Twelfth Night, Double Delight!

The Wise Ones have arrived at the manger and are giving presents and adoration. Soon Herod will be on their trail, so everyone had better move out SOON.

And THANK GOODNESS! I trimmed the last of the 120 blocks with chocolate brown corners!m Getting to this point took me most of yesterday and today. I should cut all the scraps into useable squares and strips like Bonnie does.

Now I am cutting 1.5" strips for Nine-patches of "double pink" and shirtings. Maybe I'll get a few together this evening.

Sara

Gratitudes:

only a few interruptions today

new furniture arrangement in rec room could work with tweaks

new music at chorus rehearsal last night, "Breast Cancer Oratorio"

Double Delight step 2 + Epiphany

Here's the progress I made on the Step 2 blocks today.

These blocks do seem to take quite a bit of time, especially for the trimming and pressing. I am doing them in groups of 10 at a time, changing position from sewing to trimming to pressing helps me not get too stiff. But I still keep slumping. Got to keep the bend from my hips, not curving my back!

At the top you can see that I "took a break" from the Square-in-a square blocks and made a few of the pink 9-patches for a change. I peeked ahead and know that we are going to be making a whole bunch of those next.

Charlie and I had our last Epiphany celebration at Holy Cross, here is a photo of two of the Magi leaving on the last verse of "We Three Kings". These were SINGING Magi, which is not always the case. Each sang one of the verses. And afterwards we had Crown Cake with prizes inside, and a pinata, and the White Elephant Game, and then the DE-greening of the church. A long celebration, expecially because we had the addition of the Morris Dancers as a gift to us.

Sara

Gratitudes:

So much love at Holy Cross

Another farewell dinner last night

Zillah only barfed once

Epiphany and sewing

Here are the three Magi as they appeared at our church this morning on Epiphany Day, carrying the gold, frankincense and myrrh. That's my husband, the priest in the middle with the thurible and incense pot. Each sang their verse of "We Three Kings", and the congregation sang the refrains while they paraded to the manger in front of the altar and dropped off their gifts.

So now it is time for the Magi of our creche in the livingroom to also begin their return home "by another way" without informing Herod of what they found.

In the afternoon and evening I was able to complete Step 4 of the Carolina Crossroads mystery quilt. The directions were given just after Christmas, and another Step came out this week, so I am still behind some of the happy workers, but the point isn't really speed. We all seem to be great fans of Bonnie Hunter for her scrappy style, and her complete generosity in sharing her patterns for free over the internet.

She says that after Step 5 we will have all the parts needed. I cannot imagine how these 40 triangular pieces are going to fit with the others, which are all square. Oh, well, wait and see!

Sara

Steps: 2735

Gratitudes:

Magi who could SING (doesn't happen every year)

Book group discussion about ministry WITH the aging

Time to sew

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

I need to do laundry after our trip, and sort though the pile of mail I picked up from the Post Office, and go grocery shopping, and buy a new color ink cartridge for the computer printer. But what I want to be doing is working on the two steps of the Carolina Crossroads Mystery that I missed while I was gone!
Well, I'd better work on the OTHER jobs, then I can print out the directions in color.

Probably can't get to the sewing until Sunday afternoon. The Bishop is visiting our parish this Sunday, so there are extra preparations to be made.

Evening:

DS Peter and DIL Lynne invited us over for a late Christmas dinner tonight. We took the family Christmas game "Follow the Star" with us. My Dad copied this from a paper game in about 1972, and the fabric board with wooden and miscellaneous character pieces has been played since then for the 12 days of Christmas. Tonight we were a French man (Lynne's Dad), a Russian, a camel, a hippo, and an elephant. The task is to follow the path with various problems and delays (e.g. lose sight of the star, animals are thirsty, or thrown into jail by Herod) until you get to the stable. Tonight the hippo (Lynne) got there first, but we always wait for everyone to get there before the game is declared finished. The game was left in St. Louis for ther grands to play while we were in Costa Rica. Two of the grands are in the photo, plus a queen, a shepherd, a glass angel, a lone Parcheesi player, and a turtle on the board.

Epiphany tomorrow with a Magi parade at the offertory, pinata, crown cake, and THE game (White Elephants) at the coffee hour. Hope the Bishop enjoys himself.

Sara

Steps: uncounted

Gratitudes:

Wet, not icey pavements

Tasty prime rib with horseradish

Laughter with family