Christmas ornaments

I have 25 ornaments made and there are 2 more cut out and waiting next to my sewing machine.  These little 4.5" ornaments have been fun to make and they will be fun to give away as gifts.

All came from either the scrap bins or stash, including the batting inside them.  I did have to buy some ribbon for hangers because I didn't have any thin enough. 

President's blocks revealed

The blocks for the outgoing 2018-19 guild president were gifted to her at Saturday's Christmas Party/guild meeting.  I think she was pleased with receiving Christmas-themed blocks.  I've borrowed the photo of the blocks from Facebook because my picture didn't show off this many blocks. Aren't these stocking blocks cute? 

The outgoing 2018-19 officers were Evelyn, Gwen (president), Pam, me, and we were missing Alice. 

Our officers in guild serve from April to March each year. Gwen was our president for 2 full years, and received a set of blocks for her first year during the 2018 Christmas Party.  Those were churn dash blocks.  Another previous president who served for 2 years received "house" blocks the first year and then "tree" blocks the same size the next.  Thinking of other presidents, we've appliqued purses, cat, and coffee cups.  During our bi-annual quilt show we do a Bed Turning event to show off past president's quilts. It's a nice tradition.

These blocks are going onto Gwen's design wall right away as she seemed excited to get the quilt made.  What's on your design wall today?  https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Guild President's Blocks

Our guild Christmas Party and December meeting is tomorrow, and this box is all ready to take with me.  But I can't show you what's in the box quite yet. 

This box contains the President's blocks for the outgoing 2019 president, Gwen and I'm so excited for her to see them.  It's tradition to choose a design and members each make and sign a block for the outgoing leader.  Along with the blocks we've included a little extra of the background fabrics in case she needs any more for whatever layout she chooses.

I'll try to get some photos of the blocks tomorrow during the party because they are so CUTE!!

Oh Christmas Tree!!

The newest ornament on my Christmas tree is this adorable treadle machine.  My tradition every year is to give my kids and grand-kids a new ornament each year.  This year DD#1 gave me a new ornament too - this one!  It's so cute and has a tiny stocking under the needle.  I love it!

New spot for the Christmas tree this year - in the place where our piano has been for 13 years.  We gave the piano to daughter #1 family as she has kids interested in starting piano lessons. My mother bought the piano for our girls just before she died - in 1991.  And since neither my husband or I play it, we felt it was time to pass it along to be used again.  In our house it was just a nice piece of furniture to dust.  And now the Christmas tree fills in that corner very nicely. 

It's December already???

The snow outside reminds me that it's really winter and that we're already into December.  

I am VERY please with meeting the November goals. I felt like my sewing energy had returned. 

• Saturday Sampler blocks - DONE
• finish the paper-pieced Pineapple blocks - NO
• bind Sammy's Secret Garden quilt - 3/4 completed
• finish binding Reunion Signature quilt - DONE
• 3 more pillowcases for grand-kids for Christmas (2 are done so far) - all 5 DONE
• make 1 Sew Together bag (cocktail) - DONE
• choose another UFO project to work on and make some progress - NO
• more progress on organizing my projects - very little progress made

What else did I do this month?

• started and finished a Kim Diehl project - Apple Baskets mini quilt
• made 17 Christmas ornaments
• planned a couple more Quilts of Valor projects
• took a 2-day class on La Caribe (Hunter's Star variation)

So what are my December goals?  If it keeps snowing I might get LOTS of sewing time.  But I think we have enough snow already. 

• Saturday Sampler blocks
• make the November Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots mini quilt project
• finish binding Sammy's Secret Garden
• work on the paper-pieced Pineapple blocks
• sew La Caribe blocks into rows
• cut out parts for 2 new Quilts of Valor
• clean up and organize the drawer full of neutral fabrics (whites/beiges)

Design Wall Monday - La Caribe

My Design Wall is actually the family room floor for this project.  It's nice to be able to lay these out and then "live" with them for a few hours until I've determined that each block is exactly where I want it.  Then my numbered pins will come out and each row will be collected and identified for sewing.  I hope to get some of the rows together this week but we'll see if that happens. 

This is the layout for La Caribe - a variation of the Hunter's Star.  It's found in Deb Tucker's book Hidden Treasures and uses her Rapid Fire Hunter's Star ruler.  My variation used 8 colored fabrics plus a background. I chose Kaffe Fassett fabrics in hot pink, and a light grey background. I plan to purchase enough yardage of one of these pink prints to add a border. I think I have enough of the grey for a narrow inside border too.

What is on your Design Wall this morning?  https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Weathering the storm

I haven't left my house since getting home on Thanksgiving evening.  That was partly due to the weather, and partly due to just enjoying the hibernation.

Friday morning began with rain and some freezing rain, Saturday it turned into snow. And we awoke this morning to a winter wonderland.  We were actually on the edge of this system and everyone west of us got LOTS more snow than we did.

I spent lots of time sewing, got the Christmas Tree up, and did a little time baking, and spent lots of time listening/watching college basketball via the computer.  I should have taken a video of my husband, still not feeling very good, tucked into his recliner under a quilt - with a laptop and his phone plugged into a power strip so he could stream the Jackrabbit women's games in Cancun but listen to the radio announcer at the same time. All while a "shoot 'em up" movie played on the TV in the room.  I finally grabbed the remote and muted the movie as my brain was going into overload.  He ended up watching college basketball all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday!! A marathon - and now that he's feeling a little better he's getting the snowblower out to start clearing the driveway - before football starts at noon. 

Anyway - I have 17 ornaments all completed so far. I could do the binding and add the ribbon hangers while following the games.  There are still 3 cut out on my ironing board, but I may dig a little deeper and see what other Christmas-y scraps I have to make more.  

And this morning I began laying out the blocks for La Caribe.  This is a Deb Tucker pattern that uses her Rapid Fire Hunter's Star ruler and process.  Pink Kaffe Fassett fabrics and grey background make for a cheerful quilt.  A touch of spring this morning is OK with me. But the cat was unimpressed.  He finally moved since I was disturbing his napping space.