HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2025

"In the quiet between laughter and clinking plates we find the richest feast--

The company of HEARTS that know our name..."

H A P P Y  T H A N K S G I V I N G

💛to you, all my friends💛

Hugs, Julierose,

La blageuse--

2025

 

"BUTTON, BUTTON, WHO'S GOT THE BUTTON?" et al

 

This afternoon I spent "crafting"

as opposed to sewing....

and I made some

button garlands...

what fun this was...

😇😊😍

I follow Jeri Belini on Youtube:

Here is her video....

↓↓

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRtW5e4ROrU]

she has a video on button garland making

which is wonderful...

A great tutorial for using up all those bigger

buttons you may have saved...

I had a whole tin of them

some from my Grand-mere and

my Mother from the days when

people saved buttons....

and cut them off of no

 longer wearable items...

Here is a closer look at the 

garlands I made

⇓⇓⇓

some of these buttons came from Jeri's Etsy shop...

I have them hanging from our two floor lamps

in the living room right now; but

they will be draped over our table top

Christmas trees this year shortly...

We plan to put up the trees on

Black Friday--which is my total 

recouperation day and sewing day...

I used some waxed linen thread that I had left over from

book binding to string them all together..

they have such a lovely soft tinkling sound too;))))

Thank you Jeri for a terrific tutorial that is

so easy to do...

*****************************

Early this morning I did my final (I hope) 

Thanksgiving Day shopping...

I was at the store by 8:30 a.m. and 

was so surprised to see that it was

just jammed already with shoppers!!!

⌚💸🏃🏪🚗

Turkey-Lurkey is thawing nicely in our

fridge and I have everything on hand

both for the meal and the appetizers...

My daughter, Candice, will be bringing

sides and an appetizer and the pies...

I hope all of you who celebrate 

Thanksgiving have a wonderful day..

Hugs, Julierose

La blageuse

(back-after-the day-euse)

FINISHED CHRISTMAS BUNTING, et al

 

Here is my bunting hanging in place...

anchored on my two wrought iron 

candleholders....

I had originally made 11 and it turned out

WAY too long for this spot...

SO I cut if down and now have

four to start a new one for a gift...

I will be leaving this up through Christmas.

😇💚🌝⛄

Here is a long shot of my fireplace 

which is 

just to the left of the dining room and

open to the kitchen area separated

by an eating counter...

I like that the flag with my Grand-mere's crocheted lace

sets in the center of my bunting...

The lovely picture over the fireplace was one of

my mother-in-laws that she received as

a wedding gift...

I just love the soft serenity of it..

***************************

I have switched my little corner 

in my sewing room

from hand sewing projects to

paper crafting for a while;

my hands really are in need 

of a long resting period

after making all these flags 

and also working on

quilting "Sunrise Sunset". 

I will finish the border quilting 

on that quilt..

 on my machine I think...

***************************

Meanwhile, I will be  still sewing my neutral

Ojos blocks on Helga and 

working in my old 

"En Masse" gluebook,

begun in 2023

↓↓↓↓

I am hoping to get it finally finished up...

[I need to make a list of items for

pages that need finishing.]

And....

Here are a few examples of finished pages:

faces

models

umbrellas

and, books

to show you a very few

 examples of my collections...

Such a relaxing way to 

spend an afternoon...

;)))

Hugs on this dark, gray day

Julierose, La Blageuse

("Fa la la la la,

la la, la la...")

"A' BUNTING WE WILL GO...", et al

 

I've finished my bunting flags and am starting to

put them together with my own handmade binding strips..

(just pinned for now)

and...

I am making a loop for hanging on either end...

Above are the first two...

and here are the next in line...

below...

↯↯↯

I will add more binding overlapping as I go

[the crocheted piece was made by my

Grand-mere--almost all gone now...]

These are just simple flags using older holiday fabrics--

but...

I have added bits and bobs here and there..

Carolers for "Silent Night..."

and

Pretty poinsettias tied with a 

little velvet bow and some buttons...

So far I have eleven to be bound..

I plan to drape this over 

my fireplace mantle

for the holidays...

***************************

And 

today being T minus 7,

here is our turkey thawing

in the fridge....

I plan to go shopping on next Tuesday to

get the few things left for our meal....

***********************************

Looks like tomorrow will be another gray day;

these evenings are closing in so early now...

dark at 4:30 here...;((((

We are watching Ken Burns' 

"The American Revolution"

and I must say I am

learning a lot...

Not the least of which is 

how our forebears were

able to all come together

to fight for our freedom....

despite their many differences...

hugs, Julierose,

La blageuse

(stitching-away-euse)

.

SEWING IN NEUTRAL, et al

 

Still sewing my neutral strips into

Ojos...

so enjoying this journey with these

saved strips .....😇

Here is a little pile of trimmings...

And, I still may be able to use  some

of these bits and bobs....

******************************

I have begun a Christmas bunting project

using my older leftover Christmas fabrics...

Below are a few of the pages that I have basted

down and am going to decorate...

There will be twelve in all...

and I will be making my own binding

for the long strip hanger...

I may not get it finished for this year;

but I've been wanting to make one of these

for a while now.

"No time Like the Present"

Right???!!!

👌👋💃

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

My Christmas cacti are blooming

This white one tipped with shocking pin

is especially prolific this year...

And

This one reminds me of candy canes...;)))

My yellow one is now budded:

And now that I look at it, it looks

more peach colored...

how pretty!!

****************************

High winds here today making our 

40 degree temp feel like

the 20's!!! 

"Winter is a'comin' in..." for sure...

Hugs, Julierose

La Blageuse

(sunny-day-sewing-euse)

WHAT'S IN THE COOKIE TIN? , et al

 

I can tell you it's not those cookies--

they are A L L  gone....

Y U M M M M 😁😂😃

In keeping with using my stash and leftovers....

I am making my favorite Ojos in just whites,

off whites, and low volume colors

--all my cut offs and leftovers

from sides of quilts, bindings, etc...

All on 4" square telephone book papers...

I really do like this kind of sewing--

almost, but not quite "mindless"

and so relaxing...

😇😊😌

I want to machine sew, but I am not in the mood

to be able to decide on a project these days...

and so, this type of sewing is just perfect...

********************************

Below is my final binding project for

this year...

My Christmas Ojos is 

all set for me to use this year....

Here is the "Plum Pudding" 

fabric background which really 

shows the dense quilting...

I 💓how this came out and also that lovely fabric....

*****************************

Below is a photo of my secondary work area where I

do my fabric journals and hand stitching...

Talk about "stuff"---right???? 

I mean it is almost

always messy for sure!! 

I am working on a little Christmas project for our

holiday decor right now...

BUT

more about that later on....;))))))

I've gathered all my bits and bobs with leftover Christmas 

fabrics alongside my three cabinet 

drawers full of threads

here to the left of where I sit --

so as to be easily

accessible...

I am still having to be very careful about

 how much I actually sew and for how long

these days...but I am stubbornly refusing

to give up...

I hope to get to hand quilt 

 a couple more  sashings

on "Sunrise, Sunset" tomorrow...

Those plus the borders are all

I have left to do...

****************************

With the advent of these colder gay

days, and early darknesses

I decided that I needed to pull out my

brilliant colored Kawandi  

to brighten things up....

Here it resides on my cocktail table:

"Sunset over the Ocean"

is my first Kawandi project--

I really love how it came out...

AND...

FYI:

I purposely pulled the side edge few rows

of threads tighter than usual to give it a 

"wave" look for the ocean feel....

↷↶

You can see that effect here. 

What fun this was to make...

I plan on making a ]nother Kawandi i

n the New Year

for my dining table...

I hope you are all managing to stay warm

on these colder days and enjoying your

sewing projects...

Hugs, Julierose

La blageuse

( humming-"Sleigh bells ring, 

Are you listening?

In the lane 

snow is glistening? "-.

..euse)

FIVE BOUND, et al

 

First piece bound:

Here is "Falling Leaves" all bound now

and hanging on the front of my 

Grand-mere's old dresser.

I found a remnant of this lovely lavender

hand dyed for the border in my stash...

↧↧↧↧

It picked up the lavender floral in that print

perfectly--serendipity...;)))

And

No: 2:

"Little fans" with a binding in 

variegated blues; this was a leftover

piece in my binding box!! 

No: 3

below

"Little Baskets"

bound in greens

and

No" 4

"Easter Basket"

again I found leftover binding

that moved between

blue, greens and purples...

And last, but not least!! 

No: 5

An older crumb-sewn

Christmas table topper

This one is bound in a little holly fabric

below is the reverse--

one of my all-time favorite Christmas

fabrics:

You can see the holly binding 

better here...

I still have two more to go, but I do want

to hand quilt them after I finish with

quilting the "Sunrise, Sunset" 

sashings and

border areas...

So they will be for next year....

It was really nice to have all these 

leftover bindings to work with...:)))

I still have a lot of small pieces waiting

in line, but for now I am going to 

concentrate on finishing up

"Sunrise, Sunset"..

********************************

On my 60th fabric booklet --

I finished up the next

two pages:

Here is the Berkshires' page:

The crocheted lace on the bottom is from my Grand-mere

that I tea dyed...

This page represents the early years 

we spent there

nestled in the mountains...

AND

Here is the first beginning of our trip page

to our seacoast home

where we have lived since.

You can see here everything is 

still pinned in place. 

The golden sari silk represents

our route to the seashore...which

is represented by that 

ruched silk ribbon and the

old blue silk fabric from a dress 

my Mom made me...💓

And here is the final page below

↴↴↴↴

This details our trip and also my daughter's birth in the Berkshires

and my son's birth here, where we live now...

The center tan portion is all Kantha stitched...

***********************

So, this is how I have spent 

my time away from

blogosphere....

That, plus thinking a lot about what

direction I want to move in

for the coming year...

I really do miss working on big quilts....

I feel that so many repeating blocks 

lend themselves so much better 

to that size...and not

to smaller pieces in general...

that is where things stand for now...

hugs, Julierose,

La Blageuse

(slowly-hand-quilting-euse)