Happy New Year!

December was a blurr and January is fast approaching the same situation.  I hope all your holidays were cheery!  Mine were!  All my kids and grand kids were here.  It's always super fun to have everyone for the holidays but it does wear me out. 

I have not had much time for sewing but I did manage to get most of Ari's quilt top finished (first pix in my Dec. post)  and  about 80% quilted.   Enough,  so I was able to take it off the frame and display it on her bed when she arrived!! 

The inner and outer most borders turned out more complicated than I had planned but I think it was worth the effort.  Ari really liked it!

I had to kind of fudge on the corners.  I ended up hand sewing the

corner wedges and trimming them after to fit.  There not perfect but from a distance they're not bad. 😁😁

 

I had a lot of fun quilting it too.  Lots of different patterns.

After finishing the quilting there's just the binding.  Ugh, with a big quilt like that 87" square it'll take more than one evening in front of the TV to get it done.

I've been trying to keep with my NO Starting New Project , but we are away from home now so I indulged in bringing a packet of pre cut 4" hexies I bought on sale years ago.

I got the rows assembled only discover I had forgot to bring straight pins!  The rows are kinda wonky.  I didn't think I could sew them without pins so back into the basket to take home.

Of course I brought some back-up projects and I broke out a basket of Batik scraps. 

 My favorite idea of "Fun" sewing.  What's "Fun" sewing you ask?  To me that's something I can sew without worrying to much about whether everything is going to match, points meet, etc. etc. etc.  Sewing without stress!

What's your mode of "Fun" sewing?!

Last but not least...

New Years Day at my house...

My brother-in-law and his family (who live at the beach) have a New Year's Day tradition of jumping in the ocean (fyi it's 60 degrees) on new years day!  Brrrrrrrr!  But because the end of the Santa Cruz pier fell into the ocean recently,  leaving debris floating and washed up on all the local beaches, jumping in the ocean didn't seem like a very safe idea.  So I invited them to our house to jump into our 60 degree pool instead.  Of course the added bonus was once the ritual was complete they could quickly jump into the nice warm jacuzzi!

Here's the stop action:

Getting psyched to do the deed...

...and taking the plunge!

My kids and G-kids, My brother in  law's daughter and her family and a family friend.  10 people moreless jumping into the pool all at once...

And then quickly scrambling out of the pool and into the jacuzzi as fast as they could!

It was sure fun to watch!

And after I finished setting up the brunch table I jumped in too!

I tried to post the video but the video button didn't seem to work 

(or more likely I just didn't do it correctly) 😂

 I hope your New Year's are full of joy and wonder!

take care, cw

S

 

Happy December!

 November whizzed by.  I moreless kept to my diet of quilting more than sewing.  So I finished binding the 3 quilts I pictured in my last post.  Ignored the UFO's that I showed last post and quilted another of the tops that I showed.  Here 'tis all bound and ready to go!

Lots of fun fabrics in this one a real mis-mash of prints but I think it works?!

And since I felt like I was on a roll I quilted and bound this top .

I found this in the Guild Flea Market..  I thought it was really cool.  I always wonder why finished tops  like that get donated to The Flea Market.  So much work went into it and it looks great to me!   Hard to say.  I figured I'd finish it and donated to the Quilt Show Auction.

Now I am sewing again.  I want to get both my G-daughters new bed quilts done for xmas.  Sadies's is all bound and ready to go but Ari's is in pieces.  Here's what I've got so far...

It will probably change, who knows?!

Happy December!

take care, cw

Happy Halloween!

I bought this panel on impulse for a friend who is a real dog lover.  When ever she takes her dog on walks she brings a bag of dog treats.   Every dog they meet she gives a treat.  I thought this would make an appropriate porch decoration for her front deck!  

I'm trying to follow my own advise and get more tops quilted and done and spend less time picking new projects to sew.  It's not that I don't like quilting, it just takes more focus than sewing.  I have to be in a particular Mood.  

To that end  I managed to quilt three lap quilts last since my post so I'm feeling pretty happy about that!

These first two quilts are both basically made from four large blocks.  They were both flea market finds.  The one above was just a matter of trimming. them up and adding a border. 

The one below came with the star block and some extra fabric so I put the star block in the middle and arranged the four blocks around it.

I first posted about these two back in February (here ) So, turn around was less than a year.  That's pretty good for me!

Once again I forgot to take a pic of the finished product,on the lower one, but you get the idea..

This next one was a  'impulse start' in Sept.  but I finished the top in about 4 days and .quilted it this morning.  

I KNOW, it's a lot of Orange!  I'm trying to expand my personal palette.  I'm thinking about binding it in black to tone it down a bit?!

That's all for the 'almost finished' projects.

I've also been trying to screen my UFO's for things that just need  assembling or borders..

These three tops just needed borders and I got that done this month.

Well the one on the left is the orange quilt from above (is that considered double dipping?) The other two are ready for the quilt frame!

I've got stacks of blocks that need assembling.  But some are closer to getting done than others like these two:

These are more orphan blocks from the flea.

But what a pleasure to assemble these delightful blocks

These are pretty too but it's gonna take a little more work to figure out what to do with them.

Well like I said in my last post it always feel like two steps forward one back.  But it is an enjoyable way to pass the time!

Happy Halloween,

take care, cw