Wednesday, September 8, 2021

A Big Finish

 


The second of three wedding quilts for this year is finished! Just in the nick of time too, since the bridal shower is Saturday! I picked the fabrics for this quilt last year, but I didn't start cutting until this year, so it's a new start for the year. I'm perfectly OK with new starts, but finishing it the same year I started it is a big win. This quilt is a monster, 110" x 110".

I started quilting another quilt this morning, the advantage of basting several quilts at a time, I can easily do my hour of FMQ on the next quilt right after a finish. I'm using the same quilting design on this quilt as I did on that wedding quilt. 

I got half the weighted blanket filled. I had time to finish it, but I decided to spend the time folding as much fabric as I could onto my mini-bolt boards. I ran out of boards before I was done, but most of that big fabric purchase is on boards and put away. I cleared a shelf for the remaining fabric, so my cutting table is cleared off! As I empty mini-bolts, I'll get the remaining fabric onto boards and put it where it actually belongs, but for now this is workable.

I had a couple people ask me who was pregnant when I was making all the burp rags that got finished last week. At the time, I didn't know of anyone being pregnant. Well...that didn't last long. Come to find out, one of my nieces is pregnant and had been keeping it hush hush. I didn't find out until she announced it is a boy! I talked to her and she wants a Marvel themed quilt for the baby, which is easy, I should have everything to make that. She also wants me to make a quilt for her stepson, which I'm happy to do, but she wasn't sure what theme she wanted for his quilt. All that is great, then I found out she's due on Christmas Eve, which doesn't give me much time, when I still have a wedding quilt to finish this year too! I'm going to have to follow up pretty quickly on the stepson's quilt, because I need to get it planned out so it can get cut and put into the queue.


I'm still trying to clear the decks of quilts that need assembly too. These blocks were from busting my brown 2" strips, and I ended up with enough blocks to make two throw quilts like this, plus one baby quilt. I have one block leftover, and it can go into the orphan bin. I've got all three of these quilts sewn into rows, and hopefully all three will be assembled today. I'm not planning on borders for any of them, just a burgundy binding, so once the rows are sewn together, I can press the three quilt tops and hang them in the quilt closet. When quilts don't need borders, it's pretty easy to assemble them as leaders/enders. 

As I'm getting quilt tops together and hanging them in the quilt closet, my sewing room is feeling a bit lighter with every top done. Sometimes putting projects away is the answer, other times you just need to sew your way out of the mess. 

I debated on just concentrating on the deadline projects, but honestly, my attitude is better if I'm working on a project of my choice at the same time I'm working on deadline quilt. 

Now that my cutting table is cleared off, I can work on cutting out the scrub tops for DH. Those will get done a lot faster now that I have my no quilting weekends.

So many projects to work on, and I keep seeing things online about Christmas, and I just can't go there! The last couple years I've just had a really hard hard time getting into a Christmas-y mood, and making things for Christmas is becoming harder and harder. It's not that I don't like giving gifts, or even that I don't like making gifts, I like doing both of those. What I don't like is the pressure, the time restraints, the trying to top whatever I did last year, the sheer number of presents that need to be made if I make them. I told DH I feel like gift cards may be the way to go this year, if I can't get into it. With five kids and their spouses and a dozen grandkids plus other family members we buy for it's just overwhelming me. That's NOT what Christmas is about. 

I keep reading about supply chains being broken, and how things may be hard to find for the holidays, and that's easy to believe when there are things at the grocery store that are hard to get even now. I'm also well aware of how much stuff everyone already has. I really like giving activities for gifts, movie tickets, zoo passes, or restaurant gift cards, but with Covid numbers still going crazy I'm not sure I want to go that route either. Last year I finally came up with giving family gifts and going for a game night theme for at least the families with children old enough for that. Once I had decided on that, it was easier to get in the Christmas mood. I'm still waiting for inspiration to strike this year, and I'm sure hoping it does!


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