Garden Bloggers Bloom Day December

Poinsettia blooming behind the huge Amaryllis bulbs that Robyn gave me at Thanksgiving. This is how much they had grown by December 7.

Detail of throat of one of the Amaryllis blooms.

Large quantity of Amaryllis blooms by Christmas.

Detail of actual small yellow green blossoms of Poinsettia with the bright red bracts surrounding.

I didn't post about what flowers I had blooming on the 15th; the weather was so miserable and cold and the garden so dead, even my back door potted pansies froze. But my indoor flowers are going blooming like mad and brightening my holidays, so I thought I would do a late post for December. If we can't have flowers outdoors in the depth of winter, at least we can have them blooming indoors. I even have a flower stalk beginning to come up on one of the orchid plants.

Check out other Garden Bloggers Bloom Day reports for December at May Dreams Gardens.

More Hexagons

Given my fascination with hexagons in quilts, I had to purchase this triangle ruler when I saw Denise demonstrating it to another customer at the Creative Cloth Closet in Canon City. I can picture all kinds of possibilities using this ruler. To start out I dug a set of Christmas fabric fat quarters from my stash and cut out enough triangles to make four place mats. The fabric under the ruler is the one I chose to back the mats.

Here is my progress so far. In order to fit them on my narrow design door, to photograph them, I overlapped the mats. I plan to use fuseable batting to sandwich the mats and then use gold thread satin stitch to embellish the seams and finish the edges. I'll do anything to get away from putting on binding.

Another Quard

Here is the front and back of the quard I just made for my Aunt Lucy in Albuquerque. It was her 83rd birthday so I made this to send from my Mom and me. The family photo, that was taken on Saturday after Thanksgiving, was printed on cotton and fused to the front. The greeting was printed onto adhesive backed cotton and ironed onto the back.

I've decided that this is better than buying a ready made card at WalMarts. I have the materials on hand and cards are not inexpensive to buy these days. I looked and looked for cards for my aunts and couldn't find any that were appropriate and these are a lot more personal.

Birthday Quard

My Aunt Esther, in Bakersfield, California, had her 90th birthday in November. Being in the hospital slowed me down but here is the birthday quard I made for her. That is a photo of her, from around 1938, printed on cotton and the fabric is a vintage taffeta from my Granny's stash. The greeting was printed on silk ExtravOrganza.

This was such fun, I need to do it more often.

I wish I had enough of that taffeta to make a long skirt for Christmas.

More Roses for Mom

I found a pink rose fabric, so I made some more pillows for Mom's room, to go with the commode cozy and pillows made of the green background fabric.

Her room is looking so cozy and I was pleased when I got positive comments from the kids, during their visit on Saturday.

Her neck rolls were previously covered with legs she had cut off of a pair of old knit slacks that she no longer wore. I thought it was clever of her to think of that, but they had seen a lot of wear and tear and were in need of refurbishing.

Thanksgiving Holiday

We had a wonderful time at our son, Carl's for Thanksgiving dinner; staying with daughter, Michal Ann in Wheatridge; visiting the Denver Zoo on Friday with the family; and having lunch in Colorado Springs on Saturday, with family at Guiseppi's (in the old C. S. RR depot); and then visiting Mom with the family on Saturday afternoon. This is a photo of the family with, Gramma Evy, in the parlor of the Friendship House.

There is an album of photos, taken with my new Canon Power Shot camera, on my

Facebook page. Joe says he think I'm becoming a Japanese tourist, taking photos of everything, whether it moves or not.

Thrilled Over Early Christmas

I came home from WalMart yesterday and told Joe about a camera (Canon PowerShot SX120 IS) I had seen on sale and did he think I should get it since the 6 year old Canon Elph has about seen it's end of days. Only problem was, they didn't have any instock, but had some coming soon.

He came back from his trip to Pueblo this morning with a sack from Best Buy. In it was the same camera (10MB; 10 optical zoom), a 4 GB Flash Memory card, and a blue carrying case. He thought I needed it before we went to Denver and Boulder for family Thanksgiving. I am ecstatic! I've been out trying it and comparing it to my beloved little Elph. Beloved because it is so small I can carry it in my purse all the time and it is easy to use. This one is a bit bigger but will still fit in that huge purse and it has a huge screen compared to the other, not to mention tons of mega bytes and optical zoom!!!

I can get all the tiny details in flora and fauna, especially the birds. See examples above. A Downey Woodpecker was gracious to show up at the feeders just as I needed a model. The flower is a very late Gaillardia that I planted on the south side of the house this summer, and it still thinks it is summer, in spite of the 18 degree nights we've had recently. Look at the miniscule details.

The new camera photo was taken with the old Elph.

Do I have a very special husband? Count your blessings, Granny Fran.