Christmas Eve, 2024!

I am as ready as I’m going to be.

Except for grabbing some gently-used and saved gift bags from the upstairs guest room closet and “wrapping” some odd shaped things that are headed with us to son Jeff’s tomorrow for Christmas brunch.

We are having some friends over for Christmas Eve steaks on the grill tonight – we’ll indulge in making merry, eating well, watching a Christmas movie and work in a couple of games of Mexican Train dominoes. It sounds perfect, right?

And it is fairly that – with the icing on the cake of needing to clean up puke from 2 cats, and finding “tootsie rolls” from Lola’s littler box on the basement studio dog bed – likely put there and “saved for later” by Mabel. UGH!

It just goes to show you that anything you see posted on social media has been curated to make life look rosy and perfect. Remember, people are only showing you their “A” sides, while their “B” sides might be a bit more of a cluster.

First things first – you DID see that I sent out a surprise of an early Part Six of our Old Town mystery, yes? If not you’ll find it in Yesterday’s Post.

Hand quilting on Abbeygate is moving smoothly along – and since yesterday was basically a relax day around here I spent the afternoon into the evening putting enough stitches in that my calluses are shredded and need a couple of days to heal back up.

That’s a lot of hand quilting! Click to Play:

Making my way down the first side!
And just like when I quilt Baptist fans, I start at the outside edge and work my way toward the center.
You may have heard you should “ALWAYS” start in the center, but there is no always….ever. Unless it is that there is “ALWAYS” an exception.
I baste my quilts by long arm machine, so they are basted within an inch of their lives and there will be no shifting or stretching going on. It’s stable as all get out.
And that means that once I’ve worked my way around the outside edge, I can go ahead and trim up the quilt to eliminate extra batting and backing and get the quilt bound (And yes, even the hanging sleeve and label put in place) and then resume quilting until the quilt is complete when I reach the center.
It’s all in how well things are basted.

And how well the cat holds everything down as well!

This was a rare moment with Ivy. She has made Hubster Dave her “person” and she would rather be in his lap than mine.

I’m sure it’s because I don’t hold still long enough, and my hands are busy with what’s in my hoop instead of busy petting her. Whatever.

This was a nice moment!

This mess MUST be cleaned up before company comes this afternoon!

I am having a wonderful time digging right in and stitching your gifted aqua strips to my yellow and neutral string triangles….Do you recognize any of your own strips in this creative frenzy?

I have been having the best time opening your envelopes, reading the notes, feeling connected to who you are and what you are sharing with me – when most of the time I feel like I am simply sending these posts out into the void not knowing who is following along.

You have brought me so much joy!

If you would like to send a strip of aqua to add to my quilt – you’ll find the info in This Post.

Just remember to attach the correct needed postage.

There is a whole lot more aqua to be sewn! I’m not even half-way yet.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas Eve and a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate.

And a warm, memory making Hanukkah to our Jewish friends.

I love it when holidays coincide between us and love is multiplied.

We are leaving early tomorrow morning for Christmas brunch at Jeff and Ashlyn’s so there will be no blog post tomorrow. We’ll resume again on Thursday.

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!