Why do you celebrate Christmas?

This is the reason I do...

 

The Birth of Jesus Christ

Matthew 1:18 - 2: 12 (NIV)

   This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.  Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”  When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”  When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” 

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. 

Now I can share...

So now that Christine has received her package from me, I can finally share pictures of it.  This is what I made for her for the Nancy Halvorsen/Christmas challenge.  This challenge is the most recent in a series of ongoing challenges for a group called 'The Twelve of Us'.

 
I made her 2 tea towels - the top one that says 'Bless Ewe' and another one with a dove in a tree.  I've looked through my pictures but can't find any closeups of them.  I finished them quite a while ago and thought I'd taken individual pictures, but if I did, I don't know what happened to them.

The main part of her package was the Christmas wall hanging.  The letters are fused on and then blanket stitched around with coordinating floss.  The words are embroidered and the people are supposed to be buttons.  At least that's what they are in the book.  However, the individual button pack was over $50 with shipping and I decided to see if I could recreate them in fabric.  Here they all are before I added the details to their faces and such...

I should have put a quarter next to them so you could an idea of the scale of them.  Each figure is probably about an inch tall.  These were some teeny tiny pieces to cut out and I couldn't have done it without my tweezers.

I was really pleased with how it turned out although I won't be quick to try it again.  I spent probably 5 or 6 hours making those people.

Nancy Halvorsen makes some very cute and whimsical designs.  I think all of her things have a very distinctive look to them.  Considering this was actually Christine's project choice, I wanted to make her something she would hopefully like.  The patterns for the stitchery and tea towels are in the book 'Tidings'.  All of the fabric in this wall hanging are the same as those in the book.  I also included all of the leftovers in her package as well.  I only needed a small amount of most of the fabrics so there was quite a bit left.

Considering she likes her work so much, I'm hoping she can use them for other projects too.  So now on to the next project - Quilted Greeting Cards.  This is yet another project I've never tried.

Until later...

"Give yourselves completely to God - every part of you ... you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes." 

Romans 6:13b (LB)

My new table runner...

I got a lovely surprise in the mail yesterday.  OK, it wasn't a complete surprise, Carolyn told me to expect a package.  But I had no idea of what would be in it expect that it would have something to do with Nancy Halvorsen and Christmas.  Those are the directives of this most recent challenge for the group 'The Twelve of Us'.  I finished mine and mailed it at the end of last week to Christine.  I know she's received it so I can share pictures of what I sent her, but I'll save that for another post.  This is the adorable table runner that Carolyn made just for me...

The mustaches and holly leaves are all three dimensional.  They're just adorable!

The previous pictures were courtesy of Carolyn herself because as soon as I set it on the table, I had a cat on it.

I should ask her if she quilted any catnip in it because my cats won't stay away from it.  I couldn't get a single picture all night without one of them on it.

This was the best overall picture I took myself.  It's the perfect size for my table which is quite large.  I also already had the flower arrangement there and it goes perfectly with it.

Every time I walk into the room and see it, I smile.  I'm sure I'm going to use it in this very spot for years and years to come.  Thank you so much Carolyn for making it for me!

Until later...

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 

2 Corinthians 9:6 (NIV)

Stash Report Week #50...

December 10 - 16, 2010

A very quick report this week.  I bought a little bit a fabric but as it's all a Christmas gift, I won't add it to my report.  I also finished a project for a friend that used 2.5 yards, but as she hasn't received it yet, I can't show a picture.  Lots of Christmas shopping, cooking and wrapping going on, but not much on the sewing front.

So...
Purchased-this-week: 0 yards
Used-this-week: 2.5 yards
Purchased-to-date: 253 yards
Used-to-date: 420.5 yards
Net used: 167.5 yards

I can't show a picture of the project I finished, but I can show you David who kept me company while I worked on it.  He's quite fond of this minkee fabric I bought a while ago as the backing for another quilt.

Until later...

"My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus - the work of telling others the good news about God's wonderful kindness and love." 

Acts 20:24 (NLT)

Sam's Diet Update #5 (and other issues)...

Yesterday was 15 days since Sam's last weigh-in.  We've settled into a sort of routine with her food now.  I feed her right before bed and she'll wake me around 2 or 3 in the morning begging for more.  I'll get up and feed her again and she's generous enough to let me sleep the rest of the night.  She gets to eat one other time during the day around lunch time and that's it.  She's allowed to have 1/8th of a cup of food each time and I measure it carefully.

She's not looking any thinner though and I was a little hesitant about her most recent weigh-in.  I'm pleased (sort of) to report that she's lost another 0.2 lbs.  Yep, two tenths of one pound in 15 days.  So I'm happy that it was a loss, but at this rate we're going to be battling the bulge for the next 10 months.  Of course, that's about the same amount of time I've given myself to lose around 10 pounds.  Perhaps we can have a contest to see who gets to their goal first!

Sam just started her new prescription diet food a couple of days ago so it'll be interesting to see what the scales say next time.  Either way, we're in it for the long haul.  On a positive note, she loves the taste of her new food.  Unfortunately so does our other cat, Moses.  I have to keep shooing her away.

I mentioned in my last post on Sam's diet that she had developed acne from the stress.  We shaved her chin and began cleaning it with a special gel each night.  It took almost a week before we realized that she was allergic to the cleaner.  Poor girl.  Here's a picture of her chin before we stopped using it.

I hope that didn't gross you out.  The black stuff isn't actually the acne but scabs that formed because her chin was so raw.  She's now on an antibiotic - amoxicillin - for a couple of weeks.  Remember that stuff from when you were a kid?  It's pink and has to be refrigerated.  You should see me trying to squirt it down her throat.  Not fun.  Poor, poor Sam.  However, her chin is now healing nicely and it doesn't seem to be causing her any pain.  As for the acne, it appears to be mostly gone but it's hard to tell for sure.  She's got another week of antibiotic so I pray it will be healed by then.

Doesn't her chin look so much better now?

So as of today, Sam's new stats are...

• Starting Weight - 17.9 lbs
• Target Weight - less than 14 lbs
• Last Weigh-in - 17.2 lbs
• Current Weight - 17.0 lbs
• Net loss - 0.2 lbs

Until later...

"If you love me, you will obey what I command."  

John 14:15 (NIV)

Another small finish...

I've not been doing a lot of sewing lately, but I have seen a small finish or two.  One I can't share as it's a gift and I'll have to wait until she opens it.  But I did finish stitching another block for the Winter Wonderland quilt.  This is block #4 out of 10.

Winter Wonderland Block 4

It was a pretty quick one.  I've found that it's the snowflakes that seem to take the longest in each of these blocks.  I've started on #5 now too.  It's something simple to work on at night while watching TV.  Mr. Quilting Bug and I are making our way through season 1 of Lie To Me right now.

Block #5 In Progress...

Until later...

Reverence for God adds hours to each day.

Proverbs 10:27 (LB)

Stash Report Week #49...

 December 3 - 9, 2010

Only a few of these reports left for the year.  My goal was to use twice as much fabric as I purchased.  I can clearly see I'm not going to make that, but I feel good about where I'm at right now.  I did cave and go to a LQS, Quilts Like Crazy,  that was having a good sale.  Bring in 5 cans of food for the Food Bank and receive 25% off your purchase.  I wanted some more of one fabric I had purchased from them before.  Fortunately I found the exact fabric I needed, plus a few others for the Winter Wonderland quilt I'm working on.  I bought 2.5 yards of assorted wovens/flannels for this quilt.

Fabric for the Winter Wonderland quilt

And if you read my blog on a semi-regular basis you know I've been making a quilting related package for my mom each month of 2010.  One of my reasons for this was to get her interested in quilting.  I can  mentally picture us getting together for our own little retreats.  So I was really excited to see her Christmas list this year.  She wants fabric for a couple of different projects, including for her version of the Winter Wonderland quilt.  This is the best of both worlds for me.  I can go fabric shopping and it doesn't count towards my stash report!  I was able to find a few things that will work and I'll look for more in the next week or so.

I've not been sewing much this past week.  After finishing the bathroom valances, I've been doing a little bit of hand work.  The exception to that are a couple of charity blocks I made for a friend.  It's a surprise so I can't share them here, but they used a half yard of fabric.

So...
Purchased-this-week: 2.5 yards
Used-this-week: .5 yards
Purchased-to-date: 253 yards
Used-to-date: 418 yards
Net used: 165 yards

Until later...

"Give freely and spontaneously. Don't have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God's blessing in everything you do, in all your work and ventures."  

Deuteronomy 15:10 (MSG)