Gathering

This is the week where I gather things.
 Like lemons and olives from my trees, pictures from around the yard (I got a new camera for Christmas!!) fabric into piles of pretty colors, stacks of books about quilting and gardening that I keep moving around so they follow me from room to room, and recipes for soup and bread.
I'm gathering my thoughts as well.
Like where to put a new chicken coop, what's up with those tiny houses?(I don't think I could live in one but I find the whole idea fascinating), how to brine olives, growing an herbal tea garden, taking an online photography class, deciding what kind of quilt to make next, and growing out my hair, including the gray bits (more on that in the next post).
Usually as soon as the holiday decorations come down (they're still up), I rush headfirst into making and organizing and purging all the things I'd like to tackle in the New Year.
But not just yet.
This week I'm just going to gather.  

 

Holiday Scarf

I finished my scarf, this one from Dottie Angel, and have been wearing it non-stop.  I used Quince and Co. Chickadee yarn (dk weight) in Aleutian, Sorbet, Camel, and Egret with an H hook. I held back a few yards of the white color and added it to the end of the pink, just because.

It's the longest scarf I've made yet, measuring 80 inches. Since I'm barely 5'2, I really need to wrap it up or I'll be tripping over it. 

I'm on the second wave of Christmas baking, since everything I made last week has been consumed already!  The boy is home from college.  Must. Eat. Constantly.

That's my great grandmothers flour sifter up there.  It was stored with my cookie cutters, and I pulled it out to try it, but gave up almost immediately.  It must have taken her hours to sift using that little thing.  There are people waiting for cookies here.  I don't have time for dainty sifters.

Look I'm knitting a hat and using circular needles! You will either never see this again, because I failed miserably, or there will be a finished slouch hat sometime after the holiday.  Thanks for the suggestion Meredith :)
 I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!  Thank you for following, commenting, visiting and inspiring me throughout the year.  Merry Christmas!

 

A little sugar

Well here we are deep into the Christmas season.  I've got the music playing, the tree up, the halls decked, and the daily whump of cardboard packages hitting the front porch.

I'm stacking these up in my son's half empty room while he's at school.
I can't wait to start drinking wrapping.

Anyway, I have hardly touched anything crafty this week, (I did attempt a striped crochet blanket, but after about 20 rows into it, I decided it looked like the cuff of a men's athletic sock, you know the white ones with the colored stripes at the top? Uh-gly. So I ripped it out), but did manage to finish the pillow that goes with my daughter's quilt in the last post.

 I found this free quilt pattern here, after starting her quilt.  I would like to have made the whole quilt like this, but just made one block and turned it into a pillow.  

I'm very, very far behind on my Quiltmania Advent blocks.  Seriously, I'm thinking of making only one per month from now on, thereby finishing up by next Christmas. They are a lot of fun, but I'm finding them quite time consuming.  I guess if I wasn't wasting my time crocheting blankets that look like men's socks, I would be much farther along.  Oh well.
Here are the next four blocks.

Last, but not least, what is Christmas without all those sugar-laden desserts to tempt your waistline right out of your jeans and into sweatpants?  My daughter made these while we were decorating the tree on Sunday, in the late afternoon just before dinner.  Cinnamon rolls for dinner?  Okay.
The recipe says to bake them in a cast iron skillet, but I'm sure any kind of pan will do. The icing goes on after they have cooled slightly.  Oh, and we added brown sugar in place of some of the white sugar.  Made it a bit more caramelized as you can see by the bottom of the pan. 

 Yeah, they were really good.

Blue and Red

My oldest daughter has been spending time on Pinterest lately, gathering pictures of blue and red Christmas decorations she'd like to have/make for her apartment.  She even included pictures of fabric bundles and quilts.  Hmmmm.  Quilt??  I can take a hint.
Her being low on decorations, and a member of the 3rd -year -poor -teacher -salary society, she will be lucky to afford a tree this year, so I dove headfirst into my magic cupboard and pulled out everything I had that matched her color scheme.  Turns out I have been hoarding some pretty cute Christmas fabric.....

After sorting and cutting, the middle child entered the room to see what I was up to, and declared it was either very awesome or really pathetic ridiculous, that I had enough fabric on hand, of a specific color scheme to make an entire quilt.  I vote awesome.

This quilt was inspired by one called Avalon found in the book Material Obsession, in which 18 inch blocks (trim up those fat quarters!) were cut and sashing added in between.  It's a great way to show off some of your favorite fabric, as well as super duper fast to make. And let's face it, this time of year starting a quilt three weeks before Christmas can feel like you're  running out of daylight.
 I didn't have fat quarters of every print, so I cut my blocks at 16.5 and my white strips at 3.5.  It came out to 60 inches square.  The back was a solid turquoise that I was saving for who the heck knows what, but turns out it was waiting for this quilt to be made.
Merry Christmas Danielle! (cute throw pillow to follow).