A new Christmas craft project

Hello, everyone. As promised, a picture of the latest Christmas craft project.

As you can see from the pattern photo, this makes two fabric trees. The first is done enough to stand on the table. It lacks a seam or closure on the third side. If I do a seam as called for in the pattern, I have to find a place to store it standing up. The tree is around 15 inches tall, so this is a little bit difficult. 

If I do a closure on the third side, like maybe some little snap tabs made of ribbon, the tree can be stored flat with such larger objects as the Nativity scene.

The second tree has been pieced and cut out. It needs the binding on the three triangles, decorations, and the seams. (Plus closure?) 

The decorations on the tall tree are sequins, in stash, and #8 seed beads, also from stash.

Speaking of stash, all of the fabric and batting was in stash. I do think that my scrap batting was a bit too thick. If I make this again, I'm going to either cut the batting strips narrower than the fabric strips or buy a craft pack of the extra thin cotton batting for potholders and potato bags.

This is what needs to be done with the batting. 

During the 12 days of Christmas, a look at the Christmas Day wreath

Hello, everyone.  As we all know, Christmas Day was the 25th of December.  The Octave of Christmas, a whole week of official rejoicing, ended on the first of January.  The 12 days, however, go on through the 6th of the month, culminating on Three Kings' Day. In many places around the world, the remembrance of the visiting wise men was, and in some places remains, the day for giving gifts.

At Christmas, the season of Advent, with its purple and pink candles,  is over. Our decorators found a lovely statue to place in the wreath for the festive season. 

On the home front, half-completed Christmas crafts are still being worked on. When the current one is finished, I'll post a picture.

Happy New Year to all y'all!

Merry Christmas!

Hello,  everyone.  On this Christmas Night, may the blessings of this wondrous day be with all y'all.

Bulbs are a lesson in faith

Hello, everyone.  I have always thought that gardening requires one to develop faith that things will, generally,  work out in the end. Today I was reflecting on that as I looked at the pots with saffron bulbs that spent so many months being dried up and dead-looking. A few days ago, responding to the change in season, and a little water, little green noses started poking out from the covering dirt.

A couple of sample pictures 

These bulbs are the descendants of a bag I got from High Country Gardens, a mail order nursery in Utah. The original bulbs, all 10 being together in a pot, bloomed beautifully. They were crowded, however, and they also had a very strong urge to make "pups" so the next year nothing much happened. Last spring I separated them out a bit, after they went dormant, and now I'm hoping they will all fatten up and maybe in a year or two bloom again.

A pleasant walk at Bentsen Park

Hello, everyone. The weather today is what the local radio personality calls "Chamber of Commerce weather" which is lovely, partly cloudy, not too windy, and tee-shirt temperature. So we went over to the park for a little walk.

The park had scheduled a birding walk, and we were the only ones there so we walked over to the volunteer "bird guide" and invited ourselves along. He told us about birds, of course, and about the changes in wildlife and plant growth over time. It was very interesting. 

This little hawk was supervising the feeding stations. It doesn't need to be said that the small birds were a bit shy!

The wild turkeys were out and about and not afraid of anything. 

Fruitcake season!

Hello, everyone.  It is, indeed, fruitcake season. Or it would be, except the stores have no candied peel for sale. Sigh. I have a lemon tree and an orange tree. 

Peels cleaned and sliced for candying

After candying. These are lemon peels. Tomorrow I will candy orange peels. 

The $64 question is: can I make an edible fruitcake patch without any candied citron?

We found the candied cherries and pineapple in the grocery store. Unfortunately there were absolutely no candied peel packages. Thus the preparation of candied lemon peel, and soon, candied orange peel. I don't have a tree that produces citron. I have decided to do my best with what is on hand.

It's a sad thing when you think you maybe need to set an arrival alert with HEB grocery so you can make the traditional Christmas goodies. Really.

The curved-ruler pieced tree is decorated

Hello,  everyone.  It's been busy around the home place, but we're in a calm spot for a few days, so there's time to make a post.

Last year I made a wall hanging Christmas tree. It wasn't decorated--no time, and no plan! This year, a plan grew for decorations for the little tree. First rule of the decorations was that they have to be light weight. The gorgeous rhinestone brooches would make the tree too heavy to be held up by tape on a door. Fortunately, there were a lot of little Free Standing Lace mylar light bulbs left over from the Kimberbell Christmas quilt project a few years ago. I also have a cute little Starlight Mint coaster/ornament pattern from Designs By JuJu. They're about 4" and the free standing applique is very light weight. A couple of FSL ornaments turned up in the Christmas boxes, too.

Now it really looks like a Christmas tree.