Finished Ornaments

I hope you had a nice holiday season.  I can't believe it's already the end of the year!  As they say, the days are long and the years are short.

 I managed to get all of the cross stitch ornaments done before Christmas, along with Ralphie that I showed last week and one that I finished at the beginning of the year.

Pattern by Country Cottage Needleworks
Pattern by Country Cottage Needleworks
Pattern by JBW Designs
Pattern by Country Cottage Needleworks

Last week I forgot to show what I did for my guild Christmas party, which I ended up missing due to being sick.  One of my guild mates lives near us, so she graciously took my gift and brought one back for me.  I sent these items to the party--Lori Holt tin, hexagon paper pieces, a spool of thread, scissors, fabric tape, a charm pack, and a gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop.
I received this back.  I'm so sad I missed the party, but I have retreat coming up in a few weeks, so I can see my sewing friends soon.
I'm sure by now you've seen the news that Bluprint by Craftsy has dropped a good number of the independent pattern sellers from their platform, due to take effect on December 28. I'm pretty disappointed by that decision, especially since they only gave designers just over a week to make new arrangements.  In the meantime, I've downloaded all my purchased patterns just in case they are no longer available.

 Until next year, happy sewing.

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The Finish Line

I'm so close to having things done.  I just finished quilting this top this morning.  I did custom quilting on it.  The pattern is Jelly Roll Diamonds by Fig Tree Quilts.  My suggestion would be to purchase extra fabric for the outer setting triangles.  The fabrics are Celebrate Spring by Sandy Gervais.  I bought this fabric and pattern in 2007, I think.

I have two of the three cross stitch ornaments stitched and am close on the third. I'm hoping to finish stitching the third one today and get them mounted tomorrow.

I stitched this Ralphie ornament.  It's been on my to-do list for three or four years, so I'm glad I finally took the time to make one.  It's based on a picture I found online.  I think the recipient will like it.
My kids painted these gnomes on pieces of leftover door jamb.  We'll be giving pairs as gifts.

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An Inconsequential Finish

Well, I haven't been great about working on what needs to be finished, but I did finish the really ugly butterfly quilt.  I decided that since I didn't care much about this quilt, it would be a good time to try out a pantograph I wasn't sure about.  And I used a bright pink thread--why not?  I learned that I don't care for this particular pantograph and that bright pink thread hides in orange and in multi-colored darker fabric.  I finished the binding by machine.  I like using a zig-zag stitch on machine binding to help it to lay flatter.  This quilt finished at 69.5" x 81" and I think I know where its new home will be.


I've been slowly working on the second snowman cross stitch.  I need to have at least one of these totally finished by Christmas.
I've been working extremely slowly on the other major project I am hoping to finish by Christmas. At the moment I'm not feeling especially confident that it will be done in time.  I have to do part of the sashing still and then the setting triangles seem to all be set in.  Yay.  I can hardly wait.
Maybe I'll actually finish the Queen Bee quilt someday!

I also have a few smaller things I'm hoping to finish (and start) in the next week too.  Those aren't as critical as the cross stitch and the quilt though.

 We got our Christmas tree decorated yesterday and I did a minimal amount of decorating.  I swear I missed out on the attractive home decorating gene.  

I still need to wrap presents.  I ordered a bunch of things online this year and am still waiting on several of them to show up--it can be a bit nerve-wracking.  One thing I noticed with some of the smaller places I've ordered from this year is that they print a shipping label right away and then don't actually mail the parcel for several days to a week.  WHY?  When someone orders from me, I am super excited and mail it as soon as humanly possible, usually the same day!

 This picture doesn't look like much, but my husband ordered me the two-foot extension for my long arm frame so that I will be able to comfortably quilt king-size quilts.  The box was damaged, so I got to open it early to make sure everything is okay.  We won't actually enlarge my frame until we take it down to move into the finished sewing room, which is probably at least a month away.

He's been spending most of his free time over the past several months working on a pole barn for the wife of a co-worker who died in an accident this summer and he finished his part of the construction this past weekend, so my room bumps back up in priority now.

 I forgot to mention last week, but the people who run MQX Midwest announced that they are discontinuing the midwest show.  Disappointing, but not surprising.
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Current Status

Here is the pile of things I need to work on.
I have a sick child on her way home from school.  I imagine nothing much is going to get done over the next few days while I freak out.

 We won a Research Award for our project at our state FLL competition over the weekend and placed fifth of 23 teams in robot runs.
On the way home, we were on the phone with my mom when I heard a noise.  I asked my husband what it was and he said it was the wiper.  It flew right off the arm.  Luckily we were able to stop at the one town between the competition location and home and buy a replacement after 9 pm.  The sad thing is, we just replaced that wiper this summer when it came loose while driving.

 The next morning we got in the car to run errands and discovered we had a flat tire!

 In other sewing news, I'm sad that Amanda of crazy mom quilts is discontinuing her blog at the end of the year.

 I hope you all are having a better week than we've had thus far.  I'm off to decontaminate my house.  Sigh.

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