The Little Red Hen

Family At Home

I love times when we are all at home without a lot of planned activities. We had almost a full week over Thanksgiving holiday with both boys at home. Homework was finished early and there was a lot of time for games and activities. The boys showed a renewed interest in origami.

They both belonged to the origami club in elementary and middle school. The club met once a week and they learned how to make a lot of projects.

I had recently gotten out a few of our simple origami books for P. We did a few of those together. D and M, however, found some interesting projects online. Oh, the joys of a faster internet connection. I love the way they challenged and encouraged each other.

The project on the far right has a tiny, black, origami crane trapped inside. The red one on the left is made from one  piece of paper where the orange and green one on the right is the same shape made with origami units.

I always think of December as a crafty time when I like to make gifts for family and friends. While creating I think about the person the gift is for and what they mean to me. It is fun to remember people in this way. This year P and I have started a few projects together. I like to see her excitement in thinking about loved relatives and close friends. To me the spirit of the holiday season lies in making something (or thinking of something) that will make the recipient smile.

I think with these projects we are off to a good start on the crafty holiday spirit that I remember from my own childhood.

Also in the spirit of enjoying the season I will be taking a holiday theme photo a day. You can see more from others in the Christmas Countdown 2009 flickr pool.  Here is the first:

I know it is still fall but I'll probably not be taking many more fallish photos. I enjoyed fall much more than usual this year because I was out taking pictures. Have a look at them here.

Words

I finished the last blocks in my 8two8 swap this weekend. Sarah requested word blocks from everyone. We were each to sew our name and three words from a list she provided. I chose bird, care, and home as my words.

I had never tried free piecing letters before. It was much easier than I thought it would be! It was even FUN. I sketched out the words before starting and then cut strips of the letter fabric and built up from there.

 
Thanks for the challenge Sarah!

Thoughtful Sunday

"Think left and think right

 and think low and think high.

Oh, the THINKS you can think up if only you try."

Oh, the THINKS You can Think!, Dr. Seuss, 1975

Swallowtail Shawl

After finishing the Ishbel shawl I still had a large ball of the lace weight alpaca left. I pulled out the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits to knit the Swallowtail Shawl designed by Evelyn Clark.

 

The first part of the shawl knit up very quickly. Then, I got to those nupps in the edge lace pattern. They just about had me pulling my hair out. 

Purl. Five. Together.  What a crazy idea - especially since two of the five were yarn overs.

I think it was worth the effort once completed. Don't you think?

Shawl knitting is addictive.

Giving Thanks

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. We are all healthy, have enough food to eat, have a warm home, and loving, and supportive friends and family. 

We are enjoying a wonderful family weekend without homework (M finished his homework Wednesday!) and the usual routine of lessons and activities.

 

Yesterday we had a lovely afternoon of food and games with friends. I contributed a couple of pies to the meal. The pumpkin pie was made with one of our pumpkins using the recipe found here. It was delicious!

We have been doing some crafty things too. I'll probably share some of that later.

Thanks to all of you who stop by and make this such a wonderful place for me. I hope you are also having a wonderful weekend of fun with your family and friends.

Six Thousand Days

Over the years we have tried to celebrate the 1000 day anniversaries in our family. It is sometimes hard to do as they are of course not annual events and always occur at different times of the year.  This also makes it fun.  Kids who have summer birthdays get to celebrate during the school year and vice versa.  Yesterday, M turned 6000 days old!

 

Also on the theme of celebrating at different times of year, we had our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday!  D will have his wisdom teeth out Wednesday so it was nice for all of us to enjoy the turkey with trimmings.

 

Really, can there be such a thing as celebrating too often, being too thankful or having too many wonderful meals together?

We also enjoyed a walk in the new county park near us where I took these photographs.

Thoughtful Sunday

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne, 1926.

At Least Ten Quilts

You  may have noticed that I really like quilts. I like making them. I like looking at them. I like sleeping under them.

I really like quilts that have a LOT of quilting in them. After washing they get very crinkly and drapey.  They make me want to snuggle up under them.

 

This quilt has a lot of quilting in a mix of traditional and modern designs. I put traditional feathered wreaths in the yellow blocks and then quilted all of the background white with a more modern swirl design. The animal print blocks were left free of quilting as were the triangle star points. This makes those star points float a bit on the design.  I like how the combination looks here.

I finished and washed it just in time for a show tomorrow. I love how it looks and feels after the wash. I would tell you how big it is but I forgot to measure it before setting up my booth tonight. If I still have it when I come home tomorrow I'll let you know.

 

My grandmother always said that you should have at least ten quilts in your cedar chest when you get married.  She also said that when she was first married and had a house heated with a wood stove she slept with five quilts on their bed in the winter.  Later, when I was grown and used to visit her in the winter I would sleep in her guest bed under two or three quilts that she had made.  We sleep under two quilts during our Michigan winters. I still have a lot of quilts to make if the next generation of the family is going to have the proper number of quilts. 

I had better get busy!

Beautiful November

We have been having a beautiful November this year. We are trying to soak up the sun and enjoy the blue skies while we can.

I hope you are enjoying your November.

Thoughtful Sunday

"Dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born....Being part of the whole thing, That's the blessing.

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt, 1975.