I'm enjoying a wonderful, three-day weekend of sewing sewing sewing!
Happy New Year to all!
What a huge gift pile - we are blessed indeed! This pile includes gifts from relatives from out of town, besides our family. And we always get each other more than one gift - we love Christmas, and we open gifts leisurely, over a couple of hours.
Hannah posing with a gift!
Gen loved this package!
Emily and Matt relaxing after the gift-opening extravaganza. What a great day!
Dora has decided that she is a lap dog - at 67 pounds! Emily just took the GMAT this week, and aced it! She got a great score - 750! - and now is applying to business schools, as well as law schools - in the Boston area. Her BF, Matt, has been accepted to Harvard Business School (as well as U of Chicago Business School) for the coming fall, and they will be heading east for the next two years. Congrats, Emily!
Swedish potato sausage, smoked pork sausage, pork roast, beef roast, and in the amber pot it the doppa - the cooking juices, into which we dip slices of bread - hence the title, doppa - which means dipping. I also served a tossed salad, and what Minnesota meal would be complete without jello?
As you can see, we had already eaten when I remembered to take a picture. The meat platters were piled high before this!
The "kids" table: Matt, Hannah (now a brunette again), Emily, Kelly Hires, and Mark Stickney.
More friends: Andrew Johnson, Scott, Lydia, Ian, and John Black, Rebecca Schumacher, and Diane Hires and Bill Crowther. Special friends, all!
For some, this is the best part - pie for dessert! Another tradition is that every family brings a pie to share. We cut them all into skinny pieces, so you can try many varieties. This year, we had pumpkin, peach with blueberries, lemon chess, and coconut cream (the one I made). There was also a selection of cookies, and some whipped cream for topping off the pie. Yum!
Entering our front door, first-time visitors are quite often surprised how much living space our little house has! It was originally a 2-bedroom, 1-bath ranch, but the family room addition on the back of the house (where the tree is) really opens up the main floor, and makes our house great for entertaining. Scott did a great job hanging the garland and lights - we also have it over the large picture window in the living room, and also outside the house as well.
This tiny nativity's pieces (except for the pianos) came from an Advent calendar, many years ago. When Hannah was tiny, she loved arranging the pieces, and one day she had the wise men playing the pianos. So of course we always arrange them that way, ever since! Nice picture of Mags in the background, good old girl.
Little crowd of snowmen on the piano.
Swedish Christmas tree, Christmas quilt, a few angels and a couple stockings. I made the tree many years ago - you can really tell, because all that was available for quilters then was tiny calicoes.
This is Scott's favorite display. We got these ceramic carolers as a special gift from his mom, about 20 years ago. Someone in Marshall, Minnesota, sold them, and Maurine bought sets for both of her boys. Carefully displayed on my grandma's reed organ by Scott.
I made this "Believe" quilt as part of the first "Labor of Love" quilt contest. I "believe" I was a finalist, and the quilt was featured in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. Inspired by a Mary Engelbreit Christmas image.
I love this little angel quilt - made with a group of friends, it is a Round Robin quilt. I made the center, and then it was passed around for the next four borders. I added the pieced border and quilted it.
Dora was half lying in my lap - her other half is on the ottoman (she is way too big to actually share the chair with me, she weighs 67 pounds!), and her head was on my chest. The love of a dog is such a pure thing, there's nothing like it.
Doesn't she have a beautiful profile? We got Dora from Chris at Cricket Hollow Farms. Dora is disarmingly beautiful. At least we think so!
And her face is so expressive. Here we are, sharing a little moment. Sure, I could be getting some work done around the house - but would it be as satisfying as this? 
I made these blocks for my bee buddy, Victoria, for the NEW'BEE swap bee from 15 Minutes Play blog. She asked for a 12-1/2" star block, with a star of any size somewhere inside the block. She said we could also make another star, that she would finish. The colors were: yellows, golds/browns, purples, blues, greens, hot pink, orange, and NO black or white. She wanted a basically dark block, with lighter, ethereal stars. This was very challenging for me! Also, Victoria sent all of us bee members two swatches of fabric to include in the blocks.
Other finishes in the past month were two quilts for BASICS, a great organization in New York that helps folks with housing and other needs. Victoria put out a request for quilts, of any size. I finished two old tops into quits. This pattern is Ocean Waves. I think I made this top about 20 years ago, in a class at a local quilt shop. I tied this quilt to finish.
I made this quilt top in a class, too - it was called V-dubs! I had lots of designing my cars in the style of the 60s. This is machine quilted. 
I am lucky enough to work for a great company, which treats us to special events like this. We all got to attend a Chicago Blackhawks game, and enjoy the game from this "suite" view! 
Along with enjoying the game - we had awesome food, complete with a carving station!
Seats below, seats above - so cool!
The Star Spangled Banner a la Blackhawks - stirring and inspiring!
The newest member of the family - a lovely, Santa's-coat-red, Troybuilt snowblower!
Trying it out for size! As you can see, we do have a bit of a driveway to shovel. Merry Christmas, Scott!
I hope this Thanksgiving finds you with family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Our assignment was to: cut a 4" circle of tagboard, then a 5" circle of "made" fabric; baste around the edge, and gather over the 4" circle. Then, after removing the cardboard circle, topstitch the circle onto a 6-1/2" square of black on white or white on black print fabric. She (Em) called these blocks Cookie Crumbs!
Of course, the leaves were much prettier "in person"!
Hannah (center, above) is in Guys and Dolls this weekend, as one of the Hot Box Dancers. We are really looking forward to seeing the show!
It's also hard to take pictures that are as beautiful as Dora truly is. Of course, part of her beauty is in her sweet disposition and expressive face, too.
Doesn't she look stylish in her new leather collar? And her coloring blends beautifully with that of our backyard maple leaves. What a pretty girl!
Dora and her best friend, Cohen. Happy birthday, Dora!
Would you believe, I am standing in a high school's cafeteria? This is the Henry Ford Powerhouse High School, and was part of the tour due to its being built around the old powerhouse from the original Sears Tower - NOT the 100+ story-high building downtown! The original Sears Tower was only maybe 6-8 stories high, and it is in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago.
This beauty is the Newberry Library, which now houses only Humanities, including lots of geneological information, and maps. 
We got a backstage tour of the Lookingglass Theatre, located in the Pumping Station of the original Water Tower - which are the only two buildings said to have survived the Great Chicago Fire. 
This was one of my favorites on the tour. This gorgeous pool is located in the basement/garden level of a condo building! Built originally as apartments, it is a lovely but unremarkable apartment complex built around a central courtyard. You walk inside, down a few steps, and wow, what a surprise to see this amazing pool! It is surrounded by amazing tile work, marble columns, and it is all in excellent condition. 
A view in my front yard - love that mum's color next to the blue-green chair.
Not sure what kind of tree this is - it is in our neighbor's yard, by the fence - but I loved that combinations of colors!
Burning bush in the backyard - I love the bright fuscia red against the green. Happy new year! Here's hoping for peace in our world! A quote that I carry around with me is from my hometown pastor, from years ago -...
