FINISHING PROJECTS

 This past week and the week coming up have are stressful and full of things to do.  My guild's quilt show set up day this week is Friday the 30th and the show is Saturday the 31st and Sunday the 1st.  I am the treasurer and prepare and handle all the finances for the show, so I have pretty much been running around like a crazy woman. However, I have managed to get into the sewing room.  It is a place that I am able to decompress, when life gets out of control.

I got my fall runner back from the quilter this past week and managed to get the binding on it.  

My quilter is wonderful, all I did was give it to her and say maybe leaves would be nice.  Her quilting was just perfect for it.

I spent some time fussing with my Christmas fabric stash.  There were lots of bits and pieces and I was able to put together these 10" blocks and make an easy child's quilt for my charity group.  We do the distribution of quilts to local agencies every October so a Christmas quilt fits right in.

I had some left overs after making the quilt and tossed together this little runner.  The fabric was just too cute to not do something with the last bits and pieces.  

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BACK INTO THE CHARITY QUILT MODE

 This is birthday week for me.  I have a son on the 13th, and one daughter on the 16th and my husband on the 19th.  Very poor planning on my part, although I can't blame myself for my husband's birthday, but the other two are all on me. What can I say, January is just as hectic as Christmas when it comes to parties.

I did manage to get my blue charity quilt top together this week.  They look so simple but joining all those blocks together is a bit of a trial.  However, blue quilts are always so pretty, and I did put a significant dent in the flue scraps bin.

I also did a bit of de-stashing of some really old Christmas prints.  This quilt will go along with the blue one above to my Warm Wrappings my charity group.  We distribute quilts in October of each year to 6 different local agencies.  Last October we delivered 359 quilts.  So back to working on that project.  I try to do 2 each month.  Just have to do a top and prepare a binding for them then others will quilt and bind them.  So a Christmas quilt to be given away in October fits in well.  

I finished all 14 of my Christmas placemats this past week.  But did have left overs of fabric that I was able to make this runner and enough I think to make a couple more.  This fabric is so pretty and just a shame on to make something out of it.  This pattern uses either 3 inch or 2.5 inch strips and squares, which makes using scraps really easy to manage.  Thinking I will stash away some runners like this one and they will make nice gifts next holiday season, or have considered doing a booth at a local event next year and sell some.

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NEW PROJECTS FOR THE NEW YEAR'S CHARITY GROUP

 I have been a bit lazy for the last week or so and not accomplished much of anything other than finishing up my 14 Christmas placemats to be used next year.  My guild's quilt show boutique contributions are done and the show will take place on January 31st and February 1st.  So I just fiddle around in the sewing room for a few days and collected up some odds and ends of scraps to start working on this year's charity group's quilt making process.

I pulled these odds and ends of blue fabrics.  Not much of anything but thought I could make a 4 patch quilt and get enough of them together to make 9" blocks and come up with a quilt that was hopefully 54" by 63".

They look pretty, but find that I am very much short of the light blue/white prints.  So I guess it is off to Hobby Lobby later this week for some additional fabric to add to the mix.  One of the reasons obviously that one never seems to run out of scraps.  In order to use them up you have to buy more to go with what you are trying to get rid of.

Now this project is another story all together.  I have lots of these fabrics.  While at Warm Wrappings my charity group meeting, one of the ladies showed a quilt she made with this pattern.  She did not know the name of the pattern but was able to describe how the block is made and I was able to come home and duplicate it.  The blocks are 9" finished, and I easily have left over fat quarters of these fabrics to make a 54" by 63", their preferred size, quilt for the charity group. 

Yes, one more unfinished set of 6 Christmas placemats unearth when I was putting away the last of my Christmas fabrics into a bin in the closet.  I am almost afraid to take a better look into that bin to see what else I might have stashed in there.  It is a bit of a jumble and I know I had better sort it out, but who knows what I might find.

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MOVING ON INTO THE NEW YEAR

We started the New Year here quietly.  Nice to just sit back and relax.  I am hoping to wrap up a couple of projects that really do need t o move on and finally get completed.  Christmas wall hanging and table decor still up around the house.  Something I will try to get to later in the week.  Just not in any real hurry to do that this week.

This is the one project that I do plan seriously to get completed.  Our family is growing and several years ago I purchased fabric to make 14 Christmas placemats.  The fronts are the black print and the grey are their backs.  This project got side tracked for I do not know how many years.  But during the holidays I unearth 2 of them finished and another 12 cut and ready to put together.  Over this last week or so I now have 3 completely finished, 7 sitting on the back of my chair in the living room waiting for the bindings to be finished by hand, and just 4 more waiting to be quilted, bound and finished.  Better late than never!

A week or so ago I took a few left over 2.5" strips to try out this new table runner pattern for my guild's quilt show boutique shop.  It was fun and gave me an idea with some fall fabric I had left over from another project.  

I increased the strip size to 3.5" and came up with this 30" by 36" table runner for my dinning room table.  I'm sending it off to my quilter for some leafy quilting pattern next week.  

The only other project going on right now is our pecan harvest.  Thankfully I am not in charge of this task.  We have two pecan trees on the side of our home, planted by my husband, not too long after we moved into it in 1971.  They are easily 50 feet tall and do produce a good crop of pecans on and off.  This year we had a bumper crop.  He harvests, dries  them in our oven, shells and bags them, and into our chest freezer.  Yes we are up to 52 bags, and there are still a good two or three buckets of them still to be dealt with.  My only contribution to this is I vacuum up the shell that scatter all over the dining room floor after he finishes shelling them.  This has been going on for two months now.  We are nearly at the end.  No we do not sell them. However we are very popular with our neighbors who at both Thanksgiving and pre Christmas got bags of them for their holiday baking, and of course family as well.    

  
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