T minus 3

The Christmas preparations are about as much done as they are going to be. My husband and I went into my 6 year old's class yesterday to assist with a gingerbread house making activity. There was SO much candy it was insane. Even I ate too much of it. I can only imagine how much the kids ate, despite the instruction to only have 4 pieces. These houses were made with graham crackers royal iced (aka glued) to milk cartons, then decorated to death, as you can see!
Today I continued my cooking, just a little bit. I secretly really hate to cook. And I hate to do dishes more than that. But above all, I do love a good dessert, so here's what was made...

And the photos were not doctored!...The red velvet cake is so freaking delicious I can hardly wait. It's got 1 entire bottle of red food coloring in it to make it that deep color! Yesterday I struggled with my caramel corn. I had to remake the caramel once after having one batch crystallize (and then sending hubby to fetch me some more sugar). I have used a ghastly 6 lb of sugar this week between my caramel corn, these cakes and peanut butter fudge (double yum!). Yikes! I hear a diet in my January future...

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I hate to admit that I have been quilting on this quilt 2 weeks now. That's not off & on for 2 weeks, that is about 45 hours of my life. I reached the bottom today, and breathed a huge sigh of relief, knowing that it can now be taken off the frame if need be, and put back on without causing any risk of creasing the backside. While I have a little time still, I am chipping away at little undone areas of it before I decide it is time to put on a customer quilt and get to business. When it is off, I will unpick any areas I am redoing, and do all of the marking necessary to finish it.

This afternoon, I quilted about 75 straight minutes of those straight lines in the black. They are 1/4" spaced. I've heard this type quilting called pinstriping or piano-keys, but this really is more like corduroy when it is this dense. It has tremendous texture. There's a good bit of ditch quilting to be done along those stripes, and I have not decided if I want to do it on the longarm or put it on my domestic, since they are so close to the edge.

It has challenged me every day, and despite feeling some days like I wanted to toss it overboard, I am starting to think it will be OK when it is finished. Only the good Lord really knows when that might be though!