A Bajillion to One

New Stash

If  I were counting my wins and losses against the season like Emily, I would say that Fate is winning and I am losing.  Big. Time.  I’m not sure that I can blame it on Christmas. But something has been seriously working against me.  It’s NOT likely that I will meet my goal of finishing a measly 6 UFO’s before the New Year for Jacquie’s challenge.  You know it’s lame when I can’t even finish 6 projects and other folks have double digit UFO piles.  Seriously!

All I have to show you is my pretty new stack of fabric and a couple of yo yo’s towards making some little trees.  Like everyone else, I couldn’t resist the temptation to add Denyse Schmidt’s new line Hope Valley to my stash.  And my boss gave me the Windham roll for Christmas. Yay!

It would be nice to have the yo yo trees finished by Christmas Day when we are having friends over for dinner and a small gift exchange.   I have a vision of a few of these trees with a forest of candles on the table for dinner.  And, the rules of the gift exchange are only two: 1) less than $20.00 and 2) milk-coming-out-of-your-nose-funny for the person’s name you drew.  I can’t wait to see what gifts everyone finds.

Yo Yo tree parts

Tech update:  The hard drive on  my computer was replaced and now I am re-installing everything and all their perspective updates. Sigh. It’s not exactly what I want to be doing  with my time right now. Doesn’t my computer know that Christmas is just around the corner? And there are still a couple of gifts left to finish? The computer’s display panel was also replaced. Not only is the color red still intensely bright, but now there is a yellowish cast in the lower left-hand corner. Clearly this one needs to be replaced as well.  I foresee more time spent chatting it up with Tech Support.

Another UFO?

Kung Fu Panda pillowcases

So… is it a UFO if the fabric has been sitting in a pile of things to do, but not started?  There really isn’t much work to making pillowcases, other than making the time to sew them. It takes more time to set up the sewing machine than it does to actually sew these.  I may just count these as UFO #3 if I start getting desperate. Which I might.  The quilt shop that rents the mid-arm quilting machine got a brand new upgraded machine and it has set me back a couple of quilt tops that I was hoping to finish.  I might not make it in to quilt anymore before Christmas. We shall see.

Panda fabric by Timeless Treasures

I found the fabric last August when my mom was here and she was looking for lighthouse fabric.  It was just too cute to pass up.  I had every intention to sew these together LONG before Christmas rolled around. But somehow, it has ended up being nearly Christmas by the time I got around to making these.  They are for our Karate Sensei’s two youngest sons.  The youngest one is only about 14 months, but at the cutest stage right now.  And the older one LOVES the movie Kung Fu Panda. Even Gary and I liked it.  What’s not to like about a cute Panda using Kung Fu to save his town, right?

Polka Dot fabric by Michael Miller

I’m hoping that my photos aren’t looking too hideous on your computers. I finally broke down and called technical support for my computer.  We spent three hours on the phone  this week running diagnostics to try and figure out why the color red appears so intense and over-saturated on my monitor.  They are offering to replace the LCD screen.  And… while running diagnostic tests, we also discovered that the hard drive has some issues, so they are going to replace that as well.

I’ve also been reading veraciously on color calibration to see if there was any more I can do on my end. I learned more about using Adobe Photoshop for editing photos. Even though I took a Photoshop class a few years ago, I didn’t know that there was a check box in the saving for the web & devices dialog box that loads your ICC color profile.  Good to know! So…  one of these days I hope to be a little more educated on color, and calibration, and photo editing and what not.  In the mean time, I hope I’m not hurting your eyes with my photos.

Start Cooking’

Pioneer Woman Cooks

I recently picked up this cookbook to give to a friend and I was quite impressed with it.  The Pioneer Woman Cooks is written by Ree.  She cooks, she blogs and she takes the most amazing photos of life on a real working ranch.  She even took all the photos in the cookbook!  No stylist and team of photographers for her!  I want to be like her when I grow up.

Mocha Brownies

The recipes are just good down-home cooking.  And there are step-by-step photos for each task.  In between the recipes are the same amazing photos that you find on her blog. It’s really a nice cookbook.

Chicken Fried Steak

I’m sure you are wondering where I’ve been. Have I given up on blogging?  No, not really. But I am still wrestling with the funky color on my computer.  I’m trying to learn more about color calibration.  It’s a frustrating subject to venture  into.  There’s hardware, and software, and terminology, and it all takes time to absorb.

And I’m wrestling with the furniture in our computer/family room.  We are still in the process of converting computers to wireless and connecting the TV to the Internet.  Monday was spent pushing furniture around and cleaning piles. There are still a plethora of piles to clean.

Also, this time of year is bad for taking  progress photos. The sun rises around 7:30 and sets around 4:00.  That leaves a window from about 10:00 to 2:00 to take photos…  if it’s not raining. All of that to say that all those things add up to a less than encouraging environment for blogging.  I don’t mean to whine and complain.  Just sayin’…

Our annual Christmas decorating is scheduled for this weekend. It’s tradition to decorate on or around December 13th.  Last year I did a virtual countdown to Christmas.  And I’m sorry to say that I am no further along on the Advent Garland than I was last year. Maybe next year?  Ha!

December blizzard 2008

Here’s my favorite photo from last year to help us get into the holiday spirit.  We had a whopper of a snowstorm last year, not likely to be repeated for some time.

UFO No. 2

Victory Quilt Sampler

Two down, four more UFO’s to go for the Joy in the New Year Challenge.  This wasn’t really a lanquishing UFO.  But it was a WIP that I was determined to finish by the end of the year because I want to give it to one of my sisters-in-law for Christmas.  The whole thing was a block-of-the-month through my local quilt shop.  And the blocks were generally this bright. But I didn’t always use the fabrics that they provided.  And my sister-in-law likes pink, so I wanted to add enough to make it feel pink.

close up of the quilting

I sent it out to be quilted and it came back absolutely fabulous!  I am SO happy with the quilting.

An ombre backing

The backing fabric is a Gelato ombre from the Cara Collection by E.E.  Schenck. I think it’s still around if you choose to do a little searching.  And the pattern is the 12-block sampler from Victory Quilts by Eleanor Burns. There are some cute quilts in the book in addition to the samplers.

Quilt on a Chair Still Life

It’s slow going, but I am now heading onward to some older UFO’s that really have been lanquishing in a pile somewhere in the sewing room.  I really want to see some Joy in the New Year. There are lots of new quilt ideas floating around in my head that I want to get started on… guilt-free, of course!

Shot of Summer Red

Garden Medallion

Borders and borders of floral prints from a lush summer garden.  That’s what this reminds me of.  It’s a shot of warm, happy color that I’m going to need as the winter gets colder and more grey. I was talking with someone yesterday about the emotional choices we make when choosing fabrics for a quilt.  And she was telling me about her trip to southern France and how many famous painters biographies talked about the emotion they were trying to capture through color rather than the image or the view itself.  Isn’t it interesting that the Kaffe fabrics do that for us?  In his and Brandon’s classes they often use interesting descriptive words while giving encouragement and critique to their students.  Burnt toast, wood smoke, tomato soup red…  not just color names, but something about the color that reminds them of a walk or a dinner or an event or a feeling.

The fabrics

These were the fabrics that found their way to my house at the end of the summer.  It only took a couple of months to shape them into something that was floating around in my head.  Somehow…  2 scrap bags also found their way into my shopping cart.  I can’t wait to see what they will morph into.

I’m am glad to say that I’ve finished another quilt.  But I’m not counting it as part of the Joy in the New Year UFO challenge.  This is my newest pattern, Garden Medallion.  Pattern & kit are both available at my local quilt shop, Gathering Fabric.  Wanna see the back?  With the help of the leftover scraps, the back side becomes another bonus quilt.

Scrappy bonus quilt on the back

How was your Thanksgiving? I can’t believe that it all has come and gone in the blink of an eye. We shared dinner with dear friends.  My contribution was Ciabatta Stuffing with Chestnuts & Pancetta… and almost a part of my thumbnail.  I accidentally cut a small chunk out of the tip of my thumb.  Dull knives and 2-day old crusty Ciabatta bread are not a good match.  No stitches required, but it did give me a bit of a startle.  It’s feeling much better now, thank you.  And the stuffing was yummy!

I’m dreaming about a pumpkin pie orange quilt…