Post Christmas

Some of you may have participated in Jane's Red and Aqua Swap a couple of months ago.  I did and loved it, although, I was a tiny bit disappointed that I didn't get any of my original blocks back and some of the colors just didn't jive with the red and aqua delineations (sp?)....but, that's OK - I'll do something with those rust and teal blocks with a little bit of yellow thrown in....
Anyway, I have some free time on my hands and I was itching to do something with my blocks, so I thought I'd put together another patchwork quillow.

I think I'll call this one Red and Aqua Windowpanes.  I can't really call it the "disappearing nine patch" anymore because there's actually more than 9 patches per block now and anyone who's not a quilter doesn't really grasp the meaning behind that title anyway.

All that's left is to hand quilt it.  I haven't had anything to do while watching TV the past few weeks, so this is a welcome addition!  I've been working on my hand embroidery and even some crocheted dishcloths while I'm waiting for something to quilt.

Christmas was wonderful here in Bonetown.  I was the first one up on Christmas Day - not unusual for any day of the week, as my back pain won't let me sleep past 6 usually.  So, I settled in the kitchen making breakfast.  We had a delicious cinnamon crumb cake

and this wonderful ham and egg omelet roll.

I was surprised the kids liked it so much as it has onions and dijon mustard in it!

Once everyone got up, we enjoyed breakfast in the living room and then our youngest daughter "played Santa", passing out the gifts, and we took turns opening - ooohing and aaahing all the way!  There weren't a whole lot of gifts, but we managed to stretch it out and enjoy the time together.

One of Rachel's gifts was a set of hand embroidered pillowcases.  As she was growing up, she would always say "sweet dreams" to us whenever she'd kiss us goodnight, so I thought the pillowcases fitting for her.  She said she wasn't going to use them because she didn't want to mess them up, but I let her know that if she didn't use them, I'd never make her anything again!  They were meant to be used, silly!!

My son got a new set of tires for his truck a few months ago, and that was destined to be his Christmas present AND his next year's birthday present...BUT, I'm a typical mom and I couldn't have anyone not opening a gift on Christmas day so I made him a quillow.  He's actually the first one in the family (me included) to receive a quillow!  I made 170 of them this year and only one stays in the family!

Anyway, I think he liked it!  (Hopefully the hair will be gone this week - he wanted to grow his hair out for a year, and this is the result - ugh!)

Saturday was probably the funnest day of all, although I don't have any pictures - guess I was having too much fun to stop and snap some.  We had an impromptu campfire out in the back yard, followed by a couple of games of horseshoes (in 40° weather!!) and then we moved inside and played about 4 games of Rummikub.  For dinner, we had a nice big pot of creamy turkey soup (leftovers from Christmas dinner) and then settled down for a movie.  We all had such a great time together ~ it's such a shame that these times usually occur only at the holidays...shucks!  Perhaps we appreciate them more since they do happen so rarely.

I've enjoyed my weekend of laziness, but tomorrow it's back to work at the construction project in Stumptown as we'll be laying hardwood flooring.