On the twelfth day of Christmas ...

 

 

... we've finished the jigsaw puzzle, and finished the holiday season!

 

Thank you for bearing with me as I spent slow time these past couple of weeks savoring the gifts of my life and nourishing my spirit ... which is today's subject. 

 

Since this is Epiphany/Three Kings Day, we traditionally enjoy timbale, an Italian pot-pie, for dinner. The rolls on the plate are also stuffed with cheese and pomegranate seeds.  And for dessert we'll have chocolate chip cookies filled with chocolate fudge ...  so all three items on the menu represent gift packages :)  With this meal we enjoy mulled wine.

 

Another name for this day is Twelfth Night, and here's my Twelfth Night quilt, hanging for the month of January in the sunroom.  The winter nights are dark and deep, and we'll have time to rest and reflect during this quiet month of the year. 

 

 

Looking ahead: I will look forward to continuing to enjoy the friendship and inspiration of my blog community!

 

Looking back:  During December, we were saddened by the loss of our faithful dog Jess.  I read three books, finishing the year at 48.  I finished three quilt projects, bringing the total for 2012 to 72 quilt projects.  Our holiday celebrations were lovely, and the year ended with joy and hope.

 

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One more!

 

I got the borders onto this top last night, so I'm counting it as a 2012 quilt :)  I'll get it layered tomorrow and might even get started on quilting.

It's another of my time-filler-log-cabin projects, like this one and this one and this one.

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Stash report - week50

Used this week: 7.75 yards
Used year to date: 273.00 yards
Added this week: 0.00 yards
Added year to date: 164.00 yards

Net used for 2012: 109.00 yards

 

Still plugging away at the total -- only two more reports left for this year!  A little bit behind where I stood at this time last year, but I'm still working :)

Hourglass runner ... for January.

 

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Thursday

HOORAY!!!! I finally finished this commission quilt!  I've been dragging my feet on it since September -- just wasn't feeling inspired about it.  It's OK, adequate ... but I guess I don't enjoy working on something that someone else has made all the design decisions about.  Sigh.  Anyway, this one's crossed off the list at long last.

In my spare time this week, I've started puttering on a new winter project.  More later on this one.

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And another holiday finish ...

Well, this is sort of an odd one, isn't it?  It's the last of the Block-a-Day block sets from a couple of years ago -- finally!  Not a favorite, but I finished it just for the sake of finishing it.  It was the first of the two projects I layered and pinned the other day -- really trying to check some completions off my UFO list this week!  I'll use it this season, and then perhaps send it off into the world :)

It's raining hard this morning, and I'm really hoping I can stay in today and sew!

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'Tis the season for Christmas projects

Just finished this little holiday mat!  It was done for the Small Quilt of the Month challenge over at SmallQuiltTalk.  Kathleen Tracy's inspiration design was Amish style -- solids, cool colors, black background -- but somehow mine turned into a retro Christmas project.

I must have nearly a dozen of these little mini quilts by now -- I'll have to look back and count.  They're fun because they're do-able and quick.  I hope to continue the more-or-less-one-a-month pace next year, too.

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Odds and ends

Here's my latest comfort quilt -- just a basic log cabin.  This will be going to our local domestic violence shelter. 

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I got this at guild meeting last night.  The booklet seems to have very clear detailed instructions, and the knotting tool is strong steel.  These rugs look to be sort of half-hitched, rather than braided or crocheted. A 2' x 3' rug is supposed to use 12-ish yards of stripped-down fabric, so this could be a good stashbuster.

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I've been trying to get this little maple leaf top done in time for Thanksgiving, but I simply won't have any more time between now and Thursday to work on it, so it's going to be folded over the back of the rocker just like this.  These blocks were from a nice swap at SmallQuiltTalk.

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Stash report - week 44

Used this week: 2.50 yards
Used year to date: 247.50 yards
Added this week: 24.25 yards
Added year to date: 164.00 yards

Net used for 2012: 83.50 yards

Ouch -- this week's big order set me back!

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Friday

My latest completion -- it's an ubiquitous "jelly roll race" quilt.  My guild had a sewing morning this week.  The orange is just a coincidence, not Halloweenish -- we were using strip sets that came from our comfort quilts stash, not real "jelly rolls."  A little more variety would have been better.  This was an amazingly quick quilt, just over an hour for the top.

I quilted it up the other afternoon, and finished the binding last evening.  It went through the washer and dryer today, and it's ready to go.  All the quilts we got done will be used for comfort quilt donations over the holiday season. 

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Finished!

I completed the hand quilting on this little piece, and it's been through the washer and dryer to get crinkley.  Thanks, Lori, for the inspiration!

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Every time I open up the comments here, I immediately get more porn spam.  Sigh.  Very disheartening.

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Thursday

It's a cold dreary sleety afternoon here -- I'll bet we have snow on the ground by tomorrow morning.  My Christmas cactus is starting to bloom already which is especially nice because outdoor garden season is definitely done!  

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I've finished up two little comfort quilts for the guild meeting this month.  They're for an infant quilt project we're currently working on.  Both of these were done using old swap blocks, and I'm happy with my results.  I'll turn the binding on the second one during TV tonight.

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September finish

I got the binding stitched down on this quilt yesterday evening, and it's fresh out of the dryer.  I'm going to work on October/Halloween home decor tomorrow, and plan to use this one in the living room.

This is the only quilt project I worked on from start to finish during September -- an unusually nonproductive month for me!  We were busy most of the month though, with two different sets of out-of-town house guests, and also with Tony's eye surgery that necessitated several trips "down the hill".

Looking forward to October -- I love autumn, and also our schedule should settle back down to normal.

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A UFO off the list

I started this project back in 2010.  It began life as Lynda Hall's Punky Doodle, but when I pulled it out the other week, I could tell right away that I didn't want to struggle with any more of those star blocks.  I think that's what made me put it away two years ago: so many triangles cut on the bias ... sooooo many stretched edges ... so many pieces that didn't fit.

So I decided to go my own way with it, and got it done at last!  Right now, I have about half a dozen UFOs waiting patiently for me.  Hoping to keep chipping away at 'em ...

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Ready for September

A couple of my August finishes ...

 And the guild quilt show begins tomorrow!

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Runners

This year's crop of runners for the quilt show boutique.  I've had good success selling these in past years.

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Photo catch-up

Several quilts that I completed earlier this year, but forgot to add photos.  I'm using the photo index as a record of my completions for the year, so I just want to make sure these get into the list.

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More Comfort Quilts

(Unfortunately) our local domestic violence shelter has been needing "kid" quilts this month, so I've been busy.

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Comfort Quilts

Here are some of the comfort quilts I've finished and donated this past month.  I've kind of fallen out of the habit of posting photos of my completed quilts, haven't I?  Actually, I'm afraid I'm falling out of the habit of blogging at all. 

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More completions

I'm getting started on items for the boutique at the guild quilt show later in the summer.  Here are a couple of runners I just finished up.  I enjoyed sitting on the porch in the lovely spring weather stitching the bindings down.

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A completion

Got a start on using some of that batting that came the other day ... and also 3 1/2 yards of backing fabric!!  Layered, quilted, binding stitched down, and this one can be crossed off the list :)

These are the dryer-sheet string blocks I 'd been working on for the past couple of months.  I totally depleted that particular bag of 30s repros strings and scraps. (But of course there are MORE.)

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