Christmas Celebration #2 Projects

After a joyous Christmas Eve and Day on the other side of the state, we’re gearing up for Christmas celebration #2.   At our home this weekend, both of our children and their families will be here.

Things are not going according to plan though.  I had scheduled a 3-day, uninterrupted solitary sew-in this week while Bob was out of town on business.  But my little Christmas gift to me was stolen by a powerful Grinch virus which moved in about an hour after DH moved out for the airport.  Instead of stitching, I was twitching and groaning in misery.

Three days later and 20 minutes after I moved from black suffering to the light of almost normal , our daughter and her little family arrived.  Now, I’m scrambling to sew up a few of the projects I had planned for my abandoned sewing retreat.  Of course, I wanted to enjoy time with Alastair, so most of these were sewn with his…assistance?  supervision? Whatever… We had fun.

In the interim, Laurel joined us for an unplanned overnight, so I threw this outfit together for her to have something clean to wear to her Odyssey of the Mind practice this morning.  I knew I was a desperate woman when I passed it off as an early Christmas present.

Due to Alastair’s adoration of his cousin, while she was here he shadowed her.  That gave me a little more time to sew.

Alastair adores Laurel. It’s a mutual admiration society.

The leggings are red with white, green and pale turquoise stripes.  The turtleneck is embroidered with Lots of Dots Alph and Lots of Dots Too from Bunnycup in those same colors.

This Dallas Cowboys tee shirt for 6 year-old Robert Charles was intended to be paired with sleep pants, but that will have to come later.  Meanwhile, he is so enamored of the Cowboys that he surely will be happy for a solo shirt.

A last minute guest attended the Christmas Day brunch at my daughter’s home, so Rebecca’s applique’ dishtowel was given to the guest.  I promised to replace that one with three more, but only two are done so far.

When I saw that All About Blanks now has these towels in chocolate brown, I decided to wait on stitching the third towel with a gingerbread house design.  It will be so cute on the brown.

My friend Suzanne Sawko crocheted Laurel this darling little black hat with a lavender flower.

I put it together with  a black fleece pullover and purple leggings with silver stars. The frame is a built in design on my Brother Duetta 4500D.

The embroidered flowers I embroidered are similar to the one on the hat and added stars for a connection to the leggings.   Seven year-old Laurel is just now at the stage where she sees black as a “cool” color.  She loves hats, so I hope this set will be a hit.

If I get my pies made early in the day and Alastair doesn’t “help” too much, I should have time to embroider a microfleece throw for my sweet daughter-in-law before it’s time to put the ham in the oven and get serious about our dinner.

I’ve always liked New Year’s Day, as it clearly kicks off a new year, a fresh start and new goals.   Though the significance of this holiday has been a bit overshadowed by our extended Christmas celebration, I have made myself a few sewing related goals for 2012. Among other things, I hope to get fabric wrapped on the remaining 250 comic book boards I have stacked up in my still fairly neat (for me!) sewing room.

Have you made any sewing resolutions for 2012?  Share your goals.  We’d all love to hear about it.

I do want to thank all of you for making my 2011 blogging experience such a pleasure.  I’ve made new friends, learned new things and rid my sewing room of a fair amount of stuff.  You have all been wonderful.

I wish a healthy, happy, prosperous sewing-filled 2012 to all you dear readers.

P.S.  This is linked to Freckled Laundry, a fabulous, fun blog with an Air Your Laundry textile linky party.