Really Random Thursday, 12/5/13

I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a fun day with family and lots of yummy food.

We began our day at the parking lot of our church. Our son, Aaron, started what hopefully will be an annual Turkey Trot from our church parking lot--with the choice of walking two miles or for those runners, a 5k. He and his friend, Randy, mapped the whole course out by chalking official arrows on the roads and sidewalks to keep everyone on the right course. The cost to participate was two items of nonperishable food for our church food pantry. There was a good turnout.

This was my walking partner. Isn't she beautiful?

There has been a local Turkey Trot at the park for years. After our church Turkey Trot, Mark and I went to the local bagel place and saw a few of the "other" group's participants--more and more people seem to be dressing up for that Turkey Trot. Maybe our church participants will decide to do that next year too.

Then it was on to Aaron and Christa's for a day of family and good food.

 My parents are excellent pie makers. Yum!

We are especially thankful for these three.

The rest of the weekend, Mark and I completely redid the closet in our bedroom. He ordered custom closet organizing units from the cabinet shop where he works. They were delivered earlier in the week and stored in the garage. We realized that they might not make it around the corner of our hallway so before pulling everything out of the closet, we gave it a try. No go. So this was how six of the units entered our house: through the bathroom window.

 Whew--they just made it through. Size of units: 14"x30"; size of window, 15"x31"

Before (this closet had not been repainted since we moved in 24 years ago):

During:

After (my side):

My favorite part might be the shelves for shoes. Mark never thought I would get all my shoes in the number of shelves on my side. Ha! I have room for six more pairs. Clearly, I need to go shoe shopping...

After (Mark's side):

Yes, he has empty shoe shelves--so maybe I could even get more than six pairs!

Mug shots:

Thank you, Heather!

 

One of my favorite Starbucks mugs from years ago--Jolly, and the mug from Canada looks particularly festive this time of year. 

My cousins went to the Holy Land for nearly three weeks. I jokingly asked them to bring a Starbucks mug if they came across one. Of course, they did not. But they DID find this coffee shop in Bethlehem.

 Cathy had the picture put on a mug for me.

I'll end this week's post with a couple of Christmas-y pictures. Each year we get C, G and L ornaments for their tree. I try to pick something representative of the past year. This year they had a season-long pass to Disneyland and have been able to go quite a few times.

And one of my season favorites--my collection of Jim Shore Santas which I display in the sewing room.

Your turn.

Really Random Thursday, 11/28/13

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US.

 This is a large clam shell on a corner in Pismo Beach, decorated for Thanksgiving

Mark and I were at our favorite place on the central coast of California last weekend. This time there were virtually no waves on the ocean, but the weather was beautiful.

With this weather, it is hard to believe that tomorrow is Black Friday and the shopping frenzy starts in earnest.

Have you already started listening to Christmas music? Our son, Aaron, did some mathematical equation, experimenting with absolute values, square roots, etc., which I don't pretend to understand at all, to determine the best day to start listening to music, since Thanksgiving is so late this year. By the way, he says this equation also holds for when stores should be able to put up Christmas decorations.

So when do you start listening to Christmas music? Do you venture out on Black Friday? Do you wait for Cyber Monday? Do you only give handmade gifts?

I started working on this but since I have never knit in the round before, it is kind of experimental and might end up around my neck. 

Your turn.

Really Random Thursday, 11/21/13

Last week on Instagram, the hashtag #weddingringwednesday made the rounds. I decided to play along. This is my wedding ring. The center diamond is small, about a fifth of a carat I think. When I got engaged, everyone around me seemed to be getting larger diamonds set on tall prongs. I wanted a smaller diamond.  Years down the road I wanted something more substantial. But not a different diamond--by then I was very sentimentally attached to this one. So we added the ring guard. While pretty, those four diamonds are not nearly as sparkly as my lovely original diamond. I still love it. And December 8th will be 41 years since Mark put that engagement ring on my finger. So there are actually times when size doesn't matter.

We visited a different church on Sunday because Mark was running the sound for a musical group. Beautiful quilty windows in this sanctuary. I just love the way the sun comes through the stained glass windows. You don't see them very often in newer churches. 

Levi lost his first tooth this week. And I finished the Batman tooth pillow a day late.(Great, very well-written pattern available here. And you have the choice of making Batman or Superman. Plus I ordered the kit, which was very affordable and well put together.)

Even though it was a late, he was pretty happy with it.

When Mark and I went over to drop off Batman, Aaron and the kids were playing a game called Fibber. I'm not sure how it's played but they all had funny glasses and increasingly larger noses.

Even Gabe tried to get in on the fun.

While scrolling through Facebook the other day, I noticed this post from Pat Sloan (so naturally, being excited that Pat Sloan liked something I made, I turned around and put it on Instagram), linking back to the Selvage Blog, where, unbeknownst to me, my selvage Christmas tree tutorial was posted (with all the proper links back to me, so that was nice, but it would have been fun to know about it).

If you want to make your own selvage Christmas tree, here is the tutorial(from last year).

This mug and ginormous button arrived the other day. The button is so large that there is actually a cardboard easel type thing on the back so you can put it on a shelf.

And speaking of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Carla is the winner of a copy of the magazine. I was so surprised that out of 230-some comments, the winner would be my partner in the X and + block swap, but that's who the Random Number Generator chose. So who am I to argue? 

A little technology before bedtime.

And yesterday morning I was packaging a little fat quarter to send to my friend, Doris. Where did this thread come from on my packing tape?? I tried to pull it off, and then decided Doris would find the humor in having thread stuck to the tape so I just left it alone.

Your turn.

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 8: The Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks (Volume 8) Blog Tour.   Each of these issues is such a wonderful resource of blocks, ranging from traditional to modern, pieced to applique. I'm so happy to be able to share my block, Ring Around the Posy, which is a little bit of both.

Although I have been quilting for nearly twenty years, I have never done much applique work, but this year I ventured into doing a little bit of machine applique, using a buttonhole stitch. It is easy and really fun.

Wouldn't this block make a great baby quilt?

Look what you can do with just five blocks. I can even imagine this block in holiday colors for a fun Christmas table runner. Changing the block orientation to being on point completely changes the look of it, doesn't it?

Or maybe you just need a new wall hanging.

I'm thrilled to offer a chance to win a copy of the latest issue so leave a comment here. I'd love to know if you have tried machine applique before, and if you have any special hints to share. I'll choose a winner on Saturday, November 16, at noon PST, so be sure I have a way to contact you. The latest issue should be hitting the newsstands some time next week.

For all the  blog tour stops and more giveaways, hop on over to Quiltmaker's Quilty Pleasures blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Really Random Thursday, 11/14/13

So I spent most of the week wishing these little men were actually helping me out. Have you ever noticed that sometimes new software versions, claiming to be "better," really make things totally worse? Yeah, that has been every work day since Friday until yesterday. But things are looking up.

In better news, I have thought of getting a quilt-related tattoo. Something small. However, our daughter-in-law, Christa, knowing that how much I love all things Pantone, sent me this little option.

I think I would like it better in orange or aqua...

In terms of bringing smiles to our faces, these three hung out for awhile the other night. We had a large "boy" area,

and a small "girl" area. It clearly was a matter of percentages: three boys to one girl. I was busy making a gourmet meal macaroni and cheese.

This arrived in the mail yesterday, a whole booklet with the details of our upcoming Disney Adventure.

Oh, and this arrived on my doorstep too. It kinda made me forget all my computer issues. Except I haven't had time to even plug it in yet...

Your turn.

Fat Quarterly: The Christmas Issue

A first for me--I have a project in the newest issue of Fat Quarterly, which is available today.

Subscribers need only to log into their accounts to find the links to this issue. Otherwise you can purchase it here.

When I made the project for Modern Patchwork (which reminds me--I haven't even shown you the quilt in that magazine yet, and it's one of my favorites!), I was in a braided herringbone kind of mode. My project in Fat Quarterly is a pillow called Holiday Herringbone. It requires only one small segment of braid, and it was such fun to work with Laurie Wisbrun's latest Christmas line, Holiday Sweet Tweets.

Here is the pillow, which has the easy-to-do look of a Christmas ornament. Since the colors of this fabric line are not the classic red and green, the pillow can be easily transformed for use all through the winter months by eliminating the half square triangles that give it the ornament look.

I used an exposed zipper technique for the back. It's my favorite way to make a pillow back and the tutorial is here.

Head on over to Fat Quarterly and get your issue today!