All I Want For Christmas

Evelyn is a Class A quilting buddy. Not to be disloyal to my good girl, Jezebel, but the fact is, Evelyn stays with me and genuinely seems to dig the peaceful quilting vibe. Jezebel would hang out for awhile, then go sleep upside down in the bathtub. In the dark. That was just one of her many weird habits (that were so endearing).


Pearl is a little too busy, these days, to want to hang out for any length of time, although she likes to sleep under the table by husband when he is working at home.


So I was so jazzed about learning to applique, that I sat down and finished putting the stockings on the wallhanging, last night.


My fingers are numb, today. If I keep this up, I expect I will quickly develop callouses like a guitar player. Maybe I should take up the guitar once I build up some callouses - perhaps it wouldn't tear up my fingers tips so much while I'm learning.

I have a Gracie lap hoop that I got years ago with the notion that I might try hand quilting. I have actually never used it but it worked okay with the wall hanging. Here it is:


It has a ball attached the frame so it swivels and can be adjusted to any angle.

Here it is with the wall hanging on it:


From the back:


I am not sure I would use it for an individual quilt block but it was nice for the slightly larger wall hanging. It made it easy to keep the piece lying flat.

I ended up stitching on all eight stockings and am pretty happy with it.


I think I will just "birth" it instead of doing a binding. The nice thing about making something like this is that it isn't intended to be an heirloom - just something fun and therapeutic.

We will probably still be here at Christmas but if we make it out to Oklahoma, I will have it all ready to make the house look festive even if we are surrounded with brown cardboard moving boxes. Truth be told, we could be sitting in a nasty little bus station with smelly travelers on Christmas morning but if it was back home in Oklahoma, we'd just beam.


My hope is to completely close down my practice by the first week of November although I will be amazed if I can manage to do that. Cases are set a few weeks ahead of time and we are getting into that time period. The judges hate to change guardians ad litem in mid case. And I hate to do that, too, which is why I have been asking them since April to stop sending more my way. I keep suggesting that it would be better to switch me out sooner rather than later so that the new GAL can get up to speed and be ready if a given case suddenly goes south and legal action is needed. Some of the judges agree but at least one of my favorites wants me to stay to the absolute last minute. I half expect to have husband and the girls waiting outside the courthouse to pick me up from my last case when we load up to head for Oklahoma.


I told husband I will be ready to go by mid November and he looked nervous. I know it kills him to ever disappoint me and the timing is not in his hands, frankly. I don't like putting pressure on him but he needs to know when I can go. I would love to be home for Christmas. But if I'm not, at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

It is hard to believe that I am already working on Christmas stuff! But did you realize we only have a little over 100 days left?

Let the stress, begin!