Holiday Productivity (Lauren)

Based on movies, television and general media, the holidays are a time for family, fun and relaxation. But the Moser family adds one more thing to that list: productivity. Of course we do take time for that more traditional fare, but ever since I left for home for college (good lord, almost 10 years ago now), the holidays have represented one of the few times each year I am home for a lengthy period of time and Mom and I can really get into the spirit of crafting and creating. Now that I work full time, our time to sew, craft and create together is even shorter (drat you, world, for taking away my summer vacations!), so we have to make the most of the winter holiday season.

This year I was extremely productive leading up to Christmas and New Year’s. As you all know from my previous blog (stop now and read it if you haven’t yet ‘cause Spoilers are coming), in November, Maria and I made adorable Santa pillows together. I was so enamored with the design and excited for the holidays that I knew I had to make one for everyone. And so, between early November and December 21, when I was scheduled to head home to Volcano, I made pillows. A lot of pillows. In fact, I think I made around 17 pillows total. The whole thing sort of snowballed on me (pun intended). I made pillows for my parents, my three best friends, Cece, my JA (judicial assistant) Joanne, and a special modified snowman pillow for my Judge who is Jewish. It was an absolute blast. And it left me ready to be even more productive during my holiday visit home from December 21 to January 1.

My trip home proved extremely productive and satisfying. Of course, whenever Mom and I have an extended period of time together we typically over-plan, leading us to conclude that we achieved nothing once we’re done. For instance, this year, Mom and I planned enough projects that we could have worked steadily for about a month and a half. But looking back at our holiday accomplishments objectively, I feel confident saying that we did a great job. (Especially in light of how I physically fell apart…over the course of 10 days I developed a cold, had my right ear plug up which developed into an ear infection that led to a small tear in my ear drum, burned the top of my hand badly on the wood-burning stove, and suffered a knee to the head courtesy of my Mom – sorry, Mom, I had to throw that in.) However, despite multiple injuries, time off to enjoy the actual holidays (Dad needed some family time too), and trips to town for movies (“Saving Mr. Banks” and “American Hustle” were both amazing and well worth seeing), Mom and I completed several amazing projects.

I came home with my luggage full, not just of clothes and presents, but also of projects I wanted to complete over my holiday vacation. The first and most daunting on the list was for me to free motion quilt my little paper-pieced sampler I made and proudly displayed on this blog over a year ago. Well, it’s been sitting next to my machine since then just waiting to be quilted. But, as many of you are aware, getting yourself to actually put that free-motion foot on your machine and quilt is a pretty hard step to take. And it was one I had procrastinated about for quite a while. However, I knew Mom would help get me over that hump and so I took my wall hanging home to Volcano and figured I would complete it “sometime” while I was home (aka leave it to the last minute until there is no time left for it and then feign disappointment). Mom, of course, read this plan on my face like an open book and on our first day down in the Studio on Sunday after I got home, she sat me down at her Janome, game me the proper color thread and said, get to it. Well, ok, she actually gave me the machine, thread, and a practice sandwich and I spent the first half of the day practice quilting. Mom helped me with my quilting design and I spent at least three or more hours practicing before I decided that I would just go for it. After a brief break midday, Mom and I returned to the Studio and I began quilting

on my wall hanging. And, it turned out wonderfully. Naturally there are little mistakes here and there that I wish didn’t appear, but I stand by what I’ve always said in the past – I would rather have some mistakes that show it is done by me or someone else than the rigid perfection of the machine designed quilting. I had a blast doing the free motion quilting (in retrospect – at the time it was a frustrating, stress-inducing mess) and am excited to do more in the future.

On day 2 of our quilting/crafting time, I finished up my little wall hanging with the final ditch stitching around the outer borders and I put on my binding. While I was completing my old project, Mom was quilting her modern quilt (the project of Stix 2013), which she then gifted to me for Christmas. :) Yes, I got the best Christmas gift this year.

Over the next few days, Mom and I spent some time organizing at the Studio, most notably cleaning up her quilting cabinet, which led to the discovery of the long unfinished boot quilt. In case you’re not familiar with the backstory, here you go…about 8 years ago, Mom decided that all the females of the family should pull together and make a quilt for my Dad’s 65^th birthday. Mom picked out a pattern of western boots and bought all the fabric, then sent the fabric and pattern out to each girl in the family (Lara, Raelin, Maria, Trish, Jana, Lauren, and Mom herself) for each to make two boot squares to assemble into a quilt. Well, almost everyone got their boots done, but in the end we were a few boots short and out of patience, so the boot quilt got thrown in a bag and stuck out of sight. While we have thought about it and the prospect of finishing it from time-to-time, the boot quilt has remained unfinished since then. In the course of cleaning out the quilting cabinet, Mom and I rediscovered the infamous boot quilt and I insisted that we pull it out to at least see what work was left. With only three boots missing, I knew we just needed to finish it. It had become this insurmountable wall in our heads, but in reality, we could finish it in just a couple days. And so, Mom and I created a creative assembly line with her cutting, me sewing & ironing, and then finally assembling the quilt together (me as the brains and her as the brawn). This makes it all sound easy, of course, but it actually took a bit of work and figuring as we had lost the boot pattern over the years and ran out of the background fabric before we were done. However, with some ingenious finessing and some final figuring, we managed to get the boot quilt assembled, borders on, and now it is ready to quilt. This year, Dad will finally get his long awaited boot quilt. Hooray!

Mom and I then moved on to some more light-hearted projects. I had never made one of the door-stop frogs before and suggested that would be fun. Indeed, it was. I made two frogs for my house, one to prop the door open in my bathroom upstairs and one just for the heck of it downstairs ‘cause the first was such fun to make. They are too adorable! Since Jana was unable to be with the family at Christmas this year, Mom and I also made one for her.

And that was it for completed projects. Mom and I started a couple other projects, including an adorable wool pillow that will be featured sometime in the future and some journaling/art projects based on wonderful Quilting Arts & Cloth, Paper, Scissors DVDs I found (pre-watched) in my stocking. It was a rousing success and only marred by how quickly the time went.

I hope you all had equally enjoyable and productive holidays. We’re now entering 2014 and I don’t know about you, but I'm ready to get out there and get sewing!