Yes, it was rather nippy here this morning.....38 degrees by my thermometer. And we were the warmest county around because we're surrounded by water. Everyone else was under a hard freeze warning. 
It's not very often that can we look out the window in the morning and see frost on the neighbor's yards! It may look very pretty now but I am a little concerned for our tropical palms and plants. I hope this isn't another year of the brown yard!
When Joel got into his car he had to wait while the defroster thawed the icy coating from his windshield before he could drive to work. Does anyone have an extra ice scraper???
Julie and Jarrad broke out in dance as they were giggling about things they used to do during their childhood. Yes, this is what we do at family get togethers!
Jackson was obviously elated with a Christmas present, wouldn't you say?
Nate was tickled to have Dad sit on the floor with him and teach him how to use his Sit N' Spin.
On the evening of the 23rd of December I turned on the water in the kitchen and the water pressure had been reduced to a trickle. Hmmmm......the neighbor came over to see if we had any water because she sure didn't have much pressure either. Well, it turns out a 50" water main had broken on Belcher Road north of East Bay....which means about 350,000 people were affected by the break according to the news.
This beaming gal is Jo, a very dear lady. I've made a quilt for Jo before and she told me how pleased she was with it when it was finished. That quilt is recorded here in the blog October 3,2009 and was made for Jo's niece.
Jo was wonderful to work with as she gave me free rein to do whatever came into my head. The ties were taken completely apart, the interfacing was removed and then the tedious task of lining them all up began. It took an entire day just to lay them out symmetrically and pin them onto the batik fabric. After I was pleased with the color layout I needed to come up with an interesting way to stitch them onto the batik to hold them in place permanently. So, each tie was stitched with soft grey thread using a different machine embroidery stitch to create continuity but lend visual interest to the finished quilt. Nine hours later that task was completed. Whew!
Now it was time to quilt the layers together. Jo's mom had written a long list of names and descriptives that told about the life of her husband and I used all those names in free hand quilting to stitch the final layers of the quilt together. Before I could do the quilting, though, I had to construct the back of the quilt.
The back of the quilt was made by using her dad's dress shirts; pockets, buttons and plackets included. In the close-up below you can see the buttons and plackets from some of the shirts. As simple as this quilt appears, it was one of the most technically challenging quilts I have ever made.
As I showed the completed quilt to Jo, we shared a few tears together and I expressed to her that this was one of the most rewarding quilts I have worked on. Jo, thanks for trusting me with the precious momentos of your dad's life. I pray this will bring some measure of peace and comfort to your mom each time she looks at it and remembers her dear husband.
Well I'm heading out the door to do something fun today instead of work.....I'm having lunch with Teresa to celebrate Christmas early and then I'll try and do some final Christmas shopping. Hope you are taking a few precious moments to soak up the sights, sounds and scents of this cherished holiday season.
