Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We put up a little Christmas tree and decorated it with paper-made decorations and the ribbons of the gifts everyone sent after we unwrapped everything. Michael strung up the Christmas cards we received and then made one of his famous snowflakes out of the thick, plastic wrapping of an IV bag. I think it looks pretty cool. Today is rather bittersweet for us. We both miss our families and it's nice to have each other here. I'm kind of sad as this isn't exactly the most fun place to be during a time when family and love are such a part of this season.

We've gotten a lot of good gifts. It was really wonderful to have wrapped gifts under a tree for a little bit. Very cheerful and fun. We got lots of edibles, which have thoroughly been devoured. I believe a particular favorite was the deluxe chocolate cookies and chocolate almonds that have fully fufilled our sweet tooths. Michael's in particular as he has a rather voracious sweet tooth.

We also got some lovely Christmas music to listen to and several books. And for a luxury factor we got some wonderful foot cream and Burts Bees! We're very thankful for the thoughtfulness of everyone while we've been here.

The quilt update is so far I've finished three blocks and am well on my way to finishing my fourth block. I'll be posting a picture of my first completed column of 8. I have to make 7 of these columns. I'm really excited to see how it's going to turn out. Michael calls it, "fetching."

I wound up finding this little box of about 200 pieces of 2"x2" origami paper and am folding them all into cranes to string up and make a kind of garland for our room and whatnot. I didn't realize how difficult it was to fold such small paper until I got a few done...turns out I only have the patience to do one or two every few hours as it really excersizes my fine motor skills.

So Merry Christmas everyone! Much love from the Washington Woolleys! XOXOXO

First Completed Quilt Block

As promised, here's the pictures of my first completed quilt block. As I don't have a sewing machine all of this is pieced by hand. The top picture is a close up of my stitching, the middle one is a full picture of the back and the bottom one is what the front looks like. Michael likes the back view better than the front just because it shows all of my hand stitching.

It's very different doing it all by hand. It's much slower, but more accurate in terms of getting everything to line up, and keep the triangles pointed, etc. Sometimes with the sewing machine it cuts the points off of the triangles due to the seam allowance. Crazy sounding, I know. I like doing it by hand just because it's very meditative, there's no rush to get to completion just because you can't, and I like the craftsmanship put into it by doing it by hand.

I'm using a "back stitch" to put the pieces together. I like it better than the "over under stitch" because you get extra reinforcement with the continuous loop that happens with the back stitch. So now I've completed one, and only 55 more to go. I'm already making good headway into my second block. Now that I've completed one the others should go a bit faster. It's actually a pretty complicated quilt block as there's so much that needs to be lined up properly. It's an interesting puzzle.

Well, Michael and I are doing well. He should be writing up here soon. He's been on this fitness research kick and will probably tell you all about it. I heard him mention something about writing a blog on all of his past running shoes. Anyway, I hope all of you have a good week, night, day, etc. We're coming home in only a couple of months! I'm very excited. I got the official day for me a couple of days ago, and we're working on getting Michael to come back on the same flight as me. I hope everyone's doing well. Stay healthy!

TTFN. R.

Wedding Plans and Quilts

Well, it's December already and Michael found this little three foot, fake, douglas fir Christmas tree. It's very sweet, and we haven't decorated it yet. I think we're going to scrounge up some white paper and some scraps of fabric from the quilt I'm working on and put something together for decorations. Our first Christmas!

It's hard to believe our year here is almost at an end with our return to Washington in February. While on leave I did some wedding planning and I've been brainstorming some in my spare time. The venue will be at my Aunt Mary's house. Here's a couple of pictures. Don't mind all the leaves. These will just cover the main areas of the wedding.

This patio is one of the areas where the reception will be. The food will be inside in a dining area and there's room to wander around indoors as well, but the outside is just beautiful so this is an idea of what it will look like.

This is the door I'll be coming down when going down the aisle. The porch and two areas of grass on either side of the walkway is where seating will be.

This picture is a side view of the house. Just to kind of give an idea as to the feel of the house.

This picture is where we'll be doing our vows and an idea of the view of the river during the vows.

Michael has a military school that ends in September so I think we'll be moving the date to October. These pictures were taken in November so the leaves will be turning these colors in October. I'm kind of using that as color inspiration for the wedding. Michael really wants blue as one of the colors so blue and then the bright colors of fall are going to be what we use.

I tried on dresses while we went on leave and I've gotten my wedding dress. It's beautiful, but I'm trying to keep it a surprise for Michael so no pictures right now. It's got an old feel to it that goes really well with the house.

Iraq is still Iraq. The work load has been lessening and I've been filling my spare time up with quilting. I'm making a "Storm at Sea" quilt. It's made of blues, aquas, and greens. When I finish my first block I'll put it up.

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/42392/2682945230044399772S425x425Q85.jpg

That link leads to a picture that's pretty close to how I'll be making mine. The color scheme is pretty similar and the wave pattern going on is what I'll be doing for mine as well.

I don't have a sewing machine here so I've been hand stitching everything. It really makes you appreciate how things used to be made. I kind of cycle through sewing and cutting because it helps the "boredom." When you have a mountain of cutting and sewing to do it can get really frustrating when you're just doing one and you feel like it's never going to end. So I cut for a little bit, and then sew together what I've been cutting. I haven't even begun ironing seams yet. I'll do that once I feel like I've sewn a pile and I'm not sewing one thing and then ironing one seam, which can get redundant. In only the couple of weeks Michael and I have been back I've been making steady progress. So far I've had a little bit of time to do at least something on it every day, which is nice.

Quilting is very soothing and meditative for me. Michael told me it's fascinating to watch me quilt because all these emotions cross over my face one after the other. I didn't know it was that easy to notice, but when I'm quilting I just think about everything. I really like that I can contemplate the inner workings of the universe while doing something simple like cutting fabric or sewing a triangle and square together. Sounds rather poetic.

Anyway, my stomach is about ready to eat itself so I need to get lunch. I also want to check out our new pirated DVDs shop right by the chow hall as I need some new movies to watch while I quilt. I hope everyone's doing well. We're looking forward to being home in only two months! Very groovy as Michael would say. Soo...TTFN.

~R.