A Milestone and a Couple More Christmas Projects

Wow! This is my 1,000th post! I started blogging about two years and seven months ago, I think--something like that, anyway. Sometimes it seems like I've been doing this for a long, long time and sometimes it seems like it's just been a couple months. I wish I had a more "important" post prepared, but I don't. I haven't even thought about doing a giveaway. My lack of preparation is a little pathetic! Well, maybe I'll do a giveaway later--after my vacation.

Yes, I'm going to be taking another vacation soon. Next week Hubby and I are going to head to the central California coast for a few days. I hope we'll have a relaxing time. So far, it looks like the weather will be nice for us, although I wouldn't mind a storm--it would be kind of fun to sit in a hotel room overlooking the ocean and watch a storm roll in. Oh, and I'm looking forward to some good seafood--right now, clam chowder sounds pretty appealing, I'll admit!

With my next class at Bearpaws & Hollyhocks coming up the first Saturday in November and with our vacation scheduled during the intervening period of time, I've been hard at work, coming up with Christmas projects and ideas to present to my class. A friend of mine who reads my blog emailed me to ask if I'll be giving the class directions for making the peppermint quilt--if anyone else in our area was wondering the same thing, yes, that will be one of the projects I'll hand out along with several others.

Tuesday night I spent the evening drawing a snowman for a couple of projects--you'll probably see him pop up on something before too long. Tonight, I made a couple of quick placemats and peppermint mug mats that will double as ornaments on my kitchen Christmas tree when they're not in use. Here's a photo--

I think I'll make two more placemats to match these, but I'll probably wait and prepare them to demonstrate in class. Tomorrow night, I think I'll move on to a gift idea or two.

Besides work and sewing, I've also spent a little time during the past few days shopping to restock our refrigerator. The repairman came on Monday, and the problem was that the part that defrosts the freezer wasn't properly hooked up, so over a period of time, ice accumulated and the cooling mechanism stopped working effectively. It's fixed now, and I'm well on my way to replacing the food we lost; I think a trip to Trader Joe's on the way home from work tomorrow night will fill the last gaps on the refrigerator shelves.

The work week is simply flying by! We have a "back up" system at work where each of us is paired up with another secretary, and if one of us is out, the other secretary covers the work of both. This week, the secretary I'm back up for is out, so work has been quite busy. I don't mind though--I'd rather be busy than bored! It's hard to believe there are just two work days left, and then the weekend will be here and I'll be off work for a week.

Time for my beauty sleep--morning will arrive much too early, as it always does on weekdays. Thanks for stopping in to visit!

The Immortals

I was browsing Yahoo news, and I was amazed to find yet another Michael Jackson headline. Well, okay, maybe I wasn't quite "amazed" at the headline so much as I was amazed that we--society as a whole--are still so interested in Michael Jackson "news." (And ARE we interested, or is it just the media that thinks we SHOULD be? Sometimes I wonder.)

Why do we hold onto some of our "stars" long after they've passed away? Yeah, sure I liked Michael Jackson's music. I imagine most of us did, at least during one musical phase or another, if not the entirety of his work. But Michael Jackson, the man? (And can I even type "Michael Jackson, the man" with a straight face?!) Aside from his music--and maybe his dancing ability--I just thought Michael was an odd kid who kept getting odder and odder, as he got older and older. Didn't you?

And, by the way, doesn't it surprise you how many people seem to believe Elvis Presley didn't really die? Here's a little thing I copied off Wikipedia:

"There is a belief in some quarters that Presley did not die in 1977, that he is still alive, that he went into hiding for various reasons. This claim is allegedly backed up by thousands of so-called Elvis sightings that have occurred in the years since his death."

And, oddly enough, there are apparently a lot of people who think the same thing of Michael Jackson. Have you seen some of the Michael Jackson after-death sightings? I saw one video that was supposed to be Michael sitting up in the coroner's helicopter, but it was too blurry to see. Then there are several versions of a video on YouTube purportedly showing Michael hopping out of the coroner's van and being escorted into the building. (You can check out a listing of them HERE if you haven't seen the video yet--there's also a video pointing out why it's all a hoax.)

I wonder why some people feel such a need to believe some of our stars aren't really dead? I'd really rather believe in Santa Claus, a thriving economy, and world peace.

A Little Bit of Christmas

I haven't talked much about what I've been working on the last week or so, but I've been trying to get some projects done for the Christmas class I'll be teaching in a few weeks. Want to see what I've been up to?

A couple of years ago, Monica (aka Happy Zombie) posted a pattern for a tablerunner on her blog. I liked it quite a bit when I first saw it but I didn't have time to make one that year, and somehow I never got around to it last year. I had a little bit of a break late last week, so I pulled out a charm pack, a bit of cream fabric, and a bit of red fabric and made Monica's runner. At something like 40" x 16", the size is nice for a sofa table or the center of a larger dining room or kitchen table.

You can find the pattern on her blog HERE.

Now why did I have a break? Because I was waiting for more Figgy Pudding fabric to arrive in the mail so I could finish this peppermint tabletopper/wallhanging:

I already had the peppermint blocks made, but I needed more of the plain blue fabric for the 9-patch blocks, and I found it--for a good price--at Desperate Quilters. More important to me than a good price, though, was the fact that I knew they'd get it to me right away, and sure enough, the fabric I ordered Wednesday night was packaged and mailed on Thursday and arrived on Saturday, just as I was finishing the binding on the tablerunner. By Sunday night, all I had left to do on the peppermint topper was add the binding. Quite a fast project really, and I like the happy look of the peppermints!

(By the way, this is my own design, but I'm happy to share the method with you--to make the peppermints, I just made pinwheel blocks using red and white half square triangles and added snowball-type corners to make them appear rounder.)

Now what's next? Well, I have a couple more projects in mind--and, of course, I'll show you as soon as I get them done. Thanks for stopping by!

It's Always Something

Do you remember back in May--HERE in fact--we bought a new refrigerator? If not, maybe this will jog your memory:

Lovely, isn't it? Well, here it is, less than six months later, and the new fridge has gone out. On Friday night, actually. Why is it that stuff stops working right at the beginning of the weekend? Last weekend it was the main water line, and this weekend it's the refrigerator.

Of course, the repair guy won't come until tomorrow (Monday). We've been told that under our warranty, we can claim food losses up to $250, which doesn't seem too bad until you start thinking about how much all the condiments, salad dressings, and sauces cost to replace, not to mention all the vegetables, milk, cheese, and other perishables. We've taken photos to document the food in the fridge and Hubby went out to buy a styrofoam cooler so we could try to save a few things.

It could be worse. At least I didn't have to cook much over the weekend. And we gave some of our perishables to Soccer Son--I'm sure he and his lovely wife-to-be-someday can put the food to good use. But darn it! I'm really looking forward to life becoming a little more peaceful and predictable. I wonder when it will start?

Sports--Just My Opinion

Why I think synchronized swimming is really odd:

Why I think the shot put really rocks!

(Ruth Frith, a 100-year-old from Australia, competes in the women's 75+ shot put final at the World Masters Games in Sydney Olympic Park October 11, 2009.)

Yep, synchronized swimming is for the birds.

Time

I was thinking about time today. Driving home from work, with the sun still up, I thought about the end of Daylight Savings Time--which now comes a week or two later than it used to. It just doesn't seem right that it doesn't get dark on Halloween until around 7 p.m., well after trick-or-treaters are out and about.

The change in when Daylight Savings Time starts and stops--a change that was enacted into law a few years ago--was supposed to help save energy. How? It seems to me that unless you're one of the three people in the US who goes to sleep at 7 p.m. and wakes at 7 a.m., you're using energy, and whether you use it in the morning before the sun comes up, or at night after the sun goes down doesn't really matter, does it? After all, the number of hours of sunlight in a day doesn't depend on what the hands on a clock say. Did someone really think this through? I don't like it.

And February. What's the thinking behind 28 days? Why not borrow a day from January's 31 days and another day from March's 31 days and give them to February, so all three months have 30 days (except in leap year, when February would have 31 days). There'd still be the same number of days in a year; they'd just be distributed a little better. Who came up with that calendar?

When I grow up, I want to be the person who decides time. You know what I'd do? I'd give January, February, and March 30 days each and do away with Daylight Savings Time altogether. Instead, I'd make hours 65 minutes long on Saturdays and Sundays, and 55 minutes long on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Then, just to even out the number of minutes between weekends and weekdays, I'd declare all leftover minutes "happy hour"--kind of neutral territory, you know? Good plan, huh? Vote for me!

Survivor, Boss's Day, and Anything Else That Comes to Mind

Okay, I know some of you watch Survivor. What happened to Shambo's hands? Hubby and I must have missed something, because we both saw her holding her hands carefully, palms up, before the immunity challenge but neither of us saw what happened before that. I guess that's what happens when you watch Survivor while eating dinner. Actually, a LOT can happen if you watch Survivor while eating dinner--especially if they're having a reward challenge where they eat something like sea slug gut smoothies. Still, it's probably easier than eating during CSI.

Do you know that Friday, October 16th is Boss's Day? When I came home from work tonight night, I asked Hubby what special plans he had for me.

I'm planning to cook breakfast for the bosses at my office. I just hope I can manage to drag myself out of bed early enough to do what needs to be done. Unfortunately, I don't think my own bosses will be there, although Girl Boss II will get in a bit later in the morning. Boy Boss is in Ohio at yet another family wedding--it seems like someone in the family gets married every couple weeks. He or his wife must come from a family nearly as large as the Duggars!

Speaking of weird families, did you watch the news about the six-year-old boy who was thought to be stuck in a large helium balloon his family kept tethered in their Colorado backyard? The balloon got free and during the two hour, 50-mile flight, it was thought the boy was in the box or basket under the balloon--which, when it came down, no longer had anything attached. If you didn't hear about it, don't worry--the boy was found, hiding in a box in his garage attic the entire time. By the way, for fun, the family members "devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer [balloon] to send into the eye of the storm." Yeah, typical American family. And if that's not enough, they were on the TV show Wife Swap twice.

Today was flu shot day at work, and I had mine! It wasn't the H1N1 vaccine, which the nurses expect to get in a few weeks, but at least I'm protected from the "normal" flu once again this year. Have you had yours?

Enjoy your Friday and remember the weekend is nearly here!

Jaded?

I feel like this year's Christmas fabric lines are kind of "ho-hum"--is it just me feeling this way?

I seriously like Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding for Moda, and I like some of Sandy Gervais' Crazy Eight line--and now that I say that, I realize that's exactly my problem: with most of this year's lines, I like one or two prints but not entire lines.

Of course, I'm kind of spoiled. The quilters who came before us used whatever they could find. Me? I need entire LINES of fabric designed and coordinated so they all go together. Perhaps that shows a lack of imagination. But I know that because I teach classes, publish patterns, and have a blog, quilters like to duplicate what they see me make, and it's not very helpful when I'm asked about the fabrics I've selected to say, "Oh, I just pulled those fabrics from my stash. No, I bought them several years ago and I don't think you can find them anymore."

You see, I've been trying to come up with some Christmas projects for my November class, and I just can't find any fabric lines I love that are readily available in my area. It's frustrating for me and I'm sure it will be at least somewhat frustrating for my students. After checking several local shops and coming away quite uninspired, I decided to place an order online for more of the Figgy Pudding line. It seems bright and cheerful to me, I guess.

How about you? Are any Christmas fabrics calling out to you this year?

Homespun Thanksgiving Quilt, Part 2

Okay, on to the piecing directions. (See yesterday's post for fabric requirements and cutting directions.)

PIECING THE FLYING GEESE BLOCKS FOR THE INNER BORDER:

When I made this quilt, I pieced the flying geese blocks first to get them out of the way. The main body of the geese are the 28 4-1/2" x 2-1/2" rectangles. The side triangles are made using 56 of the 2-1/2" cream squares (the remaining 4 squares are corner blocks). I found a couple of websites that have better directions (with illustrations) for block making than I could give you here. So, to make the 28 flying geese blocks, click HERE and follow the steps.

PIECING THE SNOWBALL BLOCKS FOR THE CENTER:

Divide the 49 4-1/2" squares into two piles: 25 of the lightest squares and 24 of the darkest squares. With the lightest squares, you'll attach the darker 2" squares; with the darker squares, you'll attach the cream colored 2" squares.

For directions on making the snowball blocks, click HERE and follow the steps. HOWEVER, note that instead of 9-1/2" squares and 3-1/2" squares as shown in the illustrations, you'll be using 4-1/2" squares and 2" squares. And remember--add the cream colored 2" squares to the corners of the darker 4-1/2" squares, and add the darker 2" squares to the corners of the lighter 4-1/2" squares.

PUTTING THE QUILT TOGETHER:

This is where a design wall comes in handy. If you don't have one, find a space where you can lay out your snowball blocks in 7 rows by 7 columns. Start placing the snowball blocks with a dark-cornered block to begin and alternate dark cornered blocks with light cornered blocks--here's a photo of my quilt so you have a visual reference:

Once you have your blocks laid out and placed so there are no repeats of the same color bordering each other, sew the blocks together, 7 to each row, 7 rows.

For each inner border, sew 7 flying geese blocks together. To the snowball center of the quilt, add a flying geese border to the top and bottom. To the remaining flying geese borders, add a plain 2-1/2" cream colored square to each end; press. Attach these to the sides of the quilt top.

Next, you'll add the final borders. Cut two of the 4-1/2" x WOF cream colored strips 32-1/2" long, and add these strips to the top and bottom of the quilt top. Cut the remaining two 4-1/2" x WOF cream colored strips 40-1/2" long, and add these strips to the sides of the quilt top.

DONE! Well, sort of. To the borders, using your favorite applique method, add the letters that spell your favorite Thanksgiving dishes. (I used wool for my letters and added them by machine as I was quilting the quilt.) Email me if you'd like me to email you a PDF document containing my 4" alphabet--please make sure I have your email address; if you don't hear back from me within 24 hours, it's probably because you've commented and are "no-reply," so I can't contact you.

And don't forget to post your finished quilt to your blog and let me know, or send a photo to me--I'd really love to see it!

P.S.: No time to make this quilt before Thanksgiving? Don't celebrate Thanksgiving? Here's the solution: You could make this quilt in your favorite Christmas fabrics and add the names of your favorite Christmas goodies to the border. This would make a fairly fast, cute Christmas gift as well.

How Wet I Be . . .

Funny how you can go from no water to too much water in just a few days! We woke this morning to the sound of rain--we'd been warned by the weathermen (and women) for the past couple of days that a big storm was coming, and sure enough--those guys were right!

Traveling to work was fun--the first storm of the season always is, since most of us forget during the summer how to drive in wet weather.

All over the area, there were reports of downed trees, power failures, and street level flooding. At around 3:30, our power went out at the office, and although it came back on about a half hour later, the Powers That Be decided to close the office and send us all home.

How fortunate that I had my camera with me! I took several photos and mostly I ended up with the reflection of my dashboard on the window, but I DID get this one for you--just before I had to drive through it. Take a look at the car parked at the curb on the right--that gives you a better idea of how deep it was since the truck ahead of me was so high off the road.