Winter is upon us!

 We had our very first real winter storm of the season - with the Storm Warnings, the snow, the sleet and the icing on the cake was the freezing rain!!

Depending on exactly where you were you got from 3 to 12 inches of snow.  We got about three and then a heavy coating of ice.  Personally I would rather have just the snow or preferably just rain, but thankfully I don't have to go out today at all.  Took the trash out to the can earlier (just outside the garage door) and was thankful I didn't have to go any farther as it was covered in ice.  The plow did come down the road in the night so it is good and we could get out if we had too.  He will probably come back through again this afternoon and pass again.

I finished block 16 of my Bible Sampler Quilt.  The Story is Abraham and Sarah's Visitors, when they receive the visit from the Angel of the Lord and two angels to announce the pending birth of Isaac.  A meal is cooked and served to the visitors.  The story is in Genesis 18:1-8.

 The title of the block is Hearth and Home.

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas to one and all.  It is a bit of a different Christmas around here as we have no family or friends visiting. No huge festive dinner in to oven and no gifts under the tree to distribute to one and all.  But none the less it is Christmas Morning, the celebration of the birth of Christ.  We did get to see our Grandson the other day.  He drove over from Chicago to visit each family member who lives on this end of the state.  He was alone, but at least we got to see him and spend some time with him.  The rest of the family, at least one person in the household has had COVID and I am not going to risk any chance on coming down with it.  Christmas doesn't need a crowd to be joyous - it just needs my joyous heart.

This week I made the 15th block in my Bible Sampler Quilt.  The Story is Beautiful Sarai from Genesis 12:8-12.  Abram, for some reason heads to Egypt, then at the last minute realizes that the Egyptians might kill him and take his beautiful wife, Sarai.  He tells her to say she is his sister to protect him.  But what about her - that lie makes her more vulnerable.  We just can't seem to learn to trust in God - This was God's plan for Abram to build a people and a country and he can't do it with Abram dead and Sarai a concubine of the Pharaoh.   At any rate - God intervenes and teaches Abram another lesson in trust and obedience.

The name of the block is Wonders of Egypt.  It was partially paper pieced with a lot of Y seams.  I think this is all preparing me for another quilt I'm working on that will have a LOT of Y seams. 

Bible Sampler Block 14

 Block 14 of the Bible Sampler block is Bod Blesses Abram from Genesis 12:1-2.  God tells Abram to leave his home, country and family, and go to a new country that God would show him.  And God would bless him and make him a great nation. I don't know about you, but that would take a lot of faith and trust and God did reward Abram for it.  

The Block is called House.

Holiday Blues & Golds

 I have been fighting with myself over celebrating Christmas this year.  This is not my favorite time of year to begin with and the disaster of this entire year has made me even less inclined to "celebrate".  I was not planning on putting up the tree, or decorating at all.  We are not getting together with the family - I am immunocompromised and need to be very careful.  Most of my family is anti-mask and anti-taking precautions, so I just planned to hibernate.  

Then hubby got to talking about Christmas and we started planning out Christmas Dinner and decided on Fillet Mignon.  I have to go get lab work done tomorrow so I'm going to stop at a little old time butcher shop downtown and pick up two for Christmas.  I also will make my traditional Cinnamon Rolls for Breakfast and my Cheesy Potatoes to go with the Fillets.  I'm thinking of a fruity salad to brighten up the plates.  

Then he started talking about what I wanted for Christmas.  Where did that come from - what I want for Christmas no one can give me.  A visit with my Great-Grand-Children, an end to the pandemic, another Christmas with my Dad, peace on earth, unity in our country, health, safety, Love, joy.  But then I realized that some of those at lease I have now, or will have one day - just not today - I have to have patience and Faith.  God has promised all these things to me by sending Jesus to bring me the greatest gift of all - Salvation!  So We put up the Christmas tree.  We will finish decorating it this afternoon  and I dug out the nativity that my Dad made for me nearly 50 years ago - so in a way he will be with me for Christmas.  Maybe tomorrow or Tuesday I'll set up my Christmas Village and hubby and I will enjoy some hot Chocolate and some Christmas music and pretend, and least for a few days, that life is normal and 2020 never existed.

 

A lovely day

 The last two days have been wonderful - warm (61) yesterday and sunny.  Couldn't ask for better days.  I got out and walked a bit and yesterday I met a friend out in the part for just some time together.  We normally spend a couple of days a week together - A quilt club, A quilt shop hop, Bible class, Sunday school, or just meet for coffee.  I hadn't seen her in a month.  We decided to forgo the quilt club because there were just too many people for us to deal with.  Quilt shop hops are out of the question and the Church is holding no meetings right now.  

So we met at the park and spent something over an hour just catching up on our lives in general.  Neither of us are planning much for Christmas.  With no Services at the church and our families not getting together it is rather a simple Christmas.  I've done no decorating beyond my usual Quilt wall hangings.

I did make a new 10" Christmas hanging for beside the door above the light switch..

I think hubby will want to put up the Christmas Village and I will get the nativity scene set up, but I think that is going to be the end of it.  This year has been a bummer handing out lemons all over the world, but we need to made lemonade or lemon pie with them and mover on.  I'm grateful that I have no place particular I have to be, I can stay home for 2 weeks in a row, not that I like it all that much but with no where to go it seems wiser and safer to just stay home.

Bible Sampler Block 13

 Block 13 of The Bible Sampler Quilt is called Everlasting Promise based on Genesis 8:20 - 22.  The story of God's promise to never destroy the earth again by flood.  He set the rainbow in the sky so we would be reminded of his promise each time it appears.  

The name of the block is Night and Day - that is also part of the promise - night and day will continue until Christ comes again.

Snow!!

 Yesterday was such a lovely day.  Warm enough for me to go out a walk for 20 minutes and it truly raised my spirits.  I have a difficult time in December - I guess I'm one of those Seasonal Affected Disorder people.  I take Vitamin D and it helps but I'm also not a real fan of the Holidays.  Especially the way we celebrate it with all the crazy rushing around wearing ourselves out wasting money buying presents that no one wants and would use for every Tom, Dick, Harry, Susan and Fido that we  ever knew.  I want things to be quieter, I don't care if I get any gifts, I just want my family to be healthy and happy, and I would love it if we could all be together this year - which will not happen for obvious reasons.  I would love to be able to attend the Christmas services at my church, but there will not be any this year for obvious reasons and I would like to have someone else do all the prep and clean-up work.  But since there will be no family celebration this year there won't be any.  I'm hanging in there but there are days when it is difficult for me especially at this time of the year.

Like I said it was a lovely day yesterday, I woke up to snow this morning - not a lot of snow, but snow none the less that was not predicted until about 15 minutes before it started.  It should melt off shortly as it is supposed to get into the 40's and I can take my walk later.  

You all know how much I love to read, and I have been reading a lot over the last few months..  I found several new authors that I really like and 1 or 2 that I will never read again.  One of the keepers is a series by Charles Veley - Sherlock and Lucy - The first one was the Last Moriarty.  The one I'll never read again was by Peggy Ehrhart.  The book was Silent Knit, Deadly Knit (Knit and Nibble Series)  It was just a boring book.  Almost no mystery progression, too much about what they were eating (toast and coffee for breakfast) the process of making coffee ad nauseum, what they were going to wear and the tag sales they went to, but nothing that worked you to solving the murder that they discovered in the first chapter.  I finally gave up and read they last chapter - the murderer was someone that I didn't remember even being in the story.  Come on!

At any rate I am working on about a dozen quilts but having hurt my shoulder by a partial dislocation and then continuing to use it without knowing why it was hurting - I ended up unable to use my right arm for over a month.  so needless to say things didn't get worked on.  I still can't use a rotary cutter but I can use the scissors so while it's slower I am making progress.  Paper Piecing is really conducive to using scissors so that it what I've been working with lately.    

Bible Sampler Quilt Block 12

 The 12th block of the Bible Sampler Quilt is based on the Story Dry Land Appears from Genesis 8: 8-12, after the Flood that lasted close to 200 days - for us that is nearly 8 months - not including the forty days it rained.  Can you imagine 240 days stuck in the house with your parents, siblings, and their spouses for that long.  Well maybe some on you can with the pandemic quarantines!  Add all the animals into the mix and it would have been a difficult time - and you couldn't go out and walk down the road and take a drive in your car!

Imagine how exciting when the waters started to go down and they could actually see land in places.  I would have been doing a happy dance.

The name of the block is Dove in the Window   I paper-pieced the block so it wasn't too difficult to do  just two wide Y seams.  I'll be back next week for block 13.