I Found Santa in Alaska

You know I love Santas.  So on our recent holiday, which you can read about here,  I took a few projects to work on anticipating that there would be lots of time spent in airports and on airplanes that I could put to good use! I was right on the mark...my little embroidery scissors were totally acceptable to the airline and the redwork pattern and thread were was just the right size to put in a zip-lock bag and pull out whenever the Christmas mood hit me.

I started and finished a Santa that I fell in love with at Birdbrain Designs.  This little guy is called "Homespun Santa", Holiday Stitchery 178 designed by Robin Kingsley.

I just think he is adorable! My plan is to do a few redwork Santas of different sizes and join them to make a little quilt or hanging using a variety of red and white pieced blocks.  

I used fusible interfacing on the back of the piece of cotton and Aurifil 12-wt. thread.  This is the perfect stitchery thread for me...one strand so no need to separate as I'd have to do with the traditional embroidery floss.

So not only did I make a Santa, but I found Santa in Alaska!  Woodworker Hubby and I were on shore in Ketchican and discovered a shop that was filled to the rafters with all things Christmas. The name of the shop is Christmas in Alaska, and look who I found in the back of the shop, sitting on a gorgeous hand-crafted chair, in front of a fabulous Christmas quilt?  You guessed it...

And of course, I just had to bring him home with me,well, not really him, but a smaller version of Santa that I picked up in Skagway, handcarved in Russia, with a wonderful papermache pin to use during the season!

Check out the detail on his cloak!

I finally had a chance to go through our Alaska pictures and tidy them up.  Wanted to share a few more with you....

Quilt teachers Pam Buda, from Heartspun Quilts is on the left and Lynn Hagmeier, from Kansas Troubles Quilts on the right...what a time we had! I'm the giggler in the centre!

A few more pictures of Glacier Bay....this photo looks like a black and white image, but it was taken in color!

The blue of the glacier ice was amazing.  See all the slush in the foreground, caused when the ice chunks would drop into the sea and "wave" towards us...

And yet another shade of blue...

No words necessary for this one...

Now back to quilting...

What's happening in blogland?  Madame Samm's Dots on Dots blog hop starts tomorrow, September 10-20, and everyone is getting real dotty about it!  Over 90 participants, all ready to roll out with host Corrie at Quilt Taffy. Visit Corrie for the schedule and get ready to be impressed! As usual, you'll be able to see all the creations by visiting Madame Samm's Pinterest page.

A new blog hop was just announced by Madame Samm. This is really unique and should be so much fun...it's the UR Priceless blog hop from November 5-13....a blog hop where you get to make one (or many more) coin purses.   You can get all the details by clicking here.   Mdm. Samm welcomes Katherine as the coordinator... Katherine's blog is Sew Me Something Good so run over there, check things out, and register by emailing her at kagr@telus.net with "UR Priceless" in the subject line.  

And don't forget the other upcoming blog hops, Leafs Me Happy, and Wicked. The ladies are preparing everything and the schedules will be announced when ready.  See the buttons on the sidebar for more info.

It's a great day for quilting!