We had a great Christmas but not the celebration we thought we were having. Christmas Eve day our son called to tell us his wife had come down with Covid. He wasn't feeling all that great and also worried about the kids. But the gist of the conversation was they couldn't host Christmas for us or his in-laws. We all enjoy the opportunity to catch up with everyone while having room for the 17 of us to fit in the house or play in the yard. Bummer. Our daughter and her husband came up with a meal at their house really fast. (Hum, what does it say about me when I'm concerned about the meal?) We were trying to figure out if a 6 lb. turkey breast would feed 7. They came up with a meal before we could figure that out!
I thought I'd share some of the presents I made and ones I received after I do the normal goals post. As you can see below I did pretty well on the goals.
12/18/23
✅Sing at Mall and a private gig — done until mid January
Quilt a small quilt — the back is loaded ... but no sewing done
✅Wrap presents — finished with a day to spare!
✅Attend guild dinner — Had a wonderful time — so much fun
✅Make more placemats — turned in 6!
✅Wash, dry and fold some more fabric — 3 of 4 boxes done and returned, 1 to go
The gals who plan our quilt guild holiday party go all out. It was a beautiful scene and we had a lot of fun.
So far this week I have been taking things easy. I did think about skipping goals but decided to go ahead and make a list. I may not get them done but that's ok.
12/26/23
Quilt a small quilt or two
Clean up several horizontal surfaces in studio
Pick something fun and easy and make a quilt top
Finish Dec. Clue for Malted Mystery
Relax, read, and have fun
Since some of the Christmas presents I made have been given away I'm including photos of two of my grands in their presents. Remember the goals to embroider two sweatshirts? Several months ago Urban Threads had a sale on some designs just right for sweatshirts. I sent emails to both grands and asked them to pick the design they would like. Sophie, the oldest, picked out several and asked me to surprise them. Argh! How to make that decision as they were very different. I finally chose the first one listed. And, luckily they really liked it -- thought it was cool. (I liked it because it had only 4 thread colors and only 4 thread changes. Yipee!)
Natalie chose one after some prodding from her mom. And, evidently totally forgot about it. (She mentioned that to me Christmas Day which was nice that it was a surprise.) Unfortunately I bought the wrong size sweatshirt and didn't realize it until after I'd embroidered it. That went to my good friend's granddaughter who was tickled to get it. This design used 8 colors and 11 color changes. What was neat about both of them is I didn't have to buy any threads -- I used what I have.
It's been quite a while since I last did any embroidery. There was a learning curve to remember (or look up) how to do things but I think there might be some more embroidering in my future.
Hubby got me two great Christmas presents. One was a new sweatshirt. I relate to this pile of books. Needless to say it hit the wash and I started wearing it right away.
My other present hubby made for me after I sent him the idea. Have you been using wooden blocks to help make your blocks/seams lie flatter? I had the opportunity to use some at two of the retreats this year and decided I liked the bigger size rather than smaller ones. I heard a lot of cutting, sanding and such from his workshop but didn't know what he was working on although I was hoping. I was really happy to see this 10" block. If you don't know about using wood blocks they started out in tailoring as clampers. Someone decided it might work well to make quilt seams lie flat and they were right. I always use steam with my iron as it doesn't seem to do well without it. Now I steam my units and/or my finished block and pop this wood block on it. It seems to pull out the heat and moisture leaving a very flat seam.
I used this while working on some Happy Blocks and some of the blocks for Malted Mystery. I was very happy with the results. I chose a 10" block because I have the 9" (fin) Accuquilt Cube so I tend to make a lot of 9.5" unfinished blocks.
Part of what's left of this week I need to decide on which UFOs I'll put on the APQ 2024 challenge. I might also list the quilts and other items I've finished this year. I have decided I'm going back to keeping fabric usage and purchases again. I've done it for many years and for some reason decided I didn't want to this year. I wish I had so I'm going back to keeping that info. I'm not sure what new projects I'll start but might I admit to having a dresser drawer full of fabric and some patterns I pulled to use together. I need to stop pulling and start using that fabric. I keep planning quilts but haven't work on new ones since before October. I also plan to participate in the 15 minutes of sewing every day at Life in Pieces. Although I do tend to sew every day, I am going to include time spent cutting fabrics, or cleaning up the cutting table and the like. It all goes into the mix and counts toward sewing time.
That's enough for today. Here's some different blogs that I'll be linking with.
Im hoping to spend some time surfing the Internet. I really don't need more ideas, but it is fun to see what is going on with quilters around the world.
Happy Quilting All! Bonnie
