The last fabric purchase of '08...

I dragged Mom to the local quilt shop (maybe that's too strong -- she goes willingly now) just before I left town the other day. The store had relocated since the last time I'd visited from a tiny, cramped dark house not without its charm but a little depressing to the spacious old pharmacy up the street. Now it's bright and airy, and it looks like they've doubled, if not tripled, their inventory. The staff even seems more buoyant, the quilts on the walls cheerier.

I could live there now, right over under the blues and purples...maybe move over by the greens every once in a while for a change of season. Put the piano in the corner with the blacks and whites and hope they won't notice.

There was SO much great fabric, it was a little overwhelming. Faced with so many fantastic options, the project ideas just start rushing into my head and I get a little tipsy thinking about all the possibilities.

Who needs alcohol when fabric can do the trick? Not necessarily a cheaper addiction, but it's much easier on the liver.

They've always had a great collection of Kaffee Fassett fabrics, and it looks like Westminster has jumped on the pre-cut bandwagon with "Westies," 6.5" strips packaged in different color ways. I'd never seen them before, and found the greens and purples hard to resist. Besides, it would have been rude to leave empty-handed after drinking in all that color...

I feel a Log Cabin coming on!

Happy New Year, everybody!

Famous last words...

"...beat the weather."

Right.

My four hour drive turned into a seven and a half hour adventure, due to a snowstorm that started five hours earlier than expected, a mass exodus of Chicagoans to places other than Chicago, and the fact that Michigan has no money and can't afford to plow their expressways.

But I made it home, and Archie was a trooper, sleeping most of the trip on the dashboard above the glove compartment. He got some surprised looks from other drivers as we crawled along at 40mph.

Weather notwithstanding, Christmas was a success, with lots of time spent with family and friends. My Monkey Girl loved her quilt, as I thought she might. There was some admiring of it...

Some dancing with it...

And, of course, some snuggling in it.

My mother cried when she unfolded her anniversary quilt. But because I promised she wouldn't show up all teary-eyed on the blog for all the world to see, we just have Archie, who, outside of a brief confrontation with a camel, inexplicably left both the tree and the creche totally alone. Maybe that was my Christmas miracle?

We spent a day with my brother's little guys (note continued use of my flannel birthday quilt)...

And were entertained with some Chris-tmas carols...

And, of course, there was sewing. Binding, to be exact.

Two weeks of hand sewing can really do a number on your wrists. I finished it on Saturday, and my sister was very happy with the results. She was also happy she didn't have to help.

The return trip to Chicago was windy, but uneventful. The snow is completely gone, though we're expecting some tonight. Time to clean up the mess I left last week -- and get down to more sewing!

Hope everybody's Christmas was wonderful!

C'est finis...

And there was much dancing in the Great Hall...

I watched (OK, listened to) over FOURTEEN HOURS of TiVo this weekend. To say I'm slow would be an understatement. My butt hurts from sitting in one place for so long, but it's done. And I have never been so happy about finishing a quilt. Now I just have to find my printable fabric for a label...and I have NO idea where it might be, I haven't used it in a year -- it could be anywhere!

Too bad I'm giving it away -- it kind of matches the blues in my living room...

I also managed to come close to finishing this one, too...it's done except for the (hah!) binding, which I'll finish later this week. Sorry sis, you're getting this incomplete. Blame it on Mom.

I think it's safe to say I'll never do the flying geese with all flannel ever again -- too many lumps. I ironed the seams open where I could, but it still made quilting difficult. I got these really tiny stitches as the machine approached a knob, and these really loooong ones on the downside. Not my best work, obviously, but once it's washed and all puckery, who's going to know?

Archie gets into packing tape

The backing is the absolutely luscious Thimbleberries flannel. It's incredibly soft, and a wonderful Art Nouveau design that's a good contrast in style to the front.

Tomorrow I fill the sleigh with presents and hit the road. There's a winter storm warning for Illinois and Michigan starting mid-day tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can get an early start and beat the weather.

Not sure if there's wireless at Mom & Dad's, so Happy Holidays, readers! Hope your Christmas is warm and cuddly...just like our quilts!

Pefect weather for binding...

Twenty-eight degrees and falling to four tonight. Eight inches of wet, heavy, crusty snow on the ground. Good day to stay inside, drink hot chocolate with steamed milk, and sew. And sew. And sew.

Guess what I'm doing all day? Sewing? How'd you know?

I really don't have the attention span for this.

Thanks so much for all the encouragement and helpful comments. It's moving slightly faster -- I rounded my second corner this afternoon. Hardly the home stretch, but I'm getting there.

I still don't think there's a chance in hell I'm going to finish this by the time I leave town. Worst case scenario, it gets wrapped up as is and Mom and I can finish it next week, though I'm not so sure just how enthused she'll be to have to finish her own Christmas gift.

Now that I have more than just a small section to look at, I absolutely love the way it looks! I used a two and a quarter-inch strip to start, so the binding is nice and narrow. I'm a sucker for the stripes, and the hand finishing was definitely the way to go here.


And in an effort to multi-task...here's the Malibu Monkeys quilt in its entirety, fresh from the dryer. It's a little more haphazard than I'd originally envisioned it would be, but this is what happens when you have neither a plan nor enough blue blocks. I think my Monkey Girl is going to love it no matter what.

I really wanted it to be the right size so the back was a seamless landscape of monkeys and beach. It fit perfectly, finishing at about 40" x 50".

No, it's not your eyes --the lighting here is frighteningly yellow.

All right, enough messing around on the blog -- there's sewing to be done!

Deck the halls...or not

Given the fact that I have absolutely no confidence that Archie wouldn't destroy the Christmas tree in a heartbeat, this is the extent of my decorating this year: a reindeer I forgot to pack with the rest of the stuff last January, and two lodgepole pine cones I brought back from Lake Tahoe several years ago.

Never mind that the pine cones are on the mantel all year long, anyway. I don't have a lot of unbreakables to work with here.

Sad, I know, but I have a fairly sizeable collection of Christopher Radko ornaments, as well as a whole lot of Shiny Brites that have been in the family since the early 50's, none of which mixes very well with a psycho little beast who literally bounces off the walls when he gets hyper. It's a low-key kind of Christmas here. Almost too un-Christmas-y.

So I went looking through some pictures and found these from last year:

My best buddy Gershwin, who never bothered the tree, the ornaments, and certainly never bounced off any walls.

Best cat ever. Maybe I should have considered cloning?

I'm delusional...

I seem to have overestimated my hand-sewing skills. By quite a bit.

I finished the little quilt binding on the machine in a snap. I was all pleased with myself, even treated myself to some cookies.

Then I sat down to the big quilt with my needle and thread.

Keeping in mind that I'd never done this before (I know, I know -- all those quilts and never hand-sewn a binding? For shame, Kate!), I allowed for some trial and error, some unstitching, and a few choice four-letter words, but basically envisioned myself whip, whip, whip stitching my way through it with AmandaJean efficiency and gift wrapping tomorrow night.

Dream on.

In the little time before and after work this week (which might well be the source of the problem: too friggin' much time spent at the office), I've gotten less than one side done. One side! Of a queen-sized quilt. Not even. In four days.

I was under the (apparently very mistaken) impression that this would go a lot faster. I calculated my actual foot-per-day progress, and if I continue at this pace, I will be done somewhere around January 23rd.

And two more quilts to finish in the next seven days.

Time for start hoping for a Christmas miracle!

That light at the end of the tunnel's getting brighter...

Busy work week or not, this is my goal: to get the little quilt and the big quilt bound, wrapped and ready before Friday.


Let the binding begin!