Thankful

Donovan: A chicken!

Jac: No, Donvey. It has a hat so it’s a turkey. 

We are thankful for all our grandkids, who make us laugh and keep us on our toes. 

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours!

Playdoh and Pianos

We’ve had all four grand-darlings all day, every day this week and keeping them entertained has been fun. 

Today we fell back on the tried and true - 

playdoh! 

Easy, creative and fun. 

There’s a reason it’s been a crowd pleaser since 1955.  

Leia wasn’t feelin’ the ‘doh, so she provided musical entertainment. 

Schools going online for so long ended her piano lessons but she still likes to plink around. 

And once she was done, Leanne and the littles demanded equal time, 

 Leia took these shots

which was noisy loud great until Jac decided she need “more light” and I caught her just as she started falling.

 Watching the scary part of Mulan (the animated version) while sharing Grandma’s lap

There’s a reason my hair is turning pandemic gray.  

Snow Globes and Christmas Carols

I usually wait until after Thanksgiving to break out the holiday music, but 2020 has been so awful weird I’m starting Christmas early. 

And with the gift quilts done and gone, it’s time to make snow globes for our house*.

I’m using this pattern as my guide. 

I struggle with keeping snowballed blocks square,

so I’m making mine bigger - starting with 5” fussy cut squares -

and trimming the finished block down to the required 4.5”. 

I’m also using the tried and true - but much slower - method of drawing a line corner-to-corner on each snowball before attaching it. 

Whenever I think how much faster it would be to skip this part, I remind myself how much NOT FUN it is to rip and resew. ‘Cause that’s definitely what I’d end up doing.

If my math is correct (always questionable), I need 72 globes for a throw size quilt. 

 

As of tonight, I have 40 top sections sewn and an additional 24 cut and ready to snowball tomorrow. 

I’ve been planning - and collecting fabric - for this quilt for the past 2 or 3 years. So excited to see it come together at last.

* This is my quilt guild’s Front Porch Holiday Quilt Show challenge. Photos are due December 1. Can you guess what I’ll be doing all of Thanksgiving weekend??? 

Forgotten Quilt

I missed one! 

 “The Thin Blue Line”

I started counting pandemic quilts and realized I’d never posted this one. 

I started it in early January as part of my quilt guild’s “The 3 T’s” challenge, planning to gift it to a friend afterward. 

Completed projects were due in March, just as COVID hit and guild meetings - and the challenge - were postponed indefinitely.

The required “3 T’s” were: use a technique new to you and 2 different types of embellishment.

I chose trapunto, behind the star, for the technique, 

and my embellishments were glued-on crystals (symbolizing fireworks)

and gold embroidery (for the gold braid on honor guard uniforms and flag stands).

I was well into my very square project when I was reminded that the finished hanging had to be rectangular, with a perimeter no larger than 120”. Sometimes last minute surprises aren’t a bad thing - I like this a lot better with the added blue line. 

The challenge was completed in August, during the Guild’s Zoom meeting, and I gave this to Wenona for her birthday in November. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

Murder Of Crows

Pandemic quilt number . . 8? I think? I’ve lost count; I need to go back and tally them up. 

This one is for Mary, who loves crows, moons and the color orange. I purchased the panel in July, at the same time I bought Leia’s bears, so this was a pretty fast finish.

The free pattern is “Midnight Moon” by Elise Lea for Robert Kaufman and was created to showcase this specific fabric panel. I’m already thinking of other panels I could use instead - maybe something Christmasy with flying geese in shades of green? 

My pal Debbie did the long-arm quilting. I thought the black background called out in the original pattern was too dark, so I was pleased when I spotted this purple print. If you look closely, it looks like tiny bird feathers. 

Now that it’s been washed, dried and had its beauty shots taken, this will head home with Mary tomorrow. Hope she has years of warmth and comfort with her crow buddies. 

Lunch Pizza

We’ve fallen in a lunchtime rut so it was time to shake things up. 

Monday night Jac and I made pizza dough (thanks, Teena!) and put it in the fridge to rise. 

Then today, as soon as Leanne was released for lunch, 

we were rolling

and cheesing

and baking away.

This was Donovan’s first time making pizza. He liked rolling the dough

but he *loved* adding the cheese and rolling it all into a burrito/calzone/squishy thing. 

 Donovan’s creation

I’d try to flatten it out but he’d grab it, give me the stink eye, and roll it up again. Kid has opinions!

 Jac’s pizza

And the verdict? Leanne and I loved our pizzas; Jac ate most of hers after I bribed her into trying a bite;

 Leanne’s pie

and Donovan took one look, turned up his nose and demanded a peanut butter sandwich. Hey, pleasing 2 out of 3 kids ain’t bad! 

This and That

This is such a weird year, weather-wise (and lots of other ways too!) 

  Donovan started fake snoring as soon as he saw the camera 

Friday we were so cold we had the fireplace going (it was 65 😜) and today Camarillo had yet another high record temperature at 95 degrees. November is very confused. 

Pop gave Leanne an old board and some paint so she could make herself a drawing board. I was expecting, maybe, stripes? She really outdid herself on this one. 

A few pillowcases to go with recent quilts. Leanne gets the cats and ladybugs (one of the cats looks just like AJ, who Leanne looooved); and the jellyfish - which matches her quilt - and Tula Pink bugs - which she picked out on our last fabric shopping trip - are for Addy. 

Lily’s love of quilts makes it a challenge to sew on binding but, as of tonight, Mary’s quilt just needs the label sewn on and a quick wash before it’s completely done. Then it’s time for snow globes!

Ocean Jellies

Another pandemic quilt finish, this time for Addison for her upcoming birthday. 

I started this in July, using the “Oh Henry” pattern to showcase fabrics I thought were too pretty to cut up. 

And apparently I *really* like these particular fabrics - 

I didn’t realize until I started taking photos that I’ve used all but one of them in previous quilts! 

The ‘splash’ quilting was done by my pal Debbie

and Leia “helped” me with the photos.

This, along with Monterey Fishbowls, completes my third pair of Quarantine Rule quilts (for each new quilt I start I have to finish a UFO). About the only good thing I can say for 2020 is I’m getting a lot of quilts completed and gifted.