Happy Hopeful New Year

 

If there is one word that sums up my feelings and dreams for 2013 it is HOPE! Hope for my children and family and friends. Hope for those I don't know but have been aching and praying for. Hope that we can move forward with renewed priorities centering around kindness and healing. Hope that I will focus on what truly matters...Faith, Hope and Love. Happy 2013 friends!

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December Reflections - A Blog Circle

Hello! My normal posts are about my crafts, but today I am part of a Blog Circle - a group of amazing women bloggers who are doing incredible things with their talents. I hope you will take few minutes to follow the links through this circle.

A snowman made from my son's kindergarten hand print.

As a child each year I made a point to sit near the Christmas tree when the house was quiet and just enjoy its beauty with all the lights turned out. I could just stare at it, entranced, absorbing the peace. This time of year it is easy to become busy, especially now that I'm an adult and a mommy to my own children, but I realized now more than ever I need to slow down and savor the beauty around me.

I got to looking at our family Christmas tree and realized its a collection of our life stories and beautiful memories. Little trinkets and those most precious hand-made, straight-from-school ornaments. They are literally priceless.

A sparkly nutcracker for the tree.

As my children grow I am becoming more aware how fleeting their time at home, in our care and under our shelter, will be. There is so much to teach them, so much I am still learning myself. I find things that they love, like our collection of nutcrackers on the mantel, takes on special meaning because when we get them out I get to experience their uninhibited joy. It is a gift each and every time it bubbles over in the form of that sweet laughter and those funny expressions.

Santa on the Eiffel Tower - I got to visit family in Europe with my son this year.

As I make time to sit and reflect I am thankful for the gifts I have been given. A wonderful husband, two sweet children and all of the fingerprinted, misspelled mementos they offer so proudly. How could my heart not overflow with love and gratitude?

A hand-crafted gift box.

Like so many parents I have struggled in the last week. Trying to make sense of life in a seemingly crazy world. Navigating the delicate terrain of explaining excruciating topics in age appropriate ways. Hugging harder and snuggling more and trying to keep my own roller coaster emotions in check. Being a grown up is hard sometimes and its funny that these little people we raise have no idea how much comfort they can bring on a quiet night, when they are tucked into bed, and mommy sits in the dark by the tree and reflects.

One of my favorite keepsakes - a word that expressed something special to my preschooler.

Please enjoy my blog circle link to Juniper Goods.Pin It

Something Pretty

Like a lot of us my heart is very heavy from recent events. Sunday I took some time to make something pretty for my house. This pattern is called Ten Minute Table Runner...even though I probably took about forty minutes to complete it. I hope you all can find a way to bring a little more beauty to your space too. Heaven knows we can all use it.

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A Christmas Quilt - Three Years In The Making

When I had just started quilting (about six years ago) I walked into a fabric shop with my friend (and quilt guru) Carol and was star struck with a version of this quilt hanging on the wall. It was love at first sight, but it looked so complicated I didn't give it a second thought. Except I kept thinking about it. Later that summer I bought the kit...then did nothing.

A year or so later I finally got the courage to begin cutting the beautiful fabric. It felt like life or death - I was so worried I would cut wrong and ruin it. I survived the cutting process and even got a few of the log cabin blocks sewn in one weekend. Then it got put on the back burner again.

The next year, while on maternity leave during the fall, I got a wild burst of energy (probably hormones!!) and finished the entire quilt, except the binding, in the early morning hours after nursing the baby and before everyone else got up for the day. That year it was on the couch for Christmas, folded so the raw edges were hidden.

Another busy year later, it was on the couch again, still not finished. I woke up at 5am on Christmas Eve and just HAD to bind the quilt right then, that day - no matter that I was expecting a house full of people! Christmas would wait until the binding was completed.

But when I get my crazy bouts of inspiration I need to share it...but who to call at 5am??? One of my nearest and dearest happened to be in Germany at the time - and nine hours ahead! So there I was, early Christmas Eve morning, in my awesome fuzzy bathrobe, binding this quilt and talking to someone very special to me (who is also a quilter and totally understood my need to finish it RIGHT THEN!).

And that is the story of my Three Year Christmas Quilt. It makes me so happy every time I bring it out for the season. If you have a project that feels like its taking forever do not despair....it will happen!

This fabric has the most beautiful, rich colors.

 

The entire quilt top.

 

The large scrap back.

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Today's Gratitude

Photo taken in Paris, France - near the Eiffel Tower

"Do not deride someones faith simply because you do not share it..."

- The Well of Ascension

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And the Stockings Were Hung...

A few years ago I found this flannel fabric on sale after Christmas and just had to have it! I bought enough to make four stockings, even though we didn't yet have a second child and weren't sure if we would. (Just call it a hopeful hunch!)

The pattern is by Terri Staats of Sweet Treasures, a designer who taught locally at the time.

I loved putting these cozy fabrics together and accenting with purple embroidery. These were quilted with a meandering stitch, also in purple, but it doesn't show up well in the photo. A zig-zag stitch accents the toe and heel of the stocking.

As a mommy, there is something extra special about hanging up handmade stockings each year and our family was thrilled to make use of that fourth one in 2009!!



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