Monday, December 5, 2022

Weekly update: holiday concerts + goal progress


 There's a flurry of Christmas/holiday festivities the first two weeks of December and then things quiet down.   I had two luncheons -- GFWC District 10 on Wednesday and Lake County Women's Coalition steering committee on Saturday.  At both I sat next to women I'd met but didn't know well. The conversations were very pleasant.  
The huge cross in the Carthage chapel

Friday evening Stevens and I and our friends Debbie and Bill went out to dinner and then to the annual Christmas festival at Carthage College.  The concert has become a holiday tradition.   We noted fewer people in the audience (they've numbered the seats in the pews so no longer packed shoulder-to-shoulder, plus they now charge ($20) when it used to be free) and, significantly, fewer students in the orchestra and the choirs.   But the performance was still wonderful and the music was magnificent!  










The Lake County Community Concert Assn. presented Classical Blast at Waukegan High School on Sunday afternoon.    Traditional Christmas carols and songs were mashed up with contemporary rock. Energetic and not-the-usual!

And at home Sunday evening we watched the first two episodes of Three Pines, the new series based on Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache books.  As the French would say, "Formidable!"  (= Terrific! Tremendous!)

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I entertained myself at the sewing machine, too.

Part 1 of my OMG:  a mug rug for the ornament exchange at the upcoming quilt guild party.(Ornaments don't have to hang on the tree.)   

Part 2 of my OMG:   the November installment of the guild BOM (no photo).   I have to make the October blocks.  The December block instructions were just emailed.






I have assembled the Blue Heaven blocks into columns.  One block is turned the wrong way (marked with green masking tape, right center).


Linking up with Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday





P.S. When I posted the photo of the nutcrackers on the mantel (see last Monday's post)  a friend said I might find German nutcrackers at the HomeGoods store in Mundelein. That happened to be on the way home from the D10 luncheon and I shopped -- and bought!  

This link goes to a website for the Erzebirge workshops that make nutcrackers and other wooden figurines.  



Our concert selfie. 

8 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a great (and entertaining) week. We were down in Richmond half the day as Pat sang in his last barbershop concert. He's quitting at the end of the year. I was able to meet up with two friends for a few hours before the concert. Blue Heaven looks great. Glad you spotted the turned block before the top was all together. Love your nutcracker additions. I'm off to my stitching group so I can make more progress on the ornaments.

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  2. I'm planning to attend the local high school Show Choir's holiday concert later this week. It's always good. We did miss 2 of our grandkids' concerts last week as the weather wasn't good for driving 90 miles each way, at night. Guess we've officially become old people who don't like to drive on bad roads in the dark. LOL

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  3. Are you sure you want to change that block turned wrong? You could give this quilt a name that hints there is something to search for.

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  4. where did you watch 3 pines? i love those books....

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  5. All the concerts sound lovely, and love your mug rug, too! A fun gift for your exchange. We have one of those in my quilt group coming up on Thursday. Blue Heaven is amazing - you had a lot of blue scraps! We liked Three Pines, too!

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  6. Your Blue Heaven looks great. Is that a Bonnie Hunter quilt?

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  7. Blue Heaven is rreally beautiful, and you are almost finished. Good job! Hugs, Judy

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  8. You've had a busy holiday season in and out of the sewing room. Very fun Nutcrackers. I finally got out My Guy's collection of guitar playing nutcrackers.

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