Sewing Friday.....

It was a Friday night sew in with Emily last night. We made a couple of pillow cases for our secret Santa exchange on Monday. Now to shop and fill them each with some goodies. The blue is for Emily's and the Olaf reading books is for my co-leader. We use this pattern by Crafty Gemini. We watched The Santa Clause after we finished.

I also made some progress on my Ella Maria Deacon blocks. 2 were completed this week and I cut out the applique part last night for hand applique today.  That first one took forever piecing it by hand but it did come out pretty good.

I think some baking will be on tap today - Hershey kiss cookies, I'll attempt peanut butter balls again, and some toffee - that uses saltine crackers. I had a co-worker in the late 90's that always brought this into work for me and I loved it! When they moved his wife sent in the recipe so I could make it! It is similar to this one. I'll plan to make sugar cookies next weekend - so the kids have something to do while home on holiday before Christmas. A trip over to visit with Grandpa and take him out to lunch will also be happening. 

The kids 'know' this year - they asked a few weeks ago in a funny way so I confirmed it is a 'spirit of Christmas'. They still wanted their Christmas snakes - which started this morning. They are essentially a countdown to Christmas with them opening one part each morning. It is getting harder and harder to find things for them as they get older. They got splat things today - an eyeball for Aidan and a smiley face for Emily. Now to keep the cats from eating the yarn ties while they sit under the tree for the next 10 days. 

I'll have to pull out a few rows of Emily's afghan.... I put it in a zippered bag but it has openings on either side of an inch or two. Well, it was on the floor and Peanut was on top of the bag digging in and then chewed on one side of it! Arrrgghh. I need to pull out a few rows before it all unravels from him eating the yarn! He got Aidan's earlier this week but that was right at the point I was at and an easy tie to reconnect the yarn worked. Guess I need to find a different place to store it while not working on it.

Linking up with RSC Challenge.... since I am pulling from the Blue scraps for the EMD blocks for the next 2 years!

I do plan to pin the Cat and Mouse Quilt tomorrow, and hopefully with leftovers of backing I'll also pin or thread baste the umbrella quilt and potentially the hand pieced quilt along quilt. These two are pretty small so having them ready to 'go' will hopefully get them in the rotation for hand quilting quicker. Heck.. the small one could go in the car line since it is no longer in the 90's for a couple of months!