'Tis the Season.....

..... to be getting ready for the Season ..... and, yes, I mean that Season - Christmas!

Needle, Thread, Happiness is hosting a Christmas Quiltalong that I believe is just what the doctor ordered to get me moving on my Christmas UFO's.

I've seen so many blogs, websites, and even shops in my area that are doing "Christmas in July" to get us kick-started on our Christmas planning.  But what about after July?  My problem is that I may start a Christmas project in July, but come December, it's still not done!!!  Anybody with me here?  Yep, I know you are!  I have been reading your posts, remember? *wink!*

Every year as I'm decorating for Christmas, I think of all the Christmas quilt projects I have in process and bemoan the fact that they are not DONE and decorating my house.  And there are so many others that I would love to make, but I dare not start another until some of the UFO's are done!

So this year, I have decided to put a plan in action to get at least a couple of these wonderful Christmasy projects out of the sewing room and into my family rooms.  You've heard the old saying, "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!"  Well, that's how I'm going to handle this dilemma.  I'll assign a Christmas UFO to each of the remaining months in 2013 and do my best to get that UFO completed in that month.  If I just devote some time to a Christmas project one day a week, I should at least be able to put a dent in that UFO list, right?  I'll link up with the Christmas QAL on the second weekend of each month.

Here's my Top 5 Christmas UFO's list -

1.     Midnight Runner
This is all ready to quilt and add a little embellishment

2.    Jovial
Participated in a swap with friends - all the pieces cut and ready to sew up!

3.    "A Yenter Christmas" Tree Skirt
This one is still just a pattern and fabric in a box!  It needs a lot of work yet!
Go HERE to see my post about this and see the pattern picture.

4.     "The First Tree of Life" Mystery Sampler
All sandwiched and ready to quilt - has been for over a year now!!!

5.     Sandwich and quilt Dancing Trees
Go HERE to see my post about how much FUN making Twister quilts can be!!!

This month, I'm working on Midnight Runner.  I really need to brush up on my FMQ before I start quilting Moonglow, so this is the perfect project for me to practice with :*)  I'm planning to use some shiny, sparkly threads to give it that special Christmas BLING!!!

I know just the place for it to hang in my Living Room over the archway, and I'm excited that I may actually get to enjoy it there this coming Christmas!  This project was a kit that was gifted to me by a very dear friend, so it will really mean a lot to me to have it done =^..^=

Visit HERE to see the wonderful Christmas projects in the Christmas QAL....

There's even a fun Challenge for those of you who love that kind of thing....

HO! HO! HO!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

What Will it Be?

Have you been joining in the fun of the NewFO Challenge over at Cat Patches?

I love this challenge because it gives me the freedom to start new things without guilt!  Yep, I love being guilt free!  So what did I start this month?

Well, I started (and finished) my niece’s graduation quilt, Raney Days & Mondays….

And I also had a blast starting my Twister Trees projects, which are completely pieced but not yet quilted…..

Now I’m trying to decide what to start in September for the Challenge, and it’s really hard to decide because there are a couple of quilts calling my name!

Let's see....Will it be Hawaiian Sunset? 

I just love the colors in this quilt, but I’m not sure I want to start on something so piecing intensive right now.  SoScrappy - who is NOT starting hers yet – sure is tempting me!  She’s already stitched up a block – just to make sure she’ll enjoy working on it of course.  But she’s not starting a new project yet… she’s really not … *wink*  And Jo over at Jo’s Country Junction has started working on hers too, and is inviting us all to join her.   What an enabler!!!! =^..^=

Or maybe I’ll start this….

Oh my gosh!!!  Have you seen these Butterflies by Debra Gabel?  

My fingers are itching to start this quilt!!!  I think it would be great fun to stitch with a group – maybe we could have a quilt-a-long?!?  Oh yeah – that would be FUN!!!  If you're interested let me know.... I’m ordering the patterns, but not sure if I should start it just yet….  Hmmmm….

And then again, I may just start something small and sweet, like the September Calendar Quilt…..although I have to say this is not one of my favorites of her quilts and I may skip this month and just try to finish up the August quilt instead (which I like much better) :*)

Oh dear, I just can’t decide!  I’ll be plenty busy this month working on my Dots on Dots blocks. But I’m taking a week off to go on to Runaway Quilters Retreat too, so plenty of sewing time there – yippee!!!!

Are you thinking of starting something new in the coming month?   Join the NewFO Challenge fun and share it with us at Cat Patches!

Linking up with ......

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

Piecing with a Twist!

Finally!  

As promised, here are pictures of my finished "Twister" Tree top ..... 

37" by 42-1/2"

....and its own little Mini-me!

11-1/2" by 13-1/2"

Here they are together so you can get an idea of the truly tiny size of this little Mini-me tree quilt =^..^=

What a fun way to learn how to use the Twister Tool!!!

Our Guild sponsored the class which was taught by one of my most very favorite people, Miss Starr Howell.  Here we are, all of us working like little bees....

We started with squares like this...

and then we used the Twister Tool to cut out "twisted" squares, like so...

We had to be very careful to turn them all exactly the same direction and keep them in the exact order.  Starr advised us to lay them in order on a 6x24" ruler as we cut each row, which helped considerably!  

Then we were able to just take the ruler to the sewing machine and sew the rows together without getting confused.  Easy peasy!  One note here - we had to be careful because cutting them "twisted" like this meant the edges became bias edges!  But even so, they went together pretty easy and quickly.

When I sewed all of the "twisted" squares back together, I ended up with this...

How cute is that????

Here is a closeup of the way my scrappy backgrounds came together to make it look like snowflakes ... I love it!!!

And this is the border fabric I finally chose to go with.  You can't tell these true colors on the full quilt picture.  It was a challenge to get those large elements to work, but I was happy with the result.

Of course, we only had time enough to work on our large trees in class.  But for those of us who wanted to make tiny trees too, Starr gave us excellent instructions on how to be oh-so-careful to not cut too far into the surrounding fabric.  She advised us to cut "close" to the ends and then use a pair of scissors to cut the final little bit.

When I was done cutting out all the large squares, I had this sweet little pile of squares left over......=^..^=

When I got around to cutting these down into 2-1/2" squares, I saw why it had been so important to take such care.  In some cases, I barely shaved off some threads to get the square...

Because these little squares ended up on the bias, they were a real challenge to sew together and then cut with the 1-1/2" Twister Tool.  I thought I had taken a few pictures of that, but it doesn't seem as though I did.  I actually had to block it to size before I put the borders on because it wanted to lay pretty wonky :*)  Here you can see all the seams on the back of it...

 It feels heavy and dense like a quilt even before it's quilted!  

I hope my adventures in Twisting have inspired you to grab the tool and begin playing with your own Twisty quilts!  I will leave you with some pictures of some of the other Twister quilts Miss Starr has made which she shared with us the day of class.  I really want to make these too!!! 

So go out there and GET TWISTIN' !!!

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=