Trip to Nebraska and Mom's "Christ"-mas tree

The kids and I road tripped down to Nebraska for a long weekend last weekend to visit my parents for my dad's 75th birthday.  The kids had both Monday and Tuesday off of school (and we're off AGAIN today for extreme windchill weather---please make it stop!)  It was a nice trip and good to get away.  We even enjoyed a 58 degree day one day while we were there.  Sure beats our -20 degree wake up this morning.

My mom left her Christmas tree up so that I could see how she put it together after I had sent her new Christ ornaments for her birthday last year.








One dove on the tree to represent the Holy Ghost at Jesus' baptism


Angels bought at Michael's
Love her cluster lights that she's had for years
The white lights represent Christ being the light of the world


Two different red ball ornaments to represent the drops of blood shed by Jesus.
I think she found these filigree balls at Michael's too.


Biblical Names of Christ Ornament Set bought at Deseret Book

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We also discovered Baker's Candies in Greenwood, NE., famous for their chocolate meltaways.  Yep, they're good!  Thanks Mom for sending us home with a couple bags.

Crochet Frisbees

Daughter #1 made a couple of these for her brother for Christmas this year.

One of his friends had one that he was talking about.
They are into Ultimate Frisbee.
But this disc you can fold up and put in your pocket.

First she made some straight striped ones (on the right) before venturing and doing the actual patterned ones.

Ultimately, she just kept working on some until she used up the remainder of the yarn.
I think she has plans to try and sell them to some of her Ultimate friends no that they are back from break.

Used this pattern HERE.

And yes, they do fly.  Really well in fact.

Leftovers Quilt Completed

I made this quilt after making this quilt for our SIL, Tonya.

It is the last of the quilts that I sent to Lynn for quilting clear back in Oct./Nov.  My parents brought it back to me when they came for Thanksgiving.  It has been awhile since I put the binding on and we've been using it, but I haven't yet posted anything about it.

This is another one of those quilts that really makes me happy.




Purposely the borders are different widths.


Backing


Quilting detail on the HST portion of the quilt.


Quilting detail on the white borders of the quilt.

Post about this quilt in the process.
Thanks Lynn for another awesome quilting job.

Details:

• Finished measurements 68 x 76 inches
• Borders were cut 6, 9, 12, and 18 inches
• Binding is the same fabric as the yellow triangles.
• More details can be found on the process link above.

Linking up with CrazyMomQuilts Finish it up Friday

Modern Cross Stitch Quilt finish

The kids were supposed to be back in school today after Winter break.
However, the governor shut down the schools in the entire state because of extreme cold and wind chill temps.  It doesn't happen often, but it is so COLD here.  You know it is bad when the Minnesotans complain.

My plan was to take down all the Christmas decorations and tree. Delay that by one day.
And then I start getting serious about purging, cleaning and prepping for a move--hopefully.
Hubby needs a shorter commute than his current one (57 miles one way).

This is also the last little bit before our oldest daughter graduates from high school in June.
Yikes!
I feel like my life is going to get super crazy before it gets any kind of a break.

On top of that my favorite fabric store is currently going out of business.
Waaaah!
My sewing and fabric habits will probably be changing drastically because of that.

Happy New Year to me, right?!
I'll be fine.  Just keep at it one day at a time.

Anyway, I got this quilt back before Thanksgiving when my parents came to visit.
Finished the binding around the first of December.



I just love this quilt.
I am sooooo happy that it didn't ultimately get sent off as a gift, which was my original intention with this quilt.  We'll be keeping it around here.





Details:

• Finished measurements: 67 inches by 84 inches
• Bound with a dark red plaid.
• Green floral backing
• Beginning post on this quilt and pattern found here.
• Machine quilted by Lynn.

Poke'ball Hat

Daughter #1 crochets.
She can also knit, but prefers to crochet.
I think she basically taught herself (because I don't crochet), which is even more impressive.

She had a couple commissioned projects lined up before winter break.
This first one was this hat for a friend at school for a secret Santa gift.



And then a second one after someone else at school saw the hat.



Her "clients" were thrilled with the finished product.
You go girl!

Details:

• Poke'ball Hat pattern

It seemed that she whipped this up rather quickly and the only change she made to the pattern was to add another row of the red to make sure it would fit an adult head.