Christmas Quilt Reveal :: Bono in the House

Hello all!

We're back from the GWN, and it was a successful trip.  Cheeks were kissed, necks were hugged, memories were made - a fabulous time was had by all.  Celebrating Riley Christmas with baby in tow was a new experience, and if I loved it, Riley was enamored.  Although her Fa-jah is a bit of a grinch, Riley is a total Christmastime lover, and I have pictures to prove it!

 

This Christmas visit was way different in many ways.  One huge boon was that no one cried on Christmas Eve.  Well, no one out of diapers.  I mean, I didn't cry on Christmas Eve.  Which is new.  And good.  We cut some activities out of our itinerary, which was too bad so sad, but also awesome.  There was still too much running around and I'm not saying we've figured out the best way yet, but it was better.

On Christmas Eve, my family does a huge gift exchange, and I love it.  Giving gifts is my jam.  This year, I got my Uncle P's name.  Uncle P has a deep and abiding love for U2, specifically Bono.  Apparently he once created an entire photo album chronicling him & Bono through the years.  They've never been together or anything, but it was "This is me in 1982, this is Bono in 1982..."  So it was only appropriate that him & Bono get together at Christmas.

Enter: The Quilt.  The Quilt that will never be remade.  The Quilt that, after this post, will never be spoken of again.  The Quilt that nearly ran me into the ground.  The Quilt.

... drumroll...

Bono & Uncle P!
Together at last!

Shown here are the finished product & photograph it was patterned after.
It looks better if you stand across the room.
And squint.
Whatevs.

The stats:

- 900 Squares.

- 388 of them half-square-triangles.

- Approximately 15 hours.

- A handful of tears.

- 6 triangles turned the wrong way.

- 3 bunches on the backing.

- 1 very, very happy Uncle P.

On the receiving side, Christmas eve was a win for our crew as well.  Several lovely gifts, topped off by RG's first pony!  I was so excited, and once my girl figures out that ponies are awesome, she's going to be enthralled as well!

Arm flailing = Excitement
Naked horseback riding = something that won't be repeated in her teens

Although it seems nigh on impossible, I hope that you had as fabulous a Christmas Eve as we did!  And although we all know that it's not all about the gifts, I need to know: What was your favorite to give/receive this year??  I'll also accept a listing of the worst thing you got, if its more impressive ;)

Some final pictures to close us out.

I'm slain.

My sweet little family!

The 6 Magagnotti babies born this calendar year.
Riley is happy to be here.
Swear.

I should warn you that I'm refusing to give up Christmas.  I'm just not done with it yet.  And since I have exactly 0 desire to stay up until midnight any time, I'm not all torn up over New Years.  I'm excited for it, but I refuse to let go of Christmas just yet.  Consider yourself warned.  There are stockings in your future.  And caramels.  Maybe sparkles, I'm not sure.

Hug hug kiss kiss.

<3 M.

Closing the Sweatshoppe

You guys.

For reals.

I've basically been locked in our upper room, spinning straw into gold, for the past 57 hours.

I'd complain about it more, but, well, that's about the worst of it.  And it was self-imposed, although I'd like to claim an out-of-body experience and say that #mariahmademedoit.

There's still a few things I can't show you, but I wanted to show you the latests.

Riley girl got a new Christmas dress.  This was to replace the pin-fail of last week.  And because what baby doesn't look darling in 2 yards of satin?  It might be a little long, but girlfriend isn't really walking anyhow.  I'm just so glad it all fits over her 99-percentile head!

Next up, we've got Handsome's week-before-Christmas surprise!  Thanks to a now-neked training dummy, we've got a Firefighter Stocking!  I've gotten quite a number of requests for these, and I'm planning on making some more & stocking my shop with them, once the nightmare of this past week has worn off some.

This stocking is bigger than our previous years' stockings, and I think I'm going to make larger ones for the ladies of the house, next.  Because bigger stocking = more treats, duh!  But seriously, this stocking is pretty much the perfect size.  How big is it?  Here's another picture of the stocking next to a toob of pocket cats, for comparison.

And finally, the super secret of the week, we've got a quilt!  But you can't see the front of it just yet.  So I'm going to tease you with a very non-descript back, which shows nothing of all of the work I've done.  But I'll tell you this: the recipient doesn't have instagram.  So if you want to see the front, I'm posting it on there.  So follow along!

"ta-daaaaa!"

And finally, RG would like to tell you how she feels about her new dress.  RileyGirl, take it away:

"bbbtbtbttthththth..."

I've seen some delicious treats floating around, and heard tales of quite a bit of sewing.  If you've got an IG account, I'd love to peek in on what you're making!  Leave me your user name, and I'll gladly follow!

<3 M.