It's beginning to look a lot like ...

Christmas Trees!

Here are some little Christmas Trees in progress. 

I've got a hundred fifty-something of the trees made, and a layout that requires 149, so that's good. 

Now, they're put together in a quilt top!

This quilt-top-center is about 50" x 65"; I'll be putting 3 simple borders on to make it bigger.

Yesterday, I cut borders out, and I cut the fabric for the pieces quilt back.

Progress! More to come soon!

O Christmas Tree ... Again!

A few months ago, I started working on these little Christmas Tree quilt blocks.

Something about the combination of lots of Christmas scraps (cheap at the thrift store), and a new Tri-Recs ruler made me want to start these in summer.

I'm thinking I should just finish them up into a quilt by Christmas. That would be nice. We'll see if it happens!

I already have 50 tiny blocks made, and 100 more are mostly-done: they just need the tree trunks put on.

Watch for more updates on this one soon!

O Christmas Tree ...

I recently bought a new tool and wanted to try it out ... The Tri-Recs ruler set intrigued me, and to make blocks out of triangles that are different than my usual 60-degree or 45-degree ones, it made sense to have the special ruler set.

It happens that I had collected a bag of super-random Christmas prints for pennies at thrift stores, and I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas Tree quilt ... something like the ones I've pinned on Pinterest ... this pin or this pin or this one.

In between other things (and to test my most-recently-cleaned-and-oiled sewing machines), I sewed together a few dozen of these:

I think they'll make a fun Christmas quilt ... eventually!

Christmas Stocking Ornaments

(We're still within the 12 Days of Christmas, right? I can still post about Christmassy things ...)

Last month, I made some super-cute Christmas ornaments ... Inspired by a Pinterest idea that I pinned ages ago.

Scrappy on the front, felt on the back, straight-stitched and raw edges, topped with some white fleece that I found with my felt.

These were a fun, quick project, and it was nice to have a few to give away. I always intend to do things like this, but always run out of time.

This year, I happened to see on someone else's tree an ornament I'd made for them in the past ... nothing fancy, but it warmed my heart to see it there. It reminded me that the effort doesn't go unnoticed.

It makes me want to get some little Christmas ornaments made ahead of time to include with Christmas gifts and cards next year ...

Thankfulness, and a Quilt

On Thanksgiving Day in November, I posted the following picture. Because it was appropriate to the holiday, and because it said what I wanted to say, I posted it without making it into one of my usual wordy blog posts.

But, there's a story behind the picture, and I'd like to share it. 

I've had these great fabrics around for a while - some purchased new, and some from my collection of fabric-from-thrift-store-shirts. 

On the Monday before Thanksgiving Day, I found out what these fabrics were for. 

A very dear friend of mine had a heart attack that week. Right away, I was struck by the need to do something. We couldn't visit right then - she was in intensive care. She and her family were being well-taken-care-of, and there wasn't much I could do, except pray. But I wanted to somehow put hopes for a quick recovery into something tangible. I wanted to "put feet to my prayers", if you will.  

Making a quilt seemed to be the thing to do. As I was looking for some cheery fabric to sew with, I remembered the yellow-gold remnant I had bought recently ... 

... with all sorts of "thankful" phrases on it. This was just the thing, since it was Thanksgiving week. And it was just right, since I was thankful that my friend survived a very dangerous heart attack. Thankful that her family still has her around. Thankful that God is good, even though I couldn't predict what the week would hold for her, or for her heart's health.

And, even though this fabric was just right to make a quilt, I wanted the quilt to have a more complete message. Hence the letters! The "who" and the "why" of our thankfulness comes out in the verse I included in the quilt:

Did you know that these exact words show up in at least 6 separate verses in the Bible? (That's why there's no verse-reference to accompany the verse.) I'm thinkin' God thought it was super-important for us to remember this, since He put it in there so many times. We give thanks to the Lord, and we give thanks because He is good.

As I worked on this quilt, the word "for" struck me: "O give thanks unto the Lord; for ..." 

... For what? Why do I give thanks? And, do I give thanks only for the good things? The things I like? Would I, and could I, continue to be thankful, even if my friend didn't make it home from the hospital? I know well that things don't always turn out the way we'd choose. Making this quilt was a great reminder to me: I give thanks to the Lord - because He is good. 

Yes, we give thanks to God for our family and our friends and our health and our "stuff". But, bottom line, even without that, we give thanks because He is good.

I'm happy to report that my friend was home in time to share Thanksgiving dinner with her family, and she's getting good reports from her doctors.

And I'm also glad for God's gentle reminder that there's more to gratefulness than just a generic "thankful" feeling. There's more to being thankful than just telling God, "Thanks for the stuff!" There's a deeper reason to be thankful: the character of God. God is good.

The picture above is the backing of the quilt, and the picture below shows a view of the free-motion quilting, from the front.

I turned the backing around to the front for the binding. I love the stripes and the fall colors, and even though I almost never sew with this much yellow, it works in this quilt.

The quilt turned out to be a nice couch-size quilt ... 

What are you thankful for today? I'm thankful, because God is good. I'm thankful that Jesus saved me from my sins, so that I can know this good God. I'm thankful for friends and family and health and an abundance of blessings that I don't deserve.

O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good ...

I finished this quilt just a few days after I started it, which is a rare thing. But I'm just now blogging about it, because I wanted to take the time to tell this quilt's story, when blogging about it, since it's not just-another-quilt-finish.

I'll be linking this post to this week's Finish It Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilt's blog.

Christmas Candles

Candles are fun - and floating candles are even more fun, for some reason.

I love floating candles, especially because my kids love them. And, the Christmassy holly candles just go well with the red rose. (Like I mentioned in the tree-skirt post, I like roses with "Christmas flowers!")

And candles and Christmas remind me of those places where the Bible calls Jesus "The Light" ...

"The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light:
they that dwell
in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined."

Isaiah 9:2

And, I also love the places where the Bible points out how Jesus fulfilled the things that were prophesied about Him in the Old Testament.

The people which sat in darkness

saw great light; and to them

which sat in the region and shadow of death

light is sprung up.

Matthew 4:16

New Decorations!

I'm not a big decorator. And I'm OK with that.

But every now and then, a fun idea seems worth the trouble ... so, here's my latest Christmas decorating effort.

About a year ago, I read in somebody's quilt blog (can't remember which one!) that quilt bloggers sometimes decorate their walls with favorite fabrics in embroidery hoops. 

(Update: I found a couple of the links that inspired me: See some great pictures here, and a quick tutorial here.)

More recently, I heard that regular people like this idea, too, especially for Christmas fabrics, since the hoops look a little like Christmas-tree-ornaments. (Thanks for the inspiration, Sara!)

My new-favorite Christmas fabric that was leftover from the tree-skirt (see yesterday's post) made it into the biggest embroidery hoop. Add to that a couple of Christmassy remnants I'd already bought, and a couple of Christmas-colored fabrics that were given to me, and the rest of the embroidery-hoop frames were filled!

While not strictly a Christmas print, the one in the lower left is one of my favorites, since I love seeing cardinals in the winter, and since the house in the "picture" is a great representation of home & family, which are such a blessing.

I like the way this little set turned out. I'm enjoying my little fabric-collection decoration so much that I'm trying to figure out what to do with it after Christmas - Debating about maybe switching out the fabrics, to match the seasons ... Or finding more thrift-store hoops for another set of fabrics for when spring is on its way, so that I can keep this set for the Christmas box!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So - My Christmas tree has a TREE SKIRT!
For some reason, I feel very accomplished, having made a tree skirt for the first time. Ever.

I love that it only cost me a couple dollars, too. My favorite thrift store had this great jumper-dress made out of really neat Christmas fabric. I couldn't wear the jumper (or didn't want to?) - but I realized it was the perfect size/print/colors for some Christmas sewing.

So, sew I did. Actually, it was mostly serging, which made it nice. 

I love that this fabric has little shiny-gold highlights. I also love that this Christmas print has roses along with the holly and the poinsettias (and the other random flowers I don't recognize). It's "Christmassy" fabric, without being outlandish.

I'm happy that our Christmas tree has a "real" tree skirt. It would seem that the kitten is happy about this, too.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours

Enough said.

Christmas Inspiration ...

Since I've finished the Christmas Hexagons, I've been getting inspired to work on some related things ~ I got started on Diamond English Paper Piecing, and Very Tiny Vintage English Paper Piecing ... But also, since it was so fun to prepare something neat for Christmas, I've also been inspired to work on something Christmassy sometime between now and next Christmas.

I've got just enough of this sweet Christmas fabric to make a Christmas tree skirt:

Since I want it to look quilty, I'll be trying out some bits of coordinating fabric and some layouts to see what I like ... but hey, I've got time, right? It's a looooong time till Christmas!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

May we always be amazed at the goodness and mercy of God, who gave His son Jesus to be Emmanuel, God with us!

It's been fun to have the Christmas decorations around ... reminding us of Christ's birth, and making the season look festive ... reminding us, too, of friends and family who are far away ... 

Merry Christmas!