End of Year Wrap-up

Did you have a Merry Christmas? Ours was lovely. We spent Christmas Eve at home, just the two of us, noshing on a simple charcuterie platter.

Our simple but healthy Christmas Eve “feast”

On Christmas Day we went to my son Ryan and daughter-in-law Kim’s house. Both my sons were there, but my daughter and her boyfriend live in Washington so they weren’t able to attend. Kim’s family, minus one sibling and family were there too. This year, even my ex-husband Scott and his wife Cally joined in. It was a very pleasant evening, with lots of good food, good company and gift exchanging. There were 20 of us all together. 

Last Saturday I decided to spend the day basting quilts. For the first time, I spread everything out on our huge kitchen island to pin baste. I also brought out my ironing board to iron things as I went along. While listening to a Christmas music channel, I spent the afternoon basting six quilts. What a game changer the island is! It’s 53” wide and 80-some inches long, so it was plenty large to accommodate the quilts. And its counter height made pinning things easy without having to bend over. It was such a delightful afternoon! 

Rather than show every basted quilt in an individual photo, I made a collage.

And of those six, I got two of them finished, plus one I had already basted the previous week. First up is my Scrappy Stars quilt, a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for this year. It finished at 47x59”.

Here’s the backing. It’s already been labeled to donate to Quilts for Kids. 

Next up was this scrappy column quilt at 39x50”. 

And finally, this Community Quilt, one of 5 that I have basted and would love to have quilted and bound for our mid-January Quilts for Kids workshop. This “Community Quilt” was made by quilters in Iowa and sent as a top for me to quilt and donate. I’ve had it (and four of its brethren from the above collage picture) for over a year and feel a pressing need to get these finished and finally donated. 

This is a small quilt, measuring only 33.5x41”.

I’ve got a few more days before year end, so I’m hoping to get them all done and into my meager count of finished quilts for 2024. I’ll report back next week with my final total, or you can check my 2024-2025 Quilts page (the tab is just under the blog header). 

My Bernina is in the shop for her annual “spa treatment”, so any quilting I do will be on my Brother back-up machine. That means it’ll have to be straight-line or serpentine stitching with a walking foot. But that’s OK. Yesterday afternoon I used the Brother to stitch up the year’s batting scraps into four large and one small Frankenbatt, and he did not let me down!

Have a nice and safe New Year’s Eve and Day. We’ll see you back here in January!!

Ready for Christmas and 2025

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, the shopping and wrapping and baking are all done. I even spent yesterday afternoon walking around delivering gifts (mostly homemade biscotti) to  friends around our HOA community. It was a beautiful afternoon and it felt so good to be outdoors!

I was able to finish up three quilts this week from tops I had sewn earlier in the year. This first one was sewn (well, the top was) way back in January when our Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month was green. Here it is, eleven months later, finally a finish! Yep, moving and remodeling sure messed up my sewing rhythm. But it’s done before the end of the year!

I quilted it in a simple stipple and it finished at 42x48”. The backing is an adorable woodland print I picked up at Hancock’s of Paducah online a couple years ago. They have such great prices and selections - check out their $4.99 and $5.99 sale fabrics!

Then I quilted this pink and white string top sewn in May. Same size - 42x48”, stipple quilted. 

For the backing I used most of the last of this adorable cherry blossom print I picked up at an estate sale several years ago. 

And then it was this bright checkerboard kids quilt I sewed in October or November. I just cross-hatched it. The backing is a really old print that I hate and am glad to be rid of. 

All three of these little quilts will be going to Quilts for Kids in January. 

I have two more that I want to quilt between now and Christmas. my Bernina goes in for her annual “spa treatment” the day after Christmas. For the week or so that it will be away from home, I’ll use my backup Brother machine and do my annual Frankenbatting marathon - sewing together the strips and large chunks of batting I’ve accumulated during the year to make useable batts. I’m also hoping to baste about 5-8 tops that have been donated to me over the last year (for Quilts for Kids) so I can just quilt them as the opportunity arises. Those little activities will help clear out some of the piles around my sewing room and make way for me to hit the ground running in January!

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Here’s a random picture, of no particular significance other than I wanted to show that I finally got pictures hung on the wall of our little den area off the kitchen/dining. I never did find anything I liked to use as the coffee table holiday centerpiece. So I’ll just wait until the holiday decorations are put away and figure something out then. 

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So, I mentioned that I baked biscotti this year. After two half days and one almost-full day of baking, I completed 8 batches of biscotti, two batches of four different flavors.

Top: Vanilla Cinnamon with icing and sprinkles
Bottom: Classic Almond

Top: Lemon with Lemon Drizzle
Bottom: Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Walnut

And, all together: 

I’ll be taking lots to our family Christmas gathering at my son and daughter-in-law’s house on Christmas Day. 

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I have my 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks and scrap projects figured out for 2025. I had hoped to make myself a Halloween quilt this year, but other priorities popped up. I only decorate for fall, not for Halloween. Fall decorations go up in September and come down after Thanksgiving. Also, I have several fall quilts, but have never made a Halloween quilt. So that will be happening in 2025. I have a great haunted house panel that I bought at Missouri Star Quilt Co. about 3 years ago. I’ll surround the panel with 12” blocks - 16 of them. My plan is to sew 2 Halloween blocks per month. I have picked out the block patterns I want to use, including bats in all four corners. That will take me through August to finish the blocks. Then I can use September to sew it all together, quilt and bind it, and I’ll have a Halloween quilt by October!

And then - and I’m really impressed with myself (buffs nails on shoulder) - I even kitted up two of the blocks so I’m ready for January’s sewing!

And finally, here are the blocks I’ve settled on for my 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge monthly blocks.

These are pictures I saved from the internet. I can tell you that our dear friend Cathy L (Sane and Crazy Blog) is the inspiring quilter from whom I am flagrantly copying the flying geese with black background (left bottom in photo above) and the “switchplate” blocks using 1.5” scraps (top left). 

The bottom right block is the classic Weatherpane Block, and the top right one I pinned on Pinterest (no source info available). I call it Paint Chips, and it will use up some of my 2.5” squares.

So, with those four blocks I’ve chosen, I can make dents in 1.5”, 2.5”, and 4+” size scraps, as well as miscellaneous black pieces for the flying geese and miscellaneous light neutrals for the Switchplates and Paint Chips.  Win win!

Have a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah (my daughter and family celebrate both). Be safe and may you spend the holidays with the ones you love.

‘Tis the Season to be Jolly

….. and I’m trying to fake it until I make it! Some sunshine would go a long way towards being jolly, and so would a little self control when it comes to chocolate. But this too shall pass, so I’m rolling with it and keeping busy. 

All in all, it was a fun and productive week. I’m just going to talk about all the things in the order that Blogger deigns to upload my photos, so let’s buckle up!

What a shock, I do believe they maintained their chronological order!

Last week, I may have mentioned that several of us women in the condo community decorated the clubhouse. I didn’t take pictures at the time, but on Monday morning of this week I was back there for a quick HOA Board meeting for us to decide the new responsibilities of each board member. (I’m going to be the Treasurer). Anyway, here are some photos I snapped of the clubhouse decor so we have references of what-goes-where for future years. 

Clubhouse fireplace and mantel

Christmas Tree and reflection of Karen and Carol working on hanging more decorations 

Side table in conference area

On Monday and Tuesday, I sewed more zipper pouches, adding six instead of just five to the total. 

Here are all thirteen that I made this year. 

One evening my Weight Watcher friends and I got together for our monthly card game (Hand and Foot). We try to make our December meeting a light potluck and inexpensive gift exchange. This year, my contribution to the buffet was this fruity Christmas tree. I snapped a photo of it in my kitchen before I wrapped it and carted it off just in case it didn’t survive the ten minute car trip (but it did). 

And here are Ruby, Annette and Ellie at the buffet at our friend Lory’s house. Not shown: Lory, Lisa, Linda and Shauna. We all had fun, and that’s where a lot of the zip pouches were given, each person choosing their favorite. In return, I got hand soaps, a Christmas mug, socks, an amaryllis bulb, and more. 

Later in the week, I spent an afternoon basting kid quilt tops to their backings. Some are more recent quilt top finishes, but one dates back to the beginning of the year before we moved from the house to the condo. I really want to get them finished before year end. 

A green scrappy top from January

Recently finished Bright Blocks

An RSC2024 scrappy quilt top finished in November

Pink and light neutral string top constructed in May

My plan is to focus on quilting up those four tops ASAP. I don’t have any parties or gatherings after Monday next week, so my hope is to get them done, labeled and photographed to show here on the blog next week.

There was one quilty finish this week for my friend Maureen. This panel quilt finished at 27.5x34”. I quilted it in wavy lines for a watery effect. Maureen loves cranes, the color green, and Japanese art in general. 

It can be used as a table topper or wall hanging (I added hanging tabs on back). I will also be giving her a matching zipper pouch filled with biscotti. That’s the biscotti I plan to start baking this afternoon after we get home from the Community Christmas Brunch at the clubhouse. I was going to make another fruity Christmas tree to take to the Brunch, but it will be a hastily-assembled fruit salad in a bowl instead. 

Have a fun and festive week as we head toward Christmas! May you enjoy every moment of it!

Linking to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

Working as An Elf for Santa

I wonder how many of the women who read this blog are the primary “Santa’s Helper” for Holiday merrymaking in their family? I used to love to do it all; decorating, shopping, baking, wrapping, sewing, writing cards or the “annual letter” - and all while being married (hubbies can be work too, amiright?), raising three kids and holding down a full-time job. I bet many of you did, too. Were we wonder women or something?

For Bruce and me, our respective first marriages failed, and together we blended the last of the unfledged teens into a new family. In time, they too fledged and we were empty nesters. It was easier and simpler as the years passed to downsize the tree, decorate minimally, and hand out cash and gift cards at Christmas to our kids and ever growing list of grandkids. And forget the baking, cooking and sewing! 

But we’re changing things this year. It’s been an expensive year with the move from the old house to the condo, and the subsequent remodeling and furniture purchases, etc.. Bruce and I both agreed that it’s now the time and season -literally and figuratively - to slow down, be more deliberate and enjoy the spirit of Christmas. This December, we’ve reached our stop on the Big Spending Train and we’re getting off. 

We started by cutting our gift budget to about 1/3 our usual amount and informed our adult kids. Surprisingly, or maybe not-so-surprisingly since we tried to raise good humans, they were beyond cool with it. One asked me to bake biscotti, another one requested a quilt (done!) and another one wanted some old family pictures and such. 

And so that’s the theme of this post. I’ve been working as a secret elf for Santa! 

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In the Sewing Department of our Santa’s workshop, Elf Cathy finished sewing together this quilt top of bright scraps:

The size is 40.5” x 50.5”, and the top has been put on the Sewing Department Schedule to be basted for quilting next week. The eventual quilt will be donated to Quilts for Kids. 

Next, the assignment was to complete between 10-12 quilted zipper bags for gifting over the next couple weeks. Elf Cathy was able to completely finish seven of them the first week. They’re all box-bottomed and of varying sizes. Shown below on their sides, not the most flattering view. 

The remaining five zipper bags are all cut out - fabric, fleece, lining and tabs, and ready to be assembled next week. 

As for the Cooking Department, the elves have worked out a four-variety selection of biscotti, a modest ingredient shopping list, and a timeline. And already a whole turkey sits in the freezer, waiting for its turn to shine golden brown. (Oooh, I’m making myself hungry!)

The Decorating Department sent an elf to help the North Pole Homeowners Association decorate their clubhouse. As a reward, an old wreath with jingle bells that was being thrown out was brought home by said elf to be used on their front door. 

The seasonal merriment has just begun here, and life is good! How are your elves faring?

Linking to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Goodbye November!

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate)? Ours was lovely, although there was one cooking fail on my part. But no matter - it’s not worth bothering about until next year when I vow to review the recipe before starting! (Facepalm). We had our lovely friend Maureen over for the day. She lost her husband two years ago on Thanksgiving and was grateful to have a place to come and eat and visit with friends. We had a lovely afternoon and evening.

My friend Ruby was back for a week (between trips) and offered to be my quilt holder-upper for the photos of It’s a Jungle Out There. Unfortunately, it was late afternoon when we remembered, so the courtyard was in shadow and the pictures are mediocre and don’t really show off the vibrant colors. But you’ll get the idea. 

I had a doctor appointment this week to get cortisone shots in my knees (the cold is killer on them) To say that my doctor was excited was excited to receive the quilt was an understatement. Dr. Doug (as I call him) has been my doctor - and he delivered my daughter Megan - since I moved to Utah in 1983. That’s over 40 years of marriages, raising families, health issues (mine and his), trips and pictures from around the world - particularly Africa for both of us - comparing vegetable gardening tips, and we have the same political beliefs and proclivity to throw in some colorful language now and then…. Well, it’s been a great run. 

He loved the bright colors and the African fabrics. He thought is was so clever to “disappear” the tiger motif to assure it was an African jungle, not a generic jungle. Dr. Doug was leaving right after my appointment to spend time down in his St. George condo (3.5 hours south of here) with his family. He was taking the quilt there because it’ll match their bright decor. He must’ve hugged me at least three times! So very appreciative. We both teared up! THIS is one of the reasons we quilt, isn’t it? Spreading joy. 

The backing is pieced, and doesn’t show off very well. The purple mottled effect in the backing’s companion fabric is much more pronounced in this stark photo than in real life. The quilt finished at 61x77”. 

I also finished sewing together this Color Sticks top this week. I’ll send it off to Cynthia Brunz for her Many Hands, Many Hearts charity, since the pattern was hers and I do want to contribute. The top finished at approximately 45x63”.  It’s shown here sideways (as if you couldn’t tell) on the design board. 

On Friday, yesterday, I spent the day “Decking the Halls”. We packed up all the fall decor and dragged in the Christmas and winter decoration totes from the garage. I’m so glad we had weeded our collection of  Christmas things down last year in the old house. We kept just what we loved. Late in the afternoon I did run out to a local home decor store that was having a 20% off sale on Christmas decor for the last two days of November. I picked up some new things to fit the condo. I still have more decorating to do, like going to a garden center to get a fresh wreath for the front door, but that will happen today or Tuesday. The priority today will be going to the grocery store.

I’ll leave you with a picture of little Darla, snuggling on Mommy’s lap one night last week. She didn’t even mind the hot pink iPad cover she had to share my lap with!

Have a good week and stay warm and treat yourself well. The rush to Christmas has begun.  I’m linking up with Scrappy Saturday

Another Scrap Quilt Finish

Last week I said this wouldn’t be a good sewing week, and I was right. I did get some sewing in, but I’ve spent a lot of time with the HOA Board at our monthly meeting, and then the planning and physical set-up at the clubhouse for our annual meeting. The meeting starts at ten this morning, and I’m in a bit of a frenzy. But everything is planned, checked and double-checked. Regardless, I’ll probably only begin to relax once it’s in the rear view mirror. 

As for quilting, I finished up the scrappy youth-sized quilt (52x60”) that I started at the last Quilts for Kids workshop. 

It looks wonky because, again, I hold it up on the design board with pins across the top, but the bottom  half is just hanging. I love this cheery quilt! 

Now the design board holds the Color Sticks blocks that I’ve just plastered up there. I’ll begin sewing these this afternoon when I get home from the meeting and festivities at the clubhouse. It’ll be a good way to unwind. 

I’ll have more info about this one next week, along with (hopefully) pictures of a couple other recent finishes. 

My in-process quilt top for the moment is this scrappy coin-ish quilt top. Each month this year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge I sewed a 60” long column of  scraps from the color of the month. The column widths varied depending on the scraps I had on hand. Now I’m sewing them together with a gray solid strip separating each column. I’m leaving out pink and dark blue,  but I’m sure those strips will find an eventual home with other scraps in the new year. Anyway, here’s a pic of it draped over the ironing board. 

Bruce isn’t going to the HOA meeting this morning with me. He hates meetings (and who can blame him) and he’s supposed to avoid being in crowds because of his compromised immune system. He is driving me to the clubhouse an hour before the meeting, though. I usually walk the two short blocks, but this time I have too much to carry. So a ride it is. And then he’ll pick me up when I call him after the cleanup. Then we might get out for a nice afternoon walk, weather permitting. It’s getting to be about the time of year when we’ll have to start doing our walking at the mall in the early mornings! 

We are planning a quiet Thanksgiving here at home with probably just the two of us. I’ve invited our friend Maureen, who is a widow, to come join us for the day. Her only nearby family (if by nearby you mean a three hour drive) are on a road trip and may or may not be in the area. Naturally, Maureen would want to be with her family if they are. So whether it’s two or three of us on Thanksgiving, it’s all good!

Have a happy and enjoyable Thanksgiving, my friends. And be safe if you’re traveling. 

Three Finishes and a Flimsy

My sewing machine has been humming this past week! We’ve had rain, wind, snow and cold, so it’s been nice and cozy staying indoors and getting things done. Mostly, by “things” I mean quilts, but we also had the fireplace insert installed on Tuesday. Here’s a not so good picture I snapped last night . The kitties love their warm beds in this weather! Oops, I forgot to remove the paperwork that the installers left on the mantel. Oh well - real life, right? 

So last week for our regular Sunday sewing session - which we call the Church of Bernina - Ruby was still gone. So it was just Cousin Kim and I. We had decided ahead of time that we would sandwich up (baste together) quilt tops while we listened to NPR in the morning. We got four of mine done. She has three to be quilted, but they’re too big for me to quilt on my machine, so she is having them done by a local quilt shop. After lunch, we sewed for awhile and then spent a couple hours finishing up a puzzle we’ve been working on for a long time. During the afternoon we listened to Christmas music. Ruby doesn’t care for Christmas music, so we took advantage of her absence to play it. We will play some during the month of December, but will alternate with regular favorites as a compromise for all of us. 

So all week I had plenty of quilts to quilt and bind, and managed to finish three of them. So get comfortable and let’s get started!

First up was this blue scrappy one I selected from my box of scrap “kits” to sew up last January and February. In looking through my blog posts from earlier this year, I could find the post showing the selection of the scrap kit, but no pictures of the finished flimsy. It was in February that we listed the old house for sale, and I had to disassemble my sewing studio and design wall for showings. And then we packed and moved in a short period of time, so it got buried. 

Here is the Blue and Brown quilt. Catchy name, eh? Hehe. It measures 41x53.5” and is quilted in a basic stipple. The backing is part of a blue sheet that Ruby had given me.

This quilt is the start of a new pile of donation quilts for Quilts for Kids. Here’s what the backing (striped sheet) looks like.

Next up was my October Rainbow Scrap Challenge experiment with my few black-and-bright scraps. To them I added solid blue, then some red and gold. Meh.

This bright little number was quilted with loosey-goosey-loops (my “technical” name for it) and finished at 40x49.5”. The navy starry backing, shown below, came from the fabric haul my friend Pat gave me last May.

The third and final finish for the week was my Stay at Home Round Robin quilt (SAHRR) from earlier in the year. I love this little quilt!

I quilted it with vertical serpentine stitches and bound it with the same blue striped cotton sheet as the first quilt shown above. It finished at 45x50.5” and will also be donated to Quilts for Kids.

Man, it feels so gooood to be back in the saddle again with my quilting!! But wait! There’s more! 

I had ordered some fabric several months ago to make this wall hanging or table topper for my friend Maureen.  She had given Bruce and me a cute antique side table and me some clothes. I had made her some jam and given her a cookie jar she loved that matched her collection of Americana art (a Mammy cookie jar), but wanted to do one more thing. So here is the flimsy. 

Maureen is also very much into Asian decorating, and these greens are her colors. I ordered the fabric on Spoonflower. The crane fabric was cut into a panel size. I added a stop border of plum and a wider border of a matching Japanese wave fabric. The green piece pinned to the left will be the backing and border. That’s on the docket for the coming week, along with the fourth sandwiched quilt to be quilted. 

If I get those two done, I’ll be happy, because this coming week is going to be a busy one with the HOA board. We have our regular business meeting on Monday and the Annual Meeting next Saturday with all the residents, and I have a small presentation and a couple poster board displays to prepare. 

Today Bruce and I are having a Barnes & Noble (book store) date. Our closest B&N moved to a new location that is even closer to us. We like to go for coffee and to read magazines, so we’re excited to do that in this new location. We’ll likely start our Christmas Shopping (gift cards) there as well.  

Life is good!

Linking to Scrappy Saturday at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

Thank Goodness for Sewing Therapy!

OK, my burning question of the week (politics aside), is - has anyone else been experiencing issues with Blogger? Every comment has all of a sudden been coming across as No-Reply. Every single one, even those of you who have been reading and commenting for years. And that means I can’t reply. Have you had that issue on your blog (if you have one)?  How do we get it fixed? I’ve searched everywhere on my Blogger dashboard, inquired of Blogger and Google, and have gotten no answer. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!

Getting back to sewing. . . .  Again, thank goodness for sewing. It’s been one hell of a week in American politics, as you are all no doubt aware. Being of the blue persuasion myself, the results have been a gut punch, a kick in the butt, a head-scratcher and whatever other body part cliches you want to throw in. All I can say is that if Trump does what he’s threatened to do, the red voters will be suffering along with everyone else. No, that’s not a good thing, but at least we’ll be able to say “I told you so” smugly while we all shake our heads and wring our hands together (more body part cliches). 

Now let’s REALLY get back to sewing. This week I finished all the remaining blocks - I needed 78 - for this Quilts for Kids scrappy quilt top started last Saturday at the workshop. Here is the finished top.

You can see in the photo above that the white pieces form a pattern, a sort of stair step, when they come together in the correct way. That’s the pattern you get when you’ve sewn every block in the same orientation. But we didn’t do that, so it’s a free-for-all in this top. And by “we” I mean most of us who didn’t get that part of the instruction in our workshop. But in the end, who is really going to care? I’ll sew the next one the correct way.

And there will be next ones. I took a couple days and went through all my bins and bags of novelty or multi-colored scraps and chunks and cut them up. If the scraps were large enough to cut 2.5x8.5” strips from, I did that (top right in the picture below). The shorter lengths were cut into 2.5x 4.5” pieces (top left). If those shorter pieces contained four or more of the same print (which came from different scrap pieces), I separated out the fours to make windmill blocks (bottom left). Chunkier or odd-sized scraps were cut into 3.5” or 2.5” squares. All of those together take up less than one shoebox-ful of space and are ready to go for future use. 

As a reward for all that work, I ordered 2 yards of four different bright solid colors. I’ll be able to use the solids with these cuts and wherever needed as I work through the large box of quilt “kits” and scraps I’ve set as my 2025 goal. I’ve also narrowed down my selection of potential 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks to about 6, but I’d like to cut it down to 4-ish so I can concentrate more on finishes. Have you made any 2025 sewing plans? I’d love to hear about them. 

Oh, and I have finished trimming the quilted It’s Jungle Out There quilt and have made binding. But my friend Ruby, who is the tallest among us and is my quilt holder-upper, is gone for a couple weeks visiting family, so I won’t finish it or get glamour shots until later in the month. 

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We had the electrician in this week to prep the fireplace (install electrical) so that the insert can be installed on Tuesday. It will be the same manufacturer (Chaska) as our unit in the old house, which we loved. It can actually heat up a room (the remote control has lots of settings) instead of the heat going up the chimney. We never really noticed much of a bump in our gas bills, either. 

From manufacturer’s website

The kitties are anxiously awaiting its snuggly warmth! Have a good week!