The biggest highlight of 2022 arrived on Dec. 13th, our second grandchild, John Austin.
My son and his wife live in Anchorage, about 40 minutes away so we are pretty excited to be so close to this little guy.
Like most of the U.S., we've had our share of winter weather. We received 5-feet of snow between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes...this is Alaska...and we do get a fair amount of snow but in the Anchorage area we get it in smaller batches throughout the season. We broke a weather record for most snow accumulated in a 30-day period.
I spent a good number of afternoons shoveling snow off our back deck, which is prime time for my sewing room projects so you know where I'm going with this...
Despite being snowed-in...I did not get more time to spend on my projects.
We got 23-inches in one storm. That's our hot tub sitting on our deck.
We didn't get any wind with that snow storm and as the snow stacked on the deck handrails, it started leaning and created waves. This one made a curl..hang ten!
The next major weather event started on Christmas night when we had steady freezing rain all night. We lost power for six hours and awoke to an quarter-inch of ice covering our deck and everything else. The best money we ever spent was adding a generator to our house in the building stages. We loose power a handful of times every winter but we always have a warm house.
We were unable to drive the next day...though our city and state roads were sanded by the end of the day. Luckily, my husband, a Fed Ex pilot, had gotten home Christmas night from his latest trip. We didn't need to go anywhere so...no big deal.
But, being a Fed Ex pilot...and one just home from international travel...hubby woke up at 3 a.m. and decided to get on with his day. He took my car to visit his airplane hangar and got it stuck in a snow berm that surrounded his hangar.
So I got a call at 4 a.m. to bring his truck to the hangar. Too much ice around the hangar for the truck to gain any traction to pull out my car. So a tow truck was called a few hours later. FYI, getting a tow at 4 a.m. runs $595...getting one at 8 a.m. runs $170. We waited for daylight.
Luckily, we do have towing insurance.
But I learned on my drive home that snow packed tires are not balanced tires so I was unable to drive faster the 40 mph or the car wobbled. Our nice warm garage took care of that balance issue as it melted all that snow packed in my tires.
Sooo...between time spent with the new baby and weather issues...I really feel like I haven't spent much time working on projects.
Enough discussion about the weather...time to talk stitching.
I have a few additions to my holiday decor...
This cross stitched Grinchy quote was finish earlier this year but wasn't ready for display until it was time to decorate the house. I had some ancient Art to Heart fabric that looks like strips of ribbon that I mounted on a board and then added the linen fabric, also mounted on a board, surrounded by a mini-ball trim in a berry color from an Etsy shop, Lady Dot Creates.
My biggest holiday finish was one of my nagging UFOs...making bears to fit in a series of quilted stockings. I needed to make four and last year I had all the legs and arms done. Just needed to make the bodies and heads. I easily spent five afternoons working on them.
The stockings have little pockets for the bears so their absence was noticeable for several years.
The firetruck now has a driver. Bear to the Rescue.
These stockings were annual releases from Jodi Warner of Hearthsewn from 1991 to 2010.
Bear in the Bag
These stockings (minus the bears) were so much fun to make. Each stocking usually combined several techniques; paper piecing, hand applique, fusible applique and patchwork.
Bear Outside the Box
Bear in a Flurry
And I finished the latest felt stocking, from Merry Stockings, Tropical Tidings.
I found the cutest surfboard fabric on Etsy for the lining.
This was such a fun kit. I loved all the details.
Super cool pineapple.
An adorable Santa face.
The perfect lining in place.
Coconuts in the trees and with Christmas lights.
The starfish and turtle...with their little hats...sweet.
And a drink to start Santa's winter vacation.
I also finished a Santa cross stitch project.
This piece is so much brighter in person. I bought this as a kit on eBay. I am not adding, "January," to the top...it really looks more like December to me.
The only sewing I have done was to work with leftover HSTs to make a mini quilt. I had an afternoon where I needed to sew for my mental sanity. I got two blocks done in a couple of hours.
Yesterday, I decided it was finally time to make some design boards for quilting. I've made many to work with my Bucilla kits that are rectangular. A quilting friend gifted me an 18-inch square board and I use it all the time. So I made two, 18-inch squares, six 12-inch square boards and then four, 6-inch squares that I like to use with cross stitch and Bucilla kits to store needles that are threaded.
I always like to end my post with any recent visitors. The dogs saw this moose cow one morning through a window and alerted me to her presence...lots of intense barking.
She wandered to the other side of the house where a nice sized bull was munching.
I managed to get a photo of them both together but there was another cow a little too far away to include in the photo.
A belated Merry Christmas to you!
We are having our big family Christmas on Friday the 30th. Both of my sons are pilots sand they will both be in Anchorage that day...finally! Just hoping the weather doesn't cause trouble...good weather is in the forecast.