The Time I Saved Christmas - Conclusion

The Time I Saved Christmas

Part I
Part II



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Part III - Conclusion

And then I had another even more worrisome thought.

The present I had left under the tree in the cul-de-sac was, for all purposes, an “unmarked box.” In my mind, I could imagine the new neighbors in their pajamas and coats, terrified of the strange box at the end of their drive, waiting for the bomb squad to arrive Christmas morning and blow up my hot cocoa present that I had worked two weeks to buy. I was as silly the little Marino girls to think I could make a Christmas surprise.

I sat in bed wondering what to do. On Monday morning when we returned to school, and Mrs. Heffron asked us to report on our surprise present projects, would I be telling how the bomb squad was called to our street on Christmas Day? Or how the green truck was marooned next door by a dead battery?

Then I remembered what my Grandpa had told me about a war he fought in. Grandpa said, being brave was not the same as knowing what to do. Grandpa said, to be brave, you just do what you think is right, and then live with the consequences. I wanted to be brave enough to save Christmas. For the Marinos, and for their guest, and for my neighborhood. But first, I would need some paper and a pencil.

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I got dressed, again. This time I found my other glove. Then I wrote, “Thanks for the nice tree. From: Kit,” on a piece of notepaper. I ran down to the end of the cul-de-sac to put the note on the present. The street was still quietly blinking holiday colors, but now, I was on a mission, no time to notice the quiet night. Next, I ran to the Marino’s house. I was going to ring the doorbell. The green truck’s cab light was already getting dimmer. And when Mrs. Marino stopped yelling, and the girls stopped crying, I would explain…….

I paused at the front door. There had to be a better way. When would Santa get here anyway? Maybe he could explain to Mrs. Marino?

And then I remembered. Mr. Morino and Brian what’s-his-name were staying in the girls’ room. Is that what I had heard at dinner? Zupa de pesca seemed like a week ago now. But what if I could wake up the Brian guy, and tell him about his truck, without bothering anyone else? It was worth a try. Yes, that was a plan worth taking consequences for.

I ran around the side of the house. Which bedroom window belonged to the girls? The first one, I was pretty sure. Anyway, it was too cold to stand there wondering for very long. I climbed through the bushes at the side of the house. When I got under the first window, I felt around the ground for a stone or stick, something to knock on the glass with.

And then I got a break. I could hear snoring. Poor Mr. Marino, sick with a cold, was snoring loudly, telling me the window was open a crack.

“Mr. Marino,” I whispered, loud as I dared. I had to call three times, a little louder each time, before the snoring stopped and I heard Mr. Marino’s loud, “Who’s there?”

“It’s Kit, from next door. I came to….”

“Kit, have you been out all night?” Mr. Marino sounded more concerned than angry, I was glad of that.

“I came to tell your friend that his truck light is on.”

There was silence for a long second. And then, with relief, I heard the sound of keys being fumbled for, and shoes being tripped over.

“Thanks, kid,” said Mr. O’Brian through the dark window. “I would've had a dead battery, on Christmas Day.”

Then Mr. Marino started to say something, but I didn’t wait to hear. I ran back home and got into bed fast as I could. I didn’t look for Santa, or say goodnight to trees. I might be in big trouble on Christmas Day, but I had helped someone, on Christmas Eve. I would take any consequences that came.

******

Christmas morning, Mom was surprised I slept in.

Santa had come, and the bomb squad had not. Nor had Mr. Marino called my Dad.

And the big green truck with Brian O’Brian and everything he owned, was gone.

Thanks to me.

THE END

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The Time I Saved Christmas - Part II

Part I

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Part II

.........That was when I saw the odd light by the Marino’s house.

There was big new green truck in their driveway, and the cab light was on. I stopped to think. Of course, it must be the house guest’s truck. And when he had gone out to fetch his travel things, he must have left the cab light on. My dad had scolded me for doing the same thing. Once I had left the car lamp on, and our car battery had died.  I detoured over to the Marino’s house. Maybe the truck door was ajar. Surely I could help shut the light off and save the battery.

Standing on a rock by the side of the drive to look in the cab, I saw that it was filled with presents, suitcases, a vacuum, a blender. Wow! Whatever trip this guy was making on Christmas Day, he had a lot of presents to deliver. Then I saw the blinking red light on the dash that says a car alarm is turned on. No point trying the doors. I would only succeed in setting off the truck alarm and waking the Marinos, or worse, the whole street. I imagined how angry Mrs. Marino would be if the girls were woken on Christmas Eve.

    I was glad to get back into our warm house, my new Christmas PJs, and my own bed. I looked out my window one more time at the little pine tree. It seemed to blink brighter now that it sheltered a present same as a real Christmas tree. Would Santa notice? I wondered as I pulled my quilt up to my chin. But when my head touched the pillow, I had a very different thought…

    Brian O’Brian was running away from home! There was no empty spot in his truck at all, except for the driver’s seat. His truck wasn’t full of presents, it was full of all his stuff, I was sure of it. And that was why Mr. Marino, sick with a cold, had invited a near stranger to stay at their house on Christmas Eve. The man had no home. I was just as sure that on Christmas morning he would have a dead battery.

And then what? Mr. Marino couldn’t help fix the truck, he was sick. There would be no shops open where they could get new truck parts.  Like my Dad always says, “No good deed goes unpunished.” The Marino’s Christmas would be ruined by the stranger’s broken truck. Not to mention, Mr. Brian would be grounded on Christmas Day. Unless I did something.

What could an eight-year-old boy possibly do? I was already in bed, and it was cold out. Plus, I wasn’t even supposed to be outside.  Anything I tried to do, would get me into trouble. Santa might not come. What’s the point of helping if it causes more trouble?

And then I had another even more worrisome thought............
Final Part III Coming Friday, December 23rd

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The Time I Saved Christmas - Part I

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I had a special gift planned for the new neighbors. This summer, a new family had moved in at the end of the cul-de-sac. And right away they started taking care of the little pine tree at the end of the street. The tree was brown ‘cause no one had cared for it in a long time.  The new people just trimmed it up and started watering it, even though it wasn’t really on their property. Now, as the holidays approached, the sad little pine had bloomed into a pint-sized Christmas tree. Even better, the new neighbors took time to decorate it. It was wrapped with lights, and giant lighted candy canes brightened the entire end of the street.

Every evening as my mom cooked dinner, I would watch out the kitchen window, waiting for the new neighbors to turn on their Christmas lights, and the pine at the end of the street would begin blinking all the holiday colors. So when my teacher, Mrs. Heffron, challenged our class to surprise someone with a special gift this Christmas,  I decided to thank the new neighbors.

With my savings of two weeks allowance, I rode my bike to our corner store and bought a tin of hot cocoa, the kind my Grandma always made for me. I wrapped the cocoa best I could. It didn’t look as nice as mom would have done, but I wanted it to be a surprise of my own. Now, it was hidden under my bed. Tonight, on Christmas Eve, when everyone on our street was in asleep, but before Santa and Rudolph came, I would leave the present under the tree at the end of the street.

But first, we visited next door for Christmas Eve dinner with the Marinos. The Marinos invited neighbors every year for their traditional holiday dinner, zupa de pesca, which is soup with seven kinds of seafood. I’m always amazed by the tiny octopus and clamshell things in the zupa. My mom never cooks fish, so to me it’s a strange adventurous feast.  

This year, in addition to us neighbors, Mr. Marino invited a friend from his work, a younger man he called Brian, or O’Brian. Mr. Brian was staying the night there, but he was leaving on a big trip in the morning. So the Marino girls would be sleeping in their parents’ room, Mr. Marino and the guest would stay in the girls’ room. The little girls were so excited about the house guest arrangements, they kept moving their toys and pillows between bedrooms like they were going on safari to their parents’ room.

Mr. Marino was sick, and he left the dinner table early to go to bed. Then Mrs. Marino poured a glass of wine and said she guessed that she would have to help Santa all by herself. I offered to help Mrs. Marino wait for Santa, but my mom said we were all tired and had to go home right away. That was fine with me, I had my own plans.

    I said Merry Christmas and goodnight to my parents, and went to bed still wearing my clothes. I set my alarm for 11:30. This would give me plenty of time to get my coat and gloves, retrieve the present from under my bed, deliver the gift to the little tree, and be back in bed before Santa came.

Thanks to the warm zupe, I slept really well, despite my excitement. The alarm startled me awake. Maybe I could just stay in the warm bed, get up early and deliver the present before….no. Middle of the night was no time to change plans. I could only find one glove in the dark, but I got the present, and got out of the house without waking anyone.

    Christmas Eve was cold and clear. All the neighbors had left their holiday lights on to welcome Santa. It was a perfectly quiet night. No dogs barked, and there was no snow or leaves to crunch under my sneakers as I walked through the neighborhood. Not to fast, footsteps would disturb the quiet. Not too slow - it was cold. Is this how Santa felt? No, Santa would hear jingle bells as he delivered presents. My delivery was silent and short. I left my package under the tree, and then went back up the sidewalk back toward my house.

    That was when I saw the odd light by the Marino’s house.......

 

Part II coming Tuesday, December 20th, thanks to TQPM.

 



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A special announcement,

The Quilt Pattern Magazine is kindly sponsoring the 2016 RHQ Holiday Serial Story,

The Time I Saved Christmas

 



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• Pattern Pastiche private quilters group for subscribers
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Thanks to TQPM, The Time I Saved Christmas will begin right here on Friday, 12/16! Be sure to check back then, you can be first to read the new story! Our story will have 3 parts, but don't worry, you will get to the finish before Christmas Eve (in case you want to read it again;)

While you are waiting, you can read the 2015 RHQ Holiday Story, The Travel Quilt Trade.
And please go check-out the many designers at The Quilt Pattern Magazine, say Pearl sent you.



Quilty Games!

Happy Holidays

and thank you for reading!

Waiting for Santa Bear

Christmas is coming and Santa is almost on his way. How will you ever stand the wait? Fortunately, Mom has made a buddy to ease the impatient.

He's already for Santa with his night cap and quilt.

You can take off his accessories to wash or be stored easily. 

Mom has many more different color schemes. This is a classic, though.

If you can't just have one bear http://roadhomequilting.blogspot.com/2014/09/three-bears-in-little-wood.html then you can buy another one at our Etsy store. There are 7 in stock.

Saguaro Ornaments and Bunting

Christmas lights are kindofa big deal here in the Wild West. I guess it's because...no snow! There's no excuse for not getting out there and doing the work of putting up lights. So we put lights on everything. Yes, even the cactus get lights and Santa Hats. I'll be sure to get you some good pics next month.

This bunting project was so quick. Stitched up in 2 hours! That included hunting for cookie cutters and tiny Christmas lights in the back of the closet. Easy beginner quilting project.

 

You know I love quilting with cookie cutters. This time I'm using Saguaro cookie cutter for a mini-bunting pattern. Sandwich some batting and fabric scraps in Christmas colors. Double batting will give more body to your tiny cookie cutter shapes and help support the lights.

Draw around your cookie cutter. This will be your stitching line. Next, stitch the outline with your darning foot. [Or go ahead and use a regular foot. Smaller stitches - about 3.5- will help you turn the tiny curves of cookie cutter shape.]

Then stich some straight lines right across your cactus shape. Change back to regular foot and use a long stitch. Overstitch your outline - that's right - we are coloring outside the lines! When you finish a line, just flip your cactus sandwich, turn around and stitch in the other direction, just like chain piecing, no need to trim threads.

Here is the time saving part: Get your pinking shears and cut out your cactus. See - all the threads are instantly trimmed. Now you have super Cactus Ornaments you can hang with regular ornament hangers or....

Tack Cacti onto jute for a quick and quilty Southwestern Holiday Bunting!
To determine how long your twine needs to be:  add 3" to the width of  each cactus, then add 20" for ties.


Lastly, remember to add Christmas lights to your bunting. [I was lucky to find battery powered mini light string in the back of the closet.] Here is Becka with lighted Saguaro Bunting at MQG Swap.

Christmas Surprise!

Everyone says Christmas is about giving. Most of us would agree, but it also feels good to get something as well ;) As this holiday is coming, we give and receive.
From our friend, Diane (@ddrquilter), we received beautiful, hand-crafted presents, plus the gift of an unexpected surprise in the mail.

 Isn't the cactus mug rug cute? It looks perfect. Hand quilted too!
It says, "Life can be prickly, friends make it sweet."

  

 Diane has neat craftsmanship skills! Pretty rainbow colors too:)

I got the fancy pillowcase! How did she know blue was my favorite color?

And there's also a prickly pear coffee mug for Mom. She says every morning, "Coffee tastes better with prickly pears on my mug."
(Mom and Diane are huge coffee fanatics. You should see all their coffee pins.)

Thank you for all the super sweet presents Diane, and the wonderful surprise too! We absolutely adore them!! Where did you get the time to make them?

 

Merry Christmas!

And thank you too, our first 100 RHQ Followers for your kind gift of taking time to read our posts.  We are sew glad you are here! Wishing each of you all the very best in the New Year.

Triangle Roll Trees

I used 36 degree Triangles on a Roll to piece a forest for my wintry quilt. 36 Triangles make ideal Christmas trees. Use the same Triangle Roll foundation paper to piece trunks for your trees. Here is what I mean: 

Use 36 degree Triangle on a Roll Ruler to cut green (tree) and blue (sky) 6" triangle. You need one more blue than green pieces. Follow Triangle on a Roll paper instructions or Tutorial to Sew & Fold tree tops.

Cut 2.5" strips of blue (sky) and enough 1.5" x 2.5" brown (trunks) to match the number of trees you have pieced.

Using the same Triangle on a Roll paper, working right to left, center one trunk at the point of a "sky" (upside down) triangle. I like glue stick to hold first piece in place.

1. Right sides together, stitch blue/sky strip to left side of  brown/trunk piece. Fold blue piece open.
2. Align next trunk piece over blue strip, right sides together, 1/4" from center of next down triangle point. Pin in place. Stitch on left side.
3. Cut blue strip 1/4" from stitching line. Fold trunk piece open (right side up).  Return to step one.

When all trunks have been pieced, match tree paper roll to trunk paper roll. Right sides together, tops of rolls facing.

Mark center of first tree and first trunk to align rolls.

Follow stitching line on roll, stitching 1" from edge of paper for perfectly matched forest.

RHQ in LizzieBCre8tive

We, at RHQ, are so honored to be featured in the Holiday Issue of
  LizzieBCre8tive Dream, Laugh, Create, an amazing quilty emag.
If you look at pages 34-36 of this emag, you'll see our Quilted Santa Hat project.

Not only does Dream, Laugh Create, include our Santa Hats, but this issue by LizzieBCre8tive also has 9 awesome projects, plus a cookie recipe! (How convenient to have a cookie recipe for Santa. ;-) )

Thank you LizzieBCre8tive for choseing our Quilted Santa Hat to be in your emag!

Jingle All the Way - in July

Did you hear, I won Jingle All the Way on Notions, the Connecting Threads blog!!! No, not the movie. The Nancy Halvorsen book, of course!!!

Look - it's really hear!

And just in time, too. I've learned that July is the best time to start holiday projects. Otherwise you end up putting on your binding at the Thanksgiving table...but that's another story.

So what does this have to do with Totally Tech Tuesdays? Well, it turns out the nice people at Connecting Threads understand about the the creative holiday timeline. [I wonder if they've ever had to finish a binding on Thanksgiving?]

CT started an online group for people working on holiday and gift projects in 8 craft books, including Jingle All the Way.  The Gifty Galore Quilt Along is a group in Quilt With Us, the social network hosted by our Connecting Threads friends.

Quilt With Us is alot like FB, except everyone there is quilty. There are posts, messaging, groups, chat, everything. Most of all, I like the giant album of members quilt photos. It's nice not to have to visit each friend's page in turn to see their quilts.  The CT Designers are there too, and they've made a whole library of tutorials.

So when you stop by Quilt With Us, visit my page and say "hi". Let me know where you find the quilty group of your dreams.

**HAPPY HOLIDAYS**