Happy Christmas

Doesn't that face just say it all?

We had a lovely time at DD's on Christmas Eve. Her house was much less toxic than the last time. Along with other gifts I presented DD with this stack of receiving blankets. I made four of them and the other two were made by my son who sews.


I also managed to include two preemie size onesies. They're not easy to find! (Especially when you have to rely on the shopping abilities of a young man.) Of course there was also the piece de resistance, the preemie quilts:

I think both of these pictures were taken before I backed and quilted the tops but they look essentially the same. I just turned them pillowcase style so there's no binding or anything. You may notice that I managed to include those animal panels DD had given me to incorporate into Sunflower's quilt. Ta daa! There are more panels left over so there may be additional linens for the twins that feature the jungle animals. I have no specific plans at the moment.

DD seems to be holding her own. She's still having contractions periodically, and they're more intense, but so far there's been no reason to make an emergency trip to the doctor or the hospital. Tuesday will mark 31 weeks.

Meanwhile, I think I had the least toxic Christmas I've had in years. Gifts were purchased early enough, for the most part, so that they could off-gas before being presented on Christmas morning. The worst offenders were the items of clothing. Those that are not going back to the stores have been laundered and now are fine. The biggest surprise I had was the pocket size digital camera my DH gave me. We've been jointly using his digital SLR but it's really more camera than I want to cope with. I will probably continue to use it for my quilt photography but now I feel like I have more freedom of movement (such as it ever is) with the smaller, lighter equipment. Woohoo!

Mission Accomplished

Ha! Both preemie quilts are done! I amazed myself yesterday by getting the blocks for the second quilt sewn into a top and then backing and quilting both little blankets. Woohoo!


Technically I could now return to work on Sunflower's quilt but I doubt that will happen right away. There are a couple of major distractions coming up in the next day or two after all. ;- )

Another event to celebrate is that DD has made it to the 30 week mark. whew! She has an ultrasound scheduled for her 32nd week so she and I are counting that as her next big goal. Her doctor would like to see her make it to 35 weeks. We'll see. The prayers and medication are working though so maybe it will be possible.

The current plan is for us to drive over to DD's house for Christmas Eve. We'll get to see the granddaughters (and DD) open a few gifts and then we'll head back home to have a quiet Christmas day here. I say quiet because this will be the first year we will have so few of our family members in our home for the holiday. It's going to be a different sort of day for me, that's for sure. At my age and stage of life most of the fun is in watching the little ones experience all that Christmas encompasses. Unfortunately most of their new treasures will be toxic for me to be around. {sigh} Oh well. It will still be a warm, special day with loved ones. There are an awful lot of people who don't have the blessings I enjoy every day.

Weekend Recap

It's been a few days, hasn't it?! I've lost some time due to chemical exposures - unavoidable at this season of the year. I'm in recovery from one right now. It happened here in my own home too. DH brought home a frozen lasagna the last time he went grocery shopping, thinking it would make good lunches at work for several days. It will. But the directions said to leave the plastic film in place while it baked. The heat of the oven caused the plastic to release fumes that then took me down. So here we are.

I managed to participate in the Toy Society's annual Christmas Drop on Saturday. It wasn't easy, let me tell you! To begin with it was raining. Not heavily, but enough to make everything wet. I wanted to drop my dog outside the public library. Turns out there's no cover to speak of outside the library. Everything is out in the weather! I had no idea how busy the library might be on the Saturday before Christmas either. It would have been ideal to get there before the library opened for the day but I couldn't make it that early. I got over there within the first hour of their opening but even then they were pretty busy. I drove around the block a couple of times in hopes of catching a quiet moment to execute my mission but it never happened. Finally I headed back home with the dog still in my possession. I had inhaled enough exhaust fumes at that point to set me back for the day.

At home I tried to work on the preemie quilts for my daughter's babies. I had decided to try something a little different for this pair of quilts. It's a technique I've used before, so not something completely foreign to me, but I wasn't having fun. I wasn't enjoying the process and I didn't like what was developing. So I took all that off the design wall and wrapped some gifts instead.

Late in the afternoon I remembered that I still had the doggie to drop off for the Toy Society. It had stopped raining for the time being and there was about an hour before they closed up for the day. To my dismay I discovered that the library was just as busy in the afternoon as it had been in the morning. Once again I drove around the block a few times and then finally parked in the small parking lot to just wait it out. Eventually there was enough of a break in the traffic that I felt I could stash the dog under my coat, walk towards the front door, squat down next to the big metal box for overnight deposits as if to tend to my shoe, slide the dog out from under my coat, straighten up again, turn around and go back to my car. I did not get a photograph of the drop site this time. I felt fortunate to have merely made the drop as inconspicuously as possible! Of course I have no idea how inconspicuous I really was. And I didn't hang around to see whether the dog was found right away or not. I figured if no one claimed him by closing time certainly one of the librarians would find him. And in that particular spot he was out of the weather as much as he could be.

Yesterday morning I journaled on paper a bit about my frustrations with the preemie quilts. That seemed to clear the pipes enough for me to begin again, working the way that comes naturally for me. By the end of the day I had one top complete (it still needs to be backed and quilted) and patches for most of the second one on the wall. There are still Christmas gifts to be wrapped, and no one has had a Christmas card from me yet, but what do you want to bet that that preemie quilt gets sewn up before anything else gets done? ;- )

Ho Hum

I've had a string of unproductive days. You know how you have all this creative energy for a while and then suddenly it's all gone and even the things you normally enjoy are just too demanding to be fun? That's where I am. I did manage to get that stack of packages in the mail - at horrendous expense. As a result I sent out emails to family members who live in other states suggesting that we donate to our favorite charities rather than exchanging gifts from now on. So far two families have responded with enthusiasm for this plan.

I haven't felt the need for flowers in the studio for months. Yesterday I bought a bunch of mini carnations. I added a few sprigs cut from our Christmas tree and some rosemary from my garden. It smells lovely.


The Toy Society's annual Christmas Drop is coming up this weekend. Remember this little guy?


I found the perfect ribbon to finish him off. It's printed with the words "Merry Christmas" and some holly leaves.

All I have to do now is print out the letter and tags and get him bagged up. I also have to figure out where to drop him...

Here's another sneak peek at one of the blocks going into the preemie quilts for DD's babies:

DD is holding steady. She sees her doctor again on Monday. Hopefully by then these quilts will be well on their way to being finished!

Stars & Sparkle

I don't think I've shown you the last of the blocks for Sunflower's quilt yet. I have a total of 25 now, plus two from the first set of blocks that I might be able to use. Right now the plan is to only use 24 but you know how things can change.

The aliens dropped into another block...


And you can't make a quilt for a young child anymore without including a clown fish because at some point they are going to be in love with Nemo and Dora!


Meanwhile, I have begun assembling blocks for the preemie quilts. I'd like to keep the quilts a surprise for their mom, my DD, so I'm only going to show snippets for the time being. Here's today's clue:

DD seems to be holding steady at the moment, thank goodness. Her doctor was hoping to get her to 35 weeks before delivering the babies but I don't see that happening. She'll be at 29 weeks on Tuesday and she's already talking about "full-body epidurals." This is the girl who has delivered twice naturally and wanted to do the same with these twins.

Oh, and over the weekend I put together another Christmas tree. It's a little bland, but at least the topper sparkles in the light. ;- )

This one is going to the Post Office where it will be disassembled and redistributed to various parts of the country. We'll keep the prettier one here to enjoy through Christmas. :- )