Yes We Need A Little Christmas - right this very minute!

That right! It's December. The time we celebrate the Lord's birth.

I'm usually not one to rush the season, I really like Thanksgiving and actually bemoan that they start Christmas music on or before Thanksgiving. But the day after, well, that's another tune!

Funny, I woke up singing "and we need a little Christmas" and that's the first song I heard when I finally did turn on the radio station the day after Thanksgiving (the same station that began playing Christmas music ON Thanksgiving - I boycotted them that day because I refuse to rush my Thanksgiving). Well, now that's its officially December I'm ready to begin the festivities!

Time to pull the boxes down from the attic and decorate!!

I started with the easiest room first - add a little festivities to the bathroom with a quilted table runner and a couple of my painted treasures from days gone by. Did I mention that I used to tole paint? Mid 80's to early 90's that was my hobby and my business, Sonshine Creations - perhaps you heard of me (yeah right!). My husband cut out the wooden items and I painted them. We even sold some items in Gatlinburg Tennessee back in the day before the imported crafts took over.. I don't have too many of my projects, most were given away, but I held on to the Christmas ones...oh the memories associated with Christmas!

The quilted table runner was made before I owned my own longarm - it was done on a rented machine. I call that my "tuition" into learning the longarm. Hate to think of what it cost me back then to rent by the hour -- oh well, just one more cause to rejoice that I have my own machine now! Just reminds me that God is the giver of good things!

Since the bathroom is shared by the two fellows in my life I decided not to do too much more, not everyone gets as enthusiastic about the decorations as I do (grin). Besides we all love the sea shells so its hard to move them out. There's stories behind the sea shells too, but I'll save those for another time since they don't have anything to do with Christmas.

Added a few items around the living room to make it bright - the teddy bear with the red pants was made by one of my great aunts, Aunt Effie. It was probably made around the time I was in high school as I have another one she gave me in my school colors. We won't mention that I've been out of high school 30 years this year (grin). My mom brought the teddy to me when she came to visit for Thanksgiving. I think he looks great mingled in with the Christmas decorations don't you?

By the way, Aunt Effie was the one who taught me how to embroidery and helped me a lot with my sewing. She was always making neat things for her church bazaar. I loved her crafts. If you look really close you can see on the bottom of the wall shelf a little red cloth clown. She made that for me when I was a child. I have a few other treasures from Aunt Effie, included a couple of her beautiful quilts. She was quite a lady! And I loved her too, not just her crafts.

I have also put out a few things in the kitchen in the way of decorations and preparation for my open house this weekend - but things aren't cleaned up enough to take photos (grin). My tree is up but doesn't have the ornaments on it yet - later tonight I'm hoping! So there will be photos and more stories to come in another post. After all, why rush the season!

What I have done is finished up a project that has been in the works for three Christmases. Well, it's not really finished yet, but finished enough....

See I have this place in my living room where I've hung a good size quilt that matched my curtains - problem is, I've changed curtains (grin) Yep! This weekend while my mom was here she helped me finish up my "new" curtains that have been in the works since summer (before Ike). Well, the wall quilt doesn't match these curtains -- I went from blue to gold tones...but there's a wall quilt in the works to replace this that DOES match the curtains, alas, it's still not finished -- it's my border quilt from my class this summer with Winnie Fleming...it needs two more borders and to be quilted (I've run out of Sundays - the rest of the year is spoken for)...so in the meantime I really have come to dislike the blue quilt on the wall...and with open house coming up....well, you see my predicament don't you?

And since I piece for myself on Sundays......and yesterday was Sunday....

Yep, you guessed it. I pulled out a Christmas quilt that I planned three years ago to take the place of the blue quilt each year around this time...problem is...it was still in blocks and needed 14 more 8 inch blocks to be pieced....add to this that my quarter inch isn't the same since I now have a different machine that the one I originally used....oh me...it's not the best pieced quilt in the world, but the fabrics do hold precious memories -- leftovers from the two other Christmas quilts I've managed to piece AND quilt through the years...well, I just had to finish it and cover up that blue quilt....

As I said, it's not really finished, it is suppose to have a top and bottom border but I'm hanging it up anyway! (it's pinned to the bluje quilt) Here's the cover from the book "Christmas Heart Light" by Susie M. Robbins, Peddlars of Danville. I purchased it at the Houston Festival 2006. You can see how the pieced border is suppose to look. I changed up the blocks, but that's what makes it uniquely mine right? Maybe by next year it will be finished and quilted.

In the meantime, it's time to go warm up some Thanksgiving leftovers -- hubby smoked a brisket that we have been enjoying all weekend (true confession, I did call out for a Domino's Pizza for lunch today) and I think this will be the final meal of "mustgoes." Perphaps we can get the empty boxes back in the attic and things straighten up to our new normal after dinner.

I think we've worn out the puppy...