Wonky Stars, Wonky World

December 19, 2012December 14, 2024 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

I know you must think I fell off of a cliff. I posted on Lee’s Freshly Pieced blog as a guest host, (who has since removed the post) then went dark and silent for lo, these many weeks. Below is a composite of what went on, minus the rolling-of-the-eyes pictures while reading student papers and grading grading grading.

Besides grading, we got a new sofa, I made vats of a potato dish for our church Christmas party, sewed giant canvas bags for my grandsons’ Christmas presents (we gave them small tool boxes and broken electronics from the local TV repair shop, so they could take them apart with their new tools), decorated the Christmas tree, celebrated Christmas with my son and his family, pulled out an old block swap project then put it away, started on Secret Project A, Secret Project B (it is Christmas, after all) and then would up my time making Butternut Crunch Toffee and Christmas Caramels.

I have been feeling much like the grandma in the snow.

And then last weekend’s horrible events happened, and like you, everything in my world pretty much came to a halt, and I watched the news about Sandy Hook, read about the lives of the slain children, and cried and cried. And one really bad day, both my daughter’s and my tender emotions collided in a colossal disagreement over nothing, and I realized that the resultant tears on both our parts was more indication that our days would be forever changed by our concern for twenty-eight families in Connecticut. I wanted to write about it, but mostly I just wanted to gather a quilt around the closest child, read them good books and ward off the outside world to protect them. How to move from this wonky, capsized world back to Christmas?

Start slowly, by doing the things that right the world after a terrific up-ending.

I wrote Christmas cards. Thinking about those closest to me enabled me to brave the mall and do some gift-buying. I spent time with good people, friends, church friends, family. Many many years ago, after I went through my Horribles on a tear-filled Christmas (a divorce), the counselor said that trying to get back into a routine would help everyone. So I made some toffee. Then my annual Christmas Caramels, while listening to Christmas carols.

And realized that I’m no good at making Wonky Stars. I can get the star “blades” on crookedly, a necessary ingredient for wonkiness. But I keep messing up the placement of the star blades direction, like the one above.

So I would lay them out, and invariably have to unpick one. I decided to plow through it, for if I left this project midway, I might never be able to get back in.

The stars turned out appropriately wonky, maybe more wonky than they should have. But more importantly, the stars are done. And I hope to find some time in the sewing studio to sew the companion blocks to this quilt.

Next week, we’ll be spending some time with my family, with my husband’s family, looking at lights, singing Christmas hymns at church. We’ll also be listening to Uncle Earl play Lady of Spain on his accordion (a rare treat), celebrate the season with my Dad and Mom’s great cooking, and yes, like most families, we’ll tell jokes, admire the babies, trade stories of cancer, new furniture, failed toffee and failed marriages, changed jobs, successes in grad school, all of us sharing bits and pieces of our patchworked lives.

I wish you all the best of a patchworked Christmas!

WIP–December Quilting

December 4, 2012December 5, 2012 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Today I’m guest-hosting over at Lee’s blog: Freshly Pieced, so I encourage you to head over there and see all the beautiful quilts in her Linky party, and leave some holiday comments to cheer all the quilters on.

If you are arriving here from there, welcome!

You may be here looking for the free downloadable quilt pattern for the Log Cabin Christmas Advent Calendar (above). Here it is as a PDF file: Log Cabin Advent Calendar. You might want to download the picture above as a reference for things like buttons, etc.

Here’s two photos of the back, showing the label and the drapery ring, which I use to hang it with:

These two photos show how I tied the ribbon around my “ornament” buttons, then used a dot of hot glue to secure the knot in place.

And I promised those in my readership a look at the finished quilt shams, mentioned in the last post.

I bought that tiny little pillow at the after-Christmas clearance sales, shortly after Dave and I were married. It had been one of those harried, race-and-shop-’till-you-drop sort of Christmases, as we were shopping for all four children and each other and parents and relatives and friends. We’d had more than one of “those” finances, stress, did-we-need-this? sort of conversations, yet I wanted to provide a lovely (but not extravagant) Christmas for our newly joined family (Dave, a long-term bachelor, married me and my four children). Seeing the pillow in the clearance bin reminded me what I really wanted for Christmas, and it has gone on our bed every Christmas since then.

We can’t forget the hurryhurryhurry feeling that always shows up this time of year, but I wrote about that over at Lee’s, so there’s no need to repeat myself here.

Thanks again to Lee for inviting me to guest blog. And here’s to you–the quilters who make the Christmas quilts and banners and gifts and pajamas (that one’s for you, Lisa). I hope you have a lovely Christmas and holiday season.

Good Heart Quilters · Quilts

Holiday Quilt Night for the Good Heart Quilters

December 3, 2012December 3, 2012 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

I’m sure I’ve told you, but our little quilt group–named The Good Heart Quilters–began when Lisa, majorly pregnant with her second daughter, enlisted my help (as well as few others) to get us all together to sew. Our first quilt night was December of that year, and just about every month after that we loaded up our sewing machines, rulers, mats and rotary cutters on the first Friday and sewed until the caffeine from our stash of Coke and root beer wore off and we headed home, usually in the wee hours of the morning.

Fast foward sixteen years. Lisa is in the middle in the brown vest and still looks as young as she did that night (and by the way, she had her baby the next day). We have some new Good Heart Quilters, but it’s fun to have this gang hang together as long as we have. In the middle next to Lisa is Cindy of Live a Colorful Life, who joined us for the party (and stayed with me for the weekend). And now, everyone was cleared out by 10:30 p.m.

Leisa and I hosted this gig, and she arrived early to give my tired Christmas wreath a makeover. Thanks, Leisa, it looks terrific (I didn’t get wreath-making DNA).

We set up two long tables, plus had the one in the kitchen, ready to go. I hate juggling too many utensils, so Cindy and I set them out. Cindy had arrived the day before, and that morning we had done a little shop-hop, but were back in time to set up the party. I’d cooked up a slew of my mother’s chili on Thursday (because chili always tastes better the next day), Leisa brought rolls and sodas, and everyone brought the toppings.

Leisa found these sweet pincushions for everyone, and together we sewed a bunch of zippered pouches to give out as gifts (below).

Bethany brought two kinds of cupcakes: chocolate and white.

And she brought one of her first sewing projects to show us: a cute Christmasy pillowcase.

The chili and all the fixins. Karen brought us some vegan chili, as we have a couple of women who are watching what they eat. I like that our group changes and flexes to our needs.

Quilters in the kitchen. . .

. . . and the dining room.

After dinner and visiting, we got to work. Lisa brought a yo-yo project and everyone helped.

Bridget curled up in a red chair to sew on her red/white quilt.

Simone’s working on her apple core quilt. Someone commented that she seemd to have dressed to match what she was working on, but she denied any overt connection.

Kelly, who came just for a little holiday cheer and destressing, quickly joined us in visiting.

Tauni has finished two quilts–the one above, and the one below.

Tauni and Sara.

JoDy is getting the binding on a zoo-themed quilt.

Jean helped Lisa with the yo-yo project and in the background, Carol listens intently.

Cindy and Laurel talk shop: Farmer’s Wife blocks. Seeing those blocks all together was really stunning. It’s hard to appreciate them only on the blog. I got a closer look the next day, when Cindy and I decided we’d had enough running around and hunkered down to sew.

This is the string of them, coming off the machine. She was bordering them, but I kept finding ones that I loved.

Like this one. Almost thou dost persuade me to make my own set, Cindy. Almost. But I think I’ll just admire yours.

I got busy on the shams to go with the Christmas Star Quilt that I’d made a couple of years ago. I did want to get these done last year, but we went to Ohio for Christmas, and then there was that cancer surgery thing I had to go through (I’m fine) but it sure disrupts a life. So, better late than never. I’m guest-hosting at Lee’s Freshly Pieced Blog on Wednesday, so check back then for the finished reveal on the shams.

Sunday morning, the weekend with Cindy came to an end, when I drove her down to the train station to catch her ride home. We were early, so sat and talked quilting stuff: blogs, creativity, challenges, feelings of inadequacy, and the impact of online distraction. From our conversation, I have enough ideas for many more posts. I appreciate my quilting friends–both those that I have had for many months and years–as well as those I meet online.

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P.S. Those of you who read my blog through your readers, click through to see the new Christmas banner at the top of my blog. Some of these photos were taken when we lived in Virginia and are trees found around Washington DC during the holidays.

Housekeeping

Zippers

November 25, 2012 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

I had need to buy a passel of zippers (don’t ask questions around Christmastime!) and found a great online source I thought I’d share (and no, they aren’t paying me to write this).

It’s called Zipperstop. I navigated to the photo above (under “closed zippers,” then “lightweight,” then “skirt and dress assortment”), which is an illustration of their 50-pack of zippers. I only needed 25, and I needed them in rainbow colors. I called the company (they’re in New York) and the person that answered the phone said to leave a note at checkout–there will be a box in which I could write them a note. So I asked for an assortment of rainbow colors, which you see in the top photo. I’m very happy with my zipper stash, and now wish I’d bought the full 50, as it’s such a deal (and they are high quality zippers). Price? Very good, but don’t forget that there is shipping. Overall, it’s WAY cheaper than my big box fabric store.

Plus I like talking to people from New York. They make my California accent sound bland. But I do have to say that when I lived there, my neighbor came over that first week, and she was from Brooklyn. We talked and she was lots of fun, so I told her I was trying to figure out where her accent came from. “Accent?” she said. “You’re the one with the accent.”

What else did I do this week?

1. Graded my brains out (example of a guy-staple job on the corner of stack of papers)

2. Took my quilt in to be quilted at Cathy’s

3. Got rid of a sofa, got the carpets cleaned, and went to IKEA four times rounding up furniture (that includes returns and re-purchases of wrong items)

4. Bought fabric. This one’s from IKEA. I think I’m the last to know about their fabric department but I have to say my husband was beyond patient while waiting for me to stop noticing bolts of fabric.

5. Had Autumn. This is it. This one tree. Hope you enjoyed the show as next week it will be summer again (we’ve had temperatures in the upper 70s and 80s this week–83 degrees on Thanksgiving, which is just un-American).

6. Had Thanksgiving. And given the regularity of seeing the leftovers at mealtime, I’d say we’re still having it. But last night we went out for Thai, today for lunch we just about killed the leftovers, so things are looking up in the meal department. But it was a good feast and a lot of family put their feet under our table.

I’m completely in a L-tryptophan high, except for the fact that there are 12 boxes of Christmas sitting in front of the cars, waiting for someone to do something about it.