Sister's Choice Quilts

Snow Day Tea Party

Eva had no school yesterday due to it being declared a "Snow Day". Many people who live at a higher elevation from us got tons of snow and were not able to get out of their driveways or get through the icy/snowy roads, so school was canceled. If the teachers and kids can't get there and the substitutes can't either, I guess there isn't much point in keeping the school open. 

We've been so lucky not to have any snow stick at our elevation, but just 100 or so feet higher than we are, people got loads of snow. My daughter Sara, who lives near Yosemite National Park lost power and has no phone service. She really lives just about off the grid and this happens every time there is "weather". This time she kept her internet, which is good because she works from home.

Eva and I had a lovely day. We made Earl Grey Tea Cookies, had a tea party, went to Starbucks for hot cider, and played board games. It was really quite lovely. The cookies were easy and very good. The tea flavor could have been stronger, but I can tweak that next time I make them.

Lots of work coming up this week, so I am not sure if I will get my Don't Fence Me In blocks sewn together after all. Maybe this weekend. 

Hope you are all having a good week and are having better weather than we are.

Stocking Stuffer Ideas

Is Santa having some trouble figuring out what to put in your family's Christmas stockings? Never fear, help is here. Carol in Texas gave me the bright idea to share some possibilities with you. I have some ideas for men, women, and tween girls that could help you out. I got most of my stocking stuffer ideas from doing online searches for suggestions, and I am happy to pass them on to you. Let's start with the guys since they tend to be trickier. 

A digital meat thermometer is great for the guy who grills. This is also a great stocking stuffer for women who cook as well. It is by Thermoworks. It is fairly pricey, but there are many lower-priced versions on Amazon.

I discovered these little key fobs when I bought the digital thermometers. They weren't expensive at all and I thought they were fun.

This manly Dr. Squatch soap is always a hit with the guys in my family. 

Do you have an insomniac in your family? This Dodow sleep aid device sounds so clever. It projects a blue light on the ceiling over your head. You look at the light and breathe in a recommended pattern and hey presto, supposedly you fall asleep in a jiffy.

Here is another stocking stuffer that is uni-sex. It is a Tuff Mutt hands-free dog leash. Do you have a dog walker who likes to carry their morning Yeti cup of coffee while they walk FIdo? It's so nice to have your hands free while you do this daily chore.

Isn't this Sage Owl grill scraper clever? It has little indentations guaranteed to fit whatever kind of grill your guy has.

This little leather tidbit is a cord organizer. Perfect to fit in a stocking for Christmas and so practical. Who couldn't use one of these?

The girls in your family are going to be much easier to buy for, I promise. I won't provide pictures or links for most of these items because you can go to Ulta or Sephora or even Target and pick up most of them.

Lip balms
Hair clips or scrunchies
Mascara
Any makeup product really: blush, powder compact, eyeshadow palette
Tubes of hand cream
Mini sizes of salon hair care products
Hand soap

Wooden spoons or spatulas are always fun to stick in a stocking and always appreciated.

A nail care repair set is a great idea for the gal whose nails could use some love.

Tweezerman tweezers are the best tweezers on the planet. Period. Everyone needs a pair. Get one for yourself while you're at it.

Mug warmers are all the rage right now. They keep your coffee, tea or whatever at just the right temperature. I often get sidetracked and let my hot drink go cold while I am working. This solves that problem.

Do you have a rechargeable lighter? These don't have lighter fluid, they have a rechargeable battery. They are brilliant for lighting candles. This is another useful and very affordable item that you need for yourself as well. There are hundreds to choose from on Amazon. The woman in your life who has scented candles burning all the time will love you for getting her this.

Barefoot Dreams cozy socks are a godsend for chilly days or nights. I wear mine to bed and my toes never get cold during the night. The soft knit yarn has to be felt to be believed. It is the softest thing ever.

Do you have a Tween girl in your family? That would be a young lady between 11-13 who is a bit past playing with dolls (or maybe not) and appreciates some more grown-up gifts in her stocking.

Lip balm
Fruity or floral deodorant
Cozy socks
Hair do-dads
Earrings
A sketch pad and marker
A journal
Any craft-making item (beading, weaving, pom-pom making)

Tween girls love to make things. This air dry clay kit will provide hours of fun for her to make little charms. The package is small and easily fits in a stocking.

Have you heard of Squishmallows? Well, I was out of the loop too. Squishmallows come in all sizes from little toys to good-sized pillows. They are cute and they are squishy, and tween girls love them. This little guy is just 4 or 5 inches tall. There are tons to choose from, mostly cute animals.

Is your tween girl a bookworm who likes to stay up late reading? This clip-on book light will allow her to do that in style.

Hopefully, these ideas will give you a start if you are stymied for stocking stuffer ideas. Most can be ordered on Amazon for speedy delivery, but don't wait because time is short at this point. Good luck and ho ho ho!

Thoughtfully Appointed Guestrooms

Thanks so much for all the great ideas on how to set up a guest room to be extra welcoming and comfortable for folks who are visiting you during the holidays (or any time!)

I put together a couple of goodie baskets based on your recommendations. The first is a food basket with bottled water, chocolate bars and bags of snacky things such as banana chips, trail mix, corn nuts, and salted peanuts. I plan to feed him extra well while he's here, but he's on vacation after all.

I put this basket on the bathroom counter. It has all the toiletries I could think of that he might use while here. Tooth care items, a shower sponge, bath wash, shaving cream, deodorant, and Advil. 

I plan to put out extra towels and of course tissue and toilet paper. I ordered a luggage rack so he can conveniently leave his suitcase open. I cleaned everything from top to bottom and think the space will be as welcoming as can be when he gets here.

The weather in Dublin is clear, as it is in San Francisco, so hopefully, there won't be any issues with the flight.

Let's get this party started!!!

Sewing and Baking

I am having so much fun with these little village blocks from the Fat Quarter Shop 2015 Designer Mystery kit. This is the Schoolhouse if you couldn't tell. Love the little flag and bell tower.

Fast forward seven years to the 2022 Designer Mystery project for block #6 designed by April Rosenthal. That plaid was a biscuit to work with, I tell you. My seam ripper really got a workout until I saw on the FaceBook group that someone had the bright idea to cut the plaid on the diagonal so the wavy mismatching lines weren't an issue. I blatantly copied their idea and am much happier with my results. Sorry about the bad lighting in the photo. It was way early in the morning when I took it.

I finally finished 20 of those star center blocks. Would you believe that the weekly assignment back when that kit arrived each week was to make 20 blocks per week? I'm lucky if I can finish 4 of them in that time!  No wonder this project is taking me six years. My grand total so far is 180 blocks, so only 60 more to go. 

Our Tuesday afternoon baking project was these cupcakes. Eva and I watched how-to YouTube videos until we felt confident enough to play with a piping bag and various decorating tips. I loved using the tip for the results on the top left. It looks like little cacti, which isn't very Christmassy but was super fun to do. We had fun making these, and at least our first attempts did not resemble the poo emoji, so that was good.

Snowman Houses and a Blast From the Past

To say I am enjoying making these houses from the Designer Mystery 2015 BOM sew-along is an understatement. Each one of these blocks is a little work of love. Top row: Grandma's Cottage and an Apartment Complex. Bottom row: Post Office and Sweet Shop. If they look scroogey, it is because I did not lay them straight on the design wall, they really came out pretty good. Anyway, so much fun! I am really pleased with how well the mail box turned out. That scalloped edging on the Sweet Shop block was so hard!

Here is a bit of fun. My sisters were going through our dad's bedside drawer and discovered an undeveloped roll of film. Kate took it to be developed and found a bunch of photos from 1999 that my dad had never had printed out. The picture above is of my mom at her kitchen sink washing lemons she had harvested from the lemon tree on the sideyard. We have no idea what she was planning to do with them, and even Sara, who was pictured in some accompanying pictures where she was assisting my mom, had no recollection of what the plan was. What a blast from the past this was. At the time, Sara and Ahren and I lived less than a mile away and were hanging out at my parents' house all the time. This picture is a perfect example of what life was like back then. There was always some project or other going on at their house that we all pitched in on. It makes me miss them so much.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I spent part of it with my sisters and it was so nice to be together. 

Relaxing Weekend

Eva and I got the Halloween decorations put away and brought out a few Thanksgiving things. Daylight Savings Time started, so it feels like it is dinner time, but it's only a quarter past 3.  My photos are all kind of dark, and that is what it was like in my house at the time.

Eva's dad and his wife have gone away for the week, so she will be staying with us all week long. Yay! It's a treat for us to have her for so many days. Sunday we made cornbread and attended a basketball team pizza party. I did get some sewing done on Saturday and somehow managed to spend a heck of a lot of money on new fabric.

Aren't these just beautiful? They are selected pieces from the Isabella collection by Minick and Simpson. This summer there is going to be a basket quilt sew-along in faded patriotic colors and I had to jump on this fabric to be sure I got some before it sold out. That's what I told myself anyway. I will put it away soon, but right now I am leaving it out where I can fondle it.

How gorgeous is this large-scale print? It will be my border I think.

In other news, I re-made my Sewcialites 2, Block 2 for the third time. I just could not get the colors right. Here they are in order of my making them:

One, on the left. Two, on the right.

Final version. I sure can't keep doing three versions of each block. I need to get my act together.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Halloween and Block Re-Do

We had a wonderful neighborhood Halloween gathering at my son in law's house near us. The adults sat around a small campfire in the front yard and greeted the kids and their parents as they came by for trick or treating. Eva's dad lives in a neighborhood that goes all out for Halloween, to the extent where people drive from nearby towns to trick or treat. When we first moved here, we lived in his neighborhood and the first Halloween we had 283 kids came by.  I kept track. All the houses were decorated to the nth degree and many people, like our group, sat out in front of their houses to pass out candy. It was all very festive and fun.

Eva was dressed as a mermaid skeleton and in the picture above she is standing with her bestie, who is a spooky black cat. Those girls are growing up so darn fast. 

I remade the second Sewcialites 2 block.  I just didn't care for the way the large print was working in the design. 

Here is a comparison. I think I prefer the one on the right.

We had a big rainstorm today, with lot of thunder and lightening. I am glad it held off until today and didn't spoil the Halloween festivities. I curled up on my chaise lounge with a good book and had a perfectly cozy day. Hope your week got off to a great start.

 

Thank You To All For Your Kind Words

Thank you to all of you who offered such comforting words of sympathy for the loss of my father. It was so sweet to read your kind comments. While his passing was not unexpected at his age, it still leaves a great hole in our family. It also leaves a great hole in how I spend my time each weekend. I am so used to leaving home on Fridays to keep him company and care for him through Sunday. It was so difficult this past weekend not to be with him. Besides missing our conversations, I found myself checking the time often and thinking of what we would be doing at a certain point in the day. It will be a big adjustment not to have him around. 

I did keep myself busy this past weekend and found getting deep into the project of sorting out my neglected sewing room was a good distraction. I sorted out piles of leftover fabrics and did a major tidying of the closet. I will share all that with you in another post this week. I should have taken a "before" picture. It was a mess.

My quilter returned four quilts to me a week or so ago and I can't wait to share the finishes with you. She's had these for a long time due to her family making a move from South Carolina to Florida. So my quilts have had quite a journey. They even got to go through Hurricane Ian, but fortunately were not affected. Can you imagine? You send your precious quilts out for quilting and your quilter has to inform you "Sorry, my house was destroyed by a hurricane and your quilts too." Luckily that didn't happen. 

That is my Sewcialites quilt in the top photo, and this is a close-up of the quilting design we chose. Actually, my quilter suggested it, and since she probably knows better than I do, I went with it. I like it. In particular, I like how the quilting thread does not stand out too much. It's tricky when you have a light background with black fabrics in the quilt top.

I hope your week gets off to a good start. Wish me luck as I adjust to my new "normal".

John C. Shyne 11/26/25 - 10/11/22

My father passed away Tuesday, October 11, 2022. He was a few weeks shy of his 97th birthday.

He was a wonderful man. He was a Stanford professor for 25 years, then started up his own successful company with several colleagues. He traveled all over the world and took his wife and daughters with him on many international trips. He was married to my mother for 57 years and had five daughters, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. In 1976 he rode his bicycle, solo, across the United States, from Chevy Chase, Maryland to Palo Alto, California. He was an avid reader and passed his love of books on to me and my sisters.

Throughout his life, he was a kind and generous man. A loving parent, a good teacher, and a wonderful provider. As one of my sisters said, he gave us everything we could ever possibly need or want. He was respected by his colleagues, loved by many friends, and cherished by his daughters. It has been an honor to have him as my dad, and a privilege to care for him and keep him company in his later years.

I miss you Dad. 

Taking a Little Blogging Break

I am going to be taking a little break from blogging until the last week of September. When I return I hope to get back to my usual quilty and bookish content. 

Things have been rather hectic in my personal life these past months, with many family responsibilities vying for my time. With luck, things will settle down a bit over the next few weeks and I can get back to my hobbies and other interests. Thanks for your patience, and I'll look forward to "talking" to you again the last week of September!