Coat!!!

I finished it! Actually I finished it about three weeks ago and I'm just getting around to blogging it, so I actually did get to wear it a few times due to the cold snap. What do you think?

This is from Simplicity 2812. It's a Project Runway pattern. Woohoo!

Quilt Discussion

I was reading LittleShika's blog and she wanted to open up some quilting discussion. She posted a question and asked that people answer it on their blogs and link the answers in her comments. Since I haven't posted in awhile I jumped on it. This is the current question:

if you had to pick, what would be your favorite colors(combinations)/style of fabrics?

This is a tough one. I really don't have a favorite color. If I had to choose one I dislike, it would easily be orange. But that's not to say I wouldn't work with it if I thought it was adding something that no other color could add.

Really my favorite combination is simply a two-color quilt. I love 'em. For whatever reason they scream homey happy quilt for me more than other multiples of colors. I'm not sure why. My first (completed) quilt was a blue and white quilt. I am looking forward to someday doing a red and white quilt. I saw a pic on someone's blog the other day...I don't remember who it was, sorry...that had an absolutely awesome blue and white quilt with a pieced center and beautiful swaggy appliqued borders. Loved it! I wish I could remember where I saw it. They used a particularly dark and denimy-looking (I'm sure it wasn't actual denim) color and to me it would have been hard to get that stunning look with multiple colors.

I don't have a particular style of fabric that I favor. I do like Amy Butler-esque type stuff but I've never really figured out how to successfully incorporate them into a quilt. I suppose I could generalize and say most things that look vintage are attractive to me. But there are some periods that are not - I generally tend not to like civil war fabrics because they look dark and gloomy to me, even when the fabric is a light color. I like most 20's and 30's fabric...but only if it's not too cutesy.

And how do you feel?

Addendum: I found it! The quilt was on Georgina's blog, about 2/3 down on this post.

Losing my cool...if I ever had it

I just came from a quilt guild meeting, where all the youngish (by quilting standards I think we're young) ladies were talking about the Twilight book series. Ok, am I that far off the cool map?! What the heck. I'd actually never heard of the books until the movie came out. Which, I did not see because for crying out loud I have kids and if I'm going to go see a movie with a theatre full of 'tweens and pubescents it will be because I have my kids with me and not because I'm on a date with The Husband. Seriously - the last "grown up" movie I saw in a theatre was the Indiana Jones movie. Not that IJ actually qualifies as grown up. What can I say? Harrison is hot.

Though I did take The Boy to see Hotel for Dogs and it was passable entertainment. I mean, it did make me cry what with the lovable dogs without homes theme being closely mirrored by the lovable orphans without a home theme. And The Boy had some seat bouncing moments so you know he liked it. But...back to my unhipness.

And here's another thing: what on earth is a Shamwow? I've suddenly heard this product mentioned half a dozen times. I must be living under a rock. Can someone lift it up, please?

2009 goals

I hope you had a wonderful new year! The Husband and I spent it like always, at home eating junky snacks and watching old movies. This year we rented 'All the King's Men'. I had the book out of the library some time ago but couldn't remember how it ended. I think I probably just didn't read the end, 'cause I would have remembered that goofy last line.

So, I'll start with last year's goals.

Non-quilty/crafty:

• Exercising no less than 3 times per week - erm, nope. When I was exercising I did stick to 3 times per week. But there were times of the year that I didn't exercise at all.
• Only visiting the snack machine 1 time per week at work (I have to give myself something, otherwise I'd go bonkers and start snarfing everything in sight.) - another no. My buddy the snack machine should be much more resistable this year though because I am on an allowance, and I really don't want to spend money on that.
• Watching my portions (which is vague, but really what I mean is being careful to eat a single serving.) - I suppose I probably did this fairly well, though not always.

Quilty/crafty:

• Finish binding The Girl's quilt - done!
• Baste, quilt & bind The Boy's quilt - no
• Finish at least 10 of the hand-pieced blocks for the sunburst quilt - finshed 6

So I didn't do too hot last year. I'll have to try harder this year. Though I did accomplish some things not on the list:

• A winter coat for The Girl
• A winter coat for The Boy
• A batgirl costume
• A clone trooper costume
• 20 tea wallets
• umm, that's all I can think of.

2009 goals (notice these aren't resolutions!!)

• Get into better shape. I'd like my belly and thighs to reduce in circumference and gelatinous appearance, especially.
• Round robin top with guild 1
• Crayon challenge quilt with guild 2
• 6 more sunburst blocks
• finish (urm, and start!) my own dang coat
• Sandwich, baste, and quilt The Boy's quilt

I know to prolific quilters this sounds pretty pathetic. But I take what little quilting time I can get and hope to get somewhere with it.

I also have a number of financial goals:

• Fully "fund" our emergency savings account. It is currently half of what I want it to be.
• Save for our next house - I want a full 20% down payment for that sucker.
• Save for The Husband's next car
• Make at least one extra payment on the house this year (my long term goal is to have the house-no matter if we move or not-paid in full when The Boy trips off to college in 2020. If he goes. No pressure, son.)
• Not decrease 401k contributions even though I've taken a pay cut for 2009

So, wish me a sweet ride! I hope I can do better than 2008. Happy New Year to you, and may your goals resolve themselves.

Merry Belated Christmas!

We had a great Christmas and I'm just now coming out of the fog. Of course I went back to work today (boohoo) after a five day weekend which was not so much fun but that's life. The Husband got sick on the day after Christmas and is still recuperating. I sure hope he doesn't pass it to anyone else, because it wasn't pleasant!



So here is a cool shot of the Christmas tree, courtesy of The Husband:


That's the back of Scarlet O'Hara to the left and a Star Wars ornament in the middle. I thought the wiggly effect of the lights was the cool part.


And here are a few shots of the tea cozy's that I made as gifts for lots-o-people. I found the pattern on Sew Mama Sew and altered it a bit to suit my supplies and lazy whims. Here are my alterations:

1. I didn't bother top-stitching the tops of the pockets. I totally didn't miss it.
2. I didn't use fusible interfacing. I had some crinoline laying around from a fellow guild member and I used that. Since it wasn't fusible, I pinned it to the back side of the inside piece and stitched it in place while sewing on the pockets. Two birds with one stone.
3. Urm, I totally eye-balled the location of the pockets, and just folded a crease in to find the middle.
4. I didn't pre-sew the ribbon/strap piece down. I just pinned the two sides together with it stuck in there and was careful to be sure that I could see a wee bit of it peaking out as I sewed over it.

I also wrote this little poem to go along with it, although the non-cooperation of my printer caused most people to instead receive my goof-ball overly enthusiastic (but humble, I hope!) explanation in person:

I am a tea cozy

I hold your bags of tea

If that doesn't suit your fancy

there's still a use for me

I can hold charge cards, gift cards and more

I hope you find something

fun for me to store!

My mom wants me to make some for her yoga studio (Well Within Health Center in Streetsboro Ohio) but I think for now I am cozied out. I also have two projects coming up with my guilds - one is a round robin which has a due date for the center square in mid-January (and yes, I haven't started!) and another where I need to use two crayon colors to make a quilt. My colors were blue and red-orange. Hmm. I already have some blocks made up in those colors for another purpose that I haven't gotten back to...maybe I have a different use for them! And of course there is the ongoing hand-piecing of the starburst quilt and The Boy's quilt needs layered, basted, quilted & bound.

Anyways, I hope you all had a great holiday, or just nice days off if you don't celebrate that sort of thing. I'll take a few days off any time of the year!

Christmas Meme

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate
Does Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree? He wraps them. With our paper and tags, no less.
Colored lights on tree or white? Colored!
When do you put your decorations up? Usually when we put the tree up. We traditionally go and cut down a live tree with The Husband's sister & family so schedules sometimes dictate that we do that slightly before December 1st.
What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? This is weird but probably sauerkraut and kielbasa. Also, there is nothing quite like the perfect storm of a bite on your fork that includes turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing.
When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? My sister and I guessed. We mutually agreed that it probably couldn't possibly be true and then we conspired to hide from our parents that we had anything other than jovial thoughts of Santa. I do however believe that the spirit of Santa is alive in many things we do for this beautiful time of year, and that constitutes belief in Santa. So on the one hand I don't believe he zooms around the world in a sleigh led by a red-nosed reindeer...but on the other hand I do believe that his spirit of giving permeates the season.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? I did as a kid. Now I watch my own kids do it.
How do you decorate your Christmas tree? With an extensive collection of ornaments collected by both me and The Husband. Actually most of the "old" (i.e., pre-wedding ornaments) are The Husband's.
Can you ice skate? If you have to ask then you haven't met me.
Do you remember your favorite gift? There have been so many. As an adult...probably the year The Husband had The Boy's first day home from the hospital outfit framed in a shadow box. Or possibly when he gave me ornaments that he had made from a sliver of the trunks of Christmas trees that we had in important years - our first tree, The Boy's first tree, and The Girl's first tree. As a kid - it's probably a toss-up between the pink whicker sewing basket (which I sadly no longer have) and the Radio Flyer red tricycle.
What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with my family, and watching the wonder of special moments for the kids.
What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? If I had a favorite others might get jealous and refuse to let me eat them, so they are all pretty much equally loved.
What is your favorite tradition? It's tough to say. So much has changed in our family dynamics over the past few years that sadly it will never be the same for me and so traditions don't really feel like they've held.
Which do you prefer, Giving or Receiving? Probably giving. There is a lot of stress associated with appropriately receiving. He.
What is your favorite Christmas Song? Jingle bells
Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum!
Ever regifted a Christmas present? What? Oh sorry, I had some candy cane in my mouth there. Didn't hear the question.

Blogiversary Winner!

And the winner is:

Joyce!

Congratulations, Joyce! I had The Husband choose a number between 1 and 9 (inclusive) to choose the winner and his number was 4. Here's a photo of your winnings. It is 4 fat quarters of blue & sparkly winter fabric.

Other news:

Quilting - I finished The Girl's quilt!!!! Well, it doesn't have a label but it is bound and ready for use. It's funny but I am busily thinking of tons of things I could sew for people for Christmas. It doesn't seem to phase me at all that Christmas is less than 20 days away. Ha!

Speaking of Christmas, you may remember last year I mentioned that when The Husband went to take down our outdoor Christmas lights we were missing just one net of lights. They were very distinctive - it was a rainbow net. The Husband actually didn't like them because he didn't think it seemed very Christmas-y to have a rainbow bush. But to get back to the story, they were missing. We didn't think much of it, a neighborhood kid pulling them off for his/her own contentment, etc., whatever. Like I said, he didn't like them much so we weren't too broken up about it. Well the other day I was pulling in to our drive, and I noticed something curious: the neighbors that we don't talk to very much had their lights up. And they had 1 bush with a rainbow net. Hmm. None of their other lights are rainbows. Coincidence? Hard to say...of course we won't be mentioning it. Even if I wanted to mention it I couldn't since we don't really talk to them. Not out of dislike or anything, they just seem to not want to speak to us. Maybe because of their rainbow net guilt. Unlike the previous occupants of that house they are very quiet so I am content to leave things the way they are.

The Big Read - I had about 400 pages to go in Les Miserables when the book wouldn't renew anymore. So I took it to the library and started finishing up the read online. Let me just say that it is very tedious to read a book online. But you can do it too at the Gutenberg website. Hurray for free stuff!

Congratulations to Joyce and thanks everyone for playing! Maybe this year I'll post a little more regularly. And add some photos.

Happy Blogiversary to me!

Today is my third blogiversary. In honor of this momentous occasion I am having a quiltie giveaway. Hurray for free stuff! My local quilt shop is having a sale tomorrow and I am jumping on that train to bring you a little quiltie prize of my random (but tasteful?) choosing . Leave me a comment on this post by midnight December 5th EST to enter. You don't have to leave your email address but I do need a way to contact you - if that is your blogger profile where your email can be found or a blog where I can comment for you that is fine. I'll try to post a picture of the gift tomorrow or Sunday. Wait, today is Friday right? Right.

Because of the prohibitive costs of shipping the winner must reside in the United States or Canada.

Good luck!

Family news -- I survived hosting thanksgiving for 17 people (it was supposed to be 22) at my house for the very first time. Whew. I had a little turkey trouble which I was not expecting because I've roasted up a gobbler before. But it all turned out all right and I haven't gotten any irate 'your crummy food made me sick!' phone calls so I'll take that as a good sign. Or maybe they are too busy barfing to call...

Also everyone seems to think I have permanently volunteered to have it at my house...urm, ok....what?

Fitness news...well I'm on a temporary pit stop. Besides the fact that I hate jogging in snow, rain, cold, and dark, I had a million things to do to prepare for the festivities at my house this week. I intend to start right back up next week. Really. I mean it.

Quilting news...I have 6 of the starburst hand pieced blocks done. I had a goal to get 8 done this year, but I don't think I'm going to make that. I am working on making myself a winter coat. And you know what? It's freakin' cold here in Ohio so I've got to get that done. Don't worry, I do have a stand-in coat in the meantime. I got the binding sewn onto the front of The Girl's quilt which is a big step. I also took a machine trampunto class through one of my guilds and that was lots of fun. It required some machine quilting and I did a not too terrible job at that. Oh and I joined a Round Robin with my guild and I'm really excited about that. I have a design worked out in my head for the center and we'll see how that turns out. I am thinking I might use the machine trapunto method for part of it.