December 2020

A Homemade Christmas

We have always celebrated Christmas with extended family and friends. Sometimes as many as 20 people would fill our house with stories, laughter, and gifts for each other. This year was different in many ways, but the same in others. 

Covid has kept us apart for much of the year, or limited us to short visits with masks on. And we've been willing to do that, even eating Thanksgiving dinner in separate households. Addi had a virtual birthday party this month and it was kind of fun using the new technology with her, even though she lives only a few miles away.

We thought a long time about how to celebrate Christmas. We decided to eliminate the big meal as too risky, in close contact, with no masks, while we ate. That just couldn't happen. Instead, we wore our masks, sat distanced from each other in Jen' big livingroom, and shared so many wonderful things. There were purchased gifts to unwrap of course, but this year, our tradition of homemade gifts was celebrated even more, or at least it felt that way. 

We took several old family scrapbooks and photo albums, including a picture of a church group from 1928, Dick's kindergarten artwork, pictures of my first Christmas, and Lisi's baby book, complete with her birth certificate from Puerto Rico, baby bracelet, locks of hair, and labels from baby food jars in English and Spanish. 

​The amount of time, talent, and love that went into the homemade gifts this year was beautiful and I want to share some of those with you today.

It's really all about the little ones, isn't it?

Baby G. got a new quilt this year (and probably will every year). The digitized  pattern for Creative Studio 7 is called "Baby Beads", and is available here: 
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My grandson's girlfriend has just taught herself how to crochet and was very busy making gifts. Here is Addi, modeling hers :)

I recycled several vintage quilt blocks into hot pads for my sister. The full story on this process is in my Peace & Plenty Journal this month.
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My sister, Beverly, is a very talented potter and ceramic artist. There were gifts for everyone! These are some of the beautiful pieces Jen received.

A long time, family owned business here in Bucyrus is Cooper's Mill. They operate a small market, with fresh produce, apple butter, Amish cheese and baked goods, garden seeds, etc.
We received a variety of BBQ sauces and other goodies from Jen, David, and Lisi this year.

The notecards were also made by my sister with die cut appliques and hand stitched thread.

When I wrote our Teens & Tweens book, the kids made Christmas ornaments by hand. I also digitized the patterns and stitched out lots of them in several sizes.
​Ornaments are a traditional gift for us, so everyone got a few of these to add to their collections.

Bucyrus will celebrate its Bicentennial in the coming year, so David bought us this ornament for our collection.
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David's son, Nic, is studying to be a diesel mechanic. He drives (cherishes) his '05 Chevy Silverado 2500HD.
David bought a similar Matchbox truck for him and painted it to match Nic's. What a great, personalized gift!

Tell me what stitcher/quilter wouldn't love this plate. Hand made by my sister. You can see more of her work on her FB page here

My spice blend is always a popular gift. I grow many of the herbs and spices myself and we use it on almost everything!

This sweet wall quilt was a gift from our granddaughter, Amber. She digitized the shapes for this pattern so she could applique it with our Statler Stitcher. I'm proud of the skills she is learning and to see how many quilted pieces she gave to others this year.

Jen made this quilt for her friend David. He has always been a big supporter of her work and he finally got one for himself! The center was cut from one piece of ombre/shaded fabric and Jen quilted it with my Modern Snails pattern.

Our kitchen is busy every day, so I really appreciated these new kitchen towels. The "farm to table" was made by Joan Knight's daughter and the other three were hand stamped and painted by my sister, Beverly.

I decided to recycle a couple of old jeans into a pillow for my son-in-law. Well...one thing led to another and then all the guys needed one! 
These were pretty quick to make and I'll talk more in-depth about the process later.

Little Succulents

Rosemary

Dick has always loved growing things and he keeps a large number of indoor and outdoor plants growing all year. Amber gave him starts from several of her succulents and he was excited to get home and get them planted.
I'll have lots of progress photos and stories as we get our garden plants started for the coming summer.

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