It's Winter Solstice!

Today is the Winter Solstice, the time of longest darkness and least lightness. It's a time of rebirth--from now on, we'll be getting more and more light time, although it's only minutes a day.  I love the winter solstice and I think I'll celebrate this year with one of my  "white" dinners.  I have chicken in the freezer, white potatoes (made with parmesan cheese maybe?), and usually, it would be cauliflower, but since Don doesn't like that veggie, I'll go with broccoli.  And vanilla ice cream for dessert.  I think that's white enough, don't you?  And candles lit all around.

That's my plan to celebrate the Winter Solstice.  It's not too late to plan a celebration if you haven't done so already.  So, Happy Winter Solstice, everyone!  I hope you enjoy every minute of this day--and all your days--knowing that winter will end and spring will come again.

On to sewing news.  Yes, I finished the log cabin Santa ornaments, 2 of them, just made of scraps as samples.  I like how they turned out but they are way too big.  Much too big to hang on a Christmas tree but maybe in a window or several strung together in a garland.  At any rate, I won't be making any more of them but I'm glad I tried it out.

I also finished up the Merry Christmas pillow--complete with bobble fringe!  

The pattern is for a 16 by 12 inch pillow but I had a 14" pillow here so I modified it to fit. I'm quite happy with how it came out.  All from scraps of Christmas fabric.  And I have plenty more Christmas scraps to make another--and another--and . .  Stop!  I could be making these pillows all year!  (but I'd clear out a lot of scraps, wouldn't I?)

On today's agenda, after I do my daily housework chores, I'll be finishing up these needle cases.

I already finished the embroidery for two cases and just have to make them up into the finished product. I'll be keeping one for myself, and since none of my daughters are stitchers, I think I'll put the second one up for sale in my Etsy shop.  The needle case would be a great little gift for anyone who does hand sewing--embroidery like me, applique, or wool applique.  There's  a pocket inside for a small pair of scissors, and 2 "pages" of felted wool to hold the needles.  I'm going to label one of my pages for embroidery needles, and the other for sewing needles (for stitching on bindings, etc).

After these are done, I have no more UFO's on my immediate list.  I think I'll next take out the king sized log cabin quilt and get it ready for sandwiching. I can't remember if I need to put borders on or not, it's been so long since I worked on it--I began it in the summer of 2015 and when the log cabin blocks were stitched into the center of the quilt, I set it aside.  I already have fabric for the backing but it'll likely need to be pieced and if I misjudged the yardage, I'll have to make up some blocks to enlarge it as needed.  My plan was to have this quilted up so I could take it with when we visit our son and DIL next week, but that's just not going to happen.  When it's done, I'll make a special trip to Milwaukee to get it to them.  

While searching for images of Winter Solstice, I found this from Albert Camus and I like it, especially "in the midst of winter I found that there was, within me, an invincible summer."

Blessings to all my readers, enjoy your Solstice and prepare for your Christmas, and know that summer is always within.