It is definitely starting to feel like Christmas around here! My daughter looked after the baking of some Christmas cookies while her brother and girlfriend looked after decorating the tree.

A favorite cookie in this household has always been “Smartie cookies”. The cookbook calls them Frog Eyes but we have renamed them Smartie cookies. Since the kids were small we would make these cookies decorating them to reflect the season. You can buy Smarties and M&Ms coated in colours to match the seasons–Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Easter, etc.

This my daughter baking Christmas Smartie cookies.

This is my son and his girlfriend decorating the tree.

Another shot showing the “supervisor” of the operation–Dad!

According the recent Quilting in America 2006 survey sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine the dedicated quilter is:

* Female
* 59 years old
* Well educated (72% attended college)
* Affluent ($87,026 household income)
* Spend on average $2,304 per year on quilting
* Quilting for an average of 13.5 years

I am much younger than the dedicated quilter and I know that $2,304 in quilting supplies, classes, etc. does not get you very far! This survey tells me that the dedicated quilter is likely retired or close to retirement which means I have many more years of quilting ahead of me! Yahoo!

Something else that I found interesting the survey is that the average dedicated quilter owns an average of 2.6 sewing machines and 24% own more than 4 machines! If I count my retired Kenmore, my antique Singer, my Bernina that is used for piecing, and my APQS long arm, I own 4 machines!

Finally, 4.7% of all quilters are dedicated quilters and account for 88% of total quilting industry expenditures. That means that if the remaining 95.3% of the quilters out there started to spend anywhere near what the minority or dedicated quilter spends on quilting, there would be an explosion to the quilting industry!

Check the survey out yourself; it is an interesting read: http://www.quilts.com/home/news/index.php?page=announcements/index

These are my recent finishes. My son says I am running a “sweat shop” in my studio. Sometimes it might seem that way as I sit in front of my sewing machine for hours on end. Christmas is approaching and projects need to be finished…….

This is a hexagon table topper that I made with the fabrics that my Mom purchased on our trip to the U.S. some months ago.

There was enough fabric to make a second table topper. This time I made an octagon shaped topper.

These projects can be reversed if the backing is selected carefully. In the case of the first two table toppers, this is the backing that is on them. Once Christmas is over, the toppers can be changed over to a winter bird fabric to finish the winter season.

This is a table topper that I plan to give my MIL for Christmas.

This is the fabric on the back of my MIL’s table topper. The flowers on this one match my MIL’s carpet in her living room.

This is one more table topper that I will be giving away in a gift exchagne this Christmas.

These small wall hangings are so fun to make that you can’t stop at just one! Here we have Joy, Joy, and even more Joy!

We awoke this morning to our first snow of the season. The sun broke through the clouds and made the ground sparkle! It wasn’t long before the weather turned overcast and cloudy again. The temperature has dropped and we have more snow in the forecast. I am glad that I don’t need to drive far for the next few days!

The following was e-mailed to me by my Aunt yesterday on my birthday. This was one of the best presents I received. We have all seen where we can find out what famous things happened in history the day we were born. How often do we hear first hand accounts of what was going on at the time of our birth in the lives of those closest to us. Thank you, Aunt Ardelle for taking the time to send this to me.

Hi Norma:

Just finished reading your most recent blogs.

I just had to write and say a little bit about the day you were born. I remember that day very well. I was attending Western Christian College at North Weyburn. Prior to you being born I was busy embroidering some ‘Sunbonnet Girls’ and then your Grandma put them all together and made a quilt out of them. That quilt likely isn’t around anymore.

I remember your Grandmother, my Mother phoning to tell me that your Mother & Dad had a baby girl. They came to Weyburn to visit your Mom and you in the hospital. They also came out to the College to pick me up so I could go visit.I remember going into the Weyburn Hospital and the nurse asked me if I was old enough to go visiting…you had to be 12 years old. I was then 17 years old. I wasn’t very impressed. At that time people like me couldn’t see your Mother but I got to see you. You were a real gem.

I started baby-sitting for your Mother on Saturdays while she went shopping,. She would come out to the College and get me for the day and then take me back before curfew at night. It helped your Mother and it sure was nice for me not having to stay at the College all day Saturday. We couldn’t only go home once a month but we could go out on day passes.

I remember one of the days when I was babysitting you, you cried and cried. The only time you didn’t cry was when I was holding you. I thought maybe you were a bit spoiled. It turned out that you had Colic.

As you got a little bit bigger and you would come to Carlyle to visit your grandparents (and at the time I was now living back at home). You loved to sit on my pillows and play with my clock radio in the book case at the head of the bed.

When Clark was born you came to Carlyle and I looked after you. You were talking then and I would feed you jelly which you really liked and I would tell you that it was jelly for your belly. I also tried to get you to say that your name was Norma Elizabeth and you would say to me I not lizabet.

Then there were the times at Grandpa and Grandma’s cottage at the lake…you and I would go and pick strawberries along the path to the outside biffy.These are just a few things I can remember about you when you were born and as you grew up. There are likely a lot more but these things come to my mind right now.

Have a great day.

This is a picture of me on one of those visits to my Grandparent’s house. If you look closely, you can see my Grandfather in the background.

These are two pictures of my aunt.