Wishing you plenty of Christmas Sparkle!

I just wanted to pop in to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Thanks so much for reading and leaving encouraging comments on my blog during the past year.

Thank you for keeping me company, I appreciate it very, very much!

 

Time spent with friends and family.... priceless.

 

Age 5  and receiving the switch and Go dino.

 

 

Looks like Mema/Meme and Papa/Popi did just fine with the gifting. 

Age 8 and getting her McKenna Doll she's been wanting.

Age 20 and doing well.  Great to see him just before the Holidays for his drumming routine.

SCORE!!!

 

Wishing you Joy, Peace and much Love.

 

 Jane

 

PS:  (We never were able ot catch PGS#2 on film, he's a sly one.....lol)

 

Full of Gratitude and

From our crew to yours,

We are wishing you a very

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

If you are the source of this photo,

please let me know so I may give you proper credit.

 

Heat and shrink and some other stuff

After posting about the technique class last week I figured it would be best to try out the heat and shrink since Pam so graciously supplied what was needed to give it a whirl.









First as most of you know was to put stitches on your layered fabric on top of the heat and shrink.  You can see how many different ways I stitched this sample piece.







Then apply heat across all of the surface making sure your iron doesn't come in contect with the Heat and Shrink material.

I like the areas where I stitched the clam shell motif and the triangles,  both of those textures seemed to look better to my eye.

  Can you say EASY!


In some bags and clutches I can see where this would be a textile asset and even more luscious if I use a polyester  or silk fabric like what I sampled this technique with.  All that sheen scrunched up into loveliness, YUMM!










And lastly, Melissa from Happy Quilting Melissa   is sharing a Starburst quilt along and I'm thinking of participating with that but using the smallest block and more of them.  Perhaps this fabric line, Garden Medley from RJR fabrics would be unique and spectacular.  This FQ bundle I bought last year and it's beautiful, I had initially thought about using it in the Blogger Girls BOM QAL offered by Monique Dillard at Open Gate Quilts which is another one I'd love to participate with.  I think I have a  serious problem of STARTITUS this year.  But am thinking this would be nicer in a more traditionally themed fabbies, perhaps some of the pinks and chocolates I have in my stash.  Stay tuned... when I know, you'll know. 
Another saying comes to mind, The first cut is the deepest.  Who knew way back when that that song was about quilting?!   lol  Am showing a picture of them here since I'll be  printing it out in gray scale.  My picture program would only allow me to change colors and tints and I couldn't figure out how to print it in grayscale when I knew it could be done this way.  What's that expression, There is more than one way to skin a cat, not that I'd want to do that!

Am also busy getting my house in order since I leave very very early Thursday morning.  My flight leaves at 6am so at the airport by 4 am!  Jeepers that's crazy early.  Maybe I won't bother getting to bed, it might be easier than getting up at 2am so I can leave the house at 3!  I can't imagine working at the airport at that time every day, those poor TSA and flight workers.     DH still isn't allowed to drive since his cardiac event almost two years ago, and since he opted not to go to visit my Mom figuring we'd be doing our quilty things, I'll need to be sure everything he needs is in.  Then I still have the grands to watch in the beginning of the week, so my time will fly!   

The inauguration of President Obama is today besides the National Holiday for Martin Luther King is celebrated today too.  A little tidbit, MLK shared the same birth date as my FIL so It's easy to remember and he (my dear FIL)  is post humous about 35 years now.    What a gentle man he was and he has been missed. 

Enjoy your liberties and Enjoy your day.
Jane

Changed the fabrics according to grayscale, Light to dark configuration..

Winter Solstice and holi-days (holy-days)

While blog hopping I ran across Michele's posting at With heart and Hands blopspot and was complelled to parphrase this post about the Solstice and Eclipse, a special time. "From ancient times, the winter season has been seen as part of the balance of nature such as light and dark as well as the long and short. Another time where the balance point shifts. It is a time for change and a natural time for letting go of all that which seems dark within one's life. A natural time for making choices to bring in the light...both to lessen the darkness within, and to open ourselves to life's full beauty and grace.

Throughout history, in all of the world's cultures and through many belief systems, festivals, traditions, the changes in the cycles of birth(death and rebirth) have been intrinsically and symbolically honored with the solstices. From this honoring comes our holidays...our 'holy days.'

When we walk between the veils of one season and the next......or one change or one emotion and the next...or even one 'holy day' and the next..we find ourselves always balancing our emotions...balancing the dark emotions (the ones which create power and change), with the light emotions (the ones which bring in joy and abundance).

Solstice is of Latin deviation and means 'sun stand', referring to the appearance that the sun's noontime elevation stops in its progression. It is both the shortest day yet of course the longest night of the year. Many cultures, the world over perform solstice ceremonies. It is a time when we can most acutely feel the greatest darkness or the brightest light...a time of giving, of receiving.....or for some a time of the loss of light, and a feeling of going into the dark.

This is a deep and sacred time. A symbolic time for many of us experiencing loss, facing those emotions and feeling the sadness, the yearning, and the grief that such loss brings into our lives. Yet with that darkness, comes the sacred birth of a new light and all of the wisdom, power, and knowledge that this sacred birth created and brought into our lives. We create gifts of abundance, we manifest blessings and peace as we enter into that new place of well-being and joy. Celebrating with gifts of nature, gifts of our hands, and many blessings and gifts from our hearts."

Winter Solstice and the Lunar Eclipse happening on Dec.20 or Dec 21 depending on where you live is rare. This lunar eclipse falls on the date of the northern winter's solstice. Total lunar eclipses in northern winter are fairly common. There have been three of them in the past ten years alone. However, A lunar eclipse on the date of the solstice is not usual at all. Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years. "Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21," says Chester. "Fortunately we won't have to wait 372 years for the next one...that will be on 2094 DEC 21."

I recently watched a show talking of the norse men leaving signs of their travels in America, specifically starting in 1637. It was informational and I learned of a stone structure in Newport, Rhode Island called the stone tower. In history books its reported as a Windmill stone structure, however some idiosyncronities about it were highlighted and causes me to think it may have actually been the bones to some religious stucture. The window placement allows a Key stone in the structural remains of this tower to be highlighted (illuminated) during the solstices. The resemblances of it's supporting columns closely resembles many churches built in Northern Europe during that time period is too much of a coincidence. That and the astronomical designs with window placements that correlate with the winter solstice and other peak seasons really amazes me. Reminds me of New Grange in Ireland, and that is predates the pyramids of Egypt by 500 years!

"Many cultures celebrate or celebrated a holiday near (within a few days)of the winter solstice... Yalda, Saturnalia, Christmas, Karachun, Hanukkah, Festivus, and Kwanzaa." With the light now becoming stronger and our "Holy-day" of Christmas on the cusp, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Let your inner light shine and Happy Holi*days,
Jane

Sources for this post came from Michele of With heart and hands blogspot and from some articles by Nasa.gov with a bit of me thrown in to the mix too. I was compelled to write about the solstice and my embracement of it after visiting Michelle's blog. The solstice and some pagan traditions have always held a certain charm despite being a Christian and that I wanted to share this feeling with you during this powerful time.

Happy Birthday today!

I am being thoroughly spoiled today.
It's my birthday. I actually forgot about it until my PGD#1 was being dropped off this morning (she always is with us before and after school) and she had a card in her hand with her pleased with herself look. I asked what is that? and she beamed a gorgeous smile at me. Be still my heart! anyways I thought to myself, oh isn't that sweet, she made a card to thank us for all that we do. Recently we have been travelling into town to help with transporting grandchildren and their dad while life
was getting too busy and it seems we've had more on our own agenda just helping them complete their agenda. If you know what I mean. Anyhow, it actually was a Birthday card that was adorned with much personalization. Hand drawn castles, and younger brother wrote on it too. Adorable and a nice surprise, I had actually forgotten it was my Birthday!

Since I have been very bad (good) with filling up my stash recently ,
I have been drooling over Yuko's scissors that she shows on her blog be happy scissors. DH was getting ready to go shopping and I showed him the scissors that I was wishing for and he said go ahead and get them. Little did he know that I had already ordered them and that sweet Yuko actually invoiced me today, my birthday of all days to fulfill the order. Oh I am one lucky girl, thanks Honey and Yuko! Typically we celebrate each Birthday with cake and ice cream, but I asked DH if we could
celebrate tomorrow since I need to leave the house this afternoon around 4:30. There will be a guest speaker tonight at the monthly guild meeting talking about Amish quilts and I don't want to be late. I also need to stop by Michaels on the way and if I stayed until my daughter picks up PGD#1, I would miss the first 15-20 minutes of the lecture. And I am so looking forward to that topic. I'll bring my camera and try to capture some photos of any quilts she may show and let you know more later.

With all of this kismet and fate going on, I just know today's going to be the best. Hope your day is one of your best too! Thanks for stopping by.

Jane

Upon reflection and DMC,

After my post on Sunday, I did ponder how I ever got started on my collectives and why.

After much thought, (quite deep and it hurt just a little.. VBG :~) Hopefully I think I have figured out the why of some of it. I have always led a rural life which is one I am blessed to have grown up in and also have raised my family in. As far as great and big selections available locally though, there are limitations in many areas not just threads. So, up to that point I just planned ahead and waited until I went to town to purchase the required pieces needed to do my craft. Then it changed in the summer of 1983 or perhaps some year quite close to that.
I was doing CXS and when finishing a project, I would quickly want to stitch something else. I used to always try to keep my hands busy and actually had trouble stopping and just being at that point in my life. Too much to go into the whys of that now, perhaps a bit of my self proclaimed ADD or OCD was kicking in. Anyways, it was a major hindrance when I didn't have the required threads in stock at home and wouldn't be going into town for several more days. To compensate for that I would routinely buy 10 or 20 skeins of colors I knew I didn't have (courtesy of keeping track on the little DMC cards they used to have available) hoping to acquire the full collection of DMC skeins. Then eureka!  A family vacation to Myrtle Beach and you know about their Wakauma Pottery retail and their prices? Egads!  You'd think I had died and went to heaven.
They had DMC threads priced at 6/$1.00 a too good to be true price, so at that time I finished filling in my collections of DMC.  And you know what they say....THE REST IS HISTORY! Here is my stack of boxes of regular DMC and some of the Kreineks for cross stitch.



The DMC 8 is in another tote in my sewing studio for crazy quilting. Now mind you, they have all different sorts of threads, brands and I continue to do my part in supporting our nations economy, but perhaps I'll challenge myself to brazen away from following these charts so closely and start making the stitchings MY OWN. The next photo is how I organized my other "cross stitch" threads.



The rings seem to work the best for me. On E bay I found a seller that was auctioning off some thread tuxes. The tuxes are actually a long thin bag to hold a skein of thread with a punch hole in it to pull the thread from. That would work for storing, but with a plastic baggie the thread package would be slip siding every witch way. Not great in my mind's thinking. With storing my threads on these rings in a large plastic bag, I can locate what I need quickly (If I have it) and then it can slip on to my thread ring of the current project I'm working on. I did punch an additional hole into the cardboard tags that the threads came on to slip the parts used back onto the bobbin.




Of course with working on a couple of quick Halloween items, I became aware of the Kreinek Glow in the Dark and the DMC Glow in the Dark threads so I did order the Kreinek filament blenders in all the available colours besides a couple of Prairie Schooler patterns, and 2 pairs Kelmscott scissors of LOVE and spiderweb. Drool!

Check out how cute they are next to my recent find at Michaels. When I saw it I thought  Eeeks! a seasonal pincushion. Isn't that sweet, oops I meant kreepy! LOL



Now I'll have to try to wip up an appropriate scissor fob to complete "the package". This is what I'm currently working on.


It a freebie called Boo Thyme from Sandra S. of Homespun Elegance. Love the look of this and since it has a key too, it just appealed to me. Thanks to Berit from the blog of Along the Paths of Pins and Needles is where I found a link to it after my webbing hopping from blog to blog.

And lastly, I just have to share about a fantastic giveaway of HalloweenY items and treasures be given away over at Missy and Annette's ~ 31 Days of Halloween Giveaway!



Check them out for yourselves and good luck! They are both really creative and have a lot of eye candy to check out.

Jane

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas....

I love a white Christmas and that is exactly what arrived for this morning for a beautiful Christmas Morning and without the mess of snowfall. A little snap shot taken while going to visit the youngest grand children this morning so we could see them open their Santa gifts. A great time and what the holidays are for.



Merry Christmas all!
Jane