I think every one of us has a go-to movie. For Steve and me it's the newest Star Trek movie. I have no idea how many times we've watched it, but we will watch it many more times and still love it. 

I'm hunting a movie and could use some suggestions (since ours are dated). What is your favorite movie?

Julie Herman at Jaybird posted a tutorial on how to bind a hex quilt. Click here:

http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/2012/11/how-to-bind-120-angles-tutorial.html

In case you missed it, the new and improved Google Maps app for the iPhone was released today. Oh happy, happy day!

You can read about the new app in an article in The Atlantic or you can do what I did and follow the links to the iTunes App Store.

If you have 6 minutes to look at some lovely places, this is for you… And the music is nice too!

I got to thinking about glitter while I was in NYC. Once home at a family dinner we all decided that a glittered nativity scene would be wonderful. Judy, Lorna’s mom, found this set for me at the Bonham Trade Days last Saturday:

It is ceramic and actually kind of pretty as it is. The tallest figure is 4″ tall. I’ve heard the best glue for glitter is Mod Podge and luckily I had some. My thought was to use the German Glass Glitter that you see in the photo. I was imagining something sort of subtle but sparkly. 

Last night Mom came for dinner and I started glittering. After I got the lamb done she said that the glitter really didn’t show much. I ignored her and kept on glittering. She then suggested that really, some color could look good. Gold perhaps. I got the idea that she really, really thought color would be better.

Mom has good instincts and I will admit that the clear glass glitter was indeed subtle. So I washed the first two pieces and pulled out the Martha Stewart glitter set.

As I was washing off the clear glitter Mom protested that it looked fine but once she saw these she decided that color was better – and there were lots of choices! She wanted gold but I did not so I chose aquamarine.

I do admit that the color is more eye-catching than the clear glitter was. I ran out of aquamarine before I got to the baby Jesus, so he got glittered in silver. But then I noticed that there were some areas that I had missed and I was out of glitter. Oh my. 

I went to JoAnn’s today looking for more glitter and found out that I’d have to buy another $30 set to get that one color. Not doing that. But I did find this MS glitter mixing set.

It works! The bottles are a nice place to mix different colors of glitter to make a new color and the little funnel and scoop are well proportioned. The bottles dispense the glitter pretty well. And the set was 40% off! 

Here’s how the newly glittered nativity set turned out:

OK, gold would also have been pretty. (You are never too old to be reminded that your mother is often right.) That said, I like this color and I like the way the figures catch the light. Steve is less happy with the new dusting of glitter in the breakfast room but he’s sort of resigned to that at Christmas.

So there you go… one more Christmas project idea! You really needed one more, didn’t you?

After all that work getting ready for the Christmas tour of my house, I woke up sick the morning of the tour. It may have been a reaction to the Bactrim I was on, or it could have been the sinus infection that just got worse (until I switched to a different antibiotic), or maybe it was a virus. Whatever it was put me on the sofa for two days. Luckily I was able to go to mom's sofa during the tour and Steve took over. 

As it was, I'll bet the folks who came through enjoyed having the man of the house there to talk to. Steve assured me that it went well and I think he enjoyed it. Today I am happy to be back on my feet with my house decorated and nothing on the calendar for a few days.

In other news, I did finish quilting the Chain Reaction quilt. It's a Christmas present so I couldn't put it off.

The quilting was simple and not particularly dense. It went fast and is perfect for this quilt which is intended to be used and loved. I put the Larkspur big print on the back…

It is entirely possible that Ashlyn will like the back better than the front which is something I'll just have to get over. Note to those of you who never buy this kind of print… this is why I do buy them. They make great backs!

In other Christmas-related sewing, my neice, Rachel, requested a stocking for her daughter. I had this Christmas fabric from Michael Miller and it seemed perfect – bright and festive and girlie!

I couched Annabelle's name in two different threads, sewed on some bells (of course!) and was able to use a sparkly trim that I've had in my stash a long time.

This sort of stocking is really easy to make. I admit that I referred to the directions for the lining and the cuff in our Quilt A New Christmas book rather than making it up as I went along, but if you don't have the book, you could probably do this without a pattern. 

Oh, one other thing! I got in a new brown polka dot that I love. It reminds me a lot of a brown dot that Linda and I did with P&B Textiles years ago. A yard of this one is going in my stash for sure.