Merry Christmas

 

I hope everyone who celebrates has someone to celebrate with. I will be at my daughter’s today, and last night I celebrated with my church family.

Edit: I found a picture of the sanctuary with the candles lit. So beautiful!

Seeing Stars

I had a little extra time yesterday to sew. I went by the mall in the morning--I thought it would be super crowded--the Saturday before Christmas, and all, but it really wasn't. I don't know if everyone has already finished their shopping, or if everyone is feeling the effects of the not-so-great economy. 

In the afternoon, I decided I might as well work on the pre-work for the sweatshirt jacket we are doing at the quilt guild workshop in January.

We need to make 6 of the big stars and 24 of the small stars (more if we use them for the centers of the big ones). I had already pulled some fat quarters I wanted to use. OMG. It took me forever to cut and sew one star.

I worked for three hours, and this is all I got done:

I am so glad I didn't wait until the last minute like I sometimes do. Still, I am going to have to figure out how to make this go faster. Maybe if I can get a bunch of the little ones cut out before I sit down to sew. 

Mission Accomplished

Finishing the blue quilt was a goal with a deadline. It is a Christmas gift for my mom, so not much time to spare.

I’m happy to have it done, but it will still need to be wrapped. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to increase productivity! I also got her a blue robe.

She’s  notoriously hard to buy for; hopefully she’ll like one or the other of these two things.

Speaking of last minute productivity, Melanie called yesterday evening to see if they could stop by to drop off gifts. Oh my, I cleaned up the kitchen, breakfast nook, and family room in record time. I had been dragging my feet on it all day, because it usually takes a few hours to do it. I think I did it all in 30 minutes. I had cleaned the hall bath a few days ago, so I didn’t have to do that. It goes to show, I usually poke around waste too much time instead of jumping in and getting it done!

It Was All Going Great……

…until it wasn’t. Wednesday morning, Betty and I delivered gifts to the ladies at Perpetual Help Home. 

They currently have 12 ladies living there. Here’s what was in the bags:

A Bible, a journal, a devotional, pens, and chocolate. 

We worked on quilts the rest of the day. I need to count and see how many we have completed. I got the blue quilt trimmed and started on the binding. I thought I was going to finish, and then this:

Darn it! I must have miscalculated (obviously). 

Vintage Quilt

 As promised, here's the picture of the vintage top I quilted last week:

It's super wonky, but that's no surprise. The top itself was really bumpy and wavy. At least it's a quilt now, and the great fabrics will be preserved.

It still needs binding, and I'm thinking of navy. We'll see.

I got the quilting finished on the blue quilt, and that was one of my weekly goals, so I'm glad to get it done.

When I finish this post, I need to go into the sewing room and get the binding cut.

I got a late start yesterday because I was trying to finish up the baking and get trays delivered.

I'm embarrassed to say I sampled everything I baked. I really didn't need to eat that many sweets, but I had to make sure they tasted okay before I delivered them. LOL! I tried to do a course correction for lunch.

Of course, it would have been healthier without the ranch, but the veggies are so much better dipped in ranch.

To-Do-List Tuesday 12-19-23

We’re in the final countdown for Christmas, and things are hectic as usual. I baked four kinds of cookies yesterday. I actually used a mix for the sugar cookies and just made a small batch of them to use the red and green sugar for decoration. Today I am making fudge and maybe some raspberry bars if I don’t get burned out first. Hopefully, I can get them plated and delivered today. 

So, what was on my list for last week? 

1) Quilt blue quilt. No, but I did get it loaded on the frame, so that will happen today or tomorrow at the latest.

2) Quilt one of the vintage quilts….or both if there’s time. I got one quilted, but I can’t find a picture in my camera roll, so I guess I forgot to take a picture of it. I’ll try to do that tomorrow.

3) Quilt a couple of charity quilts. Yes. 

4) Make some more binding. Yes, enough for three or four quilts.

5) Wrap the rest of the Christmas gifts. Yes, although two haven’t gotten here yet and will have to be wrapped when they get here.

The three girls are getting monogrammed totes, and I decided not to wrap them. 

I got some big tumblers to go inside them plus some smaller things,

so I’m counting the totes as the gift bags. It works for me!

There won’t be much time for sewing/quilting this week, but here’s my list:

1) Quilt and bind blue quilt.

2) Photograph the vintage quilt that I did last week.

3) Quilt the other vintage quilt.

4) Make some pillowcases.

And, that’s enough for a holiday week! Have a great one, everyone! I’m linking to Quilt Schmilt.

All Work and No Play

I was planning on going to a movie with friends Saturday, but then I remembered Janice is coming by Monday to pick up her quilt, and I didn't have it trimmed, so I opted to get that done instead.

Isn't it pretty? It's 60" x 79", and I quilted in with a variegated brown.

While I was at it, I got these two trimmed as well.

I'm really liking that Waves quilt pattern. I like the way it looks on the back too.

I think it's a good pattern for the kid's quilts--it's gender neutral, and it's not too compact, but the pattern is still tight enough to be durable on a quilt that may get washed a lot. 

Betty will be back from her cruise on Tuesday so I cut some bindings for the ones that are quilted.

I also cut out a couple of pillowcases, but that required more thought than I wanted to put into it. I ended up leaving early so I could vacuum and dust the house. I try to vacuum every day because of the dogs, but honestly, it hadn't been done in a couple of days and was past due.