Christmas Gifts Finished!

Sorry, I've got no photos this post. I've been busy making the last of the Christmas gifts, and I can't show them right now. This is the first time in YEARS I've actually made everything I wanted to. Normally I end up running out of time and crossing stuff off my list. I'm pretty happy with getting it all done. Everything that needed to be mailed is also mailed, with the exception of some Christmas cards. 

Often I'm neck deep in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt this time of year as well, and although I'm following the mystery, I have no desire to do it this year. The reveal for the Greek murder mystery comes out next week, and with my Christmas gifts done, and not doing another mystery, I can get right into the assembling of that quilt top when the reveal does come out. 

I'm really appreciating having a slow finish to the year, instead of a mad dash in the sewing room. That doesn't mean we won't be plenty busy in other areas. Starting the last Sunday in December, we are hosting or co-hosting parties three weekends in a row, and none of those are a retirement party for DH! I'm kind of doubting we'll end up doing a retirement party, since he's retiring at such a busy time of year. He's also been working from home for about a year now, and that changes the work dynamics quite a bit. 

I started FMQ another quilt now that the quilted gifts are done. Piecing wise I'm working on some scrap blocks in an effort to empty a couple project boxes. I like to pre-cut my deadline quilts, and I have two in particular I want to get cut out. If I could get those two quilts cut out by the first of the year, that would be a huge win for me. 

This weekend I've got two of the grands, and one of them at least, will be getting his first sewing lesson. If that goes well, I might try one with his younger brother. I have two projects prepped and ready to go for them, so we'll see. It depends on how they are feeling too, since they've been sick this week.

Hopefully next week I'll have photos for you, maybe a quilt finish, or maybe just the Greek mystery quilt on the design wall. 

Finished in Time for the Holidays!

I've been promising DD#2 a Thanksgiving/Christmas hot pad to use on her kitchen island since she moved into her new house, three years ago. I had the Thanksgiving side done quickly enough, but I kept changing my mind on the Christmas side. I showed you each side in my last post, but that project is now completely finished, and will be used tomorrow, since she's hosting Thanksgiving. I had planned on using one layer of cotton batting and one layer of insulbrite, but the insulbrite wasn't quite wide enough, so I went with two layers of cotton batting instead. I guess I could have pieced the insulbrite, and I did piece the cotton batting, but I've never pieced insulbrite before, so I wasn't sure it it would compromise the final project. If you've pieced insulbrite, let me know how it went for you. 

I opted for a black and white gingham for the binding, as the center of the Thanksgiving has a bunch of black and white, and it went very well with the Christmas side. It was harder lining up the top and bottom than I expected it to be, and I ended up trimming the Christmas border smaller, but it doesn't need to be perfect to be used twice per year. I guess technically this is two pieced tops, and I usually don't count table toppers as quilt finishes, but being this is 46" square, I'm counting it as one quilt finish, which brings me up to 38 finishes for 2024. 

I made more progress on Christmas presents. I have a few smaller things that need binding, then they'll be done. I have two other things to make, one of which is started, the other isn't started at all, though all the supplies are gathered together. I'm hoping to knock out most of the binding on Friday, then work on the last two gifts until they are finished. 

Aside from Christmas sewing, I finished November's blocks for the Greek Murder Mystery quilt.

I don't remember what the designer said the final measurements are, but I'm wondering if it's going to be a medallion quilt with rounds of borders. The final layout comes out in December, so I don't have long to wait. As for who I think the murderer is, this year I have no idea. Last year with the Viking murder mystery, I had it figured out by August, but this year I'm still debating between three people. I'll put in a guess after I read the December chapter, but unless the next chapter has a big clue, I'll be seriously guessing. 

Viking Murder Mystery A.K.A. Finish #37

 Last year's Murder Mystery quilt is finished! Last year was a Viking mystery, and as we were making the ship parts it was pretty obvious there was going to be a ship on the quilt. I did not use the exact layout that was suggested, but it's close. 

This year the murder mystery is set in Greece, and although the layout comes out in December, I am pretty clueless as to how this years blocks will merge into a cohesive quilt. I've been working on Christmas presents, so I don't have the November units done yet, but I still have time! 

I'm going to be taking some time off of mystery quilts for a bit. I'm not doing this year's Bonnie Hunter Mystery, and I'm not doing the 2025 Murder at Machu Picchu quilt either. I'm sure I'll do other mystery quilts, I'm just ready for a break from them. 

The Viking quilt was finish #37 fo 2024, and my goal for the year was 40 quilt finishes. I've got just over five weeks left to finish three more. I don't usually count table toppers as a quilt finish, but since the huge hot pad I'm making DD#2 is the size of a baby quilt, I will count it as a finish. That is the next in queue for quilting, so after that is done, I need to finish two more quilts. I still have some Christmas projects that aren't quilts but do need quilting to finish, so we'll see how things go. I have two BIG quilts basted, one queen, one king, but who knows, I might just baste a couple smaller quilts so I can hit my goal of 40 finishes if I'm running out of December. 

I've been thinking about next years goals for a while now, and I do want to keep the UFO finishes going, but my main new starts will either be deadline quilts for gifts, or non quilting sewing projects. I have big plans, but how much of those are hard goals, and how much are just wishful thinking I haven't decided yet. Of course, even when I do decide, life may decide to get in the way and derail my plans anyway. 

So Much Done, So Much More to Do

 My Janome is back and sewing just fine. I've been FMQ on the Viking Murder Mystery quilt. I just finished quilting the center of the quilt this morning, so now it's just quilting around the outside edges left! There is still a lot of area left to quilt, but the major wrestling of the quilt is over.

I finished the last two grandkid Christmas gifts this week, so all the grands gifts are finished and wrapped. I still have adult gifts to finish, and a couple still to start, but progress is happening. 

I am sidetracking my Christmas projects a bit. I promised DD#2 a huge hot pad to put on her kitchen island, and and although she's lived in the house three years, I still haven't delivered. I want to make a double sided topper, with Thanksgiving on one side and Christmas on the other. I think I made the center of the Thanksgiving side two years ago, and I cut the borders but never sewed them on. I had several ideas for the Christmas side, but never pieced any of them, so the project just sat. DD#2 is hosting Thanksgiving this year, and with Thanksgiving being a little later, and me actually having Christmas well in hand, I decided no more procrastinating (or proCRAFTinating) on this. 

I sewed the border on the Thanksgiving side, and instead of any of the ideas I had been debating for the Christmas side, I opted to bust a couple charm packs I had in stash instead.

It's not fancy, but the charm packs had some really fun Christmas gnome fabrics, and decided to let the fabrics speak for themselves. Now I've just got to layer it, baste it and quilt it, and I've got some black and white gingham ready to bind it with, which I think will look good with both sides. My large hot pad I used two layers of wool batting on, on this one I'm going to use one layer of cotton batting with a layer of Insulbrite. I don't have enough wool batting scraps to do this one with wool, and although I think two layers of cotton batting would work just fine, I have some Insulbrite so I'll use it. The main goal is to be able to put this on any surface and cover it will hot serving dishes and not damage the surface of whatever it's on. I don't know about you, but before I made a huge hot pad, I was always running out of potholders to protect surfaces when hosting for a crowd. I usually ended up getting the last couple things out of the oven with towels, and then not having a safe place to put the last of the casserole dishes. Having one large hot pad that everything goes on works much better for me. The last couple times DD#2 hosted, she borrowed my hot pad, which is the wrong size for her needs. When I'm hosting, I set the food on top of the washer and dryer, which are in my kitchen. So my large hot pad is a huge rectangle. DD#2 has a kitchen island, and this big square will fit nicely to one side of her kitchen sink. With Thanksgiving falling late this year, I think I should be able to get it done with time to spare. This is not a surprise, so I can show it on the blog without a risk of a surprise being ruined. 

If any of you are sewing for Christmas, I hope you are making headway on your list too. it's a busy time of year for everyone! 

A Matter of Perspective

 Since my last blog post my Janome broke AGAIN! It's in the shop, but I can pick it up next week. Without my M7 no FMQ is happening right now. I could quilt on my Bernina with no problems, but I'm using the Bernina for making Christmas gifts and I don't want to keep switching projects on it. I'm waiting on a few items to finish up some Christmas gifts and those items have been delayed. I could be discouraged, but I'm not.  

That's the bad news, what's the good news? I've finished all but two of the grandkids gifts for Christmas. Aside from a few stocking stuffers, I am done Christmas shopping, and I've even got it all wrapped! I do have some gifts to make for adults, and although none of those are finished, I am making progress on those. 

Several of my adult kids are getting gift cards for Christmas. Two of my kids moved to new houses this year, and every time you buy a house, there's always some things you want to change. I figured gift cards to home improvement stores was the way to go for them. Another one of my kids is also getting a gift card. I don't mind giving gift cards, and often, I think gift cards or cash is the way to go. The thing is, I agree with all the gift card haters that it's impersonal. That's why I always try to give a small gift with a gift card, even their favorite candy bar can be a personal option. Since I'm trying to make a lot of the gifts both this year and next year, I'm trying to make some small gifts to go with the gift cards. 

I don't know about you, but I love watching YouTube videos about quick gifts to sew. There are SO many ideas out there, to help you come up with quick-to-make gifts! A lot of those gifts are smaller, so also require less fabric, and are easier to mail. A lot of wins in there! I also know that where a YouTuber may be using yardage for a project, that doesn't mean a quilter can't used pieced fabric instead. That right there is why I've been having such a fun time this week, when I could have been discouraged. 

I'm really bad about not counting units when I cut out a quilt. I'm rarely cutting it close on fabric, so I don't have to worry about running out of fabric, and I always find ways to use up the extras. Since my FMQ and working on grandkids gifts are on pause, I've been taking the time to look around and find leftovers from some quilts that have been hanging around. Can I work these leftovers into gifts for the adults I need something personal for? Why, yes I can!

I don't want to show too much of the Christmas projects before Christmas, but I can show you one thing I made from leftovers. I grabbed the leftovers from one quilt, and I started laying out the extra units into a table runner, then I realized, I had enough units left to make a baby quilt.  I will need at least one baby quilt next year, and depending on gender, this could be used for that, but I was really happy with how the quilt top came out.

I know that's a pretty wide border, I wanted to get the quilt to 48" square. Once I quilt it with something fun, it will look just fine. The yellow and gold four patches as well as the sunflower fabric, was leftover from a larger quilt. I did have to cut some cream on cream fabric from yardage, and it doesn't match the cream on cream on the four patches. That's one of the reasons I love using tone on tone fabrics, you can usually get away with substitutions without it being obvious. The border fabric is leftover wideback from backing a quilt in my last basting spree, so it was scraps too. Was this the rest of the leftovers? Not quite, I had enough left to make one Christmas gift, with only a couple four patches left. The sunflower fabric is completely gone! 

Another thing I'm sewing up in bulk right now is bonus HST's. I'm a big fan of double sewing when making sew and flip corners, and using all of those bonus HST's in other projects. I had a ridiculous number of bonus HST's around. Yes, they were all neatly stored in containers, and not strewn about everywhere, but how much better would it be if they were sewn into gifts instead of stored in containers??? I use HST's a LOT! I have lots of blocks I like to make with them. I've made sampler quilts with bonus HST's and each block is different I've made one block quilts with blocks set side to side but secondary patterns appear. I've made matching blocks with sashing, I've made pieced borders from bonus HST's, anything you can do with an HST, you can make with a bonus HST, it will just come out smaller than the original. It's all GOOD!

I get in moods to make specific blocks, and right now I'm making lots of nine patches out of bonus HST's. I tend to use bonus HST's in 16 patches, because there are more options for block designs with a 16 patch, but right now I'm into nine patches. Most of the bonus HST's I'm sewing up finish at 1.25", but I'm also sewing up some that finish at 2". The 2" HST's will likely result in a quilt, but the small ones are perfect for smaller gifts. I'm going to keep sewing up these nine patches, then when I'm out of bonus HST's in the colorways I'm trying to bust, I'll figure out which project they'll be used for. I've got enough of some of these I can make a couple projects from them, even if they are tiny. 

Yesterday, I went to a quilt show with my sister, and neither of us bought a thing! I had a list of things I was looking for, and they didn't have any of the patterns I wanted or the thread I was looking for. I didn't let myself do more than glance at the fabric, I have enough fabric, and I don't need anything for a current project. I did try out the Little Rebel machine from Grace. If my Janome keeps acting up, that's the machine that perks my interest most. I'd rather just stick with what I've got, I do like my M7, but having it break twice in six months was discouraging. Of course, it sewed for four years with nary a hiccup so I guess it was due.

When we went out to lunch after the show, I told her that I feel like I've been on a sewing vacation this week. I've been sewing a lot, but without my FMQ the first hour of the day, and then having to wait on supplies for the remaining grandkid gifts, I was really just playing in my sewing room. Sure, I got two quilt tops finished this week, and they are hanging in the quilt closet (sorry, I forgot to take a photo of the other one) , and technically I was still working on Christmas gifts, but I was playing with leftover units, and that really gives me the creative fix I've been needing.

More good news! The sewing machine shop just called, my M7 is done early, and I can pick it up today! They didn't change me any labor since it was just in the shop, and the part it needed was only $32! I can handle that!