Merry Christmas!

We celebrated our Christmas early, since DH is working a 12 hour shift on Christmas Day. We may have little ones in the house, but we don't do the Santa thing, so it's pretty easy for us to move Christmas or any other holiday, and DH works most holidays so someone else can have it off. My personal preference is that he take Thanksgiving and Easter off, but I don't care if he works the rest. Since he is an emergency room nurse, they are never closed, so all the hours must be worked by someone.

We had a nice Christmas celebration, and now I can show you a couple things I was working on.

I took this photo before it was quilted, but I made a set of four placemats for the couple that just got married. I had a bit of fabric left over from their wedding table runners, and I thought some placemats made out of that fabric would remind them of the wedding without being over the top "wedding-ish".

Check out these stacks of microwavable bowl holders! This photo was taken after I had already mailed off four sets of them! I made eighteen sets of three sizes, they are made using 10", 12", and 14" squares. If you'd like to make your own, I used the directions found here.

On my 2015 quest to finish other people's last projects, I finished two lap quilts started by DH's great-aunt. I gave them to my MIL for Christmas.

This one Aunt Elva had assembled into a quilt top, and had a backing folded with it. The half blocks on the bottom cracked me up, and the fact she didn't use the center strips of the blocks as a lattice, but more like two ribbons or fish struck me as odd.

She had three blocks in one colorway, and 17 in another, so I did the best I could with those. There was some damage to the blocks, so I appliqued hearts over the damaged parts before I assembled the top. At least her last projects are now finished.

I still have one project of someone else's that is not finished. It's the quilt started by DH's grandmother. I did get it assembled into a quilt top this year, but have not had time to quilt it. It is staying at our house, since we don't have a quilt made by Granny, so that put it a bit further down the list.

I also made 34 pillowcases for Christmas, 15 kids placemats, 10 potholders, one scrub top, and I'm sure a few things I'm forgetting. I lost count of how much yardage I went through, but at least 75 yards I'm sure.

I was one very spoiled quilter this Christmas, and although I used more fabric than I got for Christmas, I did have some stash enhancement as gifts.

DH bought me 2 sets of quilter's candy fat quarters, one of blenders, one of all fabrics with dots, plus a layer cake. DD#3 got me a purple fat quarter bundle, and a neutral set of fat eighths that didn't make it into the pic. I'll be wrapping the fat quarters onto my small mini-bolts, and can snap a better pic after I finish that.

I scored several quilt books that have been on my Amazon wishlist. I realized Marti Michell's Patchwork System books will work with my Accuquilt Go dies, so I'd like to get a few of those books.

I got this quilting mug that really cracks me up! I'm am quite the coffee drinker, so a mug is always a welcome gift.

I also got some earrings I've been wanting, and a few non-quilty things like lotions. I was pretty spoiled this year!

I'm not linking up with the mystery quilt this week, because I still haven't cut all the strips for clue 4, but I'm working on it. I would imagine I won't have all the sub-cutting done for clue four until sometime next week.

I am working on clue 2 in the shirts colorway, and I'm about halfway done with that. I haven't even started sewing clue two in the brights colorway, but it is all cut out. I sub-cut the stripsets I made for clue 3, and sewed up what I had. I am using scraps for these, so I was just guessing on how much I had. No WOF strips are being used. I ended up with exactly 120 bright four patches, which cracked me up, since that's exactly how many we need. I have 104 four patches in the shirts colorway, so I'll have to make a few more of those.

Since that was a bit confusing, here's the breakdown on how I'm doing on the mystery quilt.

Clue 1
shirt colorway- done, bright colorway- done

Clue 2
shirt colorway- half done, bright colorway- all cut, none sewn

Clue 3
shirt colorway- I need 16 more four patches, bright colorway- done

Clue 4
I am currently working on cutting both colorways, none sewn.

Tomorrow I should have quite a bit of time home alone, and I'm hoping to finish clue 2 in both colorways, as well as finish those last 16 four patches. We'll see what happens. If I get tired of sewing, I will work on cutting out clue four.

DS the Younger is home from the Army for Christmas, and any time I get to spend with him trumps sewing. He's got lots of people to see, and he needs to spend lots of time with his wife, as he should, so when he has time to visit, I'll drop everything to spend time with him. I've already baked lots of his favorite goodies, so that's a plus.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!