Christmas, come and gone

So much preparation and anticipation and suddenly it has come and gone and here we are at a brand new year. We had a white Christmas -- it was leftover snow, not fresh, but still white. My daughter called from South Carolina Christmas night and they were getting snowed on and expected 5 inches! That east coast storm reached way down the coast.

Today seems like Sunday so it must be time for a blog post. Come to think of it, since I am now officially retired, every day is going to seem like Sunday.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and that this will be a good year. Mr THQ helped me take down all the decorations since my booted broken foot won't climb a ladder. So the house looks a little bare. But not too bare. My house would never be described as minimalist. Oh, no, never!

I did work on the quilt blocks from my retirement party. I wasn't really satisfied with anything from my stash so I ended up hobbling into JoAnn's. This is what I found. I just love the happy floral print.
And here is how the top came out.

Then I moved on to the Buggy Barn Quilter's Village houses. I had made the trees long ago and pulled the fabric. I don't know why I didn't get to the houses sooner. They have been lots of fun. Here is the first six.

And the next six. My productivity is down a bit since I have to push the sewing machine pedal with my right foot. When I first got my Bernina I took the classes and one of the suggestions was to use the pedal with your left foot because that frees up your right knee for the knee lift. I switched right away and have sewn that way ever since. It has been hard to change back. Then it will probably be hard to switch back again!

Here are the trees that have been waiting for their houses for such a long time.

I have a hard time pulling fabric for these cut and stack swap around quilts. It's hard for me to envision how the blocks will look and I end up with combinations I am not fond of. So then I mess around with the swapping the stacks part and end up with two of the same fabrics in one block. I need to quit fussing because once all the blocks are together I always like it.

Happy New Year!