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 Hello friends and beautiful people!  I pray you had a Merry Christmas!  Ours was full of faith, family and friends.  Thursday night we had our large family dinner with the kids and grands.  Friday night we had friends over for dinner before we all headed to church for our Christmas Eve service.  It was quite relaxing.

I did finish quilting and binding this quilt called "Fancy Baskets".  It is another older Thimbleberries pattern with Thimbleberries fabrics.  The fabric line was called Cottagewood and I really loved it - especially the plaids.  (We do have one pattern left on our website, and ...

 This one was waiting to be custom quilted.  I've always known how I wanted to quilt it.  So, I waited....I finished quilting it last week and got it bound last night.  I was originally going to bind it in the green.  After I quilted it, I felt like it needed a *pop* of color, so I grabbed a red!

Believe it or not, I am all caught up on my Christmas longarming.  All of my customer quilts that were needed for Christmas have either been picked up or mailed and business usually dies down for the rest of the year.  It's a time to get caught up and catch my breath before the first of the year.

I loaded more of our allover designs on the Facebook page and am getting ready to load some more fabric and patterns on the website.  Then, it will be time to start paperwork for the accountant.  I love year-end!  Truly I ...

This quilt took quite a while. It is the Safe Haven pattern by Thimbleberries. I do not know if it is still available. You might find it out there on Etsy or Ebay.

The blocks weren’t too bad, in spite of the applique, in which I do not have much experience. I rather enjoyed the variety of piecing techniques.

But the layout was a different story. The suggestion in the Block of the Month pattern was not to my personal taste, but I also didn’t have a better idea.

So it sat for a while. And then for ...

**THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**

Now that the Safe Haven top is complete, and I have fabric set aside for binding, I am ready to find a new home for the rest.

Leave a comment by the end of the day on Saturday, July 17, 2021 to enter for a chance to win a COMPLETE PATTERN SET and ALL THE FABRIC YOU SEE HERE. It isn’t enough the make the quilt, I’m sure, but it is a good start. You could easily add other Thimbleberries or Repro fabrics to complete the project.

I will notify and mail the ...

At last! The blocks sat for a year, more or less, before I came back to them and pushed towards a finish.

And I am pleased with it. Yes, the picture isn’t great due to size and adverse weather conditions, but you get the idea.

Final size is 84″ x 96″. A useful size and reasonable shape. It will be a while before it is a true finish. I need backing fabric and quilting and binding, but, this is a complete top and I am glad of it!

First border. Narrow–just enough to set apart the blocks, but not to add too much to the height.

I think there are three more borders coming…the end is in sight.

I settled on 2-1/2″ sashing between the blocks.

It gives definition and makes it a little wider. Of course, it also made the quilt longer.

Now to settle on border options that add more width than length, lest the quilt become a scarf for a giant. Right now it is 70″ wide x 94″ long/tall. Hmm…

Another tentative step forward on an alternate setting for the blocks I have finished for the Safe Haven quilt kit.

I decided to add 1-1/2″ strip around each block.

Each block gets a different color, one that is contained in the block but not dominate on the side.

All of them are finished and it is time to contemplate Step Three. I am going back and forth between 2-1/2″ sashing in the light tan color that serves as a background in several of the blocks, a 1-1/2″ sashing of the same, and just sewing them all together ...

The first step to help me along towards a finish of the Safe Haven quilt was to make all the blocks the same size. While 8 blocks in the original plan are 20″ x 20″, the other four are 18″ x 20″.

I added a 2-1/2″ strip of fabric that is in the block but not on the edge of the block to one side of each of those blocks. There is a lot of surplus fabric (Did the original owner get two sets of some blocks?) and that is really helping at this phase.

The next plan is ...

Some time ago I was gifted a complete kit with pattern of the Safe Haven Quilt by Thimbleberries. It wasn’t exactly my typical style, but I thought it would do me good to use an actual pattern, different color scheme, larger size pieces and a little applique.

So I made the blocks. And enjoyed it.

But, then I really looked at the setting and discovered I didn’t like it. It isn’t so bad in the pattern, but I have seen pictures of finished quilts on beds, and it isn’t for me. At all. I am sure ...