trying to do it myself. With my new machine and moving, I haven't had time to practice out the stitches.  I am well into Christmas baking, thoroughly enjoying trying out the recipes in this years Canadian Livings Christmas cookie edition.  I will have tonnes of neat cookies for my cookie exchange at the end of November.  With any luck I will be very ready for Christmas and all the festivities. 

Happy Christmas

Well its finally here. Christmas. And now my holiday starts for a whole two weeks. I must admit I am tired out. Falling asleep on the couch is a good sign for me that I am over tired and I guess getting up extra early and rushing around all day and some of the night would do that to a body.
So we celebrated with present opening with my parents and then met up a few hours later at the Bear Mountain Westin for a lovely five course meal. Got some great photos to upload but that will be another day. I must sleep now.

One more Sleep

No its not Christmas yet silly, but something equally as good. Craig will be home tomorrow. Yeah!!! It seems so long since I saw him at Thanksgiving - like 6 months instead of two and a half. I will be so glad when he will be posted back in the new year.

Anyways I have been so tired after work this past week I hope I don't forget him at the airport tomorrow night. I have been teasing him about what day and time are you coming home and that I better put it in my daytimer or I will forget him. Lets hope it really doesn't happen cause I will be sleeping in the dog house.

I finally have finished all the decorating at the chapels just in time for Christmas. I am hoping that I can get the priests to take it all down seeing as I did all the put up, but we will see how that goes.

5 trees and counting

Its a good thing I like the Advent Christmas season. I now have put up my 5th tree in two weeks. You would have laughed at me trying to set up this mongo heavy tree at the Naden chapel. It wouldn't sit in its base and kept tipping. The cleaning lady was near by waiting to get into the head so she helped hold it in place but there came a time when we needed another body. So I was calling for Claire, our admin, who was in the head (unknown to me, dealing with a toilet that had over flowed), I called and called...I think the cleaner and I held the tree for 15 minutes until we got more help in the form of some nice fellows walking by. At one point there were 5 people working on getting this tree upright. Could start some jokes about how many people does it take to set up a tree. One Capt, one AbleSeaman, one admin, two chaplains and a cleaner. Oh to have my camera.

Finally I have gotten caught up enough with house chores, work chores etc. that I can take some time out to scrap and quilt. Spent 3 hours downloading pages to my scrapbook.com site then moved on to piecing some scrap quilt toppers. Thinking about finding a senior in a wheelchair that might appreciate a covering over their knees. That in itself is another job... they seem endless.

Craig will be home in under a week on Christmas leave. I must admit I am getting very tired of this posting of his and will be very glad when he is home in March. Right now in preparation of his arrival I have wrapped the gifts and set up the tree. Still have to book a romantic night at some hotel but I am hoping I can get to on this weeks list of jobs.

December Already

Wow, I cannot believe that it is December all ready. And talk about busy. Actually I think the busy time started early this year, as if Remembrance Day was the starting gun for madness. Not a lot of time for posting. Just keeping my head above water trying to get daily chores done, work and tossing in a little scrapbooking and quilting as mental health breaks.

We had our Christmas party this past Friday downtown. I made some decorations that turned out pretty darn good if I do say so. I followed that up with attending the Military Police Mess Dinner and had way too much fun. What a great bunch of people. Took lots of pictures but I need to download them still. Have way too much to download and have to make time to do it in one sitting cause I find it so boring...