Really? Already?

December 31! How did that happen? Oh yeah, about half the month has been spent in recovery from toxic exposures. Even now I'm trying to cope with back-to-back exposures. Granted, they were relatively low-grade exposures but each one takes its' toll. {sigh}

I made up a total of ten pillowcases to be gifted this season. These are the ones I made for the four granddaughters:

My husband, the movie fanatic, received a case featuring fictional movie end credits. One of the bookworms in the family has a book print on the end of her pillowcase. I really enjoy finding just the right prints for each person.

I had to take the shoo-fly blocks off the wall for the time being. I didn't have the energy to pursue other layouts and now we need heat day and night (the wall heater was covered by my design wall extensions). A moment of panicked realization caused me to start work on a baby quilt for a baby due on February 1. He'll be a first child so there's no guarantee he'll arrive on time but it's time to get busy making his quilt nevertheless! That meant a rummage through the stash.

Back in the day I bought this yardage of panels in bright, happy colors and then didn't know what to do with it. Sound familiar? I fussy-cut some of the panels but decided to cut construction time by leaving nine of them together. To bring the panel up to a better working size I added the stripe all around.

I wanted to utilize more of the animal panels if I could so four of them were put in the middle of "barn doors." This elongated version of a Churn Dash block is what I know as Hole in the Barn Door.

I made four to hold the four corners of the finished quilt. Then I went through my 8" postage stamp stars that I'd made throughout the year in conjunction with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I found enough to get about halfway around the central panel. Yesterday I made an additional six stars.

The teal/turquoise stars a are a bit of a stretch as far as the colors in the panel go but I think I can make them work. The question now is what to use to fill in around the stars. My LQS is having their year-end sale. I went downtown one day this week but couldn't even go through the door because of the perfume a previous customer wore. Went back yesterday, late, and was able to spend a bundle! I think I have a print now that will work around those stars, and a lot of other fun prints to play with as well. :D

I'm linking up with the RSC for this final link party of the year. I'm also looking forward to playing along in 2017 again, although I haven't entirely decided how I will approach it.

I hope all my cyber friends have had a lovely holiday season. We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas celebrations. I'm looking forward to a productive and colorful new year, and wish the best for all of you too!

SAL December - A Finish!

It's been three weeks since out last check-in with the Stitch Along group. Knowing this check-in was coming up motivated me to consider my current embroidery and needlepoint projects. Which one to work on? The decision was almost made for me when I was in Hobby Lobby last week. I don't go in very often so when I do I try to make the most of it. This time I went in for a couple of things for Christmas for the grands but cruised the fabric and needlework aisles while I was there. (Frankly, I cruised the whole store but the toxic fumes took their toll after I'd made the most important selections.) In the back of my mind I knew I needed a flesh tone for the Jenny Hart panel I've been working on. Almost without thinking I picked up a skein of DMC floss as I drifted past. It turned out to be a perfect choice. :- )

Here's where I left the panel:

It didn't take long to outline the arms and face. After that it seemed silly not to just go ahead and complete the picture!

I did little satin stitched eyes on the birds. I thought they would be French knots originally. The flowers all have French knot centers. I added the bit of shading on the bird's breasts.

Here's the panel after laundering:

I don't know whether you can detect much difference in the photos but it made a difference in real life. I've had several ideas about how to mount this or add patchwork around it. The thing is, it's already hemmed, with tiny stitches that would be a bear to try to take out. The hem is significantly thicker than the rest of the panel. I may just give it to my daughter to pin to a wall in one of the grands bedroom. It's the lazy way out, I know. Still, better to have it pinned to a wall than languishing while I dither about what else to do. ;- )

To see what the others in the group have been working on click on their names below. We are welcoming Steph this time around. If you'd like to join in contact Avis. Maybe the next time we check in, in another three weeks, I'll have returned to my crown needlepoint case. Or maybe not!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Susan, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, and Steph.

Time Out

I've been playing with those 199 shoo-fly blocks. Maybe I'm making it harder on myself than it needs to be but things are not coming together as easily as you might think they would. I mean, I have 199 blocks for heaven's sake! Surely I ought to be able to set 120 of them together in a pleasing arrangement.

First I did this:

It was when I reached that lower corner that I thought about that yellow panel. It's been in my stash for years, a thoughtful gift from my SIL. I've tried a couple of times to build a quilt around it but it's still waiting for the right time and place.

Somehow using it in this very scrappy quilt seemed like a good idea. It still does. So I tried building around the panel.

This is better in some respects but I'm still not happy with it. Our weather has taken a turn toward the frigid, and my son brought in a gift quilt that needs to be bound so this is what my design wall looks like at the moment:

You will note, if you look carefully, that I have to fold and pin the design wall extension up out of the way of the wall heater and thermostat. I might not worry about the room getting cold during the night if it weren't for my studio canary, Pippen.

I'll be pruning that quilt and applying its binding before I making another run at the shoo-fly blocks. One of these days I'm going to have to apply myself to the job of preparing for Christmas too!

It's Just the Tip of the Iceberg!

So after counting up the 6" Bow Tie blocks in my Parts Department I thought it might be interesting or worthwhile to ascertain how many Shoo-fly and Hole in the Barn Door blocks I currently have. I wasn't prepared for the numbers although goodness knows I should have been.

Here we have Shoo-fly blocks on the left,
Hole in the Barn Door blocks in the back right (a variation of Churn Dash),
and the deceptively numerous Bow Ties in front.

Are you ready for the side view?

And now for the numbers:

• 201 Shoo-fly blocks
• 165 Hole in the Barn Doors
• 106 Bow Ties
•  and just for kicks, 69 Ships

These were not part of my official Rainbow Scrap Challenge effort. They're just the blocks I've made as leaders-enders out of the rest of the scraps in my stash!

I kept myself up again last night trying to figure out how to reduce these numbers with relative ease and speed. I'd spent some time yesterday afternoon playing around with assorted blocks on the design wall but in the light of the new day I have decided I was working under some form of delusion. Now it's time to see whether either of the ideas I had in the middle of the night are any better...

I'm linking up with other scrappy bloggers over at SoScrappy for moral support.

Umm, I May Have a Problem

This doesn't look too bad does it?

That's my current inventory of 6" Bow Tie blocks. In the photo they've been sorted into two stacks of ties with dark backgrounds, a stack of ties on medium backgrounds, and one short stack of ties on white. Anyone care to guess how many there are in total? I realize the photo hasn't been shot in a way that will help you. Let me just say my son's guess of 32 was way too low.

This is slightly frightening because I also have a drawer, six inches deep, that is chock full of Shoo-fly and Hole in the Barn Door blocks (also 6" each). I mean, I have to push down on the blocks to get the drawer to close!

It may be time to stop making blocks and start making a large quilt out of small blocks...

(By the way, there are 106 Bow Ties in the picture.)

Thursday Happiness and My Diary Quilt

Today is another opportunity to make the most of one blog post. ;- ) It's time to share a couple of things that make me happy along with LeeAnn over at Not Afraid of Color. One of those things is my Diary Quilt, my take on Audrey's Quilty 365 quilt along over at Quilty Folk. Another is novelty prints.

So far my Diary Quilt is still just rows or columns of 2.5" x 6.5" strips, one for each day of the past year. I put the last strip on the last row on November 19.

I have 13 rows/columns in total but they won't all fit on the design wall until I get them sewn together. Therein lies the challenge: what to use to set the rows? I've got every color in the rainbow in the strips. I used white for Sundays and wrote a scripture verse reference on each one. Whatever I use to set the rows needs to recede into the background, not compete for attention with the rows. I can't sew them together until I've made that decision because each row needs a compensating strip added to the top and bottom to make them all the same length. Whether or not there will be an outer border remains to be seen.

I'm already missing the act of choosing a strip a day. There were days when sewing a few strips together was just the ticket to get my day started. One of the fun things about choosing strips was the chance to feature a novelty print.

Sometimes those novelty prints were actually going into a quilt I was working on at the time!

I mentioned how much I enjoy fussy cutting novelty prints in a recent post. I've been making stars featuring prints that reflect the interests and activities of my daughter's FIL. He's a fan of science fiction and a follower of Dr. Who. Here's the Doctor's space ship, the TARDIS:

The star points were cut from a separate Dr. Who print that has the sound the TARDIS makes as it materializes and dematerializes. There have been special episodes of Dr. Who on television for Christmas every year for the last few years. Naturally I had to use a Dr. Who TARDIS print around a Santa print!

He also owned more than one diner throughout his lifetime, which involved pouring a lot of coffee.

Everyone should have lots of money in their lives.

You can't have enough Peanuts either. ;- )

I'll be linking up with both LeeAnn and Audrey. Do yourself a favor and go have a look for yourself!