I'M STILL AROUND.......

I think I'm feeling my age more.  It certainly took longer to get settled, and back to my normal routine.  I discovered that I left my bins of strips behind when I packed, so that deleted some projects from my list for the winter months.

My quilting group is up and running, although we started a week late, as the management company decided to shampoo the carpets in the clubhouse - I still think this should be done during the summer months when the clubhouse is used much less.

I had not planned on a project for the group this year.  I always have simple projects for any beginners, and last spring, noone had ideas of what they would like.  Of course, the first week I was asked "what is our project for this winter?"

I dug through my designs, and decided on 2 mystery quilts.  One is small and is paper pieced.  Some of the new members haven't tried paper piecing before, and some others would like a refresher course.  We are also working on a lap sized quilt, traditionally pieced.  This project takes 9 different fabrics, so it will be interesting to see all the choices.  The instructions give directions for each fabric, by main colour, accent colour, and whether the fabric is a shade from dark to light.  

I have finished two baby quilts, made from panels.  When I found the panels, I picked up 2, and some of the coordinating fabrics from the same line.  Since many of the new panels are only 24 inches wide, I made 6 inch blocks to go on either side, and found flannel for the backs.  I called the quilts "Pond Friends" 

 I have one more nearly finished quilt project.  I have been embroidering 12 blocks, one per month, since January.  Since I had the December block almost complete, I went hunting for fabric to finish the quilt.  DH came along, and when I couldn't decide which one I liked best, he took some of the blocks and found a totally different fabric that was just perfect!
I plan on finishing the quilting on this one after Christmas, and I'll have some pictures to share then.

We have 3 couples to come and share our Christmas dinner this year, so I have been baking rolls, cookies, tarts, and other traditional foods in preparation.  Some parts of the meal are being made by others, but DH and I will be making the turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce as well as a rutabaga apple casserole.  We're looking forward to our evening together with people we love.  We'll be visiting our grandchildren via Skype on Christmas morning, watching them open their gifts from Santa.  Our grandson will be 4 next month, and has been enjoying his Lego Advent calendar!  He had a long chat with Santa last week, but we are worried about the gift he asked for......  he wants an animal translator, so he knows what they are saying and can talk back to them!  

Merry Christmas to everyone, and I hope to be a better blogger in 2019!

A BUSY DAY WITH MY QUILTING GROUP

Today was our weekly quilting get-together.  15 busy quilters met at our clubhouse for 4 hours of sewing, visiting, sharing, etc.   A few people dropped in for a quick visit, and to see what we are working on this week.

Several were piecing their row quilt parts - lots of little pieces.  Several were working on their own choice of projects.  A wool applique project was cut out and prepared for blanket stitching, and some hexagons were being hand stitched together.  I brand new quilter cut the pieces for her first quilt, and another cut pieces for a baby size quilt that she wants to try to machine quilt herself!   

We also had a visitor drop in to ask about our pillowcase sewing day, scheduled for March - she saw the information in our monthly newsletter.  Last year, my group completed 201 pillowcases in 4 hours, and we hope to do as well this year!  The Cases for Smiles coordinator will be attending, so we are looking for lots of volunteers. 

 I had another finish this week.  I was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's "spoolin' around challenge" from a couple of years ago, and I made 192 spools, using 1 1/2 inch strips from my scrap bin!  I decided to make them into blocks, and used more 1 1/2 inch strips for sashings and cornerstones.  
The two gold borders were made from cut-off backing fabric from a quilt I completed in the fall.  The middle borders were more 1 1/2 inch strips, joined together and cut to length.  The binding is also scrappy, with leftover 2 1/2 inch strips stitched together.  I kept the quilting simple, stitching in the ditch around the blocks and the spools, as the quilt was busy already.  I was able to use just over 8 yards of scraps to make this top!