Huckleberry Railroad and Crossroads Village

Last Friday hubby and I went up to Crossroads Village and 

rode the Huckleberry Railroad Christmas train.  

The village wasn't open when we arrived but we got a few photos on the train depot. 

The train ride lasted about 40 minutes and went by lots of light displays.  

There was a conductor to punch our tickets (like on Polar Express) as we boarded the train too.  

A live Santa waved to us about halfway down the track.  

As we passed the houses on the train I said that I would not like to live by the train tracks 

and hubby said oh he would love it.  

He would be out waving at every train that went by! 

 LOL, and he would too.

We walked around the village waiting to board the train. I took this of us in front of the candy shop.

We asked one of the conductors to take this of us on the caboose.

 Patiently waiting to board the train.

All of the buildings were decorated for Christmas

 Look who I ran into when walking around the village!

 Caboose!

This was the train station.

My grandpa used to work for the Pere Marquette railroad.  

It merged with the Cheaspeake and Ohio (C & O).  I have always loved the Chessie cat!

We got to see Santa too!

I thought this was cool.  Looking down the track you could see a gigantic snowman.

After the train came back the entire village was lit up.  It was so beautiful.  

This is the "Tree of Lights". 

 They told us that they begin putting lights on it right after Halloween and 

it takes that long to get them all up!

There were several of these pine trees all lit up too.

Of course, I could not pass up the patchwork snowman.

I tried to get photos of the lights while the train was moving but they are just a blurry mess.

We went to the Christmas buffet after the train ride and walked around the village.  

It was almost like being in our own Hallmark movie (almost)!

~XOP~

Christmas Stockings

I know I said I wouldn't be back but I wanted to share the Christmas stockings I made this year.  

My daughter's best friend had twin girls and this will be their first Christmas. 

 I made stockings for their mom and dad when they got married (my shower gift)

 and I bought enough fabric to make stockings for future kids. 

 I really loved doing this and did the same for a few other close friends and family.  

While stockings are not my favorite thing to make I have it down pretty well now! 

 Here are the ones I made for the mom and dad of the twins.

Here are the ones I made for the girls.

It was my first time making the one with the Santa faces and the pinwheels. 

 I LOVE these Santa faces.

These pinwheels are NOT for the faint of heart!

I really love how it turned out though.

Amy was kind enough to send photos of the girls with their stockings.  Here is little Brooke.

Cuteness overload right here.  

Here is little Audrey.  They both have red hair too.  

She looks like she is going to climb right inside!

I have to say that Amy writes some of the best thank you notes I have ever received.  

I am not sure anyone makes me feel so glad to sew for them as Amy does.  

She always lets me know how much she loves whatever I have made her throughout the years. 

 I love her like one of my own. 

 I wish they didn't live so far away.  I am hoping to get to see her 

(maybe the girls too)

 over the holiday as they are going to be in town.

I made one more stocking but can't show it just yet.  I am not sure it has been gifted yet.

Stay tuned.  I will be posting a few more times before the new year too.

~XOP~

Sew Beachy Retreat

I have just returned from a quilt retreat in California.  Venture beach to be exact. 

I fly in there and meet up with some other quilty friends.  

This is the third year we have all been together.  

There are old friends and new.

 I always bring Captain Jack along to my retreats.  

I get photos of him throughout the time we are there.  

He is now the official mascot of Sew Beachy!

As you can see it was mostly cloudy and gray when we were there.

This year we did a secret Santa gifting. 

If you remember, I made the blue dragon wine mat for my person.

We also played a plastic wrap game (we call it Satan ball) 

where you unwrap a ball of plastic wrap full of small gifts while the person to your left rolls dice and when they get doubles you have to pass the ball.  

Jack met up with a new friend this year. 

Kooky (I think) was his name.

 This shows our sewing space. 

It is the garage of the house we stay at.  

The organizers bring tables and chairs and we sew in this big open space. 

 There are windows to the right and we can see the beach/ocean while we sew.

I usually get some pics of Jack and his friends when we are here.  

Michele brought the Koala to be Jack's friend.

This is Karen, she was the person I made the dragon wine mat for.  

You can see the shirt she has on. 

 It was the official shirt of the retreat.  

On one side it says "What's up beaches?" and on the other Sew Beachy 2019.  

The tail of the mermaid is made up of Tula fabric images. 

 They were so cute!

This is my friend, Jamie from Made by Jamie. She is the SWEETEST!!

Here is the "other" Pam of the group.  

She taught us our clam shell pillow project this year.

This lady is super talented.  

She attempted to teach me how to crochet (LOLOL).  Better luck next time, Pam.  

What can I say? 

I'm not the most adept student!

Some of my roomies.  Paula, who flies in from Kansas.

And Melanie, who flies in from Colorado.

I managed to get one top all finished.  

My friend, Traci is opening a brick and mortor shop and needed shop samples so I made this one.  

It is all done with Tula Pink Monkey Wrench using a free pattern called Tribute Star.

We visited a shop and I was so excited that I could wear flip flops in December without being cold!

My favorite part about the second shop was Pearl, the cat!

Traci managed to find the "happy to see us" snowman at one of the shops, LOL.

She flies in from Wisconsin.

I only have this photo of Traci and I from the trip. 

 She was one of the roomies and also the designated driver for our group!

We did get a photo of the whole "room".

L to R Nancy, Paula, Traci, Me, Jack and Melanie

(Sorry Nancy, I don't have a photo of the 2 of us)

They are "amazing".

I LOVE all of these women!

One of the 2 projects we made were these project bags.  

I used Sebastian from the Gastlies collection.

You may or may not realize that I don't really like making bags but at the retreat, 

with someone to hold my hand, I can do it!

Our room bought shirts for our room, HA.  

We called ourselves the "Midwest Mermaids". 

Paula brought her Bedazzler and we glammed them up with some bling!  

My friend, Susan, made me hold her wine glass for this photo, lol.

It was a great trip!  We had one nice sunset.  

We also got to see some dolphins playing in the waves right outside our door!  

The organizer of the retreat is uncertain if we will be able to return 

as the rental rules in CA have changed.  

She is working on figuring it out.  

Jack and I flew home on Monday afternoon.  We were both pooped!

It was an amazing weekend. 

I will show you the clam pillow once I have it finished. 

(please don't hold your breath, LOL, hand work takes a back seat at this moment)

I think that catches you up with what I have been up to.

I will likely be away now until after the first of the year. 

 I don't really have a great computer to post from at home.

I might try though as that is a long time to be away.

If not, have a great holiday and I will be back in January!

~XOP~

Christmas Sewing

I have not really had loads of time to sew lately.  

I'm not sure what I have been doing but I am busy, LOL.  

I finished a cute piece for a friend and I will show that now. 

 It is a surprise for her but since she is not expecting anything she won't realize it is for her, LOL .

 I am calling it a wine mat.  

I hand quilted around the dragon using 6 strands of embroidery floss and 

did straight line quilting using the machine. 

 I am really pleased with the result and hope she likes him too. 

If you click on the photo you should be able to see him larger and 

notice the "eye" placement of fabric.

A friend from IG sent me this amazing Unicorn Thread Gloss.  

You guys, you really need to go to Robot Mom Sews shop and buy some.  

You pull your thread through it and the thread doesn't tangle when you sew with it for hand sewing.  

I used it for my binding thread.  

I happened to use Gutterman thread for this binding.  

It is NOT my favorite hand thread but the color matched.  

Using the thread gloss was a total game changer. 

 No more tangles!

I have three Christmas stockings to make and thought I would see if I could make one last weekend.  My hope was to get the pieced front made, which I did.

Then I decided to "go for it" and actually got the whole stocking made (sans the name).  

I had to print the name out on my computer from work as my home computer doesn't have that font.  I have finished this one and put it in the mail.  

I can't show the name just yet, but soon.

Hubby has been continuing the cleaning and has gotten our family room all cleaned up.  

We might even be able to get it painted before Christmas!!!  

Maybe. 

 This means all the junk that was in that room is now in my living room and must be dealt with. 

My plan for the weekend is to get the living room cleaned up so we can decorate for Christmas the next weekend (after Thanksgiving) and 

also get the upstairs guest room tidied up for my friend, Sue's visit in 2 weeks. 

 So I don't anticipate much sewing over the next few weeks.  

I am leaving on a quilt retreat to California on Dec 5th so there are supplies that I need for that also.

So much to do!

Are you all ready to decorate for Christmas?  Shopping done?  Tips you can share??

~XOP~