Post-Christmas relaxation

Hope you had a nice Christmas and will have a good 2019.  Our day was very sunny, but very cold.  A good day to stay inside.  We had a relaxing Christmas day starting with brunch with Chris - bacon, apple French toast casserole (from our old B&B recipe), lots of chocolate, and a Dutch fruit cake that was, unfortunately, very dry.   Paul and I ate leftovers for dinner, which was easy and just fine.

Chris took some nice pictures of the "tree" he made for my New England Village which we've been collecting since he was a little guy.  My mom sent or two buildings a year until we had quite a few.  At some point, we added a brewery (in his teenage years) and a quilt shop to include both our interests.  I am thinking of making a quilted star for the top, but will wait til after Chris stains the whole thing a light maple.

Because the village now looks a little too roomy, I have been bidding on and buying a few more buildings on eBay this week.  A red covered bridge, a Victorian house, a toy shop, and another house are all going to be showing up this week.  eBay is fun and very addictive!

This week I've been working on the Bonnie Hunter mystery clues (I'm up to date), sewing a binding down one side at a time, and quilting the Nov. and Dec. sections of my Splendid Sampler quilt I started in July.  I like quilting each block differently to make it a true sampler, and mostly I'm using my walking foot.  I get too tense free motion quilting, and this is supposed to be a hobby!   Yesterday, I also tried several methods of stitching a fusible appliqued piece while quilting it.  I had to rip the first two partial tries out but had some success with a blind hem foot and a button hole stitch.  Today we're having freezing rain, so I intend to spend most of the day in the sewing room - not a bad place to be!