My throat is on fire

And my sinuses feel like they are trying to find an escape route from my cheeks. Or like they've punched me in the face from the inside. Oh yeah, and it's 3 a.m. and I'm not asleep. This is very abnormal for me. Very. Abnormal. In order to explain just how abnormal, I'll tell you a little story. Skip the next paragraph if you don't care.

Here goes. In high school I was a wrestling cheerleader. This involved getting up very early on Saturday mornings and riding a school bus with a bunch of stinky wrestlers to a tournament. I think the minimum travel time was at least an hour. Like nearly towns would call the school and want to schedule a wrestling meet, and they said, "No, sorry, you're too close." So anyway, one particular Saturday, the school bus arrived at the tournament about 2 hours before the tournament began (this was typical, the wrestlers all had to be weighed and checked for ringworm). I had brought my pillow and blanket with me (wrestling is a winter sport, and school buses don't have the best heating systems), so I made a little nest for myself in the bleachers and fell asleep. So, I don't know, about 2 hours and 10 minutes later, I wake up to find the bleachers full of people. Full. Somehow I had slept through the arrival of about 1,000 wrestling fans. It was the regional tournament, afterall.

Long story short, I can usually sleep through just about anything.

Anywho, I'm going to try to go back to sleep. I've got a big day tomorrow (today?), as my goal is to make and quilt two quilts. Yes, you read that right. Two. One is already started, and the other is pretty simple, so we'll see.

Here's a blast from Christmas past. I'm guessing this picture was taken 1985-1987. I'm the third from the left. This picture is actually the inspiration for one of the quilts I plan to make today (tomorrow?). More on that later.

And one last thing, here is a quilt I hope to make in time for Christmas 2008. I think this is from Quiltmaker magazine, Dec. 2001, but I'm not sure. I just saved the pic, not the instructions.

Okay, off to bed!

Procrastination Station

That's my new nickname for my sewing room. The last few times I've been in there, I've just sort of wandered around, shuffled some papers and fabric, and walked out. Today, however, I finally got the borders on my red & white stack-n-whack quilt.

I really like how it turned out. It finished measurement is 48" x 48", so I'm thinking of using it for a Christmas wall hanging or maybe even a tree skirt for next year. There is no chance it is going to get quilted in time for this Christmas. Not that I have to use it for Christmas. I love red, so I will probably use it all year. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking of making a red & white quilt for our bedroom, so I could hang this stack-n-whack quilt in there. Hmmm.

I'm going to the Little Balkans Quilt Guild meeting in Pittsburg tonight to do a program, so come by if you're in the area. I'll be spending the rest of my afternoon getting ready for that, packing up quilts and merchandise to take with me. I'm having a quick lunch of cheese nips (the official cracker of Major League Soccer, according to the box) and Dr. Pepper, so I should be nice and carb'd up for tonight.

And just in case you need any help procrastinating, check this out. Hilarious and true. So true. I'm enrolling my husband tomorrow.

Perfect place

for the best hot chocolate ever, period.

These placemats are a Christmas gift. I need to make a couple more...maybe tonight. I got the idea and the measurements from the Bend the Rules Sewing book, but did something a little different for the top. The back is solid red Kona cotton. These went together very quickly. Quickly enough that I may make another set. Or maybe matching napkins. We'll see.

My mom, sister, nephew, & new niece are visiting this week. We went out and had a nice dinner last night (which is such a nice treat every once in a while). The baby slept until we were almost ready to leave, and my 3-year-old nephew stopped making engine noises long enough to behave like a little gentleman, so the adults were able to talk and enjoy themselves. Thank goodness for small miracles.

When we got home, my dinner had digested enough that I was ready for something sweet, so I made hot chocolate. Not just any hot chocolate...according to my husband, "the best hot chocolate I've ever had." Quite the compliment coming from this man. I'm afraid I can't take all of the credit, because this recipe was on the package. But I would like to think my special hot chocolate making technique kicks it up a notch.

The Best Hot Chocolate Ever (according to my husband):

1 pkg hot chocolate mix (or make your own if your just ambitious like that)

milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Pour the hot chocolate mix into a mug. Pour enough milk into the mug to just cover the hot chocolate mix. Stir until well-blended. It should be kind of thick at this point...the consistency of cake batter or melted milk chocolate. Add the vanilla (a "plop" of you're not a measurer) and the cinnamon (a sprinkling). Stir. Slowly add more milk, stirring as you go, until the mug is full. Microwave until hot. Enjoy!

Back from the dark side

Sorry about that. I had to take an unintended break from blogging to re-energize and re-group. I'm sure I'm not the first (or the last) person to experience a little drought of creativity, but there for a few weeks I just didn't have it in me. Well, I'm back, and I have the November quilt guild meeting to thank for snapping me out of it. Everyone showed their Underground Railroad quilts, and quite frankly, I was jealous. So the next day, I decided to finish my blocks.

(Sorry for the bad fluorescent lighting at the top of the picture.) Now I just have to decide how to set them together. The book shows quilts in a regular 3 x 4 block grid with sashing and cornerstones, but I'm thinking I want to do something a little different with mine. Something like this maybe? (Gotta love EQ6!)

Also, I've been wanting to learn how to do stack-n-whack properly for months. I did the blocks for this quilt, but I sort of just stumbled through it, not really knowing what I was doing. So another guild member came by the other day and helped me figure it out. Here is what I have to show for my efforts so far... a vast improvement over my previous project in terms of stack-n-whackiness.

Here's what the original fabric looked like before it was whacked:


And last but not least, a christmas gift in progress for a family member that doesn't read this blog (or at least I hope not)!

See, I have been a busy little bee! And that's not all I have to show you... more projects coming soon! So nice to be out of my crafting funk!