Playing Catch-Up

Due to the massive number of Christmas presents I had to sew, I kind of unofficially took a break from blogging back in December, so there are a ton of things I never posted on here.

For starters, I received an adorable mug rug and an awesome bundle of scraps from Ulrike! She has the best fabric, and I love the charming little details she puts into everything she makes. I won a pillow in one of her blog giveaways a few years ago, and it's one of my favorite holiday items (the hubby loves it too).

And my favorite part? The hilariously accurate portrayal of me reaching for cookies, and Whiskers making off with a stocking. Both of those things happened numerous times over the holidays ;)

I honestly made out like a bandit this year, because my friend Kristy made me a lovely holiday item as well! She wanted to get her husband a special Kindle for Christmas that was only available in the U.S., so she had her purchase mailed to me and I forwarded it to Aussieland. As a thank you gift, she sent me this pillowcase and some chocolate treats. I was dumbfounded when I opened it because of all the intricate piecing and quilting - it must have taken her forever to do all that circular quilting!

And she even included one of my favorite holiday prints - the snowflake print from Happy Zombie's Holiday Happy line! I've been debating buying those prints for a while, but hadn't taken the plunge because I need more Christmas fabric like a hole in the head. But after seeing how cute they were sewn up in a project, I found some on clearance (for $5/yard) and bought 1/2 yards of the snowflake and triangle santa prints. Yay!

Since her package didn't arrive until after Christmas, I'm thinking about sneaking it onto the sofa because it's too lovely to put in storage for a whole year. I think I can get away with people not realizing it's a Christmas pillow, so long as they don't turn it over and expose the trees on the back!

Oh. And I have one more thing to show you. It's more of a confession, really. I went on a bit of a bender during the pre/post holiday sales...

But I'd like to officially blame Angela for the Safety Pin prints, because she posted about a shop that had them on clearance for $3.99/yard. I can't be held responsible for my decisions when informed about fabric that cheap.

My other splurge was in my friend Ayumi's shop. I bought those adorable laundry and baking fat quarters on the left, and because she's a sweetheart, she added all those cute scraps you see on the right! She is so, so nice and I love having email chats with her :) Isn't it wonderful when you get the chance to "meet" one of your crafting heros, and they're even nicer than you imagined?

That being said, you guys probably know what's coming next. The great post-Christmas fabric purge of 2012. I just put up a bunch of new listings in my Etsy shop including some cheap fat quarter bundles, an It's a Hoot Layer cake, and various cuts of fabric. I also put together about 5 scrap bundles because my bins are overflowing from all my recent sewing. They're organized by color, and what you see is what you get - I'm pretty generous with my scrap packs, and everything shown in the photo will be included in the bundle.

As always, you can use the code PLAIDSCOTTIE10 for 10% off anything in my shop :)

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A Griswold Family Christmas

The holiday weekend got off to a rough start for me. After experiencing a situation eerily similar to this, the Griswold Christmas Vacation continued when I was up in the attic and accidentally put my foot through the bathroom ceiling. The whole family was over for Christmas Eve and we were short a stocking, so I went up in the attic to grab one. I didn't bother to turn on the light because I knew the location of the box I needed, and while stumbling around in the dark, my idiot self thought there was a board over one section (where there obviously wasn't, lol!) and I stomped right through the ceiling. I let out a yell, and when Ray and his brother came running, my size 11 foot and part of my calf were dangling through the bathroom ceiling. Aside from a small bruise on my knee (and ego), I was completely fine, and we all got a pretty good laugh out of it! ;)

The good news is, it's not as big a deal for us as it would be for most, because my father-in-law and brother-in-law both work at the family roofing & drywall business, so fixing it should be quick & painless :)

The hubs and I are currently laying on the sofa watching mindless reality TV (Ice Road Truckers - woot woot!), so here's a quick Telschow 2011 Christmas in review...

These are the handmade gifts I mailed to my family in Kentucky. The Echino bag & Strawberry clutch were for my sister, the houndstooth bag for my mom, the box pouch sets for my aunts, and the coffee coozies for my mom and dad.

This is a plaid yoga mat carrier I designed for my dad. It wraps around and velcros in place. I didn't know the circumference of his mat, so I made the velcro strips pretty long to allow for adjustment. The inside is flannel to keep the mat from sliding around.

Another Sidewalk Satchel for my future sister-in-law. The purple Keyka Lou clutch was also for her, and the Amy Butler one was for my cousin.

Puppy Adventures...

Human Adventures...

 Zoolander.

 Blue Steel.

 I made homemade cinnamon buns - yum!

My mother-in-law drinking eggnog out of a gravy boat. Long story, but my husband's usual shenanigans are to blame ;)

My new cutting mat wouldn't lay flat, so naturally the logical solution was to lay on it (rather than re-rolling it in the opposite direction)

We're a crazy & colorful bunch, but we always manage to have a good time ;) 

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas with your loved ones (and Santa brought you all the quilting supplies on your list!)

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Holiday Baking

The past few days have been very interesting...and by interesting, I mean stressful. I had two migraines within 3 days, and then on Sunday afternoon, we discovered the Bumpus hounds underneath our house. It took me a while to figure out what the heck was going on, because I could hear a wild dogfight going on somewhere nearby, but there weren't any dogs outside. I started yelling down the hall at Ray because I thought maybe he was watching another documentary on Alaska/The Iditarod at an obscene volume, but he swore up and down he wasn't. And then...I felt a bump from underneath the house and heard a clang as something hit our pipes. The pack of vicious mongrels wasn't on TV, outside my sewing room window, or in The Christmas Story where they belong. They were in the 2 ft space underneath our elevated house attacking something, and whatever that poor creature was, it wasn't going down without a fight God bless it. Ray ended up having to go outside and scream at the top of his lungs while beating the lattice work around the elevated opening with a broom for a full ten minutes, and eventually they ran out the front and he chased them off by screaming and flailing his arms wildly, lol. So that was intense. And then I was upset the rest of the day that some poor creature was dying a slow and painful death under our house. I tried to talk Ray into crawling under the house to check on it, but he was like "uhh...no...if it's still alive, it's not going to be happy to see me."

Life is never dull amongst the Telschow clan, that's for sure.

Also, I was cussed out (and flipped off for a prolonged period of time), by a 70 year old man at a stoplight today. Which, honestly, was more amusing than it was upsetting. I worked as a bank teller every summer in college, and I'm pretty well desensitized to being screamed at by members of the public. It was literally all I could do to keep a straight face the entire time, because I kept thinking, "what if his dentures fly out of his mouth while he's screaming at me?" And once that mental image was in my brain, there was no going back...it was so freaking hard not to laugh in his face, but I had to fight the urge because it probably would have resulted in him ramming my car like Tawanda.

So instead of coming home and sewing my backlogged Christmas presents, or working on the mountain of dirty clothes in our bedroom, I did an indecent amount of baking.

Sugar cookies for my coworkers (and a small plate for Ray *wink*)

and some warm Seven Grain & Seed Bread for us to munch on with salted butter. Yum.

My bread turned out looking more like a quick bread than a yeast bread this time, because my clumsy self bumped the loaf pans and degassed them right before they went in the oven. D'oh! It was still tasty though :)

The bread recipe is Nick Malgieri's Seven Grain & Seed Bread from The Modern Baker, and I don't remember where the sugar cookie one is from...I think maybe it was given to me at one of our wedding showers 6 years ago. I absolutely love the sugar cookies because they hold their shape, but are still chewy. And the flavor is very simple and buttery - almost like shortbread.

Sugar Cookies

• 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder.

Beat butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy. Add eggs (one at a time) and vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Gradually add flour mixture until a smooth dough forms. Divide dough in half, wrap in Saran, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Flour your work surface and roll out one dough ball at a time. Cut into shapes and decorate with sprinkles if desired. Place on greased cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes (this keeps the cookies from losing their shape when baked).

Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned at edges. Let cool on rack.

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Savvy Seasons Swap 2011

I've been working on this for quite a while, but it kept slipping my mind to take photos...so I'm just gonna jump right in with both feet and show you the finished product!

My secret partner requested a table runner that could be used throughout the winter, and not just during Christmas (which is really good, because she'd only have gotten a week's worth of use out of it!), so I went with a winter snowman theme. The snowman block is 12", the two Winter Woolies blocks are 6" x 12", and the whole shebang measures roughly 18" x 38".

I've actually had this project sketched out since the day I got my partner assignment, but I had a devil of a time deciding on fabrics. I wanted to use linen, plus a mixture of traditional Christmas colors and a splash of blue. Coordinating those four things wasn't too difficult, but what really complicated matters was the tiny piecing. I needed to find red, green and blue prints that matched, plus in a small enough scale to show up well with the paper piecing. I finally settled on the three diamond prints from Kate Spain's Flurry line for the binding and sashing, a cute blue & white dot print that resembled snow for the snowman + Winter Woolies background, and another Flurry print called Nordic Winter Stripe for the back (which I love, love, love!). The hat and scarf are from an old Caleb Gray Groove print, and the green glove print is one I picked up a while ago at Joann's from the fat quarter rack.

Don't you just love Kerry's Winter Woolies block pattern? Everything she makes is so stinkin' cute! I added a wee little button on top of each toboggan instead of appliqueing the little ball on.

Here's a closeup of all that tiny paper piecing. Kerry's pattern is very easy to follow, and I promise it's not nearly as hard as it looks...it just takes some time :)

And I'm really loving this little guy because he looks like a stack of puffy marshmallows! I made him using 2", 3", and 4" snowball blocks, then added some free motion stick arms and button eyes.

And here's a shot of that Nordic Stripe print I love so much. I bought just enough to back this, but I'm gonna have to go back and snag some more for myself now. I don't know if you all have used this line or not, but it's SO stinking soft!

 And just for good measure, I threw in some kitchen towels because you can never have enough of them.

Here's my whole package ready to go out....the runner, kitchen towels, two fat quarters, various Flurry scraps, Coffee Crisp candy bar (I blame Kristie for getting me addicted to those!), and a cute notepad of two ladies eating cake that says "it's ok, it's organic!". Because as we all know, even cake is magically transformed into a health food when it's organic *wink*.

Hope you like it partner!

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It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I got off work early today because we had our big office Christmas party, and as I was stuck for 30 minutes behind a train 2 blocks from my house (grr!), I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my extra spare time! I thought about getting started on the 7 Christmas presents I still need to make, or posting my new holiday bunting tutorial on here, or doing the pile of dishes in my sink. But ultimately, I decided to crash on the sofa and catch up on my backlogged shows on Hulu Plus. Until...

...I pulled up to my house and found my Savvy Seasons swap package on my porch, which included some delicious homemade cookies!!!! The plan was then modified to include sofa + Hulu Plus + blogging + cookies + hot chai (my friend gave me this delicious new brand at Whole Foods called Festivus - yum!)

Do you like how I skillfully kept the packaging intact, while managing to squeeze a cookie (or two) out through the tiny opening? What can I say...I was born with talent, lol!

And my favorite? The little fabric fortune cookie she attached, which had a teeny little "To & From" tag tucked inside. So creative! My partner was Nancy (who is one of my readers - yay!), and I can't believe the amount of care and detail she put into my package - it makes me want to try so much harder on all of my swap packages, because I want to make all my partners feel as special as packages like this make me feel :)

They recently extended the mailing deadline to the 14th (thank goodness!) and I haven't mailed my box yet, so I'm looking forward to spending some extra time on my swap partner. Hopefully I'm able to make things for my partner that are as cute as these...

A sweet bunting note card...

A precious wee fabric Scottie ornament.

An absolutely adorable scrappy Christmas tree skirt! I've been dying for a handmade tree skirt to replace the crappy one I bought at an after-Christmas sale a few years ago, and this one looks so lovely under our tree (it matches the rug perfectly!)

I was laughing out loud to myself while laying underneath the tree with the lights shining in my face, because I kept thinking of that line from A Christmas Story "Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window".....hahaha!

But that's not all! She also added some cute plaid towels to go with the Christmas/Scottie/Plaid Scottie theme. They're now being proudly displayed on my oven :)

Thanks for the beautiful and incredibly thoughtful package Nancy, and I love that I got to know you a little better through all these gorgeous handmade goodies :)

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