I managed to get all the blocks into the quilt top, in a way that satisfied me. I didn't add the suggested border for a couple of reasons. The quilt is a good twin size as it is, and I didn't need it any bigger. Also, the past couple of years I've gotten to the point where I only add a border if I think the border adds something to the design, and another border added nothing to the quilt in my opinion. I had run out of the background blue, but I had a blue in stash that was likely the same color but a different dye lot. It is VERY close in color, but not quite the same. It was close enough for me, and the color difference actually shows more in this photo than it does in person. I've really had a fun time doing this quilt, the online community is fantastic, and watching the way different people are imagining the layout is very fun. I don't have anyone clamoring for this quilt, so it can wait to get quilted. It is already hanging in the quilt closet.
Next year is Murder in Greece, and I'm planning to pull fabrics for that this afternoon. If you'd like to join in here's the link. I'm still not sure if I guessed correctly on who the murderer was, as we get the last chapter of the book on January 1st. The first block and chapter for Murder in Greece come out January 10th.
Now that the Viking quilt is off the design wall, I had a chance to lay out one of the baby quilts I'm making.
This quilt is made out my second sister's clothes, and the solid blue is actually one of her curtains. She passed away five years ago, and this is for her first grandchild. I'm sure she would have spoiled that baby rotten had she still been around to do so. All of the shirts the clothes are from are cotton knits, so I had to add some fusible to make them easier to work with. When I'm working with clothes that are woven cotton, I'll make any pattern, but when working with knits I try to keep it pretty simple. Now that I've got this laid out, I hope to get it assembled while working on clue 6 of the Indigo Way Mystery that comes out tomorrow. I consider this quilt from my sister, so I'm still making the baby a quilt from me. I've got all the blocks done for it, and hope to get it on the design wall this weekend. That baby will be here before I know it, so these two baby quilts need to be my first finishes of 2024.
Christmas Day was pretty quiet around here. My main gift from DH isn't made yet. I want a wall mounted quilt rack in my living room. I want it at least three layers high, and wide enough to fit 2-3 folded quilts side by side. Why such a large quilt rack? I donate a LOT of quilts, but I usually only turn the quilts in once per year. In the meantime they sit in a closet. I decided if I had a big quilt rack on the wall in the living room that's currently empty, I could actually enjoy the quilts I made before they get donated. I have a freestanding quilt rack in the living room that has the throw quilts we use all the time. The grands will have them all out and everyone has a quilt. That will remain the same. This big quilt rack is just to give me some time to see what I've finished lately. DH agreed to make the quilt rack a couple months ago, but between the scooter rally and getting the next issue of his magazine out he hasn't had time. I knew it would be late when I asked him for it.
Since I knew I wouldn't have my real Christmas present in time for Christmas, I did something kind of funny. While checking out Black Friday sales in November, I went to one of my favorite sources for jelly rolls. They had jelly rolls on sale like I figured they would, but they also had a freebie going on at the time. The were giving away 15 fat quarters for each jelly roll you purchased! I really enjoy making jelly roll quilts for a quick project without any matching to do, and every quilter knows there is an abundance of jelly roll patterns out there. I chose 4 jelly rolls, which gave me 60 free fat quarters. On Cyber Monday, they had a batik freebie going, and for each batik jelly roll you purchased, you got 10 free batik fat quarters. I ordered two more jelly rolls, so I had 20 batik fat quarters coming. When the packages arrived, I told DH to open them, and only give me the jelly rolls. I chose those myself, so no surprises there. I had him keep all the fat quarters to give me for Christmas. Yes, I knew what I was getting, but I didn't know what the fat quarters looked like so it was still a surprise. So what does 80 fat quarters look like?
The 20 batik fat quarters are on the left, then the others are in the other two piles. I only had one duplicate. BUT, there are actually 85 fat quarters in those piles, because DH went to the quilt shop, and picked me up five fat quarters he chose, along with some more quilting clips, larger ones than the ones I had. I am one spoiled quilter! Fat quarters are easily my favorite pre-cut. I've cut out so many quilts lately, I easily put these fat quarters away, with room to spare in my fat quarter drawers. I've probably cut up about 200 fat quarters in the last couple of months! jellyrollfabric.net has other freebie events during the year, but even if they don't have a freebie event going, their prices on jelly rolls are very good, and worth a look if you are shopping for jelly rolls.
I hope all of you had a fun holiday season, and if you do something to celebrate the new year, I hope that goes well for you too! We have never been big on New Year's celebrations, and the only reason we're ever awake at midnight is if the neighbors blow off a bunch of fireworks in their celebrating. We're up at 4 AM for DH to get ready for work, so staying up until midnight is not likely.
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