Moving Along

The backing for John’s quilt is sewn, pressed, folded and ready to go to my long-armed pal. 

Fabric shopping on Black Friday weekend was not bad at all. I bought the last of 3 different bolts, all on sale; 2 for backing and one for Christmas projects. This orange may seem a strange choice but John likes orange (me too!) and the color went well with the Yeti forest side panels. I’m calling it ‘Sunrise Over Yeti’ and making up stories about Mr A wandering home after a long night in the snowy woods to entertain myself as I sew. 😂😂

Next project is another national parks panel (I love these), 

this time with a border of flying geese - six feet of geese. I’m not usually this organized with FPP but the pattern had measurements for precutting the fabric - it really makes for pleasant, mindless stitching.

Only 12 geese to go!

Shhhhh, It’s A Surprise

One of our SIL John’s favorite things is Bumble, the abominable snowman in the 1964 TV special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

54 x 65”

So when I saw this fabric panel, 

and the accompanying forest yeti fabric ⬇️,

 I had to have them.

Bumble on vacation. So funny.

The quilt front is done - and the back would be also if I hadn’t mismeasured and miscut the fabric that goes around Mr A and his trees. So now I get to go shopping tomorrow for more fabric. Sigh, it’s a hardship. Not! Although shopping on Black Friday weekend may not be fun, even in fabric stores.

On To Christmas!

Thanksgiving dinner at Slate was nice - good food, great company and fabulous desserts (plus leftovers in the fridge for later snacking)

and now it’s time for Christmas!

This still makes me laugh, every time I see it, even all these years later. Such a  funny show. 

One of the big benefits of the last stash move was finding and organizing all (I hope this is all…) my UFOs.

Orphan blocks

I pulled out all the Christmas stuff so I can make potholders;

unpin, spray baste and quilt this wallhanging that I’d forgotten about but really like; 

make pillows? something? out of this pretty pre-quilted fabric; 

and finish this table runner that still had the pieces carefully rolled up in a cheap flannel tablecloth to keep them organized.

It worked! A little pressing, a little sewing and voila! new Christmas decor. 

Early Turkey - and Pie

We’re celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow at a local restaurant with Gary and Cheyenne (Gary is very excited about the buffet-style spread and all the fancy desserts)

so you’d think I wouldn’t be doing much cooking,

First try at a lactose-free pie. Not bad!

but Himself said he’d like leftovers… and I like leftovers… so I’ve spent the last two days leisurely cooking the parts of the feast we like best and experimenting with new recipes. 

Pumpkin ‘soufflé’

Tonight we had turkey, stuffing, deviled eggs, gravy (it was a fail - but the second batch was good), zucchini bread, pumpkin pie - and cute little pumpkin soufflés with the extra pie filling. Now we have leftovers for the rest of the weekend - and lots of sewing time for me. Win win! Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate, from our house to yours. 

Dry Run

Today’s practice session for Winter Wonderland (here) was a success.

Teena, who has never done FPP before, made Simple Simon & Co’s tree on her own the night before, 

Teena’s Santa, which she may re-do.

then we both made SS&C’s Gnome Santa.

The gold star background was a bit much(!)

Hubby says this looks more like a Christmas tree than a Santa…

so I ripped it out and replaced it with low volume prints, 

What they were supposed to look like…

which will work well as background for the 8 Wonderland blocks. 

Not bad for a dry run! Can’t wait for December 1st.

Practice Project

Teena and I signed up to do a block-a-day FPP Christmas quilt starting December 1. (Curious? Or want to join us?? Check it out here.) 

Since Teena has never paper-pieced before, we’re going to do a practice run tomorrow via FaceTime, she in Oregon and me in California. 

SantaGnome is kinda cute. From Simple Simon & Co.

So this afternoon I cleaned up and packed away all the Halloween ghost party mess fabrics, 

 Alas, I forgot a photo of this bin overflowing

sorted the big bin of Christmas goodies into color groups,

and got them loaded onto my new rolling cart (I love these things!), 

all ready to goooooooooo! Hey, Christmas waits for no quilter. 

Happy At Last

The Frankensteined tree from yesterday turned out pretty cute and close enough to what I originally wanted. (Did you see the owl and foxes?)

I thought about using the 3 trees together, but that green just didn’t work. 

This took a ridiculous amount of time to make - I mentioned this is for the back of the quilt, right??? - but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out (and had a lot of fun playing with sizing* and colors). 

I’ll size it to fit once I’ve finished the front and know what I need to do. 

*Note to self: green tree enlarged 150%, small white tree enlarged 175%, tallest tree enlarged 175% plus one added section (second from bottom). Pattern is “Forest” by Easy Piece Patterns.

Not Quite There Yet

Since Mr. A’s green tree wasn’t quite right (here), I thought I’d try a white-ish one. 

Better, but still not quite there.

Cobbled together a new pattern-piece today, making it taller and adding an additional branch section. Tomorrow we’ll see if I’ve finally got it right. Or at least closer to what I’m picturing in my head. 

Rainy Day Cookfest

I meant to quilt today, but thought I’d first make the angel food cake I’d promised Pop…

and since I was there, I should cook some chicken to make bbq sandwiches for this week’s lunches,

We’ll eat half, then freeze the rest to enjoy later

and hey, wouldn’t that chicken taste good in the Medieval Times tomato bisque soup (here) that I have almost all the ingredients for (hubby trudges off to Von’s…)

anddddd as long as the oven is hot, I should make that quiche recipe my sister sent me. (Here)

Sweetie Pie deep dish pie plate

Without the girls here everyday to keep me busy entertained, I’ve really gotten back into cooking (not just baking.) Hubby’s loving it, so much so that he agreed to buy me a fancy schmancy deep pie dish (here) so I can try my hand at pies (and more quiches…) Win, win! The fact it was 50% off didn’t hurt either…. 😂

Speaking of rainy days - our super scientific giant orange bucket rain gauge shows we’ve had 8”!!! of rain in the last 4 days. Since our yearly average is about 15”, that’s a lot! Forecast says no rain tomorrow but there are two more storms headed our way before the weekend. 

Didn’t Listen

Hubby, looking at my scrap fabric pull for the tree: “Maybe those are a little too dark with the blue background…”

Did I listen? Noooooooo. Was he right? Yesssss Maybeeeeeee

Enlarged this pattern by 150% to make it 18” like Mr. A.

I was planning to make a couple of trees to go with Mr. A. I guess the next one will be lighter… 

Done Times Two

It took most of the afternoon and evening, sewing slow so things lined up correctly, but I got Mr. A (for Aloysius Abominable) done and pinned to the design wall…

Dang it! 

Carefully took it apart, fixed both problems - one piece was turned the wrong way, an easy fix, but the other had to be recut - pinned it up again and… success! Tomorrow we make trees!

Never Say Never

I love Elizabeth Hartman’s quilt designs but after the last one (here) - 

Fancy Forest with tiny Jaclyn, 2017

I swore never again. So.Many.Pieces! And so complicated to put together. (The patterns are really well written, with lots of photos, but… complicated.)

Pieces A thru Q…

So why did I spend hours tonight cutting out pieces…

… and S thru KK

for one, solitary, single block?

Because I think someone will get a big laugh out of it. Makes it all worthwhile.

My New Helper

Now that my trained staff has moved away (😂 - I miss the grandgirls!), Donovan has taken over some of their tasks. 

He’s learned to peel zucchini so I can make his favorite zucchini bread,

has gotten really good at picking the daily dessert for me to bake (cinnamon rolls, lava cake and apple bread so far),

Cute daisy quilting on both Tangled quilts

and today he officially became my Quilt Holder. 

He took it very seriously, and did a good job, then peeked over the top of each one to make sure I got him in a photo too. 

 Each Tangled has a different backing and binding color

Hubby and I drove an hour, in the rain, to Goleta so I could drop off the placemats, the pink star quilt and both Tangled quilts at tonight’s Guild meeting. 

 The wind kept wrapping this one around him 🙃

We almost kept one Tangled - Pop really liked it - but we have. so. many. quilts. already. I’m sure it will go to a good home. 

And the Christmas cactus is blooming! It’s a raggedy, spindly little thing but it’s got at least 3 flowers and several more buds. I guess it likes being outside. 😍