Monday, December 28, 2009

Christmas Cactus

Here is my one and only picture of Christmas in AZ 2009!

Why no pictures? Well, my parents started "snowbirding" about 16 years ago and very little Christmas decor made it's way south. I guess it had something to do with their winter home being under 500 sq ft, something about storage space and 115 degree weather in the summer that melts candles left behind? Needless to say, we really lack in the Christmas Tree department. This year my Dad was being a bit humbug, but knowing I was coming for a few days, he pulled it together quite nicely. Except for the tree! Usually it's an inverted cardboard cone that is wrapped in green tinsel with a strand of mini lights poking through from the inside out. As we were getting ready for the annual Christmas eve get together, Dad pulls out the tree, but NO lights! Something about last year, light bulbs, masking tape?? Needless to say, I told him it was perfect just the way it was and I was sure Santa could find it during the night! Oh, this story and my lack of pictures......I took the cactus shot from the highway on the way to the airport when I realized I didn't have any pics to blog about, but then told my dad if I showed pictures of our tree, people from all over the world would be clamouring for information on where we got our spectacular tree this year. This put a smile on Dad's face, we both chuckled and continued on the drive to the airport.
This is what else I did, besides eat too much and relax a lot.

I'm using the back basting method of needle turn applique on this block. Not my favorite method. I think I will go back to my freezer paper method, but I'm going to try turning the edges with glue instead of thread basting. When I sat down to stitch, I found this needle turn too fussy, I'd like to get the corners and points right with the prep work, rather than trying to make them right with the applique stitches. But I LOVE this method for the bias stems, it's excellent for this part. The green leaves took me 20 minutes each to applique down and this was after all the prep work was done!  One flower to trim, three flowers to applique and 4 yellow circles for the flower centers.  This is one of many blocks in a 30's BOM that I am committed to finishing in 2010.


These two blocks are from an alphabet sampler. I chose to do redwork for the blocks and I'm only doing three blocks. I'll work them into a wall hanging with a variety of pieced blocks. Goal - Christmas 2010!

I'm about 1/2 way through and LOVING this book.
So this sums up my Christmas, now it's back to work, back to life as we know it!
Set some stitching goals for 2010, I know I will.
Sharon

2 comments:

Browndirtcottage said...

Oh shoot!!! I would have loved to see you
guys tree...I bet it was a hoot!!
You have some good projects already started
there!! I am just about to finish one I have
been 'hand' quilting on for months...I'll be
soooo glad to have another finish under my belt

Julie in the Barn said...

You should have put some of those chili pepper lights on the Sujaro! We didn't put up a tree this year. First time in 41 years of marriage. Just not home enough to bother.

I LOVED The Help. Best read of the year!