Christmas Program

There is nothing as cute as a pre-school Christmas program. Hayden's was Friday and was darling.

When the doors opened to the chapel Miss H was the first in line to file in. She wasn't shy about it at all and marched down the aisle with confidence.



I love her in this photo.



The Santa hats disappeared after their portion of the program and we were glad to see that Hayden had not removed her bow. She just doesn't like wearing anything in her hair and would rather have worn the bow around her neck like a tie than on her head.

Embroidery

Since taking the machine embroidered/applique Santa class I've been inspired to do some more embroidery. I've had my Bernina 170 with an embroidery attachment about 10 years but never really did much embroidery. The machine requires the designs be on a Bernina card that is inserted into the unit. Over the years that technology has become outdated and most systems now use multi-format cd's and embroidery software.

A couple of years ago I investigated purchasing software that would allow me to join the rest of the embroidery world. The Bernina brand software is incredibly expensive and I didn't feel the expense was worth it for the amount of embroidery I expected to do. I did discover something called Explorations which is geared to the Bernina owner and was able to purchase it at a reasonable price.

I've been playing around with the software and was able to create this holiday themed monogram for Hayden. (click photo for larger view)



Just before I created this Chrystal and I were flipping though a magazine that featured mother-daughter aprons. Chrystal said she and Hayden didn't have any mother/daughter items and a light bulb went off. I used the same design to make Chrystal a sweatshirt too. (can't get this photo to flip properly so you'll have to tilt your head!)



It was fun to do these and I'm hoping that Chrystal doesn't think the one for her is too hokey.

Next up = some handtowels.

Graduation

Our daughter-in-law, Chrystal, has been working toward her bachelor's degree in Medical Technology from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA. The interesting thing about this program is that she was able to do most of her classes via distance learning. Yesterday was graduation on the campus and we were thrilled to be there to cheer her on.

Do you think she was happy to graduate??



Noah and Hayden were proud of their mother!



As were Craig ...


... her sister Heather ...


...and her mom Pam


After graduation we went to Paula Deen's restaurant, Lady & Sons. The food was wonderful - very filling but wonderful. Here are Hayden and Chrys at the restaurant.


The photo of Chrys and Noah at dinner didn't turn out so here's Noah after the graduation.



It was a wonderful day and we are so proud of her accomplishments.

Here comes Santa Claus

Several months ago my friend Janice & I were in a quilt shop and admired an embroidered quilt that was there to be quilted. It was a Jenny Haskins design. We were told that in order to embroider a quilt like that we would need to know how to do multi-hoop designs. Neither of us had ever done that so we signed up for one of their classes that teach how to multi-hoop. Cindy & Judy also expressed an interest in learning the technique so we all attended the class last Monday. Our project was a cute Santa. He required 9 separate hoopings.

Janice and I were able to finish our projects.



It wasn't a smooth project for any of us. Poor Judy had machine problems early on and ended up having to leave her machine with the shop for repair. The rest of us went astray at about the 4th or 5th hooping. After MUCH angst and some brainstorming (plus a good bit of unsewing) we were able to figure out how to get all the parts lined up. Cindy still has some stitching to go and Judy may have to start over now that she has her machine back.

I like Janice's darker background better than mine. You can't see the gold design on my fabric - it just looks kind of yellow in this photo. For some reason the photo makes Janice's Santa look bigger than mine, but they're the same size.

It was fun to do but I think I'll take a bit of an embroidery break before trying a Jenny Haskins design!