Full of Thanksgiving!

With Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, I've been busily trying to make my house presentable for my family. But, I want to take a moment's pause to send a very special BIG THANKS to Nan, who blogs at Pots and Pins. 

I am the very excited winner of Nan's recent 3rd Blog-a-versary Give-Away!   It is especially exciting to me because I am hosting Thanksgiving dinner for my family this year and have NO décor. Winning Nan's basket was perfect!

On Monday I had a horrible migraine, and was absolutely perplexed when a huge box suddenly appeared on my doorstep. It was even more perplexing when I looked at it because I couldn't imagine why I had addressed a huge box to myself-------Nan's handwriting looked just like mine!

Okay, so I was impaired already (duh), but it was quite funny when I remembered what it was--it shipped so quickly!  And I had a good laugh--laughter is the best medicine!  Someone else here thought the box was pretty interesting too!

And inside was a lovely basket filled with Thanksgiving goodies!! 

Have I opened the basket?? No, I am using it as motivation...IF...ok, WHEN I get my clean-up chores done, I get to open the package (or maybe sooner if I am weak--I have peeked a bit). So far it's working great as a motivator!                THANKS SO MUCH NAN!

AND,  if you are looking for recipe ideas for Thanksgiving, please visit Nan's blog.  She's got several dishes that look delicious--I've printed out several recipes. IF you have kids coming to dinner, her T Day party will give you some absolutely wonderful ideas--it looks like it was such fun!  Nan's kids table will beat most adult tables!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!  And thank you Nan!

Santas and Trees -- SewCalGal's Christmas Quilt Show 2010

This is my entry to the virtual quilt show of Christmas quilts that SewCalGal is hosting. 

It's from a commercial pattern I made about 20 years ago, and I'm sorry but I cannot remember the name of the designer...the pattern is apparently lost in my sewing room. 

Each of the blocks has several small pieces which made it quite time consuming to piece--not a good last minute Christmas decoration, but fun to make!  The Santa blocks have 24 pieces each.  To speed up the process, I cut actual size templates from freezer paper, then stacked 5 reds, whites, backgrounds, etc. and ironed the freezer paper pieces on the top of the stack allowing space around them.  Then I cut through all the layers with the ruler and rotary cutter, adding the seam allowance, which worked because each of the pieces has straight sides.  It wasn't super accurate, but was quicker with all the little pieces.  I did the same thing with the tree blocks (18 pieces each) and the tree border pieces.

In answer to some questions I've had, yes, the Santa hat is three dimensional, with a jingle bell at the end--here's a closer view of it:

If you'd like to enter one of your Christmas quilts in the show, you can read the rules (or visit the other quilts in the show) at SewCalGal's page.  You'll find many lovely quilts full of inspiration certain to get you in the mood for Christmas!
Happy Stitching!