It’s my birthday today, and as you may recall, I always splurge a little on myself and get something extra special.

This year is was a real pair of Manitobah Mukluks. I have loved mukluks and moccasins since I was a kid – one of my parents friend’s wife had a pair – crazy ones covered in fringe (it was the 80s). I thought they were the coolest thing ever. Then a couple of years ago, a coworker showed up to work in a pair of Snowy Owl mukluks and it rekindled my love. And even though they were well worth the price, they were definitely beyond my budget. I’ve coveted them ever since.

But then this year, I was noodling around on the internets, when a Black Friday ad popped up in my feed. Manitobah Mukluks at a price I could afford! I pounced on it!

I only got the ankle boot (Keewatin), partly because of budget, but also because the Snowy Owl is too narrow for my curvaceous calves. Still, I adore them! They are so soft and warm. And they look great with both my leggings and my dresses!

Now I want a pair of those moccasin slippers.… Maybe next year!

Another wee present showed up in the mail yesterday from my brother and family. He, Paisley, my father and I all have December birthdays so we usually just exchange Christmas gifts when we get together over the holidays. But thanks to COVID, not this year. Since my brother lives 3 hours away, I mailed his and Paisley’s presents, and they did the same with mine

Aren’t they fabulous – all my beautiful babies! Even dear departed Peno!

Evolution of a cat nap

And for extra credit:

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Sometimes that cat is just too much!

Paisley’s Bogatell is still in a holding pattern until the new needle arrives. So instead, when I’ve been knitting (if I wasn’t knitting gnome hats), I’ve been knitting on Dave’s Christmas socks

This is the second sock for the pair – and as you can see, I’m on the gusset. In fact, I’m almost through the gusset.

Tracking on the needle order shows it most likely won’t make it here before the weekend, so I expect to have a finished pair of socks for you next week.

Although these are Christmas socks, I wasn’t really worried about having them done in time – Dave never complains about that, so he’s almost always the last present I work on.

But, fate obviously had other ideas!

Since baby quilts are so quick to do up on the long arm, after whipping off Rosey Posey, I tackled Imaginary Friends as well.

I really love that Friendship Star, and it looks so nice with the chain blocks around it. I’ll definitely use it again!

The star fabric was hanging out in my stash, and it was obviously just waiting to become the border on this one!

And check out the backing flannel I got!

I found it in the clearance bin ages ago, and the colours couldn’t be more perfect for this one. I still have a chunk of it left – enough for another baby quilt.

And now the shop has two quilts… it’s not a fully stocked – but at least it’s not empty. And there’s definitely more to come!

With almost all my Christmas sewing out of the way, I snuck in some time to finish off a couple baby quilts so the shop isn’t sitting empty.

The first is Rosey Posey II.

Like the original Rosey Posey, this one uses the dizzy daisy block. It’s from the same fabric line, but with a pretty cream tone-on-tone fabric for the background instead of the solid black. I think I like this one even more than the first. To me it has a very art deco feel.

Just like the first one, this one has the perfect backing. A pretty chunk of flannel with these gorgeous coral flowers. I just love it when fabrics come together!

The other week, Burton and I made our last Blockhead block for the year. There are still a few left, but we were running out of fabric. We had just enough to make some chain blocks to build the quilt out a bit.

I really do love how chain blocks change the look of a quilt! We still have to sew them all together…

But I couldn’t be more thrilled with it! Burton however, has some idea about moving some of those blocks about…

With Rowan’s cardigan off the needles, it was time to get a move on with Paisley’s. You may recall that earlier this year, I dyed up some yarn specifically to make a hoodie for Paisley. It wasn’t the Bogatell hoodie, it was a worsted weight one that should have knit up quicker. But then I realized that the yarn I dyed wasn’t superwash (it was some regular wool Mom had bought for dyeing and felting). I’d really prefer to make her a sweater that is machine washable. And then the more I knit on Rowan’s Bogatell, the more I knew the style was perfect for Paisley too.

I didn’t have any “Paisley” colours in my stash, so … I raided Mom’s!

She kindly let me nab some of her precious Wollmeise. (It helps that’s she’s more focused on quilting than knitting these days). She didn’t have three skeins of any one shade for the main colour, so I grabbed three different (but close) shades of dark grey. I figured I could do each 16 row section of the main colour in a sequence of them. The pink and mauve are for the stripes – I think they have a nice pop with the greys.

As soon as Rowan’s was on the blocking board, I started on Paisley’s and it was going swimmingly. It’s two sizes larger, so it was slower, but still things were chugging right along until…

My beloved Chiao Goo snapped right off the cord. And of course, it’s my only one in this size. It’s the only downside to this brand – they do this eventually (usually after many, many, MANY years of use – this one has to be about 10 years old). I’ve got another one on order, but I’m stuck in a holding pattern until it comes.

And I was doing so well… just one more stripe sequence (about 25 rows) from dividing for the armholes. Hopefully that needle doesn’t take too long to get here!

With the Flannel quilt completed on Saturday, I had Sunday to knock another project off my gift list.

So I give you the Pick-A-Pocket purse!

I’ll let you in on a little secret. While I love sewing quilts, I’m not a fan of sewing much else – bags included. But this pattern didn’t look too difficult.

And it wasn’t. It took a little work and finagling to get that peacock placed just right, but other than that, it went together pretty easy.

And the peacock fabric isn’t just decorative… they are actually pockets – six in total all the way around, making this a very practical bag. The bottom is squared off too, so it sits nicely when you set it down.

The only thing I added to the pattern was to sew a little top stitching line around the top to make sure the batting stayed in place when thrown in the wash.

This one is a nice size for a purse, but also a small knitting project bag. It would be easy enough to up-size it to a tote as well!