Almost Christmas

Here it is the afternoon of December 23rd. Where oh where does the time go? Today I planned to do all my baking - cinnamon rolls and two pies. So far my cinnamon roll dough is doing it's first rising and that is it. The pies will probably get done tomorrow morning. I tried kneading my cinnamon roll dough for the first time with my Kitchen Aid mixer - sure hope they turn out OK. I've made them for over 40 years and always kneaded them by hand. The dough doesn't look the same. Time will tell - if they aren't quite as good then hopefully my family will forgive me. Better to try out on family than the batches I'm making later this week to give to friends.

I'm all caught up on Bonnie's Mystery. I'm so glad I decided to join! Most all the strips came from my strip bins. I had to cut some blue strips from stash fat quarters but that's it. The blue squares came from my 3 1/2" square box and the neutral squares were cut from my 3 1/2" strips. I can hardly wait to see what we are to do next.

Rick, Rebecca, Chelsea, Jeremy and Sophie will be with us for Christmas Eve. We are having our traditional cheese fondue, plus a honey glazed ham, fruit salad, green salad and pies. It will be fun to watch Sophie experiencing her first family Christmas. Then Rick and Rebecca will join us for breakfast on Christmas morning. All the kids will be with their other families the rest of Christmas, so Fred and I are blessed to be having dinner with Tangled Threads friends.

Wishing each and every one of you a happy holiday season - whatever holidays you celebrate.

So much for resolutions . . . .

I've been so good this year. I pledged to myself and my readers that this year would be the year of the UFO's and scraps. Other than Joseph's quilt and the mid-century album quilt I pledged to start no new projects except for those that used strips, squares, triangles, etc. in my scrap boxes. For over eleven months I stuck by my pledge in spite of many temptations. I kept my focus on my goals.

So here I am - December 13th - and I've caved in. From every side I see people doing Bonnie's mystery. Everyone is talking about it. Friends are urging me to play along. I resisted. For two weeks I resisted. But I could feel myself weakening inside. I tried to be strong - tough - and all along my inside of marshmallow jello was quivering and shivering and caving in.

So I'm going to rationalize here - make excuses - tell myself it's OK. I pulled out my 1 1/2" strip bin and pulled out all the lights. Then I went with reds and blues - not because Bonnie is using them but because there were more strips in those two colors than any others. I don't have nearly enough strips - I'm going to have to cut a bunch more - but I'm telling myself that's OK. After all, my shelves have more red and blue fabric on them than any other color. I'm stretching the limits - some of the blues are so dark as to be almost black. Some definitely lean towards turquoise and teal. But they are still blue. Some of the reds are so dark that they really don't contrast well - but since I have a strip or two already cut from those reds then those strips will be used. So - I'm only half breaking my promise - I am using up strips from the bins. So how is that for rationalization?

Tonight I sewed together most of the already cut strips and finished about 24 rail fence blocks. I can already tell I may have to cut more strips just to reach 100 pieces for this first step. No matter. I'm having fun, I'm eager to proceed, and best of all I should have plenty of time to catch up. After all, there are only 9 more working days until retirement!