Need a Little Christmas, Right This Very Minute -

Last night’s #viewfrommyhoop!

It was a wonderful quiet evening of hand quilting on Jason’s hexie quilt – the main red/green Christmas decor hanging out in my living room right now!

Stitching happened to Mowgli on Netflix followed by a round of Blue Bloods accompanied by popcorn on the stove – there is NOT a packet of microwave popcorn to be found in this house.  Once you’ve made real popcorn, there is no going back.

Even Sadie thinks so!

How long has it been since I put any stitches in this thing?  I LOVE IT!  But, time hasn’t allowed me the luxury or I’ve been too tired, and eyes too bleary by the end of the day to see tiny stitches.

But oh, how I love stitching on cold winter nights!

I’ve been struggling to find Christmas Spirit, and was able to capture some on Thursday night –

An Old Salem Christmas Carol -

The Little Theatre of Winston-Salem!

Blurry, no flash, curtain call photo!

We had a great time the 4 of us – and driving through our snow covered area, seeing the Christmas lights reflecting against the white of the snow in the older areas of town – beautiful stately homes, wreaths, lights, twinking trees behind front room windows, illuminated balls hanging down tree lined streets – it HELPED!

Other things that help -

Hi Bonnie,
I met you back in about 2012 in Houston, Texas at your workshop for the West Houston Quilt Guild. I had just begun quilting, had found your website and was so excited to take a class from you. 

Celtic Solstice was my first mystery quilt and I was sold on scrappy. I had even found the perfect backing for it and finished it before the workshop! I was gung ho! At the workshop, you would come dig through my tub of scraps at the back of the room. Since I was a beginning quilter, I had no stash and I had just gone to the fabric store, bought hundreds of dollars of the lovely stuff and cut it up into strips. 

Anyway, I have a better stash now and this is enough about me.

My neighbor is a quilter also. She is 84 years old and has been working on a quilt for about 7 years. Her husband, who died from kidney cancer five years ago, would help her pick combinations of fabrics for her Grandmother’s Garden as they sat together while he was sick. 

Well, she ran out of the white tone on tone fabric she was using for the sashing and borders and was upset because she couldn’t find more. (She is not a scrappy quilter, but she does fussy cut.)

Anyway, I took a picture of her fabric and posted it to Quiltville Open Studio. One of the members recognized the fabric and graciously sent me two fat quarters; wouldn’t even let me pay the postage, much less pay her for the fabric.

I’m attaching pictures of Pat receiving the fabric and a picture of her quilt. She was totally amazed when she realized what it was and so excited. We are hoping that it is enough for her to finish the borders of her quilt.

I wanted you to see some of the happiness that your work brings to people.

Merry Christmas,
Claudia Duke

This made me SO happy!  And yet, it isn’t me – this is the wonderful group of quilters from my Facebook group, Quiltville’s Open Studio.  

This is the kindness, the generosity of quilters all year long, not just at Christmas time.  Can you imagine our lives without each other?  Thanks for sharing, Claudia!  Please give Pat my very best Christmas wishes.  Her quilt is GORGEOUS!  

I am so happy that she has the fabric she needs to finish it.  I know that we ALL would have thrown some her way if we had the right fabric to share.

Something special ALSO shared with me!

Do you see it?  At the end facing you?

My Pineapple Crazy from String Fling is hanging at the Iowa Quilt Museum!

You can visit the Waste Not Want Not exhibit through Jan 27, 2019!

I am not able to make it to the museum to see the exhibit myself, but @Twiddletails tagged me on Instagram so I could see her photos and get an idea of what the exhibit looks like. 

Close up of border detail -

I love the neutral strings in the border!

I even spy some candy cane Christmas fabric toward the top of the photo –

Do you see it?

Block detail.

As 2018 draws to a close, I’ve been thinking a lot about things that have happened over not only the past year, but the past more than a decade. My journey.  

Most of all, I want to end this year in gratitude for everything that has unfolded in the way it has.  Some very very hard things, but also some exciting and wonderful things and a pathway to follow into the future.  There is more, but I’ll save that for another post.

Because I was up at 5am this morning with the pounding of the rain at my window – brain switched on, thoughts taking over – I set out to compose my Quiltville Quote of the Day, and what followed beyond the image text is completely from the heart – excuse me if it is long.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

A lesson that still needs revisiting from time to time. In the past, grudges were a way of putting up my guard and my armor to protect myself where I felt vulnerable and wronged, giving me justification to strike back when provoked. And I did.

But the armor also kept me from resolving past issues, and from moving beyond the hurt. In the end, the only person I was hurting was myself. I wasn't allowing myself to grow beyond it. I wanted justice, and wasn't willing to extend mercy.

I am not the same person I was 12 years ago. And I recognize that I would not be where I am now if these battles of the mind hadn't pushed my buttons and set my determination on fire to work harder, better and to prove to myself that I was capable of everything I set my mind to, no matter what was said by the rumor mill and the naysayers.

While stepping UP to my own visions, I stepped ON some folks.

In my heart, no matter what the original conflict was, I know that we are more alike than we are different. We want the same things, we dream the same things, we have shared interests and life experiences. We could have even been friends if life had put us in the same place at the same time with a different approach. And that makes me happy and sad at the same time.

Holidays are a wonderful time for extending a hand of peace, asking forgiveness (of yourself, too!) and sending positive thoughts and genuine well wishes to those we also may have offended while trying to defend ourselves in our own way.

Let go of old grudges, send love and let go. Move forward.

When we extend grace to others, we can't help but get a little bit of it on ourselves.

May you find peace this Saturday -