Happy Thanksgiving!

 I hope all that celebrate have a Happy Thanksgiving! This year DD#2 wanted to host, but my day before Thanksgiving prep still looks like any other year. 

I've got the white and wheat rolls done, but I've yet to make a pie so far. Besides rolls and pies, I'm also making one pan of dressing, but my daughters have the rest covered. After the last two weeks of event after event, it's a nice break. 

I haven't had much in the way of sewing time. I am working on a couple Christmas presents I can't show. I did NOT get the table runners done for Thanksgiving. I told DD#2 I hope to have it done in time for Christmas, but we'll see. I still have a lot to do for Christmas, and although my December calendar is not nearly as crazy as November has been, it is filling in.

I can show you some of my current leader/ender blocks.

These 16 patches will finish at 6". Too many of my Wonder Clips are being used to clip the pieces for the 16 patches together, so I'm starting to use these as my leader/ender project just to get some clips back. I have a LOT of 16 patches ready to sew, it could be a while before I actually get a quilt made from them, and I think I'll end up with at least two quilts from them. 

I'm excited about the mystery quilt starting Friday. I know only using one fabric per color will save me a lot of time, and I have enough other projects I need to get finished, that using single fabrics for each color was about the only way I was going to be able to add the mystery quilt in. I am kind of wondering how much I'll like the quilt when it's finished, since I am by nature a very scrappy quilter. I figure since I give most of my quilts away anyway, it doesn't matter that much. Not everyone likes a scrappy quilt.

 I still haven't finished assembling last year's mystery quilt, which I changed up quite a bit. Most of my main quilt is in rows, and the Flying Geese Bonnie intended for the border I used in blocks for a second quilt. I haven't finished the alternate blocks I have planned for that quilt though.

I hope to have more pics next week, when I'm working on more than Christmas stuff!

Rally Hangover

Have you ever worked on something for months, then when it's over, you kind of feel like you have a hangover? You just need to de-stress a bit before you tackle the next big thing? I did so much for the scooter rally last weekend, that Saturday night I told everyone I was going to stay in bed and watch Hallmark movies on Sunday, while they did the last ride of the rally.

Well, Sunday came, and I'm not a stay in bed kind of girl, but I also wasn't up to tackling anything major either. I realized I had everything for the last two Christmas boxes I'm going to have to mail, so I wrapped all the gifts for those, packed the boxes, and got them all addressed and ready to go. I'll likely wait until after Thanksgiving to send them, but, hey, at least they are all ready to mail, and I've got that off my to do list. I always watch Hallmark movies while wrapping Christmas presents, so I did half of what I told everyone. 

Monday I was back to making pajama pants, I made two pairs on Monday, then I wrapped the rest of Christmas gifts I have so far. I was already in gift wrapping mode so it made sense, right? I was hoping to get four pairs of pajama pants done on Tuesday, but instead, after DH left for work, I went back to bed and took a NAP! I got two pairs of pajama pants completely finished when I got up, and two pairs to the point of hemming and waistbands.

I'm trying to keep pajama making to Mondays/Tuesdays, but since I hadn't finished the last two I hoped to make this week, I finished those Wednesday morning. Only four pair of pajama pants and two nightgowns left to make for that Christmas project! 

Since DD#2 is hosting Thanksgiving this year, I decided I'd make her a table runner, but I still wanted one too. After thinking about it, I'm opting to double batt (cotton) so hot pans can go directly on them, and I'm backing them with a Christmas runner. They'll be two holidays in the space of one, with ultimate practicality as far as serving food goes. 

I need a huge rectangular runner because I put all the food on my washer/dryer in the kitchen. DD#2 needs a huge square because she has a big kitchen island but the kitchen sink is in the island too, so a square works best for her. 

This is what I've got so far. I need to press the border fabric before I can cut it. I'll be putting the same border fabric on both. I ended up using every leftover leaf block I had, which in effect, crosses a UFO off my list, since I had planned to use those in a quilt. 

For my Christmas side, I am planning on using gift blocks all lined up. I bought some fun fairy frost for the ribbons on the packages. For DD#2's runner, since it's square I'm going to make a big wreath block. I really wanted to use a diagonal stripe for the border on hers, and thankfully JoAnn Fabrics had some in Christmas colors. Someone at the scooter rally had given me a JoAnn gift card as a thank you for all I did, so it was perfect timing! 

DSIL (DD#1's Husband) was sworn in today as a US citizen! We're having a party for him tomorrow at a local park. Besides buying decorations and such, I personally have little to do for that party, which suits me fine. DSIL (DD#2's husband) smoked chickens for the party, and DD#2 is making the cake. In the morning I'll make five gallons of lemonade, then fill our 12 liter thermos with hot water as well as bring some cold water. DH is smoking 20 pounds of pork today, and making BBQ sauce, but I'm not that busy. Other people will bring side dishes. Sunday we're having a party for my sister,  and aside from dessert which DD#2 is making, all the food is on me, which is fine. It's just family so not nearly as many people as the rally or tomorrow's party. 

It's funny that this weekend DD#2 is making all the desserts, because last weekend I made all the desserts, and I'm making most of the desserts for Thanksgiving. 

If you prayed for safety at the rally, I appreciate it. There were a couple minor mishaps but nothing major, just a few bruises. The raffle went better than any other we've done, and although we haven't had time to finish tallying the numbers, the food pantry will be getting at least $750 which we'll match. Not bad for 50 people participating in the rally. The scooter quilt is in California now, with its new owner. 

22nd Finish of 2022

On a good sewing year, my goal is to average finishing 2 quilts per month. I'm right on target for that!

I finished a quilt for my great niece, due next month.

It's the last quilt I'm backing with minky this year.

I've got it all packaged and ready to mail, but I haven't gotten it to the post office yet. 

My Monday/Tuesday plan of making pajama pants is working out pretty well. I've got ten pairs done now! The rest of this week is all scooter rally stuff, but come Monday, I'll be back to sewing pajama pants. If I can get all of those done in November, I'll be doing a happy dance 😊

Today is stuff the rally bags day! Most people have no idea how much work goes on behind the scenes. I'll be doing a lot of cooking for the rally too, and that starts tomorrow. 

I even dragged my sister into this, and she drove me all over town getting stuff for the rally and one of parties next weekend. It took five stores to find coffee stirrers! Who knew they were so hard to find?

Pray no one gets hurt at the rally, that's always my worst fear for these things. I'm hoping the raffle raises a lot for the local food pantry. I know they are struggling to keep people fed right now. The weather looks good, so that's one less thing to worry about. I've got a ton to do, so it's a short post today. I hope your weekend goes as well as I'm hoping ours goes!

Need Something Done? Ask a Busy Person

 This morning I told my husband I feel like I've gotten nothing done this week. He told me I've been way too busy to have gotten nothing done. 

I had to stop and think about it. I certainly have not had any quilt finishes this week, though I am about 3/4 of the way finished quilting a baby quilt for a great niece. Four quilts backed with minky in a row is too much for my arm, so I'm quilting shorter periods of time on this one. I think the next quilt I back with minky, I'm going to baste from the back, so the minky is on top. I'll run the risk of getting a pucker on the front, but my arm won't hurt. 

I made four pairs of pajamas pants for DS the Younger's family. I need to mail their Christmas package early, before he's deployed, so they can celebrate Christmas early. I finished those, wrapped all the gifts, and packed the box. DH is off mailing it now. I cheated and bought t-shirts to go with the pajama pants. I still have 16 pairs of pajama pants and two nightgowns to make before Christmas. I made four in one day, so it's totally doable, in fact, my goal is to get them done in November. If I make the nightgowns in December, that's ok, but I want the pajama pants done this month. 

I processed a bunch of scraps, cutting them down for the scrap user system. I told myself that I couldn't put up the Christmas tree until I emptied a big bin of scraps I had. I'm almost done with that, I should be able to finish this weekend or early next week. I like to put up the tree Thanksgiving weekend, so I should be able to do that. 

If anything, I'm getting busier and busier. In the next three weeks, I'm attending two parties, throwing two parties, helping run a weekend long scooter rally, plus there's Thanksgiving. 

DD#2 wants to host Thanksgiving this year, which is fine, but her family keeps getting sick, so I'm making a plan B just in case she can't do it at the last minute. I'm doing the rolls and pies no matter who hosts, so that's no problem. 

I had some leftover leaf blocks, and I found some Thanksgiving fabric in my latest thrift store fabric haul, so I'm thinking about making a Thanksgiving table runner. If I use a couple layers of wool or cotton batting, it works great for putting hot dishes on.

Now to decide which setting to use. I think the fabric I had in stash will make a good border. I already asked DD#2 is she'd like to have it, and I got a resounding yes, so I'll be sewing this together  ASAP. 

The scooter rally is next weekend. I've got all the sewing for that done. I made 50 luggage tags, 50 rally bags, and the quilt for the raffle. This week I wrapped candy bars with a wrapper we printed out.

It's got the club logo on it. Tomorrow DH and I will be filling the rally bags with all the goodies we've gotten for them, some of which was purchased or made, some of which was donated. 

On Thursday I'll be baking jumbo sized cookies for the rally bags, then I'll be making part of the food for the rally breakfast and dinner on Saturday. I'm not making all the food for either meal, which I've done before, so it's not overwhelming for me. If I didn't have so much experience entertaining it might be. 

My South African SIL is getting his American citizenship, and I said I'd throw a party when he got it. I had NO idea the government would work as fast as it did, so now I'll be throwing that on the 19th, but it's more of a group effort. DD#1 reserved a ramada at a local park, I'm in charge of decorations, dinnerware, meat and bread, (DH is smoking the meat for it so that's not even on me) DD#2 is making the cake, and the attendees are bringing all the sides. Outside is a good option for this, and the weather is usually great this time of year. 

My sister's birthday party is the next day, but it's just family and the menu is already decided, so I'll be busy, but not going crazy. Thanksgiving is an unknown, since I don't know for sure if DD#2 will end up hosting or I will. 

After Thanksgiving things calm down a LOT. So much so, that after much self debate, I decided I would join in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt. I still have plenty of projects going to keep me busy, so unlike my usual scrappy preferences, I'm only going to be using four fabrics in the quilt. Scrappy quilts take a lot longer to cut out, and if I limit the fabrics I can easily die cut all the pieces. I have a couple other quilting projects I want to finish in 2022, so by making the mystery quilt cutting faster, I stand a better chance. My fabric choices are these.

The teal on the far right will be my neutral. I'll be using the plum for Bonnie's orange, that orangey-red paisley as Bonnie's purple, and black instead of aqua. I have enough of all the fabrics to make the quilt full size, but I might make half the units instead. I haven't decided yet. I still haven't finished last years mystery quilt, which I actually divided and will be making two different quilts from. One of those is in rows, one of those I still need to make alternating blocks for. At least I remembered to write down my plans for all that, so when I get around to it, I won't be trying to figure out what I had in mind. The last couple mystery quilts I've made with men's shirts, and I certainly have enough shirts left to do this in men's shirts too, but using only four fabrics is a stretch for me, and as long as it's all from stash, I'm OK with trying it. Besides I used men's shirts for the Ruby Jubilee mystery, so it's fair to use yardage for this. I just love that plum-ish purple, and I couldn't do that color scrappy from stash, it's a hard color to find. I've been on a teal kick, this is the second full bolt of it I've bought. Maybe after using it as a background on the mystery quilt I'll be ready to move on to another color.