carrie's ho quilt

All of the Christmas festivities are over and the last of the quilts has been given, so it is for sure safe to share Carrie's Ho quilt.

I mean, Ho Ho Ho quilt.

For those of you who may not already understand, let me explain.

My hubby has a kinda mean sense of humor.  He gives out nicknames that are not always nice, but somehow they tend to stick.  Many years ago he started calling his sister a ho, as in a hooker, because, well, he's kinda mean and he's a big brother. It's not exactly a nickname, but whenever he sees Christmas stuff that says "ho ho ho" on it, he points it out to her and giggles.  The whole family knows this and we just roll our eyes at him.

He also calls me a chicken.  It may have something to do with a character on the TV show Married with Children, who was also called a chicken.  Because my husband thinks he is Al Bundy.  (Anyone who has watched this show will be rolling their eyes because he is one of the last people anyone would want to be!)  I don't know.  But again, the whole family knows about it and rolls their eyes.

My sister-in-law, Carrie, has two boys, 15 and 12.  The 12-year-old has a moped helmet (no moped, though, so ???) that is covered in fake fur and looks like Santa's head.  We were over there this fall and he was scaring the bejeezus out of my 2-year-old great niece (the one who got the quilt I shared last week) with it.  I know some kids are terrified of Santa - I guess Brynn is one of them.

So Carrie, in an effort to calm her down, kept calling the hat "Ho Ho" and saying "Ho Ho won't hurt you" and such.  I looked right at her and called her Aunt HoHo.  She was stunned at how quick I came up with it, but then giggled.  And called me Aunt Cluck Cluck.  I giggled and everyone had a laugh and we moved on because the children were still screaming for 145 different reasons and that needed more attention.  (There were only about 4 kids, but you know how family gatherings can get crazy, right?)

A few weeks later, the in-laws hosted a cookout/weenie roast on my birthday.  I didn't ask for it, but it was a nice night and they decided to include my birthday as part of the festivities.  I don't really celebrate, but whatever.  Sister-in-law showed up with a cake for me.  With a chicken on it.

She was worried I'd be mad.  This is hilarious.  Funny, though, that not one member of that family knew I didn't like chocolate cake.  Guess what flavor this is?  (The 12-year-old-going-on-40 niece was first in line to snag that pile of icing that looks like flowers from me, though...)

I told her she'd pay for it.

And on the way home, it hit me.  A Ho Ho Ho quilt.

I had to buy fabric for the background (a lighter grey seemed appropriate since she lives with two teenage boys, a dog and of course her hubby!), but everything else came from my stash.

I started cutting...

And this didn't seem like nearly enough parts for a throw-size quilt.  I guess I'm used to more complicated projects?

Anyways, I got busy sewing.  First up were the Hos...

And then the trees...

Since there are a few different fabrics here, I had to figure out a layout that made it look nice and not too matchy...

If I remember right, it took longer to put these together than anticipated, but it went well.  Not a lot of seams to match or make things wonky with just a hair here and hair there difference in seam allowances.

(Salem is snoopervising there on the edge.)

It sat a while, waiting to go on the longarm.  Because I am very good at procrastinating.

I did, however, piece the back.

When I found this at the store, it was so far beyond my wildest expectations, I was giggling out loud.  How could this NOT be the perfect back for this quilt?

Eventually, the marathon longarming day came and this was quilt number two.  I think.  Maybe it was number one?  Whatever.

I did swirls on it.  I did swirls on everything that day.

I trimmed and had the binding made, but waited another few weeks to actually finish it.  Nothing like playing chicken with a deadline!

My usual wrapped up in a quilt to bind a quilt position...  I had hoped to have enough red or green of one of the fabrics to bind it with, but I didn't.  So other than you and me, no one knows the difference.  And it looks fine.

It looks a bit pinker here than actual, but the day I got this photo, the sun was shining so bright, I couldn't see my phone screen to know if I was even aimed the right direction!

Quilt stats:

Name: HoHoHo Quilt

Designer: Wendy Sheppard

Size: 54" 59"

Pieced and quilted by me

(And honestly, until right now, I didn't realize it was CALLED the HoHoHo Quilt!  I just ordered the pattern and started sewing.)

We had Christmas early for the hubby's family, due to lots of kids being old enough to have started families of their own, jobs that don't shut down for the holidays and all that sort of thing.  So last week Sunday she got her quilt.

We hand out presents by family - so my hubby and I handed out all we had brought and then everyone opens gifts.  My sister-in-law was who I had my eyes on and she got it halfway open and hollered "I win Christmas!" and then started giggling when she saw WHAT was on the quilt.  She didn't even realize what was on the back until I told her to go pull it back out and look.

The best part?  She can put it on her couch and almost no one will know the joke.  They'll just think it's a nice holiday decoration.

Brynn also got her quilt and I think she liked it.  She's a little shy around me, but that's just her age.  I know her dad appreciated it.

With the holidays, there hasn't been a lot of sewing, but I have done a little!

This is the last of the zillion and four cat toys I cut out that will go to the cat rescue group for fundraising.  I cut a lot quite a while back, but things stalled out for a number of reasons.  Finally I've gotten back to them.

They're all sewn and some have been turned, but I still have a lot to turn and then I'm dreading getting them all stuffed and sewn shut.  That's always a trick, what with my kitties wanting to help!

Lily has been goblining her way through life and the other day she decided to be, um, cute?

She followed me into the kitchen, racing ahead of me, flew herself up onto the counter, flopped down and started taking a bath.  (Look at her cute toe beans!)  I swear I wash off my kitchen counters 14 times every time I try to cook because I keep having to put her down and start over.

Reading has been going well, too.  I finished two books last week.

First up:

Written by an actual undertaker, I was curious about this one.  The blurb on the back made it sound interesting and I figured why not.

The man is also a poet.  I think this would best be described as literary nonfiction.  Kinda high falutin' stuff.  Not that I can't keep up, just a lot more dense than I...well, maybe I shouldn't have expected it.

The stories do revolve around his being an undertaker and the son of an undertaker, but I expected more humor or levity or something mixed in with the somber heaviness.  And other than the chapter where he goes on and on about combining a graveyard and a golf course (which lost its humor quickly), mostly the stories feel like letters to the editor with a hard turn into soapbox ramblings.

And while some of his soapbox ideas are agreeable to me, I felt myself skimming past whole paragraphs just to be past that part and see if it got better.

The worst part?  At the start he discusses the word undertaker and how his job got the name and never, ever, explains it.  Maybe he doesn't know.  (Maybe I skipped that paragraph?  Haha.)

Anyways, I did not enjoy this book.  Again with the awards stickers warning me, right?

Book two:

I really enjoyed this book!  I wasn't sure I would enjoy it this much, since it deals with lives of former slaves just as they are being freed after the Civil War, but it was interesting.

It follows the life of Louella Bobo Williams (the American Queen) and her reverend husband, William, as they lead a group of former slaves out of Mississippi and onto a former plantation on the edge of North and South Carolina, that they work on to earn the money to buy the land and build houses to create a city of their own.  Called Happy Land, based on a true story, this book focuses on the positives a lot and though setbacks and negatives are mentioned, they are not the focus of the book.  I'm not sure if I like that (not dwelling on it and making things heavy) or if I think it should have gotten a little more focus (to raise awareness).  Both I guess?

It was a quick read, too, which surprised me.  I think this author will go on my list to check out her other work!

I've started another book, of course, and am hoping to finish it by the end of the year.  We'll see.  It's got a lot of pages, but it's by an author I love and she writes in a way that reads quickly even as you take it all in.

Time to go read a little and then back to work a little to let the doggies who are staying the weekend out to go potty and give out a few treats!

Happy quilting!

Katie