Encounters at the Airport

I started crocheting this green and white blanket for -- well, I don't know. But when Jessie and her husband (WOW - he DOES exist!) met me for an hour at the Denver Airport, I knew I had to finish as much as I could and give it to them. I actually gave them a hook and showed Jessie how to hide some of the transition yarn, and told her to trim it after that. THAT'S how much I rushed to finish this blanket! Well, I hope Little L likes it!

You can't tell too much, but this is right around Jessie's due date. She looked AMAZING! And it was so nice of them to come out to chat. Hopefully the next time I visit Colorado, they can come out to the slopes with us! (As an FYI, Jessie gave birth to a beautiful girl a few days after I saw them in the airport. Congrats, Aunt Lindsay & family -- Lindsay gets my blog so she gets a special shout out.)

Jeg ser fyr ved udgangen af den chunnel!

Jeg ser fyr ved udgangen af den chunnel! I see the lighthouse at the end of the chunnel!

I am so very close: All I have to do is attach the binding (which is already pinned down). I also need to make a little tag so lil' Z knows which Auntie is his favorite!

Straight lines are the cleanest way (for me) to quilt. Lane suggested I use masking tape to help guide my foot in a straight line. It worked like a charm, but I'm surprised at how much I can smell the tape after working with 50 yards of it! After some consulatation, I opted to make 16 small squares in each block. (Outlined in red on the green-striped square). The closer the quilting, the longer the quilt will last. And I want it to LAST FOREVER!





I had binding drama. I first thought the 1/2 yard of this red starfish fabric wasn't enough. I also thought I wanted a slightly deeper red. However, JoAnn's was out of the red that I REALLY wanted, so I took that as a sign. My first cut of the binding was a little off, but I made it work perfectly. I think the quilt could be another 20 inches in diameter and I'd have enough binding (don't get any ideas, Lauren. I can't change it now!) And after looking at this red with the other fabrics, it goes better than I thought it would.

Tonight's goal is to get everything sewn except for the hand stitching. That I will do on the plane later this week when I head to NY to visit this happy sailor!



No promises, BUT -- I might sneak the quilt into my office so that the quilt can get a photo op with a cardboard Elvis. I'm sure Z's dad would LOVE that - to have a quilt blessed by The King!

Hun er smukt!

Hun er smukt! She is beautiful!

If you look close enough, you can see the roundness of the black shirt against the chocolate-painted wall. Baby Z should be making an appearance in 4 days!

(Now that I've succeeded in making mom-to-be and grandma-to-be cry... )

I've been working on the quilt top for Z. If it weren't for being hungry for dinner at 10pm last night, I would have sewn the last 2 lines to complete it. I spent 5 additional hours on this: 2 hours to finish sewing the blocks into horizontal lines, 1.5 hours in ironing and sewing these lines together, and 1.5 hours talking to Miss Lindsay on the phone last night! I was only able to iron (a little) and pin while we were on the phone. It was nice to chat & catch up!

And I have to point out the vertical stripes. I am being SO cautious to sew straight lines. It'll look amazing if I do!

De børn er stadig i ovnen

Danish lesson of the day (according to babylon.com): "De børn er stadig i ovnen" means "The bun is still in the oven." That's right, but not for much longer. Less than 2 weeks and Baby Z will make his appearance! Less than a month and he'll meet his favorite Aunt. (Sorry, Ali but it'll be true.) So, what does this mean? I have to get sewing!

It took me about 45 minutes to lay out the squares on my guest bed. If you look between the 2 pictures, there are a few squares in different places, but not too many. I think 4 at most.



Then I spent 2 hours sewing the bottom 3 rows. Well, the rows themselves are not sewn together yet. Just the 7 across in the 3 rows. Included in this 2 hours is switching 2-4 blocks around, doing a quick clean of my machine, a trip to the store to get a seam ripper, and fiddling with Pandora to get more Elvis and Michael Buble music. I don't know where my seam rippers wandered off to. I can remember using them on a non-sewing project, so I probably put them away with my hammer or something.

For Baby Z, Den Lille Kaptajnen

Danish phrase of the day: translation.babylon.com says that "den lille kaptajnen" means "the little captain."

Check out these fabrics (mostly picked out by my sister, but I found the sailboats & lighthouse fabrics):



And look at what 3+ hours of work did!

Ok, so maybe you can't tell, but that's 3.25 hours of work right there. Well, 15 minutes of finding appropriate music since I want to channel the music into the quilt. (I think I ended up listening to a comedy station that probably isn't too child-friendly, but this will be the first of many secrets between Z and Auntie Shell Bell! Besides, that's only because my Elvis Pandora station wasn't playing Elvis songs!)

Anyhoo - the remaining 3 hours of work was for ironing, reironing, and cutting. I cut a total of 70 8.5" squares (7 squares in 10 different fabrics if you're a little slow on counting the picture). For most of these fabrics (all but the startfish on the far left), I had to line up each and every square to make sure it lined up well and will look good when sewn together.

Phew. The worst part (ironing) is over! Next I'll lay them out in a somewhat-random order and start sewing.

Peppermint Meringue Cookies

The search for peppermint extract: HEB #1 didn't have any. I called the next day and they didn't have any. I then called Walmart, was put on hold for 10 minutes, and then got the response, "Sir, we only have Season 1." (I'm looking for peppermint extract.) "You're not looking for The Vampire Diaries?" (No, peppermint extract is an item used in baking.) "Oh. I'm confused. Are you looking for a CD?" (Sorry lady, I'll look myself, it'll waste less time than calling you.) Hobby Lobby said they had it, but on my visit to the store, they only had peppermint oil and they were all out. HEB #2 was all out. Finally, Randalls had some! Alas, they didn't have candy canes so more trips needed to be made.

Make the meringue, add some peppermint flavor (mix) and some red food coloring drops (don't mix).

I spooned it into a baggie to pipe out. This made it easier, they looked prettier, and they were more uniform in size.

Voila! I love the stripes! (Another perk of piping.) And it was easy. (Hey ma, check out the sheet I used to put the cookies on. It was a great Xmas present last year. I love them!)

All Things Christmas

I had the idea of making an ornament wreath last year. I'd have to say, it took quite some time and I almost ran out of bulbs! (Thus the giant bow.)


Aaand Mike really wanted to know what it felt like to be blonde. Merry Christmas!