Christmas memories

I had a huge stash of small things from my grandmother and my father. Little trinkets of costume jewelry, buttons, broken jewelry, trims. I had them stashed here and there, in childhood jewelry boxes, basement junk boxes, sewing notion boxes. They wanted a home, I wanted to keep them, and lo and behold, three years back I found the perfect place for them. This is a simple Christmas tree wall quilt, that has a string of mini-lights. The pattern was a sinch, and the fabric was mostly stash. The fun part was adding all the trinkets to it, carefully pinning or sewing each memory in place. Now it comes out for just one month a year, so I get to see the memories again, but don't tire of them. This is the shot of it in our entryway this morning. Kind of dark.

Then this is it with the lights turned on-they blink and follow a random lighting sequence. I'll have a timer on it so it comes on with dusk and turns off at bed time.

See the sampling of memories? 1960 era lapel pins from my dad, cool buttons and earrings from Grandma. Even beadwork left over from my weddin dress. I can feel the love.