I've been doing a Thanksgiving Dinner at my home for about five years now and I have never planned ahead until this year.  Instead of trying to make all of this tomorrow morning and being completely wiped out the entire day with making most of the food (a few people bring food), cleaning it all up and trying to actually entertain, I am doing most of the prep work today.

For the few family members who read this blog, those potatoes are not the famous S-family Gloppy Potatoes.  I like trying new things and honestly do not make many things that my mother used to make as she was the best at them.  When I try and replicate the dishes that my mother used to make, they do not taste as good to me so therefore, new potato recipe.  I made the Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potato Recipe and they are to die for.  Treated myself to some for lunch even.  

Just for my own historical record keeping, this is what we are having:

BBQ Standing Rib Roast

Herb Roasted Turkey Breast

Ham

PW Creamy Mashed Potatoes

PW Cornbread Dressing with Sausage and Apples

Cranberries! 

Some kind of Green Bean thing the MIL is bringing

Assorted Bread Rolls

Pumpkin Cheesecake plus other assorted desserts

I'll be enjoying all of the sides plus a glass of wine.  Oh, and some cheesecake!  

Hope you have enjoyed The Food Edition of WIP Wednesday.  

I knew I was sick on Friday when I went through the day without doing any crafting whatsoever.  Actually I didn't do anything Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  Just sat or reclined on the couch with my Happiness Quilt and coughed and coughed and coughed.  

This morning I made myself get back into action and get moving.  After the Dr. appt I began planning for Thanksgiving with planning my menu and making my grocery store list. Got sidetracked and decided to finish piecing the That Girl...That Quilt Quilt Top - have any of you named yours yet?  I honestly thought that Jennifer had named it the Swell Quilt, until I read where her charm pack she was using was Swell fabric.  What a dork I am.  

By the way, it turned out so good!  By using the same ruler to cut fabric and the 1/4inch foot on my sewing machine, most of the seams actually meet up but it does make me wonder why they do not all meet up.  What did I do wrong?  (not the wonky part but the main seams)  

My boys just returned from seeing HP #7 without me - I thought I would be nice and allow the people in the movie theater some peace and not have to listen to me cough through the entire movie.  So I just had my older son hold up the quilt top outside for me and we were both laughing so hard because of the wind.  Well I wasn't actually laughing, I was cough/laughing and it was most uncomfortable.

I just realized that I had not talked about food in awhile on here.  I'm making Portabello Mushroom Burgers for the husband and I for dinner tonight and the boys will get Turkey burgers as they claim they are allergic to vegetables.

Time to go take something to make myself stop coughing as my muscles are hurting!  

Ciao!  

This morning I finished up the 40 blocks for the That Girl...That Quilt Quilt Along.  I'm not completely caught up as now I have to make my blocks "wonky" but I do think I am halfway there as most of mine do appear to be wonky.  

A trip to Joann's tomorrow to get the right type of ruler and 25 yard of tulle.  Tulle?  For quilting? Nope. It's for the gardening portion of this blog  (the bougainvilleas part).  I have planted cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli at my garden plot and in order to come out at the end of the season with some wonderful vegetables, I have to cover them to keep the critters out.  See exhibit A.  

If I can help myself this blog will be quiet for a few days while I focus on school.  My final portfolio of all of my history work for the past four years is due and I need to tighten things up a bit.  Kinda hard not to notice the Google Chrome button and then of course, I have to check Google Reader, Google Mail and then that leads to Facebook.  Stop the madness!  

I excel at tuning out The Simpsons.  Hope I do not offend anyone, but if I never see or hear another reference to The Simpsons for the rest of my life, it would be a good thing.  Now I've just given that show ink on my blog!  Ugh.  

Off to the library to spend the day with my eyes in books.  Hope you all have a very good Friday.

Just can't seem to want to finish this.

Bluebells Quilt

Will probably finish quilting this today/tomorrow and then add the binding this weekend.  Need to get this in the mail by next Tuesday.

Quilt for MIL

Quilt #2 for MIL for Christmas.  Remember where I changed my mind?  This is the new fabric and I sure hope they work together.  This will be my first attempt to create a quilt with fabrics from different lines.

Bag for me with Innocent Crush

Can't you all tell I'm a AMH freak?  I could not resist purchasing some of her new fabric for a bag for myself.

Blocks for quilt along

Why does Google turn my photo around?  Makes it look like I was on the ceiling or something.  Three completed blocks.

Punctuation by American Jane

Oh, those darn Deals of the Day at the Missouri Star Quilt Co. Couldn't resist the Punctuation Charm Pack for $2.50ish and of course I had to throw in a Honey Bun.  I unraveled it so I could play with the fabric.

I hate this one

Truly, I do hate this quilt top, but only because I don't know what I am doing.  These are jelly roll strips sewn together...should be easy, right?  No.  Because it is very wonky.  I bought this from FQS at 40% off so it was a deal, but I can't figure out how to fix it.

Christmas Tree Skirt

I've had this fabric for honestly, 10 years.  Finally sewed both pieces during the summer and just need some decorative braid, etc. to finish it.  

Now I really need to put the sewing machine and the camera away and get to my history research!  

It is time for new dishes in this household.  We've been using the Mikasa White French Countryside dishes for almost 19 years now and they are coming to the end of their lifetime.  Broken/cracked/stained and just ugly.  When we "registered" for these during our engagement they were all the rage and back then I never thought I would hate a huge white plate when I was "plating" a dish for dinner.  Well I do now.  

I'm considering Fiestaware.  If you check out a few of my older blog posts you will see that the husband has been painting the kitchen and we are keeping some of the doors off to...

1.  The husband will take three years to paint them so why not.

2.  It is nice to not have to open a door to get out dishes.

3.  Gives me more tiny reason to ditch the white and go with COLOR!

So, do any of you have Fiestaware?  I have not seen it in person/held it, etc., and only seen it on online.  Do you like it?  Do you love it?  Does it go from oven to dishwasher to microwave like they say it does?  

Thank you for your thoughts!  I'm off to the soccer field to watch my older boy play.  :)  

I was a good girl all week and stayed on task with my schoolwork.  My class was last night and I received a great grade on some things that were due last week and after a meeting with my teacher, I feel great about how my final research paper is shaping up. I'm a history major.  Today I get to play with fabric!  

After I finish my chores this morning, I will venture out to fabric store pretty close to me.  It's huge and the prices are pretty good.  Tons and tons of bolts everywhere but the vibe in this store is different.  The store itself is not new, pretty or remotely inviting but it is the fabric that draws people in.  The people who work in the store are fascinating to me as I think a majority of them are of Eastern European nationalities and I so want to ask them where they are from, how did they get to Artesia, CA and what made you all work in this fabric store?  Not going to happen but I still wonder.  The historian in me loves the stories behind people.

I get kind of intimidated when I am in this store because I see obvious quilters with their shopping carts full of bolts waiting to be cut.  I hear them in conversations with their friends or just maybe fellow shoppers on what fabric goes with that one and this one...it makes me feel a bit envious.  I have NO quilty friends!  I walk around staring at fabric and just get overwhelmed.  But I still go.

So today I will purchase the backing and binding for this:

Hungarian Blue fabric

And I'll walk around and stare at fabric.  

Happy Fabric Friday to you!

I've now changed my mind.  I was listening to the latest Podcast from Quilting...for the Rest of Us by Sandy where she was discussing labeling quilts and she said something that struck me - almost instantly.  She said something along the lines of "You might not want to put in the label who it is for in case they don't like it - the quilt you made might not end up with the person you intended to give it too".  Oh, what a smart lady!  

It struck me that my MIL is not going to like this quilt as she is kind of, I don't know....hard to please?  (Note to MIL:  I mean that in the best sense possible!  No offense intended.)   Had to put that in just in case she were ever to find out in a million years that I have a blog.   Why will she not like it?  It doesn't work with any decor in her house and it is probably not big enough as a lap quilt.  

So, I talked it over with the husband last night and told him that I had changed my mind about this quilt and wanted to make her another one.  Also shared with him how I faked MIL out yesterday by calling her and asking her about the new curtain panels she had just put up in the room where is is most likely to use this quilt.  I pretended that I was going to make something for another family member who is about to have a special birthday and how much that person loves those colors.  By the end of the phone call I had where she bought them, the name of the panels and colors of fabric.  A quick look online and I had a photo on my desktop.  

I'm excited as the quilt I will make her will be my first "custom" quilt made specifically for someone with fabrics that are not all from the same designer.  Scary color choices but I received some wonderful help from Lindsay at Hawthorne Threads and placed my order for fabric this morning.  I'm going to use a pattern from the October/November #116 issue of Quilt Magazine- Page 76.  

I love telling my people that as a woman it is my job to change my mind.  he-he

Stay cool people!