Merry Chrismtas

 We are just back from a quick trip to the mountains to see family.  I finished the binding on three quilts during the trip!  here is the first.  It is called Four Patch Surprise.  Lots of random four patches on the front. 

 Then a strippy quilt of the extra four patches for the back.  It is quilted with a meander in the background space and a winding snake maze alternating in the four patches.  Kurt was kind enough to hold it up in front of the Christmas tree. 

 While things were calm this morning, I finished loading another quilt onto the frame.  This is the second set of postage stamp stars.  I had quite a nice stash of these from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

We celebrated my nephew's 21st birthday while we were in the mountains.  His sister made him a bucket list of 21 tasks to complete for the day.  He didn't quite get them all done, but he did check off quite a few before the end of his birthday.  Most of them had to do with drinking or dancing and he was a good sport about it all. 

On the way home, we stopped to take Sydney skiing.  She has been asking since the last time we went and she had so much fun. 

Nobody else wanted to ski, and so I took the others back down to the bottom of the mountain to go tubing instead.  The drive home from that was just over 9 hours, so it was a long day, to say the least. 

As far as celebrating Christmas, we got home so late last night and were too tired to get everything ready.  We are calling today Christmas Eve and waiting to celebrate for when everyone is more recovered tomorrow. 
Merry Christmas to everyone else though, celebrating on the actual day.  I hope that you all had quality time with family and friends with plenty of quilts to keep you all warm and cozy.  

Standstill

I was only going to quilt until the bobbin ran out.  Instead, it was the top thread that was the limiting factor.  It is my favorite color too.  I nice rich caramel color that blends with all kinds of scrap quilts.  I'm sure that I can find some more, but for now, I will take it as a sign to call it a night.  The last push before exams is underway as we all rush to finish up the semester and wrap it all up before winter break.  I think that Ryan has just finished his last college essay and Anna finished her last test of the semester this afternoon.  It is nice that there are such natural breaks in the school schedule.  I am looking forward to the holiday and some uninterrupted sewing time.  Next time I'll make just sure that I have a full spool of thread.  

Finishing Fun

I just finished off Four Patch Surprise!  It only needs binding.  It isn't a large quilt, just a way to use up lots and lots of extras 

 Here is the back.  You can see the quilting a bit more here.  Smallish meander in the background with an alternating sort of linear maze in the four patches.  I think I can get another quilt loaded up on the frame, but I fear that I am almost out of batting.  I might just be able to piece together enough to eke out one more quilt before heading out to a store.  Wish me luck!

I haven't exactly been super active today, but yesterday I got more than my fair share of exercise during the Orlando half marathon.  It went even better than the last one even though my running partner seems to have caught the cold that I have finally gotten rid of.  We both felt good at the end though and finished 15 minutes earlier than our last race.   Not that we are super speedy by anyone's definition, but I was glad to be out there putting one foot in front of the other.  

Crossing More Off the List

It didn't take long after my sister's family was gone to have the quilting frame set up again and loaded with a quilt.  It has been sitting there for months unused, but now I am in a mode and ready to finish some quilts off before the end of the year.  I have a bunch of projects hanging in the closet, each with a little note reminding me what is going on.  This one said that framed four patch top was done and back was pieced and ready for quilting.  I was lucky to find enough batting to sandwich it up without even having to piece.  After this one though I'll have to start whip stitching some extra batting or do a bit of shopping.  I briefly pondered braving the Black Friday sales to stock up but decided against.  I'm not all out yet.  So I've got several shades of neutral thread to ponder and the quilting can start any minute.  Well, maybe not any minute.  School starts again tomorrow, and it is the last academic team competition on the year.  Maybe Tuesday though?  In any case, it is all ready and waiting whenever there is time again.  

Odds and Ends

School starts for teachers the day after tomorrow.  I am soaking up each and every last minute of vacation and using it to cross all the odds and ends off the list.  Productive things like detailing the mini van and polishing the hard wood floors.  Also fun things like finishing quilts and whipping up small sewing projects.

 I ordered some slipcovers for our tired and torn kitchen chairs.  They came with nifty zipper cases.  I hated to throw them out, but I'm on a roll right now with clearing out.  Instead I harvested the zippers and used them to make four little zipper cases for silverware or pencils.  There never seem to be any forks in the teacher workroom, so I'm going to put one of these in my mailbox and stash one in my desk for lunches.  Anna has one for college too, as she is supposed to provide her own silverware for the cafeteria.  They are very environmentally aware at her school and don't like disposable silverware. 

I added one more row to the framed four patches.  

Then cobbled together the back out of leftover four patches.  I might like it a bit more than the front honestly.  

 

More four squared blocks were next out of the bin of bagged WIPs.  I used extra fabric from the back of the framed four patches to create the alternate blocks and then webbed the top together yesterday afternoon while binge watching an entire season of Grey's Anatomy in the background.   

There is enough of this brown fabric for a border and matching backing.  

That frenzy let me cross the first three projects off my list.  I think that the next two might be doable as well, after that it looks like more effort might be required.  We'll have to see how far I get. 

Cleaning Up

I emptied a bin yesterday!  I can't show you the quilt yet, because it is a surprise.  

Here are all the bits and pieces that still need to be cleaned up.  I have a ton of extra sashing strips because I started trimming them to 7.5 inches which is the finished block size instead of the unfinished size.  I remade one set of blocks, and I'm much happier with how it all came together as a result.  

 I've been in cleaning up mode.  I emptied the Tupperware and put everything that didn't have a matching lid into a quarantine basket.  The kids are under strict orders not to put anything back that isn't complete.  I did the water bottles and to go coffee cups at the same time.  We'll see how long the organization lasts. 

The last time I went on an organization spree, I put all the blocks ready to sew together into the labelled bags in a nice basket with a table of contents.  

After much contemplation, I pulled out bag number three which is framed four patches.  The note said that they had been pinned together into rows and were ready to sew together.  There were extra four patches to piece together into a backing. 

Here is the top sewn together, but I think that I might add one more row onto the top to make it a bit longer.  

These four patches will make a nice back along with some rows of white to spread them out.  With a bit of luck, this one will be ready for quilting by the end of the day.  I like to have a stash of quilts ready to finish in case of emergency.  Last year I quilted up a long list of tops during hurricane Irma.  We were home for days and day watching it rain and it was nice to have plenty of quilts to finish to use up all the nervous energy.  I'm linking up with Oh Scrap! today.  Be sure to visit and see what other scraps are being turned into today.