Christmas? Already?

I haven't been quilting at all....

UniversityGirl came home from school last Thursday and is now home for 3 weeks. It's so nice to have her home! Her 19th birthday was on Monday, so between that and trying to get ready for Christmas, I've been a little busy.....

The tree is finally up, but that's it as far as decorations go, now I just have two gifts left to buy and I'm all done.

I'm on holidays from the 24th to Jan 5th, so I'm hoping to do some major quilting during my holidays (one can always hope!).

Since I do most of my blogging from work, I probably won't be posting until the New Year, so, for all my bloggy friends out there:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Is Accuracy important to you?

I just finished reading this post on the inaccuracy of quilting rulers and mats. Very interesting. While I'm not a fanatic for 'exact' measurements (I tend to fudge if it's close enough) I do try to be accurate, and I never thought that my rulers might be wrong. Her explanation of why the borders don't always fit perfectly sounds familiar. Hmm... I guess I'll be going home tonight to measure my rulers ....

Quilty Weekend

I'm a little late posting about it, but I had a really nice weekend that consisted of mostly quilting and one of my son's hockey games (Christmas? Decorating? Shopping? Maybe next weekend....)

I finished Courtney's BFF quilt. It's made with all the leftover fabric from Meagan's 'Skunk in a Blender' quilt. I made the pattern up as I went along. I started by using the small scraps in random 'crumbs' blocks and then I made various squares like nine-patches and four patches. All of the blocks are 6 1/2 inches. Some of the blocks are surrounded by 3 1/2 strips to make them 12 1/2 inches, and the rest are the 4 blocks put together. Very similiar to the 'Skunk in a Blender' pattern, but I didn't have enough fabric to copy it exactly.

I quilted it with an allover large stipple. This is the one I had tension problems with, so I spent over an hour frog stitching..... But it's finished and I'm happy with it.

Then there's the Christmas wallhanging.... I'm not happy with it. Now that it's quilted, I don't like the colour combination. The red and green are too dark and overwhelm the Christmas print (yes, it's red... not pink!). Live and learn I quess. I'm going to put the binding on it and use it for a tablecloth instead, I think it will look better that way.

If Fabricland has any of the Christmas print fabric left after Christmas, I might buy more and try again with a different pattern.

Another story

Turns out I’m not the only dumbass in the family….

My oldest daughter is in her first year at Carleton University and exams started this week: She phones me at 1:20 this afternoon:

Laura: “So….. you know that dream where you sleep in and miss your exam?”

Me: “NO, tell me you didn’t!”

Laura: “Not exactly. Actually I had the wrong date on the calander; I thought it was Dec.10th…… turns out it was at 9:00 this morning. I was AT THE GYM at 9:00 this morning! Walking back to rez I turn on my cell phone and I get a text message that says “Good Luck” from a guy in the same class. Good Luck? What for? OMG!!!!! I run to my room and check the exam schedule and I’ve missed my first exam! It started over an hour ago! I am TOTALLY freaking out! My roommate convinces me to calm down and go to the exam anyways, maybe they’ll let me write for the last hour and a half….. By the time we get there, I’m crying so hard I can’t even talk, my roomie explains to the Professor that I had the wrong date and he agrees to let me write anyways, AND he says he’ll let me write for the full three hours. I start to calm down a little and then he asks if I’ve studied….STUDIED??!!! Are you kidding, I THOUGHT IT WAS NEXT WEEK….. I HAVEN’T EVEN OPENED A BOOK!!!! I’ve been studying for the other three exams I have THIS WEEK! And if that’s not humiliating enough, me bawling my eyes out in front of the ENTIRE class, and the Proctor bringing me tissues every 15 minutes, I was so upset I forgot to turn off my cell phone and it RINGS DURING THE EXAM….. I just want to crawl under a rock now…..You can stop laughing now Mom. Mom! Stop laughing!”

Me: (slightly hystericaI) “I’m sorry honey, but I have this really clear vision of your scholarship money swirling down the drain…..

Laura: “Thanks for the reminder…. plus, the exam was worth 45% of my overall mark, I might not even pass the class! But, I can honestly say I did learn one thing in university…. Crying gets you everything….”

Final note: I felt so bad for her that I just sent her an ‘Exam Stress Buster’ care package through the university (it’s a package with fresh fruit, junk food and coffee shop gift certificates). On the note that comes with it I had them sign it “Crying gets you everything. Love Mom”

Back to reality

Well, I’m back. And even though I had fun, it was pretty close to the vacation from hell…. It started with a bad cold two days before we left (which I STILL have) and ended up with me, flying ‘ass over tea kettle’ down a moving sidewalk in the airport on the way home. In between, I saw three great shows (yes, I love Donny Osmond and am not afraid to admit it!), had a minor bout with food poisoning, and a cab ride from hell that finished with Carol and I leaving the guys in the cab and running down Las Vegas Blvd in heels so that we wouldn’t miss the Donny and Marie show (not a pretty picture…. I’m not exactly Carrie Bradshaw in a pair of high heels….).

The highlight reel of the trip definitely had to be at the airport in Toronto. Hubby and I are at one of the moving sidewalks and there’s a family in front of us with three small children. Mom and the two boys get on the sidewalk and Dad and the little girl are in front of me and DH, and there’s NO WAY the little girl is going to step onto the sidewalk (she was probably two years old, maybe three). Well Dad can’t carry her because he has two suitcases on wheels that he’s dragging, and the little girl is frozen at the sidewalk and there’s a whole bunch of people behind us and he can’t back up or get out of the way. SO… I decide to be the good Samaritan and say to Dad, “pick up your little girl and leave the suitcase behind, and I’ll bring the suitcase…” Sounds reasonable, right? WRONG!!!! Turns out the suitcase is actually a tool box on wheels that must have weighed well over a 100 lbs…. I step onto the sidewalk and grab the case, only the case is so heavy that it doesn’t move…. But I’m already moving… Wham! I fell flat on my butt, then I had to get up and run back and grab both suitcases, I fell again, finally, DH helps me get both cases onto the sidewalk and he’s got this huge grin on his face when he says “OMG, I wish I had a camera!” Nice, honey, real nice…..

What a week.

Moving on, I spent two hours (yes, TWO HOURS) fighting with the tension on my quilting machine last night. I’ve had Courtney’s quilt on the frame since before the vacation, but somehow I managed to screw up the tension so badly that I had to give up and leave it. User error of course. It’s fixed now, but there were a few expletives thrown around last night before I got it fixed….