A Christmas Gift

My Christmas gift for you is a story.

Way back in 2006 Millie and I participated in a Secret Paw. I sent a package to cats in California. I made some catnip sachets and kitty treats, but I included a box of Swiss Fudge from Van Otis Chocolates for Michelle, the woman who owned them. Michelle wrote to thank me for the gifts for the cats and the chocolates.

"Those chocolates are evil," she wrote. "EVIL, EVIL little chocolates. Send more."

I laughed and laughed.

Ever since then, when Millie and I had some kind of contest, we always sent the winner a small box of the "evil little chocolates." They were always a big hit. 

 

When Megan (from Sydney Australia) came to NH to visit way back in 2016, I made sure to have a box of the evil little chocolates to give her. You can see her reaction above.

When Julie came to visit this past summer, we made a special trip to Van Otis chocolates in town so we could buy some. I prefer the Milk Chocolate and Julie likes the Dark Chocolate.

Every year my company has a Holiday Festival. There are several gift baskets, chocolates, gift cards, pet baskets, etc for raffle, and we "earn" extra tickets by doing fun things (Wearing an ugly sweater, making a gingerbread house, bringing an ornament for the tree, etc.) My colleague Andrea put together the chocolate box, and went to Van Otis to get the things for it. I told her the story of the Evil Little Chocolates. We laughed, and then later I saw the giant basket of chocolates, and this package of 12 Days of Swiss Fudge!! Wow!

I put all my tickets in the chocolate basket, but I didn't win it. Andrea did.

I wasn't at work that day, and I was out the next one too, but when I got back Andrea dropped by my office and gave ME the package of the Swiss Fudge!

Here is what Andrea told me, "When I put the basket together, I wanted to win it. And I decided that if I won the basket, I would give you the box of Swiss Fudge. I won the basket. This box of Swiss Fudge is for you."

I thought it was the loveliest gift.

Merry Christmas.

The Baking Frenzy

 Years ago my son and I would spend a weekend baking to create boxes of various sweets for him to give to his friends in college. We made brownies, caramel corn, cookies and biscotti and stuff I can’t even remember. We made so many different things I had to create a spreadsheet to calculate how many pounds of butter, sugar and chocolate I needed. It was a lot of fun.

I am not doing that this year, but I do want to give a box of a few different cookies to each of my family members on Christmas. Since I don’t want to give stale cookies, I made the cookie dough for several different kinds and put them in my “outside refrigerator,” which means they are sitting out on my front porch. After I rearrange the contents of my fridge, I’ll transfer them back to the fridge. The temperatures here for the next four days is not going above 34F so they are fine out there. There is a shortbread cookie with pretzels, chocolate, pumpkin seeds, coconut and pecans. There is an ultra-rich chocolate chip cookie; there are Russian Tea Cakes (also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies) and some Moroccan Semolina and Almond Cookies.

I’ll also be making some Gochujang Caramel Cookies, Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies, Spiced Chocolate Marble Shortbread Cookies and some Crunchy Coconut Twists.

I’ll also make some caramel corn, but I’ve also found a recipe for Cheddar Popcorn. This batch (above) is made with white cheddar powder. This is a test batch. I’ll bring it to work tomorrow to see what my coworkers think of it. Last week I made some Peppermint Saltine Toffee Bark and that was a great hit.

I have made another small pink bird, but with Christmas coming up around the corner, I’m pretty focused on that, and the dinner I will be cooking that day, so I haven’t been in the studio as much.

Two In a Row

 

I worked hard to get my house ready for the festivities on Christmas. I cleaned. (I emptied out the silverware drawer, washed everything in it, cleaned the inside, and then put everything back.)

I decorated. I cooked. I even made a Tourtière. 

This is a big deal because even though I grew up eating toutiere every Christmas and New Year's I haven't eaten one in over forty years and I've never cooked one before. It's really easy (you know, "in theory"). Mix leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving (which in my French-Canadian, Quebecois family is a mixture of ground pork, beef and veal with a bit of onion, celery, some dried bread, Bell's Seasoning and chicken broth... but I liked it when my mom added walnuts and chopped apple) with some leftover mashed potatoes and put it in a pie crust (top and bottom) and bake till done. Eat hot. It's probably an artery clogger of epic proportions, but it's as homey comfort food gets. I don't even know why I thought of it, but it's not the kind of thing you make in a single serving.

 (It was absolutely flat-out spectacular, by the way.)

So what I was NOT ready for when I woke up on Christmas morning was temperatures just below freezing, and rain. Freezing rain is the worst. Not to look at or to weather, but driving in it is near impossible, When it is freezing rain, Gravity Rules. You can go, but you cannot stop. Or rather, you WILL stop (eventually) but it won't be pleasant. 

You can drive in snow, and if you are prepared, and you are careful, the odds of your getting from point A to point B safely are in your favor.

Not so with freezing rain. If the road is cold, and the rain hits it, the road freezes. Driving on it is a crap shoot. Gravity is a Hard Thing. I live on a steep hill. Do I want to get into my car only to slide down the hill into the house at the bottom of the street? I do not.

By 9 AM in the morning the news was full of accidents (one 12 car pileup about 10 miles away from me closed a major highway for several hours), and by midday several highways and roads were closed. With temperatures staying below freezing all day, and the rain forecast to fall all day, it was abundantly clear that Christmas this year would be a solitary thing.

Again.

I had a lovely FaceTime visit with my son and his family (he loves fountain pens and I gave him a box to put his in) and I talked to several of my friends and every member of my family.

Before I went to bed, I even soaked in the tub. (Sorry, no action photos).

Good thing Millie kept me company.

Christmas in the Bathroom

 Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts about Millie. They are all very much appreciated. It's all I can do to keep from crying. I have to remember that Millie has brought me such incredible joy, and connected me with many friends, and that was unexpected for both of us. Nothing lasts forever, but Millie has been with me a good long while, and I shall continue to enjoy her every day she is still with me.

Now, on to the Christmas decorating.

I'm hosting the dinner this year, and I got the decorations up, but I felt something was missing. (and you know me...)

You all know how much I hate, loathe and despise "cute" (except for kittens, puppies and small children related to me). I have always thought the shower curtain I chose for the second bathroom was pretty cool. (I wanted to rewallpaper the room, but chose something white before I realized the tub, sink and toilet were... beige). ANYWAY, aside from the cat vase with the holly I showed you yesterday I thought the room needed a little something. I wondered if they made any holiday themed shower curtains that weren't "cute."

Indeed they did. So now this lovely graces my bathroom. You can also see the small pointsettia I put in there too. 

Here's the view from the other end of the room. I have red hand towels to use too.

This the shower stall in my main bathroom. It's so tiny I don't use it. Instead I store extra toilet paper (hello pandemic), some cleaning supplies, and I actually hang the holiday wreath in there during the year.

But the view from the toilet is decidedly utilitarian. What to do....??

WRAPPING PAPER!!!! I cut the pieces then taped the paper to the inside of the shower door. I probably would never have thought of this if it hadn't been because I've been making the lined drawstring bags to use to wrap gifts this year. I like looking at this a whole lot better.

This is the tub in the main bathroom. It is a spa tub, and I have always thought it was so ugly and dumb I never used it and just put junk in it. Or on the edges, as in the littler boxes Millie decided she didn't like a couple of years ago... I knew I'd had to at the very least make it presentable for Christmas dinner when my guests might see it...

I thought maybe I could fill it up with poinsettia plants. So I cleared out all the junk that was in there (you already know where the bucket ended up). I thought it looked better already. I stuck a poinsettia plant in there to see how it looked and to figure out how many I'd need to fill it up. After I took this picture I took the plant out and scrubbed the tub.

It looked really good. Then I got another idea. But the execution of that idea is still in process, so you are just going to have to wait to see what happens next.

OH, and by the way, yes, I know that poinsettias are poisonous to cats, but Millie just ignores them, so I am safe. Because otherwise I could not have done this:

Yeah. I got a little carried away. You know what my son says: "You know what I love about you, Mom?

"When you go over the top, you keep going."

Santa Flies

 

Longtime readers may recognize this Santa music box I bought over 20 years ago. 

He has long attracted a lot of love and attention. The first year Millie lived with me as an extremely  precocious kitten, she loved him. (sigh).

I bought him over 20 years ago. He was horrifically expensive back then. I saw him in a music box store I visited with a friend of mine. The store was full of "cute" and corny music boxes, all frilly, frothy and overdone. We all know how much I hate, loathe and despise anything "cute" (except for little girls, kittens and puppies.) He was at the back of the store, on a high glass shelf. I could see the price tag stuck to the base. $75.00. I could absolutely NOT afford him. He was a "country" Santa. I didn't much like "country" either, but this guy was really really handsome. I looked and looked. I left.

I went back to the store three times to look at him, which was saying a lot, because the store was at "The Mall" and I hated The Mall. I never went near The Mall between Thanksgiving and New Year's because the place was always packed to the gills and finding a parking space was ridiculous.

On the third visit, I told a clerk how much I loved him. I mean, I walked into the store STRAIGHT to the back where he was, not looking at anything else until I got there. It was pretty obvious I was taken with the guy. "We do have lay-a-way." I put down a small deposit. The week before Christmas I brought him home. My son was a teenager at the time and had grave misgivings. 

He got over them eventually and finally admitted it was the only one of my Christmas decorations he wanted. I took great care of the Santa and he was always the first of the Holiday decorations to be put out, and the last to be put away.

When we FaceTimed on Christmas day, and I showed him to my granddaughter, she was enthralled. She loved him as much as I did. Well. There was only one thing to do. I had enjoyed him for over 20 years, and it was time for Santa to make more memories. So I packed him up and brought him to the shipping department at my company. It cost me more to ship him to the City of Angels than I paid for him all those years ago.

My granddaughter was absolutely overjoyed.

Oddly enough, so was I.

A Do-Over

 

Sometimes when you are so focused on one thing, you miss something else. This is a Do-Over of the Red Bird. When I made it I wanted to get the feathered edge of the angel's wing on the bird wing, but I didn't pay attention to how much "air" or negative space, was above the angel's head. In the new bird, above, I have fixed that. While I was at it I changed the color of the bird's legs and changed the beak.

This is the original bird, so you can compare the two. It isn't a big difference, but I much prefer the way the angel fills the space of the wing at the top. I know it's a little thing, but every time I looked at this bird that space bothered me, so I made a new one.

Call me crazy, I know, but I am happy I made the change.

If you are interested in making your own birds, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. This bird is NOT PAPER PIECED.

Fine Tuning

 

I really, really, really did not like that pink box of peppermint candies. It stuck out like a sore thumb, so after finding another surprise in my stash, I made yet another box.

I liked it a lot better. But then I noticed the busy box in the bottom row. (Actually there are two busy ones down there.) ANYTHING close to the edge of a piece of artwork that draws your eye there (usually it is something with strong contrast) is not a good thing. Because your eye will then be drawn OUT of the artwork, and that's bad. It's a Design Rule and it's based on how your brain sees things, so don't bother disagreeing with me. You won't win that argument. If you are making a piece of art (a quilt is a piece of art) your point is to get your viewer to look at it, not away. So YES you want to control the movement of your viewer's eye.

It's kinda funny. When I talk to quilt guilds or students I tell them I want my quilts to shout, "Look at me, look at me, LOOK. AT. ME."

"ME! ME! ME!"

"NOW LOOK AT ME SOME MORE!"

"Don't look at that other quilt, LOOK AT ME! LOOKATME LOOKATME LOOKATME!"

I pause. They shift in their seats uncomfortably. They look askance. "SO are you going to tell me I'm an egocentric crazy lady?" I ask them. "IF YOU HAVE A QUILT in a show, what do YOU think?" I ask them. "You think the same thing, right? Because if you don't, YOU ARE LYING!" Now they laugh.

"You want your quilt to be the CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE! You want EVERYONE to look at it, and look at it, and then look some more. TO DO THAT, you have to follow some basic design rules to keep your viewer's attention..."

That's WHY I take so much time fine tuning the layout of my quilts. Because I don't just want them to just look nice. I want them to be DROP DEAD KNOCKOUTS.

(True story. The Selvage Fairy once commented to me, "It's interesting that you think the worst something can be is nice." Now she'll correct me because I'm pretty sure I have the quote wrong, but you get the idea.)

So I moved about a dozen of the boxes. I rearranged them so I didn't have too may busy ones together. I moved them so there weren't too many quiet ones together. I moved them so the greens and the reds didn't sit next to each other. I moved some so the REALLY busy ones weren't too close to an edge. I moved them so prints with similar shapes were not sitting next to each other. Given the fact that I don't have an infinite number of blocks it's rather tricky, but I did my best.

The Third Bird

 

This is the third bird. I think of holiday colors as red, green and gold. So this red and gold bird really fits.  See that wing? Hold that thought.

I had thought this fabric would make a terrific box, until I realized the scale was all wrong. The box in this picture is 8-1/2" wide. There is no way that print would work on a box that size. It's just too big and the print would be cut up and nobody would know if the box was gold or white or red. And it would grab too much attention.  HOWEVER...

Students are often aghast when I tell them to cut a hole in the middle of a perfectly good piece of fabric to get a fussy cut of whatever they want. YES! I expect you to do that. Do you want a terrific bird (or whatever) or do you want an ordinary, plain one? I know which one I prefer.

Rearranging things a bit got me to this placement of the birds, and I liked it. I don't want the birds in the corners, because there is too much white space around them and the quilt would look like it had a corner chopped off. I like the way they stand in for boxes. Actually, what I like about this pattern is the rhythm of the repetition, one shape after another, but with variation in color and pattern to break it up a bit. Then the birds add a bit of sass. Of course, I needed more boxes, and you can see how I audition fabrics.

This is the kind of fabric you have to be careful with. At first glance it is red with gold, but really it is the other way around. Set on the design wall, it doesn't look as red as some of the other red boxes.

This reads as "pink" to me, and not really Christmas-y. But I was running out of options, and there is already a box in the quilt with a pinkish ribbon, and the Amaryllis print has a lot of pink in it, so I knew I could get away with it. (Translation: it would not look totally out of place.)

 

I found this red fabric in one of the big bins I had set aside for "other projects." DAMN!

This box was made from scraps. I only had a long too-narrow piece of this green. You can hardly tell where I sewed it up.

This fabric was in a box that was given to me over 10 years ago. I did have to piece this together, and you don't have to look too hard to see where, but I tried not to make it so obvious that it stuck out like a sore thumb. There's pink in this fabric too.

So now that I have enough blocks I have to finish working out an arrangement I like. I am not sure I am going to use the border of the original pattern (in fact, I'm sure I definitely WON'T be doing it like the pattern, but that should surprise no one).

The Second Bird

 

I made a Red Christmas bird. If you look closely you will see part of an amaryllis flower, which was made into a box and is shown in yesterday's post. Also check out the legs, they are mini Christmas packages. The beak is as big as it is because I wanted that swoop.

Before I figure out how I want to arrange the blocks, I have to decide where the birds go. Once I know whey they (or one of them) will go, I will rearrange the boxes. So for the next few pictures, ignore the boxes and the prints and just look at the birds. This one, above, is way too symmetrical for me.

I like this better, where the birds aren't in the same row.

Trying to get the birds closer to each other, I stuck in a really tall narrow box. I had originally made this box for my HAPPY HOLIDAYS quilt, but here it just looks like a wall separating the two birds.

Getting rid of that box doesn't make this better. There is too much space surrounding the birds.

When I arrange the birds like this, they look like they are getting ready to duel. Not exactly Holiday-friendly.

I will figure out where I want to place the birds, and then I will rearrange the boxes. Stay tuned. I might just turn this thing on it's head!!!

I heard from my friend SewGirl.  This is her quilt, above. Hers is big enough for a king sized bed - 7 rows of 10 blocks each! And she quilted it herself on her Bernina 830. Yowsa!

If you want to make your own birds, like mine, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. 

If you want to make free pieced letters like in my Happy Holidays quilt, I have a tutorial for making letters without paper piecing. You can get that here.

The Arrangement

 

At first blush this looked pretty good, although I'm not excited about the bird being in the exact center.

But then I shuffled. I tried to distribute the busy patterns all around and I tried to keep the mostly solid looking red and green boxes away from each other (diagonal = OK; adjacent = Not OK).

I'm still not exactly thrilled with the bird in the exact center. I guess that means I will have to make another bird (or two) and tinker a bit.

Oh. Gee. Darn.