Silent Night Row 1

Just finished stitching down row 1 from Silent Night  by Norma Whaley and Timeless Traditions.  This is a  stitch along on facebook.  I really didn't plan on starting too many new projects this year, but oh well.  Check out my wool blog at Piginablanketwools.com for more about my wool projects.

First great reads of the year

I always ask for books for Christmas, these are the books by my favorite authors that I want to keep.  I know I could get them from the public library but I would rather have them in my personal library.  The first book I received the week before Christmas from my brother was the Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry.  I think that I have read all of his books, Lonesome Dove being my favorite.  This book deals with Wyatt Earp and Doc  Holiday and the ending of the west as they knew it.  It is a very quick read.  The changes that the two western legends are going through reminds me of all of the "electronic" changes that I am going through with my job as a media specialist.  If you like westerns and McMurtry's books I would definitely recommend this one.

The next book that I received was Ruth's Journey.  This book is the story of Mammy from Gone With the Wind.   The first time I read gone with the wind was the summer between my sixth and seventh grade school years, my mom had taken me to see the movie and I absolutely fell in love and I do mean love with Rhett Butler, (Clark Gable).  I begged my mom to let me read the book and she finally relented.  It was so good, I can't even tell you how many times I have re-read it.  I know there have been other books by other authors about Scarlett,  and Rhett Butler's people, I have read them but they weren't that good in my opinion.  This book was different, it tells the story of Ruth or mammy as we later come to know her.  The life of a slave was not easy, as we know and Ruth's life is no exception.  I think that Donald McCaig did a great job telling her story, from her childhood in Haiti to the meeting of Miss Scarlett and Rhett.  If you are a Gone With the Wind fan I would put this on  my reading list for the year.

January Pinkeep

Check out the January Pinkeep from Buttermilk Basin.  The kit is for sale on my website: Piginablanketwools.com.    Check out my facebook page for an opportunity to win a kit for the January Pinkeep, the kit includes the charm and the ribbon.

Great New Book

 I had hoped that I would get this book for Christmas, but didn't so I decided to buy it for myself.  It was delivered today and I stopped my house cleaning, which didn't really take much, to sit down and look through it.  There are some beautiful quilts in here.  You will see more later.

Love this Hawaiian applique.

This quilt was on the cover of the Cancer book my mom received at her first Chemo treatment.  

WIP

Nottingham Hill has been on my design wall for the last four months.  I don't know what happened to me in the fall of 2014, but there was almost  no sewing at my house. I did manage to make DH a pair of boxer shorts and a pair of lounging pants, this has become somewhat of a tradition for Christmas.    My plans are to finish this one before the end of the month, I only have a few more star blocks to complete, all of the half square triangles are finished.  I hope to finish it by the end of the month.  My quilting plans for this year don't include  starting that  many new projects mainly just want to finish the ones that are already in the works.  

Happy New Year

                          Hope everyone had a great day today, and best wishes for the New Year.  

I Love Christmas

This year I decided to switch things up a little with my decorating.  I promised DH that I wouldn't put out all of my nutcrackers this year, I only put out about a 1/3 of them.  I also made a new garland to go over the mantle with some antique ornaments that I found at an antique store a few weeks ago.  I think it turned out ok, I'm not usually crafty when it comes to things like this.

I found this little silver/gold tree at the same antique store along with the crochet doily that I am using for a tree skirt.  The silver/gold nutcracker was a gift from my mom last year for a Pre-christmas present.  The little Santa and sleigh belonged to my older brother when he was little, I decided that I needed it.  My mom always made a winter scene in the large picture window in our living room and the little sleigh was always a part of it.  She also used ornaments, pine cones, and candles, This was one of the first things my mom would do to decorate for Christmas, we always had a real tree and it didn't go up until about  a week before Christmas.  We never purchased a tree, we always went out into the woods to cut one, my dad usually had one already picked out about a month before Christmas.  That is one of my favorite memories of Christmas, going out with my brother and dad to cut our tree.  I miss my dad everyday, but more so at the holidays.  Enough reminiscing, out tree is up a couple of years ago I bought an artificial tree to help out with my DH's allergies.  It isn't a bad tree, just not a real one.

I spent half of my day looking for this Santa and our stockings, I was starting to panic I thought that possibly they had been thrown away after last Christmas.  Of course I found them in the last place I looked today, the basement.  

Hope everyone's decorating is going well!!!