sewing catchup

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I had a little adventure in making mashed potatoes. Here's the thing - I don't really like mashed potatoes or gravy. It's all about the green bean casserole for me :) BUT last year at Jan's I messed up the instant potatoes (what? who does that?) so I volunteered to make scratch taters because really that's the only way I know how. I asked a lady at work how many potatoes I should use? She said about 2 potatoes per person. Huh. So like 22 potatoes. Which is right under 10lbs of red potatoes. Which equals a crap-ton of potatoes! I had planned to whip them but realized I would probably break my handheld mixer! So I added parmesan, fresh crushed garlic, cheddar and heavy cream and stirred until my arm hurt! I totally underestimated how long they would take to boil so then I was also in a hurry!! Good thing I had one moment of clarity to take a shower and dry my hair early! I also make my spinach artichoke dip and cranberry orange sauce. I'm happy to say that pretty much everyone liked the potatoes. Next time though I won't use as many potatoes! Yikes.

And so, I thought I'd finally share a pic of the table runners I went on and on about. It's not a great pic, but you get the idea. I ended up selling one from the craft faire after all, and then 2 at work! The one I have left is the far left one, the Christmas one with the red binding. After the Craft Faire I finished up this Christmas wall hanging that I started in the summer.  I really like the way it turned out.  I had been wanting to try out a scrappy binding on something so I used up some red and green binding that I had leftover from other projects. 

My friend Kristin had asked me a little while ago to make her some hot pads. That project had been put on the back burner getting ready for the craft faire. So, this weekend I put my nose to the grindstone so to speak. She had asked for plain hot pads, but I just couldn't do it. I don't think she'll really mind though. And if she does then there's still a TON of fabric left and I can re-do some plain ones. So I took this opportunity to try out a few things I've been wanting to. Like the churn dash square, which is the one with the dark brown shape  and the green binding.  Looking at this picture I really don't like that pinwheel one.  It's really not that bad in person.
Here are the plain ones.  For these I just tried a couple different quilting stitches.  Like the bottom right one I quilted circles.  And the one with the purple binding is loop d loos.  I used one layer of batting and one layer of Insul Brite so they should be very heat resistant.  That's what I used on the ones in my kitchen and I think it's a good combo.  They are pretty much 7.25 inches but the ones with straight lines turned out smaller because straight line stitching really stretches the fabric and sort of distorts it, which means when you're trimming down you have to cut off more than desired to get a uniform shape.  I guess I could have started with 10 inches and then cut down to 7.25 but you know, that whole hindsight thing......lol.
I didn't take a picture of the backs, they are just boring.  But each one is a different fabric that coordinates.  I hope she likes them :)

bah

Okay, here goes: not one of my runners sold.  THAT is exactly why I never wanted to do a craft fair.   It would have sucked worse actually being there watching people not buy my stuff.  So, yeah, sorry to be a negative nelly. 

In other news it's been raining off and on and I have a yummy veg soup in the crock pot.  I've been sewing and just finished up a Christmas wall hanging I started awhile ago.  Listening to The Lightening Thief book on tape.  So, it's  cozy kind of day.  What's everyone else up to?

and I ramble on....

I know I say this like, every single year, but seriously ~ it's almost Thanksgiving already?  Crazy.  I love and also kind of hate the holidays.  I love what the holidays are, the music, decorating, food, family and friends.  I hate missing people, ideals that don't add up, and another year slipping by.  But, the love outweighs the hate, so no worries.
This week has gone by fairly quickly and I'm glad.  I donated blood on Monday, today had part 3 of the root canal (the end is near!), and have been trying to talk my immune system out of a sinus infection. Tomorrow is the farewell dinner for Laurie (boo.),  Saturday I hope I can sleep in and Sunday Jan and I are going to see Breaking Dawn!  Monday I will know if any of my table runners actually sold at the craft fair.  I almost don't want to know.  But, I do want the money if they do :)
Huh, what else is new?  I'm reading the new Beverly Lewis book, the Fiddler, to distract myself from reading the new book club book that we haven't started yet.  Um. Okay fine, I did already read the ending...but I wouldn't be me if I didn't, right?  Also up for this weekend I feel like I might need a Christmasy bunting.

cold

So, the snow sort of melted but then it was so cold that it didn't completely melt.  And then early this morning snowed a teensy bit more.  I popped in Michael's last night because I had been in there for-ever!  and there was Christmas music playing.  It felt oddly comforting :)  Because I L.O.V.E. playing Christmas music and do allll year long.  Now I can play it and it's not quite as out of place as it is when it's 80 degrees out.  But 30 degrees ~ rock on!  Er, holly jolly on? 

snow

FYI it's snowing!  Like, for reals snowing.  I begrudgingly admit that it is pretty in a Christmasy way but I'm not ready for snow!

and more random

Oh man, it is mid week and my tail is dragging on the ground!  I went to zumba after work and it was like my legs were lead!  Sometimes that happens where my brain tells my body to move and my body is like, um, no.  It's okay though.  Tomorrow is another day and I will have more energy.

I know I've been sort of quiet on here, but really it's because like nothing is going on.  Every time I go to write something it's like "that's too boring" or "that will be offensive" or a million other "that is...." so then I just end up writing nothing.  Life is just rolling along, nothing exciting.  I'm disappointed about some of the election results....but so glad the election is over!  I love to vote.  Love.It.  I could not wait to vote as soon as I turned 18 I voted.  I am reading a new book called The Fiddler, it's the newest Beverly Lewis book.  V. Sloooowwwlly.  And project wise things are kind of blase blase there too.  I will post pics of all the runners I've made once they are done.  Hmmmm, what else is up?  I did volunteer to decorate the office breakroom for a girly baby shower.  But that's really no big whoop because it's just at lunch time and will be super easy.  I'm hoping I can give it some kind of zing though so the mama-to-be will feel special even though it is just a lunch time thing ~ does that make sense?

Still no bible study.  I did check one out at another church and it just didn't feel right.  On a good note I did manage to drag myself to church Sunday.  I didn't get much out of the service though because the lady I was sitting next to kept going to the nursery and bringing back kids!  Ugh.  Squirmy, wormy LOUD kids.  Bumping into me trying to shush up kids.  And one of them wanted to go back to the nursery but the mom said "no, you chose to come back in here so you're staying."  Right.  So we all suffer because she couldn't put her parent pants on.  Sorry.  I know that's harsh.  But, really, who's in charge there?  So, four kids later and I couldn't really concentrate or hear what the pastor was saying. 

So looking forward to the weekend when I can sleep in :)

challenging

So, some cool news this week!  There has been a weight loss challenge at work and the final weigh in was this week and I WON!!  The challenge stared right after Labor Day and I lost 7.1lbs and won $125!  So cool!  The next challenge started Friday and will end December 21st.  I have been doing lots of zumba and started a spin class last week and practicing what Jan and I call "dinnerexia"  which is just not eating dinner.  If I do feel hungry then I steam some veggies. 
An update on the craft faire thing.  I have 3 runners finished, 2 Christmas theme and one Fall.  Oh, and I learned something new!  It was painful.  I bought the newest issue of Quilty magazine (which I love) and there was an article about binding and it closed the binding with a bias seam.  Holy cow.  Trying to wrap my head around that was rough.  Maybe I just hadn't had enough coffee.  I would sew it together and it was all twisted.  I think I sewed that seam like a million times.   Then I was like I gotta figure this out.  I grabbed a scrap piece of binding and once I could turn it in my hands without the written directions then it clicked.  It looks so much nicer than the closure I was doing.  I can't find the tutorial I had used for that but it was just sewing a straight seam.