The 'blessed' Christmas EVER !

How good it was to have all my grandkids around my Christmas tree !  I had forgotten how wonderful it is to hears squeals of delight and giggles of excitement.

 There was plenty of good food, even though I never got around to making the sugar cookies, and my fudge didn't harden !  But I think that everyone was satisfied......I know I was.

And the warm weather made for good times on the new scooters that all 3 kids received.

Now they have resumed their trip, and arrived at their new destination for the next 3 years of Tim's army service.  I hope the kids adjust to their new schools quickly, and make good new friends.

Pictures from Jen's quilt

Here are the awaited photos.......such as they are.  My little home is not big enough to lay this quilt out and get a photo of the whole thing.  It finished at 97 inches by 108 inches, and I hand-quilted it over the last 4 1/2 months.

And, blessedly, it has reached JoAnn in time to be given back to Jennifer, the embroiderer, as her finished Christmas gift.  JoAnn is thinking of putting it on her own bed, and letting Jen 'discover' it when she brings her hubby and Jo's granddaughter over for Christmas.  Sneaky, but how I wish I could see the reaction !

The pictures were taken inside, and lost their quality when I lightened them enough to see me holding the quilt.

Jennifer embroidered the blocks over the last several years, and then her mother sent them to me, along with finishing fabrics, to be assembled into a quilt top. After returning it to her to be basted, I got it back again for the hand-quilting.   I don't do a lot of hand-quilting anymore, but Jennifer grew up alongside my own daughter, both of them seeing their moms sleep, eat, and BREATHE quilting.  I promised her when I moved back here that I would hand-quilt ONE last quilt for her.  It was a huge undertaking, but I'm glad to be a part of this one.  She's done SUCH beautiful work on the embroidery !

Jennifer's States quilt, FINISHED

Just one quick photo, since the recipient hasn't received the quilt yet.

I just wanted to document the fact that I finished Jennifer's "States" quilt.  The last stitches were hand-stitched into the binding yesterday, and then I quickly bundled it up and sent it to JoAnn.  I started quilting on this one in the first week of August, this year, 2015.  It finished at 97 inches by 108 inches, too big for me to get a photo of the entire quilt layed out properly.