Hurry! Hurryhurryhurryhurry!
I'm Elizabeth of
OccasionalPiece-Quilt (also known as OPQuilt.com) and as a long-time reader of Lee's blog, I'm honored and happy to be guest hosting today.
But what's the hurry? It's December, and that means Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, birthdays, holiday parties, holiday decorating and if you don't have your lights up the day after Thanksgiving, the little elf in your ear (not that Elf of the Shelf, but by the way
did you remember to move him last night?) is whispering not sweet nothings, but lists and lists of tasks for you to complete all by that magical night. And pretty soon your life begins to be a blur, kind of like an Instagram hashtag, with everything mushed together.
So just for a moment, take a breath. You've arrived at Lee's fabulous blog, where we're all working hard to create lovely quilts. Stop careening through the holidays just long enough to linger—as that's really the only way to slow down time, to have a bit of stillness before you remember that you wanted to hit Target, take the returns to Kohl's, pickupcandycanesatthegrocerystoreand ... whoa. Stop. First, just take a few minutes to see the quilts linked up below. And while you're at it, leave some fellow quilters a little note of encouragement and some holiday cheer.
I don't know about your elf, but my elf's been making lists and lists, so I'm here to talk about some of those things I'm working on as part of WIP Wednesday. (That whispering dude is positively
manic over here.)
I have two of these. For some reason, I just can't get excited about Christmas sewing until later in the year. I need to work on that. (Note to self. No, note to ELF.) I found that set of snowman blocks (above) in the bottom of this bin. What could I do with those old blocks?
This array calls out to be to be a quilt. Can't decide. Back in the box (I've been doing this for a couple of years.)
I bought all of Sweetwater's
Countdown to Christmas line last year, but for a variety of reasons, never got to it, in spite of having terrific directions from Moda's Bake Shop. This is the year, I say.
So I cut and lay out the stars, arranging them on my pin wall to sew together, right after I mail the Christmas cards.
This wonky wintery quilt really needs to be taken out of its box and put together. I can stitch on them right after I bake persimmon bread with the basket full of persimmons from my neighbor's tree that I could then wrap up for the mail lady, the grandmother across the street who is raising two grandkids.
(See? I can't help myself either!)
A stop at my LQS provided some encouragement--the snowflakes will be a great backing.
In spite of all that Christmas fabric you saw earlier, I did finish a Christmas quilt for the bed a couple of years ago, and this weekend saw me cut out and start sewing the pillow shams. In the background is Cindy of
Live a Colorful Life, because she came and stayed the weekend that we had our quilt group's holiday party. It was fun to get started on the holiday sewing with friends all around the table!
I finished up the shams last night and here they are on the bed. I blew up the 12-inch block design to 20 inches so as to make it fit the dimensions.
And a some favorite Christmas finishes from the past. This is my Log
Cabin Advent Calendar, which I taught for a class a while back, and
have made several times. More info is available on
my blog, so stop by to download the free instructions.
Little holiday-themed buttons are hung on the tree, attached by loops of ribbon.
Remember that without all of us happy quilters, December would just be one more month in the calendar. Whatever holiday celebrations you have planned, whatever magic you are busy making, I hope for you some quiet moments in this season of joy.
Now it's your turn—let's see your WIPs! Here are the rules:
1. Link up any post from the past week that features
at least one unfinished work-in-progress (WIP).
2. Somewhere in your post,
you must link back here to my blog. (Or grab my WIP Wednesday button for your sidebar.)
3.
Comment on at least a few of the other WIP Wednesday links. Because what fun is a linky party without comments?
Happy sewing!
by Melody Miller and Allison Tannery is full of projects like that, including these Fancy Fabric Envelopes. They're fun, simple, so lightning-fast to make, and a great way to show off favorite prints. I spent less than two hours making all three of the fabric envelopes in this blog post, and that includes finding and attaching the decorative accents on the flaps.
Then, I started quilting it by outlining the vertical wavy pattern the design makes between the stars. But straight-line quilting isn't my strong suit, and this type of quilting was kind of straight-line plus. Straight enough to require a walking foot, but with some turns that were so slight, it was hard to decide whether to turn as sharply as possible or to make it more curvy and flowing. And it ended up looking like a mish-mash of both. : ) So after four rows, I decided to change strategies and do loose wavy lines instead. That meant all the previous quilting stitches had to come out. You should have seen my family room yesterday. It was seriously covered in all these tiny little pieces of thread! Ugh!
I'm now calling this one "Shattered Spectrum," since "HST Mini" didn't quite have that show ring to it. I entered it in the Modern In Miniature Challenge sponsored by Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine. I gave this little quilt to the lovely Susanne earlier this year as a thank-you for driving all the way from Madison to take my headshots and pictures of my family. But she was nice enough to give me permission to enter it and said she would ship it back to me if it gets accepted into the show. Thanks again, Susanne! Here's the full blog post about this quilt.
And I'm also entering my Lifesavers mini, since that one did so well for me in the EZ Dresden Challenge. I entered Lifesavers in the "Minimalist Design" category. Honestly, I'm not sure if it really qualifies as minimalist, but since I'd already entered something in the mini challenge, it seemed like the best fit for this one. Here's the full blog post with more information on Lifesavers.