New Year’s Eve

 

I plan to do as much sewing as I can today, that is unless I get stuck helping to take down the Christmas tree.  Still trying to get caught up on the Celtic Solstice Mystery. 

These are the Part 4   4-patch units.  They went pretty quickly.

These are the Part 5 Split triangles units.  I still have about 60 more of these to make.  Then I can get started catching up on Part 1 & 2.  I dread doing the chevrons.  Maybe they won’t be as annoying as I think.

My little Miss Independent 2 year old granddaughter peeling her own clementine for breakfast. She got it peeled all by herself.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

 

It is Finished!

 

I finished the Royal Crown quilt and 2 pillows Tuesday afternoon. 

Then it was hurry, hurry to get a head start on food prep for our Christmas dinner.  My daughter found my missing Christmas quilt.  I was so happy!

Christmas morning I remembered I hadn’t gotten the ham out to thaw.  The kids got up.

First Lydia and Teagan got up and wanted to get to the presents.  Then Braxton got up and they had a wrestling match going on.  Still the sleepy head parents slept on.

Finally everyone was up.

We got down to the business of opening presents. 

Mark (middle child), Tony (Dora’s fiance), Lydia (Granddaughter), Dora ( youngest) and David (eldest).

It was a wonderful Christmas Day.  Food was good and all 3 of my children were here. And best of all, Tony proposed to my daughter.  No wedding date has been set yet.

Need More Time!

 

Finished this quilt for a customer on Saturday.  I’m still working on the Crown Royal quilt.

The top is done and on the frame ready for quilting.  Still have 2 pillows to make.  Hope I have the pillow forms.  I don’t have time to go buy any.  Can’t make up my mind if I want to bind it in the gold or use the purple  flannel fabric.  I don’t remember if I’ve ever used flannel for binding before or not.  I’m wondering if it would hold up as well as regular cotton fabric.

I have a house to clean and cooking to do tomorrow. Plus babysitting two 2 yr. olds.  Don’t know how I will get everything done.

Where Has This Week Gone?!

 

Monday sort of started out going as planned, but somewhere along the way I wondered off the path.  I didn’t get the quilt on the frame that I’m supposed to quilt this week.

 

I finished part 3 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery.  Made 61 pinwheels and 244 half square triangles.  This week’s block for the Quilty Fun Quilt Along are cocoa mugs.  They look like coffee mugs to me, guess that is because I drink more coffee than cocoa. Gotta have that morning coffee!

Tuesday I finally got the quilt on the frame and ready to quilt and then got sidetracked sorting my new FQs by color to pick from for future projects.  2014 will be here before I know it.

Wednesday I was going to spend the day quilting, but that plan didn’t work out. Got up early and started choosing fabrics for 2 projects.

Here are the fabrics I chose for the “Delightful Stars” Quilt Along starting in January.

These are the fabrics I picked for the Vise Versa BOM That will be starting in January. http://www.genxquilters.com/p/block-of-month.html

Then the Gadding About began.  We didn’t get home until late afternoon, in time to put up the rest of the FQs and fix supper.

  

I also decorated my table.  I’ve been too busy to do anything more elaborate. I’m still missing my favorite Christmas quilt.  I have no idea where it is hiding.  It will probably come out of hiding after Christmas.  That is what it has been doing in past years.  When it does, I will try to remember where I found it. Think that was my plan for this year too.  It must have moved to a new hiding place, because it wasn’t where I thought it should have been.

Making Progress

 

Part 3 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery.

There is lots of pressing still to be done and 45 pinwheels to finish.  This is the farthest I’ve gotten on a clue so far.  I’ll have to work really hard after Christmas to get caught up.

 

I’ve been working on the Royal Crown Quilt.

It is getting done, but still a ways to go.  Plus there are 2 pillows to make to go with it.  Hope I can get it done by Christmas.

The Past Few Days

 

The past few day have been busy.  Besides trying to keep up with two 2 year olds, I managed to finish quilting a customer quilt.

 

Eating breakfast this morning. Hope someone gets them soon.  This is supposed to be my day off.

Got all the Crown Royal blocks on the design wall and started adding the sashing and sewing the rows. 

So far I’ve been keeping up with the Quilty Fun Quilt Along.  Week 6 is done and I’m ready for week 7 to come out on Monday.

Friday step 3 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery was ready.  I’ve made good progress working on it.  This step is 244 half square triangles and 61 pinwheels.  Today It will be leaders and enders while working on the Crown Royal quilt.

Some Progress Made

 

488 x 3

Each container has 488 parts needed to make 244 chevron blocks for part 2 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery.  Cutting was all I was able to get done,  Today I move on to other projects and obligations.

I finally remembered the Persimmon Quilts BOM and made it.  I like using several purple fabrics, but just not sure I like the stars and moon fabric.  Thought the shade of purple went with the other fabrics.  Now I’m not so sure.

My future helper.

Can’t wait to put her to work helping to quilt all the tops needing quilting.  She is standing on a storage container under the frame so she can reach the machine. 

My Week-end So Far

 

Friday it was out to Christmas Lunch with the Needle Turners Bee members and two little girls.

That was the first time I went anywhere by myself with both of them.  It went pretty well.  Got both of them in the restaurant with no trouble.  Had more things to carry on the way out, so had to get some help.

Got the step 2 directions for Celtic Solstice printed, but that was all. 

Saturday I got up early and started cutting parts for step 2.  Cut all 488 2”x3-1/2” green rectangles and barely got started on the 2” square neutrals.  I had so many interruptions.  There was laundry to fold and Christmas quilts to find and hang.  I’m still missing a Christmas quilt.  I can’t remember where I saw it last.  I can’t even find a picture of it to show my daughter so she can help me look for it. 

 

 

Then there was the tree to help put together so it could be decorated.

My Yesterday

 

I finished these blocks.  Made 22 yesterday, so now all 42 are done.  Still need to cut the sashing and pout the top together, but first I have a quilt I need to get quilted.

I finished the blocks and watched 2 two year olds.  All they did all day was push, shove, trip, fall, cry and refuse to share.  Whatever one had, the other wanted.  Typical 2 year old behavior.  Hope the learn to play together soon.

I’m not supposed to babysit today, so hopefully I can get the quilt on the frame to quilt.  Would like to get it done before the next Celtic Solstice Mystery step is released.  Would like to have at least part of the weekend to devote to it.

Week 5

 

This week’s Quilty Fun  http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/p/quilty-fun-sew-along-and-blog-tour.html units are flying geese.  I’m wishing now I would have used a light blue instead of the green.  The green seems a little dark now that they are put together.  The instructions called for all scrappy, but I just wasn’t up to picking that many different fabrics that would look good together.  It just seemed a little busy to me and I was a little afraid the flying geese would get lost.

 

A basket full of fabric.

The fat quarters are cut and ready to go to the Needle Turners  Christmas lunch on Friday.  This year the girls decided to exchange batik FQs, one light and one dark. I was lucky, the lights were on sale and the dark, I already had in my stash.  Of course I bought extra of the lights to add to my stash.

The Waiting Game

 

I got up early for me anyway, to get started on the next block of the Quilty Fun Quilt Along.  It hasn’t been posted yet.  Obviously they aren’t early birds!  Think they are in a later Time Zone.

 

I finished my End of Year UFO Challenge! Yea! 

Here they are, two completed house table runners from my Buggy Barn House and Tree blocks.  I found the Christmas table runner that needed quilting and got it finished too. Now if I could just find all the Christmas quilts I have made over the years.  They are around here somewhere.

If I would have remembered it, I would have made it part of the UFO Challenge too.  I am so happy it is done and in time for Christmas at that!  If I make another one, I think I would make it longer.  Think I would put a four patch neutral block in the center.  That way there would be some place to set the table center piece and still show of the ornaments on each end.  If I didn’t have so many other obligations to customers, I would go ahead and make another one.

Part 1 and UFO Update

 

Celtic Solstice Part 1.  I got most of the parts cut yesterday and 70 units completed.  Today I finished cutting everything and made 40 more units.  Of course I have to make the large version that requires 380 of this unit, 140 with orange background and 240 with neutral background.  Hopefully I’ll have time to make more tomorrow, but don’t think I will get them all finished by Friday.  I still have the Crown Royal quilt to make and another quilt to quilt, with a possibility of a couple more quilts to quilt before Christmas.

 

I quilted both table runners today.  If I can decide on fabric for the binding, I’ll do that tomorrow.  Somewhere I have a Christmas table runner that needs quilting.  I don’t remember quilting it.  So far I haven’t located it.  It would be nice to use it this holiday season.  I made the top several years ago in a class sponsored by the quilt guild. It would be nice to get all the Christmas quilts out and use them this year.  Usually I forget all about them until after Christmas.  I have one that I really like and think I have yet to display during the Holidays.

Waiting for the Traffic to Die Down

 

The Bonnie Hunter Mystery starts today.  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/11/celtic-solstice-mystery-part-1.html   So far I haven’t been able to down load the first step.  Guess lots of people are visiting her blog right now.  Plus I think there is just a lot of traffic on the internet right now, looking for those Black Friday Sales.

 

My quilting buddy, Chucky.  I keep thinking he is just waiting for me to turn my back so he can jump up on the quilt I’m in the process of quilting.  He like to get up there and lay.  I have to keep the quilts on the frame covered when I’m not working on them.

My design team, Lydia and Braxton, hard at work.

 

This is my block 4 of the Quilty Fun Quilt Along going on at the Fat Quarter Shop.  So far this has been a fun project.

Still Quilting

 

Made 16 more Crown Royal blocks.  I now have 22 made and 20 to go.  These bags are all different shapes.  Guess they didn’t use a template to cut them. Still need to find some more gold fabric for the sashing.  Want something kind of shinny.  I bought some, but I think it might be a little too orangey.  I would like some a little more gold that would match the gold stitching on the bags.  Guess I will have to take one with me.  I wanted to go today, but am watching my sick granddaughter. 

 

This is quilt #4.  It originally just had to be done before Christmas.  Now she wants it right after Thanksgiving.  I hope to get it finished this week-end.  I still need to do my Thanksgiving grocery shopping.  I’m wishing now that I would have just gotten everything yesterday while I was at Ingles.  Thought I would go to Walmart to save money, but don’t know when I will get there. I have 2 to babysit for next week and would like to get to the gym at least once.

Busy, Busy!

Block 3 of the Quilty Fun Quilt Along going on at the Fat Quarter Shop.  So far I am managing to keep up.  Let's see how long that lasts. 

Still haven't gotten the borders on my Aiming for Accuracy Quilt A-Long top.

This was a fun project.  It will probably be after Christmas before I can get back to it.

Right now I'm quilting and making quilts for other people.  Just finished 3 quilts for a lady and have 1 more to quilt.  A couple of other people have asked me to quilt quilts for them before Christmas, plus I've been asked to make a Crown Royal quilt.  Here is how far I've gotten so far.

The day is wasting away.  Guess I'd better get back to work on this.

 A new mystery is starting on Black Friday.  I've got a basket of scraps waiting in anticipation!
 

UFO Challenge

My house blocks from the Buggy Barn class sponsored by my local guild.  It was a fun class and I enjoyed learning the stack and cut technique that the Buggy Barn uses in their books.  These blocks are from the book, "Crazy til the Cows Come Home".  I am now the proud owner of three more Buggy Barn books.  I made a list of the books that had patterns that I liked in them, but neglected to note which pattern was in which book.  It took me three attempts before I bought the book with the bunnies in it.  I was ordering the books from Amazon.  After two wrong attempts, I finally went to the Buggy Barn website to research which book the bunnies were in.  Now to see if I can get the bunnies made for my granddaughter by Easter!

Back to my house blocks.  I didn't need a full quilt.  Already have enough big projects going on, so decided to just use the six blocks from class and make two table runners.  Now, I would like to get these table runners finished so I can use them this winter.  Well, I really wanted to use them this fall, because of the fall colors I used, but that isn't going to happen.  I'm kind of busy right now trying to quilt two quilts for a friend of a friend, of which one needs to be done before Thanksgiving.  Guess I should get busy on it! 

When I got on Face Book this morning I saw that Pat Sloan (http://blog.patsloan.com/ ) thrown out a challenge to finish an UFO by the end of the year,  What a great way to make sure I get those table runners finished.  So I took her up on the challenge.