The first thing that found a new place was a Chinese New Year card. I used it for a decoration on the table.

I’m not certain my husband even knew the card was on the table, as I still have the mini-pumpkins from Halloween and the centerpiece from Christmas. Still, the card was there. Now here’s the secret – the card wasn’t left over from last year. It was left over from the last year of the dragon. Yes, I’ve kept it for twelve years. Don’t tell my husband.

Then I finished making aprons for my kids. Margaret Misegades generously gave me a panel for a skeleton apron.

I unearthed some pizza fabric in a collection I had been keeping for karate quilts. We always celebrated passing a test with pizza, so I bought a boatload of pizza fabric for backs. Given that I’m the only one still taking class, I don’t think there will be a need for any more karate quilts.

The last item that came in handy is actually from Ann Anastasio. She gave me a bag of surprises, which I finally had a chance to go through over the weekend. I found a book with a pattern for a quilt carry-all.

I’ve been thinking about making a quilt carry-all specifically to use the extra zipper that I bought for the stadium bag (it turned out that velcro was the better choice for the stadium bag). Now I have a pattern, so all I have to do is choose the fabric.

While I am thrilled out of all proportion that I used these items, I do have to admit it only feeds my hoarding tendencies. How can I fight back the voice in my head that says, “Save this – you’re going to need it someday” when it turns out I actually do need the stuff? I can’t be saving everything with the hope that ten months or ten years from now it will be exactly what’s wanted – that’s what put my sewing room into such a state in the first place. If any of you have the perfect come-back for the little hoarder voice, please, share!

The stadium coat is finished! I made the last of the panels to give structure to the bottom:

Then I tested them out:

The bottom doesn’t stand quite as tall as I would like, but at least it doesn’t collapse like soggy bread. Then I sewed on the strap:

I had planned to use a simple silvery-gray strapping that matched the waterproof fabric, but on one of the many trips to the store to pick up more supplies – which is what happens when you design as you sew – I found black and orange trims (the school colors) that were sturdy enough to do the job.

Now that this project is finished, I can get on with some of the other things that have been shoved aside. Most of these are writing projects, and the first is an anthology that the California Writers Club Tri-Valley Branch (aka Tri-Valley Writers) just published.

I chaired the anthology committee, so I am thrilled, excited, exhausted, delighted and dog-gone proud of the work everyone has done to make Voices of The Valley: First Press a reality. Tri-Valley Writers will dedicate our next meeting (January 21, 1:30-3 at Four Points by Sheraton, Pleasanton) to celebrating the authors published in the anthology. The official launch party is at Towne Center Books in Pleasanton, CA, on January 28 from 2-4. If you’re within driving distance, come on down and join in the celebrations.

Here’s where we are so far – I went to the store, found the cartridge I needed, and a new pocket calendar. I also found a really cute red notebook on the clearance table and a presentation folder with pink inserts and a frosted white cover. Don’t remind me that I already have a dozen cute notebooks, and that I haven’t made a presentation in years. I continued trolling the aisles looking for sale-priced cute stuff. Then I found a portable file box:

That evil little voice inside my head that got my sewing room into the mess it is now whispered, “If you buy this, you can finally organize the stacks of pages you’ve torn out of magazines for new projects.” I told myself if it didn’t fit into the basket I picked up at the front of the store (instead of getting a wheeled cart – I know my own weaknesses, even when I’m powerless to fight them) I wouldn’t buy it. It fit. I bought it. And some cute maroon hanging files. I refrained from getting cute folders because I remembered that I have some at home.

In my defense, I did go through a stack of magazine pages, pitched the ones for contests that I didn’t enter, and organized the rest. Don’t ask how many stacks I have left to organize. Also, don’t ask where I’m going to put the file box because there really isn’t any place not covered with piles.

I did (almost) finish my sister-in-law’s stadium bag. There are three remaining tasks – decide how I’m going to attach the bottom, decide where I’m going to attach a carrying strap, and decide how I’m going to stiffen the sides of the bottom so it won’t collapse. The zipper that I bought for the bottom is (a) too short, (b) lacking a crucial piece of hardware to make it a separating zipper, and (c) not waterproof. Also, I’m really not great with zippers and although the one on the coat part went in mostly okay I don’t want to push my luck.

So, I’m rapidly talking myself into attaching the bottom to the coat with velcro, making it detachable. Here’s the stadium bag in pieces:

Me in bag, holding the bottom section

Sitting, with feet in bottom section

Then all that’s left is the carrying strap and the stiffening, both of which will require a bit more thought. But I’m seeing the finish line, and that makes me happy. Almost happy enough to sort through another stack.

There is still a path through the sewing room, and I did finish my block for the Progressive Party this week (Sunbonnet Sue on the Stripper Pole – don’t ask), so I can claim a bit of success. I had hoped to have my sister-in-law’s bag/coat finished by the end of the year – which didn’t happen – but it is coming along. I have changed the design and each step requires me to sew a little, think a little, sew a little, think a little, sew, sew, sew, think a lot, sew a little bit.

One new project will be aprons for my kids. Both of them have decided it is dorkier to go around with tomato sauce stains on their favorite shirts than to wear an apron. I started pulling out my food-themed fabric.

I know I have more, but this is what I could get my hands on immediately.

Now I need to find a hiding place. The piles in the sewing room are taunting me.

The dining table was too full of other stuff to hold the group, so I put the reindeer candlesticks on the table and the purely decorative critters on the piano, including my flock of Christmas birds.

Lest you think I’ve been ignoring my sewing room, here are a couple of miniature tree skirts I made for my friend Paula (the one who made the knitted trees from last week):

I also made a few inspirational quiltlets for some writing friends who served on a committee with me:

And a blue star quiltlet for some friends whose son just started basic training in the Navy:

The sewing room is now in full holiday shambles mode – as is the rest of the house – but I’m not going to let that overshadow the season. There’s time enough to clean next year.

Happy New Year!

The truth is, I was programmed to do a tree series. My father loved taking pictures of trees. His mother could identify a tree by its bark. If I had more information about my family, I suspect I would find tree-huggers going back to the Druids.

Aside from my father’s photographs, I also have three other pieces of tree art and eight or nine live trees in the yard (depending on whether you call a lilac a tree or a bush). I also have a collection of tree fabric, so there is no end of inspiration. What has been calling to me most, however, is a three-dimensional tree.

I asked my good friend, writing buddy and sister fiber artist Paula Chinick to make some knitted trees for me. I gave her some rough dimensions, and told her she could use any yarn that spoke to her. I guess the yarn was chattering away, because she made me three delightful trees:

Triangle Tree

Can you see my shadow hand?

Nesting Tree

So, for all of you who make holiday quilts – Happy Chanukah, Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Boxing Day, Happy St. Stephen’s Day, Happy New Year, Joyous Ephiphany . . .

My brother will be a grandfather next year. I’m not certain how he is dealing with it, but I’m thrilled. For the first time in years, I had an idea for a Christmas present for him. All grandchildren consider their grandfathers to be the next best thing to Santa Claus, so of course he needs his own bag to haul the toys, right?

I wanted the tote to be a little more masculine than my usual bag lady creation, so I showed it to my husband, who suggested a handle would be more appealing to my brother than a shoulder strap alone.

I also decided that my brother needed to have his own collection of spit-up towels for the baby. Trusting in the spirit of the season, I gave cross-stitch another chance. While I love embroidery, I have found that cross-stitch (like crotchet and knitting) taxes my basic math skills. I can’t count. I’m always getting lost in the pattern, or not finding the center no matter how hard I try. Still, I pulled out my patterns and tried a few small, simple things:

This is the first one I tried. I figured a one-color pattern would be a good warm-up, and that I could figure out how to make the letters even if I can’t count.

Next I tried a rocking horse:

Although I managed to follow the pattern, I didn’t center it properly on the towel. Oh, well, at least people will know a real live human made it because there’s a mistake in it.

Next I tried some shells:

These were more challenging than I expected, because the holes are so small. By the time I got around to the last bit of outline stitching, there wasn’t a lot of room for the needle and floss.

Last came a folk design that reminds me of Russian folk art:

My luck ran out with this one, and I did get lost in the pattern. However, after successfully navigating the other designs I decided folk art could accommodate my errors and fudged a few squares here and there. I know the baby won’t notice, and I suspect my brother won’t, either.

The reason I’m chuntering on about this is because I lost a notebook in the sewing room. Oh, yes, there are many notebooks lurking under the piles in there -

Where's the notebook?

- but this particular notebook had information that isn’t recorded anywhere else. This morning I went on a search. Since the biggest things in the room were the piles I was trying to ignore, I closed my eyes and said, “If I were a lost notebook, where would I hide?” I’d like to say the answer to that question magically led me to the ironing board, but the truth is there were fewer piles there, so that’s where I started.

And, miracle of miracles, I found it. So, I can show you two other things I worked on this week.

I decided it was time to start on my tree series. I’ve been collecting fabric for ages, and pictures, and notes. When the Progressive Party decided the next project would be fractured art, I sketched a tree that I could divide into six pieces. I’ll make one section, and the group will make the other five.

We got the Christmas tree early this year, and when I fetched the lights I also found one of the birds from last year’s table decorations. As I recall, one of the birds I used last year had a decidedly evil look to its beaded little eye. I hope this bird looks a little more friendly.

My intuition isn’t nearly as good. I usually get everything completely backwards. Now I discover one insight I had that really was accurate.

When my kids were little, I discouraged them from considering organized sports. Between my friends’ complaints and the little voice in my head, I was convinced sports would take over our lives. As it turned out, my son played baseball and football without completely disrupting the family schedule. Even karate didn’t consume all our time, if you don’t count the weeks of preparation before the black belt exams

However – and this is where the prophecy came true – karate did get into my blood. The kids stopped taking classes when they left for college. My husband stopped taking classes this month. I’m still going.

I could have quit at the same time, but I realized I like the same things about karate that I do about quilting. I like the camaraderie, and having a safe setting where I’m pushed to expand my abilities. I’ve even been able to incorporate quilting into karate.

Made for my one and only gold medal

I mention this because tomorrow is the first day of my holiday panic, and the sewing room is not ready. There are piles and stacks and unfinished projects as far as the eye can see. Well, you won’t because I’m too embarrassed to take a picture. Still, I find that I do manage to walk around in that minefield without tripping. Then I realized the strength and flexibility exercises I do for karate allow me to stretch over the stacks, crawl around the piles, hoist the boxes and tote bags.

Although my intuition about sports taking over my life was correct, it wasn’t a warning of coming disaster. Sometimes what we dread turns out to be just what was wanted. So, on this last day of calm before the holiday storm, I leave you with my favorite mantra – Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

ARRGH Time is the quilter’s version of NaNoWriMo. We flip over our calendars on November 1, count the days to December 25, subtract the days for mailing, and calculate how many more hours we have to add in to each remaining day for the projects to be completed on time (those are the hours over and above the twenty-four that we start with).

ARRGH Time isn’t all bad. Underneath the stress is the camaraderie – every quilter you know is going through the same thing. I propose that we add one more ritual to the holidays, then, and finish up ARRGH Time with a celebration. I propose morphing the letters from a primal scream into an acryonym: Almost Ready to Receive the Group Hug. At some point in December – whatever day we tell ourselves “It’s done enough” – gather with friends and give each other a hearty “Congratulations!”

In the meantime, I am making a little progress on the projects (just don’t ask how high the pile on the sewing table is). My sister-in-law, Cindy Gorton, likes the protoype of her stadium bag and sent me a photo of her in it:

My husband likes the border for the mosaic tile project:

I also finished four drawstring gift bags that my mom asked me to make for her Christmas present.

And now, back to the sewing room. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear my scream.