Cleaning up.................

There is a 4 drawer chest in my studio that had a pile 2 feet high on it.  I knew what some of the things were, like this selection of batiks I chose more than a year ago.

One of things that surprised me were the 2 trays of 2.5" plaid and stripe squares, yarn dyed woven fabrics.

I wondered where this partially finished Cherrywood fabric piece was.  There are a couple more areas to quilt and then trim and bind.  It is small, about 14" square.

There was also a notebook with photos from my very first sampler quilt class in 1976.  I recognize some of the ladies but not all of them.  I think there were 12 or 13 students.

There was one pile of indecision.  These pieces are sitting on top of a project box so the pile is only about 5" tall and some of the batik fabrics will go back on a shelf.  The chair should be cleaned off early this morning.  This is only the tip of the iceberg of places that need cleaning up.  I am chasing the impossible dream that I could actually have a neat and clean house.

 

Maybe the last finish of 2024..........

I think my photos today are a little dull so I may have to re-take them later.  My longarm behaved and I got this one quilted and yesterday trimmed and binding sewn on. 

This quilt is from a pattern by Ashley Hough called Jelly Roll Jumble.  I don't use jelly rolls so I need to rename my version.  She designed this for National Quilters Circle and the pattern is free if you sign up for their newsletter.

I made the quilt smaller than the pattern because I wanted it to be a baby quilt.  It is 39" x 59" and has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.

The binding is a really old Kaffe fabric, close to the beginning of his quilt fabric designing.  He is up to #204 now.

 

A little quilting..............

The backing shows here on the quilt that got quilted yesterday.  It has yellow, orange and purple in it.

Here it is totally unrolled.  This is a small quilt, just one fabric width for the backing.

I used a pastel variegated thread and ran out in the last row of loops.  I finished with off white thread on the last row.  I quilted it in rows of loops, one loop every 2".  That worked out to one loop in squares and 3 loops in the rectagles.

Today I'll get a binding sewn on.   First I have to find a fabric and I'll be looking for a medium purple.

Finish #2 for December 2024...........

I chose a binding for this quilt yesterday, cut it and sewed it on, all by machine.  I found 2 pink Kaffe fabrics that I liked for binding but went with the pencils for this reason: It had to be cut lengthwise to get the stripe going the right direction and I had used it for another quilt.  That left a piece about 20" wide by 64" long, that was just waiting to be cut for another binding.

I think this is the first 'all Kaffe fabric' quilt that I didn't use a Kaffe fabric on the back.  I had this 58" wide fabric that looks great with the quilt and that saved having to piece a small strip to a full width to get the size I needed.  The quilt is 47" x 59" and has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.  It was longarm quilted by Robin.

While I was in the basement with the iron turned on I looked for a backing fabric for the 2 table runners like this one.  I think this is a great fabric for the back and there was plenty for both runners.

 

Lots of contemplation.......

I have been wandering around my 2 studio spaces looking at potential projects.  After an hour or so in the basement I loaded the backing and batting for this quilt.  The top needs some pressing so I just laid it on top until I get back to it.

I have so many potential started projects but of course I'd rather start a new one.  A lot of my finished tops (and some finished quilts) from this year were either cut shapes ready to assemble or blocks made and final layouts needed.  It cleared a big backlog from storage boxes.  I'll make some collages of them in my yearly recap.

On Instagram lots of people are showing their top 9 - the 9 that got the most likes - from 2024.  A friend told me how to do it so I added mine to my account.  I wasn't surprised to see Charley in the Forest as the one with the most likes.  It was very popular on my blog too.  My Instagram name is exuberantcolor also.  Only people who have a Instagram account can see the posts.

Cleaning off the table................

I sorted the Tidla fabrics into 4 groups of value to prepare for cutting for the Whimsy Quilt (free Tilda pattern).  I haven't pressed them yet so now I'll press them by value groups and do the cutting of each group as soon as they are pressed.

Next to move off the table was the box of 3" finished triangles that I cut from waste pieces (from cutting quarter square triangles on the die cutter) when I was cutting for the hourglass blocks in the quilt top I finished last month.

I ended up with 19 stacks of 4 alike.  I'm not sure what quilt they will go into but at least they are sewn and ready.  One more thing off the table.

I think I'll finish the floral sawtooth star quilt top next month.  I think I have decided no sashing between blocks but haven't made a firm decision on whether there will be a border, and if it would be a pieced border or strips.  I'm most likely to do a pieced border that can be sewn while I'm webbing the top (like I did last month on the hourglass quilt top).

Merry Christmas!

This is a photo I took in 2009 and turned into a Christmas card in 2013.  This is the white Christmas we rarely get any more so I enjoy this photo.

I have a couple cacti in bloom, technically the Thanksgiving cactus.  This is my orange one but the camera likes to make it more coral.  Whatever you call the color, it is pretty and I'm happy to still have some blooms.

When I buy a larger pot of Thanksgiving cactus it usually is just a big pot full of a lot of small plants.

I split my red cactus into 4 pots earlier this year and this is the last of the 4 pieces to bloom.  Only one bloom this time.  It is red and white.

Yesterday I spent a couple hours looking through all of the free Tilda quilt patterns online.  I was looking for one that had bigger pieces for some fussy cut blocks.  I also didn't want one that would take me months to make.  I downloaded the Whimsy quilt pattern and printed out the only page I need.  I went back to the download and wrote the sizes of the pieces in the block on the page.  Last night I decided to finish the dishcloth that was on the needles and when I placed it on the fabrics to take the photo, I realized it matches the blues in the Tilda fabrics.

Maybe a quiet quilt..........

I am fascinated by the Tilda fabrics and the soft, quiet look of them.  I think a quiet quilt (or 2 or 3) might be next.  I can see most of the prints used in a 16 patch or an 18 patch, and maybe a quilt of a variety of pieces and parts with the larger prints fussy to cut to show off their designs.....maybe sawtooth stars and log cabin blocks and a few other traditional blocks and some 4 patches.  Some of these pieces are fat quarters, some half yards and a few one yard pieces.  I have 1 more green piece I found on sale that will be put into the mix when I receive it.

These 2 are from an older line and I was glad to find them.

This is the other large print.  Now I need to press all of these fabrics to get the fold lines out and then I can start cutting.  Sewing will probably start in January.

Yesterday I finished the 4th table runner and I wrapped 3 of them and delivered them and.....I forgot to take a photo of all 4 of them together.  One of them is mine unless I need a last minute gift.  I still have the remainder of the squares to sew into one more table topper, maybe a square one.

Yesterday my 20 1/2 year old van turned 74000 miles.  It had turned 73000 on Sept. 27, 2023....15 months to drive 1000 miles.  I just hope it continues to run well for another 1000 miles.

Binding on..............

The binding is finished on 3 of the 4 Christmas table runners, two shown here.  The largest one is left to do.

There wasn't much to take photos of yesterday.  I did a load of laundry and went grocery shopping.  I ran totally out of sugar making one last batch of Norwegian Kringlas yesterday.  So far I have used 4 1/2 pounds of butter (Land o' Lakes) and 4 pounds of sugar in all of my baking.   I think I'm done baking....but I'm never sure.  I have a good assortment of snack size bags of treats in the freezer.

A little quilting time.....................

Last night I got in a little quilting time.  These are the 2 almost identical table runners.

I used gold metallic thread which doesn't really shine in this photo.  I stitched about 1/16" away from the ditch so the thread will show a little.  Today I'll trim them and find a binding.  I have the backing cut for the other 2 table runners but haven't pressed it yet.

Two little great-grandsons came to visit with their grandparents yesterday afternoon.  They hadn't seen the toys I have at my house so they had fun.  They are 2 1/2 and 1 year old.  They had to investigate a couple other rooms in the house, always curious at that age.

I finished making Chex mix Thursday afternoon.  In the end I made 6 batches to use up all of the ingredients.  I had to make one more batch of fudge so I have enough for everyone I share with.  

Snow......finally.........

This was the scene yesterday morning.  It was hovering around 33 degrees early but then dropped all day into the 20s so the snow is still here.  I don't think we are going to get above freezing for a few days. Winter began at 3:21 a.m. CST today. Christmas day is supposed to be around 40 so the snow will be gone.  

The Amaryllis my sister-in-law gifted to me is blooming.  The stalk is only about 12" high which is unusual.  More often they are close to 20" tall when they bloom.  There are 2 blooms like this and one more bud.  I have never seen one of this coloration in double petals before.

A Christmas card from Linda Swanekamp arrived yesterday in the mail.  She is such a talented watercolorist.  You can find her at the Art in Search blog.

A couple weeks ago a friend sent me this cross stitch which she made for me.  Isn't it beautiful?  This is 7" square so you can see how tiny the cross stitches are.  There are Christmas Cactus hanging at the top.  I wish I had a place to hang some of my cacti, but then because I'm pretty short I wouldn't be able to see how much water I was giving them.  I'm going to hang this in my studio. 

A December finish..............

This is the second of three neutral batik 16 patch quilts made from blocks pieced in 2018.  I finished the first quilt and pieced the top of this one in September this year.  The third top, waiting to be quilted, was pieced in April.

This one is now finished and is 71" x 93", the largest of the three.

I had enough yards of this backing fabric, also a batik, for this quilt.  The binding fabric was also in my stash.

Here is better view of the backing and binding fabrics.  It has Warm and Natural batting and was quilted by my longarm friend, Robin.  It is the last quilt longer than 80" in my backlog of quilt tops.  I still have more than 30 waiting in line for quilting, 21 of them small quilts, 66" or shorter.  

It started snowing last night.  Only a half inch was predicted for us, most of the heavy snow north of us.

 

Binding finished................

The binding was finished at 10:30 last night while I was finishing up the second batch of Chex Mix.  I'll measure it and take its full photo today.  It is big so it will cover my double design wall in the basement.

I usually use the mini pretzels in my Chex Mix but all that was available at my local store was regular size pretzels and these little pretzel sticks.  Batch one just about fills a gallon zipper bag.

Now comes the hard part, dividing up all of the cookies for several families and getting them into containers.

Cardinal in the snow

I am attempting to write a post from my Galaxy 9 tablet.  I can't figure out a lot of things so this will be short,  This snow globe is an early Christmas gift I received today.  It is snowing in the globe so that is why it's a little blurry. 

Added after the first comment, yes this is a Charley Harper snow globe.

More sweets..............

I started  the day by baking the English Toffee Squares.  A few family members like nuts on them and the rest prefer them without.  I am in the without group. Look! I took the picture before I started eating them.

Late in the afternoon I baked the shortbread cookies, a favorite with the grandchildren.

Now it is time to start making the Chex Mix.

Four corners are done but I have about 30" more to hand stitch.  I had 3 sessions of hand stitching between baking and vacuuming.

They are predicting light snow twice this week but no white Christmas.

Lots of trees............

I made the chocolate spritz yesterday.  I started out with trees and the second tray had other shapes.  One of the shapes was a fail and broke up when I tried to get them off the cookie sheet, more for me to eat..........

I did get a lot of stitching time on the binding.  The bottom corner shows up as blue but it is gray there too.  The combination of my lighting and the camera's ideas made this happen.  I start my bindings 6" before a corner so I have 3 corners finished.  I have 2 sides and 19" on a third side done.

Now I need to get busy and bake the last 2 batches of cookies this morning.

 

A busy day................

Last night I started the hand stitching on this binding.  I only got half of one long side done but I will stitch a little every night.

In the morning I ran the dishwasher (and emptied it) and did a load of laundry.  In the afternoon I made some fudge.

I also got the pale pink Spritz made.  The second tray got a little too brown on the bottom but that is the way I like them, so some of these are for me.

My rain gauge had a half inch of rain in it from Saturday.  Then there was fog yesterday morning.  It was a gray weekend.  The month is half over so that means the end of the year is a little over 2 weeks away and we will be entering the last year of the first quarter of the century.  Does that seem possible?

Onto a different project...............

There are decisions to be made on the other projects I have worked on lately so I sewed the binding onto the big neutral batik 16 patch quilt.  This one was 72" x 96" before it was quilted so the binding will take a while to do.  I'll start the hand stitching today between other things I need to do.

On other projects, I found 3 light Christmas fabrics I can cut 2" squares from so I can use up the remainder of the dark squares.  I also took the floral star blocks off the design wall in columns pinned together.  I'm not sure how I want to proceed with it so it's getting a time out for now.

We finally got above freezing yesterday and had rain.  lt is predicted to get even warmer the next couple days and then back in the 20s by Thursday.  

2 more table runner tops...........

Five stacks of 9 patches sewn.  There are 8 blocks in 3 of the stacks, 7 in one, and 9 in one totaling 40 blocks.

I got 2 table runner tops out of the 40 blocks.  Both are 13.5" wide and one is 26.5" long and the other is 31" long.  I pressed the seams all toward the dark corners so there were no nesting seams except where block meets block.

There are about 130 squares leftover and 90% of them are dark so it's a toss up whether they go into a zipper bag and get put away or whether I will cut any light squares to go with them.