I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. I’m ready for a day of eating. I’ve got my best pair of sweatpants on so there will be plenty of room for belly expansion. We are headed to my 
So here it is….the finished Merry and Bright Christmas Quilt. Luckily it hasn’t started raining yet, so the hubbers was kind enough to hold it up for me. I mentioned that I had a lot to do on my list today, but so far I have been sucked into watching cheesy Christmas movies on ABC Family. From now until Christmas, ABC Family and the Hallmark Channel will be showing every cheese ball Christmas movie ever made and I find it very difficult to look away. I mean seriously, how could I with titles like Holiday in Handcuffs (get your mind out of the gutter people, it’s on the family channel for goodness sake) staring Mario Lopez and Melissa Joan Hart. Seriously!
But, before I got sucked into all the television drama and my butt formed a nice hinney print in the sofa, I did make some Chocolate Chip Cookies with my great little assistant, Fletcher.
He quietly waited and watched as the cookies baked.
And before I even got them out of the oven, his daddy had two glasses of milk waiting. These two turkeys never even let the cookies cool. We made them for my grandmother’s birthday. She loves them and what else do you get a lady that doesn’t want anything. Hopefully, there will be some left to give her.
What a relaxing weekend. We headed up to the Virginia mountains and it was just beautiful. The weather was gorgeous and I spent most of the day Saturday sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch. I enjoyed the weather, the mountain views and reading my book. Oh, and a cup of White Chocolate Hot Chocolate, my favorite. I brought my knitting to work on, but it never made it out of the bag. I got so caught up in Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol that I didn’t do much else. Such a page-turner. I didn’t want to put it down. 
Hubby had a good weekend, too. He “bagged a buck”. It’s not the illusive “monsterbuck.com”, but he was thrilled, none the less. Hunting is not my thing, but it’s his and I happy for him. We are home now and I’m ready for another week full of sewing. As always, I have a lot to do and my goal is to get as much as I can done before December gets here. Then I can concentrate on spending as much of the Holiday as I can with my family and not in the “sweat shop”.
Is it me, or does time just seem to be flying by these days? Where are all of my days going? It seems like I blinked and all the sudden another year is almost gone.
Some major sewing and quilting has been going on around here. Last Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was lucky enough to spend time with some really great ladies at a quilting retreat at Black Mountain, NC. Talk about inspiring! It seemed like every few minutes someone was finishing up a beautiful quilt. The made me feel so inadequate. I worked all weekend and hardly got a quilt put together. It seems that focusing became kind of a problem for me. I had a hard time deciding what to take to work on, but I settled on a Christmas Jellyroll I bought last year. I still have the borders to put on it and I hope to do that tomorrow. I am eager to get it done before the holidays are here. As you can see from my table, I have a few quilt projects I’m juggling. I would also like to make the Advent Calendar quilt by Oh Fransson! on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog. I spent last night machine embroidering the numbers on my squares. The original has appliqued numbers, which look much better than mine, but I just don’t see applique happening for me at this point. Especially if I plan on getting it done this Christmas. I don’t know about you guys, but I am already thinking about holiday baking. Working on all these Christmas quilts has really put me in the mood to make cookies and fudge and all those sugary, fatty things I love this time of year. Usually I restrain myself from baking until after Thanksgiving, at least, but I feel the urge to bake now.
I also feel the urge to make a ton of fab things from this book that was waiting for me when I got back from the retreat. 101 things to make using 1 yard of fabric. What could be better! I have already made the origami inspired box, but I’m on the fence about weather it to show it to you guys. Let’s just say that it’s not my best work.
It’s flu shots for the whole family tomorrow. Well, for me and hubby, at least. Fletcher gets the FluMist. Lucky kid. Then it’s off to the mountains for a little family time and for the hubby’s continuing quest to get what we refer to as “monsterbuck.com”. Have a good weekend everybody.
* I found an error in the tutorial*
If you printed it out before yesterday, it should say to cut one of your 7″X 13″ pieces of Peltex down to 6″ X 13″ to use on the exterior bottom.
It is now corrected on the pattern.
Well, my posts seem to be few and far between here lately. So much has been going on and at the same time nothing much. After market was over I was a little burned out and then everybody around here got sick. Everybody is better now, but to tell you the truth, I have really not felt much like sewing lately. I just can’t seem to get motivated to head to the basement and turn on the sewing machine. It is not for lack of things to sew. Believe me, I have plenty to get done, I just don’t feel like doing it. I would rather be with this cute little fireman. This was the first year I didn’t make his costume. I felt bad about it, but he didn’t mind one bit. 
Anthony helped carve the Jack O’lantern. Fletcher was supervisor. He inspected his daddy’s work very closely and we all agreed he did a good job.
I did briefly bring the sewing machine upstairs to work on the quilt for my disappearing 9-patch class. I am so excited about this class, because the ladies in the class are so excited. They are doing a great job on there quilts and they are inspiring.
I have been trying to keep this house clean. I will never understand how one man and one little boy can create so much laundry. Seriously!?! I feel like all I do is laundry. Did I mention how much I hate to fold laundry. It’s out of control.
We went to the mountains over the weekend and I did manage to get quite a bit done on the niece’s Christmas stocking. It is amazing what you can get done when you have no cell phone, no television and no computer. I have this stocking to finish and one more to make for my other niece before Christmas. 
Yup, it’s that time of year. The time of year when your cute little bundles of germs bring home all kinds of nasty little things from their preschool class and infect the whole family. Good times! Fletcher got sick and then I got sick and now his daddy is sick. It has been fun in the Allen household. I’m not going to hold it against those little germ spreaders, I mean preschoolers, though. They can’t help it and they are cute, so they automatically get a pass. That’s why we made these little treat bags for the Halloween Party at preschool tomorrow. They were really easy to make. Just some green bags, black paper, goofy eyes and a marker. Easy Peasy.
Furniture market was fun and exhausting, as usual. I love helping to set up the showroom, but I am always glad when it is over and I can get back to my “normal” routine. I thought I would share a few pics of the showroom.
Isn’t the chest on top of the dresser fab! As always, we have a lot of product to show and not enough space, so we have to get creative with our displays.
Mike Sandel, the talented artist who paints all the furniture and develops the product painted the floor in this area. Not a bad way to spruce up some boring concrete, huh!
Here is some new product with a little modern feel.
Coastal, very romantic this time.
New chest painted with beautiful sunflowers. I’m not a huge fan of sunflowers, but I do love this chest. It would look good in my foyer.
Start Knitting Christmas Stocking for my niece = Done (That’s right, I said knitting. It’s been a while, but I can knit, too.)
And in the middle of this sewing frenzy, I was even able to spend some quality time with my fellas. Imagine what I could get done if I stayed completely focused.
This week is starting off no different from the weekend. I still have plenty of things on my list to check off and I am hoping to get as much done this week as I did over the weekend. I feel like it is going to be a good week.
Also, if you read my blog, you are aware of my sweet tea addiction. Well, Thursday is October the 1st and I’m thinking that that would be a pretty good day to go cold turkey. Yes, I’m putting it out there. October One, I’m off the juice. I was thinking that by announcing it on my blog, you guys could help keep me honest. Sound good? Sounds good! (side note: does this just sound completely insane of me to seriously state that I am addicted to sweet tea of all things and enlist the help of a “support group”? Yes, I believe so.)
I think today is my turn. I started feeling THAT way last night and I think today it has just hit me full on. October is always my busy time of year. I make window treatments for the Flexsteel Showroom for the International Home Furnishings Market, I work for 2 weeks prior to market helping to set up the Guildmaster Showroom (which I absolutely love, by the way) and I am teaching sewing classes(which I love, as well). Today I looked at my calender and realized that I don’t have as much time to complete all of these tasks as I had thought. (I think I could have been in denial.) Reality hit today. Worry hit today. What have I gotten myself into??? hit today. And then there is always the overwhelming feeling that by doing all of these things, you are taking away from your family. And that makes you feel like a bad mom and a bad spouse. And even though you know everything will work out just fine and that your family loves you and thinks you are a great mom, you still worry. All of these feelings make me think that I really need to re-evaluate where I’m at and why I am doing the things I do and what things in my life need to change. I want to figure out what things are most important to me and what things I love to do and I want to do THOSE things. That’s kinda where I’m at today.
If you are having a bad day and need a little cheering up, I suggest you head over to a 3 year old’s soccer practice. It will instantly change your mood. Yesterday was Fletcher’s first soccer practice. He had the best time and watching sixteen 3 year olds play soccer was so enjoyable. My husband and I could not stop laughing. It was pure comedy. GO! Kiddie Kickers!