Company gone, stitching begun, 2017 review

My son is now in California, but will be back for a few days next week. My daughter and her boyfriend have headed out to visit his parents and then drive home. Hubby and I have the house to ourselves for a few days. 

I took advantage of that and spent a good hour or more working on Baker Beach on Friday. I am so close to being halfway done with this last page. There are only about 2000 stitches left. Oh no, that sounds like so much.

It is bitterly cold here today, 14 degrees right now with wind, so I will spend as much time as possible indoors working on Baker Beach. I have to go out to get milk, which is annoying as I was in our local grocery store twice yesterday. Hubby and I also have to make some Christmas returns. Sigh....

I had really hoped that Baker Beach would be finished this year, but I know for sure that I will finish it in 2018. I am too close to the end not too finish it soon.

I think this might be a good time to look over my finishes of 2017. This was a cowl for my daughter that I finished in February. She was wearing it when she was here for Christmas which made me smile.

I March I finished my Feather and Fan shawl.

I April I finished stitching one of my Prairie Schooler Santas although the final assembly didn't happen until a couple of days before Christmas.

There were no finishes in May, June or July. I spent those months working on the second Prairie Schooler Santa, Baker Beach and the Summer of Love Challenge.

The last I finished in August.

I also finished this crocheted Christmas tree for my son.

September and October found me very busy with my school and university work so there were no finishes. In November I finished my second Prairie Schooler Santa.

I also finished binding this quilt for my son that I called Matthew's Maze.

 As I said before, those Prairie Schooler Santas got their final finish right before Christmas. They were my December finishes.

I am pretty happy with my accomplishments. I always wish for more finishes, but I really can't complain.

I am joining Kathy for the last Slow Sunday Stitching of 2017. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Gifts given

My Prairie Schooler Santas were a hit with my son and daughter. I completed them only a couple of days prior to Christmas. Now they each have two.

 This one went to my daughter. She makes sure to read "The Night Before Christmas" every Christmas Eve.

 My son received this Santa.

 We managed to decorate some Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve.

 Both children get creative.

 This was my son's first pan of cookies.

Our Christmas celebration was quiet this year, but still filled with family.
Of course I had to take the obligatory picture of my children in front of the tree Christmas morning. 

I hope to someday have pictures like this with spouses and grandchildren included. 
There was an abundance of presents beneath our tree.

We celebrated with my mom.

 We even managed to get a picture of Hubby and I on Christmas.

I hope everyone had a good celebration. My daughter's boyfriend is visiting now and we are planning to go bowling. I haven't been in quite a while. I hope to find some time to work on Baker Beach soon. I would like to make some progress. I don't want to start anything new until it is done.

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas

Decorating!

I am finally getting some of the Christmas decorating done. I put the nativity in the front window. Hubby suggested that I put up the village yesterday. I am so glad that he did! It is finished. 

 
 The night-time view when it is all lit up.

 The church got a lift this year.

It makes the house feel festive.

Speaking of festive, Hubby and I drove around our neighborhood last night to look at the houses that were all lit up after yesterday's snowfall.

Several of the houses in our neighborhood seem to compete.

 These are next door to each other.

 So many wonderful snow covered characters. Olaf seems to be enjoying himself.

Here we have a bold statement.

When we returned to our house I thought it looked quite pretty also.

 My sled full of presents and a small tree decorate our front porch.

It is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. 

Hubby and I plan to get our tree today. I know what I will be doing for the next several evenings after work.....lights, garland, ornaments.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I hope to find some time to work on Baker Beach. There has been no progress on that this week. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Finished!

 I finished Matthew's Maze with about 2 hours to spare before he drove home. It now resides with my son in Pennsylvania.

 My daughter who is all of 5'4" is holding it up for me to take a picture.

 This is the label of the wonderful women who did all of the machine quilting.

 Here are some closeups of that beautiful quilting

I am glad that Matthew's Maze is finally finished. Now I must start planning my daughter's quilt.

The weekend prior to Thanksgiving I finished some stitching on Baker Beach and sorted through which flosses I wanted to work with next. I put these flosses in the box you see below in the partition with my scissors on the left. 

The phone rang, I got up and knocked the entire box onto the floor. Floss scattered everywhere. Once my phone call ended, I just put all the floss back in number order, but I didn't go back and sort the floss to use next again.

Yesterday, I finally got back to stitching on Baker Beach and I looked at the chart and just decided that I wanted to stitch some blue. 

I know that this is not a floss that I had originially planned to use next, because I was trying not to leave too much un-stitched fabric in between colors. It made me happy to stitch this color though especially as it seemed to move me that much closer to the bottom. I have now chosen a floss that will fill in some of that open white space and I will be more careful getting up when my floss box is open.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I think Baker Beach needs a little more love in between Christmas decorating. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Stitching time?

So both of my adult children are home for Thanksgiving and this weekend. We had a really nice, quiet Thanksgiving celebration. Here are my son, mother and Hubby.

 Hubby got in the picture again, this time with my daughter and myself.

I hope all of my USA readers had an enjoyable holiday too.

I have been trying to finish the binding on Matthew's Maze. I realized that I wanted to embroider a label on the blue backing fabric so that it wouldn't be extremely noticeable. Unfortunately, I do not have a marking pencil that will not only show up on the dark fabric, but stay in place while I embroider so I decided to use an archival Pigma pen that I heat set onto a lighter fabric. 

I think it came out just fine.
 My finishing has been sidelined by mending this weekend also. Matthew brought home a sweater with a hole. It didn't need to really look good, it just needed to be fixed. You can see the repair near the bottom, middle of the picture.

My daughter brought home pants to be shortened. 

Needless to say, that I have been trying to stitch whenever there is a few free minutes so that I can send this quilt home with my son. I have half of one side, a corner and about a third of another side to finish before he leaves for home early this afternoon.

All other stitching has been suspended until this quilt is finished.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. I am going to be finishing this binding no matter what. On Monday I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Be sure to check out one of Susan's recent posts that includes several easy ornament tutorials. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish all of my readers a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Canstruction LI

Hubby and I went to an interesting display at an local office building on Saturday. It is called CanstructionLI. Yes, I spelled it correctly. All of these sculptures are made with food cans with a few other food items also. You were asked to bring one can per person and use it to vote on your favorite.

This is Alice in Wonderland

This is Dinner and a Movie Night

 This character was not familiar to me, but it is supposed to be Steve the monkey from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs".

This is supposed to represent LEGOS.

Derail Hunger

A supermarket to end hunger.

Lightning McQueen

 Bridge Over Hunger

 Knock out Hunger

 Let's Beat Hunger Like A Drum.

Hunger Heroes.

Melting Away Hunger

 I didn't get the name of this one.

 Helping Hands
This sculpture won all of the awards.

 Once again, I didn't get the name of this one.

I hope that you enjoyed this little picture tour of something somewhat unique.

 Today I am going make a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up my Thanksgiving turkey and some mushrooms so I can make my Beef Barley soup.

I hope to add a few more stitches to Baker Beach. This is where it is right now.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Tomorrow I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!