Monday, November 27, 2017

Post Thanksgiving Catch Up



Thanksgiving, 2017

Thanksgiving came and went uneventfully. In our busy lives, this is a good sign. We had 13 people this year, and it was simplified. Everyday plates were good enough, and I left the plastic over the tablecloths. The shadow person you see is one son bringing the turkey in cooked and carved! Woohoo! Lucky us!


It may soon be Christmas, but I go on daily walks with the Doxie girls looking for leftover flowers. The snapdragons snuggled up to the house are still blooming. They've happily reseeded there for many years.


Customer Quilt Off the Longarm

This Corey Yoder fabric is super sweet! Corey is a local gal, and fabric designer for Moda. I think the simple quilt design really allowed the quilting and prints to show off in this quilt. This was one I could have kept for myself.



Quilts Are Always Thoughtful Gifts!

I have been focusing on making a number of quilts ready for sale. Working ahead of time makes it easier to pull fabric from my stash, and takes the pressure off when life gets holiday hectic. Most people are stunned to hear how long it can actually take to make a quilt from start to finish, and I usually get a few requests right before Christmas. This simplifies it for all of us. 

I wanted to show you this one especially because it started with a Craftsy kit I purchased last year. I liked the fabrics, but the pattern not quite as much. I used the same block idea, but changed the orientation, added borders, and also some of my own stash to come up with a very different design. 


The animals in this line are really sweet, and would be ideal for a baby through a young girl.


Polka dots and chevrons make it scrappy!



The backing is pieced with part of the yardage from the kit, and a lime dotted fabric. It will finish around 60" x 70". 


There were still more blocks I'd made from the kit fabric, and I pieced them into a smaller baby quilt. The top feels rather light right now, but the grass-green backing and blue floral will add some visual weight to it. Can you see the corners are different from the setting triangles? Low volume prints are great to mix, and add lots of subtle interest!


I'll finish the catch up on Friday, and let you know how both working without a list, and the house purge is going. (Hint: I can't believe what an emotional and physical roller coaster it is to get rid of things that don't serve you anymore! I am seeing how we need to work through the resistance knowing it feels awful-messy-yucky on the front side, but such a relief on the other. I have so many good things to share with you!)

See you then.

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.


6 comments:

Angie in SoCal said...

We had 20 and way too much food. Ours are always potlucks and people do love to bring the goodies. They'll sign up for one thing and bring three. All good, but my sugar was high the next day -lol. It took me a while to see the blocks in your baby quilt. First I thought it was pinwheels followed by solid squares, nay that didn't fly. The I saw you added half of a hst to each side. Clever.

helenjean@midgetgemquilts said...

have you anything left in your house? That's some purge if it is still continuing! We had our own version of Thanksgiving dinner here, basically stuffed roast chicken, potatoes and butternut squash and also cranberries. Was thinking about all my American friends!

Linda Swanekamp said...

Lovely simple dinner. Sometimes all decked out is special, but sometimes just enjoying family and blessings is humbling. I restrained myself from buying special priced kits this weekend as i usually don't like the pattern/fabric once it arrives. I still have a batik squares kit that I divided into two quilts because the colors really did not mesh. Still have to figure out the block settings on those. I did buy thread from FIl-Tec on sale and a local fabric store had 45S% off all fabric. I bought a big hunk of Jason Yenter fabric (Unual Garden) that now I am afraid to cut up as it is so lovely in a hunk.

Kim said...

We don't do Thanksgiving dinner down here. I am amazed how big it can become, especially so close to Christmas. Both quilts are lovely, especially the sweet girl one. Snapdragons happily seed year after year, don't they. They are such happy flowers. Look forward to hearing about your purging.

Sandy Panagos said...

There were only 8 at our table, and that was enough for me! The holidays are way too much work, I feel. Changing a pattern to suit you makes you a girl after my own heart. That makes it your own. It's very cute!

Kate said...

Love your modifications to your "kit" quilt. Love the fun and bright colors. Happy stitching this weekend.