is almost finished. This is the piece that I am entering in to the She Made Her Mark, a juried show that will start off at the Quilter’s Hall of Fame in Indiana. This has been a struggle for me, but I have persevered and am happy with the result. I have to trim it and face it, but that is doable. The final photos have to be done, an artist’s statement and a CD sent off to be received by Friday. I can do that even with New Year’s eve and two parties tomorrow and helping the girls get the Kim Family Auction up on E-bay for our January 3rd start date. Right?

Actually, last night was the first night that I have not hit a wall at 5 or 6 pm. I was feeling too much like an old lady who could not make an art quilt to save her life. But yesterday was a break through and maybe that was what I needed.

Perhaps some explanation is needed. Many quilters are doing portraits or quilts about a specific woman who has “made her mark.” I had already started this piece with the working title, Breaking Barriers, when I found out about the show. I had started the bricks in a class with Rosalie Dace. I made the bricks with the skinny bits for the mortar. My ideas was to have a watery area, breaking up the bricks. Water, as a symbol, is feminine. I thought of water eroding bricks, slowly over time, much the same way that women have over time broken barriers.

I can not show you the final piece – rules of the show. But here is the background before I did the watery section. I used the turquoisy fabric because it looked like debris from bricks. I liked how it echoed the brick shapes and color.

I then cut curvy shapes from a variety of organza’s in various shades of blue (silk, of course) and fused them over that center section. Yesterday, I embellished with Angelina fibers, beads and ribbon. This, was, of course, purposeful embellishment!! I am almost afraid to show it to Terry Grant, who has a problem with embellishment, but Terry, I tried to be judicious. I just wanted the water to look feminine! Here are a couple of sneak peaks.

January 3rd is the start date for the Kim Family Auction. I think all the goodies are posted on the blog, So look at all the wonderful things that you can bid on. Hope you will all join in the auction and help a very worthy cause.

Blessings in the new year to all the faithful readers of this blog. Some days, I think I don’t want to do this any longer and then I get an awesome comment or a private e-mail from one of you, and it keeps me going.

… and all through the house, there were piles of wrapping paper, dirty linens, half eaten cookies and memories galore. I won’t share the mess, but here are some memories.

On Christmas eve, we feasted on dungeness crab bisque (Lisa declared this the best Christmas soup, ever) and mini-sandwiches, great cheese and crackers and an assortment of cookies. No photos, because I was too busy cooking. I finally created a graham cracker snow cottage.

Many years ago, I acquired this Christmas table runner which has seen us through many Christmases, but in recent years has not come out of the storage box. Somehow, it seemed to fit into our new mid-century house and needed a little village to complete it.

It is our tradition to open gifts to each other on Christmas eve. In the morning, we find gifts from Santa in our stockings. Here are M & M. I call this ready, set, unwrap!

Mr C and I went to mid-night mass at Trinity Cathedral. We had to get there between 9:30 and 10:00 pm to get a parking spot and a seat, but it was so worth it. What a magnificent service. The choir was excellent. We filled stockings (did you think there really was a Santa?) and dropped into bed at 1:30 am.

On Christmas day, Steph served a delicious brunch of sour cream coffee cake, our family egg, cheese and broccoli dish and bacon – oh, and Mimosas!

Christmas dinner at our house was crown roast of pork with wild rice and apricot stuffing, roasted Brussels sprouts with pancetta, roasted rosemary potatoes, spinach salad with pears, blue cheese and spiced pecans and whole grain bread. This was followed by more cookies because Steph and I ran out of energy to cook a special dessert.

I love a hand-made Christmas. These are my special gifts from the family. Steph asked if I had any fabric left from making my new kitchen curtains and this was the result, a bistro apron and oven mitt. I just love this.

Lisa’s good friend and artist, Diana, made this plate just for me. I adore it. (Kristen, this does not mean that I won’t be bidding on the plate in the Kim Family Auction – I need a companion – sorry!! :} )

I am in love with this detail:

Mr C gifted me with this gorgeous necklace by an artisan who sells work at our church art and gift shows and this hand-loomed stole.

Steph and Lisa are working on the Kim Family Auction today. I will blog more about that tomorrow. There are some fabulous items to be auctioned. Hope you got some cash for Christmas to spend on a handmade work of art for yourself.

Lisa gets here. But where is she? She was supposed to arrive at PDX at 8:20 am today. Her luggage arrived. However, we got a phone call at 6:15 am. She missed her flight. After trying to get on with standby for the next two flights, she became discouraged and went home and hopped in her car and she is due to fly into town via the Saab about 10 pm tonight.

So, I had to amuse myself in other ways. I finished my shopping and wrapping of presents.

I made a batch of cranberry macaroons:

Then, we went downtown and stopped at Trinity to pick up my Creche, which came out of the kiln this afternoon. On Wednesday night, I did a rush job of glazing since I missed last Wednesday while I hung out in the emergency room! Notice Mary’s hair color. She is also wearing my signature color.

Here is a self-portrait showing my new hair color, very similar to Mary’s.

On our way home, I tugged on my earrings. Oops, notice the blue earring above? This is what was on my other ear!

I am on a serious senile track. Would you believe that I sent out a bunch of Christmas cards with our Santa Rosa address as the return address?

Now, I am going to settle down and watch Kaladega Nights and wait for Lisa to arrive. Then, it will be Christmas!

Today, these little elves came to our house to construct Gingerbread houses. The easy kind (ha!) using graham crackers.

Mr C got in on the act and designed this Mid-century Modern Marvel:

With her Mom’s help, Mia constructed this delightful cottage complete with a gumdrop birdy atop the tree.

And Milo and his mom fashioned this festive cottage.

These are going to grace the table at our Christmas dinner

Oh, you are wondering where the disaster is? Look at my house:

I am going back to quilting. I leave you with this beautiful photo:

Today, Steph, M and M and I drove out to Beaverton to Uwajimaya. This is a huge store of all things Japanese. Cute things, tasty things, wonderfully designed craft books, all in Japanese. You feel as if you have been transported to Tokyo. I found some great stocking stuffers and gifts.

As promised, I want to share the nice things that Jeannie sent for the girls and I. Jeannie, I gave Mia her red silk blouse today, which she loved. And Stephanie got the apron, vintage towels and the vintage instruction book. This photo does not do the apron justice. It has a bib front with eyelet trim – Steph loved it. The towels have a vintage Mexican motif.

This birch bark and the unfinished crewel owl pillow are designated for Lisa.

And for moi, this beautiful hand-dyed silk:

The box was filled with vintage buttons, trims and fabric which Lisa and Stephanie will sort out and share later this week when Lisa arrives.

I know that Lisa is looking at this and salivating. If any of you follow my daughter’s blogs, you know how they love vintage. Thanks, so much, Jeannie. I know you will be hearing from the girls, soon.

Hair update. Last week, I was due for a color update from Julia. She was unable to be in the salon because of a family emergency. In the meantime, I decided that I needed to try someone else. Today, I had a great color and cut done my Joseph at Hair Architects. It is the color that Cynthia used to do. Finally, someone understood and was able to give me what I want. I don’t like to fuss with my hair. I wash it, dry it, add a little product and spike it a little. Joseph gave me that kind of hairdo. I didn’t need to come home and undo what was done. I am a happy camper, tonight.