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!

Shhhhh, It’s A Surprise

One of our SIL John’s favorite things is Bumble, the abominable snowman in the 1964 TV special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

54 x 65”

So when I saw this fabric panel, 

and the accompanying forest yeti fabric ⬇️,

 I had to have them.

Bumble on vacation. So funny.

The quilt front is done - and the back would be also if I hadn’t mismeasured and miscut the fabric that goes around Mr A and his trees. So now I get to go shopping tomorrow for more fabric. Sigh, it’s a hardship. Not! Although shopping on Black Friday weekend may not be fun, even in fabric stores.

On To Christmas!

Thanksgiving dinner at Slate was nice - good food, great company and fabulous desserts (plus leftovers in the fridge for later snacking)

and now it’s time for Christmas!

This still makes me laugh, every time I see it, even all these years later. Such a  funny show. 

One of the big benefits of the last stash move was finding and organizing all (I hope this is all…) my UFOs.

Orphan blocks

I pulled out all the Christmas stuff so I can make potholders;

unpin, spray baste and quilt this wallhanging that I’d forgotten about but really like; 

make pillows? something? out of this pretty pre-quilted fabric; 

and finish this table runner that still had the pieces carefully rolled up in a cheap flannel tablecloth to keep them organized.

It worked! A little pressing, a little sewing and voila! new Christmas decor. 

Early Turkey - and Pie

We’re celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow at a local restaurant with Gary and Cheyenne (Gary is very excited about the buffet-style spread and all the fancy desserts)

so you’d think I wouldn’t be doing much cooking,

First try at a lactose-free pie. Not bad!

but Himself said he’d like leftovers… and I like leftovers… so I’ve spent the last two days leisurely cooking the parts of the feast we like best and experimenting with new recipes. 

Pumpkin ‘soufflé’

Tonight we had turkey, stuffing, deviled eggs, gravy (it was a fail - but the second batch was good), zucchini bread, pumpkin pie - and cute little pumpkin soufflés with the extra pie filling. Now we have leftovers for the rest of the weekend - and lots of sewing time for me. Win win! Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate, from our house to yours. 

Dry Run

Today’s practice session for Winter Wonderland (here) was a success.

Teena, who has never done FPP before, made Simple Simon & Co’s tree on her own the night before, 

Teena’s Santa, which she may re-do.

then we both made SS&C’s Gnome Santa.

The gold star background was a bit much(!)

Hubby says this looks more like a Christmas tree than a Santa…

so I ripped it out and replaced it with low volume prints, 

What they were supposed to look like…

which will work well as background for the 8 Wonderland blocks. 

Not bad for a dry run! Can’t wait for December 1st.

Practice Project

Teena and I signed up to do a block-a-day FPP Christmas quilt starting December 1. (Curious? Or want to join us?? Check it out here.) 

Since Teena has never paper-pieced before, we’re going to do a practice run tomorrow via FaceTime, she in Oregon and me in California. 

SantaGnome is kinda cute. From Simple Simon & Co.

So this afternoon I cleaned up and packed away all the Halloween ghost party mess fabrics, 

 Alas, I forgot a photo of this bin overflowing

sorted the big bin of Christmas goodies into color groups,

and got them loaded onto my new rolling cart (I love these things!), 

all ready to goooooooooo! Hey, Christmas waits for no quilter.