DONE

Most of these fabrics came from my stash!

The last official Christmas present is DONE! Hooray, hooray, time to relax a bit! I told Tim I'd make him a lunch box, but that doesn't have a deadline like the other presents. This quilt is going up with him tomorrow for my MIL. It was inspired by designs in the book The Cat's Meow by Janet Kime (one of the many books my aunt left with me when she was in town in September). I added the letters for a little extra humor.

It measures approximately 42" by 56", which will make it a great quilt for her since she's only 5 feet tall.

It feels so nice to be done with all the necessities for this year! I had wanted to make more for our house, but I don't want to drive myself crazy anymore, and there's always next year. I'm taking the night of now. I'm not even frosting the cookies I made today until tomorrow- it's a resting night for me, since tomorrow will be cleaning, cleaning, cleaning in preparation for having Mum and my uncle over on Thursday and then cooking/baking some more for Friday for the guys who have to work Christmas Eve.   In my world, no one should miss a good meal on Christmas Eve, especially my husband, and definitely not those who serve our country. Plus, I love to cook. :) Win-win!

Sew easy

To get distracted, that is!

 If I don't finish Benny's quilt by Christmas, it's Bonnie Hunter's fault! Every time I tell myself I'll put together another part of his quilt, I see the string blocks sitting next to my machine and think I'll just sew a few strings on to get me started... and then all of a sudden I have five more finished blocks and it's dinner time! Today had the added temptation to make some of the HST's, too. I really need to stop working on the mystery quilt and finish Benny's present.

And tonight, I also procrastinated the T- Shirt quilt some more by making this candy bowl. I love it-- I made my version of the fabric boxes from a tutorial over at Stash Manicure (you can find that lovely blog on the sidebar). This box matches the coasters I made-- not because I'm a matchy-matchy person, but rather because I had almost enough pieces precut from making the coasters to make the box.

 As far as finished presents go, Tim has been cold at night, so I gave him his quilt already- he was really excited (more than I expected) and immediately brought it back to our bedroom and laid it on his side of the bed, all the while saying, "This is awesome!" He loves the fact that the bargello is designed after his Busse knife handles, and he laughed when I told him those were Contrary Wife blocks I put along the edge as a joke. He slept happily under it last night, and again today during his pre-work nap.

The other excitement from yesterday can be seen at the base of this tree: do you see it? The black lump at the base of the tree... It's a pileated woodpecker!!! I wanted to get a better picture, but by the time I got our regular camera, it flew away. I was so excited, though, since I've only every heard about these birds before. I love how we actually have wildlife surrounding our house!

I should get back to working on that darn t-shirt quilt... in a minute. Time for some pie first!

A bright spot

In the chaos that has been whirling around, I keep finding bright sides... for example, the positives of not moving yet: Another free tire rotation will be due, one less week to drive only 25 mins instead of nearly 1 hour 45 minutes to class, the dogs can stay at our house during Thanksgiving instead of having the chaos of FOUR monsters at lunch that day, and yet they can still go to dinner at Val's, and last but not least, Tim and I can sleep in our own bed the night before and after the 5K! See all those positives I found to this delay? 

And then, there's this pile... Some of you can probably guess what it's for!!!

That's right: since the move is delayed again, I can get started on Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt, Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll! I took her color recommendations and then put my tweak on them, i.e. chose brighter pink, brighter green, substituted my blue for the brown, and substituted YELLOW for her constant of red.

I have never done a mystery quilt before.... it's exciting. Well, I've never done a planned mystery quilt, but sometimes my plans turn into mysteries before they're done!

I love the way the pile looks!!! If the dogs stay quiet, I'll be able to make some serious progress on step one. :)

Another thing I got done... these mittens!

They're for my BFF. She loses mittens like The Biggest Loser contestants lose weight. So, these are perfect, since they only took an hour to make. I'm going to try to find one of those cords you give little kids to run under their coats and attach to mittens to put in with these. The mittens are SOOO warm since they are fleece-lined fleece. Mmmm, cozy!

If things go even remotely to plan, we might move December 1st. Which means I have about 12 days (feels like deja vu counting from their again) to work on stuff, which is enough time to unpack some things....Time to return to my sewing area...  let's see how much more progress I can make on Christmas presents and projects!

Oh, Saturdays.... College football, golf naps, and today, a biplane nap... I think there was an air show somewhere near (or maybe practice for one, since Google couldn't find any) because three days in a row I have been lulled by the drone of some awesome WWII planes, and today it resulted in a nap! Good thing I'm not in WWII England, or I never would have survived!

After running around with my mom and aunt, and then the biplane nap, I got busy... I've made 20 of my scrappy trees!

Making Christmas, making Christmas is so fun!

Prudence was supervising, of course... such a good little helper! I want a design wall whenever I get my sewing room. It would be really helpful Now.... I can't decide if I want the trees with or without sashing.... and then the problem would be what color of sashing? Hmm, maybe I should look up how to make a portable design wall so I can make it now and take it with me!

Regardless, I have 22 trees left to make, then maybe I will figure out to sash, or not to sash. Without sashing, they will finish at 6" x 7.5" As it stands right now, they will be laid out 7 wide and 6 down. I have several other projects in the works, so if I get stuck, I'll just shift to something else!!

Here's the sewing caddy I made last night... I wish I had better lighting in our living room. But what matters is that the near side holds all my thread and my celly, while the far side hold my needle case, scissors, and a pencil (for now). Love it! I used one of my shop hop fat quarters for the pockets, and the same green that is in my leaf applique.

I need to get the backing pieced for Tim's Xmas present... I want to have Sally quilt it, but I won't have money to pay here until after we move.... see the problem? So, I think if I go see her on Monday, I'll take it again and just ask her advice for attempting to quilt it on my own... I think if I can get a table that my sewing machine can be set in, then I could manage... so, it comes down to: will I get a suitable table in time? Or will I be better off just committing now to siphoning off from weekly money to try to pay for it to be quilted sooner rather than later? Hmm....

Tonight's agenda during the ND game: gather fabrics for MIL's Christmas present, get at least 2 more T-shirts ready for Benny's present, maybe get Tim's backing pieced? And then finish with a couple more "happy little trees." :)

Tired, but happy

I've been awake since 5:30... Too excited to sleep! And, I realized that I had set my alarm clock later than I should, so by the time I changed it, I was way too awake to get any more sleep.

Mom's art!

I think it fits the space well.

We gave Mom her birthday present yesterday (a day early), which works out well since we're going to look at a house. I think this "art" piece turned out well.

Time for second breakfast-- that's the worst part about waking up so early; I get hungry way too fast!

Time consuming side-track

I'm still taking a break from the blue/green tediousness, but after this morning's pillows, I had to do another hidden wells project.

I love it. Mom better, too.

Mom wanted some wall art... I promised to make her something for her birthday (September 24th). This is what I came up with after going through my fabric and finding some batiks, then pondering a few days and deciding after breakfast this morning that I would make her some hidden wells, too.

I am going to put two borders on this-- one cream like matting and then the exterior on dark brown like a frame. but then the dilemma is how to hang it... put a sleeve on? Maybe, if I can figure out how to make the sleeve work with the existing nails in her wall. Hmm...

Tomorrow, I need to get back to "craft" projects for the Pay It Forward Festival. It's the day after Mum's birthday!!! The goal: to make 4 more pie wraps.

But now: WIPEOUT!