Gift from my Secret Santa

First I would like to thank my Secret Santa Nadine I was very surprised to see that she was my SSCS partner. Here is a picture of what she sent. I have never read any of this series and I am quite looking forward to reading "The Christmas Quilt" I have two weeks ( 17 days actually) of holiday now and I am going to make the best of it!! Thank you Nadine!! I also hope to make a baby quilt or two while on holiday - so the fabric will be perfect. I have a perfect little frame for the cross stitch so I can put it up in my sewing room.




There are still major computer issues going on here - Jim spent the day trying to fix them (apparently the squeaky wheel does get the grease!!) But it does not seem to have helped much and it seems that the biggest problem is I cannot log in to my yahoo email, google email or google reader!! It is some sort of Active X registry issue - that is bugging the heck right out of me!! I can eventually read my mail but I have to go a weird way about it. Very annoying!

Maybe it is doing this because someone up above wants me to read and quilt instead of spending so much time on the computer -LOL!!

Happy New Year to all!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I am having some major computer problems right now so I thought I had better wish you all a Merry Christmas while I still can get online. The computer needs to go to the doctor and it might be awhile before I can check back -- not sure what's up with it.

Have a wonderful and joyful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!

The tree is up and it is starting to look a bit like Christmas!

For some reason the tree ended up becoming a two day event! We put it up Monday night - put on the lights and then finished the rest on Tuesday. But it is finally ready for the holiday season and it is a very lovely tree. I think Jim said it was a Noble Fir - but I could be wrong.

A few of my Christmas decorations that now adorn the fireplace.



Both the Santa and the Angel were made by my friend Maureen and given to me as gifts on different Christmas seasons. I love them both! If it wasn't for Maureen I wouldn't have any Christmas quilty things at all. She has also given me a couple of Christmas placemats and a Christmas table runner.



This was made for me by Jessica when she was about 11. Still very special and I bring it out every year. I probably showed these all last year :))


And of course, Jenny has offered her services to Santa to help with the sled trip on Christmas Eve!!

Although she doesn't look all that enthusiastic does she? I think she kept the antlers on for about 17 seconds!!!

Well - I am off to wrap some gifts. I still haven't received my Secret Santa gift in the mail. I think Canada Post is the slowest in the world -- that is my observation!!

A Gift from my Sister

Well, here another week has gone by and we are no closer to having the house decorated for Christmas. I am working on Friday and Saturday 12 days and I decided to take an extra night shift on Sunday and then remembered that Jim and I had decided to have our "decorate the Christmas tree" Sunday night. Oh well - it will have to get done on Monday.

But I did go out and get some Christmas shopping done, which made me happy.

My sister sent me a gift a couple of weeks ago, and I just didn't seem to get around to taking pictures until yesterday. My sister works in Nigeria - she has been there for about 4 years and she is now finished in Nigeria and will be going back to work in Angola. Many months ago I mentioned to her that if she ever saw any fabric in Nigeria I would love to have some. She is not a quilter -- or a sewer... or any sort of domestic goddess. So I was quite surprised to get this big box in the mail from her.


She didn't mail the box from Nigeria, she mailed it when she was back in Canada.



Fabulous African fabric. Bought in the street markets in Lagos. There are also a couple of pieces that are left over pieces from some of the women after making their clothes - they donated them to Sharon's cause apparently. Sharon goes back and forth to Nigeria every 28 days and brings back a lot of things for the children of the people she works with and there is a school there she takes books and pencils and such to as well.


Sharon did not actually go shopping for the fabric herself, she said she asked someone else go for her. Apparently the fabric is sold in pieces big enough to make a complete set of clothing - top and pants, and that is it. Sharon said they vendors were very confused as to why someone would want 1/2 yards or 1 yard. So each piece is about 4 yards.



I did not unfold it to show the whole entire piece but with each piece of the batik fabric there is a patterned section and then a large piece of solid fabric - for making the pants. So with the purple fabric above - there is about a yard of patterned fabric on each end of the piece and then about 2 yards of solid matching purple in the centre. The colours are just beautiful. The batik fabric very heavily waxed. It needs to be well washed to get all the wax out. There are also some pieces that are not batik and they are patterned the whole length of the fabric, they are a heavy cotton -- but not damask like the batik fabric.

I have yet to research how to wash the wax out of the batik fabric. I may just wait until the weather is warmer so I can hang the fabric outside to dry. It is just beautiful and I have no idea what I am going to do with it.... but isn't that always my way!!!

Not ready for Christmas yet

It is so much fun to read all the blogs posts about Christmas and all the Christmas preparations that are going on. It seems in the U.S things really start to get going right after Thanksgiving. In our house we don't get the tree up until the last weekend before Christmas. I think for us that could be around December 20th this year!!

I posted my Secret Santa gift off and I did finish off the Christmas stocking and I now need to send that off. I wanted to make a few more Santa tree decorations and I can not find the pattern anywhere. I know I have it somewhere in my sewing room -- I wouldn't have thrown it out.


If anyone recognizes this and has the pattern I would love to have it again - although I think it would be easy enough to copy a pattern from this one.


I really enjoyed reading the various posts about Christmas traditions - they are so different all over the world.

We have a very typical "North American" Christmas (I think) We usually have a nice evening of Christmas music and egg nog and snacks on the night we put up the tree. Now that the kids have all left home it is just Jim and I decorating the tree but we still enjoy the evening.

The same decorations have been put on the tree for years and years. When Andrew was about 6 or 7 he brought home this little angel he made in school and it has been the angel on the top of the tree ever since.



Christmas Eve is my favourite time of the season. We have another nice evening - we finish wrapping the gifts (because that is how organized I am every year) We enjoy a few glasses of port with some various cheeses, snacks and Rogers Chocolates (my favourite being Empress Squares)

The kids usually come and spend the night on Christmas Eve. Then Christmas morning is coffee first - gift opening and a nice breakfast of French toast and strawberries and whipped cream and maple syrup. We have been going to Jim's brother's house for dinner the past 5 or so years - since we moved in 2002. Which is nice - but I do miss the turkey leftovers. Turkey is the traditional Christmas Day meal for us. I will quite often make a turkey for New Years Day, just so we can have the leftovers. I don't think there is anything better than turkey leftovers!!

From White sink to white out!!

This is my street this morning!! Such a mess it was today.



Poor Jim, here he is trudging up the driveway to do some shoveling. It was his birthday yesterday and I worked an 8 hour shift yesterday - as he was going off in the morning to make pickled salmon. I promised that we would go out for a nice birthday dinner after we both got home. Instead it started snowing - the roads were a mess and it took me 40 minutes to drive 300 metres (and that was just a small part of the drive home) Both of us got home safely but there were many, many cars in the ditch that we passed along the way.


The snow flakes were huge!! It snowed from about 11 AM yesterday until about 8 PM today -- and now it is raining!! So the forecast is now for 100-150 mm of rain where we live. So there is now a flood warning.

So today I made a Christmas stocking. It isn't finished yet, - I just need to sew in the lining and then put the binding on.


I had my Secret Santa gift all wrapped and ready to post as I was coming home from work yesterday - I was going to stop in at the post office - just a quick in and out of the Caulfield exit - and there was an accident and the road was a disaster. So --- best laid plans..... I think we will be able to get out tomorrow once the rain washes away most of the snow. The traffic all along the highway today was at a stand still. Jim walked up to take a look and he said people were just sitting in their cars watching movies on their portable DVD players -- LOL. I guess those DVD players can be a good idea!!

Jenny is quite enjoying the snow and has had a very good day out playing in it.

I can't believe it has been a week since I posted. I worked 4 days this week - which could account for my blog absence. I have been popping in and out when I get a chance. Happy Monday!!