Seventh Day

On the Seventh Day of Christmas 

On the seventh day of Christmas my True Love gave to me seven swans a'swimming.

Painting the Year Closed

Some of us are working on paintings as the old years winds down. They aren't finished, but we will show the results when they are. They started with sketches, transferred to canvas paper, then are being painted with acrylics, each in her own style.

Happy New Year in 25 minutes.

Sixth Day

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me six geese a'laying.

Today was an away day, so no art, but maybe this weekend....?

Happy End of the Year.

Fifth Day

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

On the Fifth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me Five Gold Rings.

For printable colouring pages see Second Day

Inspired Snowflakes

Inspired by the snowflakes of Sarah Y and siblings, some of us cut snowflakes today, just for fun.

Still waiting for snow here, but maybe making paper snowflakes will bring real ones?

Fourth Day

On the Fourth Day of Christmas 

On the fourth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me four calling birds.

Expecting Company

Ruth, Clara and Cami. So maybe we will do something creative, too.

Enjoy your calling birds.

Third Day and More

On the Third Day of Christmas

.....the rest of the Twelve Days pictures got into Dropbox, not without great bemoanings of technical idiosyncrasies. So, look on yesterday's post (Second Day and Learning) to find the link to be able to print them.

On the third day of Christmas my True Love gave to me Three French Hens.

Colouring page

Enjoy your hens.

Snowflakes and Shading

A long time ago once, my family made a ton of paper snowflakes out of different color papers and strung them up all over the ceiling, and it was grand.

I forgot all about that until I came home from work one day and saw my younger sisters' bedroom door. They kids had made paper snowflakes and taped them up everywhere!

Here's a picture of the door:

And some close-ups:

Some are not six-sided, but it's still a nice effect lol

I just love this one Mark did!

I couldn't remember all of who made which ones, but it was fun looking at the different snowflakes, and it makes the upstairs rather festive-looking.

ON TO SHADING HOMEWORK...

I'm getting confused with which homeworks are from which week's classes, but here are some practices anyways:

Anna's

Leah's

and mine (Sarah's)

Okay, so this past week we watched the lesson for stippling and cross hatching, and I'm the only one that did my homework so far, so here's that; and I'll get the other's up when they've got it done. :)

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and best wishes on the new year!

Second Day and Learning

On the Second Day 

...of Christmas, I thought I would would be efficient and get the colouring pages of the Twelve Days drawn and up loaded. The drawing took awhile, but went O.K. Then my technician endeavoured to teach me how to do the Dropbox thing. Lesson learned: don't do it. Too complicated. So for now I have some pictures on the link below. Some are repeats and some are upside down and some are missing, though I thought I followed directions. I will try to put the rest up sometime, when my head feels better, but then no more Dropbox!

Click this for pictures to print:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6fjujuyv9gtchbd/AACr_MuDp16UloeJ6ab-ULpUa?dl=0

On the Second day of Christmas my True Love gave to me two Turtle Doves.

This is the colouring sheet for it.

And now for some heavenly peace....

Christmas Here

Blessed Christmas to All

"Come see in the manger our Saviour and King."

This is a very tiny carved wood creche I have in my studio.

O, come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

On the First Day of Christmas my True Love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

These are from last year, but I wanted to add colouring pages this year, so you can do your own.

Here is a link if you want to make your own copies to color for the first day.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6fjujuyv9gtchbd/AACr_MuDp16UloeJ6ab-ULpUa?dl=0

Twelve days of Christmas start today. Enjoy.

Christmas Coming

Angel

Ready and Waiting for the Eve

The manger awaiting the Christ Child.

Angel and Shepherd I made umpteen years ago that we use every year.

Blessed Day

Christmas Tree Quilt

                                    

Sarah asked to see my quilt, which I thought had been the subject of a blog post last year but after checking was not. I only composed it in my mind so I'll pull out that file now. 

I made this quilt in a guild class project in autumn of 1992 while I was pregnant with my daughter, Alyssa. It was finished in time for Christmas because back then, with four little children to homeschool, I somehow managed to complete projects in a reasonable time (unlike now).

                                     

The construction of the quilt uses the traditional Log Cabin block with a variation on the outer row using triangles. Traditionally the center square of a Log cabin quilt of any color was red to symbolize the hearth of the home. In this quilt that gives an ornament effect on the tree.

                                    

I still love all the fabrics. They don't feel dated at all even though they are over twenty years old. The gold fabric was difficult to work with but so perfect for this quilt.

                                    

Rich red, green and gold are my very favorite Christmas colors. The gold in the border fabric is the perfect accent. 

           

                 I did a machine quilting with free motion on my old, basic, Kenmore sewing machine.

                               I'm really anxious to start a fabric project after Christmas.

Homemade Gifts for a Girl with lots of Brothers

I have been working on a gift for my three-and-a-half year old girl.  I just finished it and I can show it here before Christmas because  know she will not see it here. 

This little doll cradle came from some friends who were moving away.  The stain on it was old and faded, so I freshened it up with a couple coats of paint and then stenciled some flowers for decoration.

I was thinking I would make a little scrap quilt or something, and in going through my scrap fabric, I found these little unfinished heart blocks I had started many, many years ago and abandoned when I made too many mistakes and restarted.  So I did some creative trimming and finished these little hearts, then sewed them into a quilt.

I hand quilted it a little (wow, talk about rusty skills...), but not very much because I was running out of time.  It really needed a little more around the edge.

Before I got the wooden cradle, I had already been to a thrift store and found this little soft doll bed with handles for carrying.  So I used another old quilt block I found in my scrap bin for a little quilt to go with it and decided to give her both.  The cradle can go by her bed, and the bassinet can be for carrying her dollies around.

It's so fun now to make gifts for my kids!  I think I get more excited than they do!