Making Merry and Bright!

Oh, how I love the holidays. All of the lights, garlands and ornaments are up and filling the house with the spirit of holiday joy,

Gifts that are made or purchased throughout the year have been in the process of being wrapped up in my little homemade fabric gift bags.

It's such an intense process as it takes me weeks to get it all out, up, and ready for Christmas. I have dozens and dozens of bags made over the years, but our family keeps growing and gifts are often in sizes needing bigger or smaller or odd shaped fitting bags!

So another dozen or two made every year! Not one scrap purchased. Quilt guilds have free tables with no longer wanted or tiny pieces of fabric and I am a super thrifty saver!

 

As my husband once said, keep moving around Michele. If you don't move you'll end up gift wrapped and under the tree!

My sewing stations are set up with my 2008 Viking in my little sewing nook. My 1964 Singer Featherweight set up along with my 2000 Babylock Imagine serger. Together just a foot away from one another.

I'm a wild and crazy woman creating my own assembly line of fabric scraps, bags seamed on three sides, edged finished at the tops by my serger than over to the featherweight for a casing tunnel where a ribbon or piece of cording is threaded through to make the finished pouch bag.

My cardstock gift tags printed off a computer with twine tie-ons since tape doesn't stick well on fabric bags!

Since I no longer have a working computer or even a wifi in the amazing energies of my sacred space in the void of diminishing signals.

Cell phone blogging (two years now believe it ir not!) will either keep my brain sharp or push me over the fine line of my already diminished sanity 🤪

My blog is gigantic, my posts take time to read and process and my photos appear to be from an endless supply of burning the midnight energy fields.

In the midst of everything there are lots of other things happening, a new grandbaby coming next month with my gazillion billion homemade quilts, blankets. burp cloths,  cloth wipes etc. all made and now gifted. Always new great-nieces or nephews in Alaska or Oregon and holiday sewing of every kind.

A lovely baby shower already held and great fun has jump started my grandmotherly anticipation.  Our Littles are beyond adorable and loved beyond measure.  The newest will be here soon and I can't wait!  💜 💜 💜 💜

My sewing machines were buzzing the midnight airwaves making soft flannel receiving blankets, burp pads and wash cloths, and not one but two quilts!

Crazy, crazy grandma me. Love to sew, love to give even more. And everything made from scraps or things I won in drawings in many, many years past of blogging.

I give far more back than I receive materially but receive  so much more in love of giving from the heart and the joy from those who receive.

Fun, fun, fun!  And yes, even my card was homemade and sewn from the quilts fabruc scraps! (I laughed as my DDIL pointed it out to the group.

It will be 4 little ones under five years old and when they're all here playing with grandma and grandpa, laughter and fun fill our house to its rafters.

So glad when we built this dear old house in 1978, we designed a lofted ceiling over our 1970s styled sunken living room. And of course a special place for our Christmas tree!

Gives me so much more space to laugh, chase, sing and dance with silliness. The kids love it almost as much as I do and I delight in their loving to come here.

My house turns into a giant homemade fleece blanket fort and as my 2 year old granddaughter says.
"You a big kid grandma! I a grown-up!"   Hahahahaha!

I have the kid gate up as gifts were being put under the tree bit by bit as i get my fabric gift bags made, gift cards tied on and fabric ribbons tied in bows without knots for tiny hands to open themselves.

And just when I thought baby sewing was finished and given, I  hear a new great-niece had been born in Alaska!  I was on such a roll, I whipped out more blankets, burp pads etc plus a really big flannel backed PUL changing pad.
  Ready to mail! Phew! Thank goodness for leftover fabric from my very first granddaughter 5 years ago! And even a leftover outfit! Everything gets saved and used in my house!

So some very quick gifts for a darling little Thai-American great niece in Alaska. Named after her grandma who passed away almost 2 decades ago from brain cancer. We all loved and miss her and give now as she cannot. Helps my sad heart for so many many losses in my Alaskan family.

Mid December through January bring 5 family surgeries (including the cat) a new baby to be born and 8 close family birthdays with gifts on top of Christmas ones.

Somehow it all gets done. People are doing all they can to take care of health issues and still have fun and family time.

May all of you find the spirit of Christmas with family, friends, fun and faith in every form, this month and next as we enter a new year, a new decade and with great hope a better more caring decade for our nation and our world 💞


Newest Fidget Quilt Ideas.  These  from Paula Hill 💜💜💜 my amazing always busy making and giving friend. Bless you Paula and all the ladies and gents of the Cozy Covers group.

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2015/08/making-fidget-quilts-for-alzheimers.html?m=0

Happy Winter Solstice!

Dec. 20th in the Southern Hemisphere
Dec.21st for the rest of us!

Bring in the Light of the World in thoughts, prayers, and deeds.

Imagine with great love, light, and positivity one big united world living in harmony of thought, word, and caring deed for the highest good of all.