Christmas Done! Back to quilting!

I love this ad featuring Joan Crawford and Whitey delivering the always perfect gift, Lucky Strike cigarettes. I found this on the back of a circa 1935 quilt pattern in an old magazine.

Colleen came in on Tuesday from Ypsilanti and Katy arrived from Chicago Wednesday night. We had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, just the four of us. Colleen worked Christmas afternoon and Tom, Katy and I saw It's Complicated with Alex Baldwin, Meryl Streep and Steve Martin. I highly recommend it. It's nice to see romance with people my own age.

Saturday, Colleen went home to Ypsi and on Sunday Tom's family came over. I made a pork loin (brined, then dry rubbed, yum), wild rice with cranberries and pecans and roasted asparugus. After the party I drove Katy downtown to East Lansing to hook up with her old college roommates.

This afternoon Tom is going to tie up some loose ends with his Dad's estate and Katy is going shopping.
Could this be my opportunity to get in a little sewing? This year I'm determined to teach myself more free-hand machine quilting. I'll be starting on a wall hanging from a round robin with the small group the Outlaws probably five or six years ago. Colleen wants to hang it in her new apartment. So, I'll quilt the whole then free-hand, and finish another UFO.

Tomorrow, it's on to Chicago where we'll stay overnight with Katy (and possibly ice skate at Wrigley Field), then spend a night in St. Joseph having our New Year's Eve celebration a day early at the Grande Mere restaurant.

So, till next time.... Happy Quilting!

Santa is coming to town

Merry Christmas everyone. If you live in the greater Lansing area make sure and take in some of the exhibits produced by the Michigan State University Museum's very own Santa, Val Berryman. In the YouTube video he talks about his fabulous collection. He has seven different exhibits this year all around the area including these on the MSU campus:
A Merry Dairy Christmas at the Anthony Hall Dairy Store
Christmas Around the Globe at the Student Union
Crackers & Biscuits, An English Christmas at the MSU Museum
Santa Takes a Break at the Spartan Stadium Tower
and these around town:
Signs of Santa (my personal favorite) in the window of the Knapp's building, downtown Lansing
TAKAAN, Christmas from the Phillipines at the Williamston Depot
and
Where's Santa at the MSU Credit Union headquarters of West Road, East Lansing.
Val has one of the world's best collection of Santa Claus and Christmas items!
Learn more about the exhibits here.
I'm lucky to work with Val and I look forward to his displays every year.



Till next time.... Happy Quilting!

Christmas Quilt

I've been keeping up with the blogs in my list and have been inspired to post my Christmas Quilt. I called it Christmas Eve since that has some special memories for me. My Mom's birthday was Christmas Eve and every Christmas Eve when I was a girl, my Uncle Ed would come over. He was a bachelor and was my Dad's best friend, so not really an Uncle. But he would come over with TONS of gifts for me and my older sister and my two older brothers. On top of the gifts he was very funny and did a great impression of Mr. Magoo! At midnight my mother would take all the kids to midnight Mass and my Dad and Uncle Ed would stay home, drink whiskey and watch the Pope serve midnight Mass on TV!

About two weeks ago my daughter Colleen moved out. I've been a bit worried about her transition, but she seems to be doing great. When she left, she took lots of stuff, so I was able to rearrange my sewing room. I'm anxious to get some sewing done and try out the new arrangement.

Today, Tom and I bought a snow blower (we're not getting any younger) and a Christmas Tree. Tomorrow, I'll be decorating and hopefully doing a little sewing, too.

Till next time... Happy Quilting!