I love being a Jew in America who can enjoy all the Christmas displays without feeling left out. So between outdoor displays and fun parties, I just love this time of year.
The big office buildings downtown have large glorious trees in the lobby. This is the PacMutual Building which is a wonder any time of the year. They have so much room in the lobby that even though this tree is in front of the elevator bank – it doesn’t block anything.
Meanwhile, out on the street, on a fenced off vacant lot, someone has placed this Magi and wreath.
This is a window in a low-income building. Interesting, a bottle of water and the American flag. I do love how people are proud of our colors, regardless of time of year. It’s not just Independence Day where people display the flag.
The foyer of a beautiful old office building. How can I not love a building that displays knights! The symbol indicates that this is a multi-purpose housing building – artists can both live and work here.
I gave my last tour on Spring st. today. I doubt this tour will ever come back. Things always change, even Conservancy tours. After it was over, it was time for celebration at an old classic speakeasy.
Methinks they do protest loudly. Everywhere they claim to be the originators of the French Dip Sandwich. An honor that nearby Phillipe’s also claims. I prefer Phillipe’s sandwiches, but what can I say, a wonderful dark old speakeasy – it’s just a fun experience downtown.
Then it was rush home to get ready for two Christmas parties, one at a friends’ house and the next one a business event. Both fun and festive.
Then it was time for our early Hanukkah party, early since it comes late this year and better to have a party on the ‘wrong’ day than not have a party.
Cam’s first Hanukkah.
Someone had to eat before we lit the candles.
With a little help from Dad.
Since it isn’t even the holiday, we just lit them all.
Then it was on to a delicious dinner.
Once a year I do this kind of frying. First I tried to bake them, then fry, they got a little burnt. Everybody was happy for the effort, they still tasted better than the store bought kind. Maybe next year it will be better.
After dinner, opening presents. No pictures, it was the kind of mayham you’d expect. The kids were very good, very excited, and we had our round robin exchange. Some very cool gifts. All in all, a wonderful celebratory time.
Leah
So how about those small, dull, quiet Civil War Reproduction fabrics? What can be more modern than old-fashioned fabrics in a very modern setting. What can be more modern than 
At one of Craftsy’s many sales I bought this class, with the bear and the deer. I’m not sure how long these patterns will be exclusive to Craftsy. You can’t simply buy the pattern. As for this fabric, no it’s not Civil War, but that is the beauty of quilting, knowing how to combine different fabrics.
What really prompted the purchase was this guy, she calls him a deer, I call him an Elk. I’m hoping my son Elk will want this quilt.
I have no issue learning from a pattern or a book. I have to say that I always learn more from a teacher. Live is best, Craftsy is great. Elizabeth has some very good tips on how to make these blocks. These aren’t paper piecing, They are more similar to making snowballs – working with squares and triangles and only cutting the bias after the seam is sewn.
She also recommends ironing the seams open, see how clean and neat both the front and the back look.
The first owl I made was gigantic, it would overwhelm the rest of the animals. Elizabeth did well by me, yes it was Black Friday and her patterns were on sale, so I bought quite a few.
This is the smaller version, the bigger one may end up either on the back of the quilt or in a new quilt all together. I haven’t gotten that far.
I think the small fox was the original animal pattern Elizabeth put out. She later included a larger size and even a gigantic size that would go well with the big owl.
Small hedgehog. The background fabric is one I had on hand. It is something of a homespun. I like the quiet subtle effect it has on the blocks.
The large hedgehog allowed me to use a fabric that is like a home dec. fabric. Even when I chose a style of fabric, I am too much of a scrappy quilter not to combine other fabrics. I’d say that is my biggest strength, combining colors, values and scale of prints. That comes from working in the textile industry for a number of years.
Funny story about the rabbit. I posted the picture on Instagram and someone reacted that red-eyed eyed bunny is scary. My response was – do you know the killer rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Yes! that reference still works, even though that was a white rabbit.
Since this represents a spool of thread, the strings were supposed to be half as thin, so let’s just say my spool has yarn instead.
I enjoyed making these jars, with the snowball corner method, similar to the animal blocks Elizabeth Hartman designs. I’m in the midst of making a quilt with many of her blocks, that will be a separate post.
Here is an even better example, not Elizabeth Hartman, but what an adorable bird. This really is one of my favorite blocks.
I got reprimanded for this one, not the block itself, but because the original had embroidery in the center and I said, I’m done with all techinques in one 6″ block. People really like the moth. That is a scrap I got from an exchange at the guild. I really do like this color combination.
This was supposed to be EPP, sewn by hand. No, I don’t have the energy for that anymore with this project. So I made it by machine and the center is a little wonky. Oh well, that will quilt out and no one will be the wiser. I do like the colors!
There are quite a few stars among the blocks, which does make me happy.
The design wall is getting very crowded, this is just a random setting.
This isn’t all the blocks, I’ve grouped by star, bird, heart, flower. I’m liking this idea, even if I decide to change out the groups. I will probably have a very narrow sash between the blocks and a larger sash between the groups.
Whatever I choose, I’ll be thinking of color placement as well.
I make my famous chili in the crock pot, all of it gone!
This year I made brisket and potatoes in the Instant Pot, I need to double the recipe next year!
Having a large great room means we can all congregate here, enjoying food, drink, and really good conversation.
Every year Iris and I make sure to get a picture, I’m scared to look back at the picture from 8 years ago when I first hosted this party – I don’t want to see how we’ve aged.
Joel gets in on the fun.
It’s great that one of the guests in a wonderful florist, Henry always brings me the nicest flowers. As well as a new vase every year….
I don’t make dessert, people brought plenty of wonderful sweets. Ken can’t walk in the door without his famous sweet potato pie. I’m a little surprised there was some left for Joel in the morning.
Who has time to bake when I’m busy making holiday gifts.
The handmade basket makes the rest of the gift shine.
I have to end with some more wonderful holiday lights. Best part of the season, as it gets dark early, the lights come out, sparking and bringing joy.
I have this enormous bag of crushed walnut shells, perfect bedding for reptiles. Turns out two other good friends did the same thing, bought a big bag of this stuff. Yeah, we should have coordinated before hand – we didn’t.
I got to work on a large pincushion – workstation for a friends’ birthday. Yup, first step was quilting the fabric.
This is a pattern I found on Craftsy, it’s called the cublicle. 
It has flaps and pockets, very useful.
I ended up combining the shells and fiber fill, had I only used the shells it would have weighed a ton, this way, it was enough weight to stay in place, even work as a doorstop if needed, but it won’t break your back picking it up.
Stuffed!
Labeled!
How it works, pins on top, needles on the side, scissors and rulers in the pockers. I like this concept for needles, I can’t tell you how many needles I have lost inside pin cushions. they tend to slip in and live among the stuffing forever.
Safety pins on the other side. This was a birthday gift and yes, it was very well received. Now to my confession, I use the magnetic pin cushion myself, although it really is fun to make these!
It started out ok, I wasn’t thrilled with how the pattern was written, but I worked through it. Off the bat one of my problems was the complexity of the cable. I guess I’m just not into knitting complicated cables where I really have to pay attention to the chart. When the two cables are mirror image it is even harder to try and memorize the cable pattern.
I kept at it, the yarn is Sweet Georgia and it is a delight to knit with.
I finished the body, sure unblocked it doesn’t look very good.
It’s not the irregularities in the cable pattern that bother me so much. (There are plenty of mistakes, I can assure you). It how low the back of the neck is. I’m not young, all the heat escapes from my body through the neck and back of shoulders. Which is why I have so many shawls. But I don’t want a low neck on a wool sweater.
I’ve knit Joel a few hats. Aytan wanted to be like his Saba and wear one of the hats. Knitting a child’s hat out of bulky yarn is easy to do, so overnight, I made a hat.
It is nice warm wool, good for when he goes skiing in December.
I put in my label, which is something of a problem, since he tells me it’s now my hat. Even though it’s too small for me.
One happy Aytan. (and Saba Joel)
So I took my camera and went to a neighborhood not too far away. I noticed that many people have all kinds of statuary around, most of it is whimsical. This garden gnome is aged, decayed, yet still happy.
Now this is a cat that is easy to care for.
And an owl on top of a small lending library.
This is one of the best little lending libraries I’ve seen. I didn’t check to see it all the books are related to Dr. Who.
A patriotic eagle is always in fashion.
Some decorations are seasonal, from Santa….
To a bountiful collection of ornaments. I love all these decorations.
Which means our landscapes change drastically with clouds.
Taking a walk in Griffith Park yields wonderful vistas.
I guess the water tanks get named by the closest landmark. We parked our car at Travel Town. Because we didn’t have grandkids with us, it was a hike up the hill rather than visit the trains.
Looking down into the valley towards Forrest Lawn cemetery. Cemeteries end up being such beautiful, pastoral places. That Church could be in New England. What is interesting here is that the mosaic wall in the foreground is part of Mt. Sinai Memorial Park, the Jewish cemetery.
In Griffith Park, the walkers share the paths with horses and the roads with bicycles.
She posed! Her rider said that she saw my camera and posed. What a beautiful horse!
I love the fact that someone came out and decorated the tree.
An elf instead of an angel.
Sadly many of the bows were already knocked down to the ground.
Joel was wondering why I was taking pictures of the trunk of a tree. Look at this! Even the smallest, mondane parts of nature are beautiful!
I used the Instant Pot to cook a fresh pie pumpkin and made this pie. This is straight out of the oven, a few minutes later, it fell. But boy was it delicious.
These guys are precious! So are their cousins, but no camera on hand.
Mommy and Daddy love going out at night for Black Friday. Both boys stated the night in cribs at our house. Cameron went home in the wee hours. Westley stayed all night and the next morning we went for a walk. With his ‘Ellie’ and his brother’s sweatshirt. Yes, we managed to squeeze a 2 year old into a 9 month old sweatshirt.
Another boy into trains!!
I bought a few things, this rotating cutting mat arrived! Yay for more quilting tools.
Speaking of quilting, 
Remember this linen shirt? It has been washed a few times and is getting that soft cozy feel. I still love it as much as ever.
The center seam on the back is part of the pattern, the yoke seam isn’t. That is the only way I was able to make the back pieces. Ingenuity is always part of sewing, another great shirt in my wardrobe.
Can you see how this still has the sheen? Well maybe you can’t, but it does. One wash and it too will be gone.
I won’t be dry cleaning this, the soft worn linen look is part of the charm.
This is the image that comes to mind when you say pin cushion. The tomato and the strawberry. This fellow is brand new, a gift to the members of the Valley Modern Quilt Guild from the Quilting store, Candys. As a child,I had inherited one, possibly from my great grandmother. Not sure when it got lost,or simply fell apart.
I made this about 6 years ago, just as I was getting back into sewing. Hmm, what is that fuzz I see there – you may be asking yourself. That is dust, hey, it has to go somewhere, why not in the crevices of a pin cushion.
I made a few of these owls, must have given some of them away. This is the only remaining one. Don’t use him as a pincushion anymore, in photographing him, I stuck in some pins.
I made this elephant a few years ago, not thinking he was a useful object. Well he is, he sits by my Juki and gets a lot of use. Notice those U-shaped pins? They are very useful when matching seams in patchwork. I have tried glue, I realize I like these pins better. Yes, they can be found at JoAnn’s, have never seen them in a real quilt store.
Then there are the one I’ve received in swaps. This one has to be from Alicia from the LAMQG, for a while she used blues with one little pop of red.
I did the year long swap, Crazy Like Fox, when I filled out my likes and dislikes, I said pin cushions. I think I meant I like to make them, but sure enough, I got quite a few, so now I have a collection. Most aren’t being used.
I like how this one is a little pillow, down to the detail on the back.
This style with a thread catcher is great to have next to a sewing machine if one has room next to the sewing machine….
Then there is this beauty from Glenni.
Her signature is french knots, everything she makes will have some French knots somewhere.
It used to be a magnetic one, this one has fallen too many times and has cracked.
Also, it itsn’t long before it’s one big messy rats nest. Hard to get hold of the needles.
The pins fan out and are much easier to grab. If you position a pin just right, it will stand up straight in the center, well for a few minutes it will, before it falls over and joins the rest.