AI- Top 4 Elimination

Drama. Angst. Stress. Making Faces. Backtalk. This. Is. American. Idol.

Randy looks nice in a long-sleeved red tee, with a white tee underneath. Kara is dressed for Sunday Go to Meeting on Vulcan. Paula is in a lizard print dress, with a plunging neckline.

Well, I suppose it had to happen sometime- the Fordmercial was okay. I liked the whole paper cutout thing. All it needed was some tabs.

The Group Sing, with Slash playing guitar, was an exercise in overkill, with all of the kids trying way too hard to ROCK OUT. Adam has a new haircut, a blazer with textured lapels, and pants with artfully bleached legs. It’s all black, of course, because the only time he doesn’t wear black is when he’s wearing all white. Allison has really pretty hair. I can’t decide whether the ruffle at her hips belongs to the skirt or the jacket. Kris and Danny are both in farmer shirts. Again.

I was thinking that Paula performed on the show during Season 1, but I am obviously misremembering since Ryan insists several times over, that tonight is the first time that Paula will sing on the AI stage.

During the Useless Lineup Chatter, we learn that Kris will always be humble. Humble and pretty. Danny realizes that he was awful last night. Adam has a great laugh. And Allison swears (or at least said something that was bleeped out).

Paula, dressed like a circus pony rider, takes the stage with a gaggle of young men, to sing I’m Just Here for the Music. What’s the audio version of Photoshop? Whatever it is, that’s what her voice sounds like. The choreography is… well… a little geriatric. But the song is okay, if you ignore the worse-than-cheesy ending.

After the commercial, Paula, sweaty and back in the lizard dress, schmoozes on stage with Ryan. There is some sort of oddness with her chest- as though her enhancements slipped, or deflated, or something.

Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, take the stage next. There are no judges at the table, so I think this performance was taped earlier. Gwen is wearing a white tank with a green bra underneath, heavy knee boots, and black pants with a saggy crotch and spangled banners cascading on the rear. Her hair defies description, as do most of the band members (sample: the man in striped tights, Mohawk and a tutu). The song was not so much with melody or lyrics, but it definitely involved writhing and prancing and jumping around on the stage, and audience shout outs. Cyndi Lauper did all of that better 20 years ago, and I’d rather look at Captain Lou Albano than any of this crew.

Next week, the survivors get to visit their hometowns, with cameras and cheerleaders and fanfare and tears. We see a quick montage of Blake Lewis, Jordin Sparks, Bo Bice (in dire need of a shampoo), Carrie Underwood, David Cook, David Archuletta, Taylor, Ruben, Elliott and his sweet Mama, and… oh, I can’t believe this… some girl I don’t remember. Whoever she was, she made it far enough to merit the Hometown Visit.

Back on stage, the kids are lined up, and Ryan threatens to eliminate one of them now, but we know better. Ryan also says that he’ll send one random kid to safety. I guess he defines random as “totally contrived”.

Uh oh, Kris is safe. I don’t care what Ryan says-that means Allison is going home.

I love some AI contestants from the first note of their auditions (Clay, Taylor, Kimberley Locke, Sundance Head)(okay, so I’m not infallible). With Chris Daughtry, it was the opposite. I detested him even before the show started (they played his audition incessantly in the pre-season commercials). The night of his surprise elimination was a rare treat for me. These days, I don’t wish him ill, or even poor record sales, and I sort of liked Home, but I would happily call a plague down on those ridiculous sculpted sideburns (and all Mohawks, as long as I’m getting Biblical on hair choices). His song is not my style, but it’ll probably be a big hit, and it’s better than both Paula’s and No Doubt’s.

So finally, we’re back to the reason for the show. One look at Allison’s face, and we know that she knows that she’s going home. And she’s right. Her Journey Video made me mist up a bit, but truly, she would not have won. Indeed, winning would have harmed her career (imagine Allison singing Pop Princess songs. The mind recoils). And there is no dishonor in 4th place, especially among the talent of this Top 10. I would rather have had Kris go home tonight, but I can’t begrudge him his T3 spot. Besides which, he’s going home next week anyway.

Allison, my little rocker savant- go and finish high school, learn how to stand up straight and speak in public, and then sing your vocal cords to shreds. I’ll buy your record.

AI- Top 4 Performance

This. Is. Rock. Week. Which could mean anything. Ryan skips lightly down the staircase and explains that a set mishap disrupted the dress rehearsal, which might, in turn, affect tonight’s performances. We shall see.

Randy is wearing a sequined t-shirt and a sparkly necklace. Seriously. Kara is dressed like a biker chick. Paula and her cleavage are framed in Op Art.

So Slash is this week’s mentor. At least I knew that he was from Guns ‘n Roses, and I did not mistake him for Howard Stern. But beyond that, and some songs I probably would recognize without actually knowing that I know them, I am not overly familiar with his oeuvre. He seems to be a guitar player of some renown. He also seems a bit surprised to find himself part of this cheesefest.

Adam’s up first. He’s dressed in a studded, black leather Adam Costume. He’s singing Whole Lotta Love exactly the way you’d expect him to sing it. I’m not sure that’s a plus- this performance is good, and it may even be great. But it’s not surprising. Adam may have hit The Melinda Place, where week-after-week excellence starts to bore the dialers.

Allison has new red extensions, via Adam’s Hair Girl. She’s dressed like a leather clad space traveler, and she applied some purple lipstick during the video interview. So she’s finally doing Janis. I’m not objective when it comes to Allison, but I think this is absolutely great. Kara and Randy do not agree with me, except in the transformation that comes over Allison when she performs, which is magic.

Tonight we’re debuting duets, which will be interesting. Kris, also in black (the local leather shops must have raked it in this week) and a t-shirt with red band-aids stuck to it, and Danny, breaking the mold in a red shirt and a tire chain around his neck, sing Renegade. They sound good together, with some sweet harmony and an a capella opening. Simon declared Danny the better singer, but a duet isn’t a contest, so that probably doesn’t matter.

Somehow I did not realize that Kris was from Arkansas. He’s singing Come Together, and it’s immediately obvious that the song is too big for him. He flounders, and messes up the lyrics several times (side note: what the heck is toe jam football?)(more side note: maybe I don’t want to know). I like Kris, and unlike most of the pretty boys on this show, he has actual talent, and has proven that he deserves his slot. But he miscalculated seriously tonight. And he knows it.

Danny changed into a purple shirt and a pinstriped vest. His voice is more scratchy than usual on Dream On. His beginning is weak, but he works his way into it. Argh! Strobe Lights! Boy- I don’t know about that performance. It wasn’t a misstep, like Kris’s song, but I also don’t think it was worth blowing his vocal cords.

Allison and Adam pair up for Slow Ride. Allison is in a tunic dress and army boots. Adam’s striped pants are… well…bulgetastic. They sound fantastic together, and better yet, they play off each other perfectly and playfully. Both of them are natural performers. This is excellent. Simon says they won the Duet Duel, which… yeah. But still irrelevant.

Rock Ranking? Adam was the best, with Allison trailing, though not too terribly far behind. I waffled about Danny and Kris, but finally decided that Kris deserves the bottom spot, though Danny wasn’t a whole lot better. But it will all boil down to who has the most dedicated voters, and anything can happen at this stage. My best hope is for Allison to make it to 3rd place, but if she goes home tomorrow, I won’t mourn. Too much

One of these things is not like the others...

I only wear handknit socks (unless the shoes need thinner socks), and though I toss most of my socks in the machine, some of them have to be handwashed. I usually save them until I have a bunch, and then wash them all at once, and hang dry them in the bathroom. Ya think maybe my feet generally prefer rose/orange?

I finished assembling another 10 blocks for the Whatever Quilt. I have 40 now, and since I am quilting these projects myself, and my sewing machine/arms/table can't handle bedspreads, I have scaled down the size of the projected quilt. The blocks are 8 1/2", so I figure I can get by with 70 blocks (7 wide x 10 long) with a 5" border all around. But we'll see as I go- maybe I'll skip the border and just put another line of blocks both ways. This quilt will be a mish-mash of colors and patterns, and a border won't unify the design anyway, so maybe it's unnecessary. (you may note that I had a bunch of triangles left from the Figgy Pudding quilt trees to play with).

I got the Froggy quilt sandwiched, pinned, and quilted. It went very well- my machine quilting is still nothing to brag about, but I'm getting better. And the thread didn't break even once! I have the binding sewn on, and just have to tack it down, though that won't happen for a couple of days (AI tonight and tomorrow night, tomorrow we're taking a day trip, and I have a couple of knitting/crochet deadlines that are the evening priority at the moment. But this is a Christmas present, so there's no hurry beyond the fact that I want to cross it off my list).

I've been assembling Bee themed blocks- I won a couple of quilt square auctions on eBay, for many different bee-themed fabrics, and I'm bordering them with 2 1/2" strips of assorted greens (her room is green, you see. Frog Girl's room is blue- and the froggy squares just happened to be all blues). I think this one is going to be adorable too. I will do likewise with a set of Ladybug squares and pink for another quilt. SuperHero boy quilt will be a snap. Book Girl is more problematic- I don't need a specific color, but finding fabrics with book designs is proving to be difficult. But, as I said, Christmas is a long way off, and the hunt is part of the fun.

Class Contemplation

I'm teaching at SAFF (link to the right of this page), which is a wonderful honor and opportunity, but it also means that my first visit to North Carolina will be spent teaching all day, each day of the conference (if anyone signs up for my classes, that is)(please, sign up for my classes), and won't be able to attend any of the wonderful workshops. But at the Sock Summit, in Portland, OR in August (http://www.socksummit.com/), I am not teaching, which means that I get to play.

I've been studying the class list and schedule (http://www.socksummit.com/classes/schedule/), and though the choices have been hard, here are the classes I hope to take:

Thursday Morning: Basic Crochet Socks, taught by Karen Ratto-Whooley (http://www.socksummit.com/classes/basic_crochet_socks/). I can crochet, and I've been doing a bit more of it lately, but I've never crocheted socks. This sounds fascinating.

Thursday Afternoon: Cabled Crochet Socks, taught by Karen Ratto-Whooley (http://www.socksummit.com/classes/cabled_crochet_socks/). Armed with the morning's lessons, I hope to learn even more about crocheting socks.

Friday Morning: Podcasting for Amateurs, taught by Heather Ordover (http://www.socksummit.com/classes/podcasting_for_amateurs/). Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Friday Afternoon: no classes, but there will be a booksigning and I get to participate. We plan to debut the very first copies of The Big Book of Socks at the book signing!

Saturday Morning: Beautiful Beaded Baby Bootees, taught by Sivia Harding (http://www.socksummit.com/classes/beautiful_beaded_baby_bootees/). This sounds like a lot of fun.

Saturday Afternoon: 2-1 hour classes: Darn It, taught by Merike Saarnit (http://www.socksummit.com/classes/darn_it/) because my darning skills are rustic, at best. And Grafted Bind Off for 1x1 Rib, taught by Deb Barnhill (http://www.socksummit.com/classes/grafted_bind_off_for_1x1_rib/), because my stretchy bind-0ffs aren't as stretchy as I'd like them to be.

Sunday Morning: Special Stitches for Special Handpainted Yarns for Special Socks, taught by Merike Saarnit (http://www.socksummit.com/classes/special_stitches_for_special_handpainted_yarns_for_special_socks/)

because it sounds like fun.

These are, by no means, the only classes that will make me happy. But this is the schedule I'd like to keep. We'll see how it goes when registration opens later this month.

Are you going? And what classes do you want to take?

Bring us some Piggy Pudding

What can I say? I love The Muppets.

Anyway, here is the finished Figgy Pudding quilt. I think it turned out beautifully. I learned a lot while assembling this quilt, not the least that it is hard to take a good picture of an entire quilt.

Well, what do you know?

Commenter Barb mentioned machine quilting thread, and lo and behold, I found that exact thing in the local Alco store, and amazingly enough, it made a huge difference in the thread breakage while free-form machine quilting. Such a difference that I was able to finish the second Pinwheel Baby Quilt (which is cute, though every bit as not-as-effective-with-the-print-border as I thought it was going to be) with a minimum of bad words.

That encouraged me to start the Figgy Pudding quilt (free pattern here: http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_figgy-pudding.pdf). It's the most unusual quilt top I've ever assembled (not that I've assembled all that many), and it's gorgeous. It was complex without being difficult- the instructions are written very clearly and are easy to understand and follow. And it is oh-so-striking, with the trees sort of free-floating above the rest of the quilt top. I won't try to explain how that is accomplished- check out the instructions for the particulars.

I chose more fallish colors (rather than Moda's Christmas theme) and am thrilled with how it's coming along. I decided to assemble it in sections, quilt them individually, and then sew the sections together. My machine quilting is still nothing that would impress real quilters, but I have progressed a great deal in the last couple of weeks. The progress pics show block assembly, a section pinned for quilting, and one quilted half. I also wanted to show my non-quilter solution to quilting lines that are far far far too uneven to be allowed to remain visible: sharpies. I just dotted along the thread lines with the closest matching marker on hand, and voila! Nearly invisible quilting.

Next up at the machine: a *bee* themed quilt for an honorary granddaughter's Christmas present, and quilting the froggy quilt top (also a Christmas present). On the needles: 2 projects I can't show or talk about yet. In the ears: I finished the Librovox recording of The Man Who Knew Too Much and didn't love it (the casual racism of the time is hard to listen to, though I would listen to Martin Clifton read the phone book). I started Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, and laughed out loud twice while jogging. And that was just in the first chapter. I'm going to love this one.

Freebie Friday- American Girl Raglan Cardigan Pattern

Joan I. Wilson most generously gave me permission to upload several of her original American Girl (18") knitting patterns. This first one is a Raglan Cardigan. I haven't knit it myself (I've been too busy at the sewing machine lately, to do much knitting), but the pictures are adorable.

Joan also wanted me to pass this message along: I have a project I work on during the year. You might like to get involved. There is a nationwide organized, Childhelp, that takes in and houses abused children. My friend, Nancy Miller (Nancy@Let'sPlayDolls.com) was abused as a child, and decided that each girl at the Beaumont, California home would receive an American Girl Doll (Just Like You). Online doll collectors spread the word and she raised enough money the first year to buy over 35 AGs. I decided that the girls needed clothes for their dolls, so every Christmas I ask for donations of doll clothes. Two years ago I made 43 doll quilts using pre-printed pillow panels. This year, the members of The Fairy Godmothers made almost 60 outfits, some with shoes and purses. (I have a quick purse pattern, too.)

If you want to participate (I know I'm going to), you can also contact Joan: Joaniwilson2@aol.com

Thank you Joan, for the wonderful pattern!

It's been awhile since we had a Freebie, here's a reminder of the drill: right click on the pattern pages to enlarge, save as jpgs. Print from any graphics program.

Please note: the rights to this pattern belong to Joan. Please contact her for information about licensing or sales.