Christmas in July

For the past few years, I have done my own version of Christmas in July by working on the yearly Christmas ornaments that I make for my grandchildren. This year is no different. I have decided to make each the polar bears from this felt kit this year.

 I have started the bear with the candy cane. 

This will be for my grandson. Usually I embroider each grandchild's name and the year when I am about to attach the back to the ornament at the end. These ornaments attach the front and back in the middle of the assembly so I already embroidered my grandson's name on the back of this polar bear. 

I also want to make this Charmed Santa Face for me. 

I have made one for each grandchild so now it is my turn to have one. 

I have been slowly working on the snow globe stitchery. Another Christmas in July project that will probably last for another few months.

 

 I made a couple of counting mistakes along the way that required some frogging. It is 28 count linen and you stitch each cross over two threads. I am being more careful now. 

I have quilted 3 of the nine blocks of my mom's churn dash quilt. I really like the way the stencil looks on the blocks with the cross. 

This has been my go to craft while watching the World Cup games each evening.

Speaking of World Cup games, my son-in-law bought tickets to the France/Norway game in Boston and invited my husband and his dad to join him and my daughter for the game last Friday. This is why there was no post last week.

I watched my 3 year old granddaughter who was an angel. We played Old Maid and Go Fish as well as many other games. She liked using the card holder I made her from two old CDs.

This is such an easy craft. Cut two pieces of fabric about 1 1/2 inches larger than the CD. Two pieces of batting the same size as the CD. Place the batting on each CD. Put the fabric on top and do a running stitch about 1/2" from the edge of the fabric. Pull it tight so that the fabric wraps to the back and secure. Do this for both CDs. Then place the CDs so that the fabric edges are on the inside and sew a couple of stitches through the middle to hold them tight. Add a button in the middle on each side. Done! 

I did a bunch of reading in the car and finished this Agatha Christie book over just a few days. It is the first novel that she ever wrote. I enjoyed it. She used to be my favorite author when I was a teen.

Now I am reading this book by Debbie Macomber.

I really like her books, but this is different. It is written all in letters. I am not really sure that I like this style of writing, but so far it is easy reading.

I made a cherry tomato foccacia this week.

 It is tasty, but a little to doughy for me. Nothing special, but I tried a new recipe and used up grape tomatos that had been refrigerated while we were away. 

Most of my daylilies bloomed while we were in Boston. These are all that are left.

I am trying to decide what quilt I want to make next where I can use the multitude of fabric that I have. One of these is my first choice.

 

You know that I love log cabin quilts. I am leaning toward the top one. I will probably use blue/black/red for the dark and cream/beige for the light. Sort of like this example that I found on the internet.

This would be a queen size quilt.

I also like this log cabin variation that gives a 3D look.

I have a lot of turquoise strips. This is a variation with the light colors in the center.

This would be a wall hanging.

We will be celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the United States on Saturday. I'm sad that it is not as exciting as the Bicentennial was 50 years ago. Hubby and I will be staying home and watching the multitude of illegal fireworks that the people in our neighborhood shoot off each year. It is not legal to have fireworks in New York yet they will start tonight and probably continue through Sunday night. I am talking about big, beautiful up in the sky displays. Rarely do the police come unless the fireworks or parties get out of hand. We can sit in our driveway or on our back deck and enjoy the show although the excessive heat we are experiencing may mean we stay indoors. 

Happy 4th of July!!!

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a glass of something cold or  a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!