NEW TABLERUNNERS AND PLACEMATS

 This week after finishing my king size bedspread, shams, and deco pillows has me finally getting into tackling some projects that really need to be worked on.  

I have a quit top all started with these Eclectic Elements by Jim Holtz.  It is just needing borders on it to finish it up.  Hopefully I will have it finished and ready to post next week.  However I ended up with 12 extra blocks left over.  I made two of these table runners with them that are 27" by 18".  Seemed a shame to waste them.

My husband is my color expert so is my shopping sidekick.  He saw this fabric at Hobby Lobby and decided it would be a great choice for placemats at our diner table.  So that is a quick project to get going this week. One done and three to go.

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TWO PROJECTS FINISHED

 I finished the bedspread at last.  A done job.  Hope to get started on some new fun projects and I do have a couple that just need a bit here and there before going to the quilters.  

What an ordeal but so worth the effort.  Fits the bed perfectly and no need to use a bed ruffle any longer.  Will I ever do something like this again Well, probably NO!

I finished Acrobat.  There was a bit of a decision as to whether to use the block on the right side third row.  The stripes do not match.  Many of you bloggers commented and said to leave it in.  Once I also had a second one the right side top row block, I figure why not it is a bit off too.  They seem to fit right in with no real issues.  Nice to have it finished and off to my charity group to finish it.

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THE KING SIZE BED SPREAD PROJECT

A few weeks ago I got my bedspread, shams, and deco pillows back from the quilter.  I got the deco pillows finished with their envelope backs two weeks ago .

Then this past week finally managed to get both shams completed with their envelope backs as well.

I will admit I have been trying to avoid binding the quilt. So I decided with left over fabric to make some table runners for a small table in our bedroom's sitting room, and both night stands and the dresser top.

This is the one that is on the little table in our sitting room.  The others are similar just different sizes to match the night stands and dresser tops.

Well last week I finally had no choice but to work on binding the bedspread.  Binding a 100" by 120" quilt looked like a nightmare.  I moved my machine to the dining room table on Saturday morning and went for it.  I added to the difficulty by rounding the two bottom corners.  I was not going to use bias binding for the entire thing, so only cut two, 24 inches of bias binding and placed that around those two corners and then cut standard binding for the rest of it.  I just joined the bias binding sections to the straight cut binding as I sewed around on each side.  In the end it worked perfectly and was not as awful of a chore as I thought it would be.  Now to finish the binding by hand, a chore I do not mind doing at all.  I don't think I will ever do something like this again, but it really is beautiful and the colors perfect for our bedroom. 

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A FINISH AND SOME NEW STARTS

 I survived the A/C/Heater replacement last week.  Glad that is finished.  Now time to get my bedspread, shams and a scrap quilt finished and start something new. 

I finished my scrap quilt and prepared a binding for it now it is off next month to the charity group for quilting and finishing up the binding process.

Several months ago I started this Acrobatic quilt and decided to play with the blocks a bit.  Not very happy with the one on the far right as the stripes cannot be matched so may toss that one and cut out a different background fabric.  It is to be a charity quilt as well, so have to think about it when all 9 are done and see where I go with that idea. 

Happened on to this block of the month startup and decided to take some of my small scrap fabrics and work on getting them into something fun.  These blocks are supposed to be 18.5" square when done.  I am keeping them at the 10.5" which will make a 36" by 48" quilt which I could add borders to make it a bit larger.  Will see how that goes as I move along through the year.  

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TABLE RUNNERS AND DECORATIVE PILLOWS

 This past week I managed a good deal in the sewing room.  Our heater, AC unit, and ducting for them which is under the house had to be replaced.  We had 3 or 4 technicians for 3 days crawling around in the attic, under the house, and in the hall way closet from 8 until 4:30 and almost 5:30 one night.  With no heat and our temperatures in the high 40's or low 50's and only the two space heaters they provided it was pretty much the plan for us to stay locked up in the living room or the sewing room.  I select the sewing room for most of the days.  I got a good deal accomplished.  

I shopped a week or so ago to find some fabric to make a couple of winter table runners.  A comment from one of my bloggers about blue being a good winter color had me going through my stash and I found some really nice blue prints.  I had a couple of great patterns and whipped up these two in two of the days in lock up.

 Several months ago I embarked on making a new bedspread for our king size bed.  I was determined to do away with the dust ruffle on the bed, which required me to make the bedspread 100" by 120" rather than the normal king size I could have purchased.  I got the bedspread, pillow shams and these two decorative pillows on the 14th back from my quilter.  I started work on these two deco pillows.  Just needed to get the envelope backs on them.  I decided to start small and move on from there.   

I am using the fabric that I backed the quilt with.  So it is now on to the pillow shams.  Once I have the house all put back together I will bring my sewing machine out into the dining room and bind the quilt.  I am going to need lots of space to get that accomplished. 

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WINTER FABRIC SHOPPING

I really have not done much of anything this week other than make zipper pouches.  Taking down Christmas and trying to get all that put away has taken up more time.  I did discover that while I have loads of wall hangings and table runners in spring, summer, and fall prints and colors winter themes are zero.  So why not take a bit of a trip to my local quilt stores.

So, time to make a couple of winter table runners.  I think this red print is my favorite.  I did realize that winter colors are not easy to find anything though.  Not much out there to work with.

Now these are not winter prints.  But I love this type of fabric and have often used this for backgrounds on some of my appliqué projects.  Not sure what I plan to do with these, but I do see a quilt in the future with them.  

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AND WE ARE OFF INTO THE NEW YEAR

 Time to roll into a new year.  This past week has been so nice and with all the craziness of Christmas over I could just relax and slowly get back to a normal schedule.  Sometimes though not sure there is such a thing as normal.  

Right after New Year's Day I decided to treat myself to some new fabric.  I have no idea what I plan to do with it, other than the top left fabric with the old pickups and the blue matching fabric.  My husband was shopping with me and liked it, so it will become some placemats for our table.  We use placemats for daily dining, I suspect others may end up getting used for that purpose too or a table runner for us or as gifts.  

I have three rows of my scrap quilt finished, and the final row ready to add.

The layout has become interesting.  I just had a picture of a block off Facebook, so no real idea how to lay it out and fabric scrap pieces were limited.   I am pleased with it.  It will probably go to my charity group with a prepared binding and they will quilt it and finish it off.  

Other than that just continuing to work on some zipper pouches for my guild's upcoming quilt show boutique.  The plan was to clean out my stash of zippers, which has not worked.  Once I started these pouches they have become a bit addictive and I have had to purchase zippers to match the scrap fabrics and left over mesh I had.  Thank goodness for Hobby Lobby's 99 cent zippers.

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ENCHANTED GARDEN FINISH AND A FRESH IDEA TO START OF THE COMING NEW YEAR

 Yes I finished Enchanted Garden and it is going off the quilter in January.  Still making some zipper pouches too. Christmas is over but Hanukkah in full swing, with four more days to go, and a new year ahead for us all.  

Enchanted Garden is finally done!  Just one more tiny chore to do on it.  A few of the vines on the ends need a bit of fabric glue to get them to stay down well.  I fuse my vines and sometimes the folded over bottoms come a bit loose.  So they need a little extra glue to keep them down. 

I saw this quilt block on a Facebook site and thought it looked interesting.  I have a drawer full of left overs and thought they might look nice in this block pattern.

I did adjust the block size and lay the four pieced block parts differently.

Selected fabrics and ran with the idea.

And row one started.  Just one more block to add to it, which will be a repeat of the first block on the left side.  The blocks will finish at 12" and I am thinking I would like to finish the quilt top at 60" by 72".  It may end up at just 60" square depending on enough of the tan fabric which I hopefully have enough for that extra row.  

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WILLIAM MORRIS WONKY QUILT FINISH AND ZIPPER STASH REDUCTION PLAN

With Christmas this week and also Hanukkah as well, life is pretty crazy around here.  Between baking, getting shopping done and a meal plan together and the tree up we have been super busy.  When life is this hectic I still try to get into the sewing room a bit in the afternoons just to escape the mayhem of the season.

I finished the William Morris wonky block quilt top.  This piece was so much fun. I was successful in doing a good deal of clean out of my fabric stash.  These blocks do seem to produce a good deal of waste, but the idea was to eliminate some of that stash of fabric and it did do that and I am very happy with the results.  So off to the quilter next month. 

I finished up all the table runners I plan to do for my guild's quilt show boutique, which left me with a good deal of leftover fabric.  I decided to take those and make these little 11" by 11" zipper pouches.  I had a drawer full of zippers from a project years ago, and this was a great way to use them and the scraps left over from the table runners.  Not sure how many of them I will end up with in the end, I just keep making them as long as I have fabric scraps and a zipper to match.  

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WONDY BLOCKS AND BAKING

 This week has been pretty productive.  My Christmas shopping is done, most of the Christmas decorations are up except for the tree.  Just waiting for the pecan harvesting to be done, so I can clean up the house.  We have had a pretty good rain and windy storm come through so what ever nuts are up in those two trees are down now and we are done with that mess.

Last week I happened onto a blog with a post showing a wonky block quilt and thought it might be a great way to finally rid myself of a bin full of scraps and bits and pieces of my William Morris fabric stash.  Several of those fabrics had birds and other animals on them.  Appliqué projects leave one with a lot of bits and pieces cut into the yardage.  This was a great way to utilize them.  

These are the last 2 blocks to finish off this quilt.  I do plan on some borders as well.  These blocks will be 10" finished and with a 4 or 6 inch border will make a nice size quilt.

We got our baklava baked earlier last week.  It is a rather lengthy process but well worth the effort.  Still have Pizzelles to do this week.

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