Merry Christmas

Christmas this year has been a little more blue than usual, only in the sense that we all seem to be constantly coming down with one thing after another. At the moment we have three colds, two cases of bronchitis, and one ear infection. On top of that, both of my poor mother's eardrums have burst in the past twenty-four hours due to the enormous pressure that built up from her terrible cough of the past few weeks. Thank goodness for antibiotics and pain relievers... In spite of all this, we are still so happy to be celebrating Christmas Eve together tomorrow. We were all talking about it today, how the trials of life are just part of the package, and we learn to deal with it and go on. They don't have to steal our joy unless we let them. We're trying hard not to let them...

My grandmother saw photos of my Weekender bag last month and became absolutely enchanted by Heather Ross's market piggy. So much so that she insisted that I make her a new lap quilt with that little character at the center of each block. I've been making hexagons out of scraps at night after the girls go to bed, and I pulled a bunch of these together to make four rosettes, each stitched to a square of yarn dyed linen.

I used some fat quarters from Pat Bravo's beautiful Summerlove collection along with a Denyse Schmidt print as an outer border, and I think that all the fabrics work together to give the quilt a sweet vintage look. Kona Navy makes a simple frame, and I used a Joel Dewberry print for the backing. Grandma loved the quilt, which makes me ever so happy. And I have plenty of hexagons left over from my evening sewing, so I expect there will soon be a hexagon pillow -- or two -- in the works.

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a few days so that I can spend the time with my family. I expect there will be plenty of baking, playing, laughing, singing, and "Christmas traveling" -- as my Bear likes to call our evening excursions to look at the neighborhood Christmas lights. It's my hope that all of you will have a truly wonderful holiday with the people you love. Merry Christmas!

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Link-up.