As is was the last weekend before Christmas, I took some time this weekend to get the quilting done on Burton’s Christmas quilt..
I just did some plain crisscross stitching for the quilting, then sewed on the binding. That evening, I settled in to sew the binding down by hand.
This, of course, was a new activity for wee Lemmy, and he thoroughly enjoyed being part of it. Being that it’s a cat quilt, it’s small, so it didn’t take very long to finish it up.
As mentioned previously, the pattern is Oh My Stars. My favourite for when you want scrappy, simple, and fast. It’s all made from Christmasy scraps. For the back, I pieced together some chunks of plaid flannel I had left from the back of another quilt.
Burton is just thrilled with the decor change.
Though it looks like I have to teach him a little something about the spirit of the season and sharing…
Facebook can be a dangerous place. Already overloaded with Christmas projects… I saw something I just HAD to make. A button Christmas tree!
I have a large collection of spare buttons, inherited from an old relative. All I needed was some pins (which I got from Amazon) and a stryrofoam cone (purchased from a dollar store)
I put it all in an cardboard pop box, and settled down in front of the tv one evening.
Burton always loves it when the buttons come out, and settled in to help. It wasn’t a super fast project, but by the time the evening was up, I had a completed button tree.
I am happy to report, that our little basement Newt seems to be thriving.
He’s become more active, and even seems to have grown a little.
Dave has even seen him eating! I figured he must be, since he hadn’t died, but its nice to know it for sure.
We went to get him some more meal worms during the week, and the owner of the pet store also gave me a bag of live flightless fruit flies.
I’ve created my own little fruit fly farm (or culture, as it’s called) and if all goes well, we will have an endless supply of fruit flies for him. We can also do the same thing with the meal worms… I just have to get an appropriate container.
Sunday morning I woke up and there was a beautiful dusting of snow on the ground. I thought it would be just perfect to take a walk that evening and get some pictures of the lights around town for you.
Sadly.. all the snow melted before noon, but I still went out to get some pics that night.
The pics aren’t the best quality, but they give you an idea of how lit up the town is.
This is one of the houses across the street from us. They have a whole pile of inflatables on the lawn. I’m not a huge fan of the modern inflatable decorations, but I certainly admire their Christmas spirit. They do something similar for Hallowe’en, though they don’t have quite as many for that holiday.
The house with the big wraparound porch I love kept it simple with a few strands of lights around the whole porch. They certainly don’t need much more with a porch like that!
This is the house down the street from us that wrapped the ribbons around the porch poles. I love how they’ve done the upper roofline in lights. I’d love to do that with our place, but it’s too high for me, and Dave doesn’t like Christmas enough to go to all the work of getting them up there.
I’ve learned that the local Optimist club has a contest for the best lights in town, which explains why there are so many houses that go all out. I wouldn’t be surprised if the above house wins. The picture does not so their lights justice. It’s amazing. But what I really love are their trees
I dont know how they’ve done it – but these HUGE trees (like really mature maples) are covered in these tiny little lights. They aren’t super bright like a normal string of lights… and there are literally thousands of them. I wish you could see it in person. I’ve ever seen anything like it. I have to take a stroll by in the day and see if I can figure it out. (If you have an ideas, please let me know!)
Speaking of tall trees, the large pine in the park downtown is light up. When Dave and I came back from Mom and Dad’s a couple of weekend’s ago, we drove by just before the lighting ceremony. There were quite a few families gathered to see it.
And here’s how those lights on the poles look lit up. The whole main street has them on every pole, so it looks really nice as you walk or drive through.
I like how the United Church made their nativity scene with lighted silhouettes. I love the creative placement of the angels and star.
And last… I apologize for the blur… but here’s the welding shop all lit up. I love how he made use of the flag pole. It’s so nice to see this bright, beautiful place on the corner whenever I come home from my errands.
This will be the last Walkabout post for the year. Things are pretty busy, so I’m not sure if I’ll get out for many walks. But Walkabout Wednesday will return in the new year!
It’s been a while since I’ve had a tiny needle post, as I’ve put off cross-stitching until after Christmas. But, my gnomes require blanket-stitching around all the applique, so I figure it qualifies for TNT.
Like Dad’s sweater, I’ve been trying to put some hours into it every evening. Burton has been keeping me on track.
Cross-stitching aside, I’ve never been great at any sort of embroidery – and blanket stitch is no exception. But I think my wonky stitches give it a rather “primitive” charm.
I’ve completed the body of one gnome, and the feet, hand and antler of another. I probably won’t get this done in time for Christmas, but I hope to get it finished by the new year. Then I can pack it away with the rest of the Christmas stuff and it will be ready and easy to find next Christmas!
Well… it took less than 24 hours for Lemmy to get in trouble with the tree.
When I went to bed, I left him on the tree skirt…
The picture of innocence.
When I got up the next morning… the tree was gone. Like completely GONE!!!
Dave had gotten up before me, and I asked him how bad the scene was when he came down. Apparently, the tree was still standing, but there were several ornaments on the floor and Lemmy was happily playing with a noisy one – a big bell. That’s why Dave had gotten up – Lemmy was making quite the racket with it apparently. I didn’t hear a thing.
Dave, who does not have as much patience for kitten antics (and was probably still a little upset with the fact Lemmy had aerated his shower curtain a few days earlier) picked the tree up and put it up on the kitchen counter. I was informed that I needed to find a higher place for it. One that little ginger paws could not reach.
So I moved some plants around, and now it’s on top of the livingroom plant stand. We’ll try the floor again next year when our little Lemonhead is a little older.
Once that was taken care of, I headed up to the sewing room. I needed to catch up on my Sewcialites blocks. Happily, I was only two behind, so it didn’t take too long.
We now have seven blocks total, and it’s shaping up to be a very cheerful quilt.
Skiing sock monkey has spoken!!! Only 14 day until Christmas. Time to get the tree up.
As you can imagine, this was a VERY exciting time for a certain little ginger. It’s his first Christmas, and he didn’t waste any time checking things out.
He really wanted to help me fluff the tree. But eventually I was able to convince him he would be more help if he just sat back and watched.
We added a few new decorations to the tree this year.
For whatever reason, they don’t make a Ron Weasley ornament in this line, so it’s just Harry and Hermoine. But my favourite of all of them is Oogie Boogie!
Last year, Mom made me a Christmas tree skirt, but I didn’t see her until the end of the season so this is the first year I’ve got to use it on the tree.
Burton thoroughly approves.
And now the tree is all lit and sparkley and beautiful! And so far, after a few swats at the ornaments, Lemmy has been keeping his paws off. Should we take bets on how long that will last?
With Kermit’s sweater done, and Christmas fast approaching, it was time to get back to Dad’s sweater. I laid it on the floor to do some measurements and…
A wee ginger appeared! I picked up the ginger, turned to set him aside, and when I turned back…
… a not-so-wee fluff panther appeared!
And within moments…
It delvolved into a full on wrestling match.
Eventually, I was able to extract and distract both troublemakers, get my measurements and a picture!
I’ve knit about seven inches since separating for body and arms. I need to knit to 18 inches… so I have a long way and many many rounds to go. My plan is to try to devote at least two hours each evening to it, and with a little luck, it will be done in time!
Wandering Cat Studio 