Flashback

Back in my 20’s (just a couple of years ago 🙄) I loved doing macrame, 

making a bunch of plant hangers, wallhangings and even a hammock (seriously).

So when Mary suggested the two of us taking a macrame workshop at a local shop, I was all in.

So much fun! 

We were there for a couple of hours 

and finished two cute little gnome ornaments each. 

Now I need to find the same supplies so we can have gnome craft day while everyone is here for Christmas. 

And yes, there may be more workshops in my future…

Day 9, Done For Now

Today was day 9, block 9 of the Winter Wonderland FPP-along. Teena and I went rogue again (so did Karen!) picking something we liked better (and was theoretically easier) than the “planned” block. 

It’s wonky but I still like it

I say theoretically because Teena will be working on hers again tomorrow and Ms. Stubborn (that’s meeeeee) finished up after well over 5 hours of sewing, ripping, stitching, taping, and ripping AGAIN.

It’s not that the pattern is difficult - I’d call it intermediate beginner only because you need to match up a few seams - it’s that if you make a mistake you have (not good) choices - decide you meant to do that (designer’s choice); rip allllll the way back to where you goofed (each green section is half the entire pattern - no seaming little sections together here!); throw it out, reprint the paper piece and start over. 

And we did make a variety of mistakes. I fixed all the little ones I found but my biggest goof was in the very. first. piece. of a long green section, attaching a white rather than green fabric. And when did I spot it? As I was trying to figure out why the very last piece wasn’t fitting where it belonged. Designer’s choice it is - I meant to do that. 🙄 

Note to self: the original WW patterns are 8.5” unfinished, 8” finished. Today’s was 8” unfinished, 7.5” finished. Either enlarge them .5” (1.06%) or add bigger borders. 

A Good Day

 Lunch with a friend,

then a little fabric shopping…

Black sparkle is sashing for the FPP Christmas quilt

Ok, a lot of fabric shopping. Three stores, 11 fabrics, 19.5 yards. In my defense: A) I was looking for a specific fabric to finish a project (didn’t find it ☹️); and B) I have a plan for all of this - a star quilt for me (the 2 left-most brown fabrics), 

A star quilt either like this…

or like this…

a gift (the pastel half-yard lower left) and the rest is for the Christmas FPP-along that Teena and I are doing next year. Did I need a full yard of all those greens for the FPP? Probably not. But what if I run out mid project?!??!? Can’t chance it. 😂

Penultimate, Day 8

We were a bit nervous about this block, which the designer rated as ‘intermediate‘, but it turned out to be fine. 

Sparkly Cardinal

A little color coding (lots of color changes on every pattern piece), some careful pin placement at the tricky bits (mainly around the head), and we Teena was done in 3 hours. 

Color coding saves my sanity

Mine took another half hour since I had to redo one piece FOUR TIMES before I got it right. Sheesh. 

Teena’s blue jay 

We’re taking tomorrow off for Real Life, getting together again on Wednesday to work on the last block. We probably won’t do the last Winter Wonderland pattern (I may do it later), we’ve tentatively picked a Christmas wreath FPP as our final(ish) block before we start up again in January.

This has been fun!

Winter Wonder, Day 7

When I put together all my blocks so far, I kept thinking ‘where's the red??’ I was trying to use other colors so the bright Christmas red wouldn’t be overwhelming and instead… it almost disappeared!

Fixing that today and tomorrow (if tomorrow’s project is the cardinal, like the three of us are betting it is.)

Teena’s block. Love that swirl fabric!

Yesterday’s glittery green made me think of this bright red fabric I just added to the stash. The white background I used on all the other blocks was terrible against the silver, so it looks like the last 3 blocks* will use this pretty holly green background. 

Test sample success

Three blocks makes a pattern, right? Like I planned it rather than it being an oopsie? Hoping it’s as pretty IRL as I’m picturing in my head. 

We think this is tomorrow’s block… 50% chance we’re right!

This was another fun, easy pattern. Teena and I both finished in just over two hours - it would have been sooner but after sewing one section we both changed our mind on colors and had to start over. Worth it!

 Not my work, but I’d love to do another star using stripes like this

* Not the ‘last’ blocks! Teena and I are enjoying this project so much we’re continuing it into the new year. Planning to do a new Christmas-y FPP block every couple of weeks so we’ll both have a big, new quilt for the 2026 holiday. 

Winter Wonder, Day 6

Look at these beauties! 

I’d been looking for a way to incorporate that sparkly green into this project and it finally worked out.

Today’s pattern, by Thimbles & Needles, was fast, easy and a pleasure to make. Teena and I both finished in under 2 hours. 

Can’t believe we’re almost done, just 3 more blocks to go. (One looks easy and two look… interesting.) Teena and I have been searching Etsy for more patterns to make. I think she’s hooked!

House of Blues, WW Day 5

So pleased with how this turned out, it may be my favorite block so far. 

But it was a journey to get here! So many tiny pieces, each with so many layers of fabrics and finishing instructions that say ’join D to E’ and nothing more. 

10 pieces of fabric in a 1.25 x 3” section is crazy

If I was to make this again - and I might, it’s pretty cute - I’d leave out the arch over the door. All those seams and color changes make it really hard to sew and to line things up properly. I finally gave up when the paper started disintegrating around the tape that was supposed to hold it together. I’m not thrilled with how the arch looks but I’m not going to remake all those little pieces either. 

Got out the skinny thread (60 weight) so the tiniest pieces would fit together better

But I was determined that the peppermint would be round. Victory! Took 4? 5? tries - the seam ripper got quite a workout tonight - but we got there. Really hoping we get an easier design tomorrow. Five blocks done, only four to go!

Winter Wonderland, Day 4?

I absolutely love this snowflake block but it was tough to finish in a day. Sewed the final seam at 1:30 am on what is technically day 5 of our sew-along. 

 1:30 am, done!

Could I have waited to finish it tomorrow? Absolutely. 

10:30 pm, first half done

Was there any chance of that happening? Absolutely not. 😂 

 12:30 am, inner motif complete

Four done, 5 to go. 

 Need to clean this up before it gets quilted. But not tonight.

Note for next time: trim the seam on E/F before sewing the two halves together. 

WW, D3

It’s Winter Wonderland, Day 3…. kinda.

Teena and I decided we weren’t interested in today’s official block, so we went rogue and found one we liked better - Christmas Kitty by Center Street Quilts*. And either we’re getting faster or this block was easier - it’s the first one we’ve managed to finish in one session. Whooo!

My kitty is more interested in batting around my treasured snow globes (check out beach bum Santa!) than in the wrapped presents. 

Teena’s little guy has much better manners - or maybe there’s just no temptation within reach? 😜 Three blocks done, six to go. Wonder what’s on the agenda for tomorrow….

* I’ve made several of Kristina’s patterns, including several versions of my favorite, the Hemingway Pouch.

Winter Wonderland, Day 2

Day 2’s block turned out to be a warm cup of hot chocolate.

Another cute one - love that straw! - and much easier than yesterday’s snow globe. 

 Teena’s partial block

Teena thought the tree seams looked wonky due to the order the designer had us sew them, so we changed them up. Much better! 

 FaceTiming in CA and OR

I think she has a pretty good grasp of the technique - she’s only been FPP-ing for 2 days - since she immediately figured that out. (Note to Karen - we did the center section of each tree first (the green in my block), then added the cup piece (the red in mine) on either side.)

 I like seeing the back of people’s projects…so I figure others do too?

In other news, hubby brought down all (most??) of our Christmas decorations so we can start decorating tomorrow. This is my favorite holiday and we tend to go all out on the red and green, with lots and lots of twinkle lights.

He also put together my new bungee cord chair (it shouldn’t be, but it is sooo comfortable!) 

Donovan took it for a test spin and promptly crashed it into the Christmas tree. The undecorated tree, fortunately. Neither child nor tree were damaged. This time 🙄

Winter Wonderland, Day 1

Teena and I (and my friend Karen) signed up for an FPP-along (foundation paper piecing) - 9 days, 9 designers, 9 different quilt blocks - and it’s all free! Teena has never FPP’d before so we had a practice session before Thanksgiving (here). Good thing we did - today’s first block would probably be rated ‘advanced beginner’. 

But it’s so cute! Teena and I FaceTimed while we sewed, getting about halfway done before time ran out (aka it was dinner time and the boys were hungry).

Fussy cutting success! It’s tricky with FPP.

I went back to finish, and was ready to sew the final seam when I noticed ⬇️. Polygons do not make cute snow globes.

That’s better.

Each day’s project is a surprise - 

 Using my hoarded, treasured Downtown Abbey fabric for inside the snow globe

we know which blocks we’ll be making but not what order they’ll be in. 

 The not-so-neat back

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Moving Along

The backing for John’s quilt is sewn, pressed, folded and ready to go to my long-armed pal. 

Fabric shopping on Black Friday weekend was not bad at all. I bought the last of 3 different bolts, all on sale; 2 for backing and one for Christmas projects. This orange may seem a strange choice but John likes orange (me too!) and the color went well with the Yeti forest side panels. I’m calling it ‘Sunrise Over Yeti’ and making up stories about Mr A wandering home after a long night in the snowy woods to entertain myself as I sew. 😂😂

Next project is another national parks panel (I love these), 

this time with a border of flying geese - six feet of geese. I’m not usually this organized with FPP but the pattern had measurements for precutting the fabric - it really makes for pleasant, mindless stitching.

Only 12 geese to go!