X-mas (#18) and Boxing Day (#19)

 X-mas (#18):

Christmas was quiet. We had a quiet morning at home. I sewed. I'm still sewing and sewing. I worked on a quilt top that's hard to explain. It's five free-form houses in two rows with a road in front of each row. (I need to get some pictures up, don't I?)

Late morning, I got up from my sewing machine and took a shower and got dressed. My Christmas lipstick was Sephora's Cream Lip Stain Liquid Lipstick in the shade 01 Classic Red. 

In the afternoon, we went to my mother's house for lunch.

We had made vegetarian posole and, at 2:00, we took it to my mom's, along with some carne adobada and chicharrones and a couple of kinds of cookies. My brother brought a pecan pie and my mother had made menudo and cheese enchiladas and deviled eggs and fudge and a salad. This was lunch for four. So we ate really well. Really, really well. There were tons of leftovers and a gift of biscochitos and tamales from my aunt Charlotte.

After, we came home, I sat down to sew some more. (I finished up the quilt top except for the borders.) I sewed until I was too tired to see straight, then I went to bed and looked at quilts online until I was too tired to keep my eyes open. I bought an online course in abstract quilt making taught by Gwen Marston, who makes art quilts inspired by artists like Paul Klee. Then I went to sleep just before one a.m.

Boxing Day (#19)

I got up at 5:30 a.m., fed the pups, and sat down at my sewing machine. I finished a quilted envelope pillow case (large pinwheel blocks in shades of green and yellow, bordered by black-and-white polka dots). Here's the kicker: I've never quilted anything in my life--have never worked with batting, never machine quilted--and knew I had to start small, so a 20-square inch pillow was perfect. I did a hybrid of machine quilting and hand-tying. (I have a very distinct sense-memory of a tied quilt of my grandmothers. I remember, as a tiny child, being able to fit my fingers under the knots of the quilt.) The pillow case came out well and we are using it as a kind of blanket storage (that is, instead of a pillow, it holds a folded blanket).

I skipped a shower today in favor of a quick nap. Today's lipstick was Milani Color Statement Lipstick in the shade Confident (a matte brick red).
In the afternoon, we went to the fabric store and I had a little shopping spree. They were having a sale--33 1/3% off everything--so I went a little crazy. My receipt was a mile long and I came home with two bags of fabric.

We had planned on a movie in the afternoon, but the theater was a zoo so we just came home. I put my fabric in the washing machine and then the dryer. (The woman at the store had taught me a neat trick to keep the fabric from fraying in the washer. People often zig-zag the edge of fabric, but her trick is to nick a corner so it acts as a kind of pinking. It even almost works.)

We had leftovers for dinner (menudo, posole, enchiladas, beans, chicharrones). While we ate, we watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show.

Then I went back to sewing.