CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS AND A LITTLE BIT OF OTHER STUFF

 I don't think I have managed to get a great deal done this past week in the sewing room.  Harvesting pecans has taken up a good deal of my sewing time.  Plus some out of town company, birthday shopping for a grandson and early Christmas shopping.

We have some good friends that we have coffee with every Tuesday.  Stan and Barbara invited us along with 2 other couples that we meet with each week to their home for coffee last Thursday.  Barbara decorates her home for Christmas.  Oh yes, at least 30 trees and as you can see lots of other decorations.  She starts in September.  Unbelievable!

Barbara's husband Stan is not to be under done by his wife with his beautiful garden.

 

I am hoping to finish up the last Garden Patch Cats pattern this coming week for my daughter's Cat Network fundraiser.  I have had such fun making these.

I did manage to get another William Morris block done on Enchanted Garden.  Still needs to be stitched down, but making good progress to getting the piece finished.  

I think I will be moving it down from its center top to the bottom center, right now placement is a bit up in the air.  Besides I have to make 2 more large blocks.  I am waiting until those are done to finalize their placement.  

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WISTERIA AND PECANS

Feeling somewhat in a rut these last few weeks.  Thinking about doing something different for a bit of a change.  Maybe time to pull out a couple quilt books and do something different. 

I have another Enchanted Garden block in the works.  Not going to deal with the butterfly. 

It is time to finish this project.  I have been working on it for years.  The goal is to finish by the January 2026 quilt show.

The hang up has been the quilting on the blossoms.  I am not a free motion quilter. Never have been able to get the hang of it  This is done by twisting and turning the piece under the machine to get the nice curved quilting done. So doing this quilting on the project is a monumental chore for me.

I have four more of them to accomplish and it is finally time to get myself together and do it.  

I have kept all the thread colors together so best to just grit my teeth and get busy.

I have been a bit busy on this project with husband.  We have two large pecan trees on our side yard and it is harvest time.  He is busy knocking the hulls out of the trees, then once hulled they go in the oven for a couple hours, then shelled, then dried again and into the freezer.  I think we are on gallon bag number 7 about 4 or 5 pounds of shelled nuts a bag.  My contribution is picking the hulls off the ground and putting them into the buckets and vacuuming up the shells off the dining room floor after he finishes shelling them.  And oh yes, the Christmas baklava!    




 

  

EGGPLANT CAT

This past week has me back to working on Enchanted Garden.  I had a bit of time out with it over the last couple weeks.  I changed out the layout and  I am back to working on it.  In between I have been able to work on some table runners for the January 2026 quilt show's boutique and getting Eggplant Cat started.  

I have Eggplant Cat all quilted.  Eyes on and binding ready to go on.  It will be part of a fundraiser for a group in our area.  One of our daughters volunteers with the group that feed, trap, spa and neuter feral cats and return them to their feral colonies.  The funds raised goes to pay local vet clinics that offer their services at greatly reduced costs.  

It needs whiskers sewn on, can't forget that.

I took a bit of time off from my Enchanted Garden project but have gotten back to that this week and finished the second small block and  the top right hand block is done as well.  All the appliqué pieces are cut out and ready to start getting on to their backing for another large block.  So things are moving along with this project too.  

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WILLIAM MORRIS ENCHANTED GARDEN

With the bedspread project off to the quilters this past week I have been able to clear up the sewing room of that and also get all the 5" squares cut for the hospital project and the remaining donated fabric scraps boxed up and off to another gal that makes wheelchair lap quilts for Hospice.  I am still working on getting table runners done for my guild's upcoming January 2026 quilt show.  Sounds like it is a long way off, but time flies and we sold a good 400 of them at our last show.  I usually try to get 50 or 60 done for them.  I get plenty of donated fabric and I enjoy making them. But now it is time to get back to my own William Morris appliqué project.  

I am using this pattern for my William Morris fabric appliqué project but I have decided to modify the size and lay out of it a good deal.

I only plan on three rows and the center of the second row will have two of the small blocks used between large blocks above and below them.  The third row will be two more large blocks like the first row.  It should be around 38 by 42.  It is a fun project but I think I have somewhat lost interest in it for some reason.  But, who knows what will happen as I move forward on it.  

We have been working in our backyard garden this week.  We have one of our cactus plants flowering again.  It does this about every 6 months or so.  

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AVOCADO AND EGGPLANT CATS

I have spent most of last week finishing up my bedspread, shams, and deco pillows for our king size bed.  Sewing those last two sections of 100" by 40" together to finish the spread at 100" by 120" was grueling.  It is off to the quilters tomorrow.  

Last week I finished my Avocado Cat table topper and handed it off to my daughter, but realized I forgot the button eyes and whiskers on it.  She brought it back and I got them sewn on.  It looks so much better than last week's picture.

Avocado Cat turned out so cute I have decided to make Eggplant Cat.

I have all the fabric scraps pulled to put it together.  My daughter thought that it would be a great auction piece for Stanislaus Cat Network that she volunteers with.  They feed, trap, spa and neuter feral cats in local colonies in our area.

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AVOCADO CAT AND CHEMOTHERAPY QUILTS

 I have taken a couple days off this week from working on my bedspread project.  I had a couple things that I wanted to get finished up and also helping a friend with her charity project.

I finished Avocado Cat.  He still needs two black buttons on his eyes but other than that he is done. 

I did get the fronts of the pillow shams and decorative pillows done for the bedspread project.  Just 2 more rows and the spread will be done and I can get all off to the quilter.

 

I have been helping a friend with some cutting of 5" squares.  Liz hurt her arm and is unable to do much fabric cutting so I volunteered to help out. She received two huge bins of donated fabric.  She makes lap quilts for patients that are receiving cancer treatment at the hospital.  Hospitals are cold they need a quilt to snuggle in when they come for their daily or weekly chemotherapy sessions.  

Thus far I have a pretty good stack of them going for her.  But lots of fabric still waiting to get cut.  She says they are 36" by 60" when done and the blocks take 4 of each color.  So I stack them in fours of each color.  I believe she said she has 30 backs so just needs the 5" squares to start getting those 30 quilts together.

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THE KING SIZE PROJECT

 I spent this past week working on my bedspread project.  For the most part things are going well.  I did have one snag.  I found the perfect back for this project but somehow miscalculated the amount of 108" backing fabric I needed.  Yes I bought 3.5 yards instead of 4.5 yards.  Well, as most quilters I have a pretty good stash, so it is not too much of an issue.  Just pack it away for a future quilt's backing.  Must go back out now and hope I can still find that yards or something similar.

This is a picture of our old bedspread.  Ten inch squares with nine different fabrics. 

This is the pillow sham.

The new bedspread fabrics.  Ten different fabric selections based on the rugs on each side of the bed and also some metal artwork on two walls.  I have these four rows of 10" squares completed and an additional three as well.  I will need 12 rows.  The finished project will be 100" long by 120" wide.  

I have both the centers of the pillow shams pieced as well.  So thus far everything seems to be going very well.  I have over half way finished with the piecing of the bedspread.

I have my little helper laying on one of the rugs that I used as part of my color selections for the bedspread.  She is much more concerned about working on her suntan with the sun coming in from the bedroom sliding door than supervising the project.  

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TABLE RUNNERS AND BEDSPREADS

I spent a couple days this past week shopping for fabric for my newest project, making a king size bedspread.  Between JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby and my two local quilt shops I was surprised to fairly easily find the 10 fabrics needed and a back for it.  Now the chore of cutting out 120 10.5 inch squares at least for starters and eventually also working on the two pillow shams and a couple decorative pillows.  I ended the week with finishing up teaching binding to the last class of beginner quilters at one of the local quilt shops.

Cindy was so happy with her finished Christmas table runner.  It is always fun to see a new quilter finish their first project and be happy with it.

I am at it again.  My guild's next quilt show is scheduled for January 2026, just 15 months from now.  At our last quilt show our boutique sold over 400 table toppers and runners.  Guild members are responsible for making every one of them.  Now the guild does have a good amount of fabric donated to help out the cause but a good deal of it is provided personally by us as well.  Size is 13" by 28" and I like finishing my bindings by hand.  I will probably make some hexagon table toppers at a later date too.   

 

And the ten fabrics ready to begin my bedspread.  I took pictures of our area rugs on each side of our bed and the metal art work on the walls using the colors in those items and I think I have a pretty good construction plan.

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BORDER SUCCESS & WILLIAM MORRIS ENCHANTED GARDEN

 I have cleared out almost all of my charity to do list quilt tops this past week.  I am hoping to start doing some shopping of fabric in the coming week.  Our king size bedspread needs replacement.  However purchasing one is not working.  In an attempt to do away with a dust ruffle on the bed means the purchased ones are not large enough to cover the bed frame.  So I have measured and have a list of how many blocks I will need.  Not going fancy here, will let the fabric do the work, but right now shopping for 10 different fabrics and cutting 110 blocks at 11.5 inches with enough to make pillow shames and two accent pillows is on the menu this coming week.  Not looking forward to this at all.  

Yes, from last week's post I did finally make a decision on the borders of this charity quilt top.   I am pleased with the finish.

I also finished up the second one which I can turn in next month. 

I have block four of my William Morris Enchanted Garden project on its way to being completed.  It has been a good week.

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GETTING THE TO DO LIST DONE

 I decided this week to try to get a couple of charity quilts finished off and off my To DO LIST.  I usually do them out of fabric provided by my guild's charity group, however often have to supplement fabric from my stash. 

The quilt top thus far except for the black and white borders are donated fabric.  I have pulled the border fabric out of my stash.  Not sure I am thrilled with it.

The pattern calls for corner blocks.  I think I like that better, but still not sure I like the black and white stripe border.  May have to pop out and find a red border instead.  

The second Luck Cowgirl quilt top is finished and on Wednesday gets turned into the charity group.

The second wolf quilt top is also done and will along with the first wolf quilt top I finished last week go to the group.

I am thinking these look like a fun fall project.  

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