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! 

Up to Finish #12

I've been so crazy busy, I'm not actually sure whether or not I've shown the other nine finishes I've had this year, but I think so. I have three finishes to show today, four if you count a table runner, which I actually didn't count as a finish in my records. I'm not consistent in counting smaller projects.  

The first finish I'll show you was actually finished in October, but I needed to make a matching table runner, and I just finished that last week, plus I needed to mail it, but now that it's gifted, I can show all of it. 

I promised DD#1 a Thanksgiving/Christmas table runner. I make my table runners with a layer of Insulbrite plus a layer of cotton batting, so hot things can be placed directly on them. I've been in a bit of a time crunch, so I looked around the sewing room to see if I had any blocks lying around I could work into table runners. I found some autumn colored little blocks that would work for the Thanksgiving side of the table runner, but nothing already started that would work for Christmas. Around the same time I was evaluating that, it was National Sew a Jelly Roll day. I was busy, of course, on that day, but I decided I'd pick a jelly roll to work with and make a project the next week. I had one Christmas jelly roll, that wasn't overly Christmas-y. It had golds, reds and mostly greens, with metallic designs of holly and pinecones. A lot of the metallic designs were more just paisley type designs. Christmas colors, but more winter-ish in design. I knew DD#1 had just painted her living room green, and it would look great in there. 

I picked an easy pattern, and got the quilt top sewn up in just a couple days. It was finished in September. I've never made DD#1 a quilt with minky on the back, and I knew she'd like it, she's very tactile. She also likes fancier quilting, which minky shows off nicely. 

I freehanded a paisley feather design as an allover, and I really liked how the quilt came out. The method of piecing the quilt left me with bonus HST's, so I used those for the Christmas side of the table runner. I finished the quilting in late October. 

This is the Thanksgiving side. I needed a wider border on it, because I only had so many of the little blocks I had found. It's bigger than it looks in the photos, maybe 20x34 inches, I didn't measure. DD#1 is quite happy with her surprise Christmas quilt, and is thinking the table runner will work great for the holidays. Of course, now all the kids want throw quilts with minky backing, so I said that can be next year's Christmas presents. 

This is one of the giant quilts I basted in the last basting basting spree. It's about 104" square. I had enough blocks leftover from this, to make a throw quilt, for which I am piecing borders for today, and three extra blocks which will become a table runner. I used my Studio crazy quilt 10" block die to cut the blocks out. 

I spent most of the last week working on a baby quilt. The baby is due this month, it could already have arrived. I had the blocks I needed already cut out, because I had planned on making a larger quilt with those blocks. I only took the time to piece the 16 blocks I needed for the baby quilt, and I didn't count how many more blocks I have cut out. I'm already working on enough UFO's simultaneously, so until I get a few of those into quilt tops, I'm not going to add those to my workload right now. I also may need to cut more blocks to make the larger quilt I had planned, so it was really more than I wanted to tackle before Christmas. 

I finished the baby quilt yesterday, and I hope to mail it in the next few days. The baby is a boy with two older brothers. The oldest brother has a Star Wars quilt, the second brother has a Marvel quilt. Since I chose to use TV blocks, I could have put whatever I wanted on them. I did a couple Star Wars blocks, a couple Marvel blocks and the rest video games or cartoons. A nod to his brothers but still all his own. The Mod TV pattern is such a fun pattern, I could make a dozen different quilts from it and still have a blast choosing fabrics for the TV screens. If you are interested in improv quilting, but want some direction as well, this pattern would be a great intro to that. 

I started FMQ another of the giant quilts today. This one and one other I'd like to finish before Christmas. I'm sticking to my FMQ one hour per day, and it takes me anywhere from 1-3 weeks weeks to quilt a large quilt, depending on which design I'm quilting. On these I'm just doing easy stuff, so by Christmas is doable.  Other than that, it's all about Christmas projects and UFO's. 

UFO Hunting

Am I finished my Christmas sewing or deadline quilts? No, but I am making progress on them. I just finished quilting one of the basted deadline quilts this afternoon, and I've already trimmed it so it's ready for binding. I've got the baby quilt I need ready to sew, and the last of the fabric I needed for Christmas gifts just arrived. Most of the grandkids gifts are finished, on my end at least, DH is still working on his part. I've got stuff to make the adults, but I'm feeling pretty good about my timeline. 

If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know I'm always working on several projects simultaneously. I do have a new project I'm cutting for, but overall, I'm UFO hunting.

UFO hunting? I have a closet full of quilt tops that need quilting, it's not like I need to look far to find UFO's. Those aren't the UFO's I'm hunting for. A lot of the UFO's I'm hunting are in plain sight, but I haven't been seeing them. How many times have I walked into the sewing or fabric rooms trying to ignore the numbers of UFO's hanging about? Too many to count. I ignored them so long I stopped seeing them. Piles of quilt blocks everywhere, that I never seemed to have time to work with because I always had another deadline quilt. 

I think everyone has common places to get stuck. For me, it's borders and sashing. If I decide a quilt needs borders or sashing, it often gets set aside, because I don't want/have time to cut those. Does it take a long time to cut those? Not usually. If you are using one of those border prints and you have to to fussy cut a long strip, ok, that takes a while. I know, I just did that! If you are just cutting regular fabrics, it really doesn't take that long, but somehow, I make it a big deal in my head and I get stuck. 

When I got home from this latest trip, I started realizing how many UFO's I actually have lying around. I started by thinking, for every deadline quilt I assemble, I'll assemble a UFO. Good thought but right now I have way more UFO's than deadline quilts. I don't enjoy assembling quilts in the summer, but the weather is finally cooling off, and I don't mind it now that I'm not sweating in the sewing room. I started assembling quilts that didn't need borders. 

I don't want a border on this one. It's made from one of my jelly rolls mixed with some strips I was given. This one is now assembled and in the quilt closet. 

This one is assembled too. I've debated a border for it, but it's big enough as is, so I think I'll forego one. 

I think I've assembled at least six quilt tops in ten days or so. I didn't take photos of all I've been doing. 

This one is currently on the design wall and will be the next one assembled. 

I'm working on the easiest to get to quilt tops first, but I'm also hunting down other ones, stuck in containers, totes, or project boxes. I have a few that are only a cut quilt, no sewing has been done at all. Those can get done as leaders/enders later. Right now I'm looking for the ones that need sashing and borders and making plans. I just cut a border for one quilt top that I just assembled, and I'm piecing a border for another one I just assembled. I'm trying to problem solve as I go. 

All the hangers in my quilt closet already have a quilt top on them, but since I've used up so many king sized battings, I have room on the shelves in the quilt closet and for now, I'm piling the quilt tops on the shelves. I've basted two more quilts this week, and with my FMQ every day, I'm constantly reclaiming pins so I can baste more. I'm piecing backings, assembling quilt tops, and problem solving every day. Sometimes I'm using my UFO as a leader/ender, sometimes I'm using a deadline project or Christmas gift as my leader/ender and the UFO is the main thing. What I'm really doing is making progress. I've made piles go down, even emptied some containers! It's going to take a long time to work my way through this mess, but I'm thinking this could be a really productive winter for me. 

I love Bonnie Hunter quilt mysteries, and I read the introductory post for this year's mystery. It looks like fun, I like the colors, but no, not this year. I keep getting emails on next year's murder mystery quilt. It's a Murder on the Orient Express! So fun! But no, not this year. I'm not doing them because I'm actually excited about tackling my UFO's, and I don't need the distraction. I'm sure there will be mystery quilts in my future, but not right now. 

I feel much better about having piles of quilt tops than having parts of quilt tops everywhere. I have plans for quite a bit of non quilt related sewing, so if I can keep a pile of basted quilts, and do my hour of FMQ every morning, I will start seeing those quilt tops get finished. 

Anyone else feeling the UFO pull? We could encourage each other on the journey. 

Basting Spree

DH will be home in about an hour, and boy, did I stay busy while he was gone! He helped me layout the first quilt after we set up the basting tables.

Quilt top #1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

All of these are now basted, and the first one is almost half quilted. I don't pin baste as closely as I used to now that I have a machine with a larger harp. Where I used to shoot for a pin every 3-4 inches, I now shoot for a pin every 6-8 inches. I do pin closely on the edge, but the middle I don't, especially when I'm using 100% cotton batting since the fabric clings to it so nicely. I actually still have some pins left. I have four jars of pins, and I emptied three of them and went into the fourth. With DH coming home, I took down the basting tables, and moved all the living room furniture back into place. I'll be basting a couple smaller quilts, but I can do that on my cutting table in the basement. 

When I started basting, quilt #2 wasn't assembled, and I hadn't pieced the backing for quilt #3. I did those things while I was taking breaks from basting. I could have finished a couple more big quilt tops and basted today, but honestly, I think basting some smaller quilts makes better sense. One of the big quilts I had planned to baste needs borders, two of those are already cut, and the pieced border is partially assembled. The thing is, I've misplaced the cut borders. I know I haven't used them for anything else. I know they are in my sewing room, not the fabric room, and my guess is they are at the bottom of a pile. Rather than tear my sewing room apart looking for them, I'm working my way through the piles instead. I've found piles of quilt blocks I had completely forgotten about. Cooler weather is absolutely my favorite time to assemble quilts, so as I find piles of blocks, I'm assembling them into quilt tops. I've got three quilts worth of rows slung across my ironing board right now! 

I was thinking about why I have so many stacks of quilt blocks, and I think I've figured it out. In 2022, we we gone from home for three months. Before we left, I stuck was I was working on aside, and worked on deadline stuff when I got back. In 2023 we were gone for four months. Before I left I stuck what I was working on aside, and when I got back worked on deadline stuff. Last year we were home all year, but my priority was quilting UFO's and I finished 40 quilts. This year has been non-stop, and in total we've been gone for four months over three different trips. 

I do still have deadline projects, three of which are now basted! I have to make a baby quilt for a November baby, but I'm thinking it might be Christmas before the baby gets it. I still have Christmas projects to make for my family. In the midst of those projects, I'm going to be tackling the stacks of blocks all over my sewing and fabric rooms. Some of them are neatly in project organizers, but my goal is to assemble as many quilts as I can while the weather is cooler. 

I want to keep basting quilts as I have pins available too. I pieced a backing for a smaller quilt today, and I cut the batting for it too. I need a year (or more) to play catch up. That said, piecing is my favorite thing to do! So how do I slow down the piecing and start getting caught up on projects? I'm planning on tackling that from a couple different directions. I have a few piecing heavy projects that I've been wanting to do. I have two sampler quilts on my list, and those always take longer because all the blocks are different. I think 2026 is a good time to start those.

Scrap quilts are always something I allow myself to start otherwise the scraps take over. I'm thinking string quilts and crumb quilts are going to slow me down as well. Those require a LOT of piecing, so I can get lots of piecing in, but not make the blocks for that many quilts. 

If I can keep a stack of quilts basted, and consistently FMQ an hour per day, I will make progress on the backlog. I'm not sure how much travelling 2026 will have. We have at least one big trip planned, but a couple other options are on the table as well. Our plan is to stay at home for the winter. I'm not sure how likely that is with both my parents having health issues, but for now, I'm going to plan like we are staying home for the winter. Working on the things I prefer to do in cooler weather is what's important right now, because cooler weather doesn't last long in southern Arizona. 

Rally Sewing

 DH will be heading up a scooter rally very soon. Sometimes his scooter rallies for his club require great efforts from our whole family, and other times he takes the rally on the road and I don't have to do anything, or at least not as much. This year the rally is going on the road, and originally, I didn't have to do anything for it. The funny thing is, that even with no real advertising or anything, the rally has become much larger than he was thinking it would be, and we have several verified riders from other states and even from across the country. With so many out-of-towners coming, he really wanted to do something more than what he had originally planned. With all of our travelling, we were under a time crunch, so we were a bit limited in what we could do. I normally make rally bags for the scooterists, and we get sponsors to donate things to put in them. DH knew we didn't have time to get sponsors and such, but he did ask if maybe I could make smaller than normal rally bags. 

I had a couple different license plate fabrics in stash, and cut those up for the cause. All of that single fold bias tape I had sewed up while making luggage tags earlier this year made great drawstrings! 

I am always keeping an eye out for fast and easy things to sew, to use for gifts or giveaways for DH's business. I found a tutorial for making lip balm holders, and I knew they'd be quick to sew up. I had purchased the clips before our last trip, and the lobster clips are the only thing I needed that I don't normally have in stash. If you are looking for stocking stuffers and have some extra jelly roll strips lying around, this might be something you want to try making. 

These were very quick to sew, and for the loop to attach the clip, I used the sewn up bias tape scraps again! I used scooter fabrics for the rally, but just an FYI, you end up folding the fabric, so not only do you need a small scale print, but you need to use caution if it's directional. We bought blank lip balms on Amazon, and he made labels with the graphic for the rally on it. It's the same graphic as the t-shirts. I had four different fabrics I used for the lip balm holders, so just like with the rally bags, not everyone will get the same thing. 

Now that the rally sewing is done, and I'm partially finished with the Christmas sewing, I'm taking a break from that and assembling some of the queen/king quilts. I baste the giant quilts on two eight foot long folding tables which completely takes over the living room. If I can do that while DH is out of town, then he isn't inconvenienced by the mess. He wouldn't complain if I did it while he was home, but to even put the tables up I have to move all the furniture, and you can't see the TV, and...it's just a lot. If I can do it when he's out of town, at least I'm only inconveniencing myself, but basting on the big tables is easier, so it's only sort of inconvenient for me. I have four queen/king quilt tops ready to baste now, but there's one more I'd really like to get basted and I haven't even started assembling it (blocks are done). I also have two more big ones that only need borders sewn on, and another that has blocks that need to be sewn together, but will get no borders. 

I just finished quilting a quilt this morning (it's a Christmas gift), so all of my basting pins are free. I don't know how many big quilts I can baste, but I know I've done three queen/kings at once before, and I'm sure I had some pins left. My goal is to baste until I'm out of pins. I've got a whole closet full of quilt tops, so when I know I don't have enough pins to baste another big one I'll switch to something smaller. Three of the big quilts are my top priority, two others I'd like to get done soon-ish. The other big quilts can wait, and none of what's hanging in the closet is a priority. Actually, my next deadline quilt is a baby quilt that I've barely started. As soon as I've got these big quilts assembled, that baby quilt will be my sewing priority, maybe mixed in with some Christmas projects. By the time I get the baby quilt top done, I should have reclaimed enough basting pins to baste it! FMQ one hour per day may not seem like much, but it does keep things moving along.