Stories from the Sewing Room

I finished off the last of this year's quilts with a binding last Wednesday. 

I can't say I've accomplished a whole lot since then. The weather took a turn towards deep winter. This picture was taken Wednesday the 10th. Although it looks almost sunny in my picture, it was bitter cold and rainy. My newer neighbors have a sense of humor. 

We did have small guild Friday night and we did our fat quarter basket swap. It was supposed to be like dirty Santa, but no one stole, we just picked and kept. So here is what I made for my basket. I went with an Alison Glass/stamp/writing/keeping in touch sort of theme. It was more of a color vibe than a theme.

The record coaster was a last-minute addition after I saw the directions come through in the Bernina email last week. I have some thoughts about this project. 

1. It's really difficult to stitch a perfect circle, particularly with fusible fleece/batting attached to one side, on your sewing machine. I think I would program this to stitch on an embroidery machine or maybe even the longarm if I had a big enough piece of fabric. 

2. It's also hard to cut perfect circles for the two inner circles. Again, programming the circles would yield a more precise finish. 

3. Pay attention. I was on the phone when sticking down the fusible "record label" color, which was supposed to cover the slit that was used for turning. I stuck mine to the wrong side, so then I had to try to cut similar shapes for both sides and get them to line up. Ugh. This is the back, which was supposed to be the front before I messed it up. Thankfully I had enough fabric left to cut additional print circles to cover the slit.

As you can see, I didn't quite hit the circles on the back exactly while stitching down the front, but it was okayish.

    

Back to guild, I chose Brenda's basket when it was my turn. Here are the non-perishable items. There was also a bottle of sparkling water, two champagne flutes, and a bag of Hershey kisses. 

Meanwhile, the guild advent calendar is still going on. Here is everything through December 16, minus the table runner that I shared last week.

I wish I could say I've been super-productive since finishing work last week, but I really haven't. I do have a finish, the started-in-2017 knitted baby blanket. I don't remember the previous version of this being so long and skinny. Maybe I didn't do all the repeats last time? 

I have been working on the race car quilt. The pieced borders fit fairly well. Each part of this quilt has been 1/2" smaller than the measurements given on the pattern. 

I worked on creating a pieced backing from the leftovers. There wasn't quite enough to get there, so I had to shop in my stash. Times like these (or any time I need a notion) I really miss Jo-Ann. Luckily I remembered to cut the binding before going to town on the backing. 

I also created a Frankenbatting from six batting cutoffs left at the bottom of various quilts.

It's loaded onto the frame, ready to be quilted. 

I also finished this scrunchy. I realize this seems like a minor project. I really wanted to add it to my UFO list on my PHD, but I refrained. It has been sitting here waiting to be repaired since I started making it at Quilt Con in February 2024. Yes, almost two years. I ripped apart and re-sewed the elastic in a more secure fashion and then pressed and hand-stitched the opening closed. Fun aside: the astronauts glow in the dark.

I've been slowly working on Nancy's Bonnie & Camille quilt too. This week has reminded me of how I prefer to work, which is not how I work when I am working/quilting for others. I prefer to jump around between projects, even alternating blocks of multiple projects at the same time. It helps me to pay attention and alleviates the tedium of doing the same thing over and over. 

I have not yet started the two gifts I still need to make. I have not worked on business things that need to be done, such as updating the website, doing year-end inventory, and so on. I have not finished enough things to complete my PHD this year. I'll be so close, but just not enough time. My goal next year is to work less so that I have time to live more. I've paid off the second machine and computer, so I think maybe I can try this?

I'm not sure if I'll post next week or not, but I will schedule the OMG link up to post and open on December 25, as scheduled. 

Linking with Quiltery and Alycia Quilts.

Friends, I am so close to my holiday vacation. I just have one binding to go. I considered trying to push through and get it done last night, but decided to take it easy and finish it up today. 

I know that I need to stop when I get tired. I'm not always great at stopping, but whenever I try to push through, things go sideways mechanically (why???) and I make mistakes. This is a goal to work towards next year. 

I did have a bit of time yesterday to get some of my own sewing done. I have completed the top and bottom rows of border for the race car quilt. 

I was really surprised to see some unexpected directions when I pulled out the pattern. I had assumed that the blocks would just alternate, but they don't. I don't even know what this repeat is! Probably no one would have ever known if I had just sewn them alternating, but I'm trying to follow the pattern. Considering how non-square my blocks were, they are going together fairly well. I'm still giving myself permission to just sew without making sure all intersections are perfect. It's kind of freeing and kind of cringe-inducing. 

These rows went together very quickly. I haven't measured them yet to compare them to the pattern measurements. Everything to this point has been 1/2" off from the pattern, so as long as that continues, the border in between should go well. Then I just have to figure out a backing and this thing will be done and donated.

I've also been making a bit of progress on the knitted baby blanket. I'm in the last repeat.

I'm having a lot of fun with the small guild advent calendar. So is everyone else based on the amount of group texts I'm getting per day! My gifts are days 10 and 11, so I opened day 10 (the quilting spray starch) yesterday so that I could get a picture of everything so far while the light was good. 

Brenda is a rock star and made every single person (14 or 15?) a quilt. Actually I haven't seen all these yet, so just going on group text info. She made me a chicken table runner and the note said she found the embroidered chickens at a yard sale. 

We have guild Friday night. I suggested we all bring our things Brenda made, which I knew would embarrass her, but she does such creative and innovative work (you should see some of the things she's come up with for the round robin quilts that I don't participate in) that I think it would be fun to see. We are also doing a fat quarter basket swap, so I'll share my offering next week. 

Okay, now for the last of this year's quilts. I bound two of Hannah's quilts that I completed recently. 

I started on Hannah's final quilt in this group. She requested Dunes and also wanted a cutout around one block. I had heard Dunes can be difficult to stitch due to the very slight curve and the amount of lines and stitching R-L and so on. It is a design that you set up as a block or an extended width rather than as an edge-to-edge. I didn't feel like I was having many issues, but it was pretty time-consuming to stitch. 

Then I got to the point in the pattern where I needed to do the no-sew zone and everything went to heck. Part of the pattern disappeared when I tried to split out the lines to remove part of the overstitching. I tried to add the pattern back in and then it didn't line up with the cut out. THEN I noticed that part of the previous pass had terrible tension and I had to remove that. It took forever to realign the pattern properly. Anyway, I eventually got it done, but it took multiple days. 

I bound her quilt and now they are ready to ship back to her. 

I also made the binding and sewed it to Cindy's mom's quilt. 

I started on Kim's quilt. She picked Orange Blossom Special for the quilting. The pattern stitches out really well, but it is really slow, so it took two days to stitch out. Like I mentioned at the top of the post, I still need to bind it. And then it's vacation time!

Look at me switching up the quilt photos with a dramatic night time image!

In other news, not a lot is happening (which is good). I was a little surprised yesterday morning that I was hearing machinery around 6:30 am. They were pouring the basement floor in the house that's being built kitty-corner to us. They had loads of giant work lights set up. It lit up my dining room and we're not even that close. I feel sorry for the people directly across the street from them!

Remember Jeri, whose quilts went missing for a while before being delivered with the box completely torn open? Thankfully the quilts were fine. Anyway, for the last batch we switched to UPS and I had an AirTag in the box. I also sent her a little gift. My husband laser-engraved these slate coasters with a picture of her dog.