Home for Christmas

As I write this blog, I am sitting in a hotel in Phoenix. Leo and I are flying Phoenix - Toronto - Ottawa tomorrow to go home for Christmas. Weather permitting, we should be home around 9:30 p.m. We are so looking forward to being with our family. Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers flying for us. Ontario has been nailed with one winter storm after another this week past.


One of the reasons I have been offline so much is that my fingers have been flying and then some. So, I have lots of finishes to show you.



First up, my Make a Wish for Edgar. His wish was for a Blackbird Design. I stitched "My Gift for You" on 32 count raw linen with the recommended WDW and Gast Threads. The wording is stitched over one. I finished it into a pyn keepe for him.



I finished crocheting the afghan for the lady who asked me to finish it for her. I then sewed all the octagons together and crocheted a border. I hope she likes it. It certainly turned out to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated.

Next up, Jackson's quilt, curtains and pillow sham are finished. Here is a photo of the finished quilt. He wanted yellow Caterpillar Machines and that's what he got!

Here is the finished quilt, the valance, the sham and I even found yellow construction vehicle Wallies for his room. The set will be given to him for his 4th birthday on January 12th or maybe before if he and I can't wait.

And then, Katrina's Hello Neighbor neighborhood arrived at my home. Here is the house I stitched for her. It came from an old Reader's Digest book and it was an article on a typical early American Sampler. I used bits of that, changed the colors and this is the end result.

Here is her neighborhood as it went out in the mail on Dec. 21st. I was the last person to stitch on her neighborhood and so it is on it's way home. Isn't it gorgeous.

Here is my selection of Christmas ornaments for this year. I had a day of finishing and minus some skin on the ends of my fingers, they are done. They have been bagged, tagged and distributed to their new owners.

I also sewed three casserole carriers for some of my friends as Christmas gifts but forgot to take a photo of them.

And here is Paradigm. I have been working on it the past few days and did a little on Friday night for the SAT. I had to tear out the entire motif that I am working on now as I had it in the wrong place but that's okay. Only 1 1/4 pages left!!!!!

And I found a new use for a cross stitch grid. We installed a new block driveway. I did not want plain 1 foot square blocks so I got out a cross stitch grid and designed my driveway. I researched Navajo rug designs and this is what I came up with.

At the front are two cacti, in the middle is a Navajo design called the rainmaker and in the back is the diamond shape that is found in many Navajo rugs.

I took the design out to Leo and his friend and said please lay the stones like this. They did!!!! Isn't it wonderful.

We have had lots of people walk and drive by since it was done. Leo and his friend laugh. They did all the hard back breaking work and all people can talk about is the design that I drew on paper. Don't you just love it.

And last but not least, here is the view on my porch the other night. No wonder they call the skies in Arizona - painted skies. Isn't that beautiful.

My family and I want to wish you and your families the Happiest of Christmases and Merriest of New Years. May you have a wonderful season filled with joy and a great deal of laughter.

See you in 2009.