Thanksgiving

Brian and I made a Thanksgiving dinner for two on Thursday. This was our first Thanksgiving on our own and we made a 12lb turkey (which will feed us both for a week), mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, broccoli casserole (Grandma said we always had to have a vegetable), canned cranberry sauce, and rolls. Pumpkin roll for dessert. The turkey was done about 2 hours earlier than anticipated, but we scrambled and pulled it off! Pictures of the rest of our weekend (mostly of the dog) are here.

Beaded Ornaments

Lauren and I, along with Sara Markt, made these cute beaded ornaments from the latest Martha Stewart Living magazine. They were very easy, and they're even prettier than they look in the pictures!

baby gifts

Sarah is a generous friend and has loaned me her sewing machine again. I'm a little obsessed with the projects that I've been working on (some of which cannot be posted yet due to the future recipients having access to this blog) and have been sewing late at night, as this picture suggests.

This is the changing pad and case from the Amy Butler "nappy bag" pattern. I think it's adorable. I'm officially a huge fan of Amy Butler. I love her patterns. She's a genius.

Art Quilts

I'm taking an online class on art quilts. Of the six projects, I've finished these two. The landscape quilt is loosely based on a photograph I took (from safe on the ground) of Jim and our girls when they took the hot air balloon ride over the vineyards when we were in California a few years ago.

For the other one, we were just supposed to do a quilt with a bird in it.

They're both small. It was difficult for me to get into that artsy mode, but I was able to try some new techniques and do some things that I've been thinking about for awhile, so it was fun and inspiring.

Art Quilts

This is a picture of an art quilt that we saw when we were in Brown County, Indiana in early October. John's Aunt Jody and Uncle Larry took us to a local art show, where we got to meet several of the artists. The woman who made this quilt is Daren Pitts Redman. She was really cute and very nice, as she told me how she threw away all of her printed fabrics, and now dyes and paints all of her fabrics herself. This quilt is supposed to represent the view when she was on a bike ride.... blue sky, red barns, yellow corn, green grass, and brown creek beds. Here is a link to her website.

http://web.mac.com/darenpittsredman/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html

She also told me about a woman, Elaine Ellison, who makes quilts based on mathematical principles. Here is a link to her website, which is quite interesting. (Even with all of my mathematical education, I hadn't heard of some of the things she refers to.)

http://www.mathematicalquilts.com/

Halloween costumes

The time when Michael Jackson will be remembered as a brilliant pop star is short. Mike (in the white suit) teaches high school math and reports that his students know MJ only as a weirdo who covers his kids in blankets and wears a burka in Dubai.
But MJ was a great artist for 20 years, most of which I remember, so why not celebrate those times with a series of homages? In this picture we have Michaels from (left to right) Billie Jean, Rock With You, Remember the Time, Captain EO, Black or White, Bad, Beat It, and Smooth Criminal. Links to all the videos on YouTube are above.

Halloween Treats

Maybe it's a little late to post this. It seems like Chapel Hill is one of the few places left where we celebrate Halloween on Oct. 31 and not the Saturday before. My house was the meeting place for 8 Michael Jacksons (see above), so I made ghost pigs-in-a-blanket for the occasion. Pilsbury crescent dough and Little Smokies are not usually on the menu at my house, but a person has to make exceptions for the holidays!