Tis the Season

In all the busyness of the season, it's hard to slow down long enough to enjoy all the beauty that surrounds us at this time of the year.  I'm no meteorologist, but it does seem like the sunrises and sunsets are the most stunning at this time of the year.  Perhaps it is that way to make us pause and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

The beaches are lovely as well - a great place for a walk and quiet time.  There is so much driftwood from the fires last year that has made its way down to the beaches.

The narcissus are blooming in the yard and in the amaryllis is blooming inside.

There has been lots of entertaining going on, but we managed to slip away for a couple of days to see Reba, Brooks and Dunn in Las Vegas with my sister, brother and their spouses.  It was such a great show.  The show was the night before Reba flew out to sing at the Bush funeral.  Now....that's a tight schedule!

We had little ones over the other night to help decorate the tree and go look at Christmas lights.  The top of the tree is pretty bare, but the bottom is loaded with ornaments!

There hasn't been a lot of stitching going on here.  I did get the final stitches in on the newest grandchild's Christmas stocking.

I'm way behind on my clues for the Quiltville Mystery, Good Fortune, but I am trying to sew a few each week.

Christmas cards are on the agenda for today so best get to them.....

I'll leave you with this cute lawn decoration we spotted on our trip to the desert.

Finished Stag

Back in the beginning of 2018 I started sewing along with others in a months long mystery designed by Gosia of Quilts My Way. The final clue was released and it was time to finish up our wonderful stags.

I really wanted to quilt it using the invisible threads, but I had so many issues with my thread breaking so ended up going with a salmon colored thread instead.  It seemed like a neutral color for both the light and dark fabric that the design contained.

Straight line quilting seemed like a good option, but then thought of adding the leaves considering the design needed a hint of nature.  If I had unlimited time to get this guy finished I would have done a more detailed FMQ in the stag himself.  I am still pleased with the way it turned out.  The E2E quilting design is called Split Leaf Line by Lana Corcoran.

Using the piped binding with this quilt just seemed to be the perfect frame for the piece.

I did a pieced backing using some wonderful antler fabric.  The colors of the cream and brown in the fabric were perfect for the design.

You can find many other elegant stags out there on Goaia's blog (www.quiltsmyway.blogspot.com), IG (#sodearlyqal), FB (Quilts My Way modern patterns) and various blogs.  They have all been beautiful as well as colorful.  There is even time to join in and do one with us.  All the information is on Gosia's blog.

Thanks so much to Gosia and the generous donors for helping to make this such a fun project.