Halloween and Christmas in the Same Week

Welcome to another weekend! My goal today, if the weather cooperates and the rain holds off (80% chance of rain), is to winterize the courtyard - store or cover all the furniture, dig up the remaining annuals, and blow out the leaves. Once that’s done, the day is mine! Or if it does rain, the day is mine anyway so I can read or sew and the yard work can wait until Monday. 

This past week I was a sewing demon! I decided to make all the Christmas fabrics and strings I recently sorted out just go away. And of course, by “go away” I mean sew them into string blocks. And that’s precisely what I did. I sewed and sewed until they were all gone except a small number. As I was nearing the end of them, I decided to pull out any that were non-Christmas (or could pass as such, like solids and plaids) and add them back into my regular scrap stash. In the end, I sewed 59 more blocks (6” finished). When added to the 4 test blocks I made last week, they totaled 63 blocks. They will eventually (maybe later this year, maybe next year) be sewn into a little Christmas quilt that will measure 42x54”.  

These are just pinned up on the design wall for proof of life! They’ll be taken down and stored away for later. That brings my total of string blocks sewn into September and October to 273. My goal is to reach 600 by the end of the year. My pace is steady. Next week I’ll go back to the multi-colored strings.

Some string blocks up close

The real excitement for me in the sewing room this week was to finally finish up the Halloween quilt I started in January. I needed to make 16 blocks to surround the center panel, so I sewed two per month through August. In September I assembled the quilt blocks and panel into a top, pin basted it and began quilting. This week I finally finished the quilting and binding, and it’s now done and ready to use.

I ran outside to photograph it as the light was quickly fading. The final quilt measures 50x72”.

These backing is (mostly) a print from Janet Wecker Frisch.

I didn’t get any photos of the quilting I did on the squares, but that’s something I may do in the next week. 

My next week sewing goals are to quilt three small kid quilts, web another couple sets of Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, and sew 30-45 string blocks. 

That wraps things up for now. Next week I have a couple quick meetings, a luncheon, a doctor appointment to drive Bruce to - and the rest is fun time. I plan to make the most of it!

Linking to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.