December Squirrels

 

I got a bunch of hexie blocks sewn in the car on the way to and fro for Thanksgiving. I will try to even up the rows a bit on the next long car trip. And then a squirrel came by and I lost all focus. 

December is the month for finishing up. I have Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2025 quilt ready for the frame, but a random scrap quilt that I forgot about has been sitting loaded on the frame for so long that I don't remember what it looks like anymore. So quilting that up would have been a smart plan. But the backing wasn't quite big enough and so I ignored it for a while. I'm not the only one who hits a small roadblock and then just heads off in another direction, am I?

So I ordered myself a new ruler, it is a tiny Loc Bloc. They are so expensive! And also a rotating cutting mat which is also expensive, but I got a small one that will fit right next to my machine. But I have so many tiny HST triangle units leftover from binding, or from flip and sew triangles. I thought it would be fun to trim those down. I had a head cold on Monday and Tuesday and came home early from work, so trimming down tiny triangles required just the right focus and energy level. 

That led to a few test blocks when I was feeling better again on Wednesday. You know that rush of euphoria you get when you remember how it is to not feel sick? So there are some Shoo-fly blocks from units that are 1 1/8 unfinished. The broken dishes blocks are 1 3/8 HST units. Finally, the Churn Dash blocks use hulking 1.5 inch HST. Somehow in all the sorting out, I also found some pinned units from the house quilt that I made during Covid lockdown. 

I still had a bunch of random triangles though, so I did a few foundation pieced economy blocks. Those are 3 inches unfinished. 

And then yesterday Anna mentioned that she didn't have any ornaments for her Christmas tree. That sent me into another tangent of Yo-Yo blocks which put a big dent in the green and red scrap bins. How are your projects starting to wrap up this month? Have you been starting to think about projects for next year? I know that I have! Just two more weeks of school before the next break, and with no graduate school classes until the new year, I should have some time to sew.