HUGE Project Off my To-Do List

Mid 2024 my SIL's house burned to the ground. The house went up quickly because the fire was being fed by a gas line. They thought their dogs got out of the house, but they hadn't. They did get all the people out, but they lost everything. I had already started quilts for a couple of them, and I decided after this trauma, I wanted to make sure all of them had a quilt for the new house. 

I needed to make five queen/king quilts, a toddler quilt and a baby quilt to make sure all of them had a quilt. I just finished the last quilt. I have showed the other quilts as I finished them, I just didn't mention who they were for. 

This quilt is 102" square. 

I think they will be moving into the new house in the next week or so, so I finished just in time!

Some of these quilts are replacements for ones that burned, not the same fabrics or patterns, but for people who already had a quilt from me. The others are quilts for the members of the family I hadn't gotten around to making a quilt for yet. Up until now I had been making my nieces and nephews quilts when they got married, but I decided this was a good time to just give them all a quilt. My only never been married nieces and nephews are in that family. 

I hope they like them, and really hope they understand that wrapping them in quilts is my way of showing them I love them. 

It feels really great to get such a huge project done. 

On the Christmas front, I'm down to the last two projects, so I think I'm good to go! We aren't doing family Christmas until January 3rd, so I have a few extra days anyway, but I think I can get everything done by Christmas Day. If I do, I can spend the last week of 2025 working on whatever I want!!!

Simplifying Christmas

 Once upon a time, when my kids were young, we did a lot of the Christmas things. I baked all kinds of Christmas cookies, we made gingerbread houses, there was Christmas decor all over the house. As our kids have grown and gone, things have changed, and I'm all for the changes. Sure, we have a few grandkids in town, but I figure most of the Christmas stuff should be done with their families. We had Christmas before we had children, and we'll have Christmas even if it's just the two of us at some future point in time.  Don't get me wrong, I have made gingerbread houses with the grandkids, I just don't consider it my job to do so. My grandkids are also growing up, so doing things like that is not as big of a factor anymore. 

I've been looking for ways to simplify Christmas. We do get together with the local family, but never on Christmas Day.  Families with young kids are busy, busy in December, and I don't want to add to their stress. This year, "family Christmas" will be in early January. The plus side of that for me is that I get a few extra days to get the presents sewn for the locals! 

Last year I did some brutal decluttering of Christmas decor. It's not a popular thing to admit, but I hate decorating the Christmas tree. I don't like having to rearrange the living room to fit a Christmas tree in the room, and why are most Christmas ornaments heavy, but the branches of either a live or fake tree can't handle the weight? 

OK, so I've admitted I don't like decorating the Christmas tree, but I have some Christmas ornaments that are really special to me. I debated making a quilted wallhanging, and attaching the best ornaments. I figured I could put the hanging loops over buttons or something, but then I started thinking about the weight of the ornaments again. While surfing the internet last year, I came across this post about a salvage wooden Christmas tree. I showed the post to DH, and told him I'd like him to make me something similar to that, but I'd still like to have Christmas lights, and a star on top, and I wanted to hang our ornaments from the knobs. The salvage tree was my inspiration, but I wanted it to be more us. 

Some people have designer Christmas trees, and if that's what you like, fantastic! I have always wanted my Christmas tree to be more meaningful than pretty, and very personal. For 41 years now, we've hung an "Our First Christmas Together 1984" ornament on our tree. If I purchased a new Christmas ornament, it had to have some kind of meaning to it, like the S'mores ornament I bought the year we started camping. I'm not sure quite how it started, but we started buying ornaments every time we took a trip. We took the kids to Disneyland, got an ornament. Went to a Broadway show, bought an ornament, went to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary, bought an ornament. DH went a medical mission trip to Ecuador, he came home with an ornament, DS the Elder travelled internationally quite a bit, and he brought us ornaments from Australia, Japan, and Egypt. We went to South Africa for DD#1's wedding, we bought an ornament. DD#2 did a mission trip in Peru, she got us an ornament. Our Christmas tree is not designer in the way that everything matches and is coordinated. It does, however, have a design, in that it tells the story of our lives. 

Several years ago, DS the Younger asked me why our tree looked like a homeless person's tree. I looked at the random stuff hanging on it, keychains from trips, handmade ornaments people had given us over the years, and I could see his point. It did look random, and even when I had the opportunity to buy fancy ornaments, I often opted for more meaningful ones. 

When we went to South Africa, I saw gorgeous ornaments, but what did I actually buy?

I bought this angel made out of a soda can! And it has such a great story, I've kept the tag on it all these years!

One of the stores we went into in South Africa had these amazing hand carved ornaments, but I came home with a soda can angel. Could I have bought both the fancy ornament and the soda can ornament? Sure I could have, but the soda can angel meant more to me. 

DH has been working on my Christmas tree for a few weeks now, but he finished it yesterday. 

Here it is with the lights and mismatched hardware. All the wood is from one pallet. Most of the knobs and other hardware I got at Hobby Lobby, but some we found at thrift stores and a couple thrift shops that sell leftover building supplies to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. We could have left it just like this, and it would still be fun, but I took our best ornaments, and hung them from the knobs and drawer pulls. 

Now it looks like this, and DH and I had fun decorating it, talking about all the trips we've taken, or the people who made the ornaments for us. 

I was never offended by the homeless people's tree comment. I knew our son was young and he didn't understand that the tree represented the course of our lives, the people we met, the places we went. Our tree is more mismatched and random than ever, and I love it! The only rearranging of the living room was to move the quilt rack over a couple feet, and this tree isn't an obstacle to take up massive amounts of space. 

I decorated the fireplace mantle, hung a wreath on the door, and put a couple decorations in the kitchen. It's simple, easy, and still feels like Christmas. It went up in just over an hour, and I could put it all away in less time than that. Instead of six totes and boxes of Christmas decor, I have two, plus the wooden tree. It's enough, it's simple, and it's us!

Rearranging and Thinking Ahead

I did get a couple Christmas gifts sewn this past week, but I've done far more rearranging than sewing. Our new bed arrived, so our bedroom needed to be rearranged. We can't fit our nightstands with the new bed, and our old bedframe was much nicer than the one in the guest room, so both the nightstands and the bedframe were moved to the guest room, which, of course, necessitated moving the old stuff out from the guest room! Now the guest room has been upgraded, and our bedroom has been upgraded. We put the guest room bedframe out and someone snagged it right away! I'm glad someone can use it. 

My desk got moved to my craft corner in the living room.

I'm so used to using my computer in my bedroom, that using it in the living room is going to take some time to adjust to. 

I mostly use this craft area in the evening while DH and I are watching TV. I'm not very good at sitting and watching something while doing nothing with my hands. I mostly do things like subcutting strips or trimming here. pressing a zillion units usually happens here too. I've got a small ironing board next to craft table, that I take out when I need it. This is also a handy place to work when I have the grandkids, which I do this weekend. I can keep an eye on them and still get a few mindless tasks done. 

This week my mindless cutting project was taking the backs of DH's scrub tops from his nursing career and cutting them for a quilt. 

I decided to use this pattern for his scrub tops and all the rectangles are cut the same size. I'm going to use a darker gray for the background. He had too many black scrub tops for me to use black. I'm also going to make it rectangular by adding another row of large blocks to the bottom. DH had so many scrub tops that I had made him over the years, that these rectangles weren't going to use much of the fabric I had saved from the backs of his tops. I decided to cut 10.5" squares too, and I'll piece those up for the backing. 

Now instead of a teetering stack of scrub top backs, I have some rectangles cut for the front of his quilt, and the squares I'll piece for the backing. Tonight I plan on doing the math for the background fabric, and next week I'll try to get that cut. He's been retired almost a year, it's about time I started working on his quilt! 

I'm already thinking ahead to next year as well. I typically do a declutter in January, and that is my goal for this coming January as well. I'd like to get a few things rearranged in the sewing studio too. One thing slated to be done then is already pretty much done. I wanted to empty a drawer or two where I store bias binding, and move my thread cones to the space I free up. I decided to add some pegboard to the quilt closet.

I just estimated where to put the hooks, but I think if I rearrange them a bit, I'll be able to put up more rolls of bias binding. The closet ceiling is dropped, so I don't have a lot of vertical space, and because the closet is quite narrow for a walk-in, I didn't want the pegboard too low on the wall, and be walking into it all the time. One thing I liked about adding the pegboard is, I'll just leave it if we ever move. With a narrow walk-in closet, it would come in handy to have pegboard on that wall, especially if the room is a bedroom again. 

One of the goals I had for this year, that I didn't do, was to make 100 pillowcases. I only made about 20. I think cutting out the pillowcases in January would be perfect, because I'll be able to get some yardage off the shelves that is earmarked for pillowcases, and I can put away some fabric that I haven't been able to put away, for lack of space. I know with directional fabrics I'll end up with scraps, but with non directional fabrics I'm hoping for some empty spaces. I'm really hoping to get a bunch of quilt tops quilted next year too, and quilt backings is where I typically see the biggest dent in the stash. 

It's funny, I simultaneously try to make dents in the stash, and am so thankful I have it. I was looking for some Pokemon flannel to make a couple of my grandsons pajama pants. The cheapest Pokemon flannel I found online was $17 per yard, and I'd need 3 yards to make them both pajama pants! Yeah, I could buy them already made pajamas for far less money. I can't even imagine trying to build a stash at today's prices! I'm 58 now, and I figure my stash will last most of my productive years. It's a big stash of fabric, but I am a prolific quilter, so I'm not going to stress about the amount of fabric I have. I'm just going to enjoy using it to bless other people. 

A Baker's Dozen

 I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! DD#2 hosted Thanksgiving. I only had to make pies and homemade gluten-free rolls. Unfortunately, while making the rolls, my Kitchen-Aid mixer died. I knew the motor was going out, it had been getting louder and louder, and running hot. This is the second Kitchen-Aid stand mixer I've worn out. I'd been doing research on stand mixers, and today I ordered a Bosch mixer, which was not cheap, even on a Black Friday sale, but since I make most foods from scratch, I need a good quality mixer. 

I made three pricy purchases today, but the others were planned, and even the mixer was expected. I bought a split king adjustable bed. DH and I have had a queen sized bed for most of our marriage, but out mattress is totally shot, and rather than buy a new queen set. I decided to get the king sized adjustable bed I've been wanting for years. I'm hoping I'll like the mattress I chose, but I'm virtually positive I'll enjoy the adjustable bed options. I did so much online research, I went through a period of analysis paralysis, but I chose as wisely as I could, and I can return it if we hate it. Either way, we are long overdue for a new mattress! I think we've only had four mattresses in our 42 year marriage, so waiting a long time to replace them is par for the course with us. 

The other purchase of the day was a new laptop for DH. His is no longer being supported, and when we travel he has to have a laptop so he can do business on it. I think I'm on my second laptop since he got one. Of course, at home he prefers a desktop, and I only use a laptop. 

Since we are getting a new larger bed, I need to rearrange the bedroom a bit. That's what I've been busy doing today. Well, rearranging things and doing laundry. 

I did finish a quilt this week! It's finish #13, so I've finished a Baker's Dozen now. 

This quilt is king-sized, and I'm glad it's off my to do list. I have one more big quilt to finish this year, preferably before Christmas, but then I've got a break from deadline quilts. I do have 8 quilts requested right now, but no firm deadlines. 

I assembled five UFO quilt tops in the last week! Four of them are boy quilts destined for Project Linus. The other is a quilt I cut sashing for last week. 

I cut the borders wider for the top and bottom. The quilt is set 8x9 blocks, simply because that's how many blocks I had. I thought it was a little weird shape, not a square, but not very rectangular, so I compensated on the borders. Those blocks are just 5", so it's not a huge quilt.  It was a good use of bonus HST's from another project though! 

With all the big purchases, I opted to not get anything quilt related on the big sales, I have enough quilt supplies, and the purchases I made were necessary. 

I'm not sure what I'll be able to show next week, it's all about Christmas sewing for a bit!

Sidetracked from Christmas Sewing by Christmas Prep

 I really need to get back to sewing for Christmas. I've finished several sewing projects for Christmas, I'm just not done. This week, aside from FMQ an hour per day, I've spent more time on Christmas prep than I have Christmas sewing.

DS the Younger is active duty military, and his family is actually moving to a new duty station the week of Christmas. Nothing like moving during the holidays. I realized I needed to get their Christmas box mailed ASAP, so they can have it before the move while I actually have an address for them. That prompted me to start wrapping everyone's presents, and start getting all the Christmas boxes I'm mailing ready to go. I also got the baby quilt I'm mailing packaged. Wrapping everything I already have gave me a great opportunity to evaluate what I still needed to get. 

I am not a last minute shopper, in fact, I'm normally done Christmas shopping earlier than this. I am often a last minute Christmas crafter 😉 I don't enjoy shopping, so I try to get that done early. I do enjoy sewing and crafting, so I'm more likely to "save the best for last". Of course, I often plan more than I actually leave time to do, but this year, I think I've got a decent chance of getting everything done. I likely have an extra week to prepare for local people at least. We never do family Christmas on Christmas Day, and it's usually around New Year's Day, so I get a few extra days for finishing stuff for the local folk. I only have one more gift to make that's going to be mailed, so I'm doing great on that front. I have several things to make for locals, but no quilts or complicated stuff. I do have two more quilts I want finished by Christmas, but they aren't Christmas gifts, I just don't want to have them on my UFO list anymore. They are gifts, but not Christmas specific, more housewarming gifts. 

I am almost finished FMQ one of those two big quilts I want done. I think 2 more hours of FMQ will finish off the quilting, then it will need binding. It was nice doing a baby quilt between the last two big quilts, but I so want these other two big quilts done, I'm going to go straight from one queen/king to another. My arm won't be terribly happy about it, but I've been basting some smaller quilts, so I can work on something smaller after those are done. 

In the last week, I sewed borders onto two UFO's. One of those I basted, and one quilt top went into the quilt closet. I've currently been working on assembling a few more UFO's that don't need borders. 

I'm also evaluating other UFO's that aren't as far along. 

I forgot to take a photo of this quilt on the design wall, but this is a good example of evaluating a UFO and dealing with the problem now. When I counted up the blocks, I had a weird amount of them. I could make a square quilt in a weird size with leftover blocks, or I could could make more blocks. If I made four extra blocks, I could make a large throw, so that's what I did! The quilt is just color controlled scrappy, and I had enough strips in my scrap user system to easily cut the extra blocks, and now this quilt top is in the quilt closet, waiting for its turn for basting and quilting.

I made these white/black scrappy nine patches years ago. I planned to make an on point queen sized quilt with these 3" (finished) nine patches alternating with scrappy squares. Now that I'm trying to cut down on making really big quilts, I'll likely make two or three quilts from these nine patches. I decided I'd like something more cohesive that completely scrappy, and I had a half yard bundle hanging around with no plans for it. I cut up the half yard bundle into 3" (finished)  squares, and added a few fat quarters from my stash to make it a little less "matchy", but still in the colorway of the fabric bundle. Obviously, there's a lot to do fo this UFO, and if I decide to do something on point, I'll have to cut setting triangles, but that's fine. The main thing is, I now have enough cut to start working on it again. 

This afternoon I counted up these blocks. I have 72, so I can set it 8x9. The blocks are just 5" finished, so I'm going to add sashing and cornerstones. I still had some of the background fabric I can use for the sashing, and I found a fat quarter that I can cut the 1" finished cornerstones from. I did the math so I know how many of everything I need to cut, so I'll be working on that this evening. I'm going to want a border on this quilt, but I'll wait until I have the center together before I decide on what I want for the border. I'm sure I have something in stash that will work. 

None of these UFO's have deadlines, most will end up being donated. The important thing is getting them finished. I need to stop having so many projects going at once. I'll always have more than one project going at a time, that's a given, but I've let it get out of hand. I am very good at making use of leaders/enders, too good at it. I cut new quilts to use as leaders/enders for deadline projects, but then I've got two or more quilts to finish. This year I started using UFO's as my leader/ender projects, and that is helping me get further along. By evaluating my UFO's before I plan on working on them again, I can do things like cut sashing and cornerstones, cut the alternate blocks, plan the borders, whatever I need to do next, which then allows me to use that UFO as a leader/ender project. I've been assembling two quilts at once for years now. I just use one as a leader/ender for the other. I helps if the blocks are different sizes, or the quilts are in different colorways, so you don't mix them up while assembling, but it really does move those UFO's along. 

I know I'm making some progress at least. The piles in the sewing and fabric room aren't quite as high as they were. I have some EMPTY project containers!!!! My rolls of batting are getting smaller, I'm hoping for a decent Black Friday sale on a roll of batting. If you see anything good, let me know! 

I hope you are all seeing progress on your own projects, whether holiday related, UFO's are just because!