In Search of Christmas Spirit - Day 5

Day 5:  Christmas "Spirit"



After a very early start, two hockey games, and endless driving on icy/snowy/sleety roads, this seemed like the perfect way to celebrate the season.


My Christmas "spirit"... spiced rum.



Cheers!

In Search of Christmas Spirit - Day 4

Day 4:  Exterior Illumination

Our neighbors have had their Christmas lights out for weeks.  A cheery snowman, light wrapped shrubs, the full monty.  And while I enjoy the juxtaposition of fall leaf garland and frost bitten mums against the snowy ground at our house (honestly, if we hadn't had company for Thanksgiving, the sagging jack-o-lanterns would probably still be on the step too), today I decided to tackle exterior illumination.

Normally I would wait for my husband to help (read:  do) this job, but we have a very busy weekend ahead of us:  three hockey games, day long drama rehearsals, a party -- you get the idea.  So when my boys got home from school this afternoon, I announced that it was time to decorate the outside of the house.  My announcement, sadly, was met with a resounding silence.  Not to be deterred, I let my boys march off to their X-Box while I headed out into the cold.

2 1/2 hours later I'm sitting at the computer, job half done, drowning my sorrows in a glass of wine.

My undertaking seemed to go pretty well at first.  I hauled the bin of Christmas lights and faux pine garland up from the basement, dragged the extension ladder out from under the deck and got started.  After struggling with the weight of the ladder like a cartoon character, I managed to lean it up against the garage gutters and climbed up.  But then I couldn't stop laughing because everything reminded me of Clark Griswold decorating his house in Christmas Vacation -- right down to the sound of the ladder.  So silly and so embarrassing to be laughing out loud when you are alone.  Anywho...

After a slow start, I worked my way down the length of the garage, managing to stay on the ladder despite the giggling.  At some point my daughter arrived home and, unlike my boys, she was more than happy to spot me at the slippery corner of the garage.  Girl power!

Then it was on to the doors.  This portion of the exterior illumination required a step ladder, hammer, and nails.  But I managed to decorate the breezeway in record time -- dead mums out, wreath in.  Done.

I moved on to the front door feeling a little cocky, never a good idea, and was stopped in my tracks by a strand of lights that was only half lit.  ARGH!  What is it about Christmas lights!?  Why can they not work from year to year!?  I spent 15 minutes checking all the bulbs (channeling Rusty, another Christmas Vacation reference if you're unclear), I spent another 15 minutes replacing both impossibly tiny fuses (has anyone ever, in the history of the world, fixed a strand of lights by replacing the fuse), I howled at the moon (or at least to where the moon should be, it's cloudy tonight), but no, half of the lights, so beautifully entwined with the lovely pine garland, refused to light.

My resolve wavered, but I decided to move on to the lamp post.  I trudged back down to the basement in search of the lights/garland that we usually wrap around the lamp post, but after another 15 futile minutes of searching, I conceded defeat.  "I think we lost a box of Christmas decorations," I told my youngest who had finally come up for air from playing FIFA 15 and was running by stick-handling a tennis ball.  His helpful response:  "Maybe it's not lost; maybe you just can't find it."

So that's it.  Clearly the exterior illumination project will not be completed in full tonight.  But somehow, now that I've reached the bottom of my glass of wine, I'm feeling fine about it.  Here's a picture of the decorated garage.  Christmas spirit?  not so much...

In Search of Christmas Spirit - Day 3

Day 3:

Buoyed up by an extra cup of coffee and inspired by the candles on the mini quilt I posted about yesterday, this afternoon I decided to put out our Christmas window candles.

Let me pause here for a moment to tell you about the extra cup of coffee.  Normally I drink a single cup of tea in the morning.  I love coffee, but as my family can attest, when I drink too much caffeine it's a problem.  I tend to get a little cranky and a lot paranoid.  So tea it is.  But occasionally, when there's a bit of coffee left in the pot and I'm feeling a little reckless, I'll pour myself a cup.

This morning was one of those mornings.  And when the coffee kicked in, I was a designing machine!  I couldn't sew a stitch because my hands were shaking so much, but the ideas, energy and optimism came fast and furious.  I can't do it every day -- I think eventually I'd develop a tolerance for the caffeine and the positive effects would wear off -- but it's an excellent ride every once in a while.

So anyway, the candles.  (Apparently lack of focus is another side effect of the coffee.)  I love the look of Christmas candles in the window -- so welcoming when you are coming home late, say after yet another hockey practice.  But the candles present a couple of major drawbacks.

First, our candles are light and tend to fall off the window sills from the weight of their cords.  Tired of replacing bulbs, I've tried using adhesive putty to hold the candle bases to the sills with minimal success.  I thought about duct tape, but it doesn't exactly say "Christmas."  So this year I had the brilliant idea (coffee, coffee, I love coffee!) of hot gluing the candles to the window sills.  I did a spot test by putting glue on my window sill and pulling it off after 30 minutes (30 minutes, 30 days, what's the difference) to see if it also removed the paint.  Didn't!  Genius!  So I committed and glued all of the candles to the window sills.

Which brings me to drawback #2.  Turning the candles on and off.  In our last house, we tried battery operated candles, but found them too dim.  So when we moved into this house we splurged on electric candles with in-line cord switches.  Lovely.  But two sides of our house are visible from the road, and those two sides of the house have 10 windows that need candles, and that means every day we have to turn on and turn off 10 candles.  My daughter is pretty great about turning the candles on when she gets home from school.  It's turning them off that is the problem.  The kids are in bed by then, so my husband and I have been crawling around on the floor and reaching behind furniture to turn off the 10 candles every night in December for 5 years.  Once in a while I pretend to be tired and sneak upstairs to read, leaving my husband to, as he calls it, "shut down the nuclear reactor." He gets wise to me pretty quickly.


But last year my mother-in-law came for a visit during the month of December.  And when it was time to shut down the nuclear reactor, Joan simply walked up to one of the window candles and turned the bulb in its socket just enough to turn it off.  My husband and I looked at each other in shock.  Ridiculously easy and yet it hadn't occurred to either of us in 5 years.  Needless to say, that moment was life changing.

So this year, the candles are glued down tight and thanks to Joan, the nightly shutdown should be a snap.  Christmas spirit?  Getting there.  And don't they look pretty...

In Search of Christmas Spirit - Day 2

Day 2:


This morning we woke up to another couple of inches of snow and a two hour delayed school start.  Climbing back into bed at 5:30 for another hour of sleep has definitely boosted my spirits.


And, fresh as a daisy after our relaxed morning, I decided that today was the day to pull out the Christmas quilts.










The first to go up was my Home for the Holidays wall hanging.

Followed by my Christmas in the Cabin table runner.

The pillow I made with leftover Christmas in the Cabin trees went in my favorite chair.

And my O Holy Night wall hanging, an oldie but a goodie, went on its hook in the stairway.

And finally, the latest addition to my Christmas collection, this sweet little framed quilt.  I wish I could say it was my design, but alas it's a Bareroots "little stitchies" pattern, #155 Christmas Stitchery to be exact.  I made it during the height of my pre-Thanksgiving Christmas spirit and it's sitting on my kitchen window sill mocking me -- a reminder of Christmas spirit past.  Hmm, it is really cute though.  Could it be a portent of Christmas spirit yet to come...

In Search of Christmas Spirit

I've finally emerged from my Thanksgiving leftovers induced coma (mmm... pumpkin pie) only to discover that it's December 2nd, Christmas is 23 days away, and I'm seriously lacking in Christmas spirit.  My daughter brought this to my attention when she asked me what percentage of Christmas spirit I had.  "Oh, I don't know, 3%," I told her.  She was shocked and informed me that during the course of the year she was always at least at 8%.  Ok, so the math might be inaccurate, but the point is, my Christmas spirit is low and after giving it some thought, I think I know why.

A few weeks ago, I discovered that the Hallmark Channel shows Christmas movies 24/7 and I'm not ashamed to admit (ok, I'm a little ashamed) that I've been partaking.  And then a couple of weeks ago I accidentally happened upon the Sirius Holiday Traditions channel in the car while looking for something to listen to other than the NHL Network that my boys favor.  Listening to holiday music in the car reminded me that I could listen to a Pandora Christmas music station while working at home.  Then I saw eggnog in the grocery store a few days before Thanksgiving and couldn't resist the pull of a rum and eggnog (I don't think that means I have a problem).  And then, to top it all off, we got a foot of snow in a pre-Thanksgiving snow storm.

With schmaltzy movies and Christmas music and eggnog and snow barraging my system (really, I don't drink that much eggnog), you'd think I would be full of Christmas spirit.

But no, I'm afraid I'm a peak-too-sooner.

I think Thanksgiving was my Christmas.  I peaked at Thanksgiving and now the formerly charming movie formula of single parent falls for child's teacher, or young professional woman forgoes the "perfect" guy for the "perfect for her" colleague, or even coma patient saves Christmas for the people around her and emerges from her coma perfectly made up and in love (preferably with another coma patient) just doesn't seem to be working for me anymore.  And if I hear "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" or "Santa Baby" one more time I am going to lose it.

This is a terrible state to be in on December 2nd and with my family depending on me to deliver and a Christmas issue submission deadline looming, it's time to fight back.

But the question is, how to become a re-peak-er?  (or would that be a peak-again-er, I'm a little unclear about the specifics of peaking)

The plan (and forgive me for its lack of complexity, but I'm working off-the-cuff here):  Do something Christmassy every day between now and Christmas.  And that doesn't include watching other people enjoy a fantasy Christmas on tv or listening to yet another rendition of "White Christmas."  I mean doing something authentic, no matter how small, to celebrate the season.

Hopefully I'll be able to re-manufacture some Christmas spirit.  Maybe I'll come to some new understanding of the true meaning of Christmas or maybe I'll just end up finishing my Christmas to-do list.  Either way, here goes...

Day 1:

Pulled out my advent calendar and added one ornament.   This advent calendar is hanging in my kitchen, hence the very un-Christmassy rooster hook.  It's also hanging above the dog's dishes which means the ornaments sometimes end up in the water bowl on the way to the tree.

The kids will take turns adding ornaments to the tree every night from now on and inevitably we will forget whose night it is and an argument will ensue.  Can't get more authentic than that!





Hmmm... there appears to be very little change in my Christmas spirit so far.  Could be the rooster.  Onward...

Quilters Newsletter's Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 Blog Tour

Welcome to Day 4 of QN's Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 blog tour!

If you've been following along with the tour, then you know that Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 is full of colorful and beautiful quilts and projects for your home.  If you'd like to take a look inside, check it out on QN's website.  And when looking turns to buying, Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 is now available at quilt shops, bookstores, newsstands and on line at Quilt and Sew Shop.

I'm thrilled to have two projects in Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014!  First off is my "Fresh as a Daisy" pillow found on page 16.

This cheerful 12" x 16" pillow is made with a mini charm pack, fabric scraps and a half yard of additional fabric.  I chose to make mine with Kate Spain's "Daydream" fabric, yum.

And this project is fast!  With pre-cut squares, the preparation is minimal, and the only hand work is the embroidered "joy."  I appliquéd the flower by machine using pink thread and left the edges of the flower rough for a shabby chic look.  Here's a close-up of the flower petals:

To quilt the pillow, I machine stitched 1/4" on either side of each seam.  This project is easily accomplished in a day – give one as a gift or, even better, make one for yourself to brighten up your sewing room!


My second project is "True Colors," a lap quilt found on page 84, and may I say, one of my favorite quilts that I've made this year.

I was inspired to make this quilt by a birthday card that I received that featured striped candles atop a birthday cake, but when I finished the quilt top, I was immediately reminded of Fruit Stripe gum...

Photo:  givetogrant.org

I almost ended up naming this quilt "White Stripes" a kind of artsy reference to the "negative space" that my brilliant (just in case he reads this) husband came up with, but alas "True Colors" prevailed.

This improvisational quilt was fun to make from start to finish, but choosing the fabric may have been the best part.  For each of the 8 rows, I got to choose a dark, medium and light fabric – that's 24 gorgeous colors – and the stack of fabrics was so beautiful that I was afraid to cut into it.

I used a foundation method to make each strip of the quilt and I was a little nervous about it, but it worked beautifully and was surprisingly fast.  In fact once I had all of the fabric strips cut and organized for each row, I finished this quilt top in a single weekend.

Here's a picture of the finished quilt top – pre-quilting – draped over my railing late last winter.  And eek, sorry, that is snow behind it.  If you're not looking forward to winter, look away!

And now the fine print: For a chance to win a fabric bundle from Quilters Newsletter, leave a comment on this post before 11:59 pm MDT tonight (11/13/2014) by clicking on the word "comments" below.  You'll be redirected to a "Post a Comment" window.  Once there, either scroll to the bottom of the window or click "Jump to Comment Form" and follow the directions to leave your comment.  I'll draw one name at random, so please make sure I have your email address.  This contest is only open to those who haven't won something from QN in the last 90 days.

Good luck and happy quilting!

***This contest is now closed.  Thank you for all of your comments and don't forget to visit the QN blog today (11/14) for links to other designers' blogs and more chances to win!  Good luck!***

Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014 Sneak Peek

Quilters Newsletter's latest special issue, Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014, is now available in quilt shops, bookstores and on news stands.

And to celebrate the release of Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2014, Quilters Newsletter is hosting a blog tour this week starting at 8:00 Mountain Time tomorrow morning, November 10th and running through Friday, November 14th.

I'll be blogging about my Best Fat Quarter Quilts projects on Thursday, November 13th, and yes, you'll have a chance to win a prize!!

But in the meantime, head over to QN's blog for links to other designers' blogs.  Quilter's Newsletter is showcasing project by 12 designers -- that means 12 chances to win!

Good luck and I'll see you back here on Thursday!