I'm never ready for December.  I just never seem to get to all things I had planned to finish before the end of the year.  But to put a positive spin on that, it's also the month to start planning for 2024 and theoretically have the chance to make up for where you fell short this year (funny how it rarely works out that way).  One area that has worked out well for me this year is my stitching time, this week was another good one.  

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 24 ...

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is over and we are into the Christmas season already. With it being a holiday week, I tempered my expectations of getting in much stitching time. However, Grad Girl and I did manage a few sitting and stitching sessions over the holiday weekend. 

• 15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 20/25 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 278/329 days
• Success rate = 84.5%

At least I stitched more days than I didn't this week.  I'm still over my 75% stitching goal for the year, so I'm going ...

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this Thursday.  At this point I'm not ready. Lots to do between now and then.  Likely my stitching time will suffer a bit this week. It's a good thing this last week was really good. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 16/18 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 274/322 days
• Success reate = 85.09%

Almost halfway through November?  I'm definitely not ready for that, but as I can't change anything about that, I'm just hoping to keep going with the flow.  That was pretty much what happened with my stitching time this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 9/11 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 267/315 days
• Success rate = 84.76%

A lot has happened in the sewing room.

The green background for the challenge piece went back in the drawer. I decided I couldn’t finish the design the way I planned it before the deadline.

I revised the design to something I could finish, using hexagons as blocks. I made two blocks and realized I made octagons when they didn’t fit together .

I took time out to think about another redesign. In the end I put the whole project in a box and started over. I will finish it one day, probably using something close to the original ...

      It has been very satisfying sewing the Kindred Pinwheels blocks with the Tilda triangles Maureen sent me. In fact, I have so many blocks that I think they are too much for one quilt and will split them into 2 comfort quilts, 4 by 5 blocks each with lattice and borders.

Rosie's inspection looking for imperfections and stray threads

Figuring out lattice and cornerstones

I will make the second quilt with darker lattice and then light cornerstones, so I am just testing the idea with a few greens. Not sure if these are the lattice fabrics yet.

I'm sorry this post is just a little late.  I spent the day in Houston with Grad Girl and we didn't get back till late, so I slept in a bit today.  Thankfully with time change it's not up as late as it would have been.  

My stitching time has been a bit curtailed since I've been traveling, but I've had some hand stitching to work on in the evenings.  I did well at working that in up until yesterday. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 23/31 days
• 15 ...

There were around 200 4-patch blocks, most alternating background/print, and some, what I would call, mixed patches. All came together in a box.

They had issues–mostly inconsistent seam allowance. And some people might have considered them dated.

But there was something interesting about them. So, first things first–Square Up. I chose 3-1/2″.

Alone they weren’t enough to make a sizable quilt, so I explored a number of different options for the alternating squares–too light, too dark, too dull, too print-y. None were quite right. Then, I remembered, when struggling with colors, there are a ...

Someone commented on the blog yesterday about the reason I went on the Camino. That was learning to slow down and live here and now. I can't do that 100%, but that's partially why it's taking me so long to get back into the swing of things. 

I do NOT want to be crazy busy - I want to be active but not go insane. Elle -- thank you for that reminder. It will take me some time to be comfortable with that concept, and I'm already looking forward to reducing more things in the new year. 

On ...

While rummaging through my “possible projects,” I found these Pendleton Wool shirt scraps. They were the last of a pile I held on to for years until Sparkle Jane claimed (most of) it to make a quilt for her now-husband.

Through the years I have made a number of quilts that ended up at my parent’s house, but never a quilt specifically for my father.

I guess it was time, because that was all I could think about. The denim is from his old jeans that my mother saved for years. Much ended up in quilts for each of ...

The Half Square Triangles were cutoffs from a quilt I built several years ago.

I wasn’t sure what to do with them, until the perfect backing showed up in a thrift store haul. Yep, I’ll pay $2.99 for that!

I wanted to connect the mostly navy front with the back–putting a few squares of the backing in the front helped.

Also, intentionally visible, bright pink quilting. It isn’t my usual look, but it really ties the quilt together.

The quilt finished at 34″ x 38″. It is planned as a donation quilt. It will find ...

 I shared this idea with you previously in July. Click here to read that post. I finally got it finished!

Here is what it looks like all stitched but not sewn into a pillow cover yet.

For those of you who are curious, here is what the back looks like before I sewed it up into a pillow cover.

I cut a piece of batting the finished size I needed the pillow to be. Next time I would cut the batting about an inch larger than the finished size. I added the fabric directly on top of the batting and ...

I love anything goes scrappy quilts for donation projects. You never know exactly how they will turn out.

A great pattern for this sort of quilt is the Potato Chip block. All you need is a big pile of scraps cut into 2-1/2″x4-1/2″ rectangles.

You can even use scrappy binding scraps to finish.

My husband has said that my quilts are energy efficient. I assumed he was referring to my use of scraps. Nope! He says they are energy efficient because no one needs a night light since they practically glow in the dark. I’m taking ...

Not sure where the Christmas jelly roll came from, but it made for a relatively quick quilt when cut into squares and matched with alternating background squares.

I typically choose bolder colors and more fabric variety–this particular jelly roll had only about 15 different fabrics in it.

That said, I like the unexpected black accents. Maybe a more sophisticated look?

And I love me a finish!

Scrappy Yellow Placemat

It started as a block. A LARGE block–25″. It was beautiful, and someone worked very hard on it. And abandoned it. And it was lonely.

What to do…

Well, I also “happened” to have (if you believe in coincidence) these leftovers someone shared with me. The colors worked. The strips weren’t very big and about 3/4″ across, finished. I cut them into 2″ wide sections and pieced those together.

Also, found this lovely yellow in my stash with just the right print on it. I love being lucky, don’t you?!

Around and around until there were ...

If you have followed me for a while, you know that Husband is a life-long (born in Athens, Georgia) fan of the University of Georgia, particularly the football team.

Because of this I have made a number of Georgia themed quilts over the years. You can see some of them HERE, HERE, and HERE.

The latest is a Quick Quilt for the baby of a near neighbor with Georgia ties.

It was such fun to surprise them with an unexpected gift.

PS–I haven’t forgotten the tutorial. Coming soon!

 It is so much easier on the knees and the back to pin baste quilts on a table rather than the floor.  I took advantage of the tables at the Ingersoll Creative Arts Centre this past week to get two quilts ready for quilting.  The first one is a pattern by Christine at Tesselate Quilts.  I pieced the top over a year ago and it has been hanging out in the pile of completed tops for too long!   

My Kaffe Fassett Overlapping Tiles quilt was also pin basted this week. I have a quilting plan for both of these quilts--using ...