Sister's Choice Quilts

Our 2023 Christmas Tree and Something I've Been Loving

Our tree this year is so different from our normal Christmas tree. This is a concession to having a young dog who cannot be trusted to leave things be. Typically we have our tree decorated with my husband's much-loved collection of Christopher Radko glass ornaments. Each year he lovingly packs them up individually in bubblewrap bags. Unwrapping them is an all-day event, and putting them away seems to take all weekend. At any rate, this year we used the decorations we usually put on our second tree, which is on our upstairs balcony. 

For a time I collected a type of fairy ornament made by Mark Roberts. I received a lot of them as gifts, and each year there was a special theme such as baker fairies, woodland fairies, etc. They are all quite nice and make an impressive showing on the tree since there are so many of them. We figured if Archie knocked them off the tree somehow at least they can't break!

It isn't our normal tree, but I think it looks pretty good. It is actually nice for a change and to have peace of mind knowing no harm will come to my husband's precious collection. 

Next, I wanted to share with you something I have been really enjoying lately. It isn't easy to find attractive and comfortable loungewear that doesn't look sloppy. This year Chico's had some pieces that I fell in love with. The set is comprised of a cowl neck tunic and slim pants, each purchased separately. The fabric is a soft knit with a hint of cashmere, making it so comfy. The pieces are washable and can supposedly even go in the dryer on delicate. I may hang mine to dry just to be safe.

I have been wearing these pieces on repeat. The outfit is everything I look for in "at-home" wear. Warm, cozy, comfy, and effortlessly stylish looking. I loved the "merlot" colored set so much that I ordered the pieces in forest green as well. 

You can see the neckline better in this photo. These pieces come in lots of colors, merlot, forest, red, a beautiful purplish blue, and black. Check them out if you are looking for a cozy at-home outfit for the holidays.

 

 

December Decor Coming Together

I am getting the holiday decorating done step by step. I try to switch things up a bit year by year, although some things bear repeating. This is a new arrangement with some snowmen I have collected over the years.

This is the same arrangement I did on my table in the foyer last year. Next year I'll have to switch it up.

This is my buffet in the dining room, where I have typically put my crazy snowman collection. I caught Archie starting to tug at one end of the dangling garland and could see the entire collection falling to the floor in ruins. I ended up moving the snowmen to my china hutch, which doesn't show them off as well, but what can I do?

I am not 100% happy with my decor this season, but my choices are more limited with Archie to be considered. In the long run, no one but me is going to know the difference I suppose. 

Eva came over after school yesterday and helped me with my Santa collection arranging. I will share that tomorrow. Her dad and step mom are going on a trip this week, and she will be staying with us, which will be great fun. She has already requested spaghetti and enchiladas, so I know what I'll be cooking. With any luck, our new Christmas tree will arrive and we can get that decorated.

Hope your week got off to a great start!

And the Christmas Season Begins!

Our Thanksgiving was small, but very cozy and lovely. It's funny isn't it that it is the same amount of work if you have four people or twenty four? We kicked things off with Christmas Cosmos, which were amazing. It is a regular Cosmo cocktail with crushed peppermint around the rim.

The day after recovering from our turkey coma, it was time to put away all the lovely fall decor. It is my favorite season to decorate, and I may have more items than strictly necessary to celebrate autumn.

That took a few trips out to our garage storage cupboards. Thank goodness we have a wagon.

I won't show you all my Christmas decor just yet because it is a work in progress. We spent the whole weekend getting things out and sorting through things to decide what we wanted where. Unfortunately, our main Christmas tree had an entire section of lights that no longer work. That tree cost a fortune and my husband spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong. I think we are going to have to come up with a new tree.

This is my dining table centerpiece. The glass trees are Waterford crystal, and are no longer made. I had a red one which I enjoyed for years and last year my husband surprised me with the clear one and the green one, which he found on eBay. When the light hits them, they glow as if lit from within. Truly exquisite. 

This small tree I put next to my reading chair in our front room/libary. Over the years we have collected a few Waterford Christmas ornaments and this little tree displays them all together. It is best viewed close up, so you may want to enlarge the photo. I truly enjoy this little tree so much. 

So far, Archie has not caused any disasters, but I did catch him biting the end of the garland on my buffet, which hangs down low enough for him to reach. If he had tugged on it, as I think he was planning to, many things that I have cherished for years would have ended up on the floor. We need to up our dog-proofing game. 

In other news, our son, as you know, lives in Dublin, Ireland. On Thanksgiving (which of course the Irish do not celebrate) there was a large civil disobedience occurrence (a riot) downtown. A city train was burned, a double-decker bus was burned, as well as at least one police car. As it happened right at commute time, Ahren was caught in the middle of things. He had to walk about 5 miles until he could find a taxi cab driver who would pick him up and take him home. What an embarrassment for Dublin, and Ireland as a whole. Disgraceful. 

Let's all hope for better things in 2024. Hope you had a great weekend! surrounded by family and good food on the table. 

Thanksgiving Week

I went to my father's house on Sunday to have dinner with the family. We hope to finish emptying out the house soon and letting the realtors spruce things up a bit to prepare it for selling this spring. The sun was shining when I woke up there Monday morning and I went outside to the backyard and discovered this large mushroom in the grass. Doesn't it make a beautiful autumn picture?

On Saturday I worked a bit more on the Hourglass blocks. I have completed months 1 through 8.

I am starching the fabric for the alternate log cabin blocks now and want to get a few made to get a better feel for the final look of the quilt. I think the "night and day" effect will be stunning.

The main body of Apple Sauce is together, and I am still working on the square in a square blocks that will form the border.

So nothing is actually finished, but I am getting there. It will be a full week though, so I am not sure just how much sewing will get done! I read somewhere that this is a great week because it is a short one that ends in pie and shopping. I have started my Christmas planning, but so far have only bought one thing for Eva. 

We will be a small group for Thanksgiving dinner, but that's ok. I like the quiet coziness of it, with the house full of good smells and a lazy evening after dinner is complete. Friday I suspect we will start the holiday decorating and get the tree up. No glass ornaments this year. I don't think Archie would mess with the ornaments, but he is still very rambunctious and we don't want to risk him breaking anything he brushes past.

I hope you all are having a great start to your week!

Family Halloween Party 2023

Our family Halloween party has been derailed for a few years due to COVID-19, but we planned a big one for this year. It was very nearly canceled at the last minute due to a life-threatening health crisis a family member is suddenly and very unexpectedly dealing with. Prayers and good thoughts are welcome.

One of my sisters is a very talented decorator and also a master at creating things out of paper. She made this invitation pictured above herself! Actually, she made a ton of them to send out to family and friends. In addition, food had been purchased and prepared, and family was flying in from South Carolina, Washington, and Oregon, so we decided to go ahead with the party. It's a very big deal, I am telling you, and we did not want our sister's efforts to go to waste.

Here are some photos of the house decor and food table:

These bookcases had recently been emptied, and the books were replaced with Halloween vignettes. Enlarge the photos to see the details.


This table vignette has a raven, a skull, a portrait of Edgar Allen Poe, and an antique typewriter with the first couple of paragraphs from his poem The Raven actually typed out.



Spooky holographic photo gallery in the foyer. 
This type of decor was throughout the house, in the living room, bathrooms, and outside. I didn't get photos of everything, but you get the vibe. I'm telling you, my sister has amazing creativity.

The food table was out of this world.

Now for the costumes, I wish I could show you all of them:


Eva the Spooky Scarecrow


Shady Banana Salesman


Happy Lego Dragon Guy


The Bachelorette


Mrs. Roper


Queen of Hearts


Mad Hatter


Creepy Zombie Girl


Fat Chicken


Lastly, here's me as a sunflower in a pot. I made a pretty minimal effort this year I am afraid. I kept sitting down to talk to people and getting my pot all bent out of shape.

And that's a wrap on the family Halloween party. Sometimes when misfortune happens, the best thing is to get together with family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1904 Binding

I am finally getting the binding on the best Halloween quilt ever, Halloween 1904, a pattern by Blackbird Designs. I made this quilt about 10 years ago, and only just had it quilted. Don't ever think you've waited too long to get your quilt quilted. It's a monster in size, and I will be stitching miles of binding.

If only my witchy self had a magic spell to get it done...

Two miles done, one to go. I'm pretty happy with it, to tell you the truth. 

House Cleaning

I used to have a lovely man who would clean my house once a month. He came with an assistant. The assistant would start in on our primary bedroom and bath, then do the guest room and library. Dusting, vacuuming, floor washing. The boss would start in the kitchen and clean the counters, the stove top, the blinds over the sink, the microwave, the oven etc. Then between the two of them, they would dust and mop the floors, vacuum the stairs, and repeat the process on the second floor. They would even do extra things such as washing windows, cleaning blinds, and dusting ceiling fans. 

It took the two of them about three or four hours to do the job. Then Covid descended upon us and we had to hold off on having them come to clean. Then the lovely man who owned the business decided to retire. By the time lockdown was over, we had no more house cleaners.

Our house is 3400 square feet and has a lot of floors. Carpets in the bedrooms, hardwood and porcelain tile in the foyer and bathrooms. Lots of vacuuming, lots of floor mopping. The floors are the worst of it. Vacuuming carpeted stairs? No thank you. 

My husband said he could do the job. And he has been for the past couple of years. He vacuums, washes floors, cleans the bathrooms. I appreciate it so much, but those extra things just aren't getting done. Window washing hasn't been done in ages, ceiling fans are coated with dust, the baseboards are dingy, mirrors are splotchy, and kitchen cupboards are sticky.  I feel as if things are out of control.

Since I'm not working anymore, I told my husband to relax, I'd take over some of the jobs he had been doing (or not doing...). 

I knew I needed some motivation, so I started watching YouTube videos on house cleaning. Most of the gals who do these cleaning videos are energetic women in their 30s who have three or four kids. It's pretty amazing what they can accomplish. But that's not me. I may not have any kids living at home, but I am in my 70s and don't have the energy I used to have. 

After watching hours of YouTube (when I could have actually been cleaning the darn house), I decided I needed to step up my game. It was kind of like knowing you need to lose weight and reading diet books while you have a snack. But now I'm ready.

I learned a few tips that may make the house cleaning chore a bit easier. The first thing I got was a cordless rechargeable vacuum for the hard floors in the house. These work great in kitchens and bathrooms and anywhere else dust, hair, and debris accumulate. The price range for these things is from $125- to over $600. I got a Eureka at the lower end of the price spectrum and it is charging as I write this. It weighs less than 5 pounds and there is no cord to wrestle with. It has a little canister that shows all the crud the machine is picking up and that you have to empty after use.

Other supplies I got are microfiber cleaning cloths and a special toilet scrubber that gets under the rim and does a splendid job. See the picture at the top of the post? The blue round-shaped sponge on a handle? The one I got is similar in concept to that. Clorox makes them and so does Scotch Brite. They do such a better job than a regular toilet brush.

I also learned a few "hacks" to make some chores less onerous.

If your blinds haven't been attended to in years, you may have to face the music and get on a step stool with a spray bottle of cleaner and some rags. However, once you get your blinds in clean shape, all you need to do is dust them every couple of weeks with a Swiffer. Honestly, I did this and it only takes a minute or two for each window. 

Another idea is to designate a "power hour" a couple of times a week. Set your timer and pick a couple of rooms and do what you can just in that specific area. After an hour, "ding", you're done. 

I am going to see how it goes, and I'll keep you posted. My husband will still help me, particularly with the carpet vacuuming and floor washing. I sure hope we can do this ourselves because hiring it done is so expensive and it is such a pain to get started having someone new in your house and having them do things your way.

Do you have any secrets for keeping up with housework? I'd love to know if you keep to a schedule, hire help to do it for you, just let things be a mess (no judgment), or get other family members to lend a hand. And if you have any cleaning tools or products to recommend, please weigh in!

Life with Archie So Far

Cuteness overload here. Archie is adjusting very well to living with us. His breeder is from Nevada and lives in an area where Parvo is a terrible problem, so he had been kept inside for the four months of his life until we got him. He had been trained to use a cat litter box, if you can believe it, and had never experienced so many things we take for granted. He is amazed by birds, cars going by, airplanes, plants, and open spaces.

His absolute favorite thing (outside of his new family) is experiencing grass, which was unknown to him until he came to us. He pitches himself into it with a running start, rolls around in it repeatedly, and acts like it is the best discovery ever. He also figured out that it is an excellent place to pee and poop (in the first 24 hours he was with us), which means the cat litter box and 50 pounds of cat litter we bought were a complete waste of money. My friend Sue has a cat and I am hoping she will take both off my hands. Honestly, what self-respecting puppy wants to use a litter box when he can go outside in his own backyard?

We bought a boatload of toys for him, and you know what his favorites are? Ice cubes we give him and sticks he finds on the grassy lawn.

He follows my husband and me everywhere, so we aren't too worried he will try to escape. He doesn't seem to want us out of his sight, which is fine. He is affectionate and knows "sit" and "stay" and "come" and his name. His first appointment with our veterinarian is this afternoon, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of him.

We did purchase something called a "snuffle mat" for him. It consists of a mat with various textured objects attached to it, where you can hide dog treats or tiny bits of kibble for your pet to "snuffle" out. It is supposed to be a dog "puzzle toy" that keeps your pet mentally stimulated. He did seem to enjoy that when Eva and I put it out for him. Naturally, he found all the hidden treats in short order.

Now to teach him "leave it", "no biting", and "no". Omg, you should see my hands and arms. I look like I fell into a bramble bush from all the accidental bites, bruises, and scratches. Old skin is thin and bruises easily apparently.

We are having a blast with him although he is definitely a time commitment. Eva comes over every day and helps us by playing with him and trying to train him to have some basic manners. She has been just great to have around. He is so darn cute and their mutual attraction is apparent.

Wish me luck. During his naptime today I hope to get upstairs and work a bit on the Sunny Patches project Coriander Quilts is hosting.

Where Did My Sewing Mojo Go?

This is my poor neglected sewing table. It has not seen much action in a while. I don't know why, but I just have not felt like sewing lately. I've tried making lists of the projects I need to work on and itemizing the actions that need to be taken in order to complete them. Nothing works. I just don't feel like sewing lately.

I've been a bit distracted this week because my teeth hurt from my new clear aligners, but I didn't do a darn thing last week either. Except read. I seem to always be able to do that.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever just lost the desire to sew? Our weather has been nice, which means it is pleasant to sit outside with a book, which I have been doing. But otherwise, I have just been so idle. And believe me, aside from sewing, I have a number of household projects that need my attention, but I've lost interest in doing those too.

I have bags of books to donate to the library, or sell on Pango. I am going to turn Eva's bedroom at our house into a guest room, which she can continue to use when she comes over, but all her old toys and books need to be packed up so we can put the room to better use. And there is always housework: floors to be swept and washed, laundry to do, dusting and vacuuming, bathrooms to clean. I just have no impetus to do any of it. 

Have you ever been in the sewing doldrums? Tell us how long your dry patch lasted and how you snapped out of it. Wish me luck that I recover soon! 

 

 

4th of July Home Decor

I have been having fun pulling out my 4th of July decor. This little quilt is one of my favorites, a pattern called Endearments by Betsy Chutchian. I looked for a link to the pattern, but could not find one. It may be out of print. Betsy has a unique Civil War Reproduction style that really appeals to me.

I have lots of photos for you today. I had more 4th of July decor than I thought! This little star quilt is called Little Stars, a pattern by Minick and Simpson. I couldn't find a link to it either! I got out my Bath and Body Works patriotic candles, which are almost burned all the way down. I need to figure out how to use the jars again because they make such great accents.

For the coffee table, I like this runner in tomato red Fig Tree fabrics. I kind of made up the pattern and you can read about my inspiration here.

I have a collection of adorable wooden tomatoes which I've had for years. They are a perfect match.

In the hall that leads to our bedroom, I put a couple of extra things. The runner is a pattern called Zig Zag by Lehman Designs. 

This little Humpty Dumpty has been around for decades. I know I got him at a little shop in Los Altos, CA that has been closed for probably 30 years. He is made of some kind of fabric that has been treated to feel like oil cloth. I just love his alarmed expression. I used to keep him on a shelf in my office when I was a working person, but now he just comes out for summer. Love that little wooden slice of watermelon too.

My entry hall table is always fun to decorate seasonally. This little Minick and Simpson table runner was a kit Moda did years ago. It was a monthly subscription that was pretty pricey, but came in the cutest decorated metal box. The USA decoration is new this year. My husband actually saw it at our local hardware store and bought it for me!


Hope your week is off to a great start! Have you got your 4th of July or summer decor out yet?