There Goes Santa Clause

Mia's mom Lori sent me this picture of Mia in the snow. Could she be any cuter? Thanks Lori!


















Our Christmas was pretty great. Here's our Christmas piano, all loaded up with presents.














Josh is showing Mia her new "Ugly Doll."






















Lori gave Mia some yogurt for lunch. Yummy yum yum.

Dreaming

The view from our living room window:

Dreams of a white Christmas have come true.

Merry Christmas!

Smooching the Snowgirl

Today, I decided to make a new friend.

And I do mean MAKE a new friend.!











Then Jim caught me smooching her up, and he snapped this pic.

Oh the Weather Outside!

Here's what our copper rain chains look like today.
























This is the front of our house yesterday.















This is it today.















And here's the view from our deck in back.

Beeeutiful!!!

Sew and Snow

I've been doing more frayed edges in my folk art pieces. I think it has something to do with frayed nerves that are my habit during this (and every) holiday season.

Hopefully the edges will soften with time.
















Miss Phoebe is enjoying the snow in her warm leopard coat.












I've just about finished the "white-white-and-more-white" quilt.

I've been using various thicknesses of white thread to hand quilt it, and it's already taken more hours than I can count. It's the perfect job for these beautiful snow days...a great excuse to stay indoors.

Snow, Stitches and Silliness

Big fat snowflakes falling like downy feathers from the sky.

Out front.



















Out back over the river.









A good day to stay in, stitch something silly, and gaze out at the snowfall.

Easy to forget any troubles.

Nooks and Crannies

Of late, I've been hand quilting the multi-whites quilt. I'm using pearl cotton mostly, and I love the way it makes the fabric pucker and dip. The shadows make another whole element of texture on the quilt.











A life, dips and shallows,
shadows and bright spots,
slow work and long.

Travel Treasures

I photographed this piece when I was in Nancy Crow's timber frame studio last year. She has many incredible objects from her travels.

This morning, I found this quote on the blog "Exot" done by R. Nemo Hill
and Julian Mendez Perea
It made me think of all the places I've been, and the beautiful things I've gathered along the way. Here it is:

"The map to treasure is decorated with dozens of directions. There are the ways forward and the ways back, the places we pass through, the places we only pass by, the places we remember, the places we forget. The treasure, too, is manifold. There's destination, there's detour, there's what we bring and what we leave behind, there's what we lose along the way, there's what we find. And finally, there is what we carry back with us to that part of the map we call home."


Sir Richard F. Burton wrote: "A traveler's legs are like blossoming branches, and he himself grows and gathers the fruit."

Vintage Fabric Bliss

For the past few days, I've been sewing together some of the pieces I talked about in my last post. And I've been appliqueing them to some shot cottons.

I plan to stagger thirteen of these blocks with varying sized strips of other solid colors...hopefully more shot cottons.








I want the old fabrics to be the centerpiece of this quilt, and I think the solid colors of contemporary fabrics will let that happen.








































I haven't stitched this green one yet, but you can get the idea.