Change of Plans

Wow! Last week did not go at all like I had planned! I didn't have to babysit on Monday or Wednesday, so I thought I'd have all this extra time to sew and make Christmas cookies and such. I didn't make any cookies, and I did little sewing. 

One reason I got little sewing done was because DH and I were running all over town comparing new washers and dryers. It took me a while to decide, but I finally got the red ones I had been wanting from the beginning. They were delivered today, and obviously from this photo I put them straight to work. So far I am really liking them.

The other reason I got little done is that the twins have been running fevers, and just feeling under the weather. They mostly have wanted me to hold them. When you have a little one who has a temp of 101.6 and they will only be calm if you hold them, what do you do? I know I spent a lot of time this past week holding little ones.

DH's grandmother passed away in August, and I just received what was left of her quilting stash. She mostly made small projects, lots and lots of placemats. She always had impeccable taste,  so no surprise there are some gorgeous fabrics in here.

Some of her stash was in bundles by color like this. One of my favorite pieces is the paisley on the top of the pile at far left^ She had several fabrics I also have in my stash, but rarely in the same colorway I have.

Her stash was in a nice plastic tote, but I've already repurposed it so for right now most of the fabrics are overflowing this box. It will be fun to go through all of this. She had a bunch of strips cut, and some of the blue ones have already made their way into my blue string blocks.

I found a bunch of these quilt blocks. When I saw them, I wondered if she had made them as a disappearing nine patch, but I have since found some extra pieces, so now I know she didn't do them as a disappearing nine patch, but cut to size.

Here is one block. There are some extra four patches, and some extra sashing and cornerstone pieces. There are no extra background pieces. I found one piece of fabric that might be the background fabric, if not the one, close enough to work if I need more blocks. Something was spilled on it, so I will need to wash it and see if whatever is on it comes out.

^Here is the box full of quilt blocks and extra parts. I will lay it out and see how big I can make it now. If it only needs a couple extra blocks to finish a row I will make a few more blocks but if I can work it out with what is already made, I will do that. I had a good chuckle when looking over her piecing. She used all colors of thread while piecing, which I do when making darker colored projects. She pieces with red which really shows though the white fabric. She also pieced with pink, and white, and the bobbin and top threads were often different colors. I'm sure she was likely just using up threads, and piecing with whatever was almost gone.

I did get one more stocking string pieced last week. I opted for traditional Christmas colors. I started the last stocking which will be creams today.

 

I realized I was going to have a bunch of extra four patches from the floral/cream sewing spree, so I started making some double four patches, and laid a few out to see how they will look. My piles of floral cream blocks are steadily growing, I am sewing on these when I work on the Easy Street Mystery. I am still making blue string blocks when working on the stockings.  I have several more blue string blocks made, and I will have a couple more by the time I'm done piecing the last stocking. I am running out of time to get these stockings done, so I am going to have to find the time to sew in between babysitting this week.