Goodbye November

Wow....where did November go?  What a month it was!  The weather has definitely changed over to winter for many this month.  We are thankful to have the warm winds flaming the fires finally gone, but today we had cold winds and rain which, in turn, left us without power most of the day.  We go from one extreme to the other.

Of course, the end of November also means the start of the newest Quiltville Mystery.  I made myself promise to finish last year's On Ringo Lake before I started the newest one.  Quilting and binding were all that remained.

I decided to do the piped binding so I could finish it quickly on the machine and I am pleased with the way it turned out.

So...on to this year's Good Fortune.  As you can see, I am switching up the colors a bit, but they are done and ready for tomorrow's clue.

The last few weeks have been busy with Thanksgiving and enjoying the grandchildren home from college.  We always celebrate our Thanksgiving on the Saturday afterwards so the kids can go to in-laws or do their own Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Why is the timing of cooking a turkey always such am unknown?  DH smokes turkey breasts outside (as that is the favorite here) while I do one turkey in the oven inside.  Seems like the inside turkey is always done too early or too late.  Anyway, the food and the company were both great.  The house was wall to wall tables.  I wish I had photographed it, but the day got away from me.  We did manage to get most of us in for a drone photo, compliments of our grandson.

This is the time of the year when I'm ready to get back in the kitchen for some serious baking.  The smell of homemade bread is intoxicating.  My grandmother's egg bread is my favorite, hands down.

I also tried a new recipe from the Cooking Light magazine.  It was incredible and I am sure there are very few calories since it came from Cooking Light.  It has always been one of my favorite magazines, and unfortunately, it is stopping production.

It's time to add my final month marker to my Temperature Quilt.  I will post a picture of it on my next post as the day has been too dark to get a decent picture.

We have another large dinner party next week so it is back to cooking and decorating this week. 

Goodbye November, Hello December

Wow!  Has this year flown past or what?  It seems hard to imagine we are already into December. 

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful with lots of great memories being made and waaaay too much delicious food to eat.  The only downside to it this year was that my mom was unable to join us as she had an infection.  She so loves being around all the activity and enjoys seeing the little ones.  Each year we attempt to get a photo of the family together and this year was no exception.  We were missing one grandson who is away at college in Florida.

First Thanksgiving for three of them

There has not been a lot of sewing time, but I am attempting to join in on the Easy Street Mystery quilt with Bonnie Hunter.  This is the beginning and I will get to it as time permits.  I do have my almost 400 sub cuts of pairs finished.  They just need to be sewn into four patches.

They really are not pink!!!  They are grays, blacks and whites.

I have worked a little more on my Christmas stockings in the evenings.  It doesn't seem as though I make much progress until I compare it to the previous week's photo. 

This year I am going to enter my little red Christmas Tree into the 2012 Christmas Quilt show.  If you have made a Christmas quilt, you should put yours in as well.  They are accepting links through Nov. 30th.  There are prizes to be won even if you did not submit a quilt for the show so be sure to go and visit.

The house is slowly turning from fall decor into Christmas.  I am going to have some of the granddaughters come over to help me transform it the rest of the way.  They love doing it and I LOVE the extra help. 

Have you seen the Holiday Lane Blog Hop pillows?  Oh my goodness....they are fabulous.  That is on my to-do list for next year.  It is a free pattern by Jill Finley.  You can check them out at www.sewwequilt.com and follow the link to the pattern. 

Christmas is Coming

....the goose is getting fat.  Poor goose!

The blogs are so exciting with all of the Christmas decorating showing up.  I really enjoy seeing all of the creative ideas out there.  Does everyone else too?

I started to put a few things out yesterday.  I hung my Christmas Cactus quilt and I love it.  I think I have shown the completed top last winter, but here it is bound and hanging.   It will be such a nice addition to our future Christmas decorating.

To see more great Christmas quilts check out SewCalGal.

We celebrated our Thanksgiving on Saturday which is our tradition.   I had lots of help from the family - especially my dear hubby who cooked the turkeys, made the gravy, stuffing and potatoes.  It was delicious and I told him I might relinquish the job to him in the future!!!!

Lots of directing going on.

Some of the grandchildren came over and set tables and did prepping of veggies.  Thank goodness for a wonderful gang of help!

Grandpa overseeing the process.

Part of the gang for Thanksgiving.  The rest came later after a soccer playoff game and church.

Our son's new family member.

Not much quilting going on here unless a quilted jigsaw puzzle counts.  Can you tell I am bored?

It will be nice to get this cast off so I can use scissors, knives and rotary cutters again, but I am able to use the fingers more now that the swelling and pain has subsided.  Yeah!  The bad hair days remain!!!!

This was what we enjoyed this morning.  You know it's going to be a great day when it starts like this.

Keep up with all the great Christmas decorating as I am loving it!