Bringing in the New Year

I ended 2015 by WINNING A QUILT!  One of the FB groups that I belong to held a raffle from October until Dec. 31st; your name was entered into the drawing each time you posted a pic or a comment.  I posted and commented a lot so my name must have been in there on MANY MANY slips of paper which increased the odds of my winning.  Natalie, the leader of the group, did the drawing about 5:30 cst last night.  I kind of forgot about the time and had just sat down to take a break from sewing, when the message popped up on my FB page.

 This is it... isn't it adorable?

I then spent the next several minutes contacting my oldest daughter and Natalie to arrange for the quilt to be mailed to Kathee instead of myself.  She lives near the area that was just hit by an awful tornado ( my oldest grandson was IN IT, but wasn't hurt, for which I'm VERY thankful) and I thought that she'd know of some family with a little boy who would love it.  

She said she didn't know of any families who were victims of the tornado and that she didn't think her church was involved in anything ( collecting food, clothing, etc) for them.  She did say that she thought that she could find a little boy through the church's outreach program.  So I won the quilt but will never get to see it in person, which I can live with... I'd really like a little boy from the Texas/Oklahoma area to be able to cuddle up in it.

There's more to the story.... the project I was working on last night when I found out I'd won the quilt was a wall hanging for the same Natalie.  When she saw the pic of my "Christmas song" challenge wall hanging last month, she said that she wanted it.  I kept my 'pattern' pieces with the intention of making her one as soon as things quieted down here... well, yesterday was the day :)   

I had everything done  when I went to bed last night....except the quilting in the 'sky' and adding binding along with triangles in corners for hanging.  Oh, and a little painting... the white lines on Santa's shirt  and his socks are painted on; I had colored them in with white pencil, but knew the chances were good that it wouldn't last.  First thing this morning, I finished it up... it's not exactly like mine but close enough.  I'll mail it to her next week - and, this time, it will be a surprise for her!  :)

mine - before I added bells to the bottom hem

Natalie's "Dashing through the Snow" wall hanging

I have yet to get the Gingerbread Boy quilt onto Mo'e... stayed up late last night ( past midnight) and got up too early ( 7 am) and so a nap was called for late this morning.  I set the alarm on my phone for about an hour and fifteen minutes later - shut it off when it went off - and slept another two hours.  I don't know what it is that's keeping me from making loading it a priority, I just keep finding other things that I want/need to do first.  Today is my last chance until Monday or Tuesday - I HAVE to do some housework this weekend -- we have a repairman coming Tuesday afternoon to check out the dishwasher and I don't want anyone seeing the kitchen in the mess it's in right now.

And on that note, I'm heading into my sewing room to try and tackle the pile of fabrics next to the freezer ( my cutting/work surface).

TTYL