Siggy Block Layouts...

...all told, when the Modern Siggy Swap is over I'll have 99 signature blocks from other quilters + the one I make. I played around today with several layouts. None of them yield a particularly large quilt {a 3" finished block will do that to you} but with borders and such I could go bigger if I wanted. The thought of quilting all those inches, though, is usually encouragement enough to keep it small. *grin* 

Here's what I came up with as layout possibilities:

1. "X Marks the Spot" -- 12 rows of 8 blocks + 1 "X" to piece into the back. Measures 24"x36" without borders.

2. "Circle the Wagons" -- 10 rows of 10. Measures 30" square.

3. "The Lost Sheep" -- 11 rows of 9 blocks = 99 sheep + 1 lost sheep for the back. Measures 27"x33" without borders. When putting this one together I ended up with an "odd duck." It reminded me of Jesus' parable of the lost sheep from Luke 15. A shepherd had 100 sheep and lost one. He left his other sheep safe in the fold and went in search of the one who had wandered away. When he found it, he hoisted it up on his shoulders and took it home with great joy. Jesus said God is the same --- there is MUCH rejoicing in heaven over a "lost sheep" who repents and is brought back to the fold.

4. "Fast Forward" -- 10 rows of 10; measures 30" square.

5. "Dizzy Squares" -- 10 rows of 10 blocks; 30" square. I saw a doll quilt by Darlene Zimmerman that is similar, and another take on All People Quilt that shares the broken lines quality.

6. "Zig Zags" -- 10 rows of 10; measures 30" square. Not a true zig-zag, but close enough.

7. "Centrifugal Force" -- 10 rows of 10; measures 30" square. One of the note-worthy moments in my driver's training was when my instructor endeavored to explain the difference between "centrifical" and centrifugal forces on a car. This, Uncle Bob of A++, is for you...and it's centriPETAL force, by the way.  *grin*

I'm in...

...and SO excited! I joined my first online swap and though nervous because I generally avoid connecting on the internet like the plague, I'm also giddy about the whole idea!

Rachel of P.S. I Quilt has organized a Modern Siggy Swap --- a swap of signature blocks that only use 'modern' designer fabric. I have a couple of Arcadia by Sanae charm packs at home and I was really, really hoping Rachel would do a block small enough that I could use the charms. I saw some siggy blocks that called for 2.5-inch squares --- that'd be the accent fabric on two siggies! And, Rachel delivered...  Her tutorial isn't much different than others I've seen on the web, but she did illustrate with plenty of pictures. *grin* I have 101 blocks to make and sign by March 1st -- 99 for other quilters, 1 for me, and 1 for a charity quilt.

To help myself along, I made up a little template for the signature part. I'm geeked to use it --- I love my handwriting but am thinking winging it for 101 blocks might be too risky. I want to make sure my name and city/state are centered on the blocks and look good --- all I have to do now is trace!

I love...

...being an auntie! Ella is off to the theater with her mom and dad to see "The Princess & the Frog." She's been talking about it for weeks. I, on the other hand, am hanging out with Drew Boo. We played with his train, ate plastic food, and threw around Noah and the Ark for awhile. Now he's "down" for his nap and I'm listening in on the baby monitor. He's talking and giggling away -- such a good little boy! He has his friend, George, to keep him company. You ought to see the grin that lights up on his face when George (as in Curious) shows up. Hehehe...

Yup, I love being an aunt!

I am not above...

...reusing old posts.  *grin*  Especially when the message hasn't changed! We had a ladies' Christmas ornament exchange at the beginning of December and our theme was "Traditions" -- we talked a lot about what we do to get ready for the holidays. I asked our Olympian team leader, Laureen, if she would present the lesson she taught the Olympians in 2008. I blogged about it then, and thought I would share it again with you this season because it truly captures what is so SPECIAL about Christmas.

What is the meaning of Christmas?

• CHRIST = the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of God
• MAS = "to celebrate"

So, as we enter the Christmas season, we ought to do so with the recognition that we are Celebrating Christ!

How do we celebrate Christ?

1. PRAY to Him! Thank Him for being born as a baby so long ago. Thank Him for living like one of us. Thank Him for not letting the cup pass from Him (Luke 22:42) -- thank Him for His great love, a love that took Him to the Cross in our place. Thank Him for His power over death -- His resurrection and promise to those who trust in Him of their eternal hope.

2. WORSHIP Him! This Christmas season, don't get carried away with the spirit of the holiday; rather, worship Jesus, the reason for the holiday, in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Praise Him. Spend time with Him. Serve Him. Love Him. Honor Him. And remain steadfast in Him.

3. POINT OTHERS to Him! Do the items you put around your house at Christmas demonstrate your love and devotion to Jesus? Or are they simply trinkets of a secular holiday? I bought a 3-headed snowman for the top of my tree in 2008 (I know, it sounds odd...but I promise you it was cute in the box!) Something about having it at the top of my tree didn't set right. Everytime I walked into the room it just struck me as odd! Our star is back in place, and after this lesson, I purposed to use it to tell others about the night Jesus came. It's my reminder of God's faithfulness and His great gift. Of those "wise men" who sought the King. Of the bright Light He sent into the world that very first Christmas night. 

Dan's small group lesson also struck me as powerful. My girls, we talked about these three points -- Dan went a step further and encouraged his boys to give gifts to Jesus that He would like. What are those gifts? A life surrendered to Him; time given in love and service; an obedient spirit; a humble attitude; all the things Scripture teaches us as followers of Jesus. The wise men brought significant gifts to Jesus, reflecting who He is. We, too, ought to offer up gifts of ourselves (Rom. 12:1-2) that are worthy of our Great Savior.

What a neat lesson! What a powerful reminder of what Christmas truly is about. Not Santa Claus and Rudolph and cookies and caroling and mistletoe. Those are all nice things, but they shouldn't be the motivation for why we stop on December 25th every year and "Celebrate Christ."

May you experience the comfort of His love, the joy of His salvation, and the peace of His presence this Christmas and in the New Year!

Homemade Poppycock

If you like the "Poppycock" that comes in the beautiful red box, then you'll love this recipe.  *grin*  Around my house we call it "Amish Cracker Jack" --- but it's one of my mum's favorites because it really does taste just like Poppycock brand gourmet yumminess. It takes a strong arm to do all the stirring and helps to have someone on hand to pour the syrup while you're at it. Teamwork! I hope you'll agree it's quite worth it...

Amish Cracker Jack
Makes 12 cups

3 quarts popped corn (12 cups, about ½ cup kernels)
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup cashews

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Pop corn using your preferred method and divide between two 9x13-inch pans. Keep popcorn warm in oven while making syrup. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt, and cream of tartar. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until a candy thermometer reads 260 degrees F (or, to hard ball stage). Boil slowly! Remove popcorn from oven and transfer to a roasting pan with deep sides. If desired, toss in nuts. Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees F. Pour syrup over top of popcorn and stir to coat. Divide popcorn between same pans and bake for 1 hour, stirring three times during baking. Cool and store in a tightly covered container.

If Robin Leach were interested in quilting...

...he'd wish you One-Yard Wonders and Par(fait) Finishes! Since he's not and I am, here goes:

I finished sewing the border on the top for mum's Bento Box this morning before jumping in the shower. {I'm geeked!} I couldn't resist, even though I ended up running 10 minutes late to work. It's really coming together and I have great plans to finish it up tonight. My parents are in the process of building a handicap-accessible house because of my dad's limitations following the '06 accident. He'll turn 57 on Thursday, but his body has aged at least 10 years because of all the damage done. The entire process of building this house has been an emotional and physical strain on my folks and my family. God's grace is sufficient, and much more to us than simply words spoken out of habit. Between the holidays we'll be helping mum and dad move in partially --- I'm excited for them, and breathing a sigh of relief that the construction is finally coming to an end! My mum has always been a builder's beige/white kind of gal. A couple weeks ago she surprised us all by choosing GREEN for her walls. Mind you, she tells me, it's a very, very, very neutral green. But, says me, green all the same and my motivation for the colors in the table runner.

I'm a bit overdue on this next project, but only because I had horrific tension issues last week. I'm rather embarrassed to admit the source of these troubles --- I put my bobbin in backward! I felt pretty stupid troubleshooting over the phone with the machine repair gal. *grin*  This is the beginnings of Linda's Dresden Plate runner:

I used Bloom's technique for cutting the blades/petals out of a charm square. I've never done a Dresdan before and I would definitely consider myself a novice quilter ---- but I had the easiest time of putting this together. It's a little tedious, I'll admit; the results, however, are well worth the effort! I'm zig-zag appliqueing it to my background squares....

...and will cut up the rest of my charm squares to make a scrappy border around each block. {This is the Aviary line by 3 Sisters for Moda.} I have a bit of white left over to add a final border. Tomorrow is my last day in the office until well after the New Year so I'm hoping to finish this up the early part of next week and deliver it to Linda. I meant to give it to her along with a cookbook last week at our gals' gift exchange... *grin*

Now this, this I'm really excited about --- I've been hearing all over blogland about a new book: One-Yard Wonders.

The previews and all looked really neat, so I got myself on the library's waiting list. I waited and waited and waited. Patiently, I think. Then I got an email...from Barnes & Noble. From whenever I got the email until Christmas Eve every B&N user gets 15% off any one item. I'm savvy -- and I'm also a member of AAA. If you go through AAA to the B&N storefront, you receive 10% off every item you purchase....regardless of the time of year. It just so happens that you can combine the B&N offer with the AAA deal! *grin* It gets better though -- with my two discounts, the book came to around $11 and change before tax and shipping. I realize you can probably find One-Yard Wonders elsewhere and score a great deal, but...did you catch this?

B&N has a special edition with FIVE extra projects --- that's 106 instead of 101! And, the projects are pretty cute:

A Baby-Doll Tote...

A Clothespin Bag (which reminds me of Jacquie's "On the Line" mini quilts)...
















A super neat Duffle Bag for your bike...
















Olivia the Owl Pillow Pal...
















And, a Crinkle Sack for your cat...

Before you go kicking yourself for buying it elsewhere, if I'd really been savvy I would've called my brother before hitting "Purchase" --- he had two books on his wishlist that'd have put us up over $25 for free shipping.  *grin*

I made...

PW's "The Best Chocolate Sheetcake. Ever" Saturday evening --- and I'm convinced. It's delicious!  :o)  It trundled off to work with Dan this morning and I was on to other chocolate-y goodness and didn't bother to take pictures. Food, good food, is meant to be eaten! My recipe notes...I used "Special Dark" cocoa from Nestle's, halved the frosting recipe, reduced the butter, and toss my chopped nuts (pecans and walnuts) on top instead of mixing them into the frosting. Excellent, moist, delightful, and a deep, deep (almost black!) chocolate brown. Floating high on this one...

My next venture was (finally) putting my Williams-Sonoma ice cream sandwich makers into action. I have the cow, pig, and star set:

I made the chocolate brownie recipe that comes with the box, only I left out the melted chocolate squares (4 oz.) and increased the cocoa powder to 1/2 cup. Special Dark, again. And YUM! Vanilla ice cream from Schwan's rounded out the the sandwiches and, not surprisingly, they met with Dan's approval. And then some.

Mine are sitting in the freezer...waiting for me!

p.s. Anyone know where I can pick up a set of the "Western" sandwich makers? My WS doesn't carry them anymore and the online store search comes up empty-handed.  :o(

Dear St. Nick....

...it's been a long time since I last visited you at the mall --- do you remember that one time, when you asked me about cleaning my room and eating my vegetables? I was sure you'd gone and talked to my mum! How did you know I'd been a naughty little one? Thanks for still putting a little something under the tree for me. I'm hoping for a bundle of Kiwi Meadowsweet from the Fat Quarter Shop this year --- and please don't be alarmed when you can't find the Christmas tree. We got a little busy celebrating Jesus and didn't quite get around to putting one up. I miss my star and all the ornaments, but I made sure the stockings were hung (by the TV with care). Mine's the polka dot one on the left!  *grin*

Hope you have safe travels...

V

p.s. If you're anything like my husband, you'll probably need a picture to guide you through the shelves and shelves of fabric at FQS:

Trouble shooting...

....I called the sewing machine repair shop yesterday afternoon for some HELP figuring out my silly machine. Apparently my machine wasn't the one with the problem, entirely. I've owned this machine since 2006 and mindlessly thread and bobbin it all the time. In my rush Tuesday night to finish my project, I inadvertently put the bobbin in backward! It was feeding counter-clockwise and there was no lower thread tension...so all my "good" sewing shifted to the side seam --- leaving me with yuck on the top and odd on the bottom.  *grin*  I am happy! It's still not sew a straight line, so I figure that's due to the terrible needle jam from this summer. I may have to take it in and have that minor issue addressed, but for now, the stitches are good enough to get my Christmas projects finished up!

[INSERT PICTURE HERE]

Moving right along --- Amy at Park City Girl is having a 400th post give-away. And I want in!  *grin*  I've tried to become more of a contributor/commentor since I've benefitted so much from the online world of quilting. Spreading news seems to be something I'm capable of, so I've started there. A fat quarter or two is in the mix for the lucky (randomly generated) winner. Check it out! And make sure to go back through Amy's work --- she's been a fun one to learn from for a newbie quilter like myself.

Any idea...

...why my sewing machine would suddenly start stitching the "good side" down??? I was working away on my Dresden plates last night and got to the applique stage. I started sewing things down to the background block only to have my zig-zags show up on the BACK side of my project! I tried every stitch imaginable on my machine and got the same result. The ugly, bobbin-side is showing up on the front and the pretty side is coming up underneath. *sugh*  To make matters worse, now my straight stitch is doing the same thing. I can't get my machine to cooperate, or undo this crazy function flip-flop! Needless to say, my sewing project is unfinished and I had to dash out to the store at 11:00 last night to find a replacement gift. I didn't want to show up to the gift exchange empty-handed. I'm hoping to get my machine in for servicing yet this week. It hasn't acted the same since I jammed up the needle on my bag project this past summer. Seeing as how I'll be machine-less, I may have to go borrow time on my mother-in-law's machine to get mum's gift done!

Bummers. And I don't have any pictures because I wanted to kick my machine to the curb last night --- I was in no mood to showcase it's stupidity.  *grin*

Off to call Sears...