Well, I'm still working on the quilt. I've quilted about 7 squares out of 36. So far, so good. I didn't do any Christmas Eve or day, or really over the weekend. We were busy with holiday plans and other stuff. We saw Sherlock Holmes on Saturday, and had Game Day on Sunday. I quilted three squares last night while we watched Star Trek.

I think I'm about to start on a gown. No, today, I'm going to do it. I'm going to cut out the pattern pieces, and maybe even start cutting. There, now I can't back out. Really, I just need to sew the big skirt panels and the bodice on the machine. I suck at pleating skirts to bodices and attaching them by machine. In the Tudor Tailor, I found a hand technique that should work better. I'm going to pleat it by hand, whip-stitch the pleats together at the top, then whip-stitch it to the bodice. That's the plan. We'll see how it goes. First, I need to re-wash the white linen for the bodice lining, to see if the blue dye that bled from the fabric I washed it with will come out, then, I cut.

The quilt is finally put together, and I have started quilting it. Yea! A lot of the holdup was being busy, but most of it was that my sewing machine needed to be cleaned, badly, and I didn't realize that was the reason I was having to fight it so much. It is much better now, although I don't think the bobbin tension is quite right, still, but it works. So Wednesday, I sewed the outer border to the top of the quilt, pieced the back together, put all of the layers together and basted it with safety pins. I didn't quite get the yardage right on the backing, so a long time ago, I bought a yard of a print. That yard, intact, is the center of the back of the quilt, and I sewed a wide border of the navy fabric to the edges of it. At some point, there will be pictures.

I've been holding onto fabric for garb for a while. I want to make a late-fifteenth century Florentine-style gown. My favorite that I've seen is the Ghirlandaio portrait of Giovanna Tournabuoni. http://www.abcgallery.com/G/ghirlandao/ghirlandaio26.html This is only a partial view, the portrait is from a fresco in the family chapel. If I remember correctly, it's one of the frescos that shows a biblical scene with the family of the patron, in the latest contemporary fashions, as witnesses. The style is for a slightly high-waisted gown with an overgown that is open down the sides and front, usually clasped in front, somehow. I've got 5 yards of lavender linen for the under dress, and a couple of yards of heavier white linen to line the bodice, and 4 yards of navy blue wool for the over gown. I'm kind of thinking of doing an overgown/cloak. It wouldn't be period to take the over gown off when I came inside in a public place, but I'll be honest, I suck at making cloaks. I don't know why, but I do. This tabard, I have a pattern for, it looks simple and straight-forward, I think I can manage it. I'm hoping I have enough left to try a jerkin for Neale, but we'll see. Anyway, I've been holding onto fabric, because we have been trying to start a family, and I'm about to get an ipod touch, and join my mom on the idiet. She's lost 20 pounds using a calorie-counter app, and I really want to try it. I have no idea what size I'll be six months from now, so I haven't seen the point in making a lot of new stuff, but this kind of gown, I figure I'll have some wiggle room. It doesn't necessarily have to lace closed in front, I've seen plenty of portraits that show a small gap. I can sew lacing rings onto another strip of fabric, and move that piece if I need to. If I make it side-lacing, I'll have even more latitude in altering the bodice, because it won't be as visible. So, now that the machine-sewing on the quilt is done, I think this dress is going to be my next project.

The older I get, the more I realize I just don't like Christmas programs. First of all, what are you going to do? There's music, or a play/pageant of some kind. There's a lot of great Christmas music out there (and some dross, but a lot of that is people trying to put their own spin on classics and screwing them up. Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli singing "What Child Is This," anyone?). So if the group in question is a band, choir, or orchestra, your project makes sense, and has a clear purpose, go ahead.

What is the point of a Christmas play? If it's an established drama group, like a high school club, or college theater department, that's ok. Same principle as the band, the group exists, has a purpose, if they want to explore holiday-themed material, go for it. If it's a church group, that's fine, too. After all, Christmas has been a religious holiday for over 1,000 years.

Otherwise? No. Just, no. The act of celebrating Christmas is, in itself, a time-consuming undertaking. There are gifts to buy, there is cooking to be done, and it's always nice to spend time with family and friends. Don't make the holidays harder by filling the time with extraneous stuff.

This has actually been a fairly productive weekend. I haven't felt like doing much around the house on weekends lately, because October and so far, November, have been so busy, all I want to do is hang out. This weekend, though, I went to the nursery and bought two little pots of swiss chard, which I planted in the garden, and a handful of white tulip and purple crocus bulbs, which I planted around the dogwood tree in the round bed. I bought a bag of potting soil (which it turned out I didn't need), and re-potted my ivy into larger pots. This is the ivy that was in my wedding bouquet that my mother-in-law got started for me. So far, they seem to like their new, bigger pots. I also got an amaryllis bulb in a pot, which I haven't planted yet. I cleaned up the geranium in the hanging pot on the porch. I'm surprised it's not dead. I was going to take down the pot of former impatiens that did not make it, but I found a bird's nest with two little eggs in it. I'm not sure if the eggs are still viable, or if the nest has been abandoned, but just in case, I put it back. Last night, we had a nice visit with Clare and Steven.

Today, we went to Home Depot and finally got a new dishwasher. It's being delivered on Dec. 5, and installed either the 11th or 17th, hopefully. We also got another rake, and a heavy-duty broom for outside, and a leaf blower with a vacuum attachment, so once you rake the leaves up, it basically mulches and bags them. I also got some birdseed and actually filled my old bird feeder for the first time in ages. Sometime, I want to put some hooks on the corners of the eaves by the sunroom, and hang some feeders there. It'll be like kitty cable.

Where is the year going?

I have given up on a completely machine-pieced quilt, because I kept looking a the pile of pieces, and looking at the sewing machine, and sighing and going off to knit. Instead, I sewed all of the blocks together by hand, and added the inner border by hand. I'm going to go to Hobby Lobby probably this afternoon to get a few more yards of navy blue cotton to sew to the fabric I've already got to make the backing, rather than make up something with more pieces, but I may change my mind. I kind of like the idea of a patterned medallion on the back. Either way, I'm getting close to finishing the top, there's just the outer border, once I decide how I'm going to handle the navy fabric, and then putting it all together and quilting it.

The heat is fixed! Yea! This was mainly taken care of by The Husband, while I was curled up on the couch, dozing. I think I may have been fighting something off, because Monday and Tuesday, I was a little congested, but feeling really run-down and tired. Today, I feel a lot better, but I'm more congested. Go figure.

Last night was Open House at school, preceded by the mad dash to get things mounted and hung on the wall. It actually went a lot faster than I'd thought. At 2:00, I was beginning to be afraid that I'd have to stay really late, but I was on my way home by 3:15. Everybody seemed to have a good time. They usually do, but it's always nerve-wracking, because I have the paranoid fear that someone is going to be unhappy with some aspect of their child's work and make a scene. I know it's crazy, but knowing is half the battle. I really appreciate team-teaching this year. It's so nice to be working with someone who's creative, and has so many good ideas, like writing down some of the funny things the children have said and putting them up on the wall.

I'm really digging the shawl pattern. I've used up a skein of yarn, and it's maybe a foot long. Fortunately, I've got, like, 11 more I can use. Now, though, I need to go start dinner.

Diamond Wars is over! Yea! I will not be nastycrat for an event for a long, long time. I am totally cool with having to ask my children at school "did you flush the potty and wash your hands?" because they're still learning to take care of themselves. The fact that I had to clean up after adults at this basic level disturbs me. I should not have to wipe urine off a toilet seat after a grown man, nor should I have to flush for an adult.

Our heat is out. Fortunately, the home warranty is still in effect, and someone should be calling tomorrow. Even though it's been chilly outside, the temperature inside the house has stayed in the 60's, mostly upper 60's.

I'm starting to get back into projects. I'm still working on one sock. I'm kind of waiting until Friday nights even out, so I can get some help with turning the heel of the second one, and write down the instructions this time. I've started working on a shawl with the wool/alpaca yarn I collected. I'm using a stitch pattern from the book of, well, knitted lace patterns I have. I can't remember the name off hand. It's just a rectangular shawl in pale blue worsted weight yarn. I'm going to finish Hunter's quilt, and then after I finish piecing it, I may start a new dress.

I'm getting back into my original persona, which is late period Irish. I think I'm going to go late 15th/early 16th century. Actually, I've kind of decided on Italian/Irish. Italian woman married to an Irishman. I've even decided on a name and device, Medb an Doire, "Medb (pronounced MAY-ve) of the oak grove." I may register an alternate Italian name later as my "birth" name. I even have that picked out, Mea Caterina Della Rovere. I was going to register that, but still go by Medb, figuring that my Irish husband picked that as my Gaelic name, but it would cause less confusion, I think, if I just register that as an alternate persona name. It kind of still works with wearing Turkish garb. There are a lot of portraits of Italian women, particularly from Venice, wearing Turkish enteri/yelek/caftans open over gowns, even closed over chemises.